This was Coming!!!!

It seemed that after attacking our armed forces,parliament,markets,temples,historical monuments,modes of transportation,foreign embassies in our country the terroists were running out of targets in our country.But for these bigots nothing is indespensable.They aim to destroy the very fabric of this nation and hence always try to come up with different targets.Hence this time it was the IISc,the foremost institution in research in our country.

It's the epitome of research projects in our country.Any aspiring research scholar would love to do a project in this institution.The IISc is also believed to be involved in several confidential projects for our country.Hence it's comes as no surprise that the terrorists chose to target this institution.Infact this was long time coming.After the different forms attack on our country it seemed that an attack on our defence and research institutions was next.And the terrorists too seemed to have thought the same.

Now I would like to mention an interesting article written by Mr.Raman.Mr Raman is a distinguished bureaucrat and is famous for his insightful but,at times,pro-congress articles.He puts forward a theory which sounds extremely plausible and tangible.

First of all he claims that the recent attacks on Bangalore were motivated by nothing but economic compulsions.He cites similar acts in different parts of the world.Terming it Economic Terroism he feels that the terrorists look upon Hyderabad, Bangalore and Chennai as economic powerhouses of this country,and feel that striking them could have a negative impact on India's reputation and economy.

As with all terrorist acts and especially those in India even this seems to have a Pakistani connection.He elaborates that the Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has been,ever since he came to power,striving hard to diversify Pakistani economy.In this regard he efforts have been aimed at developing the IT industry.However since India is already considered a superpower in this field,the Pakistani IT industry hasn't really taken off.And hence what better way to divert attention to their IT prowess than to discredit the Indian industry by creating security concerns in the minds of the western MNC's.

Now I don't support this theory.But I can't discard it either.After all the Pakistani Govt has always tried matching us in every way as possible and the prolonged Kashmir Dispute is just an indication of the same.The Pakistani Establishment has always used Kashmir as a political ploy and they are quite aware that until the Kashmir dispute is solved India would never be able to achieve complete economic growth.Well the reasons of that will take an entire post and hence I won't dwell too much into that.Coming back to the point,I feel this could very well have been the handiwork of the ISI,a govt in itself,and the quintessential intelligence agency,ruthless and unscrupulous.

But if this was the case not only is it shameful and disgraceful but it also doesn't show Pakistan in good light.After all this isn't the right way to achieve development.But I guess with Pakistan nothing is unexpected.But I request you all not have any fallacies that I am Anti-Pakistan.I neither love nor detest Pakistan but I hate the Pakistani Govt and their ISI.After all I am not sure what happens to the Pakistanis,as long as they are ordinary citizens they love and respect our country but when these very individuals come to power they suddenly start hating our country and consider Kashmir to be an inalienable property of their nation.

Well now that it's obvious(and has always been) that nothing is immune to terrorist attacks it's time the government slashed the number of armed personnel deputed to our politicians,celebrities and corrupt bureaucrats and instead started dispatching them to reputed research and educational institutions in our country.But going by the kind of security provided to our University which IMHO is next only to IIT interms of Technical Excellence,the terrorists won't find it hard breaching our University walls.After all how long will it take to knock out a potbellied constable and a couple of security guards.

P.S:-Ever since our VC has come to power his primary aim has been to convert our campus into a fortess,immune to "western and unethical" activities.It would be advisable that he rather concentrated on making our campus impregnable to terrorists.

 

Let Better Sense Prevail.

2005 was a landmark year for the aircraft sector.The boom was unparalled.Arguably the stock market seems to be the only other entity that had a better year(excluding IT which has been having good time for past 2 years).New air carriers were launched.Aircrafts were bought and leased for record sum.

Indian Airline became Indian.Air Deccan had a new CEO.It has ordered 30 news aircrafts.Air India made a landmark order for 68 Boeing planes.

I just have one question to all these aircraft carriers and our aviation minister as well.What's the point in spending such humongous amounts of money when the aren't sufficient number of airports?And even those that exist are so ill equipped that most of the ordered aircraft could very well stay grounded.

Poor infrastructure has for long been the bane of the aviation industry.Not only India lacks proper infrastructure in several sectors and this is a perilious situation as proper and all round development is not possible in the absence of infrastructure.The primary reason for China's dominance today across all sectors and industries is its impeccable infrastructural capabilities.Whatever the industry,whatever the demands,the Chineese have always been upto task and have been diligent in ensuring the setting up of the required infrastructure.That's one of the few things that the Chineese govt seem to do well.But in India infrastructure is absolutely non existent.Gargantuan amounts are allocated by the government for establishing infrastructure but by the time the construction is complete only a minuscle proportion of it would have been put to real use and the rest of it would have filled the coffers of contractors and middle men.This doesn't mean the such corruption is non prevalent in China but it's quite minimal and the Chineese are renowned for their infrastructure.

So back to Airports.Here we have the Delhi Airport.The National Capital.Thousand's of passengers use this airport to go to different cities all over India and the world.However come winter,year after year after year,we hear the same story.Planes delayed,cancelled and grounded.And the poor innocent victims are the passengers.What makes it even harrowing for them is the callousness and lackadaisical approach of the aircraft carriers.People had hoped that things would change with greater privatisation and competition but the way it looks,govt or private,everyone seems to function the same way in our country.Well the private carriers put the blame on airport officials,but what are they doing.A person complain on NDTV that one gets to hear melodious music on calling Spice Jet but no one picks up the phone to answer the queries.Why the hell do these carriers give their helplines when they don't intend to answer the calls?

According to an article on ndtv.com Delhi airport has been equipped with the necessary equipment to deal with fog.The catch is that only Indian and Air India pilots are familiar with handling this technology.Consequently all private carriers are forced to cancel or reschedule their planes.Now I would like to know what were these carriers doing all this time.The carriers would obviously have known that fog would be a problem this winter and yet their pilots are ill-equipped to handle the same.

Merely starting a carrier and offering cheap fares isn't going to do the trick for these companies.They need be more sincere in serving their customers.They need to start caring for their passengers and should take adequate measures to arrange for their accommodation in case of delays.

I am not sure whether Mumbai is equipped to deal with fog.But I feel this perplexing that the propreitors of these carriers who are influential,rich and enjoy a clout in the echleons of power are unable to convince the government about the poor infrastructure prevalent in our airports.Government talks about privatisation of our airports and has floated tenders for different airports.But these tenders are mired in controversy and debate and the time these tenders take to get cleared are so long that one could very well build 10 airports in that period.

One can only hope that better sense prevails and that the government realises its folly and takes necessary damage control measures.I would also love to see privatisation of our airports at a faster pace and I request our communist comrades as well as the airports union to not raise a hue and cry on this matter.After all don't you people want to see airports in India equipped with state of the art facilities giving any international airport a run for their money.Any patriotic Indian would love to see that.Hope you guys don't differ.

 

The rot in our system

The parliament,yesterday,did something uncharacteristic.It decided to expel 10 of its MP's who were caught red-handed pocketing money to ask questions in the parliament.It was something unexpected.Not only were they swift in their response but also wise enough to expel the guilty legislators.But the legitimacy of this decision came into question as the speaker announced that these individuals could again contest polls.What are they actually trying to achieve?This is like dropping Ganguly and now bringing him back for the Pakistan Tour.

Well we should never have expected anything from these senseless bloodsuckers.Policians are corrupt.Period.There's no arguing about that.And the fact that politicians accepted money to ask questions in the parliament was the worst kept secret.During the 80's when license raj was in full force innumerable politicians cutting across party lines were on the pay rolls of different companies and their palms were regularly greased to ask questions and counter questions in the parliament.With liberalisation and reforms thing mellowed down a bit,yet,these politicians continued to recieve money for all sorts of deals and agreements.How else would you explain the wealth of the Maran clan related to Karunanithi.It's believed that Murasoli Maran used to pocket a hefty commission for every factory he permitted.Now all this is speculative as there is and will never be concrete evidence.

So the question arises that when all this was well known why hadn't anyone spoken about this earlier.Well the reason was that in the 80's and early 90's the press to was on the pay roll of these companies and the near total absence of the electronic media.But the advent of the millennium changed all that.With the no of news channels increasing by the minute media houses were forced to do something that would set them apart from all other channels.Tehelka brought the word "Sting Operation" into the Indian media's lexicon.India TV based their entire channel on these stings.But most of these stings concentrated on the perversive side of human beings and left a bad taste in the viewer's mouth.All other channels too have had their share of sting operations.But Operation Duryodhan carried out by Cobra Post and Aaj Takwas the biggest of them all,atleast the biggest after Tehelkas.Earlier stings had concentrated on corrupt police officers and bureaucrats.But this time they went for the politicians.Now whatever the channel might claim,they carried this out to increase their TRP ratings and they are justified to do so and in the process they thankfully brought some corrupt politicians to the book.

But was this enough??Certainly not.If one took a closer look,it would become apparent that the people accused are nothing more than small fishes in a huge ocean.They were out to make a quick buck and ended up getting caught in the process.It is also clear that Aaj Tak was clever and prudent to only target those in the opposition and not bribe someone from the congress.Had they done so they could very have put their channel and career on the line.We all know what happened to Tehelka after the defence scam.Instead of going after the corrupt officers and politicians the government embarked on a ruthless mission to destroy Tehelka and they almost succeeded in doing so.But thanks to some concerned well to do individuals,Tehelka today,is up and running as a newsweekly.Could Aaj Tak risk so much.Well they decided not to and went for the gullible.

So what choice did the parliament have?Not much.They could have ignored this and gone on as nothing had happened.That could have been the case had some congressmen been accused.But that was not the case and more than 5 of the accused were from BJP and the congress was no going to let go of this opportunity.And hence it decided to expel them.A committee headed by a congressmen decides to expel it.But in reality the congress had too many bones in its own cupboard to do too much and hence they most probably worked out a compromise with the BJP and other parties and offered both the stick and the carrot.Now whether the guilty politicians would again want to contest the elections is a different matter but they have atleast been given the opportunity to do so.

Hence what did the operation actually achieve.Nothing!!.The politicians were expelled but are again allowed to contest.So the net effect is zero,zilch,null.

What I would like to see is more such stings targeted at big wig politicians and bureaucrats.The fallacy with Bofors was that there wasn't any visual evidence.Everything was subjective.The same is the case with the Volcker controversy as well.Everything based on documents.We need concrete evidenc.Visual evidence is even better.We need to expose the rot at the top and only then can we hope for some changes.The way our media has been "stinging" the day isn't far away when some one of Vajpayee or Sonia Gandhi's stature is caught on camera.

 

Same Sex Marriages-What is this world coming to???

Today I read a post on my fellow blogger Ram's Blog.He had mentioned that one of his friend was marrying at 23.He wrote about the disadvantages of marrying early and the loss of independence and the need to make commitments.Now I am not going to write about marriage and its pros and cons.IMHO I don't know much about marriage and hence think I should desist myself from writing on this topic.

But one particular incident made me rethink on the very institution called marriage.It's the marriage of "Sir" Elton John to David Furnish.Well don't be surprised to see the names of two males as it was the first "big" same sex marriage in Britain and anywhere in the world.Same sex marriage was made legal in UK in december 2005 and is among the few countries in the world that allow such practises.

Now I am not going to comment about Elton and his wedding but in my opinion legalising these marriages is nothing short of utter nonsense.Call me conservative and archaic in mindset but I am not going to change my opinion on this issue.Marriage between a man and women is one thing but marriage between 2 men or women is nothing short absolute blashphemy.

I just have a doubt.What the difference between two men or women being friends and two men or women being in love.What's the difference??Can't these people be just friends.Do they have to take it to an upper level.

Now we can even forgive these people who are gay considering it to be their personal preference and we have no right to question their interests and desires.But what really worries me is the attitude shown by some these countries towards Gay people.I am not suggesting discrimination against them.After all they too are human beings but legalising union between gay couples breaches all barriers of human comprehension.Can't we just have status quo.Do these governments really need to pass bills to legalise such unethical activities.If this is liberalism then I will always prefer to be a conservative.

What ridiculed me even more was the fact was the response of our media to this issue.We are all aware of the tendency of our media to celebrate anything western and liberal.But one channel took it way to far.The channel said "Is it time to legalise Gay marriages in India?".

Hmmm that's a nice idea.That would be a even better excuse for our "moral police" to go even beserk.In a country that is still debating the implications of female independence and pre marital sex,gay marriages is the last thing we need.The newspaper Tehelka is one of the foremost champions of gay people and if one were to believe it nearly a tenth of our population is supposedly gay.Even bollywood hunk Salman Khan is gay.Did you guys know???If not then remember you knew it here.

Jokes apart I dread thinking about the day gay marriages become legal in India.I would love to see the response of VHP,Bajrang Dal,Shiv Sena and our very own Tamil Protectionist Forces.In a society where even married couples are frowned upon in public such a decision would be explosive.

In retrospect I feel it's always better on any day to stay conservative and oppose homosexuals and gay people rather than accept homosexuality and legalise practises.

P.S:-These are my personal views.I don't intend to hurt anyone.If anyone feels hurt by my opinion then I express my sincerest apologies as it was not my intention to hurt you in any manner.

 

Safety of women in India

We live in the 21st century.Globalisations is ubiquitious.India is rapidy developing.We are only behind China.We are supposedly modern.English magazines annually bring out sex surveys claiming open are more open about their sexual preferences today.People talk about the normality of pre marital sex in our society and ask everyone not to expect virgin girls as their wives.

And then there is Meerut.This is a city located in Uttar Pradesh and just 70kms from the national capital and yet couples aren't independent enough to openly talk in parks.They are beaten up and even those who have come to study in parks are thrased and asked to leave.And all this is not the work of goons or anti social elements but the work of police.The enforcers of law have also become the keepers of morality.And it before you think it was a male police officer who did all this correct yourself as it was a female cop who indulged in such barbarism.The behaviour of the cops had greater resemblance to the maniacal elements like VHP,Shiv Sena and Bajrang Dal than to people who are entrusted with the law and order of this country.The SP and the women police have been suspended but is this sufficient?

Now onto Bangalore.The bastion of globalisation,IT and BPO has of late been in the news for all the wrong reasons.From a dilapidated infrastructure to politicans and IT czars who have been bickering all year about the development or lack of it in Bangalore.And now to top it all the rape and murder of a BPO employee by a cab driver hired by the company.Where was the police now???Isn't it their duty to patrol at night??Can't they be a bit more vigourous in their patrolling.Patrolling won't wipe out such incidents but they would atleast reduce such occurances.Can't the government allocated funds for even such ventures?

Earlier it would used to be Delhi that was notorious for this infamy but now rape of women has become a common feature all over India.A day doesn't pass without news piece on a women raped in some part of the country.Rape in hospital,rape at a beach,rape in a mall.Most of these culprits are let off after serving a sentence but very rarely do they get hanged for their punishment.

Well there's a debate raging in our country about the futility of Capital punishment and discussing about it will require an entirely new post,but IMHO,people guilty of such henious crimes like rape deserve nothing less than Capital punishment.When they don't respect the dignity of others what justification do they have for their life??

In view of such atrocities on women what freedom of are the magazines talking about.Isn't this a law and order problem.Doesn't this come under the jurisdiction of the police?When women rule so many states and when the de facto Prime Minister of this country is woman can't we have greater measures to protect women?The media too has to play a role in highlighting these issues.Mere sensationalization of this issue by the media isn't acceptable.

Let there better greater safety for women in our society and we can then talk about pre marital sex and other voyeuristic pleasures of women.