varnam

Let's say someone hates you so much and goes around telling bad things about you. Then he calls a bunch of people and they walk around town raising slogans against you. But in the evening that person wants to come to your home for dinner. This is what happened to Maulana Kalbe Sadiq, a senior Shia cleric and vice-president of the All India Muslim Personnel Law Board who was deported from Chicago on a law applied to people who are terrorists. But anything happening to a non-Hindu is sacrilage in India and immediately the secular folks are angry.

Given the US�??s current preoccupations in the arc of crisis, my submission is that the denial of entry to Kalbe Sadiq is, from America�??s point of view, more consequential than the withdrawal of visa to Narendra Modi. Since iftars at the White House and multi-billion dollar PR efforts, including brand new Arabic channels, are designed to contain anger at unthinking US behaviour in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere, insensitivity and carelessness with such respected and harmless individuals as Maulana Kalbe Sadiq nullifies whatever effort is made at damage control. In crude, monetary terms, millions of dollars worth of PR has been wasted with this one avoidable insult. [The maulana and US intelligence]

Saeed Naqvi thinks that all the millions of dollars that US has spent has been wasted with this one deportation. The sad part is that no one apart from him thinks so. There was no crying in the Arab media about this event. Did anyone, the Saudi Royals, the high priests of Islamic world, anyone raise a concern about this ? As far as they were concerned, it was a non-event.

The next argument he puts forth is that Maulana is a soft spoken person. So is Osama bin Laden. I have never seen him get angry on videos, even when he was directing the destruction of America. I am not saying both of them are the same type, but what is the point here ? Soft-spoken people should be given visas ? If Modi is a soft spoken person will Naqvi lament at his visa denial ?

Naqvi is desparately trying to find some adjectives to attach to the Maulana. What next ? He has a beard, and so should be let in ?

Now in this whole article, nowhere does Naqvi mention that the Maulana has been organizing anti-American rallies. I guess that is immaterial.

And since he defended the deported Maulana, Naqvi must have climbed up a few rungs in the secular food chain.

While Sandeep has called it quits, varnam will still continue. There are many books to review, and many secularists to bash.

The Acorn too will continue.

One of my favourite books is The Lexus and the Olive Tree, which was a great introduction to the fundamentals of Globalization. After that I read two of Friedman's books, Longitudes and Attitudes : The World in the Age of Terrorism and From Beirut to Jerusalem both excellent books. Now he has a new book, The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century.

The reviewer in WaPo writes

Friedman also does not have a compelling rebuttal for Harvard's Michael Sandel, who calls Flat World's new horizontal collaboration "just a nice name for the ability to hire cheap labor in India." For instance, Indian techies had the manpower and ambition to do the "huge, tedious job" of fixing the West's Y2K computer bug, giving India a surge of IT business that Friedman calls "a second Indian Independence Day." But India's Y2K windfall could be read just as easily as a sign of dependence, of reliance on tasks that American workers no longer want. Friedman rightly notes that "low-wage, low-prestige jobs in America . . . become high-wage, high-prestige jobs" when outsourced to India. But in an era where, as Friedman puts it, both pride and humiliation get served up to you via fiber-optic cable, it's not at all clear we'll like the long-term geopolitical consequences of having emerging powers reliant on scraps from the American economic table.

While The World Is Flat is not a classic like From Beirut to Jerusalem, it is still an enthralling read. To his great credit, Friedman embraces much of his flat world's complexity, and his reporting brings to vibrant life some beguiling characters and trends. If his book is marred by an exasperating reliance on the first person and a surplus of catch phrases (" 'Friedman,' I said to myself, looking at this scene, 'you are so twentieth-century. . . . You are so Globalization 2.0' "), it is also more lively, provocative and sophisticated than the overwhelming bulk of foreign policy commentary these days. We've no real idea how the 21st century's history will unfold, but this terrifically stimulating book will certainly inspire readers to start thinking it all through. �?� [The Great Leveling]

The Economist has scathing review

This kind of imprecision�??less kind readers might even use the word �??sloppiness�?��??permeates Mr Friedman's book. It begins with an account of Christopher Columbus, who sets out to find India only to run into the Americas. Mr Friedman claims that this proved Columbus's thesis that the world is round. It did nothing of the kind. Proof that the world is round came only in 1522, when the sole surviving ship from Ferdinand Magellan's little fleet returned to Spain.

Undaunted by this fact, Mr Friedman portrays himself as a modern-day Columbus. Like the Italian sailor, he also makes a startling discovery�??this time on a trip to India�??though it turns out to be just the opposite of Columbus's. An entrepreneur in Bangalore tells him that �??the playing field is being levelled�?� between competitors there and in America by communications technology. The phrase haunts Mr Friedman. He chews it over, and over, and over. And then it comes to him: �??My God, he's telling me the world is flat!�?�

Of course, the entrepreneur, even by Mr Friedman's own account, said nothing of the kind. But Mr Friedman has discovered his metaphor for globalisation, and now nothing will stop him. He shows his readers no mercy, proceeding to flog this inaccurate and empty image to death over hundreds of pages. [Confusing Columbus (subscription required)]

I can see the Economist's point of view as Friedman is big on metaphors and theories like "no two nations having McDonald's have gone to war". But that apart, what is fascinating in his books is the amount of travel he does and the types of people he meets. He is not an armchair quarterback and his theories come from interacting with newsmakers and ordinary folks all around the world.

This is one book I have added to my list of books to be read.

The most repeated story about Kashmir joining India is that, the Maharajah of Kashmir was a Hindu and he joined India without taking into cosideration the wishes of the Muslim majority population. Aravind Lavakare rebuts this with the following sequence of events that happened after the accession deed was signed

Even after its accession to the Indian Dominion, J&K's internal administration was governed, not by a diktat of New Delhi, but by the Jammu and Kashmir Constitution Act, 1939. It was under this Act that Maharaja Hari Singh appointed his former adversary, Sheikh Abdullah, as the emergency administrator for the state. The appointment was a victory for the people who simply loved Abdullah. He began giving them a large share in the administration of the state's affairs.

Soon enough, the people demanded that the 'emergency administration' be changed into a 'responsible government.' Compelled by the public, Hari Singh issued a proclamation on March 5, 1948 announcing the formation of an interim government with Abdullah as the prime minister aided by such other ministers as he desired to constitute a cabinet. This arrangement, said the proclamation, was pending the framing of a fully democratic Constitution by a National Assembly based on adult suffrage.

In June 1949, Yuvraj Karan Singh, who had ascended the throne after his father's abdication in that very month, nominated four representatives to the Indian Constituent Assembly for deliberating on the framing of the Constitution of India. These four were the choice, not of the Yuvraj, but of Abdullah's council of ministers. These J&K representatives made it abundantly clear to the Indian Constituent Assembly that their state's association with India would be based only on the terms of the Instrument of Association, that the state was not committed to the acceptance of the Indian Constitution and that it would like to have its own Constitution.

On May 1, 1951, Yuvraj Karan Singh issued a proclamation declaring the convening of a State Constituent Assembly, consisting of representatives of the people on the basis of adult franchise, for framing a Constitution for the state of Jammu and Kashmir. For the purpose of elections to the proposed Constituent Assembly, the state was to be divided into territorial constituencies each with a population of 40,000 or thereabouts.

Elections to the Constituent Assembly were completed by August that year with the idolised Abdullah's National Conference Party simply sweeping the polls. Addressing its first meeting held on October 31 that year, Sheikh Abdullah declared that the assembly's objectives and functions included, inter alia, a reasoned conclusion regarding accession and the future of the state. He enumerated three alternatives: accession to India, accession to Pakistan and complete independence.

The 'Drafting Committee' of the above assembly presented its report on February 12, 1954. Its report, adopted on February 15, 1954, embodied the ratification of the state's accession to India, with 64 of the assembly's strength of 75 voting unanimously while 11 members were absent.

The State Constituent Assembly enacted, on November 17, 1956, a Constitution that is, today, the Constitution of Jammu & Kashmir. It has 158 Sections. Section 3 therein says, 'The State of Jammu and Kashmir is and shall be an integral part of the Union of India.' Section 147 in it prohibits any bill to amend Section 3 from being introduced or moved in either House of the State Legislature. [Catch up on history, Mr Aziz]

Even as early as 1951 elections were held in Kashmir and it was the elected Govt. that ratified the state's accession to India. Abullah was a popular figure and genuinely had the support of the people and it was the people's decision that they join the Indian Union.

One of the often raised slogans by Pakistanis regarding Kashmir is that they are living under occupation. This gives you an impression that they are living like slaves with no freedom for anything. Indian Kashmiris have the freedom to participate in elections and Patrix has a post which points out that Indian Kashmiris have more freedom that the entire population of Pakistan.

Burrial urns which were 2800 years old were discovered in Adichanallur in Tamil Nadu last year. These urns contained human bones and were decorated with a series of motifs. A three-tier burrial system was also discovered in which earlier generations were burried in urns at 10 ft depth and recent ones above them. Besides the motifs, the urns also had inscriptions based on Tamil-Brahmi.

Now the Archaeological Survey of India has located the habitational site of these people who were burried in urns.

Two things are confirmed, he said. First, the settlement was inside a fortified town. "The fortification wall has been traced. There is a regular alignment wall." Second, the potters' quarters have been found inside the fortification wall. Discovery of three potter's kilns with ash, charcoal and broken pots showed wet pots/urns were baked with fire. Artefacts, including an iron knife, carnelian beads, terracotta beads, couex beads, bone implements and potsherds with graffiti have also come to light.

According to Mr. Satyamurthy, the urn-burial site could be dated "to about 1,000 B.C," that is 3,000 years ago. "Contemporary to that, we have got the habitational site."

The discovery of a fortification wall, that is a rampart, and three potter's kilns confirmed that it was a habitational site. The fortification wall is packed inside with mud.

On the outside, it is packed with stones in an irregular manner.

The kilns have revealed holes to hold posts, thick coating of ash from burnt timber, "a lot of charcoal" and broken pots.

A smith's shop was located in another trench and there were touchstones to make beads. In one place, about 100 beads made of couex (an organic material) were discovered for the first time.

The floors found in trenches were made of hard reddish clay and coated with cow dung. Ms. Gayathri said the fortification wall separated the industrial area from the habitational site.

Mr. Satyamurthy said: "It looks like a crowded town, which was busy. On the one side is the burial site. Within 500 metres, you have the kilns, which means life was active. It might have been an urban centre." [Iron Age habitational site found at Adichanallur]

The article in The Hindu has photos of site and some artifacts that were retrieved from there.

In India when you think of Khans, the people that come to mind are the leading actors in the film industry, Shahrukh, Salman and Aamir. From Pakistan, more famous than Imran Khan is AQ Khan, who even appeared on the cover of Time Magazine. Now here comes another Khan, following the trendsetting path set by AQ.

A Pakistani businessman illegally exported devices from the United States that could be used to test, develop and detonate nuclear weapons, the government alleged on Friday.

A federal indictment against Humayun A. Khan was unsealed along with a guilty plea by his alleged partner, who admitted routing high-speed electrical switches through South Africa to avoid raising authorities' suspicions. The switches - which can be used in medical and military devices - were then shipped to Pakistan.

The United States prohibits the export of the switches, also known as "triggered spark gaps," to Pakistan and a handful of other countries to prevent potential nuclear proliferation. [washingtonpost.com > Nation > Wires > Pakistani Accused of Exporting Devices]

I wonder if this Khan apologizes on national TV, the matter would be considered settled.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao is visiting India and some people are not thrilled about it, especially folks in the bastion of Left ideology - the JNU. They think the leader of a Communist country is not "Communist enough".

"We are disillusioned with China�??s economic liberalisation. They are opening up their economy like any other capitalist country," says Mona Das, president, JNU Students'Union and a member of All India Students Association (AISA), the students'wing of CPI-ML. In this light, feels Das, she has not much to talk about Wen�??s visit.

She does welcome his visit as it "opens possibilities of better relations between India and China." Others too are wary and, as Das puts it, are "apprehensive at the way things are moving in China." [Left GenNext indifferent to Chinese Premier's visit]

So the Indian Communists decided to let go the Chinese leader for commiting the crime of taking his country on the path of progress and decided to take up the cause of some opressed people - the Palestinians. So in the Communist Party's 18th congress, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee moved a resolution condeming Israel's brutal occupation of Palestinian territory and also demanded that India snap all military ties with Israel. (It is ok for Communist leaders to beg in Israel for investment).

The plan looked foolproof, but had some serious opposition, from, and believe it or not, from Palestinians, who tried to drum some sense into the Communists.

�??It is completely an internal issue of India. It is not a Palestinian demand, it is not a Palestinian concern and it is not a Palestinian request,�??�?? said Dr Ahmed Soboh, Deputy Minister with Ministry of Information, Palestinian National Authority, on the CPM demand to review ties with Tel Aviv.

�??�??The Palestinians are completely respectful of the policy within India, within political parties in India, within the Government of India, of what is in the interest of India.

We are not expressing any opinion on that,�??�?? he said.

Asked what the Palestinians thought of India�??s decision to forge military ties with Israel, Soboh said: �??�??You can see what you want.�??�?? [CPM wants Delhi to boycott Israel, its Palestinian guests say we want no such thing]

The commies are desparately trying to get people around the world to remain stuck in the stone age and to their horror they are finding that even their brothers are taking the fast ship to progress. This is really unfair. If Spielberg is going to make a Jurrasic Park IV, he will not have to animate the dinosaurs. They are now readily available in flesh and blood in India.

It was a Communist Govt. that sanctioned the Coke plant in Kerala. Communists have no love for anything American and so no one knows why they did this. The Chief Minister at that time was E K Nayanar, who if not had become the CM, would have made an excellent standup comedian.

Few years back, Nayanar and group went to Rome and met the Pope. As a gift, Nayanar gave him a copy of the Holy Geeta. Stand back and enjoy the irony here. An atheist gifting a copy of a Hindu holy book to the head honcho of the Catholics. Maybe Nayanar's neurons were tickled pink thinking about that scene that he approved the symbol of America in Commie heartland.

So the Coke plant started in Kerala and they started pumping water to make the carbonated water. Then suddenly some other Commies realized that a) People were working hard and earning a living b) This means they are being exploited. The Commie brigade got into action and accused the Coke plant of depriving the land of precious water. I think they Coke officials asked the Commies a way to produce Coke without using water, but the Party has an official ban against laughing at bourgeoisie jokes.

Then the protest started in full swing. The Panchayat revoked the licence of the plant. The drought in the region was accused on the Coke plant and not on the lack of rainfall.

Now enter Kerala High Court of ban-smoking, ban-student-politics fame, and they have a ruling in favor of Coke.

In a major victory for soft drinks giant Coca-Cola, the Kerala High Court permitted its bottling plant at Plachimada in Palakaad district to draw groundwater not exceeding five lakh litres a day.

A division bench, comprising justice M Ramachandran and justice KP Balachandran, held that the Perumatty panchayat, where the plant was located, was not justified in refusing the renewal of licence to the plant before a scientific assessment had been made.

The bench has also asked the panchayat to grant licence to the company within two weeks if they possessed licence under the Factories Act and had clearance from the Pollution Control Board.

The judgment was passed while disposing of a batch of writ appeals by the Hindustan Coca Cola Beverages Ltd seeking permission to start production at its plant and challenging the panchayat's refusal to renew the licence.

The panchayat's petition against the state government's order staying its decision not to renew licence to the company was also disposed today. [HC gives fizz to Coke Kerala plant]

If the Coke plant is actually causing all the problems mentioned by the protestors, wasn't it the responsibility of the Communists to do a proper study of all these issues before sanctioning the plant? Aren't they themselves the people to be blamed for all the suffering they are now protesting for?

If there a Guiness record for things that were banned, literature, movies, books, then India would be a topper. The latest one is Mani Sankar's movie Tango Charlie which is based on the terrorism in various parts of India, mainly the North-East. Director Mani Sankar talks about his motivation behind the film:

I actually traveled to various parts of the country and saw the violence first-hand. One had to take it in totality. There�??s no peace in any part of the country. Forget peace, our country is going into pieces. And I�??m not talking about simple law and order. I�??m talking about insurgency in various parts of the country.

I�??m talking about the Border Security Force guys who actually take the bullets out there. I tried to develop a character (played by Bobby Deol) who holds on to his innate innocence in spite of all the killings around him. I�??ve tried to show humanism is more important than politics.

We as a nation have to take charge of these wars of attrition being fought all over. Otherwise we�??ll end up losing the country. The nation en masse chooses to ignore these violent reminders of separatism.

When I wrote Tango Charlie I based it on gut-wrenching facts of separatist violence. When I went to Tripura I got to know the extent of brutality in the North East.

Chopping off of the victim�??s ear is a common occurrence. To my horror I got to know that in many villages fathers disfigure their daughters�?? faces when they�??re 14-15 so that insurgents don�??t attack and destroy the village just to abduct a beautiful girl. When I saw the disfigured faces of these innocent girls, I was provoked into writing a sequence in Tango Charlie where BODO insurgents brutally wound a BASF soldier and use him as a bait to capture his colleagues.

Such things happen right under our noses! I know of so many tales of brutality in Kashmir. But I didn�??t use them in Tango Charlie. There�??re so many terrorist groups operating with impunity in Tripura and other parts of the country for the sake of a nebulous �??freedom�??. [Gut-wrenching facts of separatist violence: Mani Shankar]

And the Assam Govt bans it. Now I got to watch this movie.

Jet airways has been given permission to fly to New York. Continental is going to start a non-stop flight between Newark, N.J and New Delhi. The Indian cabinet has approved replacing the 1956 Air Services Agreement with a new one between India and United States which will be signed by US Secretary of Transportation Norm Mineta and Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel.

With the new accord coming into operation, Air India and other carriers will have additional ports of call other than existing ones like Chicago, Los Angeles, New York and Newark (New Jersey).

"Now, we want to start services to Washington, Houston, San Francisco and other American cities," Patel told reporters after the Cabinet meeting.[Cabinet clears new air services agreement with US]

Yaay! San Francisco is in the list. Also as part of the agreement, more airports in India will be opened for direct flights. My dream of flying from SFO to Cochin International Airport might not materialize immediately, but it is now a possiblity.

The number of flights between India and England is also being increased exponentially. As per a new MoU, the number of flights/week is being increased to 130 (from 40).

Now in the original article, the minister was asked if the Jurrasic Party was consulted on this:

Asked whether Left parties have been consulted before firming up this accord, Patel said this was especially meant to give more air connectivity and point-to-point easier travel for the people of the two countries.

"It is in the interest of our country to see that there are more air services which will enable a free flow of traffic and help our tourism, trade, commerce and industry and also generate employment," he said. [Cabinet clears new air services agreement with US]

How is the answer related to the question in this case?

Natwar Singh was in Washington DC today and met President Bush in the Oval Office. Rediff calls this historic, as Natwar is the first Indian Foreign Minister to enter the Oval Office. In International Diplomatic mating ritual, an invite to the Oval Office is considered as getting access to the second base. Till now, the President would drop-in while the Minister was meeting the Secretary of State or someone like that. (It is also possible that the President lost his way and reached the wrong room). So this is what is now considered progress and we have learned to become happy in symbolic gestures.

One of the major issues recently was that the United States is giving some F-16s to Pakistan. Apparently Natwar Singh did not raise the issue at all in his meeting with the President. The focus was on economic and energy coperation. The counterpoint is, even if you raise the issue, the answer will be standard canned one - vital ally in war on terror, need to strengthen him etc. Scott McClellan also mentioned that the United States believes that these F-16s do not affect the balance of power in the region.

While India seems to have accepted this decision, few folks are still fighting the F-16 sales. Gary Ackerman & Co. are going to introduce the Pakistan Proliferation Accountability Act of 2005 which demands access to AQ Khan as a condition for getting the F-16s.

One of the things the President told Natwar Singh was that he is interested in visiting India either this year or next year. It will be interesting to see the Indian Commies having to shake hands with the President. More interesting is the question - will the President visit Pakistan and if so, will he have to sneak in like Clinton?

Now that we are on our one billionth peace process with an inflexible neighbor, what do you think will happen when the dictator and Kargil architect visits India ?

The Foreign Secretary of India issued a statement asking the public not to expect any fireworks. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is the good cop. I don't think he can offend anyone with words. So that job was delegated to Pranab Mukerjee who said "Pakistan has double standards on terrorism". While Musharraf thinks that time is running out (for him?), Natwar Singh said that "it would not be prudent to set any time frame for resolution of the Jammu and Kashmir issue and asserted that there is no question of taking Islamabad off the hook on cross-border terrorism." The Prime Minister just mentioned that he has a long-term plan for the solution of the Kashmir problem, but it is in a lock box and will not be revealed to public.

What does Musharraf want? He wants to convert LoC to a soft border. This means no more passports for crossing the border. A terrorist from Karachi who wants to get into India can now go to Muzzafarabad, write some information on a piece of paper and cross to the Indian side of Kashmir and drive to New Delhi. Musharraf also wants an out of box solution which essentially is the code word for "wrap Kashmir in a box and give it to us".

NewsInsight reported that India had agreed to a territory swap with China whereby India would give up some peaks in Askai Chin and China in turn would give up on the Eastern Sector, mainly Arunachal Pradesh. South Asia tribune reported that India would have a similar deal with Pakistan in which there would be a territory swap. This territory swap also has the blessings of the Indian Communists.

But looks like the territory swap will not happen as it is a big no no for India, but there will be more confidence building measures.

Officials said the CBMs related to more bus services between the two countries, including from Kasur to Indian Punjab and from Jammu to Sialkot besides opening more routes between the two sides of Jammu and Kashmir. They also said that India might raise the security issue of passengers travelling by the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus and also offer joint security for passengers.

The inclusion of Defence Secretary Lt Gen (r) Tariq Wasim Ghazi in the delegation fuelled speculation that the discussions could cover the Siachen issue on which a limited agreement was reached last year. For the last one month, Singh has extensively consulted security experts and former diplomats.

Sources claimed that an accord on Sir Creek was also possible, as the leaders believe it would send positive signals. [India ready to grant concessions to Pakistan]

While India is big on these CBMs, this is not what Musharraf wants.

"Confidence Building Measures is not final solution to the problem and this time I am quite confident regarding the resolution of Kashmir dispute," he added. [Visit to India not to meet Agra like fate: Musharraf]

Musharraf is coming with the hope that he will get territory. Indians are hoping to entice him with more bus services and paper napkin passports. So you get a feel for which direction these talks are heading to.

Related Link: No to Musharraf

Even though Musharraf was the man behind Kargil and whose popular hobby is making India a hostage by holding a gun to his head, we are shamelessly giving him a red carpet welcome. On April 17th, Kargil mastermind and Pakistani "cross-border-terrorism-expert" dictator is arriving in India in the pretext of watching a cricket match between India and Pakistan.

Indian bloggers are uniting to protest this visit. Please join by displaying the above graphic in your blog. Details here.

Participating Bloggers: The Acorn, India Defence, Secular Right, Nerve Endings Firing Away, Rabble Rousing Random Ramblings, Seriously Sandeep, Dancing with Dogs, Rojnamcha, Niket Kaisare, Communism Watch, vichaar.org, Quizfan, Marwadi, Suren, Transport Phenomena, Akash Mahajan, Blog of Parag , Null Pointer, Rajagopal, Idhar Udhar, Rediff.com's Rajeev Srinivasan, Sathish Kumar, Parag, Saket Vaidya, wgaf, sen's spot, sudeep jain, Atanu Dey, Mahesh Ganapaty

Related Links: We are so flexible, Did Nawaz Sharif Know ?

So now it's an emotional appeal

Observing that India was a larger country, he said �??�??thus magnanimity must be shown by it�??�??. �??�??When a smaller nation shows magnanimity, it is seen as a sign of backtracking or buckling under pressure. However, for a larger nation�??s magnanimity, it is seen as large heartedness.�??�??[General lands today, PM for cross-LoC initiatives in Kashmir]

What Musharraf is trying to say is this: "We tried to get Kashmir in 1948, but that turned out to be a stupid thing to do. We tried again in 1965 and 1999. Then we tried sneaking in terrorists and called that providing "moral and diplomatic support". Our homegrown terrorists murdered lots of Kashmiris and got rid of the Hindus from the valley. But even that strategy failed. So here is my next avatar as a saint. So I beg you, show some large heartedness and give us Kashmir."

"But don't ask us to reciprocate. We have already declared that we are inflexible. I recently mentioned in my website that you guys are our arch enemy. We also rejected the visas of some Indian musicians and also denied MFN status to India. But still give us Kashmir".

"My country is in dire straits. The American embassy in Karachi is closed based on some unknown threat. Lahore and Karachi airports were put on high alert. Balochistan is revolting against us. About 50,000 PPP activists are in jail. But leaving all that I am here in India because I want my Olive tree and so please give us Kashmir".

Multinational companies have this image as exploiters not answerable to anyone. Multinational companies also justify everything they are doing with the words, "to maximize value for the shareholder". So this time shareholders decided to take some action regarding the alleged issue of the depletion of groundwater by the Coke plant in Kerala, India.

The plant in Kerala was sanctioned by the communists, who realized, maybe after a coconut fell on their heads that Coke uses water and groundwater was disappearing in Plachimada. So the commies, to enhance their shareholder value, turned protestors and got the local panchayat to revoke the licence.

Now the CEO of Coke is facing music over the same issue.

Shareholders didn't want to talk about re-electing the board of directors or appointing an independent auditor. Instead, they questioned Isdell about issues he's heard before, namely the killings of several union workers at Coke bottling plants in Colombia and accusations that some of Coke's plants in India have depleted local groundwater.

Isdell said Coke has not done anything wrong in the two countries, noting that government inquiries in Colombia have dismissed the accusations that Coke was complicit in the deaths by failing to protect workers there. He also said a high court in India has sided with Coke over the water dispute. Even so, Isdell conceded that the company's best efforts to put the questions to rest have not been successful. Last year's annual meeting also descended into questions about alleged abuses abroad.

"As long as anyone continues to believe these allegations, we're going to take them seriously" and work to change people's perceptions, Isdell said. [Coca-Cola Vows to Change Perception Abroad]

In his book, Longitudes and Attitudes, Tom Friedman writes about traveling in Saudi Arabia after Sept 11th. He meets a number of women who talk to him about the repressive Saudi society and wonder why no one is taking up their case with the Saudi authorities.

Saudi Arabia gave some rights to women, due to terrorism, but still they are forced to wear the veil and don't have the rights to drive or vote. But in the neighboring Kuwait, women now have the right to vote.

In a first step toward granting women full political rights, Kuwaiti lawmakers agreed yesterday to allow women to vote and run in local council elections, but the measure requires more legislative action before it would become law.

The measure was taken on a 26-20 vote for women�??s participation with three abstentions. The session was attended by more than three quarters of the 64 lawmakers and Cabinet ministers entitled to vote.
A second reading of the bill and a second vote, expected in two weeks, was required before the bill becomes a law. Then it would require the Kuwaiti ruler�??s signature, generally a formality and the emir has made clear in the past he supports women�??s political rights. [Kuwaiti Women Allowed to Vote via Publius Pundit]

In Longitudes and Attitudes, Tom Friedman categorizes the Sept 11 hijackers into two classes, Europeans and Saudis. The Europeans are people like Mohammed Atta, who got indoctrinated in radical Islam after moving to Europe. The European attitude was that, do whatever crazy things you want, so long as it is not against us. The Saudis are those hijackers who provided the muscle power.

Now it comes as a surprise that such a liberal Europe has snubbed a delegation of Pakistani MPs with the comment that the delegation did not meet, "ideals of democracy, equality and human rights".

British Labour MEP, Neena Gill, leader of the EU parliament's South Asia inter-parliamentary committee, said: "The European Parliament espouses the ideals of democracy, equality and human rights.

"While we have members who represent all shades of the political spectrum, we are all working within the framework of a fully functioning democracy.

"We cannot condone therefore individuals who place themselves outside these parameters, for they represent everything we stand against." [EU snub for hardline Pakistan MP]

Senator Maulana Sami ul-Haq, the person in question runs a seminary which graduates students to fight enemies of their religion and supports the Taleban and Osama bin Laden.

Once when I was in Kerala, I heard two relatives speaking about farming and one of them said, "Soon America will be telling us what to cultivate". I could not understand why someone from America would tell a farmer in Kerala what to farm. In Kerala as in many parts of the world, Globalization equals America. Any change in the market forces are attributed directly to Uncle Sam. When you look from Kerala, it seems as if the White House or IMF or World Bank is just spending all their waking hours trying to screw the local farmers.

If Americans had control over this globalization, then so many American software engineers would not have lost jobs due to outsourcing and so many textile mills would not have closed. There is no point in whining, for globalization affects everyone. People who survive are the ones who have learned to take advantage of it.

For example, the personal car revolution started in United States and Detroit churned out aircraft carrier type mediocre cars till the invasion from Japan happened. The Japanese car makers took advantage of a global economy and created plants in America, employing American workers to create economical as well as fuel efficient cars. Recently the No.1 American car maker, GM, reported a loss of $1.1 billion, its worst quarterly performance since 1992.

While GM is losing marketshare, Toyota is gaining by doing things right and taking risks.

Despite the endless debate about what's plaguing the U.S. auto industry�??health-care costs, rich union contracts�??there is a simple fact that explains why Toyota is winning: it builds cars people want to buy. And now it's deploying its considerable riches (a $35 billion cash pile) to make those cars even better. It's giving them an extreme style makeover, rolling out its funky Scion line to �??the kids of America and working to put a hybrid in every driveway just as gas prices soar to record levels. The spending spree is already paying off: for the first time, Toyota is the No. 1 car that consumers intend to buy next, rather than Chevy or Ford, according to a recent survey by AutoPacific Group in L.A. Last year Toyota surpassed Ford to become the world's second largest automaker. Industry experts predict it will overtake GM by 2008. "Toyota," says veteran analyst Maryann Keller, "is moving in for the kill."

In the late '90s, Okuda greenlighted the foray into gas-electric hybrids at a time when pump prices were hitting record lows and America was falling for SUVs. "With the Prius, we weren't 100 percent sure," admits Inaba. Detroit was sure, though, that Americans would never get behind the wheel of Toyota's geeky science experiment. But today the Prius outsells GM's new Pontiac G6 (the Oprah car), and Toyota is rolling out hybrids throughout its lineup, starting with two SUVs this year and the Lexus GS and the Camry next year. "In 30 years," says Press, "everything will be hybrid." Tom French can't wait to put an end to $50 fill-ups in his GMC Envoy. This summer, he'll replace his guzzler with a Toyota Highlander hybrid SUV that gets 30mpg. "I'd rather buy American. But this is like when the Japanese came out with small cars and Detroit was late responding," says French, 56, who works for a defense contractor once owned by GM. "Now with hybrids, Detroit might never catch up." [Red, White & Bold]

The Prius has become such a success that there is a huge waiting list for it. People are buying Prius and selling it for much higher price. Detroit still has not got the message and thinks that in an era of $3/gallon gas price people will love gas guzzlers.

Ashish had a post recently on the anti-Japanese protests happening in China and suggested that these demonstrations could be used to sneak in democracy. NY Times has an article that the Chinese Govt. fears the same and is now cracking down by banning the use of text messages or e-mail to organize protests.

The government began cracking down on people using these technologies to foment anti-Japanese protests more than a week ago, before the Shanghai march. According to an employee at a major Internet provider, the government on April 14 ordered all Chinese Web sites to begin filtering anti-Japanese content. Then last week, several anti-Japanese Web sites were shut down because they were trying to organize new protests in May.

One Western analyst in Internet technology said the government has powerful filtering devices that can screen cellphone and e-mail messages. This filtering technology can separate messages with key words such as Falun Gong, the banned spiritual group, and then track the message to the person who sent it.

Falun Gong, in fact, used cell phones to coordinate protests until the government deemed the group a threat and launched a crackdown.

"There are things the bureaucracy could do if it found this sort of communication truly threatening," said the Internet technology analyst, who has studied China for more than a decade and asked not to be identified.

Yet many analysts agree that screening the Internet and cellphones is far more difficult than the practice of simply ordering state-controlled newspapers or television stations to censor a subject. [A Hundred Cellphones Bloom, and Chinese Take to the Streets]

It is not just local people that China has to worry about. Till now United States was "engaging" China, hoping that some reforms would come through, but now things are getting confrontational. US Senator Chuck Schumer got an amendment passed, which calls for punishing China for undervaluing its currency.

During a floor speech in defense of his amendment, Schumer cited the case of Marietta Corp. in Cortland, which manufactures sample-size shampoos and soaps found in hotel guest rooms. "Only one country doesn't allow Marietta to (export) import its soap and its shampoo China," Schumer said. "And when the president (of the company) called me and I visited the plant up in Cortland, 30 miles south of Syracuse, he told me that the Chinese now do their own business in China. They're using that protected market in China to compete with Marietta, now in Southeast Asia, soon in America.

"I said, 'Why don't you file (a complaint) with the WTO (World Trade Organization)?' "He said, 'Well, I'll get an answer in about eight years, and I'll be out of business.' "Ladies and gentlemen," Schumer went on, ". . . we must do something. This (amendment) is the best thing to do. It is certainly better than what we have been doing over the last two years, which is absolutely nothing." Schumer's effort against China's currency practices began in a meeting the senator had two years ago in Syracuse with business, labor and government leaders. Since then, he has repeatedly urged the Bush administration to pressure the Chinese to "float" their currency, the yuan, against the U.S. dollar. China has refused to do so. [Senate supports Schumer's trade bill]

And China has agreed to revalue the yuan very soon. So it seems as if China is able to contain internal pressure, but it is not able to withstand the external ones.

George Bush held Crown Prince Abdullah's hands and walked down the path to the ranch and once they were inside, pleaded with him to raise oil production. Bush also told the Crown Prince and the ruler of the country that sent 19 hijackers that American families are suffering and it is important to reduce prices. The price of crude oil fell in anticipation. But even if the Saudis pump more oil, there is not enough refining capacity in United States to make gasoline available to the consumer. So we will be pretty much stuck with the $2.50/gallon price tag (After filling gas for $2.70 for past few weeks, I am happy to fill at $2.50).

So will this high price of gasoline (It was $1.60 a year back), cause a change in lifestyle like more carpooling or using public transport ? Not yet. Columnist Tom Friedman in his book The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century argues that the President should have used 9/11 to start a national mission to reduce dependence on Saudi oil by charging more for gas and forcing people to change their lifestyle. The President's solution is to drill in the Alaska for more oil.

Consumers who pay for gas every week are wiser. They are now opting for more and more hybrid vehicles. In California there was an increase of 103 percent in the sales of hybrid vehicles. Even SUVs and buses are now running on hybrid engines.

But Bob Kuhn, the fleet's director of transportation, is impressed. So impressed that the bus company intends to replace 45 of its diesel buses with hybrid diesels. That would require approval from California's Air Resources Board, and is being evaluated by the agency, a spokeswoman said. In all, 10 California transit agencies have asked to use hybrid-diesel buses, including San Francisco's.

Fuel economy is one reason. Stockton's hybrid buses are getting 4.9 mpg. That doesn't sound like much -- the five-seat Prius gets 60 mpg in city driving, according to the EPA -- but remember that buses seat 34 people, and regular diesel ones get only 3.3 mpg.

``With this technology, we can lower emissions, and it's not as expensive as we thought it would be,'' Kuhn said.

It's a growing trend. Seattle is now using 235 hybrid buses. Cities as disparate as Honolulu and Albuquerque are trying them out, too. [Hybrid engine technology boards the bus]

It is not just the Japanese car makers who are thinking about fuel efficiency. Few years back when I visited the Los Angeles Auto Show, GM displayed a concept car which was fuel cell powered, and required no gasoline. Finally, the dependence on Saudi Oil will be reduced by the American consumer, by buying more and more such vehicles. It will take a while for these vehicles to be mainstream and till then Oil companies and the Saudis are going to mint money.

The other star attractions in the film are the tigers, who earlier featured in the Hollywood film, Gladiator, starring Russell Crowe.

I took their paw prints as autograph," Vivek laughs. "The three tigers were not tied (up) when they were acting with us. I just had to rely on the fact that the tigers were trained and would not harm us. Once a tiger got lost in the elephant grass, and we didn't know from where it would emerge! Thank God everything went well." [I wanted Ajay Devgan's role: Vivek ]

These tigers remind me of the out of work Hollywood actor, who had to act in a Bollywood movie to make ends meet in Nagesh Kukunoor's brilliant satire Bollywood Calling. Also note that the tigers did not ask for Vivek's autograph or paw print.

Everytime a western diplomat visits, there is bad news for India and usually the bad news is delivered after they land in Pakistan. Once Colin Powell announced that Pakistan is being upgraded to Non Nato Major Ally status after he landed in Islamabad. Indians were given no warning. Now Kofi Annan, being the United Nations diplomat did not have to be in enemy territory to deliver the message

Delivering a cracker of a parting shot, UN secretary-general Kofi Annan on Thursday poured cold water over India's professed ambitions of being armed with veto power when entering the Security Council.

Additional permanent members in a reformed Security Council will not have the veto, he said, addressing a press conference after a rare visit to India. The high-powered panel set up by him, Annan said, did not envisage giving the veto to new members. It would be "Utopian", Annan said, to expect the P-5 countries to give up their veto power or to extend it to new members. [Forget veto power, Kofi tells India]

Somehow he felt that the zing was not enough. So he came up with another zinger.

Annan also threw the government off balance by asking India to sign the CTBT and join negotiations for a fissile materials cutoff treaty (FMCT). India maintains CTBT is part of a "discriminatory" nuclear architecture, though it accepts P-5 positions on FMCT.

Annan's statement is a clarification of what Secretary Rice told in an obfuscated way

Now, in terms of the UN Security Council, the United States has said that we believe UN Security Council reform needs to take place in the context of broader UN reform, that it is important, of course, to reform the Secretariat, the institutions of the UN, the organizations of the UN, it needs management reform and, of course, we should also look at Security Council reform. I said when I was in India that international organizations in general will have to take into account India's growing role in the world in order to be updated and to be effective. [Remarks With Indian Minister of External Affairs Natwar Singh Following Meeting]

Atithi Devo Bhavah (Guests are like gods), that's Indian culture. So we did not raise questions about Annan's son or the oil-for-money scam or the corruption in United Nations. And when Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi is in India, he can eat all the Biriyani he wants and exchange Sushi recipes with Manmohan Singh, but the veto power looks like a dream.

Terry Gross had an interview with David Albright, the president of the Institute for Science and International Security in Washington, D.C on the topic of nuclear proliferation and AQ Khan in particular. In the interview (click on the listen button), he makes a statement that India was one of the beneficiaries of the Khan network.

Now pause for a second and understand that the seriousness of that statement. a) Khan worked on the nuclear program for Pakistan to defend itself against India and now the same Khan has sold technology to India and b) India bought things in the black market for its nuclear program. Albright says, it was a Khan associate in South Africa, who sold some items to India's gas centrifuge program and probably Khan was not aware of this, but somehow Albright seems to be aware of it. The justification was, Khan's associates were motivated by money and not ideology.

But then Khan too was not motivated much by ideology, for he was willing to sell to anyone willing to pay. The customers did not even have to be Islamic states (North Korea), but Islamic states and organizations got preferential treatment. Terry asked him if the Pakistani Govt was involved in all this and why Khan was given such a lenient punishment. Albright replies that Khan stuck a deal with Musharraf and said he would not implicate anyone above him, and in return he and his associates would not be harmed. The claim of Pakistani Govt. not knowing about Khan's activities is a lie as the deal with North Korea was between the two Governments.

Albright also thinks that North Korea is a "logical" country.