This blog reviews books, politics and international events from a distinct perspective. Book reviews will be interesting to everyone with a lively interest in the world around. I am a trained Historian with a PhD in Medieval History from the University of Hawaii at Manoa.
Monday, May 17, 2010
Naxalite Outrage Again: Why Chidambaram's war against the tribals will fail
The is caught between the Indian security establishment and the Naxalite and with a cranky man like G K Pillai as Home Secretary it is unlikely that the Government will seee any success. I have often remarked in my extensive blogs that sending troops by carriers like trucks and buses is just stupid as the naxalites have mastered the art of using IEDs. The Government should strike at the supply side of the chain and clamp down on the sale of dual use chemicals. Further corruption within the Establishment has resulted in a steady flow of both information and arms and ammunition to the "liberated Zones". I think that Dothi clad nincompoop called Chidambaram should read classics like Mao's works, Sun Szu's Art of War, Machiavelli's the Prince and Clausewitz's On War and he will realise that he just cannot win this war as he does not understand the dynamics of what is going on. I have said earlier that Arundatti Roys's piece in the Outlook should be carefully perused as it contains valuable insight on the tactics of the Naxalite. Instead of blaming the so called intellectuals, the Government of the day should realise that the Indian political establishment does not have the loyalty even of tits own members. I think the BJP keep out of this war by just not commenting one or the other. Every naxalite strike is a coffin to inter the existing political calculus.
In the latest strike the naxalite have exposed the fact that the Government is using civilians as human shields in its war against the tribal
Friday, May 14, 2010
Nitin Gadkar, Lalu Yadava and the World of Dogs
The politicians of this country call India are corrupt and criminal and they think that they have the licence to kill, abuse, pillage, rape, murder and if they have the right "secular" credentials like the Yadava duo or that DP Yadava they escape all accountability for their crimes. Today these to Yadavas are caying foul. Has anyone forgotten what Mulayam Yadava tried to do to Mayawati a few years back or the horrible words uttered by Mrs Bahuguna against Mayawati a few month back. Indian politicians are a disgrace to India and everything decent in the world and therefore deserve no mercy.
The gang of corrupt criminals called politicians will thrive as long as people dop not relise that by voting such people they are in fact commiting a crime against themselves.
I am not saying that NITIN Gadkari has done the right thing but there is a limit to the patience of everyone. When George Fernades was Defence Minister the CongressParty used to hurl abuses in Parliament on the coffin matter. Hon'ble Narendar Modi is being humiliated day in and day out by the likes of pretty face Bhraka Dutt and her tribe. As for me I say that given a choice between dogs and cats and Indian politicians I prefer dogs, cats, monkey, snakes and sundry animals as they are any day more civilised than that khaini stined fodder thief.
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Sunday, May 2, 2010
Telecom Scandal, Dynastic Fascism, and Political Corruption
It is only a matter of time before A Raja the Telecom scamster is shown the door. The 75,000 crore scandal he presided over is directly linked to the DMK party funds.In almost all the recent by-elections the party has spent crores of money and it is quite obvious that some of the money has come from the Telecom scam. A Raja in fact violated the written directive from the Prime Minister's Office which instructed him to keep the "empowered group of ministers" in the loop. It shows that in this Age of coalition politics, the dictates of the PM can be ignored with impunity. It is also possible that the PM's directive was issued to provide a line of defence to the PM, just in case the scandal became too much of a stench. The Congress has perfected the art of political corruption and has trained its 'secular" allies very well in this art. Corruption and Dynastic Fascism are both the great gifts of the Congress to the country.
The only way to rid the nation of corruption is to appoint an audit committee to look into the funding and accounts of all registered political bodies. This is well within the purview of the Election Commission. After all political parties are only unincorporated association in law and it is within the competence of the Election Commission to order an audit into the accounts of all parties. If Hawala money poisons the IPL chalice, why not the political parties. And parties that refuse to comply must be forbidden to compete in the ELECTIONS.
This is a reform well worth attempting.
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Unrestrained Killing in Iraq
The US war effort in Iraq is undermined by the very savagery of its sometimes unrestrained killing. Of course, in a war zone the forces are at liberty to shoot and shoot to kill if need be, but it appears that gratuitous acts of great violence are being carried out without any tactical advantage or objective.
On July 12, 2007 an employees of Reuters, Baghdad,Namir Noor-Eldeem who was all of 22 years old was killed by a deadly burst of 30 millimetre M230 chain guns mounted on AH-64D Apache helicopters which have become the backbone of the US military for decades now. Sometimes called the Black Hawk because of its predatory shilloutte this war machine is etched in American consciousness due to another unfortunate incident in Somalia several years back. Namir Noor and his colleague were killed on the spot even though both of them were neither terrorists nor were they armed. In fact both men took extreme precaution not to send wrong signals as the site of their killing has witnessed sectarian strife. What is shocking is that the US military did not even acknowledge that such an act had taken place and tried to cover up for the error in judgement. It is not any one's case that the pilots were seeking out innocent targets and were getting their kicks by killing innocents. We are saying that the US military in its field operations has given far too much leeway to its soldiers and all damage justified under the label "collateral damage".
This incident would have been forgotten but for a happenstance. The video footage of this particular attack was loaded on to a little known site called Wiki leaks. It is obvious that someone from within the US military establishment has had the courage to leak the footage either to embarrass the military or to assuage the conscience. Either way the damaging video soon became one of the most watched videos even on you-tube where it is presently hosted.
The video has to be watched for one to understand the absolute cold bloodiness of the soldiers in the helicopter. The gunmen in the helicopter open fire on the Small group of unarmed men and kill all of them. Not content at this massacre they wait for the relief van to pull up and in the video one hears a voice with a mid-western accent: Come on, let us shoot.
When the US military was done with its deed 8 men and children lay dead and not one was armed or even remotely associated with insurgency.
This is only to bring home the horror of what is unfolding in Iraq.
Monday, April 19, 2010
Tharoor, Tweets and Twats: A Long Day's Journey into Night
Tharoor broke a few rules of the political game. First, unlike N D Tiwari, Tharoor flaunted his penchant for pretty women. When that Bharka woman from NDTV was inteviewing Tharoor on NDTV a few days back, I thought that Dutt would just sidle up to Tahroor. Such is the force he exudes. We have chief minister of one southern state with more wives than he even cares to remember and his children from different women are fighting for his political legacy even as the old man like King Lear is still technically alive and kicking. No one says anything. The First Prime Minister, Jawarhar Lal Nehru accepted the Partition of India as suggested by Mountbatten because Lady Mountbatten was his lover and we keep that singular fact under the carpet. Tahroor openly associated with a PRETTY WOMAN AND THAT was his first major mistake. He took her to official parties and made it clear to all that she was his love interest. Indians being a hypocritical people do not appreciate an honest relationship. Had Taroor kept Sunanda Pushkar (the pun is unintended) no one would have objected. But he was honest and that was his undoing.
SaSHI Tharoor is a serial offender as far as women are concerned and that is a personality disorder not a crime. The Tiger Woods syndrome affects even successful writers. Tharoor is the author of an outstanding novel, The Great Indian Novel and is still regarded as an outstanding piece of post-colonial literature. His short stories collected in Five Dollar Smile and essays in Book less in Baghdad are well written.
The first rule of Indian politics is that keep your twats under wraps and do not flaunt them. Tharoor paid no heed to that. The second rule of Indian politics is bow and scrape and do not ask questions. Tharoor was tweeting away even on extremely sensitive issues. I have a blog in this site on his "cattle class" remark. I think that the Indian Media too does not know how to deal with a highly educated and accomplished man and was complicit in undermining Tharror.
The most important mistake that Tharoor made was to associate with low brow convicts like the IPL commissioner, Lalith Modi. This convicted drug dealer is not from the same class or status group of Tharoor and Sashi must not have been seen associating with such muck. And he will pay for that.
Sashi Tharoor fell for a woman who for all her looks and glamour did finally show some character. When the sweat equity of 70 crores became an issue she did surrender the equity hoping therby to pull her beau out of the crisis. Sunanda Pushkar husband Menon committed suicide in New Delhi two years back according to the latest Outlook and now see the mess Tharoor has landed in. The moral of the story: Keep your twats strictly out of public glare and scrutiny.
Friday, April 9, 2010
It was such a pleasure meeting this poet
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Dr Srinivas Siras and the Alighar Muslim University
Kapil Sibal came to my University the other day and delivered a splendid convocation address. Though I have little patience for congressmen, I must admid that Kapil Sibal's address was both scholarly and inspiring. I wish he takes time off to see the horrible service conditions of teacher's in Central Universities. Unlike bureaucrats, teachers do not have a CAT and have to approach the civil courts and hence the Universities convert all disputes and grievances into disciplinary cases by misusing the so called autonomy. The murder/suicide of Sr Siras proves my point.
I am shocked at the incident and I pray that his soul finds eternal peace.
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Erich Segal: Poet, Historian, Novelist
I am sure that this scholar with a Ph D in Classics who taught Latin and Greek at Oxford was influenced by the great traditions of European tragedy particularly Sophocles who was in the fragility of human existence the inexorable hand of fortuna.
Some of the lines from this novel like Bob Dylan's "blowin in the wind" have become part of American popular culture.
Erich Segal deserves to be remembered as a great scholar and novelist.
Friday, January 8, 2010
DMK MINISTERS WATCH AS POLICEMAN IS HAKED TO DEATH
Nothing illustrates the degeneration of the political culture and humanity in Tamil Nadu than the callous manner in which two manmamigus (sarcasm intended) the ministers Pannerselvam and Muhammad watched with utter disdain the death of Shri Vettrivellan, a sub-inspector of Police in Tinevelly District who was involved in arranging the security for the ministers. A few minutes before the arrival of the convoy of the manmamigus Shri Vettrivellan had been attacked with country bombs and hacked with avuvals (a local weapon glorified in Tamil Nadu as the Tirupacchi) and as he lay dying the two honourable ministers watched the fun with their dothis folded up and not one of them even bothered to send the dying man to the hospital even though an ambulance was part of the ministerial convoy.
Tinvelly district has become notorious for gang warfare between Maravars and Kallar politicos and thew police are part of the gang warfare as they are used by rival gangs to settle scores. This kind of violent politics has been going on in the region since the late eighteenth century and it is high time factional fighting is checked. Rayalseema area of Andhra Pradesh is another region where such violence has become rampant.
The two ministers must be forced to resign as they acted in a highly irresponsible and criminal manner.
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
K P S Gill is not S P S Rathore: Do not Humiliate a Hero
This is not the case with Ruchika. She was molested and false cases foisted on her younger brother in order to further traumatise and humiliate the family of the victim. Moreover she committed suicide as she was just too young to bear the terrible consequences of the predator S P S Rathore IPS. Anyone suggesting a moral equivalence between K P S Gill and S P S Rathore is trivialising the death of the young child and molestation of a young impressionable child is an altogether different proposition than patting the bottom of a Chief Secretary. Certainly K PS Gill was in the wrong but to somehow suggest that he too is in the same category as that criminal S P S Rathore is altogether misplaced.
K P S Gill ruthlessly hunted the terrorists who has made normal life impossible in the Punjab and has earned the Nation's gratitude. He cannot now be thrown to the wolves just because all the insects are coming out of the woodwork.
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Is there any progress in the Ruchika case
Friday, December 25, 2009
Ruchika Tragedy and the Indian Elite
I was shocked at the brazenness with which S S Rathore IPS swaggers. The arrogance displayed by this criminal is breathtaking. He was responsible for driving a young and budding tennis player, Ruchika, to suicide after he raped her and threatened her family with dire consequences if they persist in prosecuting him for the crime. He subjected the entire family to humiliation and disgrace and this resulted in the young and impressionable girl killing herself. S S Rathore IPS is a police medal awardee and this itself shows that the Government of India honours powerful criminals if they are useful. Stripping him of the medal now will be only of symbolic value as he has already reaped the benefits of the ill bestowed medal. My question is simple: How do such criminals rise to the top and get away with their criminal behaviour, even rape and abettment to suicide. The answer is the politician-criminal officer nexus. Devil Lal's son of Meham fame, Om Prakash Choutala (a well deserved name for a Haryana politician) seems to have covered up for S S Rathore IPS.
I do not think that the common India citizen will ever see the fact that the politicians elected by the common man has all the traits of the common Indian citizen--criminality, venality, prone to moral turpitude and corruption. Therefore there in no point in saying that justice will finally triumphs. Only when we take it upon ourselves to punish wrong doers will the politicians fall in line.
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Madhu Koda is Harassed and Humiliated by the Indian Establishmen's war against the Tribals
It seems Chidambaram has declared war on tribals: in the name of anti naxalite counterinsurgency he wants to eliminate the tribals from their rich forest land and hand over the areas to companies which serve the interests of Karthik and Co, I have always said that unless the people of India decide that the Indian Constitution does not contain any mention of the word Party and throw out the rascals who stand from organised thug gangs called recognised political parties the country has no future.
I am sure that Koda has made money. And so have 99.9% of the MPs. So why discriminate by invoking the law selectively.
Saturday, November 7, 2009
Major Nidal Hasan and the Massacre at Fort Hood
Let me at the very out set condemn in the strongest possible manner the violence against the army men and women at Fort Hood. My point is not to justify the crime but to say why it happened. Major Nidal by all accounts was being radicalised and his peers at Walter Reed had drawn attention to a presentation he made in which he seems to have justified suicide bombings. If this was indeed the case why did the Army not pay any attention. The practice of identity based sensitivity forced the authorities to turn a blind eye to the increasing radicalisation of one of their own. In a conflict between secular law and identity based Faith based customs the Army must enforce the secular law and in the name of minority rights it cannot permit the radicalisation of its members.
Major Nidal seem,s to have been harassed for his Muslim beliefs and humiliated for practicing his religion. By the same token, if an army man or woman is humiliated the authorities concerned must make a full and complete inquiry and set right the fraying human relations. This is absolutely essential in a heterogeneous army.
Finally, it would be a good idea not to deploy Muslims in the Army to serve in Iraq and Afghanistan as they would have to fight fellow Muslims. Secularists may not understand this, but practicing Muslims put faith above politics and the State.
Friday, October 30, 2009
The anti Sikh Holocaust and the Congress Party: 25 years on
I recently read a book published from Harvard University Press called the Black Book of Communism. This book documents in great detail the crimes perpetuated in the name of Communism from the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution to the organised slaughter of Pol Pot and his gang. In fact Communism has killed more than 150 million human beings since the beginning of the 20Th century. Compare this with the mere 13 million of Hitler and his thugs. The biggest crime in India can be laid at the doorstep of the Congress Party and as long as the people of India do not cut the hand that kills them they deserve no mercy.
To day let us take a vow in the name of all that we hold sacred that the criminals the anti-Sikh carnage will not go unpunished and that we will not vote for a party responsible for the largest massacre in Independent India
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Why the politicians are responsible for Naxalite violence
The Naxalite movement that is strong in 20 states is the result of poor governance in which all funds for development are taken by the dominant castes in connivance with the political parties. The naxalite movement gains strength from the yawning divide between the political class and the labouring class. Unfortunately, the naxalite movement instead of surgically striking at the politicians is like any movement that has lost its ideological mooring is becoming increasingly a terrorist movement. According to the Report of the Home Ministry 4500 people have been killed in naxalite violence during the past 4 years. If the naxalites rid India of its politicians no one will complain, but unfortunately the indiscriminate violence unleashed by the naxalites in Chattisghar and Jharkhand make people wonder if there is any ideological essence left in the left movement.
The only way to tackle naxalite violence is to bring down the party based political system with its first past the winning post electoral system and replace it with proportional system of representation with to right of recall. I have no doubt that without thus change the naxalites will ultimately win because the politicians and political parties are very unpopular.
Sunday, May 24, 2009
DMK and its Dynastic problems: Manmohan Singh faces Difficulties in cabinet formation
The Congress which started this charade of Dynastic Politics is in no moral position to cry foul as it is shamelessly playing loyal coutier to Rahul Gandhi and Sonia. It would have been better if the BJP had made dynastic fascism as an electoral issue as the people of India did not struggle for freedom to hand over the nation to the New Mughals of Delhi. The DMK is fully exploiting the moral turpitude of the Congress in order to promote family members to high political positions. The DMK party is also full of servile trash like the Congress, but old hands like T R Baluu are unwilling to hand over their future to the tender mercies of the Karuna family and are putting up a stiff fight and hence the delay in the DMK participation. The DMK tried to put a spin on this by making it appear that it is the Congress which is being unreasonable; in fact the INC is only bending backwards to please the DMK and is willing even to appoint the Spectrum King A Raja and the SethuSamundar Samrat, T R Baalu to cabinet positions. So when the Congress is asked to only bend by the DMK it chooses to crawl.It appears that the struggle for succession has already begun in the DMK. The different factions are only arm twisting their way into a post-Karunanidhi world and the family wants desperately to retain control over the Party as the Party hold all the wealth
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Sri Lanka After Vellupillai Prabhakaran
The LTTE founded by Vellupillai Prabhakaran in 1972 waged a brutal war of extreme violence against the Sri Lankan state. In its pursuit of ethnic cleansing of Northern Sri Lanka it brutally attacked the Buddhist/Sinhala polulation and terrorised the Muslim population to quit the Northen Jaffna Peninsula. The world condemned the ethnic cleansing in Bosnia ans Serbia but it did not bother to condemn what the Tigers did in the name of Tamil pride. The LTTE ruthlessly and brutally killed several key Tamil intellectuals and politicians so that the slot of Tamil leadership could be occupied by Prabhakaran. Throughout the 1980's and 1990's leaders of the PLOTE and EPRLF were systematically eliminated by LTTE assasins. In fact the LTTE pioneered the dubious tactic of suicide bombing long before it became stock in trade of Islamic militancy. The murder of the former president of Sri Lanka, Premadasa, the killing of Rajiv Gandhi and the attempted assassination of Chandhrika Kumaratunga were all carried out by suicide bombers. In addition politicians of every shade of moderate opinion both Tamil and Sinhala were killed by the LTTE. Laxman Kadirgaman, Gamini Dessanayake, Lalith Athulathmudali were just some of the politicians killed on the orders of Prabhakaran.
The LTTE could not have become such a major terrorist organisation without the overt and covert support of the Indian Government. In 1983, when Mrs Indira Gandhi was the Prime Minister of India, the Government of India permitted the setting up of 16 training camps for the LTTE cardres in the southern state of Tamil Nadu. The Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, M G Ramachandran even referred to the LTTE terrorists as tambis, or younger brothers. No wonder then that the LTTE took full advantage of the situation and openly carried weapons even in the streets of Chennai and there have been several instances of LTTE men clashing with their rivals. The famous shootout with Uma Masesvaran who was later killed by the LTTE is still recalled with horror. In 1985 a bomb placed by the LTTE in Chennai airport exploded killing 65 people. In spite of the repeated acts of violence carried out on Indian soil, the Government of India continued to support the LTTE.
In 1991 the LTTE carried out the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi in full public view using a human bomb, Dhanu. The LTTE justified the assassination of the former Prime Minister on the ground that he had sent the Indian Peace Keeping Force to Jaffna in order to implement the Indo-Sri Lankan accord. If this accord which formed the basis of the 17th amendment to the Sri Lakan Constitution had been implemented the Tamil problem would have been solved as the Sinhalese for the first time agreed to the devolution of powers to the Tamil provinces of the North and the East. The LTTE did not want peace and set about killing Indian soldiers and more than 2,500 Indian soldiers lost their lives in that costly misadventure. Alienating India was a costly mistake as the Sri Lankan government quickly converted the disquiet that India felt into indifference to what was happening in Sri Lanka.
The defeat of the LTTE makes the job of the Sri Linkman government all the more difficult as it must now work very hard to win the hearts and minds of the Tamil population. The President has made a noble beginning by saying that all Sri Lankans will be treated with dignity and equality in an inclusive state. The death of Prabhakaran has opened up a window of opportunity in Sri Lanka and the Government must act.
The last few days the saw widespread suffering in the war dfront as the LTTE held the civillian population as a human shield. Rajapakshe went ahead with his task of crushing the LTTE and in so doing the cost in human terms was huge and so a good beginning has to be made to win over the Tamil population and the distinct lack of triumphalism in Rajapakshe's speech in Parliament today is a sign of statemenship
Monday, May 4, 2009
The Dravidian Parties and the Sri lanka Jaffna Tamil Crisis
Saturday, April 11, 2009
Lalu Prasad Yadava and his Foul Toungued Obsenities
It is really strange that Shri Varun Gandhi, the son of Hon'ble Meneka Gandhi is being treated in such a shabbyn manner. Agreed that his comments that were widely attributed to him do not deserve any sympathy and bespeak of a mind set is more attuned to the rhetoric of the Congress Party than the BJP, the fact remains that his father the late Sanjay Gandhi was the first to introduce the kind of coarse language that has now become the stock-in-trade of that national disgrace called the Indian National Congress. I do not want the sins of the father to fall upon the son, but facts are sacrosanct and hence I am constrained to state this.Having said that it is the Congress that has brought about the absolute degradation of the political system by entrenching the filth of dynastic politics the BJP is forced to react and hence the relevance of Shri Varun Gandhi to the BJP. By effecticvely using the coarse language of Shri Varun Gandhi as a foil the BJP has dented the image of the Congress. Nothing works better than using one royal price against the pretender in chief, Rahul Gandhi.Booking Shri Varun Gandhi under the NSA is totally a bad move and it will generate a sympathy wave for the candidate and, I am afraid will give tonnes of legitimacy to the ideas of Shri Varun Gandhi. It is unacceptable that criminals like D P Yadav, Sahabuddin, Arun Gawli and scores more are able to contest freely while Shri Varun Gandhi sits in jain. I think Mayawati is playing into the BJP hans by doing this and I suspect, that the top brass of the BJP is not unhappy as it would get the sympathy vote. Is there a secret alliance with the BSP over the Varun Gandhi issue.The same arument over Sanjay Dutt. This man is not half as dangerous as Mulayam Singh Yadav and the dothi clad criminas in the Ydava political parties of the cow belt. But an example is made of him as he is easy pickings.I think the Congress and its brand of politics needs to be consigned to the landfill if Indian democracy had to survive.