A total of fourteen people including a policeman died on Tuesday and a further four died yesterday in riots in Rajasthan. The deaths came about as a result of police firing and the murder of a policeman by Gujjars, a community or a caste in Rajasthan. Yesterday a number of policemen went missing and whether they will return safely is in doubt. The trouble came about because Gujjars, who belong to ' Other Backward Classes ' or OBC category, want to be included in the Scheduled Tribes or ST category which is a lower grade in our government caste list. The Gujjars are farmers and cattle rearers and poor. By being downgraded to ST they will be eligible for a higher quota of government jobs reserved for ST and SC ( Scheduled Caste ) sections of society. At present Meenas in Rajasthan are cornering a large number of government jobs because of their ST status and have become quite prosperous. The Meenas do not want to share their spoils with the Gujjars because their share will become smaller and are lobbying to deny the Gujjars. If the Gujjars win will the Meenas start to riot? Will other OBC groups start agitating for similar reclassification? Jats in Hryana want to become OBC, inspite of being of higher caste, because Jats in Rajasthan have been given that privilege. The rewards are huge. Cushy government jobs with little to do and guaranteed pensions. Scope for earning large amounts in black money. Children will get admission to prestigious institutions with poor marks and more. Mayawati, who is a dalit, recently won the UP election. Will Mulayam Singh who is a Yadav see an opportunity to start some trouble? Fortunately Yadavs are a divided community but the potential for trouble is there. The politicians in India have been following a divide and rule policy learnt from the British. Creating states by language, appeasement of minorities, quotas for artificially created castes and so on. The genie is out. Is there any politician capable of putting it back in?

India was ranked thirteenth in the world on Forbes Tax Misery and Reform Index. Lowest n the list were UAE, Qatar, Hongkong, Cyprus and Singapore. Highest were France, Belgium, China, Sweden, and Italy. Nine of the top ten places were occupied by European countries. What Forbes probably did not take into account was the returns on tax. True Europeans pay a lot of tax but they have the luxury of social services, good roads, uninterrupted electricity and clean water for twentyfour hours. Consider water. Areas in Delhi get only ten minutes' of trickle everyday. Everyone has bought large plastic tanks to collect whatever water that comes. Water pumps are then used to raise the water to another tank on the roof of the house. Water has to be bought from tankers at Rs. 100 for 1000 litres. Since the purity of water is dubious every one has a purifying system at home, charcoal filters for the poor and reverse osmosis systems for the rich. Regular power failure means everyone has a generator or invertor to run a few lights and fans. If food rots in the fridge tough luck. Voltage fluctuations result in burning of electric implements such as fridges and televisions. Broken roads wear out car tyres and broken suspensions are common. Children die regularly by falling into open manholes callously left open by municipal workers. We deserve to be first on that list. Forbes please note.

The aam aadmi does not exist. The aam aadmi is a myth, a big lie and a gigantic con trick to hide the misdeeds and crimes of the civil servants and politicians. Is there anyone who wants to be an aam aadmi? I f you ask the most helpless, hopeless beggar I am sure he will aspire to be a 'khas' aadmi. Our first Prime Minister, Nehru was an Oxbridge trained barrister. Surely he would have known that in western countries all children must go to school till the age of 16 years. He was a socialist close to Soviet Union yet he failed to notice that Cuba and the USSR had universal education and health care. His cabinet was packed with scholars yet 60% of the population stayed illiterate. It was the tremendous determination and sacrifice of our parents that ensured that we got quality education. Today even poor people understand the value of a good education especially in 'english medium' schools. The explosion of private, fee paying schools means that children now have access to education that was so far denied to them. This is scary for the politicians and civil servants who fear that an educated populace will ask embarassing questions and refuse to be sacrificial sheep called the aam aadmi. So they have changed tack. They are now attacking english as a language of our colonial masters and passing laws which ban the teaching of english till the upper classes in school and make regional languages compulsory. Jyoti Basu, a barrister, did this in Bengal as did Lalu, in Bihar. Karnataka which is the centre of India's software boom has just passed a similar law. The result is an army of graduates who are poor in English and are unemployable. They can only get jobs as teachers in government schools or as clerks. These millions are grateful for the scraps that politicians throw at them and will resist any reforms that upsets the present system. This army of beggars is known as aam aadmi and will never ever be allowed to become khas.

In a speech to the Confederation of Indian Industries ( CII ) on 24th May, the Hon'ble Prime Minister made two points. The first point was that they should refrain from ostentation as in expensive marriage parties. But sir, may I grovellingly ask ' have you never read about the marriage parties of the criminal offspring of your political colleagues?' Goons of the Rustic Buffoon raided car dealers and made off with new cars waiting for delivery. The Southern Fat Lady claimed that her foster ( bastard? ) son should have a marriage befitting Her status and a very fat status it is too. The second point was that they should refrain from price increases through cartelisation. Sir, if I may grovellingly point out, it was the licence permit raj of the Congress Party which allowed Indians to be ripped off for 50 years by giant monopolies. In the sixties you would wait two years for an Ambassador car which cost Rs. 30000. For that much money you could buy land and construct a decent bungalow in Delhi. Even now your government levies huge taxes on plane tickets to force people to use the railways. The ticket price for the Dehradun Shatabdi has just been increased from Rs 535 to Rs. 565 but the train is always late and the coaches are full of cockroaches. I hope you have taken delivery of the seven Embraer luxury jets for yourself and your VVIP colleagues. What's that? It is all for the benefit of the aam aadmi? My grovelling thanks to you sir.

The Comptroller an Accountant General ( CAG ) of India has unearthed a huge paasport racket. Seems 500 passport booklets have gone missing from embassies in Jeddah and Kampala while 400 are missing from the consulate inHouston. 2000 visa stickers are missing from the embassy in Moscow. Delhi, Mumbai and Bareilly passport offices issued 12 passports to nationals of Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka. Booklets stolen from Kolkata office were found in possession of two persons with ISI links. The Criminal Bureau of Investigation has detected 275 fake passports between 1998 and 2002 of which 45 were issued from Bhopal. God alone knows how many have not been detected. In another report CAG has pulled up Ministry of External Affairs for delays in issuing passports to genuine applicants. Seems out of 6.272 million applications between 2001 and 2005, 81% were not issued in time. Nagpur and Bareilly are the best with 51% issued in time, Delhi issued only 8%, Pune 1% while Chandigarh did not issue even one in time out of 680 thousand applications. The government charged Rs. 87.2 million from 80,000 applicants for Tatkal ( fast track ) passports but did not deliver. With money to be made from issuing fake passports to potential terrorists why bother with tax paying citizens. The civil servants are not stupid are they? It is a wonder any of us still alive. Ram Bharose again?

Jacques Chirac has gone without any fuss. Tony Blair is going next month all be it with a little encouragement. Putin has confirmed he is going next year inspite of propaganda on the BBC that he will change the constitution to stay for a third term. Bush also goes next year. Koizumi resigned months after winning majority in general elections. Even in corrupt tatalitarian China we saw Jiang Zemin succeed Deng Xiao Ping and then give way to Hu Jin Tao. Stranger still, there is no son, wife or mistress to take over the position of President or Prime Minister with the help of sycophantic, worthless, violent followers willing to riot and kill to maintain their cash flow. And what about my country, India? We have no way of getting rid of criminal politicians sucking our lifeblood for years and years. Shameless old men with hard, ugly faces lined by decades of lies, larceny and debauch stare at us from newspapers and television sets challenging us to do anything to stop them while we switch channels to hide our shame at our impotence. We seem to have endless millions of men with no talent and little education who depend on these satraps for their money and power and will do anything to ensure that these filthy politicians stay in power for ever. These 'chamchas' are more dangerous than anyone realises. Like cancer cells they are eating away at our society and passing on their putrid genes to another generation. Will we survive?

Thankyou Zornslemon. I used to think that I am the aam aadmi seeing that I pay taxes, obey the law and have tried to teach my children to be truthful, kind and honest. But it seems that I am mistaken. Indian politics has thrived on keeping vast numbers of people uneducated and desperately poor so that they can be exploited during elections and treated like manure at other times. This borne out by the concept of VIP and VVIP whereby politicians surround themselves with AK47 toting commandoes, demand right of way even at Tirupati and kill or beat up anyone who would dare to criticise. Last week goons belonging to the eldest son of the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu attacked a newspaper office for printing opinion polls showing that the eldest son is deeply unpopular. Three people died while the police stood by and watched. Is anyone going to hang for this I wonder. In this land of heroic myths the aam aadmi is a mythical beast in whose name you can con the people while you continue to exploit and paratise the people. This beast allows them to continue to tax us at the highest level in the world while buying luxury jets for travel. For the last few months people in South Delhi are receiving just ten minutes of water every day with not a drop every few days. Every family is having to buy water from tankers at Rs. 100 for a thousand litres. Meanwhile our Chief Minister is abroad to attend a conference and no doubt staying pretty cool. We desperately need a citizen's charter which clearly defines the powers of the politicians and puts the aam aadmi as the VVIP. I have some ideas but dare I say them?

The Commerce Minister, Mr. Kamal Nath has written to the Prime Minister to do something about the appreciating rupee. One dollar fetched Rs. 45 a year back but is now worth only about Rs. 40, an appreciation of over 8%. Normally the Reserve Bank or RBI would keep the rupee down by buying dollars in the market and increasing money supply but is unable to do so now because of the high inflation. It has increased interest rates six times in the past one year to bring down inflation but is unable to control liquidity. With so much black money sloshing around controlling liquidity is proving to be impossible. Increasing interest rates will increase the cost of borrowing and hurt the middle classes. Handicapped from all sides the RbI is letting the rupee appreciate hoping that this will control inflation by bringing down costs of imports. This is already causing howls of anguish from the export industries such garments, jewelery and software. The picture is made more interesting by the fact that nine states are up for elections to state assemblies in the next two years and general elections are due in 2009. Gujarat is holding elections this year, Delhi and Rajasthan in 2008, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra in 2009. Elections mean huge spending by candidates for canvassing and dirty tricks which has to be in cash which means liquidity will be out of control for at least two years. I wonder if anyone knows what to do. I have a feeling that things are going to be ' Ram Bharose ' which means God help us.

Apparently there were noisy scenes in parliament which is nothing new seeing the quality of legislators we have. Congress and allies were shouting for the resignation of the Chief Minister of Gujarat for the killing of a woman by some police officers. Police officers have been in the habit of executing criminals vigilante style and then making it look as if a shootout had taken place. Police in India are under total control of politicians. Recently the Supreme Court asked all state governments to free all police from political interference but naturally politicians are refusing. With criminals becoming politicians to control the police and so avoid prosecution they are never going to listen to the Court. Crimes committed by politicians and their thuggish children are routinely covered up as we saw in Jessica Lall, Priyadarshini Mattoo, Madhumita and many other murders. The police are paid poorly and have no provision for medical care. A sub inspector I saw for asthma could not afford to buy inhalers costing Rs. 280. Is he not going to take bribes to survive? They are despised by the public and under pressure to reduce the crime rate when criminals are the friends of politicians. When things tend to get out of hand they ambush the person they want and eliminate him. A sick perverted system breeds a sick police force. The biggest joke is that the Congress which ruled this country unbroken for sixty years and is responsible for this mess is shouting for justice. No sharam, na izzat.

Apparently there were noisy scenes in parliament which is nothing new seeing the quality of legislators we have. Congress and allies were shouting for the resignation of the Chief Minister of Gujarat for the killing of a woman by some police officers. Police officers have been in the habit of executing criminals vigilante style and then making it look as if a shootout had taken place. Police in India are under total control of politicians. Recently the Supreme Court asked all state governments to free all police from political interference but naturally politicians are refusing. With criminals becoming politicians to control the police and so avoid prosecution they are never going to listen to the Court. Crimes committed by politicians and their thuggish children are routinely covered up as we saw in Jessica Lall, Priyadarshini Mattoo, Madhumita and many other murders. The police are paid poorly and have no provision for medical care. A sub inspector I saw for asthma could not afford to buy inhalers costing Rs. 280. Is he not going to take bribes to survive? They are despised by the public and under pressure to reduce the crime rate when criminals are the friends of politicians. When things tend to get out of hand they ambush the person they want and eliminate him. A sick perverted system breeds a sick police force. The biggest joke is that the Congress which ruled this country unbroken for sixty years and is responsible for this mess is shouting for justice. No sharam, na izzat.

Headlines in the Times of India- Sun, April 29, page 9: 'Gir deaths: Govt. inaction flayed'. Eight rare Asiatic lions have been killed in the last few weks by poachers with the connivance of forest officials in the Gir forest sanctuary. Mon, April 30, page 11: 'Govt. lacks adequate data on green cover'. Director General of Forest Survey of India, Devendra Pandey admitted that he had no idea of the amount of land covered by forests and plantations in the country. Sun, April 29, page 1: 'Face off with Centre: S.C. backs out'. This was a case brought by the environmentalists who wanted independent experts to man the Forest Advisory Committee but the government refused. As a compromise the Supreme Court suggested one, just one, independent expert but the govt. side refused saying that the Court could not curtail the power of the Executive. As Mandy Rice-Davies so famously said,' They would, wouldn't they.' With millions to be made from cutting down our forests, grabbing tribal lands and selling parts of rare animals who wants a pesky independent expert. Since noone knows how much forest we have we cannot miss it. Homage to Mother India and rape her everyday.

In the last two years the housing market has turned red hot. In south Delhi rubbishy DDA flats which were selling for three and a half million rupees are now selling for ten a half million, an appreciation of 300% in just two years. This has spread to smaller towns giving rise to a building boom. To cool the market the Reserve Bank ( RBI ) first increased interest rates and then increased the Cash Reserve Ratio ( CRR ) for banks to reduce liquidity. Curiously in the last one week the RBI has gone backwards, first by decreasing the CRR and then by transferring home loans to the priority sector for properties costing less than 2 million rupees. Now everyone knows that if a person takes a loan of 2 million he will add another 3 million in black which means that the RBI is facilitating sales of upto 5 million rupees. While this may not mean much in the metro cities it will heat up the market in smaller towns and for small properties in creasing the feel good factor. In recent elections in Uttarakhand, Bengal and Delhi the Congress has done badly but it may do better in the ongoing elections in UP which is the largest state. If the Congress does really well in UP it might call an early general election knowing that if it wins the Hindi or cow belt it can return to power. The asset price bubble should not burst before then. Afterwards who cares. Maybe this move dictated purely by economic indicators but why am I unable to believe?

I thought I knew enough English but I just cannot understand what the phrase 'criminalisation of politics' means. How can politics be criminalised? Physicists invented the atom bomb which killed hundreds of thousands, but can we say criminalisation of physics? Writers have consistently fallen foul of the law for exposing social injustice. Even now there is a fatwa on Salman Rushdie for Satanic verses but can we say the literature has been criminalised. It is the mealy mouthed expression used by the freeloading press which does not want to upset the source of all its freebies. The truth is that a vast number of politicians in India are criminals or, better still, criminals have become politicians. The election in UP is costing one million rupees a day which is way above the limit set by the Election Commission. Plus there are expenses for killing opponents, terrorising people so that they do not come to vote, booth capturing, bribing government teachers who work as election agents and distributing free booze and saris to buy votes. Goons are not cheap so it helps if you have your own salaried goons or cadres in the case of the communists. Only criminals have enough black money and goons on the payroll. Once you win power you can loot the exchequer as you will while the police provide you with Z security to ensure complete safety. Amarmani Tripathy is a candidate while on trial for the murder of Madhumita. I bet no other country has such a strong democracy. Eat your heart out, Bush.