Premzji's Crazy Talk

In his rare public comments involving a rival, Wipro Chairman Azim Premji on Friday said his company’s organisation structure was “superior” to that of Infosys Technologies.
“I think, our structure is superior to the Infosys global delivery model,” Premji told reporters here in response to a question on how Wipro’s organisation structure compared with that of Infosys’ global delivery model.[Our structure superior to Infy: Premji]

But then, immediately he said

“Frankly, I have not fully understood the Infosys global delivery model.

How do you comment on something you don’t understand? But that was not the punch line.

“It’s not for me to comment on somebody else’s structure,” he added.

Maybe this is the reason why Vivek Paul quit. ๐Ÿ™‚
Update: Smiley added for people who take things seriously.

Rediff's juvenile reporting

I couldn’t believe I was in the same room as Ted Kennedy, the legendary United States Senator from Massachusetts, whose volume of legislation dwarfs anything his brothers John and Bobby did for the American people.

Did Rediff send some fifth grader (no offence to fifth graders) to cover Manmohan Singh’s visit to United States ? Here are some more gems.

While I spotted hotelier and Clinton pal Sant Singh Chatwal and Republican Indian-American stalwart Dr R Vijayanagar in the same gallery, I couldn’t keep my gaze off the gallery to our left which had some of the Indian members of the CEOs Forum, set up on Monday.
The other person I kept returning to was Gursharan Kaur, dressed in a nice cream Kanjeevaram sari with a red border. Like her husband, her face rarely registers any emotion. But on Tuesday, one saw a trace of nervous anticipation before Dr Singh began speaking, and then more than a hint of pride as the gathering richly applauded his speech. Occasionally, she turned to K Natwar Singh, our flamboyant foreign minister, who was always willing to provide amplification. I can wager the erudite Kunwarsaab knows the process of the US Congress better than some of those who adorn it.[Dr Singh wows Congress]

This man, Nikhil Laxman seems to be amused by everyone and everything as if he has been released from prison after a long term. I am sure he spent the whole night staring at the Washington Monument.

Blair, Deport all terrorists

Tony Blair said yesterday that he was shocked to learn that the terrorists (or bombers for BBC folks) were actually British nationals and we were shocked that Blair, a British national, lacks general knowledge. British born Omar Sheikh is in a Pakistani jail for murdering Daniel Pearl. Richard Reid is in an American jail for trying to see how a 747 would look when it explodes. Saajid Badat was the co-conspirator of Reid. Assaf Mohammed Hanif who blew himself up in a Tel Aviv pub in 2003 was carrying a British passport.
As Steve Emerson noted on Fox News

Not only disrupt but here is the ultimate irony. Britain invited this. Britain created conditions in London that now host more radical Islamic groups and cells, and leaders, that is, than any other capital in Europe or even in the Middle East, outside the Middle East that is. And the fact of the matter is open immigration, a very liberal asylum policy and they still continue to embrace and empower radical Islamic groups. For example, in Prime Minister Blair’s comments right after the attack he praised the Muslim Council of Britain. That is an organization that is directly linked to the Muslim Brotherhood that believes in carrying out suicide bombings, that has been linked directly to Hamas and to other jihadist organizations.[Steven Emerson on British permissiveness towards Islamic radicals & on sleeper cells in U.S.]

All those British nationals did not commit acts of terror on British soil and so that does not count. For years Britain has hosted LTTE and Khalistanis involved in terrorism against people of Sri Lanka and India and since they were law abiding British nationals committing acts of terror in other countries all was well and good. These liberal minded British allowed those preaching hatred to work in mosques and did nothing against them and the leader of the terrorist-camp land was treated as a statesman.
Atleast now, Blair should wear a fake beard and walk around the Bethnal Green Underground station like Evan Kohlmann and see for himself what is happening in his island.

Perhaps what disturbed me the most about Faisal’s desperate words was searching around the room and seeing dozens of eyes diligently trained on him–the eyes of young, impressionable Muslim kids. It is common in this modern era for Western youths (of all backgrounds) to worship popular rock stars or Hollywood actors and aspire to become them. Yet, for many years, the radical religious fringe has preached a consistent countermessage to young Muslims: “by virtue of your heritage alone, you are different from your peers and ‘we love death as they love life.'” A minority of these youths have been raised to idolize Usama Bin Laden and Mohammed Atta in the same way that many Americans follow Johnny Depp and Bruce Springsteen. With disastrous “Muslim wars” ongoing in Iraq and Afghanistan, some of those brainwashed into following Al-Qaida now see a unique opportunity for themselves to step forward from obscurity and become famous, heroic “martyrs” of the Islamic nation, much like the 9/11 hijackers. Let noone be mistaken: the deluded suicide bombers responsible for the carnage on 7/7 are far from alone. The age of the “human cruise missile” is now fully upon us and it is likely only a matter of time before this problem crosses the Atlantic and reaches the shores of the American homeland. [Where do Homegrown British Suicide Bombers Come From?]

But now Blair seems to have retrieved his spine and decided to deport radical imams. By doing this Blair is following the Nut-War Terrorism Fighting Design Pattern in which even though we know there is a problem, we just wait till actual humans die. Blair should show more resolve than this and use this opportunity to cleanse England of all radical cells involved in terrorism not just in Britain, but in other countries around the world also.

Malayalees in slavery

Thanks to globalization of labor, many Malayalees work in the Islamic countries in the Middle East. Yale Global has an article on these people, who are the “invisible foot soldiers of globalization”

Blue-collar Indian workers in the UAE, including Dubai, amount to an exploited underclass with no rights, no unions, and no stake in country’s burgeoning wealth, say human rights groups. In neighboring Saudi Arabia, a recent Human Rights Watch report says many of the country’s more than one million Indian migrants live in “conditions resembling slavery.” The document highlights the widespread practice of forced, around-the-clock confinement of Indian maids, often in unsafe conditions. And a US State Department report on worldwide human trafficking faults the UAE and other Gulf states for commonplace labor abuses like withholding pay and passports.
Employers usually confiscate passports and residence permits when workers arrive at Dubai International Airport, making it virtually impossible for laborers to seek better jobs or quit and go home. Migrants typically cannot obtain exit visas without the approval of their sponsor or employer. The story of these faceless men and women, who live in labor camps and seedy apartments, is gaining attention in the usually self-censored UAE press, which now regularly reports on worker protests over delayed pay and substandard living conditions. [Dubai’s Kerala Connection]

Malayalees may be able to live without passports, but without unions and the rights to raise slogans, we are like President Bush on a bicycle. It is sad that Malayalees who raise slogans even in front of corpses, have to live like slaves away from their families.
Related Links: Globalization of ideas, Hinduism in Saudi Arabia

Waiting for an attack

Natwar Singh, who was here to attend a meeting of the Foreign Ministers of the G4 countries, hoped the peace process with Pakistan would continue unimpeded, “unless there is a terrorist attack like the one witnessed in London.”

So that is the game plan. We just sit and wait for a new terrorist attack. All the old ones have been wiped clean and the scoreboard has been reset. All those families in Jammu and Kashmir who died at the hands of the Islamic terrorists exported from Pakistan have got justice with this one statement. You would think that this man, Natwar Singh has no clue on what is going on in Pakistan and you would be wrong.

India has said terrorist camps are still operating in Pakistan and New Delhi has photographic evidence to prove it.
“I have told the Pakistan Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz that the terrorist camps have not been dismantled. We have the photographs and I have told him that we can provide photographic evidence,” External Affairs Minister K Natwar Singh told the BBC here last night. [Terrorist camps still operating in Pakistan: Natwar]

So what do you do with those photos, Natwar? Ogle at them before going to bed and dream of a day when those terrorist school graduates come and murder innocent Indians? Are you sure that unless people die, you won’t do anything? Do you have even a vague idea of what people do in a terrorist camp? Is your name actually Nut-war Singh?
Update: Thank god these “militants” were stopped, else Nut-war would have called off the peace process.

No terrorists please, we are British

BBC violated its policy of not calling terrorists as terrorists. It headlined its report of Thursday’s bombings in Londonistan as ‘ London rocked by terror attacks’. Its editorial guidelines state the following:

The word "terrorist" itself can be a barrier rather than an aid to understanding. We should try to avoid the term, without attribution.

BBC followed its policy when it reported the attack on the Ram temple at Ayodhya. Instead of placing a barrier to understanding the issue, it aided our understanding by calling the attackers as gunmen.

Indian police have killed five gunmen who attacked a flashpoint religious site in the northern city of Ayodhya.
.
The Ayodhya complex is one of the most fiercely disputed religious sites in the world…

That was from the July 10, SABHA 4 M Report. There are some Indians too who think that the word terrorist should not be used to describe terrorists.

Update: BBC listens to Teesta. The word “terrorist” is erased and the barrier to understanding has been removed.

What do I call them?

Six armed gunmen tried to storm into the Ram temple in Ayodhya. One of them, a suicide bomber, rammed a jeep filled with explosives at the first barricade. The others hurled grenades and fired indiscriminately with AK-47s. Makes you blood boil doesn’t it?
But blood should not boil. That’s what Teesta Setalvad has to say.

Such an incident poses a challenge to the secular fabric of the country. Transparency needs to be followed in investigation. The media needs also to respond responsibly to information when labels like ‘terrorist’ and ‘jehadi terrorist’ are used intentionally by some organisations. Above all, this should not become an occasion for venom and hatred against minorities clouding our public sphere once again. [Press Release]

If we cannot call these terrorists, terrorists, then what do we call them Teesta? Can I call them Sabrangis?
Rajeev Srinivasan has more

Find a replacement

Porter Goss, the CIA chief cannot catch Osama bin Laden due to some “weak links”, which seems to be the new code word for Pervez Musharraf.

The CIA boss was delivering a clear message to the “weak link” — Pakistan and its military ruler, Gen. Pervez Musharraf.
As he did two weeks ago in Australia, Musharraf claims to have Al-Qaida “on the run” in Pakistan, his forces having chased them out of cities into the mountains and then “occupied their sanctuaries.”
That rhetoric draws derision inside the CIA. According to sources familiar with the intelligence community discussion on this issue, there is mounting evidence that the Pakistani military — and its intelligence wing, the ISI — is nurturing its deep ties to Islamist extremists, including those who are sheltering the Al-Qaida leadership and leaders of the Afghan Taliban.[Pakistani forces tied to Taliban are hiding bin Laden, CIA thinks]

Of course the CIA knows everything, where he is hiding, what he is having for lunch, but still cannot catch him because of the question – what will happen to Musharraf? What if the Islamicists will come to power and start nuking left and right? Somehow we have been made to believe that Musharraf is the last standing moderate in Pakistan and rest all are murderous thugs. What America needs is someone who will take orders from the White House or State Department and deliver the goods. If Musharraf cannot do it, it is time to find a replacement so that the 3000 Americans who got murdered on Sept 11 will get some justice.

Communists get naughty naughty

As commenter yum yum noted, the leftist movement in Kerala had lot of support from the farmers. The Communists fighting the evil zamindars managed to take over the land and redistribute it to the poor folks. Now Communists have become the new Zamindars. They will decide what you should grow in your own land. If not the consequences are disastrous since the Communists know only one way to persuade.

If a Kerala farmer quits growing paddy and grows another crop on the same farmland, he will have CPM comrades landing with sickles and axes to ‘restore’ the farm for paddy. No matter if growing paddy is just not profitable, no matter if you have stiff farm loans to pay back.
Last week in Palakkad, the comrades, chanting slogans invoking hardliner V S Achuthanandan, descended to destroy arecanut and other crops in many farms. About a dozen of them have been booked for it.
The sickles and axes have been coming down on many parts of rural Kerala, as a strong ‘corrective’ political statement, right from the ’90s. They continue to swing.
The late A Kanaran MLA, top honcho of the CPM’s Kerala State Karshaka Thozhilali Union (KSKTU), had effectively used it to get local Muslim landlords in north Kerala’s Nadapuram belt to fall in line, his men laying waste acres of their standing cash crops overnight.
In Alappuzha, Kanaran’s hardline guru and Politburo member Achuthanandan unleashed his men on paddy farms whose owners – many of them marginal farmers – had to switch to other crops. It finally took a high court order to get the cops to halt the destruction, at least temporarily.

And what is the justification for all this autrocity and utter disregard for individual freedom?

Achuthanandan now says the party will continue its “peaceful” agitation in every Kerala panchayat, and will not allow any more fields to be lost to paddy, “at any cost.”
“I’d never asked our comrades to destroy any kind of crops, only to oppose paddy field reclamation. But our young men get excited and naughty sometimes,” Achuthanandan told The Indian Express. [Party waves the sickle, cuts off cash crops from Kerala farmers]

These young men seriously lack female companionship (or male companionship), if their idea of getting naughty means destroying the livelihood of poor people.
Related Links: Workers agitating aginst Communists, The High Court verdict on Coke, Your’s are small too, Not for the family, The Communist “U” turn