Somebody going to get a hurt real bad

Mr. Chidambaram and the Indian government's stance on Pakistan as portrayed by this article remind me of Russell Peters' joke - "Somebody going to get a hurt real bad". Russell often talks about his father's repeated, empty warnings. The UPA government is no different in their dealing with Pakistan. I can't believe that the Union Home Minister actually said "The Mumbai attacks (of November 2008) should be Pakistan's last game. I have warned the country not to play with India." So we admit that our official take on the matter is that state sponsored elements from Pakistan were involved in the attacks of 26/11? If that's the case why are we waiting for another event to act. I guess the attacks on the Indian Parliament in 2001 and the events of 26/11 didn't do enough to breach our government's threshold of indignation. Terrorist attacks have repeatedly occured with evidence of ISI involvement and my prediction is that they will continue. Why? India is an easy target...we never retaliate, even diplomatically. Instead we take pride in how resilient our people are and how the affected cities get back to business as usual almost the next day after a horrific attack....should we really be proud of the fact that we are getting used to these occurrences? I hope some day poverty will be significantly alleviated in India so the electorate can focus on issues like education, healthcare and national defence instead of wondering where their next meal will come from, and being susceptible to selling their votes.

Who the hell is Raj Thackeray?

Karan Johar recently apologized to Raj Thackeray for referring to Mumbai as "Bombay" in his latest film "Wake Up Sid". Huh! Karan did the right thing from a business perspective; he had too much at stake to see his movie take a hit because of a anti-national, gunda like Raj Thackeray. Who the hell is Raj Thackeray? He kills people, remember Ramesh Kini, he illegally acquires prime land in Mumbai, incites uneducated Maharashtrians that form the bulk of his vote bank against people from other parts of the country and gets away with it all. He gets away with it because even the police are scared of him, let alone the common man. He holds the city of Bombay....err Mumbai..lest I should have to apologize to him.....ransom to his political fancies. He's not even an elected representative. Why do we tolerate such nonsense? Is law enforcement asleep at the switch? No they aren't. They are merely puppets of the government who in turn need Raj. Raj Thackeray's MNS played spoiler during the parliamentary elections of 2009 by splitting the Marathi vote between themselves and the Shiv Sena-BJP alliance. This allowed the Congress-NCP alliance to sweep Bombay...yes, I will call it Bombay because that's what it was when I was growing up. So, the ruling government will not fight him...citizens of Bombay I urge you to not let this bully get away with murder...literally. Support Hansal Mehta in his peace march against this murderer!

Letter to the Indian PM

Sir,

Today, I read an article about the Jammat-ud-Dawah (JuD) chief Hafiz Saeed, the mastermind of the 26-11 attacks on Mumbai, on India, roaming the streets of Lahore freely.
Almost eleven months have gone by and no one, but a pawn - Kasab, has been brought to justice for the horrific attacks. A lot of people I speak to say "What can India do? Pakistan is a nuclear state." Full-scale war, I understand, is NOT an option between the two nuclear states. How about surgical strikes against terror camps run by outfits like JuD. Did your government even consider these? I guess not as the, then, impending elections were a priority for your party. I congratulate you, Mrs. Sonia "Rajmata" Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi on your success in the landslide victory; mission accomplished. Doesn't every democratic government have a duty to protect its people? What has the Indian government done since 26-11 to further that cause? I am appalled that the Samjhauta Express is still running, and never ceased to, between India and Pakistan. Isn't it Pakistan's responsibility to secure their lands and make sure they are not used to plan and execute terror activities? Are we conceding to their concession of their lack of control in their tribal regions? As a patriotic citizen I have so many unanswered questions that stem from the failure of the Indian government to make any headway diplomatically or militarily in response to repeated terror attacks emanating from our neighbors. What will it take for us to act? How many more Indian lives must be lost for the Congress to act like a responsible government instead of focusing on the vote bank?

Hopelessly awaiting action.

Sincerely,
A patriotic, concerned, educated Indian that can see through the sham

Case for a two-party system in India

India is the largest democracy in the world and a strange one at that. The party with the least seats has the maximum power; yes least seats. Regional parties play on the emotions of the downtrodden locals, incite them against the central government, and motivate them using religion or other regressive issues like eliminating the use of computers and capture the vote bank. With several Indian states having such dominant regional parties what results is a very fractured parliament. Let alone a single party majority, even alliances struggle to put together the magic number of seats to form the government. This results in frenzied horsetrading after the elections and crores of rupees changing hands behind close doors...or should I say being transfered from one Swiss bank account to another. Thus, a regional party with a handful of seats can make big demands like cabinet positions and control of critical ministries like Railways to support the formation of a coalition government. Laloo Prasad Yadav, who may be the candidate of choice in a section of Bihar, finds himself heading a multi-billion dollar operation! That's not the mandate of the majority, is it? After the commotion settles we deal with over twenty parties forming the government, as was the case under Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Twenty parties having to agree on issues of governance - that's ridiculous. I don't think twenty adults can even agree on a cuisine for dinner. If India has to progress economically and socially, I believe we need a two-party political system like the United States. The more popular of the two is voted to power and has clear authority on making decisions without the lag of conflicting ideologies. I also think that such a system will shift the focus on selecting the right candidate by giving people a say in who they want as their leader, rather than letting that be a decision made by an individual like Sonia Gandhi . I would love to see primaries and caucuses, and rigorous debates that allow the people to make informed decisions. Hoping for change!

India - a country known for its intellectuals...

My American friends often joke with me about how every Indian they meet is a software engineer, a doctor or a lawyer (lets keep our monopoly on the taxi driving profession a secret). The stereotypical Indian image overseas has evolved over the years...for the better. But where has our country really gone....it is being run by a bunch of C-grade graduates at best. You may say we have an Economics guru with a doctoral degree as Prime Minister, an MBA from Harvard as Home Minister (formerly the finance minister) and so on. Now, who are we kidding. People like Manmohan Singh and P. Chidambaram are just puppets controlled by the "rajmata" - Sonia Gandhi. Mrs. Gandhi an Italian-born, who almost became the PM of India in 2004, has attended the coveted Cambridge University..or has she? Well not really; she studied a language teaching course from a "teaching shop", not the University. However she did commit perjury by claiming a higher qualification in an affidavit she filed before the Returning Officer of Rae Barelli in 2006. Anyways, all of that is not important, after all she is the heir to the Nehru-Gandhi family that we have elevated to dynastic status in India. Now for her son, Mr. Rahul Gandhi. He is representative of the youth of India and holds a degree from Harvard. Can't fight that. Oh well, lets dig a little deeper...he attended St. Stephens College. "Attended" is key. He left the college after one year...that too after he was admitted on a sports scholarship for his mastery of pistol shooting. Once again he attended Harvard and moved on to some unknown university in Florida to complete his B.A. Well, what I'm trying to get at is - why do we treat India like a kingdom? It's been 60 years of almost the same family raping..err ruling the country. From the "License Raj" socialistic ways of Nehru that put the country back several decades, to the monarchist emergency of Indira Gandhi and the ridiculous Simla Agreement, to the banana republic of Rajiv Gandhi this power-hungry family sucked the optimism out of every hard-working Indian. When we want our CEOs to be the best qualified, why not our politicians who run budgets and organizations an order of magnitude larger than the biggest Fortune 500s? My countrymen and women, I appeal to you - vote for non-criminals, that have selflessly served our nation. Welcome meritocracy, shun nepotism!