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As Clifford Levy wrote in The Times last week, Russia’s national networks, the most powerful media in the country, are routinely deleting news or opinions critical of the Kremlin. In one notable case, Mikhail Delyagin, a well-known political analyst, criticized Vladimir Putin during the taping of a talk show. When the program aired, Mr. Delyagin was missing. Or, most of him was missing. His disembodied legs remained in the picture.

Meanwhile, in Nepal

Addressing a rally to celebrate the declaration of republic in Kathmandu Prachanda said his CPN-Maoist will not tolerate further criticism by the media and warned of serious consequences if it continued to criticise the party. Targeting the Kantipur publication that brings out the largest circulated dailies Kantipur and The Kathmandu Post, the former rebel leader said, “You journalists did well to continuously criticise the Maoists before the constituent assembly polls, otherwise the election would not have taken place at all.”“Now we will no longer tolerate criticism as we have already been elected by the people,” he said, adding that the other newspapers criticising the Maoist will also meet the same fate.[

The Maoists, who are not as tech savy as the Kremlin folks, know only one way to make a man disappear and it won’t be pretty. This would be a good time for Siddharth Varadarajan to explain to the Chairman how press functions in a democracy.

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“Is this meant to appease some community? If you intend to fight poverty, cut across religions and communities and fight. Never mind whether it is a Hindu poor or a Muslim poor,” said Justice Thakur. “The Sachar Committee report is for all. Of course, there are certain Muslim dominated areas where there is no development at all,” the ASG said.

To this, the Bench said: “So are you saying there are no Hindu slums?”

“Tell us Mr Malhotra, in our Constitutional framework, can a welfare scheme say we concentrate only on the benefit of one community and not for all?… A lot of money is spent in a welfare state, is it that you (Centre) spend it only for one minority community?” the Bench asked the ASG.[Sachar: HC asks Govt aren’t you appeasing, what about majority? (email from Nitin)]

Though the Bench did not mention the word vote bank, they made it very clear to the ASG that they have seen through him. Still the disturbing thing about this debate is that it is on religious lines. What happens to poor atheists?

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“I voted, campaigned for, worked as hard as I could for President Bush’s election in 2000 and 2004,” he said. “It’s nonsense.”

Bradley Whitford and Richard Schiff who attended a dinner with Sen. John McCain in 2001

McCain replied that as a member of the GOP, Whitford added, he always intended to back the party’s nominee. Then, the actor said, someone asked McCain whether he had cast a vote in favor of Bush.

“He put his finger up to his lips, shook his head and mouthed, ‘No way,’” Whitford said.

Schiff remembered the conversation the same way. “My memory was he said pretty clearly, no, he did not vote for him,” he said. “I discussed it with others afterwards. It was clear to everyone he said no.

See Also: Episode 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

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In 2002, when India and Pakistan appeared to be headed for a war, Colin Powell, the U.S. secretary of state  played a key role in cooling down the tensions. Apparently a significant part was also played by India’s huge software and information technology industry which asked the government to tone down the rhetoric. No one could have put it better than the metaphor maestro, Tom Friedman who wrote, “That’s right — in the crunch, it was the influence of General Electric, not General Powell, that did the trick.”

While business interests can avert wars, it can also cause nations to support dictators and be mute spectators to genocide. In 2006, when United States and its European partners wanted United Nations to pass a resolution to allow UN peace keepers in Darfur, it was opposed by China. China has leverage with the Sudanese government due to the vast investments in Sudanese oil fields, but has always withstood putting pressure on them. Chinese oil purchases have supported the regime and Chinese made AK-47s are used as the murder weapon in Darfur.

It is not just China which behaves like this. The main opposition to the Iraq war came from Russia, France and Germany who all had lucrative deals with Saddam Hussein. Our own Natwar Singh took kick backs and faked a moral opposition to the war.

With the protest of the Burmese Buddhist monks getting attention from around the world, analysts have concluded that if there is one nation that can exert pressure on the military junta, it is  China. China is Burma’s largest trading partner and has the leverage, but it is a foregone conclusion that China will do nothing to help the monks. A nation which suppressed the Tiananmen revolution and brutally murdered Buddhist monks in Tibet would be least interested in bringing democracy to Burma. When the issue was bought up before the United Nations, China protested, similar to the protest in Darfur case.

Occasionally there is a mention that India could do something about the issue in Burma, then it as hilarious as the suggestion by one of the callers on On Point Radio, who said that all Americans should write to Wal-Mart asking it to do something about the freedom struggle in Burma. While the world was watching, India chose to be as insensitive as possible by sending the petroleum minister Murli Deora for business talks. Pranab Mukherjee went one step further and requested the murderers to conduct an enquiry into their own activities which  is like asking Veerappan do his own post mortem.

Both India and China are least bothered about the plight of the monks and the human tragedy in Burma. Out of this, India’s behavior is shameful as it is a democracy selling arms to a cruel dictatorship in return for access to oil and gas.  When China brutalized Buddhists in Tibet, India kept quiet and now probably to show that the foreign policy is consistent, it is keeping quiet when the show is being repeated in Burma. This was an opportunity for India to take a moral stand and distinguish itself from China, but instead it has chosen to let General Electric run the show.

(Image via Free Burma)

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Recently, after seeing that no one Pakistan was listening to him, the General in the labyrinth decided to impose emergency. He  had already signed the order declaring emergency when the phone rang. “Yes, Dick”, he probably answered, thinking it was the Lord Voldemort on the line, but it was Dr. Rice. A few minutes of conversation and Gen. Musharraf, who is seen a macho macho man only in India was shredding the document.

“Hey, isn’t the hosted service provider saving dictatorship here”, you may ask. Calm down, grasshopper. Sometimes to save democracy, you need to save dictatorship. Yes, it is one of those Zen things.

Since Gen. Musharraf is nearing his expiry date, the Bush administration has been looking for a Prime Minister. Sadly, the available ones cannot enter the country. So, there has been negotiations and re-negotiations between Benazir Bhutto and Bush administration officials about a possible deal. Maybe the Bhutto deal won’t work out and it maybe Nawaz Sharif. Either way, you will hear it on CNN before the Pakistani people know about it.

We all know Pakistan cannot handle democracy and such outsourcing helps them avoid wasteful expenditures in terms of elections, booth rigging and bullets fired into fellow Muslims. It is not just Pakistan which is having problems in democracy. The ratings of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has been plummeting and his opponents in Iraq have decided to campaign against him, not in Iraq, but in Washington D.C. Ayad Allawi, who was the interim prime minister is  paying the GOP firm Barbour Griffith & Rogers (BGR) more than a quarter-million dollars to lobby on his behalf. 

Finally we are sure that a group of armchair quarterbacks in Washington D.C. will do what is right for Iraq. Isn’t this kind of democracy wonderful?

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Her father was a clerk in the Telecommunications department in Delhi and mother a house wife. She was a teacher and then she joined politics. The latest
statement filed by Mayavati gives an indication why a career in politics is
always better than the
Resident
Idiot’s whipping boy, the IT sector.

UP chief minister Mayawati has assets worth over Rs 52 crore, according to an affidavit filed on Monday by her along with the nomination
papers for the Vidhan Parishad. And to add glitter to her wealth, the lady has
diamonds worth nearly Rs 50 lakh.

The CM’s assets, including movable and immovable property, bank balance are:

Cash: Rs 50.27 lakh; Deposits in banks, financial institutions and non-banking
financial companies: Rs 12.88 lakh; jewellery: Rs 50.87 lakh;diamonds 380.17
carat: Rs 49.75 lakh; a 18.5-kg silver dinner set costing Rs 1.12 lakh.

Among her other assets, the CM has murals worth Rs 15 lakh.

Behenji, as she likes to be called, lists the following commercial and
residential establishments as her own in New Delhi and Lucknow. She owns two
commercial establishments in Connaught Place, New Delhi, priced at Rs 2.05 crore
and Rs 1.27 crore and another commercial establishment at Okhla which is priced
at Rs 15.50 crore.
[BSP workers, assuming that
the leader did not have any money sent her money and asked her to use it
for
whatever purpose she seemed fit, like buying bungalows or jewellery. Really!
That feeling of happiness knowing that the leader is eating in a dinner set
costing Rs. 1.12 lakhs while you are struggling to make a living is called, and
let me use a technical term here,
nirvana.



The view is best summed up by Columnist
Chandrabhan Prasad who says that the ordinary
Dalit
would feel happy that at least one of them is
doing well.  Mayavati is an inspiration not only for Dalits, but for
all of us.

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]]> http://varnam.org/blog/2007/06/an_inspiring_story/feed/ 2 http://varnam.org/blog/2006/12/thus_said_manmohan_singh/ http://varnam.org/blog/2006/12/thus_said_manmohan_singh/#comments Tue, 12 Dec 2006 20:00:52 +0000 jk http://varnam.org/blog/?p=1168

“We will have to devise innovative plans to ensure that minorities, particularly the Muslim minority, are empowered to share equitably in the fruits of development. They must have the first claim on resources,” Singh said. [PM’s priority: Muslim development]

So now just because you pray to one God you get preferential treatment. Isn’t that wonderful. Sandeep has an excellent analysis of these clowns running the UPA.

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]]> http://varnam.org/blog/2006/12/thus_said_manmohan_singh/feed/ 4 http://varnam.org/blog/2006/09/rejecting_all_candidates/ http://varnam.org/blog/2006/09/rejecting_all_candidates/#comments Fri, 01 Sep 2006 17:07:05 +0000 jk http://varnam.org/blog/?p=1140 In our elections most of the candidates put by political parties are career politicians or thugs or both. The public is left with no choice other than to vote for the lesser evil. Under the constitution, there is something called Section 49-O which allows the voter to reject all the candidates on the ballot

So what’s the big deal, you ask?
Well, here it is:apparently, if the election is countermanded owing to negative votes, not one of the candidates who stood for the earlier election can contest the re-election.
Now imagine the consequences. Imagine what would happen if each time a party put up a goon, the voters forced an expensive re-election. The mind boggles. [Just do it!]

For such an event to happen there has to be tremendous coordination by the non-political voters. There also has to be a grassroots efforts to  make this into a mass movement within a constituency, which currently looks impractical. Even if a re-election is forced, career politicians will always find a way to get their folks in for in the circle of life, for every Lalu who is convicted, there is a Rabri Devi to take his place.

 

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]]> http://varnam.org/blog/2006/09/rejecting_all_candidates/feed/ 4 http://varnam.org/blog/2006/05/development_will_have_to_wait/ http://varnam.org/blog/2006/05/development_will_have_to_wait/#comments Mon, 22 May 2006 13:00:13 +0000 jk http://varnam.org/blog/?p=1074 There is one requirement for political parties to be accepted by the 100% literate populate of Kerala – they should have atleast two factions. The nice thing about having two factions is that you don’t need to waste time governing the state. When you have to fight the opponent faction all the time, who has the time to improve the state. Then, what is there to improve in the state? We already rank #1 in suicides and unemployment.

Factionalism is an artform perfected by Karunakaran, former chief minister of Kerala and the only witness to Parasurama throwing the axe ( the act which created Kerala). He wanted his son Muralidharan, famous all around Kerala for being Karunakaran’s son, to be given a good position. Sadly Muralidharan lacked the qualification even to be a road side eve teaser, and hence the Congress party ignored him. Karunakaran, who according to carbon dating is as old as Giant Sequoia tree, got angry. He quit the Congress Party and formed a new party called DIC (K), to remind everyone that it was a fight about “positions”.

After thinking of various way to humiliate the Congress Party, Karunakaran decided to join the Communists. That honeymoon lasted less than the time it takes for Arjun Singh to count the hair on his head. DIC (K) came running back to the Congress camp and decided to contest in 18 seats. Even people who were going to commit suicide forgot their worries for a moment and watched this reunion with excitement. Newspapers covered this news ignoring everything else. In the elections, all 17 DIC (K) candidates lost their deposits.

Now the Communists are in power and the Chief Minister is Achyutanandan, who claims that he too saw Parasurama throwing the axe. First of all the Communists did not want to give him a seat in this elections. Due to pressure exerted by “public”, he was given a seat which he won convincingly. Then there was no other option but to make him the Chief Minister, since he is one of the oldest Marxists. In fact Achyutanandan was a Marxist even before Karl Marx was born.

Since Achyutanandan was named the Chief Minister, cronies of Pinarayi Vijayan, Achuyutanandan’s nemesis, took all other cabinet positions. The aim was to make Achyutanandan a Chief Minister without portfolio. Achyutanandan, who in fact suggested the title The Communist Manifesto to Karl Marx, knew better. He ignored the portfolio list given by the party and gave his own list to the Governor.

It has been less than a week since the new Govt. took over and we already have the build up to a Mahabharata. Newspapers are already drooling at the prospect of this new guerilla warfare between the politburo, party state committee and the new Chief Minister. If anyone in Kerala is hoping for development, they will have to wait. This is more important.

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