Category: India

Two states, wierd politics

Our California Recall Circus now has “new poll numbers”:http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/09/28/recall.poll/index.html. 63% of the people polled said that they would replace Gov. Gray Davis. And guess who is leading the polls to replace him – Arnold Schwarzenegger. Arnold was the choice of 40% of the people.
There is another Republican candidate, Senator Tom McClintock in the fray and there is news that the Republican Administration wants him to withdraw. This was the “same reason”:https://varnam.org/archives/000239.html that Darrel Issa, the person who started the recall campaign asked people to vote No on the recall.
Arnold has been running ads against the Indians saying that they have not been paying taxes after making money in their casinos and if he becomes Governor all that is going to change. The Indians have been running their own ads against Arnold.
But leaving all this aside, one person who is benefitting from this recall is Adult Actress Book Review: PakistanCarey. Her videos are now selling well.
In my other home state, Kerala, the by elections, the official Congress candidate was defeated by the leftists. In Kerala, Congress party is made of two factions, Karunakaran and Antony. Antony is the Chief Minister and Karunakaran is acting as the opposition party. So when an Antony loyalist was given the ticket, the entire Karunakaran machinery worked against the official candidate.
Now Rediff is reporting that Karunakaran is “planning”:http://in.rediff.com/news/2003/sep/29iype.htm to join hands with the Communists to topple the ministry. So this would be Congress and Communists joining hands to topple a Congress ministry.
We are all waiting to see what the “High Command” will say in this matter.
Is it me or why do the two states I live have such wierd politics ?

Meteor Attack

Here is a story you don’t get to hear daily in India
bq. As many as 20 people were injured in India Sunday when a small meteor reportedly struck a village. The meteor struck a village in the state of Orissa, in eastern India, according to Indian and other news reports. Fragments of the object destroyed several houses. Although the BBC reported that as many as 20 people were injured, other reports suggest that the number of casualties could be as low as one.
[Source: “Space Today”:http://www.spacetoday.net/]

Whom to blame ?

While people like Kuldeep Nayyar are blaming India for inviting for inviting Ariel Sharon to India, here is an article from Gulf News by Abdullah Al Madani who says that “Arabs have no one but themselves to blame for this”:http://www.sulekha.com/redirectnh.asp?cid=317437
bq. Here also the Arabs have no one but themselves to blame. Given their failure in achieving any technological or industrial progress, they have no right to dictate to successful countries how to manage their foreign relations or to wonder why these countries shift to their historical arch enemy.

Welcome to India, Mr. Sharon

So far the relationship had been in secret.
bq. Prime Minister Moraji Desai invited Israeli Foreign Minister Moshe Dayan for secret talks in 1977. Dayan, whose face was well known at the time because of an eye patch, masqueraded on the flight there, recalled Naftali Lavi who had been his spokesman. They returned empty handed.
bq. During clashes with Pakistan, India secretly asked Israel for weapons. It sought mortars and mortar bombs without Israeli markings, got them, and publicly continued to condemn Israel, Yegar confirmed.
Continue reading “Welcome to India, Mr. Sharon” →

Communist Manifesto

“The Communist Party of India”:http://www.newindpress.com/Newsitems.asp?ID=IEH20030901115015&Title=Top+Stories&rLink=0 has taken the occasion of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s visit to India to prove that they are just a bunch of clowns.
bq. The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) said Sharon’s government was synonymous with the repression of the Palestinian people and “brazen” attempts to legitimise the occupation of Palestinian and Arab territories.
bq. “Such a visitor is not welcome to India,” CPI-M politburo member Prakash Karat told IANS. “We have asked all democratic sections and secular minded parties such as Samajwadi Party to join us in protesting against Sharon’s visit.”
Now only if Prakash Karat had access to Google, or even simpler, talked to Jyoti Basu he would not have said this. “Read this article”:http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/2000/06/30/stories/0230000b.htm in The Hindu from the year 2000.
bq. CALCUTTA, JUNE 29. The West Bengal Chief Minister, Mr. Jyoti Basu today left here for Tel-Aviv on a week-long trip to Israel- the first-ever visit to the Jewish State by a senior Indian Communist leader.
bq. Officials said Basu’s visit to Israel at the head of a 25-member business delegation from West Bengal was aimed at seeking investment opportunities in the State and collaboration in agriculture development.
Communist Manifesto: We hate you, but we need your money.

World as seen from Reutersville

MSNBC has “this story”:http://www.sulekha.com/redirectnh.asp?cid=316521 on Sharon’s visit to India. One of the paragraphs reads
bq. Sharon, the guest of the ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), will be in India on September 11, a highly symbolic anniversary for both countries which see themselves, alongside the United States, as victims of terrorism.
Factual mistakes
* India is ruled by National Democratic Alliance and not BJP. BJP is one of the members of NDA. The other parties that form NDA are Janata Dal (Samata); Shiv Sena in Maharashtra; Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK), and Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) in Tamil Nadu; Biju Janata Dal in Orissa; Shiromani Akali Dal in Punjab; Janata Dal (United) in Bihar; Rashtriya Lok Dal in Uttar Pradesh; and Jammu & Kashmir National Conference.
* Sharon is the guest of the Government of India. The article gives an impression that it is a personal visit.
Continue reading “World as seen from Reutersville” →

Regarding Sharon's Visit

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is scheduled to visit India in September and it has started producing opposing reactions.
bq. Muslim social organisation, Raza Academy, today said it would not allow Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to step “on the sacred Indian soil”.
bq. Reacting to the invitation extended by the Indian government to Israeli Prime Minister, the Academy general secretary Mohammad Syed Noori said, “By extending the invitiation to Sharon, the Indian government has committed the cardinal sin of bestowing honour on a war criminal, who is deeply detested by the vast majority of the global community because of his unsavoury reputation.”
But the IT Advisor to the Govt. of Hyderabad, TH Chowdary has written on what is common between the two nations and what we can learn from this small country.
Continue reading “Regarding Sharon's Visit” →

Bomb Blasts in Mumbai

45 people have been killed and 150 people injured in two bomb blasts that have occured in South Mumbai. “Rediff”:http://www.rediff.com/news/mumbai-blasts.htm has extensive coverage of the event, so do bloggers “Yazad”:http://www.yazadjal.com/mt/archives/000112.html and “Sameer”:http://supersam5.blogspot.com/2003_08_24_supersam5_archive.html#106180019265145295 from Mumbai.
“Jihva”:http://www.jivha.com/blog/archives/000397.html writes:
bq. Today was the day the Archeological Survey of India�s(ASI) report on the existence of a temple on the disputed Babri Masjid site was to have been released. The blasts came hours after the release of the report – so evidently they�d been planned for today.
Update: “More than 100 detonators found on rail tracks”:http://in.rediff.com/news/2003/aug/25blast32.htm
bq. Hours after twin bomb blasts in Mumbai killed 46 people, more than 100 detonators were found from a railway track at a place about 60 km from Nashik just an hour before an express train carrying mostly Kumbh pilgrims was to pass, senior police and railway officials in Nashik said.