That's all, Your Honour! : July 10-16

1. On the evening of July 13th, terrorists blasted three bombs in Mumbai (again in crowded areas). So far 21 innocent civilians have been killed and more than 150 have been injured. This is the third such blast in the crowded Zaveri Bazar (earlier ones were in 1993 and 2003). Initial investigation is leading to doubts that the IEDs were used in these blasts. Also it is being analysed that Bangladeshi immigrants might have been employed to place these bombs. The Home Minister has told us that this is the first blast in Mumbai since 31 months and therefore it is evidence that security scenario has improved a lot. English TV media went gaga over how calm and composed the Maharashtra CM post these blasts. Later, in an interview to NDTV, the CM cites red tape as the main reason for not being able to procrure equipment to the police. And instead of questioning how as CM he is not able to get over this red-tape, NDTV again called him frank blah blah. The Prime Minister has told us that "we will do everything to prevent the terror attacks". Rahul Gandhi has told us that "99% of terror attacks have been prevented". Perhaps he should talk to the 21 families who have lost their near ones. Or maybe to the 150 injured - and explain to them how 99% of attacks were prevented. Sonia Gandhi, ofcourse hasn't spoken anything.

2. Sadly, this has been a week of tragedies. There has been a train derailment in UP. 35 passengers were killed and more than 100 were injured. And on the same day, in Assam, a local militant group triggered a blast in a train injuring more than 100 passengers. At this point of time, the Prime Minister was the Railway Minister too and asked the Minister of State for Railways to go and visit the Assam site. The MoS refused, saying he is not the railway minister!!! And ofcourse, our Prime Minister was as helpless as ever.

3. There was a central cabinet reshuffle this week. As always, all hype and little substance in this reshuffle. Significant changes include relieving Veerappa Moily from law portfolio and making Jairam Ramesh as the Cabinet minister for Rural affairs. Analysts are confused if this is a promotion (given that they think Jairam will use his experience as a drafting member of NREGA of NAC in UPA 1.0, and will ensure most of Rural India will vote back UPA in 3.0) or if this is a demotion from his hyped stint in Environment ministry. Ohh wait, there is one more thing people are happy - Jayanthi Natrajan is a minister now, so we won't have endure her on TV talk shows :D That's all, your honour!

That's all, Your Honour! : July 3-9

A very quick update this week.

1. The Supreme Court this week ordered the Chattisgarh and Central governments to disarm all the Special Police Officers (SPOs). The government trains the tribal youth in naxal prevalent areas in arms, and empowers them to fight the naxals. The SPOs, more famously known as Salwa Judum, have been around since 2005. The Supreme Court objected to their "employment" saying this violates many a constitutional principles and also it is dangerous to empower 5th class pass outs as police officers.

2. After his role in granting license to Aircel came under the scanner, Union Minister Dayanidhi Maran has resigned from the Cabinet. He is the second minister from DMK to resign over telecom issues. The Congress has so far been successfull in making this look like a DMK exclusive scam, but it looks like the day is not far away when bigwigs from the Congress will get implicated too. A recent PIL filed against Kapil Sibal has already accused him of favouring Reliance Comm to the tune of ~645 crores. Kapil Sibal has described the PIL as "malicious" :D

3. Last week, we talked about the enormous amount of treasure that was found in the Anantha Padmanabhaswamy temple in Kerala. This week, english TV channels were abuzz with discussions on where this "money" should go. When asked where the "money" is, no one bothered to reply. English TV channels also did not reply on why one would want to sell rare treasures from previous centuries? If that is the case, then perhaps we should start auctioning all the stuff in our museums too, your honour!

అదన్నమాట! - జూలై 3-9

రాష్ట్రం లో మళ్ళి అనిశ్చితి మొదలు అయ్యింది. వంద మంది ఎమ్యెల్యేలు రాజీనామాలు చేసారు. ఇందులో పన్నెండు మంది మంత్రులు కూడా ఉన్నారు. ఊహించినట్టే, కాంగ్రెస్స్ హై కమాండ్ పెద్దగా స్పందించలేదు. పన్నెండు మంది మాత్రులు రాజీనామాలు ఇచ్చినా పెద్దగా రాష్ట్రం కి వచ్చే నష్టం ఏమి లేదు అని కొంత మంది పెద్దలు సెలవు ఇచ్చారు కూడా. వంద మంది ఎమ్యెల్యేలు తప్పుకున్నా సరే, ఎటువంటి సమస్య లేదు అంట.

పాలన మళ్ళి స్తంభించింది. కాని ప్రబుత్వ పెద్దల మాటలు వింటే, అసలు ఎటు వంటి సమస్య లేదు అనే అనిపిస్తది. ఎట్టకేలకు పిచ్చోళ్ళు అయ్యేది ప్రజలే కదా అండి మరి!

The halt in governance...

One of the primary and most important responsibility of a Home Minister (at Central and State) is maintanance of law and order. It effectively means that the entire police force reports to the Home Minister. The Home Minister guides the police force during critical law and order situations.

Yesterday, 81 MLAs from Telangana region, belonging to both the Congress and TDP have resigned for the Telangana cause. Amongst them are 11 ministers. Amongst those 11 ministers is the Home Minister of the state, Smt. Sabita Indra Reddy !! So now she resigned as an MLA but not as a minister, but then morality demands that you don't continue as a minister after resigning as MLA, otherwise what big cause are you fighting for?

On the other hand, you took an oath saying you will preserve law and order. And now you are part of the group that has precipitated the situation and emboldened Telangana Joint Action Committee (T-JAC) to call for a 48 hour bandh. Given the past violence during such bandhs, this 48 hour bandh is a critical law and order problem - so which sides do your loyalty lie Madam Home Minister? Will the police force now report to you on their plan of action? Will you guide them to enforce law strictly or will you ask them to go lightly on those who will break the law? Does the police force have enough clarity in what to do and enough trust in reporting back to you? Are these not important questions that should bother citizens and law makers alike (it should bother the media too, but ...) ? Will you take responsibility for the ensuing chaos?

11 ministers out of a cabinet of 38 have resigned as MLAs (breaking news is that a 12th guy resigned too). If news reports are to be believed, they will not be discharging their duties One more minister is the president of the state congress too - so all his time will go into overcoming this crisis. So we have 12 non-functional ministers now (. Am pretty sure atleast half of the other 26 ministers will be busy discussing this political situation :D. If this is not called stagnation (or maybe should we call it, a halt) in governance, then what is?

81 MLAs in an Assembly of 294 have resigned. State Panchayat Raj Minister, Mr. K. Jana Reddy (who incidentally was the Home Minister in YSR1.0 government from 2004-2009) enlightens us that this is not a crisis. Really, Mr. Jana? If this is not a crisis, then what is??

Andhra Pradesh has been plagued by such stagnant governance since the December 2009 agitation. We do not know how long the latest crisis will last. Could be days, could be weeks. Leave political uncertainty, the uncertainty in governance is so glaring that it has ceased to surprise us anymore. The stagnation started with the death of YSR, compounded by his son Jagan's belligerent stance, multiplied because of the Telangana agitation and has consistently only grown ever since. A change in the Chief Minister didn't help (all we see is huge posters of this guy telling us what all he "achieved"). A new state Congress president was appointed and it was celebrated as if the 11th incarnation of god happened! With these changes, a power struggle between the CM and the new chief ensued (the new chief even held review meetings with ministers and officials!) - the end result is more stagnation (halt)!

In the initial phases of this agitation, the alarming regularity with which bandhs were called was frustrating. After a couple of them, most of us started defying them and moved on. However, these bandhs are now intermittent. Each time a bandh call is given, first there is mad rush at petrol bunks, throwing traffic management haywire!

Second and most importantly - schools and colleges are closed. For every bandh call, for every single rumour of a disturbance in the city, schools and colleges are closed. And no single political leader is even worried about how these kids will cope up on lost time. Last year, engineering colleges lost about a month because of these agitations (even exams were postponed), but guess what this one month was not compensated in the final semester! This is just one example of the results of no governance in the state.

A compliant media, both at the state and centre, has confined itself to reporting and hyping up parts of the agitation. This blogger has himself been in one of the shops that were attacked, back then. This blog piece details how the media created some unbelievable hype and led to supreme chaos. The way violence was projected as movement was nauseating to say the least. No one seems to be bothered about this facet either.

Week over week, we see ministers closeted with MLAs and loud mouthed MPs, discussing and plotting "future course of action". No minister, I repeat, no minister ever addressed the press on "future course of action" pertaining to his ministry with such regularity. No one, literally no one wants to discuss the fall-out of this stagnation (halt) in governance. Assuming that this "crisis" will be resolved, what is the guarantee that those ministers will work with commitment desired? What is the guarantee that a similar crisis will not "erupt" again?

And the lesser we talk about the steps taken to resolve this stagnation(halt), the better. The one person responsible for this entire chaos - Sonia Gandhi ( read here, why she alone is responsible) , has not uttered a single word till now. Apparently, the Prime Minister has called for an urgent meeting of the Cabinet Committee of Political Affairs last night. CCPA consists of the Prime Minister, Home Minister, Finance Minister + Moily, Antony, Pawar, Farooq Abdullah, and Dayanidhi Maran. Not one face from the state on whose political future the debate is happening!

The purpose of fun is learning...

No no, the title is not my invention. Please look below.

Ladies and Gentlemen, introducing to you, "Kausalya Global School" that will guarantee that your child will have a 150+ IQ at the age of ...... 4 - that's right 4 years! Not in four years, it is by 4 years.

"An average 4 year child in our school would identify flags of 100 countries, read a book, do math, have musical intelligence, and be physically superb. In short, an IQ of 150 or more"

And how do they plan to do this? See below -

A "Nobel prize winning concept" it seems!!!!

Also, don't worry if your kid in another school or stuff like that. Because this "global school" runs a "Brain Building Program" after school hours.

And what does this program achieve? See below -

100 vital skills in 16 weeks starting July 8th !!

I am even at a loss of words to describe this madness. A 4 year old with a IQ of 150+ will do exactly what?? After learning all that stuff, what else will be left for him to learn for the next 3-4 years? Ohh wait, let's not bother discussing, because "Fun should have a purpose & the purpose is learning".

That's all, Your Honour! : June 26 - July 2

1. This week, after a Supreme Court ordered audit, government authorities have started to do an inventory of the assets in Shri Padmanabhaswamy Temple in Thiruvanthapuram, Kerala. Take a guess at the value so far - a whopping Rs.90,000 crore/- and still counting! There are six chambers, A to F, that have to be opened. So far, 4 have been opened and we have assets worth Rs. 90,000 crore! (it is not a typo - Ninety Thousand Rupees)! Pure gold statues, coconut gold shells studded with stones like ruby, emeralds and many more, historical coins, and much much more. Some people are saying Rs.90,000 crore is just market value, if you add the historical value, the amount can go up much higher. If one temple in India has so much assets, just imagine how much money and other assets would have been looted from our country during the Mughal plunder and British raj. Sigh!

2. The Lokpal (or as fellow blogger realitycheckindia has coined, Jokepal :D) drama continues this week too. The team members of Anna Hazare went about meeting leaders of all political parties, and tried to enlist their support. They didn't even bother to go about explaining their draft version earlier to any political party! What is worse is the government's response - it has called for a all party meeting only after all it's calculations backfired massively. Civil society members not wanting to discuss with political parties may have been understandable, but what explains the government's ridiculous stand in not contacting any other party while drafting the bill with "civil society" members? And the government doesn't stop there. It stoops down further. Law Minister, Veerappa Moily enlightens us with this - "The civil society group has only tried to hijack the Congress agenda". hahahahahahahahahaha.... I can't stop laughing, I think even you cannot stop laughing!! hahahahahahaha..

3. The Prime Minister of our country spoke to five print editors this week. As expected he lectured on what needs to be done, but didn't utter a word on why it was not done till now. Nor did the editors ask that question. This blogpost discusses it in more detail. However, what we came to know today is that the Prime Minister lied yet again, in the course of this interview. He said former Sports Minister's objection to the CWG were only ideological and he did not have an idea about the functioning of Suresh Kalmadi. Media released letters written to the Prime Minister, in which specific complaints were made on Suresh Kalmadi, spending etc etc. Another lie of "honest" and "decent" Prime Minister nailed. That's all, Your Honour!

అదన్నమాట! : జూన్ 26 - జూలై 2

ఈ మధ్య నాటకీయత కరువు అయ్యింది అని భావించిన తెలంగాణా కాంగ్రెస్స్ నేతలు, కొత్త నాటకం కి తెర తీసారు. అందరు కలిసి రాజీనామా చేస్తారు అంట రేపు. అధిష్టానం మీద ఒత్తిడి తీసుకురావడానికి అంట. తోక్కేం కాదు. ఈ రాజీనామా ని ఎలాగ అంగీకరించారు. ఇంకెందుకు చేసి? దీనికి తోడు ఘులం నబి ఆజాద్ గారు ఏదో సెలవు ఇచ్చారు .... ఇది జాతీయ సమస్య అంట. ఒక రాష్ట్రం ని విభజించాలి అంటే చాల విషయాలు గ్రహించాలి అంట. మేరి ఈ తెలివి అసలు నిర్ణయం తీసుకునప్పుడు ఏమి అయ్యిందో మరి? అసలు సోనియా గాంధి గారి ఎక్కడ ఉన్నారు అండి?? ఎవరు అడగరే ?

The man "in command" ...

"Second, we must ensure that infrastructure does well, is well-managed, its reform is a priority concern."

The above line sounds like it is coming from a retired Nobel Laureate addressing some obscure audience on how reforms can be carried out in India. Or maybe from some "think tank" guy/girl trying to pass of as an expert in what India needs best. Or maybe from Sagarika Ghose :D.

But the answer is none of the above. That sagely and enlightening line was thrown towards us by the Prime Minister of India, Dr. Manmohan Singh. Now, if you are thinking that Dr. Manmohan Singh has been newly appointed as PM and is articulating his vision - you are mistaken again. He has been India's Prime Minister for 7 full years (and counting) and when asked why reforms are not taking place at a pace that is satisfactory, that is what we got as an answer.

The long winded answer to Q.13 in this interaction he had with 5 print editors is a must read. He tells us that we need a law - doesn't tell us why he couldn't bring in that law. He doesn't tell us why roads (which come under infrastructure) under the Golden Quadrilateral project are running at such a slow pace. He tells us that there is a need to set up "working groups" to understand how education and health services can be improved - doesn't tell us why he couldn't merely set-up those working groups either (especially given his tendency to set-up a GoM for any issue). Then he talks about making a beginning in FDI and retail areas - that's right - he is exploring options on how to "make a beginning" 7 full years after he was given the mandate to make them. Again - he doesn't explain why he didn't make the beginning so far.

Why do we need a Prime Minister, if we just have to maintain status quo? Isn't a Cabinet Secretary enough for that? Why do we need a Prime Minister, who doesn't feel the need to interact with his citizens often and when he does - just cribs about how he has a vision but will not do anything about it?

That interview had more gems. He enlightens us that it is easier for agencies like CAG, and opposition parties to criticize decision "post-facto" because they are not aware of the environment under which such decisions are taken. He tells that these people now have facts that were not available to government at that time. Again, he never tells what the facts he didn't have at his disposal were. What exactly was the urgent need to push through the spectrum sale without having enough facts at his disposal? He won't answer that question either. This article in The Hindu is a good read, and exposes his lies based on this "post-facto" statement very nicely.

While again defending his silence over the 2G scam while it was happening, he tells us he is not an expert in telecommunication. However, what we do know is that he is a expert economist (remember that Resume of his that went around in chain mails in 2004)? And so since we are being ruled (sorry, administered) by an expert economist, we'd expect he will throw some light on why our salaried class has to shell out so much money because of high inflation. What does he do - he tells us "Inflation is a global problem" (Answer to Q.44). And he cites the Chinese inflation rate too, as if it is a relief for us.

And then there is this bugging issue of Pranab Mukherjee's office. The Home Minister was kept out of the loop. The Prime Minister also confirmed this - "this was on a need-to-know basis". Yet, not a single article of outrage in the media. Not a single edit exposing this deep mis-trust the PM and the FM have on the HM. We are to just believe that this issue was a "bogus" one as told earlier by the FM.

Finally - how can he have an interview and not blame the BJP for the ills that he is facing? It won't be complete. So he tells us (as an answer to Q.19 regarding 2G scam) that "there is a cabinet decision of 2003". Folks - did you know, there was NO cabinet decision in 2007 when spectrum was auctioned? Did you know that this Prime Minister agreed that Cabinet does not have to take a decision on this, based on pressure from DMK? And he has the gall to talk about cabinet decisions! And when questioned about Commonwealth games (Q.40), he ends his answer with "The agreement to have CWG was signed in the year 2003 when the previous government was in power". Ofcourse, he won't tell us that the corruption scandals related to CWG had nothing to do with the agreement. And on the reforms question (Q.13), he cites the Goods and Services tax and tells us that BJP is politicising it.

Amidst so much, do you want to take a guess at some of the headlines in TV channels - "I am in command - PM".

That's all, Your Honour!: June 19-25

1. The Nuclear Liability Bill is back in the news! What was assumed to be sealed and done, is again back to haunt us. Well, it is not the bill actually that is in the news though. In September 2008, the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) has given India a clean waiver. This waiver allows for transfer of technology by these countries to India, despite India not being a signatory of the Nuclear Proliferation treaty (NPT). The US literally coerced many countries into accepting this waiver, and as always, the English TV media hailed the Prime Minister. And last week, the NSG effectively killed this "clean" waiver that was given to us. In new guidelines, that ironically were introduced by the US itself, the NSG now says that transfer of sensitive technology cannot happen to a country that is not a signatory of the NPT! The new guidelines also suggest that such waivers will also not be available to countries that do not allow international inspections on all nuclear installations. Like the report in The Hindu aptly concludes, the Prime Minister once said a deal will be in place only when all restrictions are lifted but hasn't bargained for a situation where some of those restrictions, once lifted will be imposed again. Our diplomats are fighting this out, and are also trying to ensure that bilateral commitments are met. Am sure the Prime Minister will once again give us his "we will not bend", "history will judge me" speeches. This blog has documented various instances of the Prime Minister misleading the country, when it came to this bill.

i. How the Prime Minister sought to stealthily change the law

ii. How the government planned to let the supplier off, in the event of a disaster.

iii. How the govt. introduced the bill on the last day of a session

iv. The Bill (with a link to Pilid's superb blog on the same topic)

2. The Indian Express broke a shocking story this week. In September last year, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee wrote to the Prime Minister, complaining of a serious security breach in his office. He said there were about 16 planted adhesives in his office, including three under his own desk. That's right folks - the number 2 man in the Union Cabinet has found that there were adhesives planted right under the table he works! There were similar adhesives in conference rooms, and under tables of his secretaries. And instead of calling the Home Minister, he directly wrote to the Prime Minister. Instead of calling in the Intelligence Bureau to investigate, they called in private detectives. And when confronted with this news item, Pranab rubbished this as a bogus theory. He said that the Intelligence Bureau investigated the issue and found nothing - this was mere chewing gum. Security experts and opposition parties dismissed this chewing gum theory (as would anyone with common sense). The Home Minister, when asked how come he was not approached by the Finance Minister, tells us that perhaps they considered this as a non-event and therefore did not approach him. Yeah right - this is a non-event, therefore the Prime Minister was contacted directly! This incident gives us a superb insight into the functioning of this government, wherein deep mis-trust reigns amongst the higher echelons. And we are to believe, that all is well and this is a bogus theory!

3. So the Lokpal panel meetings ended just like they began - as a farce! The government did not budge, the "civil society" team members did not budge. Each stuck to their own versions. On top of that, the government representatives like Kapil Sibal and P Chidambaram went all-out in discrediting Anna Hazare et.al. As is his wont, Kapil Sibal mouthed off whatever came to his mind. Anna Hazare is now threatening another fast starting August 16th. And they have also decided to meet all opposition parties regarding the same. Strange that these members did not see the need to consult the opposition parties earlier. Even stranger is the fact that the government did not consult opposition parties earlier! Pranab Mukherjee wrote a letter to all parties and also to Chief Ministers of states, asking them to reply back in about a week. Most of them replied back saying, they will not answer any questions :D! Opposition parties demanded that the bill be discussed in Parliament threadbare, and not in mere letters with not enough time to think over. The bungling of this issue by the government is just too embarassing to say the least. There are multiple fundamental questions that beg answers, but alas no one in the government will answer them. Kapil Sibal now says Anna Hazare wants to create a parallel government. He however will be mum on the other parallel government in the country - the NAC (which incidentally cleared the food security and communal violence bill this week, with Sonia's word "prevailing"). By the way, The Hindu has this nice graphic of the differences in the drafts of government and "civil society" versions.

4. Yaawwnn. Foreign Secretaries of India and Pakistan met this week. New terminology was created. India said there is no "segmented approach" to terrorism. yaawn.

4. The Central government increased diesel, kerosene and LPG prices this week, by Rs. 3,per litre, Rs.2 per litre and Rs.50 per cylinder this week. This is the 10th time in 10 months fuel prices have gone up and ofcourse the 10th time we are told that this is because of fluctuating global prices. What many people are not able to comprehend is this - why do prices fluctuate only upwards, your honour?!

అదన్నమాట! : జూన్ 19-25

తెరాసా సిద్దాంత కర్త - ప్రొఫెస్సర్ జయశంకర్ ఈ వారం కన్ను మూసారు. ప్రత్యెక తెలంగాణా రాష్ట్రం కోసం గత 60 ఏళ్ళు గా పోరాటం చేసారు ఈయన. అయితే, ఈయన భౌతిక కాయం కి చూడడానికి వచ్చిన కాంగ్రెస్స్ మరియు తెదేపా నేతలు మీద తెరాసా దుండగలు కొంత మంది దాడి చేసారు. రాజీనామాలు చేస్తే కాని ఎవ్వరు ఇక్కడ రావడానికి వీళు లేదని అని తేల్చి చెప్పేశారు. ఇలాంటి అరాచక శక్తులు ఏమి సాధిస్తాయో ఎవ్వరికి అర్ధం కావటం లేదు. అన్త్యక్రీయలు లో పాల్గొనడానికి కూడా వీళ్ళని రానివ్వలేదు. వీళ్ళు ఎంచుకున్న హింసా మార్గం ఎంత వరకు సమంజసమో వీళ్ళే ఒక్క సారి ఆలోచించుకోవాలి ....