Thursday, December 30, 2010

Rahul Gandhi, you should have not done this !

It is good if WiKiLeaks & RaidaGate happens once in 4 - 5 years. Gives a chance to normal citizens to have an overview about how our elected representatives work & how they take us for ride.

- Rahul Gandhi's comments about "Hindu Terror" are definately something he should have avoided 100%.
- During UPA 1 the impression was building up that Congress is doing good & can deliver in future as well + Ragul as an individual as some "substance".
- But UPA 2 looks like a downward. Rahul also not thinking on his own. His remarks show that he (& his friends) have no confidence in handeling their own internal situation.

Leave apart the religious sentiments, today it is proven beyong doubt that Al-Qaida, Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) & all their brother & sister organisations are the epicenter or terror or axis-of-evil. These organisations are involved in 100s & 1000s of killings world over. And Rahul Gandhi is more worred about a few incidents where a few Hindus has been chargesheeted, not convicted yet ? Not that they should not be punished guilty, they should be definately as per the law-of-the-land. But calling it more dangerous then LeT indicates you do not trust your own people. + telling thsi to a USA guy is mroe rediculus. Shows who is more important for you, us or they ? And Rahul is our next PM-in-waiting ?

NO NEVER.

Sunday, October 31, 2010

Kashmir (J & K & Ladakh) -- the "Interlocuters" -- Ms. Roy -- and of course me !

As a common man & as an Indian, this is what I feel about the latest "Interlocuter" & "azadi" episode:

Interlocuter ? I wondered what it means & this is what Wikipedia says "is a person who informally explains the views of the Govt and also can relay messages back to the Govt"

Dileep Padgaonkar (well known journalist) is a learned & mature person. The 1st thing he says is, Pakistan's involvement is necessary. I agree 100% because that is the ground reality, Pakistan is paying huge money to keep the fire buring in Kashmir. This is what Mr. Ram Jethmalani says (Times of India, 31-Oct-10). But to acknolodge this as the 1st item, is it Govt of India's view ? Is it like a "good point to start" ? Why do we always shoot ourselves in the foot & give an edge to others to make advantage out of it ?

Radha Kumar (academician), came up with a possible interpretion of Indian constitution that "azadi" is ok & can be added to it now. Is this not very easy ? Did the whole nation miss it fo last 62 yrs ince 1948, when Pakistan started the war (direct & indirect) ? Why don't we just do it (like break it) & get rid of the problem ? Like serving a hand or a leg if it catches gangrene (Wikipedia) ? Is this what Indian solders are defending for last 5 - 6 decades & such huge money spent ?
-- No Kashmir (J & K & Laddhak) is an injury but definately not infection or dead tissues.
-- It was, it is & it will remain integral part of India.
-- And yes, it is easy to talk about plebiscite (or referendum), when you have driven a sizable population of "Kashmiri Pandits" out of their motherland & I'm sure equal no of Muslims have also migrated to other parts of India to save themselves from constant trouble. Does a referendum makes sence ?

M M Ansari (Information Commissioner), who is he & where is he ? Is he in this pannel just because he is a well known & learned Muslim ?

I mean any of the above, are they experts on Kashmir ? Are they experts about Indian Constitution ? Have they studied Kashmir ? Or they are just eminent persons who are messagners appointed by Govt of India ?
-- Then do they talk "for" Govt of India ? In that case does Govt of India think "azadi" is ok after 62 yrs of struggle & death of many many soldiers & many more civilians from the vally ?
-- If the interlocuters do not talk "for" Govt of India, it means this is their personal openion, & in that case above questions about their experties should be answered.

Arundhati Roy (Wikipedia), should be a learned & mature leady. I assume so as she got a Booker Prize in 1997 for her book. So one known prize (for book) & she is qualified to take up any issue:
- Fight for Naxals
- Violation of Forest Laws
- Srilanka Govt's crackdown on LTTE
- Gujarath
- Linking 26/11 (Mumbai attack) to Kashmir
- Afzal the Indian Parliement attack fame
- Pokhran tests & big dams
- Sardar Sarover project
- And now Kashmir
--- I strongly feel should should be our Prime Minister. She knows anything & everything and probably has solution for all the above (& more) issues that we face as a Nation today. Such a waste of talent & time that she is spending in writing books.
--- I sincerely feel this is either beyond human, that she is a jem or she likes the publicity in the time of so many 24x7 news channels. I'm inclined to later & good if we just start taking Ms. Roy at her "face value".

Kashmir (Jammu & Ladakh), and finally the main subject, what went wrong ? Upto a few (2 - 3) yrs back it seemed like Kashmir is coming back to normalcy after state elections a few times. Why did we let this normalcy slip & gave any advantage to the "seperatists" ? Is Abdullah Family blackmailing Govt of India ? They are getting support even if they can not handle internal state administration peroperly. Is Mr Omar Abdullah competent enough or he is there as he is friend of Rahul Gandhi ?
-- Does everybody in Kashmir need "azadi" ? The Jammu & Ladakh population ? The Kashmiri pandits including ?
-- And what will Kashmir do after becoming "azad" ? Get into Pakistan ? As it Pakistan is living on USA thrown dollers, it is called aid, will the Kashmiris get a better life in Pakistan ? I'm sure the Kashmiri aam janata knows this better.

Sunday, August 08, 2010

Sohrabuddin - Common Wealth Games - Kashmir a nice political use-case !

Warning: a longer post

1> Sohrabuddin-CBI-Amit Shah
2> Increase in petrol prices & inflation
3> Commonwealth Games
4> Tension in Kashmir vally

All the above are related events & everybody in Delhi, both ruling & opposition, are making use of it for their personal gains. Lets take it 1-by-1:

Sohrabuddin was not a saint, not a normal (or common) man either, rather a criminal, extortanist & at times anti-Indian. CBI has many similar cases in its pocket where it is keeping quiet rather being asked to. But this 1 is nicely being used to put BJP on back-foot on the price-rise agenda.

On its part BJP & rest of the opposition knows that the recent price hike in Petrol is justified & long pending & the UPA-2 has no choice. But they are in opposition & they have to .

UPA-2 is also sounding arrogant after being voted 2nd time with bigger margin then UPA-1. Central ministers shouting at each other: Mr. Iyer at CWG, Digvijai at Chidambaram & so on. Both Iyer & Digvijai definately have backing of their bosses. So how many boss are there in Delhi ?

There is BIG time "void" in delhi of a "leadership" to take India to the next level. None of the parties, ruling or opposition has an answer to this.
-- Dr. Manmohan Singh is a respectable economist & that is it. He is not a mass leader. It is not his mistake, this is what he is.
-- Madam is the head of UPA & again just the head, with very limited access (or interest) to the aam-admi.
-- Rahul loosk promising, but needs time, we should not make 1 more Rajeev out of him. But we need him & his team of 2nd generation.
-- BJP, Advani looked desperate to be a PM. 2nd level is fighting among themselves & arrogance is seen here. Sushma S, Anant K, Arun J, etc .. none have pan-India appeal & they will not allow anybody to take lead.
-- Atalji has done his job & should not be brought into all this at all now.
-- UP, Bihar, TN, etc .. the smaller UPA partners are just regional & not intereasted to spread out of their state at all. Rather they are not expected to do so. They better try & run their states effectively 1st.
-- Communists & Mamata .. are becominjg more & more narrow-minded for Kolkotta. They eat-drink-sleep Kolkotta. It cannot get worst than this. They have reached a point that they take it granted to "kill" each other :-(
-- RSS, last in the list, is also experimenting with its caders. They spend last 60+ yrs doing ground work & succeeded the Ram Temple movement. But luck was not with them & thay missed ruling India with "absolute" majority.


Now coming back to the relation among the above events, the UPA-2 is busy fighting Modi as if that is the only thing left for a "majority" central govt. How could they not sense, of feel, or judge what is in store ? I'm not sure if PM or UPA chief are capable of this & has the required foresight :-(. Is UPA running a company with Madam as CEO & PM as COO ? Then this is the worst times we are going through. Running a capitalist company & running a nation is definately not the same. We can not comittes to run nation. We need leaders who can sence the pulse of our own people & of our neighbors. We need visionaries.

We need to & should handle the Kashmir issue ASAP. We need to get-into-Kashmir & into Kashmiri "janata's" mind & harts. Kashmir is INDIA & will remain an integral part of INDIA. All INDIANs are proud for this & will always support this cause. Both CRPF & BSF has jawans & officers from all over the country serving in Kashmir & sacrificing their lives for the cause of protecting this land & its citizens from the Pakistan induced & sponsored terrorists.

It is un-imaginable to think of what will happen to Kashmir if it becomes part of Pakistan. The Kashmiri janata should take a realistic view of what is the conditions of "Mujahirs" in today's Pakistan. The so called seperatist leaders, should think of the situation like a managemnt case-study of what will be the future of Kashmir in Pakistan. As of now Pakistan is heavily struggling to keep its folks together & Kashmir is the "ultimate" issue to keep the aam Pakistani janata diverted from the military-mis-managed Pakistan.

1> Central govt should pull its socks & stand behind the Kashmir state govt & the CM.
2> Same for CWG, we need to punish the guilty & make them pay for their mis-deeds, but we need to make the games a success in the 1st place. We have to continue with Kalmadi & make sure this the CWD is a success.


Everybody else, including the opposition "has to" support these efforts. Of-course the amm admi wishes the above 2 things to be "success" & is wishing a "good luck" for the administrators to handle this early & effectively.

Thursday, May 27, 2010

Shashi Tharoor minus IPL ??

Tharoor sans twitter, OSD & IPL -- a successful MoS (Rediff)

I guess all of us will agree that Tharoor is a good "new age" leader. Even Twitter that he used is a new age communication mechanism.


See what
TED has to say about him & his talk in favour of "soft power" & its influence. Actually 1 of my Finnish friend passed this TED link to me :-). Listen to him carefully, choice of words & emphasis of important points & delivery of the speect, simply great !

My reaction during DEC 2009 was:
-- He is good. He is “new kind” of politician in India who has seen the world & has lots of experience.
-- But probably more out-ward focusing person & he has to learn to see in-ward to the nuances this country has at grass-root level.
-- But we need him & many more like him who bring out-ward looking perspective to the Govt. Otherwise our “default” politicians always go to a line “they do what their voters need” & do not bother about rest of the world.

Now fast-forward to IPL 2010:

-- I guess it was ok that he used his influence to move the new IPL team to Kerala. The episode showed that he is ready to jump to extra-curricular activities. I mean other then being a white-color minister.

-- But it also shows that he was not abel to handle (or I would say "hide") the other connections, to be specific his friend.

Again this looks to be a new age politics, bold & clear!!!

We know for sure that there are 100s of MLAs & MPs in INDIA who have "connections" & they use influence to get thinsg done in their favour, even kill innocent for their gain. But then they do it the traditionla way that we Indians are used to, by hiding things.

I guess Tharoor need to learn this. The mass in India is ok (or I would say "used-to) if the leaders are doing "ghapla" only that it should be under wraps.

We of-course need leaders like Shashi Tharoor to be around. I would say, Rahul Gandhi, Jindal, Sachin Pilot, Nitin Gadkari, Mohan Bhagwat, etc. We need "new age" leaders in all the camps, ruling & opposition. With new ideas & new ways of working.

Saturday, May 08, 2010

RSS in social sector !

Diggy meets PC over RSS in social sector (TOI, 8-May-2010)

This is good ! I would say best !! Thanks Mr. Digvijay Singh for making it official that RSS is doing a very good work.

As you updated to Mr Home Minister, some of the RSS related NGOs are getting funding from Govt. This is an indication that RSS is working for a real cause & does not have any proxy agenda.

Mr. Digvijay Singh, your own state of MadhyaPradesh is a very good example where RSS is working for last 10+ yrs in the trible areas & have successifully stopped conversion by Christians by paying money.

Now do not hunt these NGOs just because they are related to RSS. I'm sure you or Mr. PC or the Congress or the Christian money, nobody can stop RSS from doing good work at the grass root level. The "pracharak" concept created by RSS has no match & they are the foot solders who are burning their blood to bring this transformation.

Kudos to RSS & its sister organisations for this !!!

Sunday, February 28, 2010

Calrton Tower, Bangalore fire & 1 more bad coverage by TV media :-(

Very very serious issue :-(

Something has to be done for the TV channel folks, they are running any dam footage with no brains approach.

-- imagine the kids at home, seeing all this through-out the day, 1 guy or a girl jumping off a 6th or 7th floor to save his or her life & dying instantly :-(

-- do we remember, the images of a cop bleeding to death in TN, about 2 months back ? he was attached by underworld as mistaken identity. The TV channel had all the time to shoot the video & also comment how the ministers & collector did not help the police constable & left him dying. What was the dam TV guy doing ? Why did he not pickup a dying human being & rushed him to hospital ?

I would say the old Doordarshan days were better. Now we have the other extreme where the Mumbai firing images were live broadcasted to the controllers in Pakistan.


This should stop some where -- TV NEWS channels are compromising national security & by showing such BLOODY footage again & again, making our next generation less & less sensitive :-((

Saturday, February 20, 2010

Food street (Thindhi Street), V V Puram, Bangalore

"Food-Street" or "Khau Galli" or "Thindhi Street" or "Old Market Road, Visvesvarapuram", call it anything. This is the best location to enjoy street-food. A fest for vegetarians. A place to hang-out with family & friends & enjoy the food. Delight for veg food lovers ! Butter-gulkand-with-ice-cream-and-fruits, I just canot resiste that test !! Many more items that pull me back to this street very often, with family.

We go there almost once-a-month. Uaually, Fri or Sat evenings & the place is always crowded. It is a one-way & no-parking street, mostly for pedestrians. But ocassionally, you can see cars parked & people eating from the cars & then of-course the traffic cops trying to shoo the parked vehicles off.

As with every street-food, the prices here are very reasonable & easy-on-the-wallet. The place looks traditional & old and looks like an evening-market kind of street. The shops & their specialities that I have tested so far:

* V V Bakery -- just at the entrance, on right-side -- a BIG bakery, looks old & traditional types -- sells lots of diff biscuit + bread + buns + cakes + pastries -- I would say a little expansive but I like the items.

* Ghee dosa / Butter dosa -- costs Rs. 20/- per piece, price same for plane & masala -- the guy literally pours Nandini Gheen to his dosas, directly fromt he 1 liter pack :-) -- simply delicious -- 1 very strong looking leady runs this place and her cash box is always overflowing -- I have seen it always crowded, 10 - 15 min waiting time.

* Paddu & Ginna -- this is just opp the ghee dosa shop -- they sell many more items like: idly, vada, dase. I have tried Paddu ("appe" in marathi) & Ginna (sweet made of the 1st few days milk after a cow or buffallo delivers her baby). Both items test very good.

* Gobi-Manchurian (live) stall -- better you do not see when the guy is deep frying the gobi (curly flower) -- but the final dish is good :-) -- on the adjacent stall I have seen "rumali-roti" as well.

* Pav-Bhaji & Vada-Pav -- I have not tested a better vada-pav then this in Bangalore, of-course, next to what Kalyani makes at home :-) -- there are 2 stalls side-by-side & both serve good pav-bhaji & vada-pav and at times kacchi-dabheli as well -- you should see, when the guy puts Amul butter to the pav, he literally dips the pav in butter. This makes it more tasty.

* Ragi-Roti & Rise-Roti -- this is next to the vada-pav stall, this guy sells ragi-roti with brinjal curry. Both roti & curry are good. You can try this different item. Behind this stall, there is a shade where they sell Idly & Dose. Very resonable price.

* Obbattu (Puran-Poli) -- costs Rs. 10/- per piece & is worth it. Simple thin obbattu made with "chana dal" filling.

* Gulkand with ice-cream & furits -- costs Rs. 40/- & more -- this is a shop on the left end of the street. he sells literally everythig: cigrates, coconut-burphy, masala-soda, masala-thumpsup, every kind of soda with masala, spicy bhel puri, sev puri, and masala puri , chips, small time chocolets. Simply amazing shop. But do not miss the Gulkand. It is stuffing but again worth.

* Sweet corn -- cost starts from Rs. 25/- onwards -- I donot know why it is called as American ? -- at the end of the street, you will find 2 or 3 push-carts, with impressive setup on it, battery operated radio & a small fan to stroke the fire in his charcoal pot, for frying the Sweet corn. They have 6 - 7 varieties: simple salt-lemon, butter, with raw-mango, with a green chutney, with pinapple, etc. Worther the money !

* Sweets -- gulab jamuns , rosogollas, jelebis, soft milky khoya, thick creamy basundi, various falvoured milk (kaser, badam, etc) & ice-creams.

* You also get -- potato, chilli, capsicum and banana bondas (bhajis) -- they sut the bonda & stuff it with a mix of grated carrot + onion + something :-). I could not dare to try this so far looking at the grated carrot in it but I'm sure it is feast. Lots of people (young & old) queue for it.

** Avarekai Mela (Festival) & check -- at "Sri Vasavi Condiments" -- just at the entrance on your left-side -- you can buy everythig avareki here: Dosa, Vada, Obbatu, Sambar, Rassam, etc. The shop sells

Location on various maps .. Wikimapia, Googlemaps, Yahoomaps, Ovimaps.

Note: I'll try to get some photos & also get the exact shop names & will update this post after my next visit to "khau-galli".

Sunday, January 10, 2010

Varun ? BJP's new "youth" icon ??

Does the RSS see Varun Gandhi as a “saffron Rahul''?

With due respect to Mr. Varun Gandhi & both RSS & BJP bosses, I would like to believe this is just a sensational NEWS.

Varun may have the capabilities to be the "youth" icon for BJP but I guess, BJP will do a mistake by promoting him this way, at least at this time. This might create a confusion as the what way BJP want to go & I'm not sure if this is what RSS is asking BJP to do, go the hindu "goonda" way.

I would want to believe that 1 day (may be a few yrs. later) he really takes over Rahul Gandhi 1:1 for BJP. But then this needs to be managed (or I would engineered) very methodically keeping next 5 - 10 yrs. in mind.