Who else has the access to P Chidambaram's lock and key?

Unanswered queries about 26/11, Telecom 2G scam, sugarcane crisis, rising prices, Madhu Koda corruption mess, US-China interference in Indian affairs, Chinese aggressive stance on eastern borders, Leftist terror and many more. One can count the number of issues where the government is in the docks and needs to answer. So what does the government do?

It just deflects the media and national attention to a Commission set up nearly 18 years ago. The question here is not about the contents of the Liberhan's report since one has to wait for whole report to be tabled. It is about who had the keys to Home Minister P Chidambaram's lock and key, where he claims he has the report? Or who did Justice Liberhan try to benefit some media houses or the government by leaking the report? If Justice Liberhan and Home Ministy are the only 2 entities in possesion of the report, who leaked it if not one of them? One interesting point to notice is that the report has been first leaked in Indian Express and NDTV, both media companies run by those who have close links with 10, Janpath - Shekhar Gupta and Prannoy Roy. So was it done to deflect attention from the faillures of the UPA or was it done to take the battle for Muslim votes to the next level? Some answers are so obvious that they do not require a question.

Tale of 2 congregations

Nov 2009 saw an interesting set of opposites. The only thing common between the two was that both were huge assemblies. That's where similarities ended because both were organsied by 2 organisations which are on different ends of the ideologies and culture. Some glaring differences to be seen between the two were:

The one such meeting which was widely publicised was the Jamait Ulema's meeting which became famous for it's various resolutions like the fatwa against terror, against Vande Mataram, against insurance, women's reservations, television and much more. By the way before you think this was held in Afghanistan or Pakistan or Saudi, wait. It was held in India.

Another was organised by Vanvasi Kalyan Samiti in Delhi. Here more than 10,000 students and their families were brought from the North Eastern States, Orissa, Chattishgarh, Jharkhand. The students stayed with local families who support RSS and it's activities in tribal areas. The idea was to bring the bring the students to the mainstream and show them how similar the people are inspite of the diversity.

While one congregation was about division, the other was about uniting. One was bringing India to medival ages, another was bringing old India to meet a new one.

But still, one could not but help notice the media coverage the Jamait's congregaiton got and the lack of coverage for the tribal meet. And this neglect by the media and the ruling class only because of the vote bank politics and slavery of media to the ruling class (A rumour was that national media was warned against covering the tribal meet by a Union Minsiter who owes his position to missionaries).

For those who want to see the glimpse of how the tribals are being brought into mainstream, there is a similar event happening in Mumbai in December.

Home Minister goes a Ghajini

Home Minister P C Chidambaram just did a Ghajini act. No, he did get tattoos on his body and neither did he bash up few goons. He had a lapse of memory and forgot that he was the Home Minsiter of India and not Home Minsiter for Muslims. He went to Deoband, which is one of the more fanatic forms of Islamic studies in India and with which Taliban also shares it roots. He spoke at length about Hindu fundamentalism. But he seems to have missed an important event which happened minutes before he went there. The clerics at the Deoband meet issued a fatwa banning Vande Mataram, our national song on grounds that it was anti-Islam. This was a clear strike at what can be called symbol of our identity and pride. Chidambaram maybe agrees that Vande Mataram is communal song and should be banned/ What next to be removed? The saffron from our flag?

Political Roundup

Some things remain the same, more they appear to change. And Indian politics is one of them. A round up of all that happen (or did not happen) in the last few weeks

Maharashtra still awaits a government - Maharashtra Congress seems to have made up it's mind to ignore Madam and Yuvraj's calls for austerity. What else can explain the delay in swearing in which is costing the state more than 10 lakhs so far and not to forget the delay in projects which leads to more money being lost. The Congress fresh from a handsome win is more bothered about cabinet berths and portfolios than the aam aadmi.

RajThackeray's ideological washout - While the media and his partymen are busy showcasing MNS's seats as a major win, what they seem to miss are some of these details from Mumbai. Raj Thackeray fought on anti-migrant or pro-Marathi agenda but he also led to reduction of Marathi representation in current assembly. More than 50% of elected MLAs from Mumbai are non-Maharashtrians. Nearly one-third are from UP. This is substantially higher than previous assembly. So while Raj did his political bit by affecting BJP-SS, he lost on ideological grounds miserably.

31st Oct was Sardar's birthday too - Sardar Patel would possibly be sad up there when he realises that he made a mistake by not furthering his family into Indian politics. Because had he got a government which was run on strings by his grand daughter in law or daughter in law, maybe he too would have been remembered on 31st Oct. All efforts were made to show Indira as India and that included having 'paid' or 'loyal' stooges to even justify the emergency and Operation Blue Star be it in newspaper, magazines or television. Maybe this was one place where the governemnt and the Congress Party forgot to follow austerity.

Mother of scams - 2 corruption cases come out in open and who do they belong to? Well the incumbent UPA. One is Madhu Koda from Jhakkhand who was the UPA CM and another is D Raja from DMK and current Telecom Minister. While the sheer volume of money that Indian public has lost (Rs 50,000 crore) in telecome Specturm case makes it the largest scam in India, the minister D Raja is sitting pretty because the current government depends on DMK and there is no way our 'clean, non-corrupt' PM can remove an 'efficient' minister (or money arranger) like Raja. As far as Koda is concerned, he has no value anymore and so can be hounded.

BJP Blues in Karnataka - The first BJP government in south India faces a serious threat from the rebels led by the mine-kings and cash rich Reddy brothers. The situaiton underlines one main point and that is wherever BJP jas deviated from core RSS ideology and fallen prey to money-bags, it has had bad experience. It's high time BJP stops giving importance to those who are in the party only to further their business interests and gives some respect to those who are with the party based on ideology.

Centre-State Relations and Bias

This morning, in Times of India, one saw an ad from Cong-NCP for elections tomorrow. The reason they wanted people to vote for them was mentioned "better centre-state relations" Now does this mean if anybody else comes to power, it will be treated untouchable or a pariah? This sounded more like a threat to vote than an incentive. Why should centre-state relationship depend on who is rulign the state? Such statements make the claims of partisanship in recent flood relief in South India very believeable. While one does not know the impact of the flood on both AP and Karnataka, from what one reads it clear that rain created nearly equal havoc on both the states. But still Karnataka ruled by BJP got nearly one third of what AP got, maybe because the Congress rules there.

This entire thing is against the spirit of federal and democratic policy. And ruling parties should dedist from using hreats to get them votes.

China Border - Deja Vu

More some things look like changing, more they look similar at the foundation. Look at these coincidences - 1960-62, India had a 'humane' PM (keen for a place in history) advised by a man from Kerela called Krishna Menon. India had just started looking positive with the beginning of the Green Revolution. In 1950, Sardar Patel had warned Nehru about Chinese threat in long-term only to be brushed aside like always by the Alice who lived in Wonderland. 1962, General Thimayya warned Indian govt of Chinese intrusions only to be called 'alarmist' and 'Pro-West' by Nehru and Krishna Menon. The result was China invaded India in few months.

Today, we have a PM too keen to get his name in history books or a Nobel Peace Prize. India is riding high on economy. US has dealt a huge blow to Chinese trade vis-a-vis India by levying a huge anti-dumping duty on their products. And China has started making noises on the border - both verbal and in actions. Media and Armed Forces are both crying foul. But again comes a man from Kerala Shashi Tharoor and A K Antony who rubbish these claims as 'false alarms'.

One just hopes that like in the history India does not have to see coffins just because some people in New Delhi still live in fool's paradise as they lived in 1960s.

Miraj riots and Media

Recently Miraj and Sangli witnessed riots during Ganesh Visarjan. This too was just the same kind of riots as one would have witnessed over the years. The Ganesh Pandals had erected some arches to which the Muslims of the town objected and riots broke out over this. What really stuck me while reading or watching the media reports was the way it was reported. All along the incident, the media line was - The riots broke out over an arch depicting Afzal Khan's death at the hands of Shivaji.

Now this is worth thinking. Is there any doubt about how Afzal Khan was killed? Was Afzal Khan a saint and Shivaji a murderer? Then how can there be a argument over a historically correct and proper action?

Then should the media have not said this - The riots broke out over objection of certain people over the arch? This looks a correct statement. But then if the media takes this line, it is secular incorrectness. And no media house in India wants to do that. And this just because of their prejudice against certain section of the social and political ecosystem.