This is going to be my last post for the time being (that is 10-15 days).....
My wish for new year is .........
That I get a life and so does anyone who has time to read this blog......
Update: Those who appreciates free things in life, go ahead and download God's Debris
Only don't tell me the story.
http://www.andrewsmcmeel.com/godsdebris/
Via rediff ,
'Indians are not good at manufacturing'
Thus spake nuclear engineer-turned-management guru Kenichi Ohmae,
"You have said that India's future is only in the service sector. Why?
Indians are not good at manufacturing. Even if they do what we tell them to do, they always need to understand why they are doing it that way. They are more inquisitive than the Chinese. Maybe it's because of their ability to find zero in the numbers. But in manufacturing when you have a successful formula, what you look for is implementation, right? Indians always ask these fundamental questions.
But isn't asking 5-why's a manufacturing concept?
(Smiles) Yes, that's right. At the management level, it's good. But at the shopfloor level, it's a bit too much. India is capable of excelling in the service sector.
In developed countries, the service sector is 67 per cent of the economy, manufacturing is less than 20 per cent while the rest is the primary sector. The Chinese are good at manufacturing, but they have not even begun to compete in the service sector.
India in services will have a larger share of the world market, be it hotel management, IT systems development, medical tourism, medical research, design, games or backrooms. There is an endless list of things that India could do. Therefore, it can get a larger share of the global economy.
But isn't the competition as severe in services?
Competition is mainly from the United States. India's biggest competitor is going to be the US. The US is currently using India as a sub-contractor. When India finally develops its own capabilities, the US will be its largest competitor. India is still a top student in the sub-contracting class.
Many Indian enterprises are acquiring manufacturing firms in cross-border acquisitions. Do you still state that India's future is in services?
(Crosses his heart) How do you say good luck in Hindi? I wish them good luck."
What was this, backhanded complement ? Or was this affirmation of argumentative Indian ?
The cliches we conceive of .....
This is a mail I got from my colleague and I am nauseated by it.
I consider myself to be prude but what this says is revolting to say the least .
Attached were photos, I do not have the taste to post them online, but they were gory (Yes I do not like the sight of blood, so what)
"The moral fabric of Bangalore was being torn apart or is being torn apart, this event isn't a surprise. With due respects to the lady who has been murdered, please take a look at the dress thatshe had worn during the macabre incident. Call me narrow-minded or old-fashioned, but it is better toknow the limits of our society and behave accordingly.In one of the books that I happen to readviz..Godsdebris, the author has indicated that inorder to lead a happy and a safe life, it is better toact within the cone of probability. In this case, thevictim has acted against probability by firstly, being careless and secondly, wearing such provoking attireand going out at 1 A.M.....this should be an eyeopener to all the parents who have some misdiredtedsouls as their daughters and also to all those moronswho think that wearing less clothes and beingfoolishly bold is a measure of modernity...Well, onelady has paid the price...atleast, be careful from now on... That bastard driver will be hanged but Prathiba will never come back..."
This should be a lesson to all those who blame-the -rape -victim for immodesty.
I undestand that Banglore is considered as a safe city, however considering it's rapid expansion which more or less seems inevitable, it will be better to think of solutions, instead of blaming outsider/immodesty and such .
Via rediff,
Bangladesh: Next terror frontier?.
Since I completed (recently) Arun Shourie's latest book, outlining India's short and long term security challenges and Indian indifference to it, I have been feeling very gloomy about this.
In the last two 0r three years while political establishment has admitted issues with Bangladesh , it has still not formulated an effective strategy to counter it , chiefly due to lack of will power and unwillingness to force the issue. I am afraid that in view of changing demographics of border districts, in Bengal and Assam, we may witness unrest inorder to form
"Greater Bangladesh"
Inspite of popular opinion, I have always been less than sanguine about Bangladesh, in that light I went to this post (via Desipundit) written by a Bangladeshi blogger. The blogger had polled fellow Bangladeshis about India's role in Bangladesh's freedom.
The reactions , by and large ,were
a) India helped , but Bengalis were themselves capable of it.
b) India helped, out of it's self interest , so it doesn't count.
c) India claiming that it liberated Bangladesh just reflects arrogance.
d) India is oppressing Kashmiris, Sikhs and Tamils (!) and therefore can not claim any moral highground.
Considering the ignorance of the educated Bangladeshis, no doubt brain washed by Islamist, is it any surprise the Bangladesh is turning the way it is.
As an aside I was amused to find this comment by supposedly Indian ,
"To Anon: Your attitude is disgusting. It's precisely people like who cannot relate to the South Asian identity and will suck up to the West - and want to be like them. Bangladesh is an important aspect of the South Asian identity - and to anyone who can't see the potential economic and human capital of Bangladesh: I call that shortsightedness."
(Emphasis mine)
It is this absurd stubbornness to grasp the reality and chase the chimera of shared heritage that has made me highly suspicious of anything tagged as liberal/former liberal.
Continuation of previous post, which itself was based on Sandeep's post.
I would like to analyze the root cause of this controversy (in my view unwarranted). In general I prefer to surf conservative American sites (for their unambiguous stand on terrorism), when this controversy was at it's peak, I was able to read the opinion of Christian right and to put it mildly it was disappointing.
In general that group indulged in all sort of fallacies and sophistry in order to prove that evolution was flawed and bible revealed the absolute truth. It was personally disappointing in the sense that as a Hindu I assume all the other religions will make an effort to be flexible and what is more imbibe modern science, however such a mindless advocacy of creationism in the misplaced belief about superiority of bible to anything else was a jolt to my world view.
I do not claim that Hinduism doesn't have it's share of superstitions , however to see educated middle class citizens of world's most "enlightened nation" shun wisdom and embrace ignorance doesn't speak well about either the country or the religion.
I have a theory about it, the trouble is with western civilization, it is a strange beast , to say the least.
While it's religion is of Judeo- Christian nature , it's science and philosophy is for a large part Greek and roman. This means that there is a inherent schism. Even Greek philosophy had the concept of dualism (mind vesus matter), as did Christianity (of good versus evil). This means that either it is religion which dominates and science is vanquished as happened during dark ages or science dominated vanquishing religion as happens today with atheism dominating religion.
This means that both the sides remain in state of perpetual hostility towards each other.
This also means that the as natural in all such confrontation both sides take an absolutist position more out of instinct of hostility than conviction.
In a way it is sad , because Christians are grasping for faith in this age where everything, be it morality, society or family is under serious challenge from hedonism. What a pity then , what they grasp, instead of benefiting them spiritually , sinks them more and more into morass of obstructionism.
In less than 10 hours I will be making my semi-annual pilgrimage to my home.
My railway ticket tells it is over 2000 kilometers from here, which means in 10 days I will travel 4000 kilometers by train. I have been doing this for last seven years , but it still startles me to think about how far from any closest relative or friend I am. Perhaps for a long time of my life I am destined to be a traveler and gypsy. This song from "Parichay" , a film I love , may sum what I feel.
"Musafir hoon main yaaron, naa ghar hai theekana.
Mujhe bas chalte jaana hai , bas chalte jaana"
(I am a traveler friends/ home I do not have nor any place to stay/The only thing that I can do/ is to go on wandering)
Sandeep had in this post commented on the controversies controversy surrounding the debate on ID versus evolution. I have followed this controversies controversy to some extent, and was initially amused by it.
I am a theist , however I find this attempt at installing ID (Intelligent Design) which is at best a pseudo science and at worst creationism, quite hilarious.
The modus operandi is something like that Evolution doesn't explain such and such data fully, hence evolution is just a theory (lay man term for hypothesis), hence some outside agency must have tinkered with genes here and there at this or that instant of time and therefore ladies and gentlemen, ID is a scientific theory on equal footing with evolution and must be taught as an alternative.
This is wrong and misplaced (and intentionally) on many levels. I am not a scientist , but this is how I think things work in science. First comes observation, it can be throughout a direct scientific experiment using whatever instruments necessary or as a corollary of some other theory, next comes hypothesis, now there is nothing airtight about what form hypothesis should take though a prevailing wisdom is that it should be consistent in logic and assumption with established theories.Then then that hypothesis is used as best fit for the observation data, in general it may take some modification, which is acceptable as long as it retains consistency.
In this way a theory is established, however in strict scientific terms there is no way a theory is proved in absolute, as more and more data comes a good theory will satisfy it, however it is possible that the data can not be explained, at which point theory may be rejected or extended.
A case in point is that of Theory of gravitation, first proposed by Newton in 17th century it was able to predict the motion of planetary bodies to a reasonable extent , except for that of mercury's somewhat erratic orbit. Many hypotheses were put forth to explain the apparent discrepancy (including modification in value of G) with little success , it was not explained until Einstein postulated general theory of relativity, in effect making Newtonian theory of gravity a specific case of relativity.
However general theory of relativity had to stand rigorous tests of it's own and in fact it still does to this date. However if Pro - ID were to be taken as the standard, the argument could have gone that since Newton's theory doesn't explain discrepancy must be invisible hand of God
Coming to evaluation it is a theory which took a long time to develop and at present is the best fit for all the evidence present, what is more while evaluation theory has a consistent idea of mechanism (selection, mutation and evolution), the specifics of this are hotly debated even among the pro-evolutionists. When I said best fit , I meant exactly that , there remains much dispute about various data , but it is about specific mechanism and not per se about theory itself.
ID does pretend to explain the data, but it does by pointing out failures of evolution.
Shunning science for faith is an idea which has the potential to bring back the dark ages.
Via Instapundit ,
"So much for the popularly peddled view that anti-Americanism in the Muslim world is so pervasive and deep-rooted it might take generations to alter. A new poll from Pakistan, a critical front-line in the war on terror, paints a very different picture--by revealing a sea-change in public opinion in recent months.
Long a stronghold for Islamic extremists and the world's second-most populous Muslim nation, Pakistanis now hold a more favorable opinion of the U.S. than at any time since 9/11, while support for al Qaeda in its home base has dropped to its lowest level since then. The direct cause for this dramatic shift in Muslim opinion is clear: American humanitarian assistance for Pakistani victims of the Oct. 8 earthquake that killed 87,000. The U.S. pledged $510 million for earthquake relief in Pakistan and American soldiers are playing a prominent role in rescuing victims from remote mountainous villages"
Ahh ! The spin ! As callous as it may sound America by dodging the Pakistani question is just ensuring a painful tomorrow. No wonder, India remains skeptical of US.
Via rediff,
More MPs caught taking bribes on camera,
If this continues, it may pose a serious challenge to Ekta kapoor as well as Indian Idol as it combines the petty intrigue of "K" serials with morbid voyeurism of reality TV .
Update : Slimes has more, the bribe was taken for MP Local Area Development Schemes, I always thought that it was a sham and a scam of unparalleled scale, good that the reality has come out.
Update: Pioneer reports that Mr. L K Advani has demande scrapping of MPLAD scheme, notwithstanding movties I endorse this. As he suggested this money could be used for state funding of politcal parties.
I don't know. I am generally paranoid about people making slight of me . This has been acquired through long and arduous pavlovian experiences. So I am not the best judge of human behaviour.
However I think that cartel benefits lots of ignoramus like me, by mixing economy with snark. Thus provoking my interest in economics, so it is good, in a twisted way ofcourse.
And if they are contemptuous , so what ? That's what voodoo doll and shaman is meant for.
By here "I" mean my home state in North.
Today South and West of India is making rapid progress and already leads, while North and East have remained laggard, there must be something which North (and east) has done terribly wrong , whereas the others did right to come to this situation.
Generally opinions point out that whereas South invested heavily in education with particular emphasis on female literacy, North neglected it since independence, indeed it can be said that while South invested wisely in social sector (health, education) and in general acted pro-actively on social reforms, North (perhaps willfully) shunned the path to social emancipation.
Here is my dilemma, assuming that post independence the quality of leaders both south and north got were same (a reasonable assumption considering both were ruled by Congress), why did leaders in North did not have the foresight to do what needed to be done.
First explanation that I have seen put up is perhaps, that South is genetically superior to North.
If that is true then unfortunately my state is doomed and discussion end right here.
However if that is not so and the above reason is more in line of North- South malice (Ah ! What is life without a little dash of malice), what then are the reasons.
One reason that Rajeev put forward was that original Indic culture of North was swept away by Turkish and afghan (or Islamic) invasion, which will explain it's backwardness.
While this reason may explain predominance of folk culture in North as opposed to Classic culture in South, I am not sure it does explain the economic backwardness of North for the reason that Gujarat bore as much brunt, if not more than North, of Islamic invasion and yet it is one of the most progressive state in India (here a distinction can be made because Gujarat was a prominent trade centre since times ancient and hence privy to new Ideas, but even North was not totally insulated to world).
One reason that I can think of is that of different land revenue system employed by Mughals and British (Zamindari in North vs. Ryots in South) and resulting asymmetry in power and social inequality and oppression, however I am not sure about this as I have not read anything of significance about land ownership. But at any rate I think social inequality is more pronounced in North than in South.
The other reason could be that politics in North was entirely socialist (with the exception of Jan Sangh which was most of the times a marginal player). I am not an expert on politics south of Vindhyas (except for a cursory knowledge ) and while it had socialist leaders (Nijlingappa and Kamraj), I will like to think that it was less obsessed with socialism (except for Kerala) than North.
Yet another reason may be that while social reform in south and west continued well into 20th century, in North it was co-opted in freedom struggle by initially Nationalists and later Mahatma with a result that reform in North could not be realized as much as it was realized in South.
Or it could be that North is seduced by power for its own sake (as this article may suggest). It might be true , as despite not from a particularly politically aware family, inexplicably I along with my friend circle were fascinated by political power and intrigue since early teens(in fact one of my childhood dreams was to be in politics, which is unusual for a child) . Even today , most of the small town gossip is related to latest power intrigue, whether at corporate level or state level or national level.
Identity politics as practiced in North is not observed in South.
Is it then our morbid fascination with power will explain our failure ? In that case shouldn't popular cliche about "power corrupts" be extended to include that even siren song of power and not the actual exercise of power makes for a dismal failure.
Swapan Dasgupta in a recent article in Pioneer comments on Leadership trouble in BJP simmering , and sometimes exploding since last year or two.
It is well and good to talk of discipline in boy - scout or military.
However democracy thrives on ideas and ideas bloom not in class room discipline (as RSS would like to believe), but in divergence, even dissension.
Attempts to discourage ideas by taking shelter behind the holy grail of discipline is counter productive.
Which reminds that Mr. Swapan Dasgupta is one of the few right leaning journalist (along with Mr TVR Shenoy), he is on the mark most of the times.
It was a disappointment to me when he left India-Today (I would like to know what was the back room story). However considering the way India Today is going slimes way I am glad he left it. Anyway I will link to his articles in Pioneer.
Outlook in general is more serious magazine, trouble is ofcourse that it is unabashedly pink, and I have not yet fortitude to read it on regular basis.
The last article that I read with sincerity was Ms Arundhati Roy tirade against nuclear test (who I am proud to say, has scaled dazzling heights of insanity), needless to say,it was just another step towards loss of my innocence
This process (loss of innocence) was complete and disenchantment with English media and secular crowd almost set in, with the way they gave coverage to Godhra Massacre. It had started with how Mulayam Singh Yadav ordered shooting of karsevaks and insincerity of secularists in settling Ram Mandir issue.
At any rate sometimes I am scared by my own vehemence. As Nietzsche cautioned against , have I became the monster , I am fighting against. I hope not.
This post has been spell checked, so any blame lies with spell checker. Grammar checker is not there so I will blame blogger.
"Doubting is good" From God's Debris.
and Doubting is Gaurav,
hence Gaurav is good.
This was to complete my century.
Where is the applause ???
Via http://www.ndtv.com/ ,
Tribal woman's hand chopped off in MP,
"The right hand of a 32-year-old woman, Kamlabai has been chopped off in Madhya Pradesh. The woman, who is a tribal, was attacked last night in Ningri village in Raisen district."
There is more,
Rape case: Tribal woman awaits justice
"Police in Madhya Pradesh have not yet identified the attackers who chopped the hand of a woman in Raisen district. Kamalabai was attacked by some villagers when she rejected pressure to take back a complaint of rape. "
and even more contemptible
MP rape victim faces police apathy
"Police in Madhya Pradesh's Raisen district have questioned the version given by a rape victim and even her character.The victim, Kamla Bai – an adivasi woman – was raped by some upper caste men three years ago.Under pressure, the tribal woman retracted the complaint at that time, but on December 2 this year, she was raped again."
I have been following this incidence since quite a few days filled with a combination of sadness and impotent rage, NDTV is doing a commendable job of keeping track of this story.
Inexplicably none of the MSM have taken this in a big way, this is a bigger tragedy than the incident itself, is this because of news cycles ?
This offcourse tells that village is not as idyllic as made out to be, Atanu had posted it here, however judging by tenor of the post he was in favour of more outside force to change the nature of such opressionm, I will tend to disagree. While outside persuasion is required even essential to prevent any occurence of this kind, any change in situation for better has to be accompanied by the reform at the ground level.
It is easy to say that let Delhi be the purveyor of matter of governance, but I think it is downright impossible to ensure justice at long distance.
In earlier post I tried to think of a possible renumeration for our representative.
I do realize that saying that paying to representative on the scale of CEOs is a far fetched idea and even western democracy do not pay this much however I was trying to find entirely financial incentive for politicians and this is the nag.
First let's assume that country doen't fear any external threat and no, leadership is not about being alpha male or female only.
Is there a incentive or a cause or a reason for a career in politician in a society based on free market ?
I use free market for the reason that a society which is based on socialist ethos. altruism and duty will define the cause and compelling reasons for politicians.
It is a different matter that socialism has failed and justfiably so , as it seeks to destroy individual will for collective position. Altruism while a pleasant sounding word, is not only contrary to human nature, but it is a trangression of the human spirit, of the person who gives because he does it out of obligation which is out of place , and of the person who takes , because he no longer remains independent.
However consider a society based on ethos of free - market and self interest , what is the incentive ? IMO not much . Politics is so much full of hassle that only renumeration is not good enough for entering politics or even if conceded that such is posssible I think it will result in increasing bureaucratization of politics, which I think goes against the grain of conventional politics. From some science fiction I read long this indeed was predicted , a nominal leader , in essence a carrer bureaucrat being at helm of affairs.
This is I think libertarian position, and if it is true then in long term this question will be solved.
However , if it is not so and political structures do have a meaning even in free societies , what is the motive ? This is what perplexes me ? I hope I will get an answer.
Muslims have high birth rate because ....
1) They intend to make India Islamic state.
2) They intend to achieve electoral superiority.
This unfortunate meme is frequently heard from overzealous nationalist hindu As a circumspect hindu and nationalist, let me disagree.
Muslims have, well many issues. If looked religion vise muslims inIndia will inevitably come out as worse off than other communities, and to a large extent it is themselves or rather the educated among them who are to blame.
They have been increasingly getting ghettosized, they refuse to entertain any reasoned arguement for reform and cry foul if someone not from the community chooses to comment on their state. This hesitation results in continuing sliding down in all parameters. And this will continue , I am afraid to a most unsavoury conclusion, unless it is stemmed. This will require less of Syed Shahabuddin and more of Kalbe Sadiq, but what is more it will require coming out of this self fulfilling seize complex , eschewing ignorance and less thought about face saving gimmicks.
The detour that I took became long winded one, now coming to the point while Muslims may be faring poorly in population control it doesnt mean that there is a deliberate conspiracy to dominate Hindus simply by over reproduction (as much as misguided Hindus will like to believe and what is more misguided muslim clerics will like to believe) , it might be economical neccessity , it might be ignorance or it might be religious orthodoxy what it is not is some Saudi conspiracy, and this is as important for Hindus to understand as for Muslims.
The reason, well paronia and fear mongering undermine not only spirit of a particular community but also of the nation. And if there is one thing that hindus can not afford to undermine it is the country , it is our "punya bhumi" , our "janam bhumi" and our " karma bhumi", here Hinduism was born and here it will take it's last sigh. So whatever we do, let us not anything which harms it's sons and by association this sacred land itself.
Just as I had finished writing trite prose about free market, this is what I read.
I fail to see where is the disagreement ? May be it is because I am a novice in economics but it seems more like a case of either talking past each other or splitting idealogical hair.
I will try to summarise in the best fashion I can
Shivam stresses the importance of government (or a impartial regulating body) as regulator for ensuring that free market doesn't get hijacked by monopolists or oligopolist (here I admit I have a very dim recollection of monopolist from one semester of economy course, which I hardly attended , but simplified it means market where product sold by sellers are not differentiated to a large degree) and chides libertarians (in a fashion) for not stressing this.
Amit Verma responds to this by saying while libertarians are all for law, a good law enforcement system being a cornerstone for libertanism, empowering government will just bring grief and opining what Shivam's arguement is a non sequitur
The reason that I find trouble with this is that this to me seems like playing both sides.
Arguing for law enforcement and regulation and at the same time opposing role of government for regulation seems a far fetched idea.
I admit that some industries could be self regulating is specific situations (I have read it but have forgotten all about it), however it is not a universal rule applicable for all places and all times.
IMO in most of the cases Government is a qualified authority to regulate market.
I don't think that what Shivam said was such a non sequitur either.
Mridula joined in and supported idea of regulation for what she called imperfect market.
Amit Verma and RaviKiran at that point started defending free market and implied that Pro- regulators were doing a strawman routine, which to me seems a tad unjustified.
From then on the debate started making even less sense to me, Amit and Ravi were defending free market , whereas Shivam and Mridula were pointing out that theories apart, if free market has to be established in real world, government will need to intervene, and real world being what it is, free market will remain an idealization, it will be achieved in few instances but market will be imperfect and it is best to take that into calculation.
Later on the battleground was shifted to here, here, here, here , here , and here.
All this seemed more and more disconnected to me. I mean what is the point libertarians trying to make other than defense of free-market , which is not being questioned at all !
I mean where is dissonance ?
Here I will state that by free - market I understand an idealized market where buyers and sellers trade accoring to condition of supply or demand and no coercion in form of asymmetrical power is occurs. If this is inaccurate then I think this arguement may begin to make sense to me.
Free market to be free it need government intervention in benign way, as much as libertarian horror for government (which I share), I do not see any way of doing away with government.
Gautam opines that only form of monopoly that is possible is legal monopoly, I think this might be true for long term, however other monopolies do exist and can cause lots of mischief in short and medium term. As in long term we are all dead, may be it will be good to tidy up short term and long medium term.
I support free market. I do not yet fully understand it and what is more my knowledge of economics doesnt extend much beyond supply-demand curve. This, I admit, makes me butt of jokes and subject of ridicule, however I still persist with my belief. The reason is that I have seen effects of both. I am still learning about both.
I have seen the ignominy of living in a socialist utopia, and even though I was not the worst affected , having lived a sheltered life, I have seen enough to develop a distaste of socialism to last my whole life. Where do I start ?A bribe given for getting LPG cylinders, for getting ration cards, for cement. Waiting extending up to years for things like telephone or scooter. Creating artificial scarcity in name of poor, while at the same time ensuring that poor remains so.
Of watching as cities after cities die out owing to combination of the trade union thuggery and moral bankruptcy of our leaders seduced and corrputed by the power vested to them by a socialist state.
Of a place where ambitions have withered and dreams have been bonsaized, where, a father or a mother prays for son a clerical job not because it offers honest living, but because it offers avenue for corruption and life time assurance of employment not having any connection with performance. Or listening cringing to conversations in household holding forth on why a relative is a "desirable boy" because he is in a position where he wields power and use this power for "upar ki kamai".
Of a nation which is content to play Gungadeen or "we are like that" or "we were better under british" or "trains were punctual during emergency".
Of youth who learns through rot and earns degree liberal art or social sciences, not because it interests him, but because in order to get a job degree is the only criteria.
Cringing like a criminal in front of every babu, pleading like a murder convict for what is due to one. Or despair of a retired who is running through pillar to post for his pension.
Of belonging to a country, where everyone is for sale but the official motto is Gandhism.
Living in utter gloom, content to be mediocre, hiding the privations by spouting wisdom on how contentment is supreme religion. Or coining slogans of "Mera Bharat Mahan", without bothering to understand the greatness or meanness.
Of surrendering our will and reason to communist- in- entrenched positions, of accepting the disrepute, making fatalism superior to dharma.
Or accepting perhaps the most vile and dishonest aphrosim "From each according to his capability , To each according to his need"and internalized it as a mantra to live.
Reform and globalization has shown a ray of light, made us believe that we can be contender, it is not evil to profit, made cell phones and washing machines affordable.It has earned a new respect for us, from others but what is more important from self.
It has lifted, even if a little bit, the pall of gloom, has rescued us from genuflecting before every little tool of state machinary. I admit, this has not happened without it's share of controversies and still majority toils in oppression.
The solution to this, however is to dispatch socialism to where it truly belongs , dustbin of history along with white men's burden and eugenics.
Recent sting operation by Aaj Tak-CobraPost has, in addition to usual cries of "Bloody politicians", evoked another response, which is whether Indian politicians are poorly paid and their renumerations should be raised by how much so as to remove the incentives for corruption.
Before stating my thoughts, I will like to say this.
Government in India is too intervening which increases the power as well as responsibility of our legislature as well as executive, resulting in corruption and inefficiancy.
However I doubt that whether it is possible to limit goverment to a benign level.
Government will always have a potential to cause mischief for venal reasons
The answer to first question can be yes and no, depending on perspective. For example one could argue that considering annual package of Indian MP which is more than 2 lakhs pa (including allowances), is much more than Indian per capita income, which hovers at around 40,000 pa. This view, however misses the fact that in order to attract best persons , compensation which is comparable to other areas should be offered.
This brings to question, as to what should be the correct renumerations to minimze any incentives for corruption.
IMO, the job of a representative is much more risky than that of a CEO, the reason is that while for a CEO to remain in job has to create wealth and hence satisfy almost the only expectation of stockholders, the voters have much diverse expectations, what is more the expectations are vague , they can be high or low, it could be about economical well being or religious freedom or related to caste identity.
Here I am not going into merits of expectations, for present discussion it suffices that they are not easy. What is more a CEO on losing job can expect another employment, a representative has no such recourse.
This brings to a lemma that a representative must be paid as much as, if not more than a CEO.
However, one difference (in degrees) between CEO and representative is the incentive for corruption, in a government as you climb the ladder the potential to gain from corruption increases exponentially, assuming it is impossible to defang government, there will always be scope for corruption, what is more since the expectations and awareness of voters are much less than stockholders, the threshhold for temptation is set low.
What this means is that regardless of how attractive the numeration there will always be incentive for corruption. One prevention is that law can create enough disincentive to discourage such behaviours. However, in this case our representatives are the law makers, if one is tempted, how easy then to pervert law. One could argue, that as long as system is in general sufficient, such attempt can be blocked, however misfit will always try to weedle through a gap.
The solution for this is to stress the importance of vigilance along with that of institutions.
Institutions can be perverted, and while insitutions may be robust or fragile, none of the them are unbreachable, only our well informed opinions are ultimate guarantee.
This issue incidentally reminded me of another issue that is perplexing me. I will try to write about it soon.
Well, the good news is that blogs are once again kosher.
I will indulge once more in strictly non productive persuits.
However, I am not yet willing to strike Sys -Ad off my list of monsters.
Amit Verma, in this post, expressed uneasiness at what Sulman Rushdie wrote about obligations of citizens, in Amit's words.
"I'm not comfortable with the way Rushdie phrases it. I think the basis of every society should be a respect for individual freedoms, that allows every person to live his or her life as he or she pleases, provided they don't infringe on anyone else's freedom to do so. As countries change, I think it is dangerous to hold on to a notion of what words like "French" or "Indian" or "American" mean, and to insist that everyone in those countries adhere to those notions. That opens the way for cultural nationalism. Our values, instead, should be based on basic human rights, on a respect of individual liberties."
This is what I think is libertarian position. I don't feel comfortable with this position, tragically I am not knowledgable enough to propose another position or even convincingly refute it.
The reason I feel uncomfortable is according to libertanism society is aggregate of individuals and the only benefit to be derived is in form of security or division of labour.
IMO, there is something more about society, just like human is not just the sum total of individual cells. This, I admit is not a very useful analogy and what is more it leans towards collectivists ideologies. However I think it is possible to balance individual and society, not diminishing either or making meaningless.
But coming to the question of citizenship, I think what Mr Rushdie advocates is a very good proposition, every nation has its own ethos.
Just to consider two examples, all the american blogs that I read, most of the arguements, for or against any issue move around american constitution.
I was puzzled by this approach, I always thought that why should anyone in as civilized country as US (this was before I became aware of reality of the forbidding alleys) require guns and such an impressive collection at that! and how can any sensbile not see the inherent absurdity of defending guns regardless of what constitution says.
Similarly I was surprised controversy regarding "flag burning", I was of the opinion considering that flag was a symbol for what nation stands , such acts should be punishable regardless of what consitution says.
However, slowly I have realized that to Americans constitution is not mererly a document, it is what defines them and the nation. Unless and untill , there are overwhelming reasons and irrefutable logic, any law which proposes to go against grain of constitution is much more than frowned upon. In short, American essence is American constitution.
On the contrary, Indians never base their arguements on Indians constitution, unless it is of highly esoteric nature. Most of Indians will base their arguements on their world view.
Admittedly one of the reasons is that American constitution is brief and to the point, whileIndian constitution tries too hard and doesnt exactly overwhelm one. However, one other arguement (and in my view more signifant) is that America started with its constitution, it is the foundation on which US stands today, so it is natural that it will be the essence of americans, whereas, India existed long before the constitution and what is more much of what it achieved is much greater than any constitution could and what is more important beyond the scope of constitution.
What it means is that while our legal issues are still settled by framework of constitution, the amendment to constitution itself is more flexible and can draw from more sources.
In the similar fashion German can be described as logical , Russian can be descirbed as inherently christian or paradoxically tartar.
What this means is while in a free society everybody is entitled to his or her opinion, in order to participate in a meaningful way a person should try to alien with the ethos.
Ghettoziation or disdain will be impediment, in real life, to the very tolerance that libertarianism aspires for.
Update : Sandeep weighs in, I think where Mr Amit Verma and Me (and possibly Sandeep ) differ is , according to him libertanism is GUT of sociology and rest is the matter of detail. This may be true ofcourse, I have yet to form enough opinion of mine, however any theory which ignores reality for ideal, remains just that, a theory. The claim that nation has ceased to be relevant because particular idea is all what is neccessary for progress of humanity may be honest and correct, but in reality it sets up absolutist position, which in most cases lead to intellectual and often physical tyranny.
Nation, religion anything that has arisen is not because of an ancient conspiracy hatched by bourgeois/religious freak to exploit poor or undermine intellect, but often out of genuine inquiry into imponderable, the results might have been incorrect, but the process has continued, if progress of humanity is coupled with libertanism or indeed any -ism, the process of engagement and disengagement with what exists has to be done with reason and patience, seizing the bastille is a romantic idea, but to be used occasionally.
I had earlier opined how capitalism was inherently evil, because it expected even compelled to work. However I have discovered the true evil and which can be only admitted as undescribable horror. Well, that face of what is sinister is ... My Sys - Ad.
To cut a very painful story short, he has blocked all the blogs under "Internet Communication", this was ofcourse not the begining, he had blocked Amit Verma and Gaurav Sabnis under "Pornography", unfortunately I did not object , "Gaurav", so I thought, "Why these are unwashed libertarians, the creep!". I thought it was only proper that such shoe - fetishist be recognized as what they are, peddlars of dirty, bizarre world view.
However today to my utter horror, I found that I could not get my daily doze of bloggers who are sane and squeaky clean. I cautiosly approached that schmuck and politely enquired , "WTF" ?. He looked up at me and with a smirk which would have chilled Pran and Ajit to the core, mouthed those devastating words, "Non productive sites". I was vanquished.
This conversation has shaken me. I have stopped believing in the goodness of humanity, and what is more inevitability of logic.
It is most outrageous that I am expected to work, especially considering that India is a socialist country and work is something which is not mentioned in decent conversation.
If this continues they will soon expect results from me. The result is that I am writing at a cybercafe and what is more infuriating is that I am writing such crap , that too unadulterated.
This incident has made more wiser.
First moral : Resist at first sign of oppression, which means I should have argued for allowing pornography.
Second Moral : Resist any attempt to undermine egalatrain ethos of our nation.
Third Moral : One of the questions to ask during next interview , do you allow blogs.
Sandeep has put me on his bloglist.
My first thought, to paraphrase Marx (Groucho, not Karl) were "How can I esteem someone, who esteems me".
But seriously, it is always good to be mentioned by fella like Sandeep, better however is forming opinions through education and which Sandeep does with a flourish. That is the beauty of net.
So, thanks Sandeep for what I do not deserve, and if you choose to venture on this blog inspite of atrocious typos and poor grammar, why I warned you, but may force be with you.
Well "doubting gaurav" is quite awkward I admit and hardly cool, but the bright side is that it is not "peeping gaurav", which I thought initially.What is more as "DG" I am just one vowel short man's best friend.
I am posting it here, because for some reason I am not able to post my comments at Sandeep's place (I have changed URL, mail ID but Gods are angry on me)
The title is apparently the way Microsoft will announce dooms-day to its customers.
Now it is a well known that Bangalore has , well problems.
Formerly know as garden city, Bangalore is groaning under the the "Cheap indian labour rush" of phoren MNC's as well as coming of age of Indian software firms which is resulting in large number of firms as well as immigration from rest of India and its infrastructure is incapable of meeting the requirement.
The result is traffic jams, high real estate rates and what not, it has already been dissected, analyzed, satirazed , scandalized and other -ed.
So what is the solution ? Lesser mortals will suggest improving infrastructure, developing other cities. Huh, such naives. Mr Dharam Singh CM of Karnataka has in a stunning move eliminated any present and future problems by this,
Bangalore to be re-named Bengaluru.
It was so easy, no Bangalore = no problem.
And since no one can say Bengaluru without laughing and choking to death, there will not be any mention of the problem.
Out of box thing is the way to go, preferably with no connection to reality or relevance.
Taking inspiration from this I am thinking of changing my project objective to keep me in employment instead of doing any real work.
This is why Jaffna is a good blogger, and I am not even a wannabe.
In his place, I would have used snark at best, insult or sarcasm at worst, which ofcourse defeats the purpose for which I am blogging, which is exploration of ideas and expansion of intellect.
Unfortunately my rage makes my efforts useless.
Via Instapundit ,
"Personally, I liked the university. They gave us money and facilities, we didn't have to produce anything! You've never been out of college! You don't know what it's like out there! I've *worked* in the private sector. They expect *results*."
If there is something evil about capitalism it is that you are expected to work.
This can be very inconvenient for people like me whose motto in life is to avidly avoid perusance of any effort.
Fortunately one of the benefits of working in software industry is that you can pretending you are working while wasting your time blogging surfing chatting or launching malacious codes.
As far as deadlines are concerned, they always expire. It is pointless to bother about something as arbitrary as deadlines
This also tells why objectivism is a monstrosity, it places work as the greatest virtue man is capable of.
Originally posted as a comment here, turned out good so reposting it.
The recent spate of bombings in Bangladesh has awoken world and India to the situation in Bangladesh. I think as dastardly as these blasts are, one consequence ironically is that world is becoming increasingly concerned. The security concerns for India are most grave, and yet, I am afraid that our approach to this will be short sighted as well as hamhanded.
Nitin and Jaffna have posted about this. In my view the perception about secularism and tolerance of Bangladesh are a bit misplaced or exaggerated.
Soon after coup in which Sheik Mujib -Ur- Rehman was butchered along with his family, Bangladesh was declared Islamic Republic, to this date that is what it is.
In fact, Bangladesh (Former East Bengal) has been slowly islamisized since turn of century.It is not a well known fact that British had tried to push a cleft between Muslims and Hindu in Bengal by diving that state on religious basis, what is more it encouraged Muslims to assert a different and often antagonistic position against Hindus. The manifesto of Bengali muslims was circulated by maulvis and in the process raised muslim peasantory against Hindu landlords, this process was to ultimately result in Partition.
Partition saw the worst instances of violence in Bengal. Suprisingly while there are lots of books and movies about division of Punjab, there is hardly any work on division of bengal.(In my opinion it can be due to difference of bengali and punjabi mindset).
After Partition this process got stalled and even reversed (to some extent) due to resentment against punjabi discrimination.Punjabi Muslims considered Bengali Muslims to be inferior (Dark, Small and Rice Eaters).This resentment ofcourse resulted in creation of Bangladesh in 1971.At that time it was secular republic but as I wrote before this state changed after coup.
In the intervening decade the process of islamization continued and the hindus were marginalised.However the reasons it was not realized in India were ,apart from apathy of elites/chattering classes for anything hindu, The medium of radicalism was still to a large extent Bengali which defeated the very purpose and terror was not considered exportable commodity.
However in the last decade large number of Madrassas with Wahabi money have been established whose medium of instruction is arabic and the only subject that is covered is theology. This is no different on Indian side.
This is radicalizing the populace at a rate much greater than previous decades, effectively alienating them from their Bengali Culture (To understand how the people are "arabised" , effectively erasing their traditional identity, it is instructive to read "Among the believers" by V.S. Naipaul ).
These radicals have a significant vote share resulting in their participation (Jamat- e-Islami)in present regime headed by Begum Khalida Jia ,widow of slain army dictator Jia- Ur-Rehman, making any concrete step against going radicalism impossible.
It is not unusual to hear cries of "We are taliban, and we will make Bangladesh Afganistan" in rallies of fundamentalist.
Apart from political compulsion, there is economic incentive in form of petro dollars as well as territorial ambition by inclusion of districts of Assam and Bengal , (whose demography has been changed by Bengladeshi influx) in Bangladesh.All this, especially the last demands immediate attention from India.
Sadly, our elites/chattering classes retain the same indifferecne.
All this is courtsey Arun Shourie's latest book .
Thinking about morality.
What has struck me before and which was pointed by JK in his comments (here )that our perceptions of what constitutes decency have never been same thorough out the time and in all places .
In some places it is minimalist, in other it is more conservative.
I have never understood what could be the reason behind it.
What is more from an neutral point of view what purpose does decency serve?
First it is a man made construct in the sense no other species shows any need for it.
But even for human society what is the it's requirement.
I could think of this,
Religous emphasis on sex as a sin or females as temptation which is best avoided.
This view was held in Christianity as well as Ascetic Traditions.
But even this doesnt explain, why should religion view sex as taboo.
One of the explainations could be that as society became mongamous, social norms sought to regulate the sex, since there is nothing in human biology which encourage monogamy quite the opposite in fact,overemphasis on sex must have been frowned upon and it was thought fit to limit sex to bedrooms.
Sex existed in public ofcourse, but in form of art, dance, poetry and literature, it was not the raw animal urging but something on an elevated platform.
However like all things relating to rule , as the civilization proceeded, people forgot the reason and started applying these rules mechanically, which must have caused sex to be thought as a sin.
The other view is somewhat related to what Dan Brown said in Da Vinci Code, that an increasingly pateriarchal society marginalised female and hence sex.
These are ofcourse tentative ideas.
Further on this path , I can guess the need for morality. It could have been that in order to establish society it was thought neccessary to regulate sexual activites, and this is quite possible , considering that unlike many mammals humans do not have a specific mating period , which makes humans much more sexually active than other mammals. This might possess challenge to establishing an order.
And that might be the reason I feel slight discomfort with ongoing sexual liberation.
It seeks to liberate sex and turn it back into raw animal urge. The ironical part may be that by doing it it may be harming the sectino (i.e females) it professes to liberate.
What is the difference between notion of vitrue and chastity and notion of scoring up, both are peer pressure and a need to confirm. One is based on "sex is evil", whereas other is based "promiscuous is vitrue". What is the use ,as some feminists have pointed out, if sexual liberation causes barbification, depression and bulimia.
Here it can be argued that freedom is not the cause, it is uninformed choice. I think the problem is freedom is not useful unless accompanied by the right idea, indeed one of the benefits of freedom is that it allows development of right idea.
However mindless adherence to dogma, whether religious or sexual emanicpation , renders freedom meaningless.
The far easier explaination is ofcourse that I am a peeved off loser , which may not be wrong at all.
This rant was long pending,
I have been a long time fan of Amir Khan. Part of this was his histrionic ability as well as his unassuming persona insharp contrast to maverick Shahrukh Khan or downright criminal Salman Khan. On the other hand Ketan Mehta is a equally capable director having been at the helm of such movies like Bhavani Bhavai and Mirch Masala.
What is more Indian cinema (or atleast Bambayya cinema) doesnt have a tradition of historical narratives, almost all the films which came earlier were more in line of epics and story telling,
I had enjoyed many of them in childhood and found the dramatics appealing.
However I wanted to see how Aamir and Ketan balance historical narrative with dramatics that our films require.
This ofcourse is not easy. Hardly anything is known about Mangal Pandey and his ideas.
Most of books about him have been sketchy and based on much speculation.
To cut a long story short I was eagerly awaiting for this movie.
Well the movie was worse than disappointment.
It had the usual shortcoming that a typical hindi movie is supposed to have.
In order to add more flesh to Mangal's character his love life was invented.
Now there are two problems in this , it is ok to reinterpret and add on mythological stories.
However if working on historical character (which Mangal Pandey is), it is best to stay true to the real, since their was not much concrete to begin with I could understand ifa bit of romance was added, but making a parallel story of it seemed a bad idea.
The worst infraction, however was using Mangal Pandey as a symbol against liberalization and free market.
Many times in the movie Toby Stephens in explaination of colonial system referred to it as free market.
I am not an economist but even I can see distinction between free market which essentially is based on choice of buyers and sellers to trade on mutually acceptable terms and price and Colonialism which involves forcing others to buy at high prices or sell at low prices.
This slant was with doubt a cheap shot at current globalization, which is the favourite strwamen of our intellectuals, they are living in a decreipt utopia dreaming of rotten ideologies. They feel that globalization is a monster which must be opposed.
I think this comes from unnatural fetish with idealogies and intellectual sloth. One of the charges against religon is that it sets false ideals, I don't see how is secular version any better.
Via Indian Express
'Delete word socialism from Constitution'
I would like secularism to be deleted also, but this is a start.
This was originally a reply to JK's post, however it turned out good so I am posting it
The context was of moral policing and I had asked JK his stand on personal freedom by asking whether he agreed with things like incest, bestiality to which he had replied that these things were legally prohibited, this post tries to adress that and the more important question that whether morality is relevant or if it is what are its boundaries.
I am not against hand-holding or hugging or sex or Khushboo right to say anything she chooses.
HoweverI have become wary of term "moral police", it has become a latest mantra for elites to stereotype whoever happen to disagree with them.IMHO terms like "moral police", "Communalist" are just attempt to bulldoze even any reasonable dissension.
Further the arguement that something is "verboten" because it is legally prohibited is putting cart before the horse.
I think that prohibiting anything legally, which is essentially curtailing personal freedom should have a strong reason behind it.
One important position is that of Libertarianism.
Libertarians from what I have understood (I may be wrong ) are against any restriction to personal freedom (subject to that it does not curtail other's personal freedom or cause physical injury).
I think the position is based on the premise that that desire of individual to act on himself overrules anything else. Specifically it rejects or places at a much lower priority society or sanctity of life.
From what I have understood Libertarian position of Society is that of a group based on security, trade and division of labour.
In the same way sanctity of life has little meaning, in comparision to will of individual.
There are many things which do not violate libertarian principle (incest, bestiality, paedophilia, suicide, voluntary cannabalism) nevertheless I do not feel comfortable with it.
Neither quoting religious text is any help, most of religious scripture describe all sort of debauchery, patricide such that reasoning on their basis solely is meaningless.
I admit that I am a prude, and a prude of the sort who didnt mind watching smut in private but will not like to swear in front elders (Does this qualify for hypocrisy ?).
I will like to think that there is something called public decency, which should be observed by everyone.
However I am not yet able to find a coherent basis for it. According to taliban the proper decency is males with beards and women in burqa, libertarian hold (I suspect) "sexy,whisky and democracy" position.
Since I feel disagreement with both the libertarian and, since I hate using moral police, collectivism position, I am still looking for a new stand, (in this my biases are not helping me).
I have a suspicion that their is some basis ,however feeble, behind the conservative view.New morality can be formed by building on that basis.
So He is gone,
Well whatever the opinion, I will applaud him for flair of comedy (unintentional ofcourse), the whole "he will go-he will not go" was much more entertaining than current bunch of daily soap operas.His son ofcourse is an improvement upon the old man.
This ofcourse begs the question what took Congress so long, especially considering that as Kapil Sibal (our Minister for Science and Technology) claimed than what Matherani disclosed was known to GOI since quite some time.
One justification could be that it had imagined that this will blow over as others did.
However they did not count on resurgent NDA.But even if this is accepted, the other question which arises is that when it was clear that this was a full forest -fire and not spark in some shrub
why then , was Natwar not immediately thrown out, instead being handled in a blow hot blow cold manner.
This gives suspicion whether there is more to story which appears, does anyone remember Quattrocchi ?
Via Telegraph
Kalbe Sadiq, vice-president of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board. advocates use of birth control, end of polygamy.
This is without doubt a good sign, I have always taken Muslim intellectualls like Javed Akhtar and Shabana Azmi with loads of salt, as these worthies do not have any standing among common Muslim.
The above mentioned gentleman, with whom I share common heritage, has much more chances of success in brining reform to Mulims. Slamming him as BJP- Man will not do.
Contrast this with regressive attitude taken by RSS , which more than anything just exhibits lack of ideas and paronia based on seize complex.
This is a shame as in my view RSS is capable of much good , if only they get rid of people like Togadia.
Via Slimes,
Well no one accuse Slimes of things such as relevance or insight !
Via Nizhal
Following are some excerpts from eminent historian Stanley Wolpert
Our knowledge of the earliest history of our linguistic ancestors is derived from over a century of patient reconstruction of their "Urheim" by philologists such as Friedrich Max Muller (1823-1900)
We have no archaeological evidence for the first centuries of India's Aryan age (from about 1500 to 1000 B.C.), but . .
. . . we have been able to piece together some picture of the era from Aryans' religious "Books of Knowledge," or Vedas . . . The Rig Veda itself, however, is unconscious of that journey and of the Aryan "invasion" of India . . .
This would have been amusing but for the unfortunate part that most of educated indians and almost all bloggers will say something like this
if(not_concerned_with_poverty OR concerned_with_hinduism)
{
NOT_MY_BUSINESS(go back to sleep) ;
CALL_COMMUNAL_PROPOGANDA(go back to sleep);
}
There is ofcourse no antidote to indiffenrence and you can not argue with some one who is intereseted is conspiracy theories than debate.
Via Rediff
Natwar sacked from key Cong panel,
So has the blessed lady decided to grasp the nettles and call the old man's bluff.
What got Sonia Gandhi's goat ,in my view, was sheer impudence displayed by Natwar Singh and Jagat Singh. Instead of showing traditional congress chicanery, not only Natwar Singh did not resign, his son had the temerity to attempt implicating the lady in the scandal.
I think in addition to his arrogance, Natwar must have thought that his unflinching loyalty to dynasty will hold him good steed. What he doesnt realize is that Gandhi dynasty uses loyals almost in the same manner as I use toilet paper (occasionaly, otherwise like all patriots I do it "indian way")
Sure it does reward loyalists, but it is only to keep them in good humour and hence it is just some thing which is convenient.However once loyalist is embarassment or hindrance , dynasty does not waste time in discarding the concenrned person.
By being such a pain in unmentionable part, Natwar is, in effect,bazooking any possibility of returning at a later date.
Still it remains a mystery to me, why Natwar is not being dragged away from his chair.
Despite his and his son cocking a snook.
Why ? Is it karma or Is it some conspiracy ?
More in rediff We are ready for CBI probe: Jagat Singh (Bluff, by the way I dont like persons with shaved head unless it is done in Tirupati)
And in indian express Natwar Singh must be shown the door,
Mr Gupta raises a pertinent issue which is of acts of omission and comission done by Natwar Singh during his stint as External Affairs minister, however I am nonplussed to read his conclusion that Dr Manmohan Singh should show him the door.
I do not think that Mr Gupta is unaware of the real authority , Mr Manmohan Singh ,poor man, can not sack a peon if he wants. What I do think, however, is that he is trying to shield the blessed lady,as he is haunted by the spectre of communalists ruling over New Delhi, this incidentally seems the line of NDTV.
While I do not mind anyone hating BJP, (as some one said "Frankly dear, I do not give a damn"), I resent the fact that these baiters, who indulge in cloak and dagger stuff, proclaim to show "the whole truth" and this tripe is accepted by the public.
Update: Via Rediff
Natwar may be dropped: Cong leader
PM backed Natwar ouster from key panel
"..........Union Science and Technology Minister Kapil Sibal bluntly stated that the minister without portfolio should take a cue from the steering committee's decision.
"Natwar has an acute mind, he understands subtleties of the game," Sibal told reporters, adding that the minister, in the eye of the storm over the Volcker issue, has to himself decide whether or not he should stay in the government in the wake of his removal from the party's highest policy making body.
Stating that it was for Natwar to understand the signal, he said the party was above individuals.
He, however, added that Natwar's removal did not mean that he was guilty.
"It is for the Justice Pathak Inquiry Authority to decide who is guilty," he said, adding that the committee's decision was a political decision....."
Again , why can't you the moron out !
And then this is a political decision, nothing to do with things like propriety or morality
This report from Indian Express justifies my butchering of metaphor.
Cornered Natwar does a Mangal Pandey
"... Singh said even Mahatma Gandhi had said that if there is a choice between violence and cowardice, some violence may not be wrong subject to its reasons.
"If you take some step, where some violence is required, you cannot condemn it but have to understand its reasons," he said, while noting that Britishers had executed Mangal Pandey, after he raised the banner of revolt ....."
Violence by Natwar Singh, what a scary thought !
"...Singh said the country's composite culture was under attack and there was a need for a fight to preserve it..... "
First khushboo then Volcker, some body help my country !
And yes He is not calling quit yet
PS. This post has awakened my rage for The rising, I think I will try to trash it next.
Update : Via Slimes Former Petroleum Minister Shiv Shankar adds 'oil spill' to Matherani's
remarks.
Actually I am puzzled , Despite all the news reports which indicate that Natwar Singh is embarassing Congress and it is the wish of supreme commander that Natwar resign,
Natwar is not taking a clue !
Is it possible that Congress has been caught with its hands in cookie jar !
I do not believe that Sonia Gandhi is being gentle towards him, considering how she hounded Narsimha Rao till his death and threw Sitaram Kesri out of office.
Via rediff
Punishment: 7 school kids' palms burnt
Our education system is something which is not often talked about (unless it is about secularism then it is cause celebre), yet the reality is that primary education more than anything affects our prosperity and well being.
Incidents like above demonstrate the lemantable condition of pedagogy in our nation, can we expect children who have to go through incidents like not to turn cynical at best or criminal at worst.
This incident brought back memories of my school where a certain teacher used to punish pupils by banging their heads on wall, while another inflicted injuries by flinging dusters.
I was saved by the fortunate circumstance of being a teacher's ward and hence off-bounds for such sadism.
I just noticed that I can boast of 169 visitors.
Since this number is perfect square of 13 (an ungodly number), it is a bad omen for me, in fact it is like witches of Hamlet consorting with He-who-must-not-be-named.
The only recourse for me is to pray and hope to calm great loard zork.
In order to ensure that my blog is not wiped out from blogosphere by 曾经- 小便-阁下, I am even ready to sacrifice my Project Manager.
Originally my reply to Jaffna, I think it is better than my usual stuff, which is not surprising considering Good company and good discourse are the very sinews of virtue.
While I do like page hits for narcissistic pleasure (which will partially answer sandeep's question , who has banished me from his kingdom), my main interest behind blogging is to explore and organize my thoughts and express them in a coherent manner.I am still trying.However I am not even 1% of other bloggers.
(Related Post)
What I have found in debates about british colonism , is that most of people assume (incorrectly in my opinion) that absence british rule , there would have been no interaction.
I disagree with this, british were basically traders (as opposed to Spanish who were religious fanatics or Belgians who were marauders) and in my opinion trade is a much more effective tool to spread technology and ideas (Indonesia and Malaysia a case in point),
so even if British were not ruling India, there would have still been interaction.
I think more important than counting the positive that British rule might have caused (intentionally or otherwise), we should compare it with alternative scenarios (or "What If", as Isaac Asimov put it ). In my view most of what we attribute to british would have happened otherwise also.I may be wrong in that, and even if I am correct I have not yet thought about good which could not have happened without british rule (that is other than "most").
Here I admit that I am biased against British partly because of the region I come from and partly because of hearing lamentation of "How british were better than present rule" while growing up
(Related Post)
Regarding Punjab politics the problem is exactly that it leads to seperation of Sikh identity from Indic identity and this is the same thing which happened in 1980's.
In order to assert Sikh identity it was deemed neccessary not only to seperate it from Hindu identity, but also to negate it, that is "Not Hindu".
This negationism, this obsession with the difference was (while it was lots of manure) a shock to Hindu and Indic ethos, as this antagonism between Sikhism and Hinduism was unprecendented.
In other words, what happened in Punjab in 1980, was repeatition of partition.
That it (the insurgency ) ultimately failed, is testimony to spirit of Sikhism (the credit is due to Punjab police, who to this day is hounded by pimps of Human right).
However, while it existed it caused grief to both Sikh and Hindu, and the only winner was ISI.
My discomfort with Present situation is that previous insurgence started identically.
It had "Secular" Congress trying to undermine "Communal " Akali Dal with "Sant" Bhinderwaale, who with support well of heeled NRIs became Frankenstein Monster and the rest is history.
Present situation (that is vying for religious votes) while not going 1980 way, still has a distant possibility to mutate and cause lots of mischief and grief.That's what is generally called Slippery Slope.I think it is only prudent to learn from history, than to repeat the tragedy.
(Related Post)
I concur with the view that "Pakistan is a failed state", infact, I will go further and argue (ofcourse with benefit of hindsight) that it could not have turned otherwise.
Via Slimes,
Pak law bans hate lessons in madrassas,
Considering the incestuous relation Extremist and army have in Pakistan, I am sure this is another of General's "all sound no fury" gimmicks to please western benefactors.
West ofcourse thinks that it can manage Pakistan/Saudi Arabia, however, it is just riding tiger, as soon as it tries to get off it will be devoured.
Via Indian Express
Punjabi Parties jockey for religious votes ,
It is this kind of competitive politics , which has always resulted in disaster.
Sadly we dont seem to learn the lesson.
Via Indian Express,
Mathrani names Natwar, son in Oil-for-Food scam
"In a sensational disclosure, India's Ambassador to Croatia Aniel Mathrani on friday claimed that Natwar Singh, who was stripped off the External Affairs Ministry portfolio after being named in the Volcker Committee report on Iraq's Oil-for-Food scam, had received oil allotment from Saddam Hussein's regime for his ‘personal services’. ....."
Further,
"....Mathrani said Natwar's son Jagat and his ‘cousin’ Andaleeb Sehgal had joined the delegation in Iraq in 2001 and stayed with them at the same hotel owned by the then ruling Baath party....."
To the mortal embarassment of the Empress, this case is not getting blown over.
Ofcourse Mathrani has done a volte - face, but this should be taken with a pinch of salt.
However, I am still sure that this government has no intention of investigating Volcker findings for the obvious reasons.
Meanwhile Congress is apperaing to be making Natwar walk the plank.
Well it would be good riddance to bad rubbish.
Natwar denies allegations
(Sure he will ! it must be an imperial conspiracy hatched by McDonal's /Pizza Hut)
We will punish the guilty: Manmohan
(Considering the amount of scum in present dispension, it is surprising that Manmohan Singh is never held responsible)
Update : Left bays for Natwar's blood ,which there must have been some sort of backroom sweetheart deal between left and congress.
Defeat in bihar election doesnt seem to me a jolt enough for left.
Jagat slams Congress, says Mathrani had blessings of Sonia, Manmohan , this means that either the son is as dense as father or both are guilty as hell, my money is on later .
More coverage on Indian Express He denied, now he damns: Natwar gave green signal for oil vouchers, says aide.
This time it seems Natwar Singh is down and out for good
