That's all, Your Honour! :June 27 - July 3

1. 8,63,000 people affected in India, in the last four months. Now wait - are you wondering if the number is exaggerated? Not a bit. The reason we haven't known about this before is because our "national media" to which we have access did not tell us about this. Official sources have told a newspaper that 8,63,000 people have been affected by floods in the past four months in Assam. More than a thousand villages have been affected, and not a minute of coverage of this news. 8,63,000 people!

2. Stone pelters are back in action in areas of Jammu and Kashmir. Infact, our Home Minister, Mr. Chidambaram has blamed the LeT for being behind these violent actions. That we wouldn't bother to raise the issue with Pakistan is another issue though. The Hindu calls it (rightly so) "Kashmir's street war". Most of these clashes havebeen occuring in old town areas and as The Hindu rightly points out, sometimes invovled 100 people or less. In the latest round of violence, 11 people have been killed (most of them youngsters). All this started when security forces killed militants in the Sopore area. No sooner did the killing happen, protestors were on streets and they soon turned violent, and the result - 2 protestors killed. And the cycle continued - more protests over the next few days - more unrest in the areas - more killings. Media first blamed CRPF and then realised that these protests happen with alarming regularity. Then it was realised that all these organised protests are the making of separtist groups. An SMS is apparently sent, and immediately a small crowd gathers and starts these disturbances! And now the Home Minister has blamed LeT directly ! Amidst all this, all that the CM of J&K could do was to appeal to the people. This link on The Hindu website will give us latest news.

3. It happened again. 26 CRPF men killed in Chattisgarh, by who else but the cold blooded murderers - Maoists. Ensuing debates again underscored the point that no proper training is being given to these CRPF jawans, and yet they are being sent to the war. And the sad part - no one in the media is even questioning why this decision has been taken.

4. In what can be termed as a major success for the police, Maoist 3rd in Command, Rajkumar alias Azad has been killed in an encounter with police in AP. This man has been responsible for the killing of 2 IPS officers, attempting to kill 2 CM's, killed 1 minister, one former Speaker and scores of policemen. He has risen to the spokesperson of Maoists and this killing is a HUGE blow to the Maoists. Now, however, Gadar, the balladeer, calls this guy as "True People's Leader". Yeah right, a mass murderer is the true people's leader - haa ! That's all, your honour!

That's all, your honour! :June 13-19

1. When inflation reached double digits in 2008, we were told that it was the effect of global problems and it will come down soon. It did. Infact it went into negative percentages in 2009, and that's when most of us were confused (read here for the doubts then!). Despite it going down to that levels, prices were never really in control. And then the inflation started increasing again, and it has again reached double digits, and now the Finance Minister says it is a "matter of concern" and the predicted good monsoon should stabilise the inflation. You see, this is all very confusing! If it is all about global factors, then why is the inflation swinging like a pendulum, instead of maintaining consistency (high or low)? How come food inflation is consistently at 17-19% over the last 2 years, and yet the overall inflation is swinging so much? If there is something we can do to control it rather than saying that it is a "matter of concern", then what exactly are we doing? Or like this editorial says, monsoons won't matter? All questions, answers very difficult to find! Sigh.

2. After more than 2 months, the Manipur Blockade has been partially lifted! One of the groups that have caused this blockade, the Naga Students Federation, has agreed to lift the seige following the Central Government's intervention. Another group, All Naga Students Association Manipur, is however still adamant on continuing it's blockade. The Central government has decided to send in trucks with essential items, and these trucks will be escorted by paramilitary forces. The problem though is not fully solved, because of the adamant stands taken by the warring groups. As always, who suffer? The common man/woman.

3. The Bhopal story is still dominating the headlines. The planning commission released Rs.982 crores to the Madhya Pradesh governement. It was first played out as if the Planning Commission went out of it's way to give this amount. It was then revealed that the state government asked for this amount in 2008 itself. Next is some revelations by the then Foriegn Secretary. The blame was tried to put on P.V.Narasimha Rao, the then Home Minister. In the meanwhile, the Group of Ministers headed by PC, have met multiple times this week, and are trying to increase the compensation to the victims. Plus also they wish to re-open the extradition case apparently. Let's wait for their finally recommendations, and then discuss more next week. And finally the national english Media has started talking about the climbdown on the compensation amount by the Rajiv Gandhi government in 1989!

4. And here's the yawwnn moment of the week. India submitted another dossier to Pakistan. This dossier contains replies to the six dossiers submitted by Pakistan to us. This has been submitted on the eve of the Foriegn Secretaries meet. Yep, that's right, they are going to meet. What they are going to talk is still suspense! That's all, your honour!