Around this time, 25 years back, when I was a mere toddler, a big tree fell in this country. The then Prime Minister, Ms. Indira Gandhi was assassinated by two of her own security personnel. This brought about mass unrest in the capital city of New Delhi. Thousands of Sikhs were massacred in what was the largest genocide in modern day India.
Rajiv Gandhi, the 'heir' to the throne [figuratively] and the next Prime Minister had the following words to say at a Boat Club rally, "Some riots took place in the country following the murder of Indiraji. We know the people were very angry and for a few days it seemed that India had been shaken. But, when a mighty tree falls, it is only natural that the earth around it does shake a little."
A mighty tree did fall. Unfortunately, the subsequent tremors was far more devastating than a little shake, scarring Indian minds forever!
Showing posts with label politics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label politics. Show all posts
Sunday, November 01, 2009
Monday, June 29, 2009
Link Politics
So, its time to unveil an ambitious project... one that connects Bandra in the Western suburbs to Worli in the city. It is the Bandra Worli Sea Link. Great job with the conceptualization, engineering and execution [it was late, will ignore that for now].
Source:Bandra Worli Sealink Blog
So while it has been ready, we have been waiting for a while to inaugrate it. Do you wonder why? It is simple. The need for a VVIP to inaugrate it so that the common people can start using it. So, where do the authorities go looking?
First Choice [Obviously]: Ms. Sonia Gandhi, Congress Working Committee President
Second Choice [Reluctantly]: Dr. Manmohan Singh, Hon. Prime Minister of India
Third Choice [Well, we need 'someone' important]: Ms. Pratibha Patil, Hon. President of India
Such is the mockery of the Executive positions of the Republic of India. Its a pity indeed. Yes, it is upto the government to decide. Nevertheless, no person is greater than the Constitutional heads of the Country.
Source:Bandra Worli Sealink BlogSo while it has been ready, we have been waiting for a while to inaugrate it. Do you wonder why? It is simple. The need for a VVIP to inaugrate it so that the common people can start using it. So, where do the authorities go looking?
First Choice [Obviously]: Ms. Sonia Gandhi, Congress Working Committee President
Second Choice [Reluctantly]: Dr. Manmohan Singh, Hon. Prime Minister of India
Third Choice [Well, we need 'someone' important]: Ms. Pratibha Patil, Hon. President of India
Such is the mockery of the Executive positions of the Republic of India. Its a pity indeed. Yes, it is upto the government to decide. Nevertheless, no person is greater than the Constitutional heads of the Country.
Tuesday, June 09, 2009
Distorting history
Disclaimer: I have moderate political views. Right of centre rather than left of centre. I support the BJP for their policies. I do not agree with some of their divisive political stunts. The reason I do not support the other party: the Congress, is because they merely hide behind the garb of a 'holier than thou' mask.
The BJP and its HRD minister, Murli Manohar Joshi was chided by one and all [rightly so] for attempting to distort history. A point often raised by BJP baiters. Now, the 'can do no wrong' Congress is doing just that. As a kid, we learnt about Dadoji Konddeo, the mentor and guru of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, the greatest Maratha ruler. The Congress [and NCP] government has now 'changed history' bowing to the demands of casteist organizations, long considered 'vote banks' of these political organizations. An article on this can be read here.
For all those espousing the credentials of the Indian National Congress, I am sorry, but this is a bad slap on your face.
The BJP and its HRD minister, Murli Manohar Joshi was chided by one and all [rightly so] for attempting to distort history. A point often raised by BJP baiters. Now, the 'can do no wrong' Congress is doing just that. As a kid, we learnt about Dadoji Konddeo, the mentor and guru of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, the greatest Maratha ruler. The Congress [and NCP] government has now 'changed history' bowing to the demands of casteist organizations, long considered 'vote banks' of these political organizations. An article on this can be read here.
For all those espousing the credentials of the Indian National Congress, I am sorry, but this is a bad slap on your face.
Monday, March 23, 2009
Shame on you Sonia Aunty
They dressed up our two most famous Slumdog children in their Oscar clothes to go to Delhi last week to see the Queen. Little Azharuddin Mohammed wore his American tuxedo and Rubina Ali a black gown for their meeting with the Rajmata of India. While they waited in the sun outside 10 Janpath they entertained the media circus that trailed them by singing ‘Jai Ho’ and telling them what they would talk to ‘Sonia Aunty’ and ‘Rahul Uncle’ about. It was a sickening celebration of something that must never be celebrated—India’s grinding, hopeless, shameful poverty.
Its ugliest face has been on display in The New York Times this past week in the form of a slide show of starving Indian babies who look as if they have been through famine, war and pestilence. In fact they are just products of normal peacetime ‘shining’ India. The story that accompanies the pictures reminds us that two-thirds of India’s children are malnourished by the age of two, that 8 million are visibly starving and 60 million more manifest malnourishment in their inability to grow normally. My only objection to Slumdog Millionaire is that it depicts poverty as something that can be joyously overcome. It cannot and living with it is about the most horrible thing in the world. The children who acted in the film have returned to their hovels in Mumbai and admit that they can no longer deal with the horror of being real life slumdogs.
India’s real life billionaires love to boast in the forums of the world about India being a ‘young country’. Half of India’s population is younger than 25, they like to say, so there is no question that the 21st century will be India’s century because in an ageing world we can provide the human capital to keep the wheels turning. Really? With half of India’s children suffering from various degrees of malnourishment is this possible? Malnourishment does not just stunt the body, it stunts the brain. How many mentally stunted children do we know who grow up to become employable adults?
What makes India’s poverty such a disgraceful, dark thing is that it would not exist if the poor had not been the Congress Party’s most reliable vote bank. Indira Gandhi used this vote bank to its fullest in the ‘Gharibi Hatao’ election with that most famous of her campaign slogans. ‘Woh kehtey hain Indira hatao, main kehti hoon gharibi hatao’. The poor remained poor after she won and the vote bank remained intact until copycat Congress leaders like Mulayam Singh and Laloo Yadav lured the Muslims away and Mayawati took away the Dalits. More than 90 percent of the poor in India are either low of caste or Muslim.
They would not be poor if the crores and crores of rupees spent on poverty alleviation programmes had not been wasted on unwieldy, leaky efforts like Sonia Aunty’s favourite NREGA scheme. The National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme serves mostly to keep poor people in poverty for the rest of their lives but because it has the blessings of Sonia Gandhi it has now been spread across the country. If the money spent on it had been invested instead in an Akshaya Patra type midday meal scheme there would be no starving children in India today and our slumdogs would go willingly to school to eat that one hot meal a day. In Karnataka where Akshay Patra began studies show that school attendance went up to nearly a hundred percent and school performance improved dramatically. So if it is so easy why does nobody do it? Well, in the opinion of your humble columnist it is because when the Bharatiya Janata Party had its brief moment of ruling India it chose not to redefine governance but only to enjoy the thrills of power. If the Government of Atal Behari Vajpayee had changed only the functioning of the ministries that deal with the social sector India may really have ended up ‘shining’.
India can never shine or become an economic superpower as long as the majority of Indian children remain malnourished, illiterate and living in urban slums or villages that are worse than slums. Hollywood can be forgiven for celebrating our slumdog children and fawning over them as they enjoyed their fifteen minutes of fame on the red carpet. It is much harder to forgive our own political leaders for seeking to exploit the desperate, sickening poverty that these children have returned to. Shame on you Sonia Aunty. For this lack of basic compassion if for no other reason you deserve to lose the elections. Our problem is that on our bleak political landscape it is hard to detect one person or political party that deserves to win.
- Tavleen Singh
Source: This article appeared in the Indian Express and can be found here
Its ugliest face has been on display in The New York Times this past week in the form of a slide show of starving Indian babies who look as if they have been through famine, war and pestilence. In fact they are just products of normal peacetime ‘shining’ India. The story that accompanies the pictures reminds us that two-thirds of India’s children are malnourished by the age of two, that 8 million are visibly starving and 60 million more manifest malnourishment in their inability to grow normally. My only objection to Slumdog Millionaire is that it depicts poverty as something that can be joyously overcome. It cannot and living with it is about the most horrible thing in the world. The children who acted in the film have returned to their hovels in Mumbai and admit that they can no longer deal with the horror of being real life slumdogs.
India’s real life billionaires love to boast in the forums of the world about India being a ‘young country’. Half of India’s population is younger than 25, they like to say, so there is no question that the 21st century will be India’s century because in an ageing world we can provide the human capital to keep the wheels turning. Really? With half of India’s children suffering from various degrees of malnourishment is this possible? Malnourishment does not just stunt the body, it stunts the brain. How many mentally stunted children do we know who grow up to become employable adults?
What makes India’s poverty such a disgraceful, dark thing is that it would not exist if the poor had not been the Congress Party’s most reliable vote bank. Indira Gandhi used this vote bank to its fullest in the ‘Gharibi Hatao’ election with that most famous of her campaign slogans. ‘Woh kehtey hain Indira hatao, main kehti hoon gharibi hatao’. The poor remained poor after she won and the vote bank remained intact until copycat Congress leaders like Mulayam Singh and Laloo Yadav lured the Muslims away and Mayawati took away the Dalits. More than 90 percent of the poor in India are either low of caste or Muslim.
They would not be poor if the crores and crores of rupees spent on poverty alleviation programmes had not been wasted on unwieldy, leaky efforts like Sonia Aunty’s favourite NREGA scheme. The National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme serves mostly to keep poor people in poverty for the rest of their lives but because it has the blessings of Sonia Gandhi it has now been spread across the country. If the money spent on it had been invested instead in an Akshaya Patra type midday meal scheme there would be no starving children in India today and our slumdogs would go willingly to school to eat that one hot meal a day. In Karnataka where Akshay Patra began studies show that school attendance went up to nearly a hundred percent and school performance improved dramatically. So if it is so easy why does nobody do it? Well, in the opinion of your humble columnist it is because when the Bharatiya Janata Party had its brief moment of ruling India it chose not to redefine governance but only to enjoy the thrills of power. If the Government of Atal Behari Vajpayee had changed only the functioning of the ministries that deal with the social sector India may really have ended up ‘shining’.
India can never shine or become an economic superpower as long as the majority of Indian children remain malnourished, illiterate and living in urban slums or villages that are worse than slums. Hollywood can be forgiven for celebrating our slumdog children and fawning over them as they enjoyed their fifteen minutes of fame on the red carpet. It is much harder to forgive our own political leaders for seeking to exploit the desperate, sickening poverty that these children have returned to. Shame on you Sonia Aunty. For this lack of basic compassion if for no other reason you deserve to lose the elections. Our problem is that on our bleak political landscape it is hard to detect one person or political party that deserves to win.
- Tavleen Singh
Source: This article appeared in the Indian Express and can be found here
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Us Indians will all cry
The UPA is in disarray
The allies are parting away
The Congress has lost the plot
All set to give the treasury spot
Manmohan Singh, have you no spine
Your command is Madam's whine
Rahul Gandhi, what is the big deal
A nobody, without the Gandhi seal
The NDA has problems of its own
Jaitley and Rajnath fight for the bone
Discipline gives way to whining
A bleak future for India Shining
In the name of secularism
The NDA becomes the untouchable
With no other alternative
The future becomes unwatchable
The future seems in a quandary
As Third Front, the goons get together
Nothing in common between them
Brothers from a different mother
Deve Gowda, could it possibly be?
Or Mayawati as the Queen Bee
I foresee a botched up marriage
The country with a sad miscarriage
It is this scary thought
That makes me want to say
BJP and Congress, do something
Keep Mayawati at bay
She will shoot the bird down
From up high in the clear blue sky
The world will laugh
While us Indians will, all cry
-Max
The allies are parting away
The Congress has lost the plot
All set to give the treasury spot
Manmohan Singh, have you no spine
Your command is Madam's whine
Rahul Gandhi, what is the big deal
A nobody, without the Gandhi seal
The NDA has problems of its own
Jaitley and Rajnath fight for the bone
Discipline gives way to whining
A bleak future for India Shining
In the name of secularism
The NDA becomes the untouchable
With no other alternative
The future becomes unwatchable
The future seems in a quandary
As Third Front, the goons get together
Nothing in common between them
Brothers from a different mother
Deve Gowda, could it possibly be?
Or Mayawati as the Queen Bee
I foresee a botched up marriage
The country with a sad miscarriage
It is this scary thought
That makes me want to say
BJP and Congress, do something
Keep Mayawati at bay
She will shoot the bird down
From up high in the clear blue sky
The world will laugh
While us Indians will, all cry
-Max
Friday, November 14, 2008
Halloween Humor
Interesting take on the policies of the Democrats, espoused by the President-Elect Barack Obama.
Picture Courtesy: Greg Mankiw. The cartoonist is unknown
An unfortunate soothsayer's world today presented by this cartoon where the person who predicts ill in the market , Prof. Nouriel Roubini is called Dr. Doom for his prophecies.
Picture Courtesy: Greg Mankiw. The cartoonist is unknown
Picture Courtesy: Greg Mankiw. The cartoonist is unknownAn unfortunate soothsayer's world today presented by this cartoon where the person who predicts ill in the market , Prof. Nouriel Roubini is called Dr. Doom for his prophecies.
Picture Courtesy: Greg Mankiw. The cartoonist is unknown
Fresh off the boat
Elections are done, dreams have come true. The unlikeliest candidate is now the President of the United States. A rather nobody, a wonderful orator and a leader who inspires. Nevertheless, little to no experience under the belt.
As I watched the below video, only one thing came to mind. What if this is Barack Obama? What would happen to the world?
Video Courtesy: Yes Prime-minister and BBC through www.youtube.com
This reminds me of the word that defines newbies to the US: Fresh off the boat. Not really sure what has to be done and not entirely comfortable and fitting into the situation at hand.
For the love of god and the future of the United States and that of the world, I hope that this is what it is: British humor.
As I watched the below video, only one thing came to mind. What if this is Barack Obama? What would happen to the world?
Video Courtesy: Yes Prime-minister and BBC through www.youtube.com
This reminds me of the word that defines newbies to the US: Fresh off the boat. Not really sure what has to be done and not entirely comfortable and fitting into the situation at hand.
For the love of god and the future of the United States and that of the world, I hope that this is what it is: British humor.
Wednesday, November 05, 2008
Reality Check
This is the commentary from an Obama supporter. I dont know if she chooses to publish any thing on this topic or not, but I think this is a valid pointer that needs mention. Entire text in verbatim by Blah.
UPDATE: She has posted it on her blog here.
---
Here is the thing about this whole Obama victory... the enthusiasm has already died for me! I fear that people believe that electing him will produce a magical cure for all their problems... I hope they believe him when he reminds them that the ardous journey has just begun. As a non-american, I applaud that they finally got the courage to pick an African-American man (still, not a woman) to lead them. But as a non-American, I also hope he will not overlook the other smaller countries, where he has to play the role of the 'Big Brother'. I hope he puts peace and trust before war and suspicion. I hope he urges the people to not forget yesterday's big story of the violence in Congo DR. I hope he reminds tomorrow morning that the news channels needn't profile his kids' new dog, his wife's dress tonight, his aunt's immigration status... but look at those bigger problems that will not disappear overnight.
Mr. Obama ...a whole world looks on to you for change, not just USA.
---
Max comments: For the sake of the world and the USA, I hope that he delivers.
UPDATE: She has posted it on her blog here.
---
Here is the thing about this whole Obama victory... the enthusiasm has already died for me! I fear that people believe that electing him will produce a magical cure for all their problems... I hope they believe him when he reminds them that the ardous journey has just begun. As a non-american, I applaud that they finally got the courage to pick an African-American man (still, not a woman) to lead them. But as a non-American, I also hope he will not overlook the other smaller countries, where he has to play the role of the 'Big Brother'. I hope he puts peace and trust before war and suspicion. I hope he urges the people to not forget yesterday's big story of the violence in Congo DR. I hope he reminds tomorrow morning that the news channels needn't profile his kids' new dog, his wife's dress tonight, his aunt's immigration status... but look at those bigger problems that will not disappear overnight.
Mr. Obama ...a whole world looks on to you for change, not just USA.
---
Max comments: For the sake of the world and the USA, I hope that he delivers.
I have a dream
Picture Courtesy: www.wikipedia.orgMartin Luther King Jr. once said very famously:
'I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.'. He worked for the rights of the Black people of the United States of America and probably the world.
Even he would probably not have dreamt that one day, a black person would rise to become the President of the United States. Today, with the election of Barack Obama as the next President, the obvious and yet unlikely has been achieved.
Picture Courtesy: TIME magazine archivesKudos to Obama for having dreamt this day and working towards it. Kudos to the American public for having helped him realize this dream.
I will probably never forget the incident that occurred this evening as the news of Barack Obama winning trickled in. After having watched most of the results at Murphy and Gonsalez near NYU, we were walking towards the PATH station to get back home. Apparently, in between our exit and this moment, Barack Obama had won enough seats to be declared as the winner. People were rejoicing in their homes, balconies and in the streets.
An African American person approached us as we were waiting at the corner of 9th and 5th. He exclaimed "Do you know what color is Barack Obama?". We didn't know what to say and how to react, having been caught off-guard. Before we would react, he provided the obvious answer "BLACK!". He continued "A Black person is now the President of the United States".
As he walked into the night, happy with the outcome, I realized how much this victory meant for the African American community of this country. I realized how much this country had progressed since the times of MLK Jr.
While time alone will tell whether Obama is a good president or not, one thing is for certain: Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream has finally come true.
Parting Notes
#1 - I am a Republican.
#2 - I cannot vote.
#3 - I do not matter.
#4 - I hope that things do turn out well.
#5 - God Bless America
#6 - Jai Maharashtra!
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Burning Down The House
A video on what caused the US economic crisis. It seems like a John McCain propaganda machine, but one cannot run away from the hard economic facts. It is a long video, but it is well researched and documented. Poor music choice and a bit of political rhetoric in the end as well.
Video courtesy: youtube.com
Video courtesy: youtube.com
Obama's Tax Policies
This is just one of the reasons that people should NOT vote for Barack Obama...
Picture Courtesy: BradFitzpatrick.com
Picture Courtesy: BradFitzpatrick.com
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