The Worm sees nuke salesmen crawling all over India!

American nuke sellers make beeline for India

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 09 Nov 2006 20:06:00 +0000

America’s nuclear suppliers are embarking on a love affair with India!

Reminds me of the days shortly after Union Carbide’s plant at Bhopal spew tonnes of poisonous gas on the city killing tens of thousands. Carpetbaggers from America descended in hordes seeking power of attorney from the victims in an American court in return for a percentage of the compensation.

The nuclear suppliers descending on Indian soils are somewhat like the carpetbaggers of the 1980s. There are huge profits to be made. India is short of power so anyone stringing up a line from a power plant to the electricity grid can sell all the power he makes if the Indian government ushers in a laissez faire regime.

So the big American companies who have been on the retreat in a saturated home market see a virgin opportunity in India. About 200 of them led by the biggies like General Electric, Westinghouse who build the big white domes in which the atom is split will be here to suss out Prime Minister and various Chief Ministers. Other major defense contractors from the US including Boeing and Lockheed-Martin will also be represented as they try to milk the goodwill overflow.

The public sector Nuclear Power Corporation is pushing to keep nuclear power generation with itself. With foreign technology and experts, NPC’s new plants will be up and running in double quick time. But the private biggies are unlikely to give up without a fight. The Tatas will surely vie for this business as will Anil Ambani’s Reliance Energy.

Even as the Indo-US nuclear deal was being debated in America, the Indian government quietly went about acquiring plots of land across the country’s vast coastline to set up nuclear power plants. As per NPC’s grand vision, clusters of nuclear power plants will spring up along the coast thereby lighting up the country’s interiors.

So India will be the new El Dorado for the American nuclear industry. The industry promises to provide nearly 20,000 direct and indirect jobs in the US in a bid to soften opposition among American lawmakers. President George Bush is pushing the deal in the US Senate before the newly-elected Democrats take over.

India is keeping its fingers crossed and will play hardball if the US attempts to extract more concessions on the nuclear weapons front.

Top officials in the Bush administration including the President himself have had close links with the nuclear industry, so India is waiting for the nuclear deal to be signed sealed and delivered as a nice Christmas present. From the New Year the Americans will build the nuclear plants and worry about finding the fuel since their profits depend on the facilities generating power.

India’s own stock of uranium will be sufficient for making nuclear weapons. The machines to make them can be fabricated at home. And the brains to do all this will be trained at the American nuclear generators coming up in India. If every thing goes according to plan, that is.

The writer is contactable on journoshiv(at)gmail.com

Will jihadi terrorists strike Goa this year?

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 31 Oct 2006 08:22:00 +0000

It is a question that has been asked ever since jihadi terrorists set off bombs at the tourist resort town of Bali in Indonesia four years ago. As television images of hundreds of European and American tourists left dead and injured in the terror bombings streamed in, fears of Goa coming under the terrorists scanner came to the fore.

Though the past few years have been peaceful and the number of foreign tourists coming to Goa likely to cross 400,000 the authorities are keeping their fingers crossed. The detention and questioning of several Muslim suspects from the troubled Indian state of Kashmir only added to the general insecurity.

This year though, the Indian government has openly expressed fears of terrorists targeting tourists from Goa and the local police have been asked to stay on alert especially during the Christmas-New Year period when tourist arrivals peak.

Last week, the top police official of Goa was summoned for a briefing by the Federal Interior Ministry where intelligence reports about tourists being targeted were shared with him.

The Indian government is particularly worried about the security of tourists from Israel. Every year thousands of young Israelis on a gap year after serving in the national army arrive in Goa to chill out at the rave parties. Remote villages like Morjem in North Goa have all night raves with thousands of revellers getting high on ecstasy and other psychotropic substances.

Considering that many of the Israelis may have served in the troubled Palestine region, there are fears that they may be targeted by the jehadi forces. Mossad operatives land up frequently in Goa to keep an eye on the Israeli youth. The Jerusalem Post routine covers the excesses of the visitors from Goa to Manali. But except for the occasional man or woman ODing on some forbidden substance or drowning off the beach, little untoward incident has happened to the Israelis in general.

But will this year be different? Both the local and central governments hope its is not. Popular hangouts in North Goa like the discos at Anjuna, Baga, Calangute and Candolim where European tourists outnumber the local population will now be under the watchlist of state and central agencies. The Wednesday night flea market at Anjuna and the popular Titos pub at Baga may well have several snoops looking around for the black RDX instead of the white cocaine.

The usual suspects like Lashkar-e-Toiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad have been put on the watchlist. The large number of Kashmiris who flock to Goa during the tourist season to sell carpets to foreigners may face a little more harassment this year. And local residents living away from the coast who usually keep away from tourists will pray that yet another season passes off peacefully.

Kids are collateral damage in the battle of the sexes

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 28 Oct 2006 13:37:00 +0000

While India's new Domestic Violence Act claims to empower women suffering from abuse by the men in the household it has little to offer young children who stand to become unwitting victims as women in troubled relationships take recourse to the law.

Under the new law which came into force earlier this week, women including wives, live-in partners, daughters, mothers, mothers-in-law, etc would be protected against abusive male members of the household. Those accused of abusive behaviour may be fined Rs 20,000 and may be sentenced to a year's rigorous imprisonment.

How the law is implemented depends entirely on the police officials investigating the case. A kind-hearted police officer may push a feuding couple into arriving at a settlement so that their family life is not ruptured. But more often than not corrupt or overworked police officers may act in a high-handed manner permanently destroying a relationship.

The very first case under the Domestic Violence Act has resulted in a man from Chennai getting arrested. His wife is in hospital nursing severe injuries. Media reports on the case speak nothing of the children assuming at least one is part of the household. Minister for Women and Child Development Renuka Chaudhary who gloated that the law was a 'Diwali Gift' for millions of women too had nothing to say about the fate of children who would end up as collateral damage.

Such a law will not really work if the state is not able to provide for the welfare of children in trouble relationship. Instances where even women set afire by their in-laws refrain from naming their husbands for fear of jeopardising their children's safety only indicate that many genuine victims of domestic violence will continue to suffer in silence. It may safely be assumed that many of the cases registered under the Act may be those done suo motu by the investigating officers.

Incidentally, the law as it stands at present does not take into account men who are victims of abusive women. After all, if women can go out, earn a salary and run the rat race just like men they can as well end up becoming abusive like their opposite sex as well. This gender disparity in the law though will need to be addressed by judicial intervention.

Guess who will be the stars at the Mumbai Madame Tussaud's?

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 24 Oct 2006 18:35:00 +0000

So Madame Tussaud's will be coming to Mumbai! Can think of half-a-dozen Bombaywallahs embodying the spirit of the metropolis who deserve to be recreated in wax.

Bal Thackeray. He surely did make a big impact in the life of the average Bombayite. From the 1960s at least till the 1990s, the man dominated the city's consciousness. The high point of his career was the pogrom against the Muslims in 1992-93. If Bombay's denizens did not dig trenches around their houses and install machine gun nests, it was not for want of Bal T's trying.

Amitabh Bachchan. Every time the man faces a setback, the Big B returns larger than before. Much like the city itself.

Laxman's Common Man. Price rises, declining quality of life, the rough and tumble of existence in Bombay..... He must have gotten skinnier after his creator's illness, but nothing gets as much as a word out of the man.

Mrs Common Man. For doing all the talking for the two of them.

Sachin Tendulkar. You don't need no education to succeed. Just talent, sheer grit and a razor sharp brain to spot the big (money-making) opportunities.

Dhirubhai Ambani. For teaching the average Mumbaikar to Think Rich. Come what may!

Mumbai journos raise toast to Bapu on Gandhi Jayanti!

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 21 Oct 2006 13:56:00 +0000

Year after year while bartenders across Mumbai take a break on October 2, the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, tipplers with contacts in the media hit the telephones so as to be treated for some inexpensive booze at the Mumbai Press Club.

On this and other days when sale of liquor is prohibited across the country's financial capital, the usually sleepy Press Club come alive with every table occupied by members and their guests. Usually, the guests outnumber the members since there is no restriction on the number of guests a member can bring in.

The party gets going by around 10 pm and the place usually begins to rock as the witching hour approaches. That's when the journalists on the night shift at The Times of India next door come in after work. Though under the rules the bar should be shut by then waiters discreetly slip a drink or two to the regulars.

The decibel level is up a few notches even though the music system has been turned off a long while ago. Closing time is late. Its past 1 AM when the Press Club begins to shut down and the last of the stragglers catch a cab home.

Thanks to the power of the media and specifically journalists from The Times of India who form the biggest contingent at the Mumbai Press Club, no cop would ever dare to venture inside to enforce the rules. So journalists can drink day after day for the rest of their lives without even holding a liquor permit. The handful of journalists who own liquor permits have hundreds of bottles totted up against their names.

After one party at the Press Club, I saw the staff credit a whopping 45 bottles of Signature Whisky against a colleague's permit number on that just one night!

Yes, anything is possible except the impossible. If TADA accused Sanjay Dutt can successfully peddle Gandhigiri on screen why cannot journos say cheers to the Old Monk on his birthday!

Will the dragon slay St George?

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 11 Oct 2006 19:18:00 +0000

Poor George Fernandes! Just when his friends in Bihar led by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar looked at his ailing frame last year and wrote his obituary, ol' George bounced back. The glow in his face returned as did the spring in his step. And as he did for the past 30 years the khadi-clad polyglot rolled up his sleeves to stitch together another coalition in a bid to stay relevant in politics.

Okay, it was time to say goodbye to Bihar. The past three decades had been one long journey through the badlands of the blighted state which George made his home after having frittered away his base in Bombay long ago in the 1970s. The past three decades had seen some caste chieftain or the other open his doors for George to hunker down. Nitish was the last of his hosts in Bihar and suddenly like the Catholic missionary his parents intended him to be, George saw a sign - from Mulayam Singh Yadav in Uttar Pradesh.

The UP phase would have been another of George's pauses between political wheeling-dealing at the Centre but for Sonia Gandhi's deep antipathy to the Yadav Don Quixote and his Sancho Panza Amar Singh. You can't sup with the two and live, decrees Mama Mia! Amitabh Bachchan discovered this the hard way when he was forced out of the royal court. Anil Ambani is busy completing his penance for having sinned. The RBI's watchdogs are still baying for `Saharashri' Subroto Roy's blood.

So George's feet must be fed to the fire for stepping across the Laxman Rekha. And there has been plenty of ammo to arm his detractors. George's track record as India's Defense Minister was not exactly glorious. The Kargil fiasco happened under his watch. The coffingate scandal could be traced to his own office. His closest associate Jaya Jaitley was allegedly caught taking money in a sting operation by Tehelka. George was accused of overruling his army officers to permit gun-runners have a free run on the Indo-Burma border.

Were it not for his role as Prime Minister Vajpayee's main trouble shooter in keeping the NDA government afloat, George Fernandes would have been sacked and tried for treason long ago.

Now this cat's nine lives seem to have run out. The CBI under the Sonia Gandhi dispensation seems to have done its homework before filing the FIR against George for allegedly taking kickbacks in the purchase of Barak missiles from Israel.

Documents signed by President Kalam as head of the DRDO opposing the purchase have already been released to pro-Congress media outlets. Naval officers who expressed dissent over the purchase of Barak missiles are being paraded around to discredit George.

As speculation mounts about George's interrogation at the hands of the CBI and his possible arrest, support for the man remains muted. BJP, which heads the tattered NDA of which George is still the convenor, has a few soothing words on offer. As are Nitish Kumar and Mulayam. But none will go out of their way to risk their careers for George.

The road seems lonely for the man who can't even win a municipal election on his own. Suddenly George's mask has been ripped off to reveal the political fixer he has allowed himself to degenerate into. And with ignominy comes the status of pariahdom. Poor George Fernandes - dhobi ka kutta na ghar ka na ghat ka!

Will Windows Vista compromise India's national security?

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 09 Oct 2006 19:21:00 +0000

Its time India's security establishment sat up and took notice of the Windows Vista Operating System that launches early next year. Of particular concern should be the anti-piracy features that Microsoft is building inside Windows Vista.

Lines of code embedded in new the OS will allow Microsoft to peer into each and every computer so that machines with pirated versions of WV and other licensed software can be blitzed automatically. In other words all data inside a computer with WV installed is liable to be dissected for examination by techno-snoops in the US and other sites where Microsoft has its servers.

While the impact of WV technology on the privacy of the ordinary computer user is still being debated, the portents are more ominous for government establishments.

At present nearly all computers in Central government offices including those in the Defence and Home ministries have Windows installed in them. Not all of them are licensed either! Should these be upgraded to Windows Vista, every single byte of data flitting through wires of the Indian establishment would be rendered vulnerable.

If Microsoft can read the data, then so can the CIA. Microsoft's cosy relationship with the CIA came out in the open when techies from the secretariat of the National Security Council who sold sensitive data to the American spy agency found jobs with the company in exchange.

Banks, financial institutions, technological and educational institutions like IIT, Research and Development labs, patent offices...in other words anyone concerned with espionage should steer clear of Windows Vista. Never mind what the sweet talking executives of Microsoft tell the babus if Bill Gates can see your data so can Uncle Sam. And their interests do not always coincide with India's interests.

Should Afzal be hanged?

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 06 Oct 2006 17:58:00 +0000

Honestly I cannot make up my mind whether this man should hang. Agreed he and his fellow conspirators mounted the biggest assault on Indian democracy by organizing the terror attack on Indian parliament. If a handful of brave security personnel hadn't risked life and limb, the terrorists may well have entered Parliament House and killed MPs and ministers.

There could have been a prolonged hostage drama with the Kashmiri militants demanding and getting several of their jailed colleagues released. The Rubaiya Sayeed episode from more than 15 years ago would have been replayed magnified several times. The soft underbelly of the Indian state would have stood widely exposed for the whole world while a handful of desperadoes ripped it open.

A shaken NDA government at the Centre would not have let Pakistan off the hook as easily as it happened subsequently. There would have been much more pressure on the remnants of the government surviving the assault for an all out war notwithstanding the threat of a nuclear exchange.

Cynical as the people of India are about her politicians, most of the country's citizens would have rallied behind a call for jihad against Pakistan and its minions spreading terror in the country.

So clearly, the attack on the Indian parliament and the subsequent stand-off with Pakistan took both sub-continental neighbours to the edge of Armageddon.

The image of the jihadi masked under facial follicilitis however melted away when the articulate bespectacled visage of Mohammad Afzal appeared on a television channel confessing to have masterminded the attack. Well-cut clothes and clipped Queen's English did not betray the rigours of interrogation nor the fear of the unknown. Only the fact that so many security personnel lost their lives at the hands of this man evoked revulsion in his ideology and methods.

However the man's refusal to file a mercy plea before the president after being sentenced to death showed a strength of character that would have been eulogized if only he had been on the Indian side of the fence in a different era. Like the three youths who found their way into history textbooks after they were hanged for throwing a bomb in the Constituent Assembly. Same place. Last century.

Don't rob his Windows or Bill Gates will break your comp!

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 06 Oct 2006 14:08:00 +0000

Hey, the title of this post is no joke. Bill G and company have been beefing up their arsenal even while their techies have been putting together Windows Vista, Microsoft's new Operating System. Tipping Rs 200 to a maintenance engineer to install the latest version Windows and MS Office in your computer won't be such a smart thing at all. Ol' Bill Gates is watching and he will sneak quietly behind you smash your new computer to smithereens!

Windows Vista which is likely to hit the market in January 2007 comes bundled with anti-piracy technology that automatically shuts down the computer if the Operating System and presumably Office are not registered. You get 30 days to register from the first time you log on and on the last day, the system goes kaput.

Click here for the gory details:
http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=34875

Knowing Microsoft there is no guarantee that even registered versions of Windows Vista and Office won't conk out. What if your hard disk had crashed and you had to install WV afresh? Will the registration key work? And what if you had dumped the old hard-disk for a new one, will you have shell out a bomb to B. Gates once again for WV?

Looking at the track record of MS, any ten year old downloading computer games can send the systems crashing. No prizes for guessing why computer engineers in Bombay sign the most annual maintenance contracts in the months of April and May.

So should computer users shell out Rs 15-20,000 for the WV apart from a new machine since even computers bought in 2005 cannot give the necessary horse-power? Stingy old BG will never offer to upgrade WV for free even if he has to clean up a room full of bugs in Version 1.0. So there, save an arm and a leg to buy Version 2.

All this trouble when you can buy a genuinely free, that is un-pirated, version of Linux for just Rs 50. Most people have grown up in a Windows environment, so even a flavour of Linux like Ubuntu which comes closest to it faces plenty of resistance.

There is a whole Free Software Movement out there for honest people who want reliable software for free but won't rob Bill G. They have made little headway though since Bill G didn't break people's computers yet.

But with the MS guys pumping iron in anticipation of the big fight against the pirates, its time computer users took a second look at Linux. Free Software gurus should ideally rope in the guys selling assembled computers as the first line of defence. They are the ones who proliferate pirated version of Windows. With the launch of WV however assemblers stand to lose the most. Worse still big computer manufacturers aided by sweetheart deals with Bill G may start a price war against the assemblers.

To begin with, linux users groups across the country must help assemblers acquire expertise in installing and running the Tux. Hopefully by the time WV strikes in the New Year, assemblers would be able to guide buyers in the use of user-friendly flavours of Linux.

So yes my techie friends, those of you who have a lot to say on Internet forums its time to walk your talk. The decisive battle for the Free Software Movement is at hand. Are you ready for the action?

More muck being raked at the Mumbai Press Club

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 02 Oct 2006 07:49:00 +0000

Members of the Press Club of Mumbai have their knickers in a twist yet again. This time its over the issue of bogus members.

Okay not all of them are non-existent people appearing on voters lists like they do regularly in UP and Bihar. Or rather a few might be since we don't all seem to know some of the guys quaffing the amber liquid at the next table. Most denizens of the Press Club are only found at this drinking hole and seldom at spots where working journos usually flock to get stories, but that's running away ahead of the story....

So it transpires that few of our former colleagues who left journalism for greener pastures cannot really detach themselves from the Press Club. People who joined PR agencies continue to retain their old memberships since there is no live membership review committee to update the rolls on a regular basis. Others simply fall between the gaps since the rapidly evolving nature of the profession and technological changes have made it so difficult for everyone to define a journalist.

So a journalist-turned-businessman running trading websites can continue to call himself a journalist only because some content leaches out of the websites. Another who runs a small publishing company continues as a press club member because he has styled himself as Editor. Both gentlemen could easily call themselves CEOs of their respective ventures, but obviously the title of Editor or Editor-in-Chief carry a lot of 'bhav' in society.

Similarly there are also members who write for the marketing supplements of newspapers. In the old days their jobs were handled by copywriters at PR and ad agencies. Obviously the change has come with the transformation of mere news to content. To journalists, photographers and proof-readers have been added graphic artists, designers employed in the edit department. And television journos, cameramen and people who are called scheduling editors. (Thankfully, they haven't yet recruited ingress/exit editors who salaam the big bosses as they enter and leave the office, but we might as well be getting there!)

So as we can see there is a lot of scope for many people to call themselves journalists.

Obviously, the membership review committee appointed by the Press Club General Body have huge task at hand. Can four men scrutinize the credentials of every one of the 500-odd journalists who are members? I think not.

I suggest the Managing Committee list every single member's name, photograph, affiliation, place of appointment, and date of membership on the Press Club's website. Obviously, the bogus ones can easily be weeded out by the vast majority of members than by four or five busy people.

Should the review committee go about functioning in a secretive manner, the present Managing Committee ushered into office after dirty electioneering campaign would be open to allegations of favoritism and worse.

So guys, buck up and become more transparent.

Namdeo Dhasal - a saga of unfulfilled potential

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 29 Sep 2006 18:35:00 +0000

The tragedy of Namdeo Dhasal is where he has ended up today as against what he could have become.

During ones growing up years, Dhasal's was the voice of protest emanating from the labyrinths of Bombay. The balladeer who drove a cab through the narrow alleyways of Bombay. The son of a butcher who saw it all and set it to music. The rambling tones in free verse that ripped off the facade of a respectable city that one was raised in. Golpitha and the city's red-light district. Long before one became a journalist and ventured close to the cages that housed birds whose songs were long dead.

The songs of experience that quickly overwrote the songs of innocence from childhood.

Noted litterateur Dilip Chitre aptly calls Dhasal's "the voice of the lowest of the low, the scum of the earth". Unfortunately, it got muted early on and promised walk never followed the talk. For yours truly who learned to turn away from the Brahminism of his ancestors early in his teens the first stirrings of political awareness sadly coincided with the dying embers of Dhasal's Dalit Panthers. The first of the many crushes of adolescence that simply faded away.

The agitation over renaming the Marathwada University after Dr Ambedkar promised a Dalit uprising against the Marathas that never came about. Dhasal himself faded into the background consumed by alcoholism while his erstwhile comrades sought to rend asunder the legacy of Ambedkar.

The final blow came during the 1992-93 riots when the Dalits joined hands with old foe, the Shiv Sena to carry out a pogrom against the Muslims of Bombay.

Dhasal changed too. In a perverse example of Sanskritisation (where a backward caste as a group tries to raise its status by imitating the mores of a higher caste) Dhasal decided to sup with the RSS. The torchbearer of hardline Brahminical Hindutva that has only lip service on offer for the Dalits. Recent times have seen Dhasal share common platforms with RSS Sarsangchalak K Sudarshan. Little has been heard from him on the post-Godhra riots orchestrated by the Narendra Modi government in Gujarat. As his credibility waned Dhasal has in recent times been reduced to a shadowy figure flitting through literary functions scarcely noticed by the mainstream media.

So what a fall it is for Dhasal my countrymen when the old, ill suffering from myasthenia gravis, songbird of the gutters has to auction his manuscripts for a ticket to an international bookfair.

The Maharashtra government dominated by the powerful Maratha community couldn't careless about Dhasal. A mere trophy for his new-found friends from the RSS the crumbs thrown at him have disappeared a long time ago.

Heaven could have been at his feet, but Namdeo Lakshman Dhasal is on the road begging for an air-ticket!

Mumbai's polio crisis: Nothing but a load of shit

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 28 Sep 2006 14:35:00 +0000

Will the nonsense stop on the polio debate?

Advocates of Fortress Mumbai are crawling out of the woodwork demanding that Bombay shut its doors to the unwashed hordes descending from the badlands of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.

You see we were one step away from a parchment from the World Health Organization certifying Maharashtra as a polio-free street. Till a bunch of slum dwellers from god-forsaken Govandi visited their village in UP and returned home with the polio virus. And pulled down Bombay several notches below Shanghai.

The call to throw up the barricades against the swarming multitudes trying to eke out a living in Bombay is as old as the hills. But the voices are now resounding from what was considered saner quarters. After reports warned of a new drug-resistant P1 version of the polio virus affecting even those children already vaccinated, cries for a cordon sanitaire are getting shriller.

See, see, even the First World is blaming UP's Azamgarh of incubating the P1 polio virus before spreading it to Congo and Niger. Didn't we warn you when Azamgarh sent Abu Salem to raid Bollywood. Now its latest export has even conquered the Heart of Darkness! Up the barricades. Batten the hatches. Load the cannons. Out with the vermin.......

So, when will people stop talking shit? Or rather start talking shit!

The polio virus is spread via fecal matter. That is when a healthy child consumes food and water contaminated by the shit of someone suffering from polio.

Now in the slums of Govandi as in other slums across Bombay, there are not enough toilets. Colour televisions in every house, but not toilets. Streets in most parts of the city are pockmarked with lumps of turd in varying sizes and colours. Vendors of vegetables and cooked food blithely sell their wares to even the well-heeled sections of society. How many people share a toilet in the slums of Mumbai? 100, 200, 2000? Guess correctly and somebody will send you to represent India at a conference in Geneva. By business class. Of a full-service airline.

The P1 polio virus may already have entered the bloodstreams of scores of children supposedly immunized against it. I won't be surprised if there are fresh incidents of polio outbreaks across Mumbai. More kids dragging their useless limbs in bulky callipers. Fewer children clamoring for a place in the housing society's cricket team. Middle class parents stepping out of Maruti cars demanding college admission for their children under the quota for disabled....

What crap? Indeed!

More ammunition for the Hindutva fundoos

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 11 Jul 2006 19:00:00 +0000

Tuesday's serial bomb blasts in Mumbai (Bombay)which claimed at least 140 lives have come as yet another shot in the arm of the flag bearers of Hindu nationalism.

The rabidly right-wing Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (National Volunteers Organization), its affiliates the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (World Hindu Council) and India's main opposition party - the Bharatiya Janata Party are all sharpening their knives against the minority Muslim population of India.

Preliminary evidence just hours after the blasts point to the Lashkar-e-Toiba, an affiliate of Osama bin Laden's Al Quaida organization headquartered in Pakistan. Over the past year, police in Maharashtra State (of which Mumbai is capital), Delhi and other places have busted several LeT modules and recovered several hundred kilogrammes of RDX, ammonium nitrate and other explosives from them.

Since LeT's cells work independent of each other, counter terrorism experts in India have been expecting a major terror attack for the past several months. With LeT attracting even educated middle class Muslims like doctors, engineers and lawyers the entire Muslim community has been under the scanner of even secular minded Indians.

So the serial blasts in Mumbai's commuter trains literally present a heaven-sent opportunity for the Hindu fundamentalists to expand their base across India.

First off the paddocks to make hay was Leader of the Opposition Lal Krishna Advani. On his gunsights is the government of Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh. Hours after Tuesday's blasts Advani was up on some podium denouncing the government for 'selling out the country'. On Advani's hit list is the government's decision to repeal the Terrorism and Disruptive Activities Act (TADA) under which suspects could be held without trial for years. That most of TADA's victims were Hindus including children as young as 14 imprisoned by capricious law enforcement officials has been conveniently ignored by Advani and other right-wing politicians.

Deputy Prime Minister before his BJP government was ousted in May 2004, Advani has been single-handedly responsible for increasing tensions between India's Hindus and Muslims. Through the 1980s Advani led a campaign to destroy a 16th century mosque in the town of Ayodhya allegedly because it was built after razing a temple dedicated to Lord Ram, revered by devout Hindus.

The mosque was subsequently demolished after a bloody campaign on December 6, 1992 which resulted in riots across the country.

The wounds never really healed and vicious riots erupted in the state of Gujarat in 2002 said to be with support of the BJP-ruled government there. Hundreds of Muslims were massacred by Hindu fundamentalist mobs with support from the state police.

Islamic fundamentalists seeking to put down roots in Muslim communities around the country routinely cite the massacres of Gujarat to find support. Organizations like LeT which have tapped the huge Indian Muslim diaspora employed in Middle Eastern countries like Saudi Arabia have thus gained a huge following among the community's elite.

LeT and its front organization, the Students Islamic Movment of India (SIMI) now banned, have found foot soldiers in towns like Aurangabad and Malegaon in Maharashtra which have a long history of Hindu-Muslim riots. Hindu fundamentalist groups like the RSS and the Shiv Sena led by the idosyncratic Bal Thackeray have gained a similar following among the Hindus.

So as the blood of several hundred Indians congeal across Mumbai, the pernicious fanatics on both sides seek yet another opportunity for a macabre embrace.

Tags - Bombay Mumbai Shiv Sena BJP riots communalism Hindutva terrorism Samajwadi Party Azmi

Cowardly Maharashtra government bends before Bal Thackeray

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 10 Jul 2006 07:33:00 +0000

Testicular fortitude is not an affliction usually attributable to the Congress Party in Maharashtra so the Vilasrao Deshmukh government caving in before Bal Thackeray's hoodlums is par for the course.

While the drunken louts of the Shiv Sena trashed shopping malls, Volvo buses and McDonalds outlets in Bombay (Mumbai) yesterday, Deshmukh sent Police Commissioner A N Roy to bargain for peace with the Thackerays. One can imagine the police commissioner walking in before Thackeray, cap in hand shoes respectfully left outside while the aged tiger seated on a gilded throne grants him an audience.

Successive police commissioners under Congress governments in Maharashtra have bowed and scraped before Bal Thackeray allowing him to assume a larger-than-life image in Bombay. So Roy's flexible spine must have come as a big ego boost to the crazy old man who is seeing his life's work dissipate before his ageing eyes.

And what did Roy wangle from the Thackerays? A promise to rein in his hoodlums provided they were allowed to scot-free for the damaged they caused to Bombay all through Sunday. Though no lives were lost, several heads were broken and millions of rupees worth of property destroyed in a few hours of madness.

The mayhem took precious little to be unleashed. Some muck thrown on the bust of Meenatai, late wife of Bal Thackeray. That the bust was located a few hundred metres from the party's headquarters must rubbed the Thackerays the wrong way. After all India is a country where statues of Mahatma Gandhi provide a nice perch for crows. Just outside Churchgate Railway Station in Bombay, statues of freedom fighters are used as mannequins by roadside vendors peddling clothes.

But then Meenatai by virtue of just being the wife of Bal Thackeray is special.

Few would have noticed the 'insult' if Uddhav, son of Bal Thackeray, hadn't expressed his anguish. Broken hearted supporters bristling under newfound efforts to civilize the Shiv Sena decided that it was old times once again that called for some stiff doses of pyromania.

The first to burn was a Volvo bus, the air-conditioned model of middle-class comfort, so near and yet so far for the middle-aged thugs past their sell by date in the new Bombay. Several of these symbols of India's fast liberalizing economy bore the brunt of the Shiv Saniks' existentialist angst today.

The past decade has seen the once lean, mean and hungry tiger of the Shiv Sena grow fat on the spoils of office. Bal Thackeray, who kicked off the party at the Shivaji Park 40 years ago, is no longer the poor cartoonist of old. He and his family are immensely rich, the silk shawls and imported SUVs are testimony to that. His one-time lieutenants have moved up the ladder as well and become experts in backroom deals.

Thackeray's streetfighters who were left out of the picnic however decided to flex some of their muscles on Sunday. Out were the blackboards, the Sena's equivalent of the jungle telegraph. The clarion call to the faithful beckoned for shopfronts to be trashed, pubs preparing for the world cup final to be smashed.

Sunday's turbulence has surely come as a dose of viagra injected up the Sena's middle-aged veins. Elections to the Bombay Municipal Corporation are due next year and with little to show for its 20 years in office, the party is looking for opportunities to reverse its flaccidity. It remains to be seen if Sunday's orgy is a curtain-raiser to some good times or just a painful memory of the past that slipped away.

The Thackerays must now be hoping that the ruling front in Maharashtra continues to be as generous over the next few months. Then the tiger would be seen to roar even though it wouldn't be audible to too many ears!

Bombay burns again

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 09 Jul 2006 13:02:00 +0000

Bal Thackeray's lumpens are at it again. After his nephew Raj stuck the Sena a body blow by raising the flag of rebellion, the boys were looking lost till some muck was literally thrown on the face of a Thackeray.

Unfortunately it happened to be only a bust of Meenatai, the elder Thackeray's late wife who passed away nearly a decade ago. That the bust was installed at Shivaji Park, a stone's throw from party headquarters Sena Bhavan, only added insult to injury.

The spark was lit after Uddhav, the unassuming son and heir of Thackeray, came to see the damage and expressed his anguish. Broken hearted supporters decided that it was old times once again that called for some stiff doses of pyromania.

The first to burn was a Volvo bus, the air-conditioned model of middle-class comfort, so near and yet so far for the middle-aged thugs past their sell by date in the new Bombay. Several of these symbols of India's fast liberalizing economy bore the brunt of the Shiv Saniks' existentialist angst today.

The past decade has seen the once lean, mean and hungry tiger of the Shiv Sena grow fat on the spoils of office. Bal Thackeray, who kicked off the party at the Shivaji Park 40 years ago, is no longer the poor cartoonist of old. He and his family are immensely rich, the silk shawls and imported SUVs are testimony to that. His one-time lieutenants have moved up the ladder as well and become experts in backroom deals.

Thackeray's streetfighters who were left out of the party however decided to flex some of their muscles today. Out were the blackboards, the Sena's equivalent of the jungle telegraph. The clarion call to the faithful beckoned for shopfronts to be trashed, pubs preparing for the world cup final to be smashed.

The cops were of course left twiddling their thumbs. Bombay's police commissioner A N Roy promised to catch the culprits but also threatened to crack down on the Shiv Sena. A few unfortunate souls may well catch the business end of the cop's boots but it is unlikely that the culprits who vandalized Meenatai's bust would ever be caught.

But the Shiv Sena has had a dose of viagra injected up its middle-aged veins. Elections to the Bombay Municipal Corporation are due next year and with little to show for its 20 years in office, the party is looking to reverse its flaccidity. It remains to be seen if Sunday's orgy is a curtain-raiser to some good times or just a painful memory of the past that slipped away.