That's all, Your Honour! : May 22-28

Back to blogging after a hectic 2 months of travelling :)

1. The trial of David Headley began in a Chicago court this week. For those who are not sure about who this guy is, an old blogpost explaining the obvious case of David Headley. David Headley has been revealing a lot of stuff, that is news to the world, but not to us in India. He has detailed how ISI and LeT were actively involved in planning and executing the 26/11 attacks. Evidence was also presented, detailing cash flows, which again confirmed ISI's hand in these attacks. David Headley also informed the court that he was inspired into Jihad by Hafiz Saeed - the same Hafiz Saeed whom Pakistan refuses to arrest and even tells us that he is involved in charity work! Our Prime Minister has again reiterated his willingness to continue talking to Pakistan, whilst acknowledging that there is nothing new in Headley's revelations! He even has sagely advice for Pakistan - "It goes without saying that we must use every possible opportunity to talk to Pakistan and convince them that terror as an instrument of state policy is simply not acceptable to people in the civilised world as a whole." If a country needs "convincing" that terror is undesirable in this world, pray what exactly will you "discuss" with that country?

2. The "nataka" in Karnataka seems to be never ending. A recent Supreme Court judgement found the Speaker's action in disqualifying 11 BJP and 5 Independent MLAs wrong. This prompted the most hyper active governor in India to recommend President's rule in the state! This, despite the fact that these 11 disqualified BJP MLAs have decided to come back to the party and support the Chief Minister. Somehow, our hyperactive governor still found reason to recommend President's rule in the state! He met the Prime Minister on a Saturday and recommended President's rule next day. It is impossible to believe that this topic did not come up for discussion between both these eminences. Anyways, the central government has rejected the Governor's report. Despite the Governor's many such irresponsible actions, the Home Minister enlightens us that the governor is just doing his "job"!

3. UPA has completed 7 years in power. Actually, 2 years in their second stint. They name this UPA 2.0 and they kind of want us to believe that UPA 1.0 never existed. So we are talking about two years in power for UPA. And in these two years, the countrymen have been made to see and hear scam numbers that they cannot even imagine in their wildest of their dreams. With excellent support from the English TV media, the Prime Minister and Sonia Gandhi have managed to come out squeaky clean in this whole process. Even the 2G scam is now being made to look like something the DMK did without the knowledge of any other coalition partner. Mere rhetoric from the Prime Minister and Sonia that "we will root out corruption" hogs headlines, as if we are to trust them. Leaving Corruption aside, there has not been even one single big reform that this government has carried out. Mere status quo is being maintained. When UPA 2.0 took over, we were all told that since the Left parties don't have control on the government like the UPA1.0, there will be big ticket reforms. And after 2 years, the PM still talks about the "need" for reforms. His speeches sound like as if he has nothing to do with governance in the country! However, the government seems to be not worried too much, given that the opposition is yet to pick up any strength amongst the masses. Since there is no alternative, UPA2.0 thinks UPA3.0 is a mere formality! That's all, your honour!

That's all, Your Honour!: May 31- June 5

1. First the Home Minister guaranteed to us that access to Headley will be given, there is nothing to worry. Then nothing happened. Then our Prime Minister also had to bring this up with the US President (that's right, at a time when co-operation regarding terrorists needs to be seemless, the head of our country had to request the head of US t grant access to a terrorist who is charged with planning the gruesome 26/11 attack in Mumbai). Now, when such an assurance happens at the highest level, you would except the process to happen soon without hiccups. Nah - that's not how it works! About 50 days after that assurance was given, a team had to leave to the US, had to face multiple problems for about a week; then the External Affairs Minister Mr. S.M.Krishna had to remind Hillary Clinton. And the worst part is that he said this “… access for our authorities to persons who have been apprehended by your government in connection with the Mumbai terror attack is the logical next step.” And then finally we were given access to David Coleman Headly. And the vagueness in that announcement is there for all of us to see here. Now, if you think that Headley is talking and all is well - read this. He is taking the fifth amendment! So much for co-operation huh?Rediff has the entire Headley saga documented in this link here, just go through the headlines to see how we have been played for about 8 months!

2. More than Mamta Banerjee, it was our national English media channels that were more happy that her party, Trinamool Congress, won majority seats in the civic body polls in West Bengal. They prepared so much footage on Mamta that they would have been disappointed had TC lost in these elections! They went gaga over her; infact if you didn't switch on TV all day on June 2, and then saw the news on that evening, you would think Mamta Banerjee became the Chief Minister of West Bengal (True, what else can you interpret from this headline "Mamta wins Bengal" ?). The details of the results are here. Quite clear that Congress has been reduced to a hopeless minority in this state. Also, if you are wondering about what happened to the investigations in last week's train blast by Naxals in West Bengal - CBI has been asked to investigate and some Naxal leader said "sorry" for the disaster. Apparently their target was the Goods train. Haa! What a shame these people are really.

3. It is common knowledge that our country has a super PM. Now, isn't it unfair that the Super PM doesn't get to have a "cabinet" of her own? :D.. Presenting to you, ladies and gentlemen, the National Advisory Council (NAC) - the super cabinet of India ! Infact this NAC was very much present during UPA 1.0 version too. Remember, Sonia Gandhi had to resign as its chairperson because of the Office of Profit controversy? Later, this office was bought in the ambit of those offices that are exempted from the definition of Office of Profit! And then NAC is credited with NREGA, RTI and now the proposed Right to Food Act. So basically then few achievements of UPA are credited to the NAC headed by _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _. That's all, your honour!

The Obvious Case of David Headley

David Coleman Headley, was formerly known as Daood Gilani. His dad is a former Pak diplomat and mom is an American. He is an American Citizen. His original name, as mentioned before, is Daood Gilani. He changed it to David Headley because that will make his travel across the subcontinent easy.

So why did he want to travel around the subcontinent? Because he was working for a terrorist organisation called Laskhar-e-Toiba (LeT). Being an American Citizen with a name like David Headley, he was pretty sure that his frequent visits to India and Pakistan will just go un-noticed. And he was right. Despite his passport having multiple instances on entry into India, Pak etc, none of the immigration officers here in India or in US even doubted his instances even once.

So what work did he do for LeT? He came to India, did a detailed recce of many many places and submitted his videos to the LeT in Pakistan. Do you want to take a guess at what some of those locations?

1. Taj, Mumbai.
2. CST, Mumbai.
3. Trident, Mumbai.
4. German Bakery, Osho Ashram etc, Pune.

Do these names ring a bell? The famed 26/11 attacks took place at the top 3 locations. The recent Pune blast happened at German Bakery. This is just a list of some places. I don't know about the other places he went to.

Recent investigative reports also revealed that David Headley was also an FBI agent, possibly a CIA agent too. So basically a double agent. Worked for the FBI and the LeT. Ofcourse, it has neither been officially confirmed nor denied that he worked for FBI.

So, now lets connect the dots (duh! like there is anything to connect there). So essentially, David Headley is a prime conspirator in terror attacks carried out on India. He is one of those chiefly responsible for killing of the citizens of India. As also some citizens of the US, Israel etc. If anything, the US should have atleast given us the access to interrogate him. Afterall, we allowed FBI to interogate Kasab within weeks of his arrest.

But hey, what does the US do? It arrests him, but does NOT give us access to interogate him. It enters into a plea bargain with him. Yes, you read it right. It entered into a plea bargain with a TERRORIST. He pleads guilty, doesn't get the death sentence and no more interrogations. However, the kind souls that the US government officials are - they have told us that we can have video conferences with him in Indian courts. Rejoice people, for the US has been so magnanimous in offering us this wonderful facility.

So the US had to do this to protect its secrets, for he was an FBI agent too, apparently. The war on terror has just become a joke now. If you are wondering what will the Indian government do now... please, let's not even get into that.

David Headley is a Terrorist. Nothing more, nothing less. But hey, the obvious case of Daood Gilani ends with a plea bargain! Shame on the US(the degree of superlatives here really does not matter today - we have been insulted, and that's the truth).

PS: Links to all the claims above are available on the net.