I have never watched so much T.V. .... especially the continuous coverage of politics for almost 8 straight hours...
But I think that the effort was worth the satisfaction that most of the people got. Ofcourse as promised the trust vote was everything that a hit movie can be... there was action there was drama and finally the satisfaction.
But the drama that was carried out by the BJP MP's made us a laughing stock of the world... but alas, in politics the who thing about national interest died with the leaders who died after the independence.
The stars of the grand finale were Rahul Gandhi and Omar Abdullah. Where Rahul Gandhi's speech talked about the plight of the poor and how the energy security is going to help the poor.. his speech also reminded me of the politicians who really believed that they can make a difference. He in his speech said "A powerful nation thinks about how it will impact the world and a not so powerful country think about how the world will impact it. However, it does not matter which government runs the country, what matters is how we think about our position in the world."
He further talked about how the Indian population is 70% of youth and that infrastructural growth will help the youth. Also he emphasised on the point that the everybody regardless of the political party they belong should build the nation together.
On the other hand Omar Abdullah, talking on behalf of the Muslims said that, Its not the nuclear deal that is against the Muslims its poverty, hunger that are against the Muslims. He went on to further add that he is not a part of the UPA but he is not averse to the deal because he understands that its in the interest of the nation.
Admist, all these impressive speeches, Lalu Prasad Yadav added the fun element in the House. His speech spared no one...from commenting on the rift between the left to the fact that the BJP is not really against the deal but wants it happening when they are in power. Not sparing Mayawati also, he said that all of them including himself want to be the PM, but he is in no hurry unlike the others.
The drama took a drastic turn when one and a half hours before the PM was to address, BJP MP's threw bundles of notes on the floor of the house claiming horse trading. Then demanding resignation of the PM on moral grounds.
Later, when the PM was to address, he was not allowed to do so. So, he submitted his speech in written to the speaker. Never before in the past four years, have we seen our PM making such remarks. He lashed at the opposition like never before and for the opposition leader Mr. Advani he said " In his ripe old age, I don't expect Mr Advani to change his thinking. But for his sake and for the sake of this country, he should atleast change his astrologers, who can be more accurate"
And finally after 8 the UPA government won 275 votes in the parliament.
The first reaction by Nichols Of CPI was that the nuclear deal was not such a big issue. Its hypocritical and the entire nation is laughing at the left for making a fool out of themselves and making the country go through terrible times.
Now that the Trust vote is over and the Nuclear deal is going to come through...lets hope that the country gets what it was promised.
And the Deal will come through...Finally...!!!
Cash for Votes....
In an utterly disgusting turn of events that unfolded about an hour back in the Lok Sabha, Indian politics have touched a new low.
Three MPs bought wads of thousand rupees notes in the parliament alleging a bribe by the opposition party in order to abstain from the trust vote.
The house following the revelation has been adjourned till 6pm.
Today, I am ashamed to be an Indian. Not because of the poverty, not because of illiteracy...not because of the so called cultural differences... I am ashamed of the very people who represent us on the international podium. Today as the whole world watched... what the politicians did not abstain to do was, make a fool out themselves and out of the very country whose power they want to seize. They completely put us the common person at shame for being a part of a country where the very people who rule us are as corrupt as the dirt in the Yamuna. The Yamuna can still be cleansed but these politicians cant be cleansed.
Today, as the muck is out in the open... its not a disgrace to either the ruling party or the opposition party its a disgrace on the face of the LARGEST DEMOCRACY of the world... its a slap on us along with the politicians... that we never make the right choices.
The time has come to throw away the Godly status that we have given to the politicians of our country.
Realise now- That we need to make the right choices to put the right person in the Lok Sabha...to make sure that the leaders that we have are trustworthy to be put in house of people. To make sure that they talk about national issues than about issues of personal egos.
Its time that we start cleaning the system...before it completely puts us to shame in front of the whole International Community.
Who is going to win... Finally?
The reports that I have been reading seems to indicate that the general category will soon be converted into the reserved category...(I hope that this never comes true...!!)
Controlling inflation.... our own way...
The inflation did come down a little... but its still pinching our pockets.
I recieved the following email as a forward... and I thought that maybe it will be helpful to pass on the message...!!!
A man eats two eggs each morning for breakfast. When he goes to the Kirana store he pays Rs. 12 a dozen. Since a dozen eggs won't last a week he normally buys two dozens at a time. One day while buying eggs he notices that the price has risen to Rs. 16. The next time he buys groceries, eggs are Rs. 22 a dozen. When asked to explain the price of eggs the store owner says, "The price has gone up and I have to raise my price accordingly". This store buys 100 dozen eggs a day. He checked around for a better price and all the distributors have raised their prices.
The distributors have begun to buy from the huge egg farms. The small egg farms have been driven out of business. The huge egg farms sell 100,000 dozen eggs a day to distributors. With no competition, they can set the price as they see fit. The distributors then have to raise their prices to the grocery stores. And on and on and on. As the man kept buying eggs the price kept going up.
He saw the big egg trucks delivering 100 dozen eggs each day. Nothing changed there. He checked out the huge egg farms and found they were selling 100,000 dozen eggs to the distributors daily. Nothing had changed but the price of eggs. Then week before Diwali the price of eggs shot up to Rs. 40 a dozen. Again he asked the grocery owner why and was told, "Cakes and baking for the holiday". The huge egg farmers know there will be a lot of baking going on and more eggs will be used. Hence, the price of eggs goes up. Expect the same thing at Christmas and other times when family cooking, baking, etc. happen. This pattern continues until the price of eggs is Rs. 60 a dozen.
The man says, " There must be something we can do about the price of eggs". He starts talking to all the people in his town and they decide to stop buying eggs. This didn't work because everyone needed eggs. Finally, the man suggested only buying what you need. He ate 2 eggs a day. On the way home from work he would stop at the grocery and buy two eggs. Everyone in town started buying 2 or 3 eggs a day.
The grocery store owner began complaining that he had too many eggs in his cooler. He told the distributor that he didn't need any eggs. Maybe wouldn't need any all week. The distributor had eggs piling up at his warehouse. He told the huge egg farms that he didn't have any room for eggs would not need any for at least two weeks. At the egg farm, the chickens just kept on laying eggs. To relieve the pressure, the huge egg farm told the distributor that they could buy the eggs at a lower price. The distributor said, " I don't have the room for the %$&^*&% eggs even if they were free". The distributor told the grocery store owner that he would lower the price of the eggs if the store would start buying again. The grocery store owner said, "I don't have room for more eggs. The customers are only buying 2 or 3 eggs at a time. Now if you were to drop the price of eggs back down to the original price, the customerswould start buying by the dozen again". The distributors sent that proposal to the huge egg farmers but the egg farmers liked the price they were getting for their eggs but, those chickens just kept on laying. Finally, the egg farmers lowered theprice of their eggs. But only a few paisa. The customers still bought 2 or 3 eggs at a time. They said, "when the price of eggs gets down to where it was before, we will start buying by the dozen." Slowly the price of eggs started dropping.
The distributors had to slash their prices to make room for the eggs coming from the egg farmers. The egg farmers cut their prices because the distributors wouldn't buy at a higher price than they were selling eggs for. Anyway, they had full warehouses and wouldn't need eggs for quite a while. And those chickens kept on laying. Eventually, the egg farmers cut their prices because they were throwing away eggs they couldn't sell. The distributors started buying again because the eggs were priced to where the stores could afford to sell them at the lower price. And the customers starting buying by the dozen again.
Now, transpose this analogy to the gasoline industry. What if everyone only bought Rs 200.00 worth of Petrol each time they pulled to the pump? The dealer's tanks would stay semi full all the time. The dealers wouldn't have room for the gas coming from the huge tanks. The tank farms wouldn't have room for the petrol coming from the refining plants. And the refining plants wouldn't have room for the oil being off loaded from the huge tankers coming from the oil fiends. Just Rs 200.00 each time you buy gas. Don't fill up the tank of your car. You may have to stop for gas twice a week, but the price should come down. Think about it. Also, don't buy anything else at the fuel station; don't give them any more of your hard earned money than what you spend on gas, until the prices come down..." ...just think of this concept for a while...................please pass this concept around....reaching out to the masses ...the world ..... let us put an end to oil rich countries fleecing the poor and developing countries …..
Do you think...that this will work....???
The Number game.... Countdown to The Vote
As the days turn into a few hours... it seems that the trust vote in the Parliament would be nothing short of a finale that even reality shows and India- Pakistan match can promise. Probably for the first time since the Lok Sabha Channel was launched, will it get TRPs that only one can hope for.
In another 4 days as the entire world, yup, The World will be waiting and watching with the bated breath the grand finale of the Indian Political Scenario, that started a few weeks before. As the D-Day comes closer the equations seems to be changing everyday. The newspapers and the news channels are full of reports and analysis... apart from the usual mudslinging that happens only in Indian politics. ( During the presidential race in USA earlier this year, all the contestants were very dignified towards each other... there were immidiate aplogies after the mudslinging... here its only THE MUDSLINGING).
The number game that started when the left pulled out is still on, as the MP's are playing hard to get..on both the sides. But what is laughable is the fact, that this trust vote thingy is a straight slap on the very kind of Democratic system that we have. I agree, that the clause that if the opposition feels that the majority party has lost the numbers in the house it should go for a trust vote. But isn't that trust vote supposed to be in a secret ballot box... then why the hell are the MP's making statements that they will vote with or against...
Also I cant seem to understand the part whip thingy... I agree that an MP is in the parliament coz of the party... but then there are times when you don not agree to what your party is hinking.. sometimes its best to look above the party politics and think about the national interest... ( but well... its a stupid statement..when do politicians thing that...???) so they should be allowed to vote for what they believe is right for the country and not their party.
The sikh's party in Punjab...would vote against the government because of what wrongs the congress had done to them earlier... helllooooo?? Someone go tell them that the elections are anyways going to happen in less than a year... this time we are talking things above your personal egos...
Same goes for the muslim leaders who are saying that the deal is anti-muslim... alright guys... how about then getting us a pro-muslim deal...and get Afghans and the Pakistan government to agree for the Gas pipline from Iran...well.. and where in the Quran(which is THE source of the Islamic law) is it written that Nuclear power... is anti-muslim... when the Prophet (May his soul rest in Peace) spoke the holy words...there as no science at all... so how did they deduce that the deal is anti-muslim...!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
My maths has been very poor... and I dont understand the rationale behind the whole politics scenario that has emerged after the death of Nehru. But, I still hope that the educated MP's get their common sense and their intelligence back when they sit in the parliament for voting.
When the international community is making an effort to join hands so that we can save the world..and give people a better world where there are less problem and more solutions... a future where we all can breathe easy.... why do the Indian politicians have to show their ego and nonsensical brains...
Lets hope... that the Idiom- End Defines the means... holds true...!!!
Faith belief and all that....
I was reading the newspaper the other day and I came across a very interesting article. The article talked about how the television soap operas change the choices of the voter.
According to that article when the BJP came into power, it was because it exploited the Hindutva tendencies of the general electorate..and why was that... according to the article that I am refering to, it was because during that Ramayan and Mahabharat were regularly shown on TV and since cable TV was not that popular, doordarshan did the trick.
Now that Ramayan has been revived by the NDTV imagine's creative team and Ekta Kapoor's serial killers are losing TRP's apart from the fact that she herself has started the Mahabharata on her channel 9x... what is the strategy going to be this election...!!!
Well, all I am wondering is that, is it just the serials... the faith is always a key factor in winning of politics. Someone would promise the hindu's this... muslims's that... its all about who wooos who and who appeases who. Its nothing new, that since the day partition happened there has always been a weird kind of undercurrent that flows.
As Vir Sanghvi puts it... elections in India are not about anything but are based purely on emotions. He is right when he says, that no one would understand that Manmohan Singh actually sacrificed his own stable government for the nuclear deal...for National Interest.
Playing upon faith has become a new kind of game for our politicians...and why do they do that because we have encouraged them. We are the ones who are not tolerant to the other persons belief... why are we so insecure of our own faith... that we cannot tolerate the other belief.... the beauty of our country is the colourful foundation that has been laid because of the multi cultural society....the choice actually spoils you. But instead of being proud... we end up fighting and nd up abusing each other....on the basis of Faith.
That gives an oppurtunity to our leaders to divide and rule...and after the elections we are the ones suffering. Remember the partition of bengal in 1905...are our present politicians better than the British...
Faith beliefs...religion...are all a matter of personal choice... they give you a bonus..by giving you spritualism...and at the same time... none of these teach us to hate the other person because he does not have the same belief as you.
Lets learn to be tolerant towards each other... and be proud of the fact that we belong to a nation where Gods grace us in all forms that they may exist in. Lets learn to live in harmony... and vote for the ones who dont play with our Faith...!!!
A New Menace...
And why did i guess furious? Well,it dates back to around a year ago,when I received a similar mail in my inbox. The contents were at the same time vulgar and remarkable. The message promised me,as usual,good luck if I forwarded it. But if I didn't,and this was the vulgar part,something bad will happen to my dad's health. The one who had forwarded it to me was equally annoyed with the contents,but he did not have the contents to not froward the mail.And therefore he had duly apologised for annoying me. This was remarkable. I had the courage to not only not forward the mail but also delete it instantly. And I feel vindicated today that my dad doing fine all this while.
At the end of all this,i have a request to make to all of you who receive such mails. If you are one who forwards it,please think again. Can the forwarding a mail bring luck to you? Please realise that kuck might favour the brave,but it certainly has got nothing to do with message forwarding. Also, you might be annoying someone by sending such stuff. And if you are one who simply deletes it, please take some time out and reply back to the sender,lodging a protest. You might just be able to dissuade the sender from repeating the act in future. Lets try and put an end to this menace.
Jaane tu...Ya Jaane na...!!!: Movie Review
The Political Divorce: Congress-Left Split, as PM pushes hard on the Nuke Deal...Indian Embassy In Kabul Bombed...
The reach of terrorism is huge.
There are certain dates in the history which leave a souir taste in your mouth when you remember them. Seven years back when America was attacked, Terrorism of which we had heard only in Kashmir became global. There after, no year has gone by when major attacks by the religious fanatics have left us thinking- That how can one human kill another...? July 7th marks another such date. Indian Embassy in Kabul was bombed and we lost four of our citizens... Its a shame that anyways a dumb minority called the politicians is ruling us... even worst is that fact that a minority is bombing us to death...and we the people of the world which are maybe 10 times of what either of them together or alone... can make no difference... So what do we await... killed by bogus political adgendas...or fanantics who see nothing above their own needs and wants.
The Left, finally left. After about an year of traeding on the soft ground and giving various deadlines, The CPI(M) lead by Mr. Karat, finalised the divorce with their four year long allies Congress. The major rift was because of the Nuclear Deal. Last year when this deal was put forward... there were a lot of news paper articles that were talking about the deal.. .. The whole paper and details are classified information, but I am sure that enough was put forward for the public to understand that, the nuclear deal is strictly for civilian purpose. Today, when I was hearing the news, the channel was taking calls of the viewers live on air. They must have taken about ust three calls in the duration...and all three were pro the deal. Not only that, the various responses that I have come across in the letters to the editor in the leading newspapers, also say that the left is being irrational about the deal and that in national interest, the Left parties should just go along the deal.
I hope that I am not wrong in sensing the pulse of the nation, but I feel that when the entire nation is supporting the deal... especially the educated class..because the educated middle class is the one who faces the crunch all the time... The Left parties should have stuck to the UPA.
Congress and the new allies... Mulayam Singh and Amar Singh are so ready to go for the trust vote... and with BJP facing major ideological defferences with the Left... its going to be hard to topple the government.
From the Nuclear Deal.. this has become a major play for power game - The truest colour of the politicians have suddenly been revealed to the people... I hope the people now will make a wise decision when electing the new government in the next Lok Sabha elections.
One thing that Lalu Prasad Yadav said, made sense... He said- Power is a part of basic infrastructure...and if the power woes of the country are solved, most of the basic infrastructure problems will automatically be solved. What I want to ask the politicians who say that the deal is not in the favour of the country is- That the nuclear deal promises alot of power to our country. Do you have a better idea to produce power that would be effective in not only combationg the power woes but also the environmental woes?
The nuclear power plant will generate the power minus the Carbon Di oxide emission, not only will it help clean the eb=nivironment but maybe give a chance to the earth that is heading for doomsday.
India has seen so many rulers and so many governments... and still there is more drama to come. We have a multiparty system that gives us wide variety of politicians and ideoligies to look into. But, all the ideoligies have become politicised. That is bad. I agree that being a hardliner would not help. The communists tried to do just that in Russia...and their history talks about revolution that shook the palace. There is nothing wrong in wanting to have equality in the society but everything gets wrong... when you put your interests so that you can satisfy your ego above everything else.
The day politics becomes nationalised again... it would mean that India might become the golden bird that once it was.
PS: I found this really interesting article online. Its supposedly Laluji's blog on the Indo US deal. Also when you read it, you'll notice a Vote widget there. Vote and get a few statistics that will tell you about what the junta wants.
Feeling the heat- Kashmir, Nuke Deal, and the Markets,While we welcome another Blogger on Board...!!!
Firstly, I would like to take the oppurtunity to welcome another friend of Shayon n Mine to our world of blogging. Souvik. It seems that it has become a tradition sorts of introducing co-contributors after their first post. You read about his views on the Kashmir issue. Hopefully we will get more insights into his thoughts on more such sensitive issues.
Now, that we are done with that, in continuation with Souvik's post on Kashmir... here is an update. The Hindu's i.e opposition party BJP along with VHP, called an All India Bandh today. Though Delhi is not feeling much of heat as of now (another reason could be I haven't been outside) but the areas which are sensitive to communal voilence have been hit badly. Mumbai, Agra and ofcourse Jammu had voilent protests that affected the public transport in the cities and brought them to an halt.
My question now is to all the leaders who claim that they people's leaders- Creating communal tension, doing voilent protests...what kind of an example are they portraying to the people...arent they harming the people.... in doing so???
I hope that the court intervenes, else, there could be another Godhra in the making.
Amist all these protests by the various hindu sects, Narendra Modi it seems is belting out a secular card viewing the Lok Sabha polls, that are coming into view.
The Nuke deal too has again been treading shaky grounds. Mulayam Singh's announcement...is going to make the government stable and get the deal thru...or its going to cause more of a problem as they it seems that they are ready to put forward a lot of demands which include sacking of the current Finance Minister, Governor of RBI and our US envoy, Ronen Sen.
Its a wait and watch situation again. The lft has been giving a statement saying that there are more important issues than the Nuke deal.
Also another question that is hovering over current UPA government is- If the deal is more important than stability of the government...!!!!
This is obviously a fundamental question and therefore more meetings would follow... all eyes on the coming few weeks...
Though, what I feel, is that the government should somehow push the deal through, because the direct impact of it all is on our economy. Though, Mulayam Singh and SP are not a great idea of friends... I fear that a few months or rather a few days also with such a corrupt man would shake whatever good the Congress led UPA has done for the past few years.
The direct impact of the nuke deal as predicted was felt by the markets, the first gain by the markets happened yesterday. The market closed 703 points to remain above 13000 points. But, the shakiness continued today as the market again dropped by 500 points at the time of closing. The trend of losses is going to continue... as per experts till infosys come out with the numbers this 15th of July. The major factor that has been sighted by the experts is the rising crude oil prices which were last heard priced at $146 per barrel. The political indecisions are also the main concerns with the market. So as per the expert advise, wait and watch... and do not invest till about 15th of this month.
June was hailed as the coolest month as per weather reports, July, sure had a heated start... I hope the met department is predicting some relief in all the areas...!!!
The Dominoes Effect....Indian Market loses the Trillion Dollar Run...
In my last post when I described the crazy Friday and hoped that Monday may bring in some better news, it seems that doom is doom and is not ready to quit Indian Markets.
The Times of India, today carried on its front page the story of how the Indian markets are losing money like we lose loose change in and out. The trillion dollar market that was has now been reduced well... below the trillion mark. The market had been on a steady climb since April 2007. Every sector was doing well beyond even our own belief. But, the law of the nature is that what goes up has to come down, Gravity put weight on the markets as well. Markets for the very first time came below the 13,000 mark. Thanks to this, our forex market is also going crazy and Rupee that was gaining onto the dollar has become weak again. FII's have withdrawn the money and the Stock exchange... is going nuts.
Okay, after the summary whats happening and all... lets try and analyse the vicious circle that has once again enveloped our market.
The prime reason is- CRUDE OIL PRICES. I think that I need not enumerate on that. In less than a year, the prices have doubled to what they were last year. The fire in the oil market has choked our markets.
The import and export difference has increased alot. We are again importing much...exporting less... pressures points are being pressed to the hilt. And the common man is crying the increased rates of the onions.
Weakining rupee... strengthening dollar...that means most of y relatives are going to get paid more and are going to be happy.
But now, what happens... the investors are in a frenzy.... I am one of them. I don't know how my investments are doing coz most of em are in the long term plans. But being the optimist that I am, things may improve. Apart from the business factors, a lot of political factors also play an important role in determining foreign investments. If a trend is to be spotted, the 123 nuke deal, when it was first proposed, the markets had been showing great improvements. Till, the ratification came into the view. The shakier the nuke deal goes, the markets get shakier still... and with the Lefty parties recently getting ready to topple the central government, the markets too are toppling. But the recent piece of news, that Mulayam Singh, getting ready to back the nuke deal, along with Laloo Prasad Yadav, the tremors may slow up.
Though, I don't have a major insight into the nuke deal, I firmly believe that our PM, Mr. Manmohan Singh being a finance major and one of the best finance minister that we have had till date, is intelligent enough to know the pros and cons of the deal. The left on the contrary are playing pure politics and don't give a damn about development in India. Had that not been the case, Bengal would still have been a leading capital market, as was in the time of British.
Now, the waiting game starts...and hopefully by the end of the week, when the markets close in the first week of July, there would be more to say.
Kashmir... A trouble unnecessary???
Recent developments in Kashmir spurred me into writing this article. For a month now,I have been coming across reports in newspapers suggesting that elusive peace has finally been found in Kashmir.Bollywood is again turning towards its once-favourite shooting spot.Cinemas,that were closed down over a decade ago,are slowly re-opening.Shopping malls are coming up.In fact,things have been so peaceful recently that it was possible to organise a national level football tournament,the Santosh trophy,successfully without any incidence of violence.All this made me happy,and yet I was a bit sceptical about this peace in Kashmir.Was it for real,or was it just government propaganda?
The J&K govt.,around 8 days ago,decided to hand over 39.88 hectares of forest land to the Shri Amarnathji shrine Board(SASB),a body that looks into the welfare of pilgrims headed for the Amarnath Yatra.Now,this is a classic act of dirty politics by our esteemed politicians.The Congress-led govt. wanted to play a communal card in Kashmir.And it has seriously backfired.The people there,by thousands,are
out in protest.There have been clashes with the security personnels,killing 3 and injuring hundred others.
A strong popular demand has been made to revoke the orders.However,the BJP & VHP have warned of nationwide repurcussions if the order is revoked.
I was very happy at the turn of events.All this is very familiar to me.It happens all over India every other day.Since what happens in rest of India is also happening in Kashmir,it has thus become very much like the rest of the country.So I was happy.
I have 2 questions.What should we make of such anti-india demonstrations?Did Kashmir really ever become peaceful?Or was it just like our earth,cool at the surface,boiling from wuthin?The moment we scratched the surface,the fire came out.
Secondly,a state,after being violent for decades,was slowly returning to normalcy.But politicians would not have it,and things were messed up.How do we hold our politicians accountable for this blunder?In a bid to play their own petty games,they are holding the lives of thousands to ransom.Can we,by any means,forever neutralise these miscreants?How long shall the country keep enduring these creatures?
Search
