Screw Barkha Dutt

You may know about NDTV or more specifically 'Padma Shri' Barkha Dutt suing a blogger for criticizing her work covering the Mumbai terror attacks. huh?

Here's reproducing the said blogger's post from a search engine cache. The blogger himself has retracted the post and is not responsible for my reproduction here.

-- Read at your risk. Barkha might sue you! --

Appalling journalism. Absolute blasphemy! As I watch the news from home, I am dumbfounded to see Barkha Dutt of NDTV break every rule of ethical journalism in reporting the Mumbai mayhem. Take a couple of instances for example:

In one instance she asks a husband about his wife being stuck, or held as a hostage. The poor guy adds in the end about where she was last hiding. Aired! My dear friends with AK-47s, our national news is helping you. Go get those still in. And be sure to thank NDTV for not censoring this bit of information.

In another instance, a General sort of suggests that there were no hostages in Oberoi Trident. (Clever.) Then, our herione of revelations calls the head of Oberoi, and the idiot confirms a possibility of 100 or more people still in the building. Hello! Guys with guns, you’ve got more goats to slay. But before you do, you’ve got to love NDTV and more precisely Ms. Dutt. She’s your official intelligence from Ground zero.

You do not need to be a journalist to understand the basic premise of ethics, which starts with protecting victims first; and that is done by avoiding key information from being aired publicly—such as but not limited to revealing the number of possible people still in, the hideouts of hostages and people stuck in buildings.

Imagine you’re one of those sorry souls holed-up in one of those bathrooms, or kitchens. A journalist pulls your kin outside and asks about your last contact on national television, and other prying details. In a bout of emotion, if they happen to reveal more details, you are sure going to hell.

Remember these are hotels, where in all likelihood, every room has a television. All a terrorist needs to do is listen to Ms. Barkha Dutt’s latest achievement of extracting information from your relative, based on your last phone-call or SMS. And you’re shafted—courtesy NDTV.

If the terrorists don’t manage to shove you in to your private hell, the journalists on national television will certainly help you get there. One of the criticisms about Barkha Dutt on Wikipedia reads thus:

During the Kargil conflict, Indian Army sources repeatedly complained to her channel that she was giving away locations in her broadcasts, thus causing Indian casualties.

Looks like the idiot journalist has not learnt anything since then. I join a number of bloggers pleading her to shut the f⋅⋅⋅ up.

-- ignoring updates in the original post --

Questions

1. Why didn't terrorists surface again to kill the nihilists who rallied in Mumbai?
2. Which moron is spreading the canards about the so-called 49-O option of no-Vote?
3. What will be the best punishment for the traitors who fail to vote, on purpose?
4. Why is the prime culprit in this whole saga, NSA Narayanan not being targeted by the media?
5. Who was the politician who reportedly made the NSG wait for hours, so that he can accompany them to Mumbai?
6. How would have Narayanan been punished in the middle ages? Stoning? Mob lynching? Impalement? Crucification?
7. Was Manmohan Singh briefed by R&AW and/or Narayanan of the possible sea-borne attack on the Taj? If not, why? If yes, shouldn't we repeat step 6 for Manmohan?
8. Was the Nariman House deliberately ignored for two days into the attack becos Jewish killings are the best propaganda material against Pakistan?
9. Why doesn't spreading rumors of terrorist attacks on live television land Rajdeep Sardesai in jail?
10. When did you get to know, that most of the (reported) casualties occurred within the first hour at CST and not at the luxury hotels?

Gross Moral Deficit

An Israeli male gay couple have gotten a mother in Mumbai to surrogate a child and have flown back. They apparently want to come back to get a sibling. That was news this evening. The newscaster claimed that India and the US (really?) are the only countries where this kind of surrogacy could be performed legally. Is India the most immoral society on the planet?

I cannot imagine how heartless a woman should be to rent her womb for the perverse desires of these homos. Excuse me, but how different is this from rape or prostitution? And why this extra-ordinary desire to plant one's seed? Couldn't they adopt one or two Palestinian orphans who's country these Jews have been raping for half a century now?

And how is this sh*t legal in India? What was I smoking when I criticized the Indian law that deems homosexuality as criminal? Besides, isn't there a restriction on unmarried people especially males adopting a child? Or atleast thats what Maniratnam told us in a movie. And why isn't there a firing squad to treat the doctors who assisted in this?

Sometime back a 70 something woman had conceived a male child. Lest one appreciate modern medicine, she already had two grown up daughters and wanted a male heir. I hope that woman, her husband and their doctors rot in the non-existent hell for eternity.

I also wrote about that evil witch of a woman in Mumbai, who ran a circus on abortion laws, before mercilessly killing her unborn child in a 'miscarriage'. But I couldn't follow the case of that Japanese grandmother who took away a surrogate child from Rajasthan, when the (Japanese) father had already abandoned the child, even before it was out of its rented womb.

Let me stop before I break my keyboard in outrage. But just this morning I spoke to the guys at Samarthanam. How are one set of people able to give it all, so that differently abled kids can get a life of dignity and happiness, while others are able to make and buy children for money? Its so depressing.

McCain is defeated. Long live Conservatism!

Obama has won as expected. Its truly a seminal moment in Black American history and as I wrote here, US democracy is again its pride and the world's envy. Its nice to see so many Americans and curiously even people across the world derive happiness from the extra-ordinary journey of Barack Obama.

To put things in perspective, Obama's win is one of the worse performances by a winning candidate since 1928. I mean, Obama's tally of 364 pales in comparison with Reagan's 525 and Roosevelt's 523. Clinton had 370 and 379. Considering the extremely favorable political environment for Obama, McCain and the Republicans seem to have stood their ground.

Ofcourse, Obama's supporters will be quick to see white racism against the Black candidate. Then one wonders what motivated the Blacks (in Virginia) to vote for him? And those whites (in Colorado) who possibly voted for Obama just bcos he is black, so that they can feel good about themselves.

And only 5 senate and 18 house seats have switched Blue from Red. Thats a reasonable performance following the Dubya presidency. And I'm glad to see Paul Ryan getting re-elected easily. Ryan, 38 is one of the smartest financial brains on Capitol Hill and is tipped for greater things in the future. His seat was supposedly in danger for championing the bailout package despite being a stanch conservative himself.

Anyway, Republicans should realize that this election was an impossible one to begin with and should work towards making a strong come back as early as 2010. I mean, contrary to what he claims, come 2010, Obama will still be fighting the war in Iraq, sending rebate checks and promising a socialist utopia, with literally no money in the bank.

Besides, look what happened to Democrats who set foot in the Oval Office last century. Kennedy got killed. Lyndon led US to defeat in the Vietnam war. Carter managed to become the worst president in US history. And Clinton got impeached for failing to clearly define the word 'sex'. Socialists can't govern, baby!

And finally, on the one on puffs, California seems to have voted Yes on banning Gay-marriages. Arizona, Florida and Arkansas have also gotten more tough on benefits for Gay couples. Colorado and South Dakota have resisted bans on abortions, while a 'Death with Dignity' law has been approved in Washington.

The One on Puffs

Kudos to Anbumani Ramadoss. Thanks to his zeal, we'll have a very sensible ban on public smoking from tomorrow. I'm no fan of enacting laws that cannot be enforced. And this smoking ban is very unlikely to save my nostrils. But the larger point is how our laws should be.

Smokers have the right to puff their way to death. So any blanket ban on the use/sale of Tobacco cannot be justified. But the argument that people, especially workers, have the right to a smoke free environment is spot on. Laws should protect the rights of individuals. In this case, a smoker's right to kill himself and my right to save myself.

Ramadoss is also right in criticizing laws that deem homosexuality as criminal. Really, how dare the government and the courts interfere with people's sexual preferences. I'm appalled such a nonsensical law has survived all this while without a successful legal challenge.

Having said that homosexuality is not normal behavior. Its just a medical condition like trans-genders. A genetic misfiring which goes against the laws of natural selection and useless in the advancement of the human gene. So, no thanks to gay-parades.

Incidentally, California is gonna vote on the question of banning gay-marriage next month. A court there had allowed gay-marriages recently. This is a tricky issue. I'm ok with gay-marriage as long as gay couples are denied tax and other family related benefits enjoyed by heterosexual couples.

Anyway, Puff apparently is also a slang for the homosexual male in the UK.

Obama-Lincoln 08!

Many people don't understand why Hillary Clinton is the most hated woman in the United States. Is it that difficult to grasp? On the day history was made, this evil-witch of a woman talks of "winning the popular vote", of how Obama "ran" a wonderful campaign (not "won") and how she will "not be making any decisions tonight (tuesday)".

Anyway coming to Obama, I think he will be president by default. Americans must be incredibly stupid to vote McCain ahead of Obama. But nevertheless Obama has few chinks in his armor. His inability to win big states and near total rejection by the blue-collar voters can potentially surprise him in November.

My advice would be to "stop giving advice" to 40-something working class men. It simply doesn't work. An inspirational speech might get college girls to shriek and old women to cry. But it simply pisses off fat-bald-working men watching TV over a couple of beers.

They don't need reminding how better their lives could have been with a bit of hope and vision. They just need excuses to blame their wretched lives on others. Obama should rather do small talk in cafeterias and town hall meetings to overcome the 'elitist' label that has come stuck on him.

And finally to the Veep selection. Obama would be commiting a major harakiri if he were to choose Hillary. Any man in his position would feel about Hillary just as he would about a big rat in a sewage pipe! So if he still chooses her, it would be a complete sell-out for the sake of power.

I'm actually surprised that not many people are talking about Senator Blanche Lincoln as Obama's running mate. If this is "change, we can believe", why not reinforce it with a young, very accomplished southie-woman? And that too one of the youngest Governors and Senators in US History!

Senator Lincoln is a great orator, a moderate democrat (Obama is considered too liberal, infact marxist!) and a second-term senator. Ofcourse a woman and that too an Arkansan on the ticket could blow Hillary's brains out, but is that such a bad thing?

Dumber than Dubya!

India or rather its media and polity have achieved the impossible. For once, they made Bush sound smarter! Dubya made some boring statement that India and China are putting pressure on Earth's resources and surprise, some nutcases like the Defense minister have managed to get their 15 minutes of fame on the idiot box.

How difficult is it to grasp the fact that a billion people eating more and crucially producing less food, will put pressure on the prices? Really, isn't India, one of the world's most under-performing nations in agriculture? yeah, this year we might have a bumper crop. But what is the threshold for bumper anyway? India, right now has bans on the export of many food products. Obviously it isn't helping the global food prices.

And isn't it also true that India's changing food habits will have its consequences? For starters, Indian children are among the most mal-nourished in the world. We ofcourse want that situation to change and hence will inevitably consume more and diverse crops which India may or may not produce enough itself.

Indians are also abandoning vegetarianism pretty fast. When a billion people take to the habit of regularly eating stuff that high in the food chain, there'll be a crisis. Imagine the amount of food a meat eater consumes every meal, roughly the equivalent of all food that creature consumed in a lifetime! When your food eats my food, we both'll end up with no food at some point. To give an historical perspective, the last time Indians assaulted animal world in this fashion, Hinduism was born! (at the expense of vedic-Brahmanism.)

India is also one of the greatest polluters of the world. (3rd largest, if I'm not too wrong.) But we give the usual BS that Indians per-capita pollute less than the western world and hence will do nothing on the emissions front. The poor Indian whom India has ill-fed, treated brutally in the name of caste and has effectively abandoned in the recent economic upswing, bails us out by sharing our pollution expense. Wow, welcome to Indian socialism!

Jerry Yang is possessed!

I think I should convert to Tantric Buddhism. True, I can support Tibet even more vigorously. But the more pressing reason is, reincarnation seems to be a real thing. Its been a year since Seung-Hui Cho went on a killing spree at Virginia Tech. His evil spirit which possessed Jerry Yang, the founder and current CEO of Yahoo is about to unleash another bloodbath now.

When M$ made the offer, which everyone knows is the inevitable marriage of a young girl with a toothless, chair throwing, bald, old man with money (aka Ballmer), it was expected that many Yahoo developers would jump ship. But little did they expect the suicidal maniac in Jerry Yang to try sinking Yahoo and its employees with it.

I mean, Jerry wants to outsource Search Ads to Google! Come on, will any self-respecting Software Engineer work for a company that outsources its core business? Even if the test idea was to push M$ to raise the offer, how exactly does it work? You admit that your business is dead and ask more price for the carcass, is it?

And then there are other suitors. Imagine that you get a tip-off that a flight to the city of your in-laws is gonna blow up mid air. Will you not be tempted to put your wife on it? I mean, she is happy to get a trip to her parents and you're quite happy to get rid of her. Nice deal, rite? 

Thats exactly what M$, Time Warner and News Corp wanna do. They were looking to dispose off MSN, AOL and MySpace resp and have found a Bodhisattava in Jerry Yang, to relieve them of their suffering. Ofcourse the Chinese (aka Google) will be happy to see all these splittists dead.

The only sane outcome from this mass renunciation would be Yahoo acquiring MSN and MySpace plus some cash in exchange for majority shares to M$ and Murdoch in the combined entity. The company should still be called Yahoo, remain in Sunnyvale and should eventually embrace M$ platforms. 

M$ should divest itself of all internet crap its been building and return to its core businesses (i.e. become another old aunty like IBM, Sun etc). AOL can be bought by Google for some small change or just close shop, since nobody will notice anyway.

On Pulikesis and Mada mallas...

The Circus has returned! What on hell are Tamil Nadu and Karnataka fighting for this time around?

1. Hogenakkal is not part of Tamil Nadu? Dude, its the border. I don't know whether the recently inaugurated project has construction on the Karnataka side. Even if it has, why on hell can't it be on the Karnataka side? The Periyar Dam is exclusively in Kerala and it still serves the irrigation needs of Tamil Nadu. The dumbheads who want to turn Hogenakkal into another Belagawi should take a break.
2. Having said that, its completely ok for both the governments to argue over the project as long it takes. The quantity of Tamil Nadu's utilization of the Kaveri waters is a crucial point of disagreement and if both governments want to argue, wrangle and take to courts, go for it! Thats what the babus are paid for. Spare the people for heaven's sake.
3. If the Karnataka government had indeed agreed to the project in 1998 as claimed by the Tamil Nadu government and are now feigning to have no memory of it, it should be condemned. This utter lack of seriousness and incredulity on the part of Karnataka politicians/babus is sickening. These guys once had the temerity to say to the Supreme Court that its order cannot be implemented in Karnataka!
4. And why is this a Tamil vs Kannadiga issue everytime? Its an issue between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. Even the beneficiaries of this drinking water project include large numbers of Kannada and Telugu speaking people in the districts of Dharmapuri and Krishnagiri. They make such large numbers that Karnataka politicians campaign there more often than their Tamil Nadu counterparts! Where does language come here?
5. Why do we need a Thiruvalluvar statue in Bengaluru of all places? Can you give that bard a rest? Most Tamils are so stupid that they don't even know that he was a Jain philosopher and hence an atheist. But they have changed their calendar to start on his supposed birthday around January 15, 2031 BC. And when I asked some of those idiots to give me a single shred of evidence to prove that he lived even a century on either side of that date, I was attacked! That intelligent man if he had not achieved nirvana would have now been filing court cases against his own statues!
6. Why on hell are theaters screening Tamil movies being attacked in Bengaluru? Saddam Hussein, Raj Kumar, Bihari railway applicants, Kaveri water... why does Bengaluru bristle for every damn issue?
7. And why are the nut cases in the Tamil movie industry adding fuel to the fire? Get a life guys. We, the people of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka do not give a damn about you actors. Stop pretending to have brains all of a sudden.

ps: If you didn't get the title: Pulikesi II, although a brilliant Chalukya ruler, is caricatured as some crazy Tughlag by Tamils. 'Mada malla' means stupid wrestler instead of 'Mamalla' (great wrestler) as Narasimha Pallava who fought the Chalukyas was celebrated in Tamil Nadu.

So near, yet so far!

Benazir Bhutto has been assassinated. Its a sad day for Pakistan, India and the rest of the world. My heart goes out to her children. After several 'happy' years in exile, they didn't deserve to lose their mother in few months of madness in their homeland. I hope the world, especially India stands by Pakistan in this hour of tragedy.

The last I heard of Bhutto was last week in Outlook, where she was talking about her deals with Rajiv Gandhi. A sad irony that she met her assassin in an election rally just like Rajiv did 16 years ago. But talking of elections, wasn't Musharraf the only guy who feared this was coming? The loony liberal media and the pseudo intellectual bloggers who are at Musharraf's throat should get a reality check from this tragedy.

I wish Musharraf had made Bhutto the PM, without trying to humor the visionless liberal media and the chatteratti classes. What was the need to lift the emergency? Why go thru this farcical but extremely dangerous elections when Pakistan's first priority should be the war on its western borders? I wish they had atleast refrained from traditional campaigning and resorted to youtube, tv and the print media to talk to the voters.

The problem with loony liberal classes is that they often fail to recognize leadership. Ideas (democracy, secularism, free speech etc) cannot lead nations. We need men/women made of flesh and blood but with conviction and clarity of thought. When the goals (development, security etc) these leaders have set to work on is clear and desirable, we should offer them some leeway and allow compromises. In our espousal of an idea, we should not promote idiots (Ifthikar, Manmohan, Hillary etc) who float on top of that deluge of support.

People in many instances recognize leadership better than the media. That is the reason why Musharraf, Narendra Modi, Advani, Sarkozy and Putin succeed (or they should). That is also the reason why people don't vote for John Kerry or Ranil Wickramasinghe. And that is also the reason why this country should get rid of Sonia and Manmohan.

Political leadership is not the LCM of all good ideas and morals. Its the GCD of tangible and achievable goals and majority opinions. Musharraf, Bhutto and M K Narayan knew what that GCD was in Pakistan. Unfortunately one of them is now gone.

Covenants - Good, Bad and the Ugly!

Not long ago, President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin made a covenant with the hearts and minds of the people of Russia. And yesterday, he has announced how he is gonna execute that covenant. The newly appointed Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov and Putin are expected to switch places in March. What a wonderful fillip to the Duma to have Putin head the list of the United Russia party!

Although Putin has said that he is against any changes to the Russian constitution, I don't think it'll be a bad idea for Russia to move to the Parliamentary system. I mean abolishing the current executive Presidency. A vast state like Russia does need strong leadership. But a popular Prime Minister is any day better than a President.

The covenant made in a meeting that 'never took place', between Pervez Musharraf and Benazir Bhutto seems to be working now. Lt.Gen. Ashfaq Pervez Kiyani is likely to take over from Musharaff as Army Chief. And the Prime Minister in waiting, Benazir Bhutto is making excellent noises like "if I can't do it myself, I'll let Americans chase the Al-Qaeda rats in Pakistan".

Although I wasn't too sure that Musharraf will shed his chaddi, it doesn't deny me the pleasure of I told you so here and here!

But elsewhere in the Largest DemocraZy of the world, the despicable covenant between the Gowda Kanthan and the BJP seems to be unraveling. I'm not gonna waste space here bitching about Kumarasamy. To borrow a philosophical term for Brahman (one without a second), these Hardanahalli Gowdas are scoundrels without any second opinion.

But is it not the BJP's lust for power, that brought this whole covenant to screw the people of Karnataka? Not long ago, BJP almost clinched the citadel in Assam before withering away. I wonder what fate awaits it in the Kishkinta state now. For starters, they would do well to kick that Yediyurappa out, keep that incompetent Ananth Kumar away in Delhi and turn to the enterprising Sadananad Gowda instead.

WQOY: (WTF Quote of Yesterday)

"Is this a government. Is this the Tamil Nadu government. Is this the DMK government, a strong ally of UPA government? If this is the attitude of the DMK government, the UPA government should not feel shy of dismissing it and imposing President rule", observed the Supreme Court Bench. I wonder when the Judges will start the 'New Justice Party'.

HFY: (Humor From Yesterday)

"Shopowners closed their shops out of fear. We can only ask them to keep their establishments open. Police won’t open a closed hotel and ask its customers whether they want ‘idli’ or ‘sambar.’ That’s not our duty," said Tamil Nadu DGP P Rajendran.

And BTW, Happy Gandhi Jayanthi or rather the 'International Day of Non-Violence'. As if that made any difference, duh?!

Insanity!

Yashwant Sinha: “How is it that a statement by the PM is contradicted by a flunkey of the State Department? We, therefore, demand a thorough discussion on the agreement in Parliament with voting,” Sinha said, referring to the statement made by US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack.

It doesn't look like McCormack made any such contradictory statement. Was the Indian reporter there the real culprit?

George Fernandes: "If it were China, they would have settled it with one bullet in his [Manmohan's] head."

WTF?

K. Parasaran: "They (upper caste) dominated for centuries and now they should suffer," while arguing for reservations in the Supreme Court.

Did he really say that? Or is CNN-IBN at it again?

Manmohan Singh:

"But I have faith on higher force. I believe it was my destiny to be PM. I have the courage of conviction."

Higher force? You mean Italian mafia?

"But all these years, no Indian government had the courage to change our policy towards the US."

What did Vajpayee do then? And they call this guy (Manmohan) humble and praise his honesty?!

"They [BJP] didn’t even believe I would last as the Prime Minister and some leaders even did havans that I should die on a certain day."

Who gave you a PhD dude?

Rajasekhar Reddy: (few weeks back)

"I will expose all your misdeeds in such a way that you will repent having come out of your mother’s womb,” Reddy allegedly told Chandra Babu Naidu [in the Andhra assembly]

????!

Update:: Ronen Sen: It has been approved here (in Washington) by the President, and there (in New Delhi) it’s been approved by the Indian Cabinet. So why do you have all this running around like headless chicken, looking for a comment here or comment there, and these little storms in a tea-cup?

There you go!

Boy oh boy! What a week!

I know there is someone from Delhi who often reads my blog. I just need to check if that person lives at 7 Race Course Road. Well, ok! That was taking it a little too far!

I have simply lost count of the number of times I have derided Manmohan Singh in this space. And for the first time in 3 and 1/2 years, he has risen upto my expectations. Infact, if he is going to tell more people to "do WTF you wanna do", he can even count on my vote in 2009!

The Commies had this coming. For a long time now, actually. If even I can realize how empty their cupboard is, the Congress and BJP managers are no dunces either! The nuclear deal was something dear to Manmohan. Probably his only achievement so far as PM. Only brain-damaged clowns like Karat and Bardhan can mess with him on that.

Even if those nut-cases aren't good at politics, they should atleast read the papers. BJP had all but toasted Manmohan Singh on the deal and was laying the trap for the Left, by using the obvious Hyde Act angle to demand a vote in Parliament. Advani even let the cat out of the bag, when he promised to debate instead of shouting the house down. That was the clearest signal for Manmohan Singh to take on the Left! And he did it in style.

8 fifty partnerships, all 11 scoring in double figures and a romantic 100 for Kumble! What more can we ask? Lose (no win!) a zillion matches, but if you guys can play as a team like this, the countless hours we have wasted on cricket in this life would be worth it! If only that scum-bag had not boarded his plane from Australia two years ago... Sigh!

And more good news on the Indian Cricket League front! Laloo bun gaya gentleman! Anyway, if Dalmiya is the one who is giving it to Pawar and Co (as rumored), that would reduce his bad karma count a bit! But ICL is not flawless. I can't see why people up for national selection in India or elsewhere should play here. It would be ideal to have three leagues. BCCI, ICL for failed cricketers and a college league.

And finally, the Tamil blog world came of age, having its own BlogCamp! There is a buzz in the e-Tamil world. If you are a Tamil reading this, ping me to come on board! I can introduce you to cool people over there. And to roundoff the week in style, I even managed to swim reasonably at the class today!

Reading between the lines ...

Recently I have been telling myself to read more and waste less time online. That mission, as the recent spurt in junk posts indicates, has failed miserably. Apart from Harry Potter and 'The Complete Bible Handbook' by John Bowker, I haven't read anything useful for a while now.

Anyway, in the infinite blog hopping loops that I have been making, I have observed a curious phenomenon. That of, experienced pros being harassed by absolute newbies who don't seem to have a clue about reading newspapers! If you believe whatever you see on print, you should probably not read at all!

So heres an expert (?!) guide to Indian News media. I have compiled a list of sources, my opinion of their journalism and their supposed political affiliations.

Tamasha:

IBNLive - Uneducated, Anti-BJP
NDTV - Liberal, Pro-Left
Cricinfo - Immature, Anti-Ganguly

Dailies:

Indian Express - Center Right, Pro-BJP
Hindustan Times - Liberal, Pro-Congress
Telegraph - Centrist, Pro-Ganguly!
DNAIndia - Liberal, Independent
Hindu - Pseudo-secular, Communist
Times of India - Farcical, Independent
Daily Pioneer - Farcical, BJP Mouthpiece

Pink Papers:

Economic Times - Sensational, Independent
Business Standard - Accurate, Independent

Magazines:

Outlook - Liberal, Pro-Congress
India Today - Center Right, Pro-BJP
Tehelka - Center Left, Independent

The Also rans

Times Now - No Opinion, Independent
Zee News - Nonsense, Doesn't matter

Deccan Chronicle - Sensational, MJ Akbar
Deccan Herald - No Opinion, Don't know
Asian Age - Nonsense, MJ Akbar
New Indian Express - Farcical, TJS George, Gurumurthi
Tribune - Nonsense, Ramachandran
Star of Mysore - Good Editorials, Pro-BJP?
Statesman - Nonsense, Doesn't matter
Central Chronicle - Nonsense, Doesn't matter
Herald (Goa) - Nonsense, Anti-BJP
Mid-day Mumbai - No Opinion, Independent?
News Today (Chennai) - Farcical, RSS Propaganda

Financial Express - Nonsense, Doesn't matter
LiveMint - Good Op-Eds, Don't Know

The Week - Political Gossip, Doesn't matter
FrontLine - Left, Communist Mouthpiece

Here we go again ...

Manmohan Singh will never learn from his mistakes. How else can we explain the new constitutional polemics coming from the Goa Assembly speaker who restrained two MGP workers from voting for not obeying the whip issued by the Congress party!! That was to save the Digambar Kamat led Congress government there.

To his further credit, Pratapsingh Rane played hide and seek with the Congress MLA Victoria, so that he doesn't have to accept her resignation and y'day restrained her from voting because he hasn't accepted the same! WOW! The other crook in the Raj Bhavan S C Jamir apparently wanted to play the hide and seek himself trying to be unavailable when the opposition wanted to meet him.

Even the most naive politician will know that the misadventure by BJP leader Manohar Parrikar to grab power will back-fire because he won't be able to sustain majority himself. But the lunatics running the Congress party want to continue the kind of farce I have commented about here, here, here and here.

I wish to see three things happening here.

1. BJP should approach the Supreme Court to have this mockery of democracy declared as invalid.
2. Congress party should cut the losses by dismissing the Goa government and keeping the assembly in suspended animation if not outright dissolution.
3. Political parties should now seriously think about abolishing the Goa Assembly if not the state itself and merging it with Maharashtra or creating a larger Konkan state.

Kill Sly or Die Hard!

For few days now, I have been resisting peer pressure to watch action masalas like Transformers and Die Hard. A Bruce Willis movie? I ask you! But why do you need them when a zabardust action flick comes on live television? A macho super star defending the whole humanity, a befitting villain who has his own 'mere pappa' flash back, a dizzying array of hot chicks (all covered in glory) and a sardar next door to complete the comedy track. What more could you ask?

The Lal Masjid massacre puts to rest all speculation about the future of Pervez Musharraf. He is here to stay and kick, as I told you before. Come on, you have to give it to him for his stunning counter attack when he was supposedly on the brink. Its now only a matter of time before Benazir Bhutto becomes Prime Minister, Musharraf renews his 'gaddi' & 'chaddi' and the 'Land of the Pure' talks once again of 'entertained moderation' (or whatever they are calling it these days).

For all you know, this could be the moment the world has been waiting for. The biggest PR stunt since the cold war just got vindicated. Go on guys, get your bottoms out of the NYT editorial desk and wash the red mosque of its new bloody coating. Isn't this the utopia you have always wanted? Musharraf, the champion crusader against 'Islamic fascism'.

As any drunk poet will tell you, there is nothing more dangerous than the eye blades of a girl. Even more so when those eyes are looking down on you from a splendid black veil whose other openings wield Kalashnikovs! Have you read Orhan Pamuk's Snow? How I would not kill for a fleeting look from Kadife - the leader of the 'Head Scarf' girls? Better luck next time sweeties!

And finally the Comedy track. Our sardar Manmohan Singh will get all too emotional only for his 'kin' who were killed a quarter century ago or if your doctor sons plan to blow up a foreign airport. Goddamn all you fools in Mumbai. Are you kidding me that you expected justice for 7/11 from this government? And yeah, here's the humor punchline. Not one of our 150 million Muslims has joined the Al-Qaeda.

Nuclear Silk Route!

Sanctions?! bring them on...our 'dear leader' has millions more left to die! The sheer impotence which marks the worldwide reaction to North Korea's nuclear test is sad indeed. For once Bush's warning about North Korea's future (?!!) proliferation sounded as laughable as Manmohan Singh's customary speeches about Pakistani terror! As the world ponders about the clumsy ways to respond, its time to come up with my own conspiracy theory!

I believe the green signal for the Korean test must have come from Beijing and not from the midget who rules N Korea. The timing of the test is a giveaway in itself. Japan was about to have a more assertive prime minister in Shinzo Abe and a South Korean (however stupid he might look) was on the verge of becoming the top UN dog. The timing of the test was perhaps China's way of showing its sworn enemies their rightful place. For the uninitiated, Japan and China are as friendly as India and Pakistan and the Chinese army fought the South Koreans in the Korean War.

Even otherwise, it is safe to assume that the Korean Nuclear technology is an offshoot of the Chinese nuclear proliferation which also fed Pakistan. For decades India has been shouting from the rooftops about the nuclear 'Silk route' that exists between North Korea, China and Pakistan. The world blissfully ignored our warnings and feigned surprise when we justified our nuclear tests by pointing fingers at China and Pakistan. Although its possible that Pakistan shared the nuclear technology with N Korea in exchange for missiles, its almost certainly not the useless centrifuges which A Q Khan has been selling on the streets.

Here its pertinent to understand Pakistan's nuclear success. It would have gone nowhere on the nuclear map without Chinese assistance and that technology has not proliferated outside Pakistan. Do you think Pakistan would have sold a technology which it acquired by 'eating grass for a thousand years' to jokers like Gaddafi? What Khan sold on the market was junk which he himself stole from the Netherlands. Pakistan going nuclear was China's move to check India which was on cloud nine after the Bangla war and Buddha's smile. They have now done the same in the Far east.

Besides A Q Khan's claim to fame in Pakistan is as overrated as that of Abdul Kalam in India. Celebrated columnist Jonathan Power will vouch for the fact that long time Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission Chairman Munir Khan made far more contributions to the 'Islamic Bomb' than A Q Khan. As for Abdul Kalam, his contributions to the SLV3 are indeed praise worthy. But his main role in the last two decades was that of leading India's Integrated Missile Development program which is an unqualified technological disaster! The demand by George Fernandes yesterday for probing Kalam's role in the Barak Missile deal may be ludicurous. But the blame for India purchasing these Barak Missiles instead of using its own Trishul Missiles lies squarely on Kalam's doorstep. Ok, I digress!

Iran's failure to master nuclear technology as yet is further evidence that Pakistan and Korea got it from China. If Pakistan can master it in 20 years, can't the Iranians do so in the 27 years since the revolution? Remember Iranians are not the Arabs whose only known skill is procreation! They are the country of Al Khwarizmi, Omar Khayyam and the legendary persian architects. The reasons for their nuclear struggle are perhaps they don't have Chinese patronage and maybe they didn't get reverse engineering oppurtunites which Indians got in the 60s. Hope the nuclear silk route extends to Persia soon!

Vande Mataram!

Yet another day, yet another blast and so the story goes! How cruelly appropriate that a day after we unnecessarily bickered about the singing of the national song, we were reminded once again in Malegaon of our national capitulation before terror. Apparently the 200 lives lost in Mumbai didn't ruffle any feathers. Now is there any point in launching yet another tirade against the Maharashtrian authorities and the sardar government? Forget it!

Malegaon is not far from Ahmednagar where I was witness to Muharram day riots few summers back. No big news really, only few people died! I wasn't affected in anyway (didn't even get leave since my office was in the suburbs!), but I still wonder why the district authorities blacked out all television channels on the two days that city was under curfew. Funnily police allowed the city cable to air local news and they spread rumors with a gusto! If the point was to prevent rumors, police kind of ensured the people got just that! If it was meant to prevent unlawful assembly, won't the city be more peaceful with people watching 'bakwaas bahu' soaps at home than rioting outside?! Wonder whats the scene like in Malegaon now.

The other day my colleague of Russian origin appreciated that India had leaders from the minority communities occupying the highest political positions in the country. Now I'm not going to tell him that these so called 'leaders' chose to represent a fringe minority of bigots by not singing the national song instead of the millions of largely tolerant and easy going muslims/christians who happily paid tributes to the song on its 100th anniversary. Manmohan Singh has fallen one more step in my eyes.

Sometime back we had a hard time convincing a Mexican friend that not all Indians get malaria and that its possible to get water from sources where buffalos aren't meditating! Guess I will have to hide from her now. My grandma in Chennai and a respected Tamil columnist in Mumbai have been diagnosed with Chikungunya. Although my grandma jokes that it doesn't make much difference since she had pain in the joints anyway, I feel terrible. If even these people aren't safe from such diseases, I guess India has a long way to go on public health.

"You'll not know what has hit you", Indeed!

Musharaff has delivered on his promise of "you'll not know what has hit you!" made to Nawab Bugti, the Baluch tribal leader who was killed by Pakistan Army on Sunday. It remains to be seen whether the Bugti and the Marri tribesmen are going to deliver on Nawab Bugti's promise to Musharaff of "I'll give you a war you'll never forget and send you to the barracks where you belong!".

At the outset, it might look bizarre to the outside world that a former chief minister/governor of a Pakistani province is killed using helicopter gunships more like chasing Al-Qaida rats out of their caves. But if you understand the complex security/sovereignty arrangement in Pakistan, where Musharaff for all practical purposes is only the head of the most powerful militia (aka Pakistan Army!), then its possible to accept Bugti's killing as 'chalta hai!'.

For the uninitiated, Pakistan has always placed the interests of Punjab and to some extent Sindh above those of all other provinces. So its no surprise that NWFP looks more like Afghan/Jehadi territory than a Pakistani province, tribal regions of North and South Waziristhan have only recently seen a Pakistani soldier for the first time ever! and Azad Jammu Kashmir and Northern Areas have remained what they always were, stolen territories! Baluch nationalism has flared up time and again only to be cooled down by Islamabad with ad-hoc agreements. Bugti becoming Baluchistan governor was not very different from Sheikh Abdullah being made Kashmir Chief Minister by India.

I believe, all the gleeful predictions by Asian media of doomsday scenario for Musharaff because of a Baluch backlash may be too optimistic! Musharaff has come out of far more complex situations with flying colors and this assassination of Nawab Bugti may well be a feather in his crown! Come to think of it, several decades from now when Indian prime ministers like Vajpayee and Manmohan Singh would have been long forgotten (even in India), Musharaff may still be remembered in the Marshall Tito, Colonel Nasser and Anwar Sadat league! By his actions this Sunday going against the more popular dialogue approach of the PMLQ government, Musharaff has reminded everyone that he will be a force to reckon with for a long time to come!

India for its part has indicated that the gloves are off in its support for Baluch nationalism and the yearning to see the balkanization of Pakistan! It remains to be seen whether India can take its Baluch involvement to the levels of engagement it had with Ahmed Shah Mazood of the Afghan Northern alliance. However I would be far more happy, if India stirred up something in POK/NA than in Baluchistan!

If India was indeed behind the recent year long flair up in Baluchistan, it was perhaps a tactical mistake. It has provided Musharaff with enough reasons to dodge US criticism of not doing enough against Al-Qaida/Taliban and divert resources (most of which were provided by US) to his macho adventures in Baluchistan. But then since when were we known to be smart on Geopolitics? Ours is an unparalleled history of spectacular screw ups in Kashmir, Northeast, China, Srilanka and more!

Domicile requirement

The Supreme Court has yesterday ruled on the PIL filed by Kuldip Nayyar et al, that Rajya Sabha MPs don't have to be domiciled in the states they represent. I disagree. It's a terrible injustice to the Federal nature of our parliament, if some states are under represented in the upper house simply b'cos parties have to satisfy politicians who are otherwise unelectable from their own states.

Lets take the most visible example, Manmohan Singh who is a RS member from Assam. Will it not be good for Assam (forever struggling to get a voice for itself) to be represented by its own resident than by an outsider even if he were a Prime Minister? It hardly has a few seats in RS and even that is being denied to its residents. Besides it would make sense if Manmohan Singh wants to represent Delhi having lived there for long. But if Congress cannot get him elected from the Delhi Assembly, he has no business sitting in Parliament. Incidentally the only occassion he ever contested an election, South Delhi residents found him unfit to represent them! Besides why did this "self righteous, educated..." god of the media/middleclass fail to turn up to vote last May in Assam?

Ofcourse Manmohan Singh is far better than the scores of other hopeless politicians who represent states about which they know very little and only have a namesake residence/voter registration. Thirunavukarasar represents Madhya Pradesh simply b'cos Jayalalitha disallowed BJP from fielding him in Pudhukottai! For heaven's sake, does he atleast know Hindi? Thanks to the Dravidian parties, Tamilnadu doesn't get these psuedo MPs but other states aren't that lucky.

On the otherhand, we cannot deny any Indian the right to contest from anywhere. So an acceptable middle ground would be to allow a person to contest from a state where he is currently a resident and has voted before (the latest occassion he did so).

Arguing on the same lines, it should be mandatory for a candidate in the Lok Sabha or Assembly election, to be a registered voter in that constituency. This is not going to prevent politicians from changing constituencies whenever they become unpopular in their current ones! But since voter registration closes a few months before the election, we can minimize last minute haggling for party tickets. Obviously the voters don't deserve rank outsiders who come out of the blue weeks before the polling date. Besides political parties owe it to their workers who would prefer local party leaders.

I once voted against the respected Tamil singer Nagoor Haneefa b'cos he was an outsider even though a musician as MLA would have been nice and several Tamil scholars including Kavikko Abdul Rahman campaigned for him. Unfortunatly this domicile requirement would mean that we can no longer enjoy comedies like Sonia Gandhi being chased by Sushma Swaraj and Vijayasanthi on the last day of nominations, to contest against her, wherever Sonia stealthly files her own. Sushma did catch up with her in Bellary, alright! So much for the self declared goddess of sacrifice!!

I have argued before in this column against the reserved constituencies for SC/STs and more importantly against the mother of all stupid reservations - the one for women! What do you call some 3/4th of the residents in scheduled constituencies being denied the right to contest elections? Reverse Untouchability?! And blime, why should males be treated as second class citizens in 33% of the constituencies? Obviously such reservation is good for the marginalized people. But it would make a lot more sense if poltical parties address this by fielding candidates based on these considerations. If I were to contest an election as an independent, I have every damn right to contest from anywhere I live and vote from.