That's all, Your honour!: Feb. 19-25

1. Last week, we were talking about the Italian navy personnel firing at and killing two of our fishermen off the Kerala coast. After "deliberations", the police could finally get to arrest the two nay personnel. And common sense suggested that the matter ends here, and the courts will take over from now on. However, Italy tried to work some "back-channels" to see how their personnel can be released. You can't blame Italy for doing that though. One of the "back channels" that Italy was working on was this - "...the Catholic channels via the Vatican to allow the two marines to leave for Rome after paying some compensation to the families of the killed fishermen".

Now, this caught our attention - given that this was printed in the front page news of The Hindu. And then the earlier statement of recently appointed Cardinal from India, Alencherry (who happens to be from Kerala) gained importance. He apparently said (which ofcourse was "misquoted" according to him) that " Kerala Government should not act precipitately against the Italian marines" and also said "he was in constant touch with the ‘Catholic Ministers’ in Kerala’s Congress-led Government". What can be more shameful and disgraceful than this? A couple of our citizens are killed, and here we have officers of the Church taking the opposite side of our citizens? Why should the Church get involved at all in this? Thankfully, other church officials in Kerala derided this statement by the Cardinal. There is still talk about giving monetary compensation in exchange for the nay personnel. If that happens, remember who worked that option out - the "catholic channel". However, the Indian government is crystal clear that the courts are the only competent authority to handle this case now. 

2. The Liquor scam in AP is turning out to be huge. The Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) has submitted to the court that the Liquor scam in AP is worth Rs. 15,000 crores! I am pretty sure, if you are outside AP you wouldn't have heard about this news, given the "national" media's obsession with other important things! A dealer being questioned in this case has also said that the excise minister himself brokered a deal between him and another dealer. The dealer also said that he paid Rs. 10 lakh bribe to the minister directly. As usual, the minister denied it. However, what is even more disturbing is that the minister and many other leaders are rubbishing this of as a conspiracy against a BC leader!! The CM has also brazened it out and decided to support the minister fully. Now, we surely know how the case is going to end up! The state congress chief has himself agreed that ~30 of his relatives are in this business. A telugu newspaper claims to have accessed the report and tells us that 20 ministers, 140 MLAs amongst thousands of others are involved in this scam! Yet - all we have to tall talk - no action. This article explains neatly how this syndicate works - it is a must read to understand this scam. 

3. Kingfisher airlines is in big trouble. The I-T department has frozen it's bank accounts and therefore Kingfisher is not able to make any payments. The result - many flights stand cancelled. Kingfisher is due a lot of money in taxes to the government, and their mounting losses haven't helped their cause either. But here is a must read article - "The Curious Case of Vijay Mallya and his bailout. And one more scam!" . Please read that exhaustive article to see how Vijay Mallya and the government colluded to rob our money! 

4. And finally, did you think that the 4.5% minority quota within the 27% OBC quota was restricted to jobs only? You are mistaken - now the supposedly premier educational institute in India, the IIT has decided to give 4.5% reservation for minorities within the 27% OBC quota. That's all, your honour!