The uninformed informer

Much before Pulwama attacks happened and for almost two decades now, Kashmiri Muslims have been studying, working, carrying out businesses and living in several parts of India. Even in the peak years of militancy, and despite the massacre and forced exodus of Kashmiri Pandits, the image of Kashmir for most Indians has been that of a paradise, of a tranquil Dal lake, of hospitality and of a memorable tourist visit. The spiritual, cultural and historical fountainhead that Kashmir is for Hindus, has almost been neglible in the public conscious. The political integration of Kashmir from Independence and it's favourable concessions are even less known, let alone understood. Slowly, facts from these domains are coming out for consumption by the public, but it is much slower than the rate at which Kashmiri Muslims themselves have been given impetus to abhor the India State and find affinity with Pakistan. It would be a fallacy to believe that Kashmiri students and professionals in vari...

The fantastic ability of our Mainstream Media to elevate incongruent events into the public narrative is almost hypnotic to those who bow to the hashtag as the harbinger of righteousness. There is an event, there is news and then there is the hashtag opinion which you can subscribe to and finally there is your own opinion - which could arise from a number of factors like education, learning, emotion, understanding or even stupidity. The Event It is actually what happened. It usually has two persons or groups and if there was a stray animal nearby it's incidental species determines it's role in the event. To actually know what happened in the event either you have to be a part of the event as one of the parties, or an eyewitness at the site or make the effort to travel to the location and meet everyone concerned. Now usually this is nowhere near your neighbourhood, nor your city nor a state you have probably ever visited before. And you are not likely to take the trouble to g...

Congratulations Major Leetul Gogoi. I wish i knew you and could shake your hands or maybe have a drink together. You hit them where it hurt the most without firing a single bullet or blow. You upheld democracy, saving the lives of polling officials, the J&K police and the ITBP who sent an SOS call to survive imminent manslaughter from a mob of 900 stone pelters. Their own forces could have come in numbers and helped with a violent dispersal of the mob using rubber bullets, or pellets or tear-gas or anything else at their disposal to ensure the safety of their fellow policemen. But then again, why would their employers even care about 9 policemen and do anything to jeopardise their benefits from the riches of the 7th pay commission. And so the Army was called in and you and your team had the enviable honour of responding to the situation. Of course the OG had every right to tell the Khakis to sort it out themselves and could have stood back and watched like the Khakis usuall...

To me this appears like an appreciable scheme.A worthwhile subsidy, since the people are benefiting instantaneously from it. Any corruption here will be behind the doors and will not impact the benefactors. People would still realise that there is a cost to everything and will not look for freebies. If the government can maintain the quality and nutrition, this merits replication across all states.All the best to the TN government to maintain this well. http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/tamil-nadu/amma-unavagam-rs5-lakh-a-day-feeds-15-lakh/article5128261.ece?homepage=true

Amidst the development of the new NCERT primary English text book, where A for apple is being replaced by recent phrases provided by politics, the Congress on Friday reacted happily to the announcement of Narendra Modi's elevation as the BJP's Prime Ministerial Candidate. Congress party strategists have their task cut out for them as BJP has primed Narendra Modi to become the single point of failure for their party. "With great power comes great responsibility" - made popular in Spiderman, comes to Modi as he now needs to cast his net of acceptability far and wide.The reason's for Advani's annoyance is known only to him. Whether the denial of that role to him, has led him to feel annoyed is a speculative guess for anyone but Advani himself. But let us give credit to the octagenarian statesman who has made an impact to the BJP's growth and set aside the personal aspiration angle for a while. One of the value propositions that the BJP has been subtly try...

More than the elation, it is the relief. Relief not just for Sachin but for all Indians collectively. Sachin's stature as the greatest ever is a discussion for cricketing pundits and commentators the world over - but not for us common Indians. We already uphold him as the greatest ever and it is this fact that propelled our desire to see him get a century of centuries, probably more than Sachin's own desire itself. For Sachin it is yet another day at the office for doing what he does best and in getting the hundred - he has given us Indians Bragging rights. So thank you Sachin.He may retire with a final tally of centuries to his name and that tally will be the bar for future cricketers to raise to. Someone may end up breaking the record in the course of a few decades from now - but we can still brag that you were the first and that without you others wouldn't have imagined this possibility. Even if someone were to go one past your tally - it would still have been Sachin...

Darkha Butt :Good evening and welcome to another episode of We the Feeble. Today a raging debate across the nation over Health Minister Nhulam Gabi Azad’s remarks that men having sex with men is unnatural and a disease. The health minister’s remarks have created a furore across and is seen as insensitive towards minorities. To get the bigger picture on this we have today in our panel four eminent personalities. Spokesperson for the Congress Party – Tanish Mewari, Mr.Savi Rhankar Prasad of the BJP, Bahesh Mhatt –filmmaker and social thinker and Krinda Barat of the CPI. Darkha Butt : I’ll start with you Tanish, what do you have to say about the health minister’s comments today Tanish Mewari : I have only heard media reports of the so called comments made by the health minister. Until such time I can peruse a draft of his speech, it is difficult for me to comment on the same or say what the party stand is on the issue. The health minister’s comments are not necessarily the views of the...

A one para report on the last page of  today's paper reported the death of Mammu 'Jallad' Singh. A third generation hangman from Meerut, whose grandfather had executed Bhagat Singh, had wished to come out of retirement to hang Ajmal Kasab.Of course this is a task that any self-respecting Indian will not hesitate to undertake.Except... Except of course the guiding principles of our constitution that ensure a fair trail even for murderers caught on CCTV camera, identified by witnesses,doctors and policemen.So ever since the horrid mumbai attacks of 26/11, the tax payers money is paying for Kasab's bed, biriyani, the 11000 page chargesheet,it's subsequent translation into Urdu because Kasab can neither read English or Marathi, cost of transporting the judges and public prosecutors to court,running of the court house, security expenses and what not.Perhaps the total cost expended so far could have opened a Public Health Centre in some part of remote India. And yet K...

The 2014 FIFA world cup is almost four years away. To be held in the land of 'Joga Bonito' , in what will certainly be a samba carnival, presents India with it's best chance to get close to qualifying for the most watched event in television history. But for India and it's new breed of footballers, the beginning ( or end ) of that dream will come between June 29 and July 5th when they square off in a home and away format against the UAE. Having tasted the flavour of  competetive international football in the recently concluded Asian Cup, the feeling must still be lingering in the young and upcoming legs of Indian football. So here's how it's going to work.In all there are going to be 5 rounds of qualification. Australia,South Korea,Japan,North Korea and Bahrain have been seeded top 5 and will compete directly from the third round of qualification. The first round will be playoffs between teams seeded 28th upwards to 43 (43 being the total number of asian n...

In his defence of the recent deluge of scams,rising inflation etc and other sliding trends of the UPA govt, the prime minister cited the compulsion of coalition politics as being one of the reasons. The cabinet meeting over the proposed tax exemption to the revenues from the final of the cricket world cup was divided in it's opinion to exempt Rs.45 crore as tax payable by the cash rich BCCI. While even the honorable sports minister was against this move, it took the silence of the Agriculture minister Mr.Sharad Pawar and the arguments of  minister Praful Patel (who heads the apex football body of the country) to convince the government to grant this exemption. Now surely this is a joke. I am pretty certain that an economist of a Prime Minister would be happy to generate revenue for the nation from ventures where the government doesn't have to expend much money. Yes, 45 crores is probably far lesser than what several cricketers make and there can be various lines of thought...

A sense of loss pervaded me too when i read this morning the sad news of the demise of Anant Pai.He was certainly an uncle of mine, like to millions of other indians, whom he fed with marvellous storytelling through Amar Chitra Katha and Indrajal comics whose images are embedded in our minds. Be it the lucid images of the great indian epics or the humourous suppandi,shikari shambu and numerous other images every kid who ever laid his eyes on an ACK literally grew up with it as a habit.So much so that none of us would hesitate to read these even at grown up ages. Im sure if i were to gift an ACK to a child, it is with some hope that i could also get to read it. Dear Uncle Pai i will miss you and this Sunday i am returning to the Indian Institute of World Culture, where i feasted on your comics as a schoolboy, sit on those same wooden benches and read your immortal images. Thank you for the happiness.

A one para blurb in the newspaper today announced the decommissioning of the CIRUS nuclear reactor.It simply said that it was part of the Indo-US Civilian Nuclear Deal agreed between Manmohan Singh and George Bush. This barely a few days after it completed its landmark of 50 years and barely a few years after it was refurbished at a cost of millions of dollars.And all this at a time when there is still a muted debate on the nuclear liability bill and even before the USA actually gets around to helping us move forward on its commitments as part of the deal. Actually the use of the word commitment in the previous sentence is a misnomer.Its actually the Indian government claiming to represent the people of India that is making all commitments and the USA and other developed nations are just saying thank you. It is perhaps the result of our inherently subservient attitude. Notice the way we hold foriegners in awe during personal interactions and are almost apologetic about our own exis...

This morning at 6 AM, I tuned into the All India Radio to listen to Vande Mataram, the Morning song of India that has been greeting Indians for several years now.As the first streaks of sunlight emerged from behind the clouds just as the National song ended and the announcer started listing out the programmes for the day, I proudly planted a Khadi Tricolour atop my Balcony, for the first time ever in my life.I should be swelling with pride and in a jubilant mood, but im actually more sombre. So what prompted me to put up a national flag on my house? A couple of days back I was at the traffic signal at the intersection of MG Road and Brigade Road - at one time one of the symbols of Bangalore for the travelling Indian Public. About some 100 ft in the air the concrete beds for the metro rail flow from left to right in what will soon add Bangalore to a select list of Metrorail running cities in India.Below, on the road, are more B-Class and C-Class cars than two-wheelers, which is a good...

I recently came across a discussion board on a website where the subject of discussion was the ceremonial lowering of guard at the International Border in Wagah.The panelists were thrashing the ceremony as a mindless and jingoistic dramatisation of the animosity between the two nations and not in line with the peace overtures that are sought between the two nations.In trying to sound as strategic analysts i was getting convinced that these guys had never been to Wagah at sunset. A couple of kilometres from the IB one can see the hundreds of Punjab registered trucks lined up on both sides of the highways carrying potatoes,onions,foodgrain and fruit waiting to clear their customs formalities and crossover to deliver essential commodities into Pakistan.As you near the gate partly cleared paddy fields  make make-shift car parking and snack stalls for the swarming crowd of tourists who come to witness this 30 minute celebration of nationalism. Entry is free and the best spots are fo...

Recently during the Prime Ministers ground-breaking press conference,he had inadvertently remarked that we are a nation of 1 billion dollars, before he realised his "tongue of the slip" and corrected dollars to people. Every once In a way some magazines and newspapers proudly proclaim the top ten billionaires of India or how many Indians in the Billionaire list because these are definitely bits of information that will bring cheer to the millions of Indians who live off the salaries paid by this billionaire club. A lot of news is on TV these days over the new compensation being announced for the victims of the Bhopal Gas Tragedy.More than two decades after the horrifying incident, the emotional thread and anger may be missing amongst the rest of Indians to actually prick the government's conscience to set the records straight.It is a   shame for us Indians that we are allowing the value of life to be devalued so easily.Death of other Indians in terrorist acts, railway a...

All 30 students of Super 30, Bihar’s free coaching centre for poor students here, cracked the IIT-JEE this year. “All the 30 students have cleared the IIT-JEE,” Anand Kumar, the institute’s founder-director said at a press conference on Wednesday. “It is a matter of great pleasure as we have achieved it again," he said, adding that since the inception of the coaching centre in 2002, a total of 212 students have cleared the IIT-JEE examination, which is considered as one of the toughest examinations in the world. Mr. Kumar said the students hail from very poor families and commit themselves to a year of 16-hour study each day after passing a competitive test to get into the coaching centre. “Now we will try to arrange loans for the education of the poor students who qualified for IITs,” he said. Mr. Kumar, who himself missed a chance to study at the Cambridge due to lack of money, gives full scholarships including room and travel to the students. When contact...

Reproduced here below a brilliant article written by P.Sainath in The Hindu on 17 April 2010 Freebies for the IPL — at a time of savage food subsidy cuts for the poor — benefit four men who make the Forbes Billionaire List of 2010 and a few other, mere multi-millionaires. And so the IPL fracas is now heading for its own Champions League. Union Cabinet Ministers, Union Ministers of State, Chief Ministers (and who knows a Governor or two might pop up yet) are being named as people trying to influence the bidding process. Both houses of Parliament are in uproar. The taxmen have launched a “survey.” Many in the media and politics are happy to reduce it all to issues of propriety or personality. For, the BCCI-IPL is one platform where the Congress and the BJP cohabit, normally with ease. Big money is, after all, a secular, bi-partisan space. (Or tri-partisan: let's not deny the central contribution of the NCP to this phenomenon.) It's also interesting that the media, though n...

Ajmal Kasab is 30th on the list. And his best well wishers now are the 29 people ahead of him in line, who will give Kasab a long-life. The last man hanged in India was somewhere around 1995. Im sure even the other 29 on the list would not like to be hung by the same noose as Kasab.The judge has already declared that he has no humanitarian ground left to consider any leniency. There is substantial,circumstancial and all other types of evidence available against Ajmal Kasab. Does he even deserve the right to appeal or file a mercy petition? Can we afford to keep him in our prisons and risk making him a commodity for ransom. Keeping him alive will only make him the poster boy of other terror groups. Either execute him mercilessly or send him back to this mother and drive home the message that there is no glory in terror, and that there is no holy war.The victim's families will never achieve any closure, no matter what Kasab's fate is, but let them not get the feeling that so ...

The Hindu : Opinion / Lead : ISI & the buried truths about Mumbai

Here I am back with my rantings against the IPL. So, the IPL III is over (on the field,but certainly not off the field). While CSK walked away with the trophy, the opposition ensured that Thashi Sharoor walked away from politics and the BCCI told Malit Lodi to take a walk. And since all of us are definitely consuming the selectively fed news to us I will not elaborate why the business part of the IPL seems nothing more than a can of worms. What also amused me in the finals is a dance performance by a scantily clad actress.Mumbai was the venue of the finals and it is the capital of the state that not so long ago took a stand against bar-dancers and banned them all, since it allegedly promoted other activities too. So a couple of thoughts came to my mind. If the paying public are entitled to performances by socially-accepted actors to mindless lyrics and costume designing, and the actor being paid a hefty fee for it, and we find nothing wrong with it then what moral right do we have ...