During Nehru's time every Indian passport came with a rubber stamp which forbade travel to South Africa, Albania and Israel. India was a whole hearted supporter of Arabs and the Palestinian cause. Yet every time we had trouble with the Pakis the same Arabs supported the Pakis and declared jihad on India. Even today Saudi Arabia is financing the Islamic terrorists who continue to kill innocent Indians. In the 60s King Hussein of Jordan ordered his army to chase Palestinians out of the kingdom. During the first Gulf war Palestinians living in Kuwait were responsible for all the loot and rape on Kuwaitis forgetting the hospitality they had been receiving for decades. Two years back the Lebanese army had to fight for weeks to get rid of criminal elements from a Palestinian refugee camp. The anti semitic British and Europeans are taking the side of the Palestinians and asking Israel to stop their bombing forgetting that it was Hamas which has been firing rockets into Israel for years. Their argument is that since rocket firing has not stopped inspite of the bombing Israel should just accept status quo which is the most stupid argument I have heard in a long time. 3 million people surrounded by 300 million Arabs, if not for the US they would be wiped out.

In India businesses evolve in a similar way. A person sets up a company privately. As the business improves he goes public and lists his company on the market to raise capital for expansion. At this time he is referred to as a Promoter which is like being God. He appoints the so called independent directors to the board who agree to whatever he says because they are handsomely paid for nodding their heads. Gradually the person dilutes his holding in the company until he is an extremely minority holder but retains his complete control because laws in the country prevent takeover. Satyam is a profitable IT company listed on the Nasdaq. Its Promoter Mr. Raju, who holds just 8.6% of the company, propsed to invest $ 1.6 billion or Rs. 68 billion to buy two property companies belonging to his two sons. According to analysts at today's prices the assets held by both companies would be about half of what Mr. Raju proposed to pay. Needless to say the Board unanimously agreed. Unfortunately other shareholders raised a huge stink and a British company has filed a case in a US court. Satyam shares halved in value in a matter of days. Shocked by the uproar Mr. Raju has cancelled the proposed purchase and is pondering exting the company. I am reminded of Lord Conrad Black who is serving a long prison sentence in the US for treating Hollinger International as his personal property. Could such a thing happen in Incredible India? Rubbish. Next people would be asking for politicians and kleptocrats to be punished. What cheek.

Say you have a grown up daughter studying in university. You give her a handsome allowance which allows her to rent a nice apartment and lead a comfortable life. You find out that she is in love with a criminal who has been involved in murder, robbery and other crimes. You tell her not to associate with the thug but she goes ahead and marries him anyway. So you stop her allowance. The thug comes and threatens your life if you do not pay up. Do you not have a right to shoot at him in self defence or do you give in because your daughter has the right to 'love' anyone she wants? The Palestinians were given billions in international aid but instead of building a viable state the money was wasted due to massive corruption and hostility to Israel. While people starved Soha Arafat went shopping in Paris. Then Ariel Sharon withdrew all settlers from Gaza but instead of voting for peace the Palestinians voted for Hamas, a terrorist organisation committed to the total destruction of Isarael. They are holding an Israeli soldier they kidnapped, encouraging indiscriminate firing of Kassam rockets aimed at civilians and are killing Palestinians belonging to the Fatah group. The Palestinians in Gaza are totally dependent on UN aid for food, fuel and medicines but instead of gratitude they claim that the world should negotiate with Hamas because they have been 'democratically' elected. Democracy does not end with marking a paper. Democracy means rule of law, respect of human rights and peace with neighbours. However Israel must make sure that Palestinians are not seen as victims by the international community by limiting their response to criminals and avoiding any civilian casualty.

The President of Guinea who died a couple of days ago said on tv that he was the head of state for life and that there would never be any transition in that country. Robert Mugabe said in a speech recently ' Zimbabwe is mine. I will never, never, never, never surrender.' Clearly he means that Zimbabwe is his personal property to do as he pleases and the people are his slaves to abey his orders and if they died of hunger or cholera then he did not care. Surely this is not the case in India? After all we loudly maintain that we are the largest democracy in the world by which we mean that elections are held every few years where millions of dispossessed illiterate people are bribed with promises of cheap rice or free electricity to vote for whichever criminal that has the largest number of goons to frighten the electorate. The criminals in India have understood that once you win an election you can control the police and loot the exchequer without any fear of being detected let alone
being brought to trial. The irony is that the police are then guarding the same criminals instead of putting them in handcuffs. Yesterday a Member of the Legislative Assembly, MLA, of UP beat an engineer to death because he refused to donate Rs. 5 million for Mayawati's birthday celebrations and then in total contempt of the law he dropped the body at a police station instead of taking the man to hospital. There are two points here. First the MLA probably thought that the engineer being a sarkari employee must have taken a lot of bribes and would have the necessary black money. The second point is that he must have thought that the police would probably cover up his crime. And to make sure that their loot continues every politicaian makes sure that his criminal children get prominent positions in the parties. The only way to survive would be to have genuine democracy where we the citizens have genuine power. That can only be done by building citizens' corporations who will have the power to challenge politicians and kleptocrats. Of course the filthy crooks will fight never to let that happen.

Seems that the government has decided on elections in May when its term ends. With oil and commodity prices rock bottom the politicians are sure of inflation falling and remaining in the comfort zone. Petrol prices have been reduced by Rs. 5 and will probably be reduced further in January to generate a feel good factor. Actually even with petrol at Rs. 55 a litre inflation had fallen from 13% to around 8% so reducing price at this point is ill judged. Instead the government should have built up an oil pool account so as to be able to absorb future shocks. Reducing prices at this time reduces government income because oil companies are state owned anyway. Meanwhile excise duties have been reduced to stimulate the domestic market. Falling income and job losses means that people are cutting back on spending which impacts indirect tax collections. Add to that the Sixth Pay Commission increases in salaries of sarkari fellows and the write off of farmers' loans worth some 700 billion rupees then we are left with severe fall in government revenues with increasing spending. This means that they intend to print more notes which will devalue the rupee and cause severe inflation in the future or they will borrow from the market causing severe liquidity crisis. Either way it seems to me that we are in for horrible times by this time next year. Please tell me that I am wrong.

Of all the events of last week the shoe incident was probably the most instructive. Living in a cocoon of security Bush and western leaders of his ilk never understand how much they are despised in the rest of the world. Since they control the major news networks they constantly portray themselves as civilised while abusing anyone who dares to disagree. These nations have been responsible for the greatest genocides in history, from the two world wars to Hiroshima to Guantanamo and renditions and yet they go around claiming to be the civilised world and lecturing others about democracy and human rights. For the first time a man had the guts to throw shoes at Bush and make sure he understood. I was impressed at the way Bush ducked although he was completely unprepared. Much like Tendulkar ducking to a Brett Lee bouncer while keeping his eyes on the ball the whole time. Afterwards Bush made light of the incident. He said that it was a greater insult for the Iraqi Prime Minister which is true. He also said that he bore no grudge which probably is a lie. Wonder what the chances are that this man will survive for two years. A knife or a bullet in the back in present day Baghdad is easy and Americans are vindictive. Any satta fellow care to offer odds?

Very clever fellow wrote a story in the paper. Appears that in a town there was only one rich man who owned a large shop where everyone went to buy stuff. The shop had a huge plate glass window. One day vandals broke the window. Instantly the man had to appoint short term security. A local glass firm got the order to manufacture a similar window. Then transporters earned money to bring it over and lastly fitters were paid to fix the glass sheet in place. With so many people earning it would appear to be good for the local economy but apparently it is bad and is known as broken window economics. A large chunk of Inida's economy functions in similar fashion. Take water. In Delhi you get water for only 30 to 60 minutes a day. Everyone large plastic tanks on the ground and pumps to raise the water to the everhead tank. Some days there is not a drop of supply when tankers charge Rs. 100 to Rs. 500 for 1000 litres. Since the water is polluted everyone has UV filters costing Rs. 6000. These days people are istalling reverse osmosis machines to eliminate heavy metals costing upto Rs. 15000. Frequently taps get air block so plumbers have to be begged to unblock them. In summer Delhi reaches 45 degrees Celsius so water is life literally. When I hear of politicians boasting about growth I wonder how much is broken window.

Politicians in India are generally filthy, thieving degenerates thoroughly loathed by the people. Paradoxically you will always find fervent supporters willing to fight opponents to the death for the same ugly fellows. It has been evolving for 60 years since independence. First keep more than 60% of people illiterate and dirt poor. Then divide them according to language, caste status. Call them aam aadmi with great contempt. Promise them rice at Rs. 2 or free electricity for their votes and instantly 60% of the population are converted to beggars. They will then touch your feet with gratitude for the crumbs you throw them. A few will cleverly become followers ready to commit any crime for you so anyone foolish enough to criticise can be severely beaten up. Having created the aam aadmi use that excuse to tax the middle classes to the hilt. Fill the civil services with trash like you whose function will be harass people and make life so difficult that they will be so busy trying to survive they will not have time to mount a challenge. Deny them basic services like water, electricity, schools, roads and health care and people are rushing around like zombies to see that children can get to school and old parents die a painless death. All very subtle. No need for the KGB but very effective all the same.

Zimbabwe is rapidly reaching the point of no return. More than 3 months after he stole the presidential election and after promising to share power Robert Mugabe is blocking every effort at genuine power sharing. Meanwhile hyperinflation has reduced the dollar to less than toilet paper and at least 500 people have died of cholera because the government has no money to buy chemicals. Yet Mugabe is clinging on. He does not care if millions die as long as he can somehow hang on to his seat. Sound familiar? Following the attacks on Mumbai one slimeball in India commented that such incidents happen in a big city. Another one took his Bollywood son for a photo call. A third one found something objectionable in women wearing lipstick staging demonstrations. He accused the media of painting politicians in a negative light. Can filthy scum be made any more negative? One particularly stinking piece of excrement said that even a dog would not look at the house of a major who had just sacrificed his life to protect ugly disgusting filth like him. Mugabe is just one and one can hope that getting rid of him will improve matters. How unfortunate for us that there are thousands of Mugabes in India and their children waiting to take their places once they are gone. Is there any hope?

The world advises caution and restraint. What do Islamic states do to their own people when faced with dissent. Suharto of Indinesia, with US help, exterminated hundreds of thousands of communists. Saddam Hussein of Iraq gassed an entire Kurd village. Hafez al Assad of Syria used artillery against a town which had rebelled. His orders were not to leave even one brick standing. The army in Algeria has been eliminating Islamic fighters ( GLA? ). Egypt has been doing the same to the Muslim Brotherhood. Saudi Arabia has been going guns blazing at whoever they suspect of being Al Qaeda. No compromises. Al Bashir of Sudan has been exterminating Nubian muslims in Darfour using Arab Janjaweed. Just a small list of what they do to their own people who disagree. In India we Hindus are killed and then abused in the name of Secularism. Was it secularism that made police and politicians ignore so many warnings of an attack? Resigning is not enough. They must stand trial as accessories to murder.

Inidia's misfortune. Sardar Patel wanted total exchange of populations. Gandhi stopped it. Gen. Cariappa wanted 24 hours to rid Kashmir of infiltrators. Nehru chose to go to the UN instead. Our forces, fighting with inferior equipment and at great sacrifice, managed to reach the banks of Ichogil canal from where they could see the lights of Lahore. Lal Bahadur Shastri returned everything for nothing. Indian forces had 95000 Paki soldiers as prisoners in Bangladesh. Indira Gandhi returned all of them for nothing in return. Israel wanted to bomb nuclear installations in Pakistan to preempt the manufacture of nuclear weapons. Rajiv Gandhi denied them refuelling facilities. Since this Congress government came to power we have seen increased rail links with the Pakis, increased number of Pakis coming into India and then disappearing and regular attacks by illegal Bangladeshis with no effort being made to get rid of the trash. So what is our most exalted Prime Minister going to do after the slaughter in Mumbai. He is going to TALK to the Paki Prime Minister. I hope he takes along a nice Pashmina shawl as present when he travels in his luxury aircraft. The Pakis must be wetting themselves with laughter.

India is the only country in the world where the majority is regularly abused and vilified in the press. To emphasise their so called 'secular' credentials the Congress and the commies regularly abuse Hindus who make up about 80% of the population. About a few weeks ago the Anti Terrorist Squad ( ATS ) arrested a colonel in the army and a Hindu 'priestess' for having planted bombs in Malegaon in the past. Since then the papers have been full of 'Hindu terrorism' with regular leaks about how the accused have confessed to their crimes. If they are found guilty in court, which is not certain, then they deserve to hang but to use them to equate Hindus with Al Qaeda is putrid garbage masquarading as journalism. A few states such as MP, Delhi and Chattisgarh are holding elections so it is perhaps not surprising that the free loading press went all out to pour venom on the VHP and RSS and tried to tarnish the BJP by association. Even this morning while the slaughter in Mumbai is still going on the Times of India editorial sanctimoniously says that 'terrorism has no religion' thereby trying to lessen the enormity of the crime. Maybe not. All religions forbid taking of life. Only one religion rewards filthy perverted murderers with eternal paradise and 72 virgins. It is called Jihad. Perhaps the Congress and its supporting press can explain to the families of the dead why terrorism has jumped under its misrule.

The US economy shrank by 0.5% last month. The UK, Singapore, Taiwan and Japan are officially in recession. Australia is teetering. The OECD forecast was gloomy, predicting severe downturn and slow recovery for European countries. Of the BRIC countries China is seeing large scale factory shutdowns with rising unemployment and the possibility of social unrest. So it is pumping in over $500 billion into infrastructure projects to pump prime its economy. The outlook for Brazil is pessimistic and a severe recession is being predicted. Russia is struggling because of the sudden sharp fall in commodity prices. It would find it difficult to cut oil production along with OPEC because that would cut its foreign earnings still further. What of the I in BRIC. According to politicians everything is fine and growth will be over 8%. Meanwhile the textile sector has already lost half a million jobs and will lose another half mill. The diamond polishing industry has lost a million jobs already and other industries like auto ancillaries are likely to follow suit. The free loading press repeats every rubbish that lying politicians put out like brain dead parrots. With elections coming how long will they hide the fact that the emperor has no clothes.

Applied for a BSNL ( a sarkari phone company in India ) landline and was told that it will be available in a couple of days. Time was when you had to wait between five to eight years for a telephone. Even today the application form comes with a page for nominating your connection to someone in case of your demise. Much like nominating your bank account or provident fund. That is how precious a phone connection in India used to be just 15 years ago. Then the Americans started threatening us because their phone companies were having to pay exorbitant connection charges for calls made by the million or so expats living in the US. That forced the politicians to open up the market and today even sarkari fellows are promising a connection in two days. Not only that it is accompanied by a broad smile showing all the paan stained teeth. A small proof that competition improves service. However not all utilities are open to competition and private monopoly is a million times worse than a sarkari one. For instance water supplies were privatised in the UK. Today the service is very poor, some 20% of water is wasted because of no maintenance and bills have gone up astronomically hurting the poor. Foreign companies do not care about wasting water which is a precious national resource and there can be no competition because there is only one system of pipes. The British government had to renationalise Railtrack because of poor service. Enron managed to crook millions. Therefore, developing countries must never sign upto wholesale privatisation of utilities at the WTO.

About a week ago a ransom of $ 1.5 million was paid to secure the release of Indian sailors seized by pirates off the Somali coast. These bandits are making tens of millions of dollars in ransom with which to buy ever more sophisticated arms, boats and communication equipments. There may come a time when they become too strong and sophisticated for any navy in the world to handle. Greatly satisfying was the news yesterday that an Indian warship has sunk a pirate mother ship, the first of its kind. May she sink many more of these filthy murderers. What is astounding is the reaction of the western governments. They are making pathetic excuses to do nothing. The area is to vast, there are not enough warships to patrol such a vast area, the pirates are using very fast boats to get out of range and such stupid excuses which would make a child blush. The Americans have AWACS and the British have Nimrods. A couple of these reconaissance planes can scan a enormous area of the ocean. Once a mother ship is located attack with helicopter gunships or a warship and blow her the hell out of the water. Blockade the Somali coast and shoot at anything that moves on the water. Boats are generally left out of the water line and so can be taken out by helicopters. The shipping companies can easily bear some of the cost as they will save on high risk insurance, ransom payment and waste of time in going round the Cape of Good Hope. To do nothing and let murdering bandits rule the seas is criminally stupid.

Homosexuals in the US are protesting against Proposition 8 banning marriage between gays. There are two lies put out by those who support homosexuality. 1. It is about deep love between to persons of the same sex. It is not. It is about sex. After all you love your mother but you do not have sex with her. 2. Male and female homosexuality are the same. They are not. Two females cannot have sex because there can be no penetration. At best they can stimulate each other. Between males there can be penetration but one will end up with faeces on his organ. Apart from being smelly and revolting, 50% by weight of human faeces consists of bacteria, some of which are very pathogenic. Surely no normal, sane man will want to smear his private parts with faecal matter. This is nothing to do with religion or morality but is to do with human anatomy and how we are built. I have no objection to two adults doing anything behind closed doors but I do object to fellows calling press conferences to announce that they are homosexual just as I consider people revealing their most intimate secrets to Oprah Winfrey to be disgusting. Whatever the arguments homosexuality between men is grossly abnormal.

In my post of the 7th of November I wrote about Hindi being imposed on Indians by the Nehru government to which a reader has said that Nehru wanted to introduce 'Hindistani', whatever that is, but was contstrained by political compulsions. The reader must be young and is having to rely on cold facts of history but I was in school at the time and can assure him that Nehru was an emperor. He had total control and could and did whatever he liked without let or hindrance. He handed over Berubari, a village in West Bengal, to Pakistan in return of which the Pakis have repeatedly attacked us and continue terrorism to this day. He refused the offer of a seat on the UN Security Council preferring to give to China which has been the biggest enemy of India. To this day the Chinese occupy over 50000 square miles of Indian territory and are demanding Arunachal Pradesh. He claimed to be non aligned but cosied up to the Soviets against the free world. He built a licence/permit raj, so corrupt that you needed an official permit to buy a bag of cement. He was educated in England but was blind to the fact that education is compulsory till the age of sixteen in the UK. History can give you facts and statistics but cannot show the extent of trust that the people had in Nehru, a trust which he betrayed. When he died his ashes were scattered all over the country prompting Ram Manohar Lohia to remark that he had 'cash for his family, ash for the country and gas for the world.' History.

Seems that multinational Indian companies are going to need government bailout to the tune of some $ 10 billion. Hindalco needs Rs. 154 billion, Reliance needs Rs. 67 billion, Tata Steel Rs. 55 billion and Bharti Telecom Rs. 20 billion and so on. Nice mixture of metal, manufacturing and service companies. Commercial vehicle sales are down. In september Tata's sales are down 22%, Ashok Leyland down 26% while Eicher is down 38%. In october Eicher sales are down 55%. Auto sector sales are down 14% and auto companies are delaying payments to their parts suppliers by upto 100 days. Event the festival season of Diwali failed to perk up sales of cars and two wheelers. This will have a knock effect on suppliers of parts down to steel and plastics industries. Assocham reckons that 25% of jobs may be lost but had to withdraw that claim after severe mauling from politicians and civil servants. Inflation continues at around 12% and the rupee is flirting around 50 to the dollar and may sink if the RBI reduces interest rates further. The only silver lining is that oil has fallen to $ 56 per barrel because of fears of global recession which is not good. In desperation to win the coming general elections the criminal politicians may try for some very risky short term measure which may damage the economy still further. We can only pray that they fail.

Yesterday three Indonesian Bali bombers were shot dead for their crime in which over 80 Australians died. The only Khmer Rouge leader to be put on trial is there because he killed a British journalist. Yesterday the US government received $ 500 million from Libya as compensation for the Lockerbie victims to be distributed to relatives. However we have not heard anything about the civilian aircraft full of Iranians deliberately blown up over the Gulf by a US Navy ship. French social workers arrested in Chad for trying to kidnap scores of children with living parents had to be freed under pressure from Nicolas Sarkozy. US forces have been executing civilians, raping and bombing indiscrimantely in both Iraq and Afghanistan with British and Australian support. Yet the US insists on complete immunity for its soldiers while demanding Bosnian Serb leaders be put on trial. Seems to me that whites can kill thousands of Africans or Asians with impunity but woe betide anyone who would dare to touch a white skin. Any form of violence is unacceptable and no matter who gets killed it is an immense loss but as long as this monstrous conspiracy persists there can never be any peace in this world. Obama, are you listening?

The freeloading journalists are frothing in their mouths in their attempts to vilify Raj Thackeray of the Shiv Sena for his hounding of North Indians working in Mumbai. Certainly what Thackeray is doing is a disgusting and cynical ploy to whip up some sort of perverted Marathi pride to increase his political power base. What the freeloading press conveniently choose to forget is that this kind of politics was started right at the beginning by our first Prime Minister, Jawarharlal Nehru. Being more English than Indian he chose to divide the country along linguistic, caste and regional lines. He instituted Hindi as the national language without any consultation thus alienating the South. This gave birth to regional parties such as the DMK and TDP fragmenting and polarising the people of the country. Today children with other mother tongues are required to learn Hindi but Hindiwallahs are not required to learn any other language which is grossly unfair. Anti Hindi sentiments have caused many deaths in Assam where locals see Hindi speakers as aliens. Surely if any language deserves to be the national language it is Sanskrit which is the mother language for all Indian languages. Every child would thus learn Sanskrit, English and mother tongue making education equitable. Also knowledge of Sanskrit would enable people to conduct their own religious ceremonies thus erasing the difference between Brahmins and all other castes. However this would be anathema to our criminal politicians who will not be able to occupy reserved seats in colleges and employment. Do we really deserve this garbage?

Congratulations to Obama for having won the elections. The hard part begins only now. John Bolton, the previous US representative at the UN, said on BBC that since the Democrats have won all three, the President, the Senate and the House, they will have no excuses for failure. The Republicans will regroup and focus all their attention on Obama. They will conserve their ammo and wait for a chink and then go in with all their guns blazing. If Obama succeeds he will have improved the lot of the African Americans for ever but if he fails then there will be no black President for the next hundred years. Since his father was from Kenya he should look at Africa and see all the things that he should not do. Africa is full of leaders who came to power promising change and better times ahead but have sadly turned out to be despots like Mugabe or buffoons like Idi Amin. Perhaps he would be better off looking at the whites to emulate. We can only hope that Sarah Palin is around for a long time to come. A little bit of oomph is always welcome.

According to the pundits the entire world is in for a prolonged period of recession although most qualify their predictions by saying that the US would suffer for only a short period and the US economy will start to improve from the second quarter of 2009. The US is in as much debt as Iceland, about three times its GDP, but whereas Iceland has declared bankruptcy the US is in the happy position of being able to print as many dollars as it likes. No one is explaining why, when the US has about $ 15 trillion dollars of deficit and is shortly going to lower interest rates to one percent, its currency is rising against all other currencies except the Japanese Yen. Oil prices have fallen to below $ 60 a barrel which is causing enormous problems for Iran. Iran may be unable to continue with its social welfare programmes giving rise to enormous resentment among its people. China's economy is also slowing down as demand in Europe and the US falls and increasing unemployment may spur the normally supine Chinese to rebel against the regime. A decade from now George Bush may be considered to have been the greatest President of all time for having caused the fall of both China and Iran. He will actually fall into greatness.

On Friday of last week the Sensex collapsed by over 1000 points to below 9000. It is hard to comprehend that it had reached over 21000 in January of this year. For the last few years it has been obvious that a gigantic bubble had been built up in the stock and housing markets. Low quality flats in Delhi were being priced at over Rs. 10 million and we were being told that prices would rise even further. Only about 12% of Indians pay income tax which starts at a paltry Rs. 1,20,000 per year. At this level of income it would be hard for a single person to pay rent and buy food let alone pay for a mortgage. Properties in India are sold on a 50:50 basis that is half the total price is paid by cheque or 'white money' and the other half is paid in cash or 'black money'. This is because of extortionate rates of stamp duty and registration taxes. It follows that there would be very few people able to afford Rs. 5 million in cash to buy properties in major cities and towns. Clearly most of it was speculation and a few genuine buyers were taken in and are now ruing there impulse. Our great Prime Minister has claimed that he warned world leaders about the financial crisis at least 18 months ago. Pity he did not warn our great Finance Minister or the Indian people who are paying for his food and living. The free loading press keeps banging on about what a great economist he is. Only Indians cannot see it.

Hurricane, tsunami or earthquake do not refer to natural phenomena anymore, neither do the words mayhem, massacre or bloodbath refer to the latest Holywood blockbuster. These are words used to describe the recent ructions in the financial markets of the world in recent weeks by serious nerdy looking women and men. Iceland has suffered the shock and awe of bankruptcy producing collateral damage to savers in the UK. In response the British government used antiterror laws to freeze all assets of Icelandic banks in the UK. Ireland broke the coalition by guaranteeing all bank deposits thus threatening to draw scarce liquidity away from others. Faced by friendly fire the US pumped in over a trillion dollars into its banking system but the FED Chairman is asking for more. The British bought controlling shares in banks such as the Royal Bank of Scotland and yesterday the Dutch did the same for ING, thus effectively nationalising these banks. Everyone is now discussing monetary as opposed to fiscal stimulus and Keynes versus Voodoo economics. Who has caused such a commotion in the world? More than Gengiz Khan, Alexander and Mao Ze Dong combined? It is my hero George W. Bush of course. He has finally found his legacy. Shit happens!

Though the fat lady is yet to sing it is now accepted wisdom that Obama is going to be elected President of the US in november. It is shameful that a country that preaches ceaselessly to the world continues to deprive the majority of its citizens. Women constitute 53% of the population yet did not support Clinton. Now the Democrats are trying to tarnish Sarah Palin in Alaska, a woman who has just seen off her older son to service in Iraq. Obama never went to Iraq until he became Democratic candidate and then went on a cosmetic tour just for appearance. He promised to accept public financing and then went back on his word and is now spending $ 4.5 million a day as opposed to $ 1.5 million by McCain. This shows that he is a liar. Has he contributed anything to the cause of veterans of the Iraq war? Surely if he wants to be the Commander in Chief he should have shown more interest in the young men and women who are putting their lives on the line. It is not enough to vote against the Iraq war and say that you will bring the troops back home early. If civil war breaks out after the Americans leave then all the sacrifices would have been in vain. Being a lawyer qualified from Harvard he can answer any question in hundred different ways without saying anything. It took Joe the Plumber to pim him down and get a straight answer. The Americans are going to vote for him because they do not like Bush and because they do not want to appear racist. What pathetic reasons to elect a president with his finger on the nuclear button.

After spending Rs. 15 billion in paying compensation, building the factory and putting machines in place Tata finally admitted defeat and pulled out of Singur in West Bengal. For weeks Mamata Bannerjee had been adamant that 300 acres of land must be returned to the farmers. Her supporters were camped outside the site and were threatening workers who reported for work. Maybe she was hoping to resell the land back to Tata at hugely inflated price and become a heroine for poor farmers? For Tata it would have looked like extortion. If they gave in to her then every villainous politician would find a reason to hold up production and they would be vulnerable for ever. The question remains as to who was financing Bannerjee who was rumoured to be spending Rs. 10 million a day to keep her agitation going. A UP politician visited the site a few times and could have been woeking for another industrialist who is keen to manufacture small cars and would have wanted Tata's project to be stalled. The Congress was smarting from CPM's opposition to the nuclear deal and and certainly did nothing to help. Unfortunately for all three protagonists it backfired spectacularly when Tata went to Gujarat and gave a huge fillip to Narendra Modi who is hated by them. As for Bengal, it is sliding towards becoming the worst state in India. All the clever, ambitious and hard working Bengalees have left the state and only the lazy and the useless are left behind who continue to vote for the CPM to get assured but lowly government jobs. Unless they get rid of the commies Bengal will become the beggar state of India.

Like a jilted lover who marries on the rebound only to regret it later the American public are all set to elect Barack Obama because they feel let down by George Bush. This is a man who seems safe because he has done nothing of note in his entire life. He keeps banging on about change when he shows no evidence of changing anything. He has picked a career insider, Joe Biden, as his running mate. He rejected state financing so that he does not have to disclose the source of his funding. Surely $ 200 million could not have come from $ 5 cheques from little grannies in New Orleans. He will be just as much in hock to big business and the NRA. He talks about women but trashed Hilary Clinton and is now trying to tarnish Sarah Palin who has just seen off her son to Iraq. He talks about tax reduction for 95% of the people, increased funding for education and health care and rescuing those who have lost their homes to the financial crisis without saying anything about where the money is going to come from. He talks about the environment and then gives off a lot of hot air about this 'journey called America' whatever that may mean. This is a one man cause of global warming. We, in the rest of the world, have to watch anxiously who the Americans are going to pick because it affects all of us. Unfortunately it seems that they will reject a war hero and a popular governor for a windbag.

Panic? What panic? It is all calm in India. Everyday we are being told that the fundamentals of our economy is sound, that, except for ICICI, our banks do not have any significant exposure to foreign banks and that our economy is driven by internal consumption with exports being only a small part of the GDP. All correct except that it is only a small part of the full picture. Since this government was elected four years ago it has increased indirect taxes, expecially on services, by a huge amount. This gave rise to a hidden inflation but as long as food prices remained reasonable and the economy continued to grow because of easy credit in the whole world it was able to get away with the bluff of 'Incredible India'. The Sensex reached 21000 and house prices were rising on a daily basis. Then oil and commodity prices went stratospheric and inflation zoomed to 13%. The Reserve Bank raised rates to 9.5%. The consumer is hit by a triple whammy of huge inflation, high taxes and high interest rates leading to high interest payments on outstanding loans. The rupee has collapsed from 39 to the dollar to 47 which will further fuel inflation by increasing import prices including oil. The Reserve Bank will have to maintain a high or higher interest rate which will cut growth. A weak rupee would have stimulated tourism except for this government's pathetic failure to deal with terrorism. Our freeloading press continues to repeat the lies of the politicians. Incredible India or Imbecile India?

As expected Tata Motors have decided to leave West Bengal and set up their factory in a friendlier state. After ruining the industrial base and infrastructure in the state over a period of 25 year the communists had realised that Bengal was close to becoming the poorest state in the country. During this time they have corrupted all the institutions of government including the civil service, the police and the teachers. Communists are structured like organised crime. They have a capo called general secretary and button men called cadres. They run extortion and protection rackets and anyone objecting is silenced with force, often permanently. During elections voters are told not to go to the polling stations and ballot boxes are stuffed with the help of police who owe their jobs to their allegiance to the party. Over the years they had become used to taking everything by force and never expected any resistance. They forgot the simple fact that for a farmer losing his land is akin to losing his livelihood for ever and there is noone more dangerous than a man who believes he is going to die of hunger. Of course, Mamata Bannerjee exploited the situation for her own advantage without regard to the welfare of the state but that is what the commies have been doing for a long time. It is time the people of West Bengal showed some guts and drove out the commie thugs permanently.

From today no one is allowed to smoke in any public place including restaurants, pubs, hotels and even public parks. This malicious peace of legislation curtails individual freedom and opens innocent citizens to harassment by the police. If the criminal politicians really wanted to do public good they would have banned all tobacco products and I would have applauded it. But that would have meant foregoing enormous taxes raised on cigarettes and less money to loot. If I pay tax on a product it automatically means that the product is legal and that I have every right to use and enjoy without hindrance. Millions of people are employed in the tobacco industry, starting from farmers to workers in cigarette factories to dirt poor people engaged in rolling bidis for a few rupees per thousand. Banning tobacco would lose votes which is impossible. Even more dangerous than cigarettes are 'khaini', which is tobacco mixed with lime and kept inside the lower lip, and gutka which is chewing tobacco so addictive that I suspect that some cheap drug such as amphetamines are mixed in it. Khaini causes cancer of the lip and tongue and gutka cause a jump in blood pressure especially in middle aged men. These two products are used mainly by the poor who are least able to afford the serious consequences. Yet no restriction is being placed on these products proving that the Health Minister is just a shallow, petty man who has wasted public money for the four years in office. The law should be changed so that the tax payer can claim back all the salary and expenses paid to a minister who has been useless and a nuisance to public safety.

Bill Clinton left office with a balanced budget and a fiscal surplus which Bush has turned into a deficit of 11 trillion dollars with his moronic tax refunds and the Iraq war. Now the US government proposes to rescue banks with a bail out of over one trillion dollars. The danger is that the dollar may collapse and inflation jumps in the US. Asian countries are sitting with huge dollar reserves. China has about 2 trillion dollars, Japan has 1.5 trillion and other countries together another trillion. If the dollar collapses all this will become confetti, oil and commodity prices will surge and exports will plummet bringing the entire region into recession. Asian countries should get together and raise a trillion dollars from their reserves and give it to the US on easy terms. This will rescue the US economy and every one can get back to making profits. Unfortunately politicians are small minded people incapable of generosity. They are enjoying US discomfort and may kill the goose with its golden eggs in the process.

More than 50 thousand children taken to hospital and at least six already dead, this is the latest crisis in China. It came about because water was added to milk to inflate volume and profits and, to disguise the dilution, melamine powder was added to the milk to enhance its nitrogen content. The situation becomes critical because of the harshly imposed one child policy of the government. The head of quality control has been sacked and a few low level officials of the milk supplying firms will be found guilty in due course. After a dubious trial they will be executed with one shot to the back of the head and a bill for one bullet will be sent to the respective families. Their organs will be sold to wealthy foreigners in need of transplant. The state always wins. Angry parents will be threatened into silence and things will revert to normal until the next crisis breaks. During the recent earthquakes schools collapsed killing thousands of children but government buildings stood firm. Parents protesting against corrupt local officials colluding with builders were arrested, threatened and bullied into silence. In the last few decades China has become enormously rich. Huge buildings, fantastic roads and the Olympics blind people to its reality. A person just returned from there was awed at their progress but remarked that he did not see any birds. He presumed they had all been eaten. These are a brutal, uncivilised, barbaric people incapable of humanity and will probably never be democratic.

Charles Taylor, Idi Amin, Bokassa, Mobutu and on and on, the list of murderous thugs running countries in Africa is endless. However even in this rollcall of villains Thabo Mbeki of South Africa holds a special place. Not because of anything that he did but because of all the good he could have done but chose not to. Becoming president after Nelson Mandela he inherited a country in peace, still basking in the afterglow of the end of apartheid and the best economy on the continent. During his tenure a few blacks have become rich but inequality has increased. Crime has exploded and everyone with money has to have bodyguards or face being mugged, raped or murdered. Mbeki has stubbornly denied the existence of HIV saying that it is a nutritional disorder. He sacked Assistant Health Minister, the widely respected Routledge but has supported Msimang, the Health Minister, a woman accused of corruption and of getting a fast track liver transplant to treat her alcoholic liver disease. He waited for two weeks, while mobs were killing immigrants, before calling the army to restore order. His support of Mugabi has meant the death of thousands in Zimbabwe and the peace treaty he has brokered still leaves Mugabi with control of the army and is bound to fail. The ANC have voted to oust him but the man they have chosen is Jacob Zuma who was accused of raping a HIV positive woman. When asked if he had taken any precautions he said that he had taken a shower. Africa still remains the Dark Continent.

After bomb blasts in Delhi in 2005 CCTV cameras were installed in markets in Delhi but not one was found to be working on saturday when the recent outrage took place. A car stolen in Navi Mumbai was found loaded with explosives in Surat but the CCTV cameras at the toll station through which it had come were not working. Meanwhile Customs fellows investigating evasion of duties by wealthy individuals in importing aircraft for personal use accidentally stumbled upon airplanes entering Indian airspace illegally without permission. Apparently six planes, a Boeing 727, 3 Challenger aircrafts, a Lear jet and a Gulf Stream have been flying in and out of India and landing at smaller airports for years without permission. I feel confused, perplexed and stupid. An airport is not a petrol pump where you drive in, fill up and drive out. How can any plane fly into our airspace undetected? What about radar and satellites? Why were they not challenged by our Air Force and forced to land? Why were they allowed to land at any airport without filing a flight plan? How did they pay landing fees and refuelling costs? I am too terrified to think of what cargo or passengers they may have been carrying. In 1995 a Russian built AN26 was captured dropping arms into Purulia in West Bengal and yet six planes are able to fly in and out of the country unchallenged and, shockingly, undetected. Worse, there is no concern among politicians, civil or defence personnel. Politicians are busy abusing each other in preparation for the coming general elections while the kleptocrats, police and army officers are occupied in matching pay packets and whining about getting less. Useless parasites with no sharam, no izzat.

Another day of carnage, this time on the streets of Delhi. While the rabid muslims continue to kill innocent people the government is assuring them that Haj fights will be subsidised as before with taxpayers' money. No doubt the criminals were equipped and financed by the ISI of Pakistan, a moribund state being kept alive by US help. At last the US has woken up to the fact that Pakistan is the source of 90% of terrorism in the world and Bush has authorised cross border raids. Unfortunately Bush is not the only moron to occupy the White House. Support for Pakistan and a blind eye to all its abominable crimes have been the policy for decades in callous indifference to the slaughter of innocent Indians. It was the US that poured money and weapons to Zia Ul Haq to oust the USSR from Afghanistan, a hellhole with no resources and an illiterate and murderous people. Today NATO soldiers are paying the cost. When the USSR broke up Russia embraced democracy but instead of embracing it as a partner and helping it to become prosperous the US continually insulted and humiliated it. It helped break up Yugoslavia and Chechoslavia and expanded NATO to Russian borders. Today Russia is fighting back. Bolivia, Venezuela and Honduras have expelled US ambassadors and Ethiopia is on the brink of famine with its soldiers dying in Somalia in a US inspired war. The next President of the US has to understand that Pakistan and China are the main threats to the future of the world and not Cuba or that buffoon, Hugo Chavez. If he does not the future will indeed be bleak.

When is a pig not a pig? Depends on your culture. When Harbhajan Singh was accused of calling Andrew Symonds of Australia 'a monkey' there was a huge furore in Australia. Singh's defence was that he the words ' teri maa ki' which means 'your mother's *****.' Australians are probably used to their mothers being friendly with many men and an allusion to their mother's organs was not as offensive as calling Symonds a monkey which was deemed to be a terrible racial insult. For Indians abusing your mother will probably elicit a violent response whereas many parents lovingly address their children as 'little monkey'. So to Obama. The Republicans have objected to his quip about putting lipstick on a pig as an insult to Sarah Palin. Obama has aggressively denied the accusations accusing the Republicans of falsehood. So who is right? The answer lies in Obama's middle name which is Hussein. He converted to Christianity from Islam. In Islam the pig is considered unclean and pig meat is 'haram' or forbidden. The thing to do is to find out if Obama eats bacon, ham and pork. If he does then he may be forgiven. If, however, he absolutely never has pig products then he is guilty of serious abuse. On man's meat etc. etc. as they say.

The Indian Institutes of Technology, IIT, are prestigious institutions and are even recognised abroad. There were five such institutes in five different cities in India but seven more have been set up this year without buildings, faculty or infrastructure. Thus the students enrolled in the newly set up Rajasthan IIT are being taught in Kanpur. It is doubtful that Kanpur will have the resources to suddenly handle double the number of students and standards of teaching are bound to fall. Students to the IITs are recruited through an elimination examination called the Joint Entrance Exam or JEE. This year's results are shocking. The last candidate in the General category got out of 200 in each subject 63 in Maths, 72 in Physics and 45 in Chemistry for a total of 180 in 600. The last candidate in the Scheduled Caste, SC, category got 38,8 and 58 respectively for a total of 104 while that in the Scheduled Tribes, ST, category got 36,12 and 56 for a total of 104. The really shocking thing is that the General category candidate had an all India rank of 6773 while the SC one had a rank of 689 and the ST one was 159. This is extreme injustice. Next year cut offs will be lowered still further which will allow SC/ST candidates with zero in Physics to secure a place in IIT. Professors will be forced to pass these students or they will be accused of bias. Their certificates will not show their JEE marks and they will be treated as equal until disasters happen. How long before IITs are seen as rubbish? Genius is unique and hated by the garbage who want everyone to stink like them. Sadly India will be seen as producer of only garbage.

Bye bye Obama, welcome Sarah Palin. Beautiful mother of five. A huntin', fishin', shootin' gal who believes in Creationism, is Prolife and supports gun ownership is an automatic poster girl for the grassroots Republican rednecks. She started gently introducing her family. Older son going to Iraq, younger son with Down's syndrome. She talked about her experience as mayor and governor of Alaska. Putting the luxury jet on EBay was a nice touch. Having sharpened her claws she moved into attack. She made Barack Obama into a windbag and tore into him. Her quip about the 'styrofoam pillars' must have felt like a stiletto in Demacratic hearts. She questioned his record in the senate and was oh so sarcastic about his community service. If she continues like this and there is no big banana skin on the way no one stop the Republicans waltzing into the White House. In four years McCain will be too old and Palin could be the candidate. Hillary Clinton vs Sarah Palin, now that really would be thrilling. All of us men can relax in our armchairs with pints of cool beer in our hands and watch the biggest catfight in history. Cannot wait.

The government has accepted the recomendations of the Sixth Pay Commission which gives massive pay rises to corrupt and lazy government employees. This will cost 2.8 billion dollars and add to the inflationary pressures on the economy. The perennial complaint of the kleptocrats is that they are paid less than the private sector. The IAS officers are especially clever in getting higher pay rises than any other branch of government causing jealousy and resentment. the IPS and IFS fellows have already protested and now it is the turn of the army. They want pay rises comparable to the IAS and the private sector. This constant comparison with the private sector is so false that it takes your breath away. They only look at the the salaries of CEOs of large companies but not to the fact that every private sector employee is answerable to the management and to the shareholders. Kleptocrats, on the other hand, are not accountable to anyone. The most incompetent and dishonest is able to continue in his post and gets time bound promotions automatically. They are permanent and cannot be sacked. Surely this security of employment without having to do anything productive must be worth at least 10 million rupees a year. If a sarkari fellow dies of any cause his wife is given employment in the same office. Often that means a semi literate woman signing on everyday, sitting on her backside doing nothing and taking home a good salary at taxpayer's expense. Kleptocrats get to travel abroad at our expense without anyone ever asking for the reason. They are paid handsome pensions on retirement and many take jobs in the private sector. Solution is simple. Reduce the number of government employees by 75%. New employees will only be recruited if they agree to hire and fire. Triple the salaries but no perks or pensions. With higher salaries they will contribute to health and pension insurance. Promotion only on merit. Will any kleptocrat agree to an honest job description? Perish the thought.

Following heavy rains large areas of Bihar, the poorest and arguably the most lawless state in India, have been inundated. Over a million people have been or will be displaced by the floods. Little aid has reached the affected and what little is getting through is apparently being controlled by criminals. Even during this 'national calamity' politicians cannot help being nasty to each other. Apparently the Prime Minister inspected the area from the air but did not take along the Chief Minister of Bihar, Nitish Kumar. Lalu Prasad, who was trounced by Nitish Kumar in the last state elections is the Railway Minister in the present Union Cabinet. No doubt the government will declare a few millions of rupees in aid of Bihar and, if the past is any guide, most of the money will go into the pockets of the kleptocrats with nothing if any reaching the needy. Yet the solution is simple. Set up a rescue and support unit within the army. With one million people the army has enough personnel and will have the logistical expertise to reach even the most difficult of terrain. The unit will store food, tents, clothing, blankets, fresh water in different locations all over India and will be authorised to deliver aid and mount rescue missions at very short notice at any part of the country. The experience will help personnel of the unit to rescue soldiers and victims in the event of war. There is no way politicians and kleptocrats will agree to allow the army to control such a lucrative source of extra cash. Disasters and calamities are God send, sad for the victims happy for the kletptocrats.

As a propaganda channel for the US, the BBC has been giving wall to wall coverage of the National Convention of the Democratic party which chose Barack Obama as its candidate for President of the US. I watched Obama's speech this morning and it was wonderfully stage managed. Obama is a consummate actor and a great speaker taking the audience with him. He promised a lot of goodies for everyone. He is going to lower taxes for 95% of Americans, he will provide cheap education for children, he will provide better equipment for the Armed Forces, he will provide health care for all, he will ensure that the US is not dependent on Middle East oil within ten years ( is he angling for a second term even before being elected for the first? ) by giving tax incentives to altenate sources of energy and to car companies to produce fuel efficient cars, he will give tax benefits for small companies to prevent outsourcing of jobs and he will provide college education for soldiers under a sort of GI bill. Father Christmas could not have put it better. And how is he going to pay for all the goodies he is going to dish out? He had the answer. He is going to read every line of the budget to cut out waste from the government. Wow. Anyone to nominate him for next year's Nobel Prize in economics? I would still give him the benefit of doubt if he were not a lawyer and we all know that lawyers are liars who would say anything to suit the circumstaces. Would he really slash pork barrel projects if Democrats were in trouble in two years time? With the US running up trillions of dollars in debt he made no mention of balancing the budget which was, perhaps, the greatest achievement of the last Democratic Presidency under Bill Clinton so wantonly squandered by George Bush. A lot of hot air certainly, unfortunately not much information.

A few days ago a local Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) leader in Orissa was killed while protesting against conversion of Hindus by Christian priests in Orissa. VHP activists in the area have been attacking churches in the area blaming christian priests for the killing of their leader. This morning I read that the Vatican has condemned attacks on churches as bullying and has called for peace. The Vatican should perhaps remember how many times they have had to appologise for actions of its clergy before issuing stupid statements. Starting with the Crusades to the Inquisition Catholics have been resposible for the deaths of millions. In the middle ages the pope actually waged war and produced bastards from a succession of mistresses. Gallilleo was imprisoned for saying that the earth went round the sun. Joan of Arc was burnt at the stake as were thousands of 'witches'. The Church did nothing to help Jews during the Holocaust and even supported the military dictatorship in Argentina which was responsible for many extra judicial killings. The Church did nothing against slavery nor did it condemn apartheid in the strongest possible terms. Recently it has had to appologise for sexual exploitation of children. Jesus was a carpenter's son. He wore homespun, thongs or sandals on his feet and walked. His disciples were lowly fishermen and he moved among the poor, the sick and the fallen. At a time when leprosy meant a painful disgusting death he chose to embrace them. The Pope on the other hand, lives in sumptuous apartments in the Vatican, controls billions of dollars, wears silk and travels in an airconditioned Pope Mobile. Jesus NEVER converted anybody. If he has time in between lucturing us Hindus maybe he should read Jesus' words 'he who is without sin let him cast the first stone'.

It is tragic that a country of one billion people can be so happy with one gold and two bronze medals at the Olympics. Newspapers are running half page photographs of the medal winners with nauseating outpourings of praise. These men are indeed heroes not for the success they have achieved but because their achievement comes inspite of the disgusting way they are treated. Bindra's father is hugely rich and was able to create an air conditioned shooting range with imported gear for his son to practice with and he won gold showing that Indians can mix with the best if given the right training conditions. We have a Ministry for Sport costing billions of rupees in salaries for the Minister, the obligatory kleptocrats who follow him and their security and perks. These thieves and beggars use all the budget for personal enrichment and trips abroad. I have no doubt that the Indian contingent at the Olympics had as many administrators as competitors if not more. Whether these filthy parasites slept in beds while the athletes slept on the floor, as in the past, I do not know but I read that the wrestlers did not have a physio and massaged their own aching muscles in between bouts. The only way forward will be to get rid of all politicians and kleptocrats from all sports bodies. Instead these bodies should be run by ex athletes, sports journalists and reputed individuals who will be elected for fixed terms and not be allowed for re election. Problem is thieves and beggars have no sharam or izzat and will not want to be dumped in the garbage pile where they belong.

As a mark of my hatred for China I am not watching the Olympic Games going on at present. China is the most virulent enemy that India has. It is occupying about 50000 square miles of Indian territory and claims Arunachal as part of itself. Its soldiers frequently infiltrate across the border. As a mark of its hostile intentions it has supplied nuclear weapons to Pakistan. The Chinese eat anything from dogs, cats to sea horses and human foetus. To augment their inadequate manhood they eat tiger parts and rhino horns thus pushing these animals to brink of extiction. They were the source of the outbreak of SARS or Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome. The outbreak was traced to wild civets being sold in Chinese markets. Scientists say that the next flu epidemic will originate from China and kill millions. These human rodents are using the Olympic Games for political propaganda despite promising not to do so. They invited more than hundred heads of state for the opening ceremony including Musharraf but not anyone from India, a clear diplomatic slap. They invited Mrs. Sonia Gandhi privately and she went with her extended family not caring for the humiliation India suffered. All her energy is concentrated in making her son the future Prime Minister of the country no matter what the cost. Now I believe that she is truly a foreigner. Since this was a private visit I wonder how much it cost and who paid for it. Does anyone have the courage to ask?

There is no doubt that the US and its european allies are trying to encircle Russia with satellite states with membership of NATO. The US financed the Orange Revolution in the Ukraine and, most probably, the ousting of Shevardnadze in Georgia to bring in its stooge, Mikhail Sakashvili who, most probably, stole the elections last year. One can understand the desire of states to become members of the EU which cause rapid economic advance but membership of the NATO, a military organisation, shows a hostile intent and is provocative. If the US is entitled to show enmity to Cuba surely Russia has every right to be suspicious of NATO and if the US supports Israeli blockade of legitimately elected Hamas surely Russia can question illegitimately elected Sakashvili. The origin of the present conflict lies in the indiscriminate bombardment by Georgian forces on South Ossetia. Sakashvili claims that South Ossetia is an integral part of Georgia. Why then did he launch an all out bombardment of his own people? Though much smaller how is it any different from Bashir's attacks in Darfour and Mugabe's attacks on opponents? Bush must remember the hundreds of thousands of civilians killed by US forces in Iraq before he starts shooting off his mouth. The BBC, as usual, is totally one sided in its reporting of the conflict. It is not showing any of the South Ossetian civilians killed or wounded by Georgians, only concentrating on showing outrage at Russian actions. The hypocrites should remember that what is sauce for the goose is surely ketchup for the gander.

When this government came to power some four years ago it increased rates of Value Added Taxes, added taxes on a wide range of services and added various types of cess increasing Consumer Price Inflation. Luck was on its side. Low interest rates worldwide with huge liquidity prompted growth rates of over 8% with ministers taking undue credit. Then came the explosion in commodity prices this year and inflation has gone to over 12%. The Reserve Bank has raised rates to 9% and increased the Cash Reserve Ratio of banks to reduce money supply. The double whammy of increased prices and mortgage repayments has people gasping. The government has done its bit too. It is taking delivery of three wide bodied Boeing planes customised for ultimate comfort at the cost of 9.37 billion rupees. One for the President, one for the Prime Minister and one, probably, for the little boys to go and play anywhere in the world. While they keep screaming how their hearts bleed for the aam aadmi they could hardly show greater disdain for the people. So what if the people cannot afford roti and urad dal, let them eat cake. At least Marie was beautiful. This lot make you cringe.

Seems that it is certain that the Nuclear Deal offered by the US will be clean but may not be unconditional. I fail to understand why the US expects us Indians to be grateful to be offered a clean deal. I would have thought that all international deals must be clean without exception. Does this mean that the US has been making dirty deals before now and our government has spent years and millions of dollars in diplomacy just to get a clean deal? So what were the dirty deals the US made in the past? Perhaps the deal that locked Native Americans into Reservations to die prematurely of boredom, alcoholism and life style diseases. Or the deal that supplied chemical weapons to Saddam Hussein of Iraq to use on Kurds and Iranians. Or the deal with Iran that supplied illegal arms to Contra terrorists in Nicaragua to try and bring down Daniel Ortega's government which has been reelected to power. Or the deal that gave billions of dollars in aid to Zia Ul Haq of Pakistan to set up an army of students called the Taliban to fight the Soviets in Afghanistan, the same Taliban which is taking a heavy toll of Coalition Forces in Afghanistan today. The Indian government must go through every word, comma and semicolon to see that the deal we make is indeed squeaky clean and does not come back to haunt us in the future. After all Saddam was a great friend of the US and look what happened to him. Even now they speak with forked tongue.

In Saudi Arabia I was told that on Judgement Day all muslims will be resurrected from their graves and stand naked in a queue before God. Each person will have the same body as on earth and will be exactly the same as on earth. Thus a professor will remain erudite while an illiterate will remain such as he was. A Bihari will continue to speak Bhojpuri while a Bangladeshi will speak Bangladeshi. As each person comes upto God his good and bad deeds will be read out and points tallied to see if the person deserves hell or heaven. Questions will then be asked of him. All this will happen in Arabic, not the Arabic of today but that of the Holy Book. If the person is unable to answer the questions put to him he will be put on a wall, on one side is Paradise with its 72 virgins and on the other side is Hell with vats of boiling oil. The questions will be repeated three times and if still unable to answer he will go straight to hell where he will be dipped in boiling oil. His skin will be burnt off, he will be lifted up whereupon his skin will instantly regrow and he will then be dipped again. This continues eternally. 99.99% of muslims in India, Bangladesh and Pakistan know nothing of Arabic and will thus be unable to answer any question put to them. They are all destined for Hell and boiling oil. Killing Hindus will not save them from the vats. Arabs know this and refer to muslims from South Asia in derogatory terms. 'Kullu al buraz'.

I feel sympathy for Ms. Susan Schwab, the US Representative at the WTO talks which collapsed yesterday. Her predecessor at the GATT round of talks at Uruguay got whatever he or she demanded. He was able to maintain agricultural subsidies at current levels and was able to open up developing world markets without giving anything in return. Africa was really screwed. They were made to open up their services including utilities such as water supplies with disastrous results. Western firms took control, increased prices so people could not afford supplies and made profits on the backs of poor people including children. High tariffs on finished products decimated African industries while Western companies got raw materials such cocoa, coffee and minerals at rock bottom rates and were then able to sell finished products back to the same people at hugely inflated prices. Massive corruption at every level of government made it easier for them to do whatever they pleased. The US reneged on whatever promises they had made of opening up its markets by the clever use of the ' green box ', a magical device which makes commitments vanish into outer space. Now developing countries are refusing to believe what they are told, are reading every fine print and refusing to kowtow to the white ' massa '. Ms Schwab is hugely frustrated. How is the world to function if third world people want to progress so that they are equal to Americans? Peter Mandelson of the EU expressed deep sympathy for the poor of the world who, he feels, will suffer because of Indian and Chinese intransigence. The tears of the crocodile have never flowed so freely as now.

First in Bangalore and then yesterday in Ahmedabad, multiple bombs have killed at least 40 people in two days. Our freeloading press is quick to pour scorn on Narendra Modi, Chief Minister of Gujarat and calls the BJP, a Hindu Nationalist Party as though being a Hindu is a crime deserving of death at the hands of the filthy muslims. There will be much hand wringing and pontificating on how the muslims should be embraced with love and given more money because they have been excluded from the main stream since independence. However, their hatred is not borne out of some recent injustice but is hundreds of years old and part of the religion. A succession of Muslim invaders, Nader Shah, Taimur Lang, Tuglak and others murdered Hindu men, raped women and desecrated our temples only because we are Hindus. The Quran says that ' if you meet a kafir woman try to convert her and if she resists marry her' which means rape. Then it says ' if you meet a kafir man try to convert him and if he refuses kill him'. Everyday we are told that Islam is a religion of peace on the principle that a lie repeated a million times will be believed. Is there one place on earth where there are more than a hundred muslims and there is peace? We Hindus are helpless. Our only hope is the ongoing war between the Judaeo Christian alliance and the Muslims. Will they be able to wipe out billions of these murderers? At some point the Alliance will realise that they cannot win by conventional means and drop nuclear weapons on the holy sites making them radioactive for ever. Only then will the world experience true peace.

At last after thirteen years of hiding Radovan Karadzic has been arrested in Serbia and will, in all probability, be transferred to the Hague for trial at the War Crimes Tribunal. Watching the coverage on BBC and CNN one cannot help feeling nauseated at the hypocrisy of these white Anglo Saxon channels. Reporters are recounting all his alleged crimes at length and emphasing what a monster he is. And so he is. He is probably responsible for the death of at least 10000 civilians, including children, in Bosnia and that makes him a mass murderer deserving the severest punishment on offer. However, for us sitting thousands of miles away, justice would really have been served if Bush and Blair were standing alongside this man in the dock. If Karadzic is responsible for 10000 deaths, Bush and Blair are surely responsible for hundreds of thousands of civilian deaths in Iraq where they have been fighting an illegal war based on lies about WMDs. At least Bush has an excuse. He attacked Iraq because Saddam was a bad man who had insulted his daddy and he had discussed everything with God beforehand anyway. Since he had taken permission from the Big Guy up there he can be forgiven. There is no excuse for Blair. He is a lawyer by profession so must have known that the war is illegal. He lied to the Commons about weapons ready to be fired within 45 minutes and has repeatedly lied to the nation. His support provided the fig leaf that Bush needed and he is therefore guilty of the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians killed. But he is not facing any prosecution. Instead he has a highly paid job as peacemaker between the Israelis and the Palestinians. The lesson seems to be that if you kill 10000 then you will be punished but if you kill ten times that number you will be rewarded. No wonder people are predicting apocalypse any time soon.

The politicians in Delhi are a sleepless lot these days. The Commies have withdrawn support from the government of Mrs. Sonia Gandhi and a vote of confidence is to take place shortly. One politician has suggested that Congress is promising 250 million rupees to each member of smaller parties to vote in support of the government. If the government loses then a general election should be held to give the public a voice in who forms the next government but the politicians are terrified of elections. If booted out all opportunities of looting the exchequer disappears instantly. Already various slimy creatures are crawling out of dark places to claim leadership of the next government of convenience and others are promising support in a desperate attempt to shed some light on their obscurity. As usual we, the people, will probably have no say in the matter even though our money will be used to buy support of the political whores. Newspapers featured the photographs of seven men serving sentences for various heinous crimes, from assault with deadly weapons to murder, but astonishingly these men are still members of parliament and so will be realeased to vote on the motion. Surely convicted criminals should be disbarred from any elected office forever but these are the same people who would have to pass the law to disqualify themselves and they would never do that. With the government in suspended animation, inflation out of control and the possibility of economic disaster looming the future looks bleak. But if people get really fed up they may summon up the courage and energy to bury the present rotten lot. Who knows, good may yet come out of this mess.

Recently news on television has been dominated by the happy smiling face of Ingrid Bettancort who was being held as hostage by the FARC terrorists in Columbia for the last six years. France had never given up on efforts to get her released and President Sarkozy seemed to make it a personal mission. Before that Sarkozy got Chad to release over hundred members of an NGO who were accused of trying to kidnap local children and smuggle them into Europe. Although convicted by a Chadian court of a grievous offence the government was forced to release them. This shows that western governments place enormous value on each of their citizens, a lesson lost on third world leaders. Leaders of third world countries build palaces for themselves, travel in huge cars and like to show themselves as Gods dispensing alms to their naked and hungry populace. They think that by showing how people bow and scrape in front of them their prestige is somehow increased. They do not realise that they are seen as cheap thugs and held in the deepest contempt by the western leaders. The indictment of Omar Bashir of Sudan at the International Court of Justice is an example. Regardless of all the slogan shouting by his supporters he has been badly humiliated. Similarly the Indian government has been slapped in the face by dirty Chinese chappals. Not a single member of the government has been invited to the Beijing Olympics, only Mrs. Sonia Gandhi. When will they ever learn.

Seems that tax collections, both direct and indirect, were sharply up last fiscal. The Finance Minister shows a great deal of satisfaction in announcing this fact to the suffering people of India. So what is happening to all this money extorted out of the tax payer? For a start an astronomical amount is being thrown away in forgiving bank loans of farmers. This is pure loot and bribe, a shameless cynical ploy to try and win the coming general election by swindling the tax payer. Of course, this does not help the urban poor and the majority of farmers, who have borrowed money from money lenders rather than banks, so farmer suicides have not been reduced. The second use of this money was revealed in yesterday's newpapers. Seems that bllions of rupees are being spent in buying posh, centrally air conditioned properties with tasty restaurants to house tax offices and airconditioned buses to ferry tax officers to work. Got to keep the leaches satisfied to suck more blood. Meanwhile a tax officer in Bangalore has been found to possess one hundred and twenty cars which is officially described as disproportionate assets while millions cannot afford proportionate food. Result of all this profligacy is deteriorating fiscal deficit which in turn has resulted in Standard and Poors threatening to reduce India's sovereign rating fromm BBB to junk. With oil prices threatening to go above $150 it may be prudent to lose the next election.

Two reporters wrote an article alleging that the former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Mr Sabharwal, miused his authority as a judge by ordering closure of hundreds of high street shops so as to direct shoppers to newly built malls to the profit of both his sons. The law says that a judge may not be prosecuted for any judgement he delivers from the bench however pernicious or immoral it may be. Citing this law the government refuses even to investigate the truth of the allegations in case they turn out to be true and the judge is shamed. Meanwhile a judge of the Delhi High Court jailed the two journalists on a farcical charge of contempt of court and this judge also cannot be challenged for flagrant suppression of the right to free speech. A judge in UP has confessed to embezzling millions of rupees from the PF ( ? Provident Fund ) and has named 23 other judges involved in the scam. However the Supreme Court will only allow the police to send questionaires to the named judges and not allow direct questioning to keep the affair out of media glare so as to guard the reputation of the judiciary. Almost the same number of elite policemen died off the coast of Orissa when the boat they were in was fired at by Naxal, Maoist terrorists. More than 160 districts of the total of 600 in India are infested by Naxals and they are spreading. When people see that corruption in the rich and the powerful goes unpunished they resort to the gun. The hand that wrote on the wall in ancient Babylon may be about to make a return.

The G8 summit in Hokkaido, Japan concluded yesterday with little progress on global warming. The biggest polluter, the US refuses to sign any treaty unless India and China also pledge to reduce pollution which they are loath to do. When Bush says that India is a producer of green house gases he has a point but not what he thinks it is. Every person in India confesses to suffering from 'gas' and every ailment from headache to pain in the knees and anything in between is blamed on gas. It is very difficult to convince a patient that he is having a heart attack. Inspite of an ECG showing massive changes his relatives will insist that it is gas and that a noisy exit from either end will cure the problem. However, even after so long, it is still mystifying to me that when a patient is unconscious with an obvious paralysis on one side of the body pointing to a stroke, the relatives still insist that it is gas putting pressure on the brain. So much gas in a population of more than a billion people is surely contributing to global warming. The solution is simple - clean water. Every Indian tries to have some water purifying mechanism at home. People use various filtering devices or boil water if they have the time. But these methods do not get rid of dissolved salts of calcium, magnesium and even heavy metals. The rich have started using Reverse Osmosis systems. If the government ensures clean water at the taps we can reduce our emissions of green house gases and feel better physically. However politicians continue to exploit the people by producing copious amounts of noxious gases and they will not stop. If only Bush offered us a 'gas' deal instead of a nuclear one how nice that would be.

Congress is the largest party of the Central government in India and the economy is again under great stress. It is a familiar story. Of course, they blame the OPEC countries for the record high oil prices, the US for the record high food prices and steel companies for the sky high inflation. Anyone but themselves, secure in their knowledge that public memory is short, the free loading press is not going to expose their lies and with half the population uneducated they will get away with it. It was the same in the late nineties. House prices were rocketing and inflation was out of control. The interest rates were so high that banks were giving 14.5% on fixed deposits and triple A rated companies such as Tata Steel were raising money from the market at 18%. The Sensex was high and then it all fell apart. In the initial years of this government growth was high because interest rates were low all over the world, money was cheap and the effects of the previous BJP government were still working through the system. Four years of Congress and stagflation stares us in the face. How do we get rid of them?

Guns have just one function and that is to kill. As expected the right wing Supreme Court in the US overturned the ban on handguns in Washington DC. The surprising thing, for me, is that the conservatives, including President Bush, are devout Christians. The life of Jesus was exemplary. As the Son of God he took great care to be born in a stables of a single mother, always took care of the poor and the sick including leprosy patients at a time when leprosy meant a slow and painful death and he forgave his enemies while in great agony on the cross. For me one of the greatest defining moments of his life was just before his capture. He knew that he had been betrayed and the Romans were coming for him yet he did nothing. He could have prayed to God,' Father, please send a dozen angels armed with AK47s and we will teach the Romans the mother of all lessons. While you are at it send down a couple of RPGs and we will have the Pilate fellow washing his underwear instead of his hands.' But he did nothing. He did not ask for spear, sword or even a knife. Worse he did not ask for a shield. HE CHOSE NOT TO DEFEND HIMSELF. These Christian fanatics send millions of dollars every year to India to convert Hindus but worship the National Rifle Association. Strange fellows.

At last the official rate of inflation is stated to be around 12% after lying for years about the Indian growth story. However, this is still the wholesale rate so the Consumer Index will be closer to 20%. As usual the free loading press accepts the government lies and excuses about what caused the inflation. The Finance Minister goes around blaming OPEC for the rising oil prices and the industrial countries for causing food inflation by diverting land for biodiesel production. He does not have the courage to blame himself for the mess he and his colleagues have caused in the last four years that they have clung on to their seats. We are told by the sycophantic press what a great economist the Prime Minister is and then we are told that there is nothing anyone can do. It is only recently that oil prices have been raised in India so that could not be the cause. As for food, it was this bunch which reduced our food stocks because they had begun to believe their own lies about the great Indian growth story. The truth is that the Congress has allowed the treacherous Commies to dictate terms and have not carried out any economic reform. The much vaunted growth has been fueled by bubbles in property and share prices brought about by black money which is generated by corruption. The remedy is simple. Cut the number of ministers, hang Chinese spies, shut down the IAS school and reduce the number of kleptocrats by 75%. Talking rubbish about the aam aadmi and hanging on to gaddis with the support of traitors will nullify any effort at controlling inflation. We wait for stagflation.

At last a few African leaders are waking up to the killing fields of Zimbabwe. No one has had the decency to speak the truth about Zimbabwe and Robert Mugabe for more than two decades while he has destroyed the economy, murdered thousands of opposition supporters and shamelessly allowed his wife on shopping trips to Europe. Now he is helpless. He cannot allow anyone else to become President because he may be tried and hanged. Possibly he will be killed by his own coterie of murderers if he tries negotiating with the oppostion or tries to flee the country. Problem is that there can never be any adequate punishment for mass murder or genocide. After all you can hang a man only once so once he has killed one person he might as well kill as many as he likes since the punishment remains the same. So the people suffer. Trouble is that not one leader in Africa can chastise Mugabe because he can be accused of the same offences. Therefore, they have been taking refuge behind stupid excuses that it is an internal problem and that Mugabe is a resistance hero as if that gives him the right to murder. It is hard to understand how that continent can breed an army of butchers including Idi Amin, Charles Taylor, Omar Bashir and Mugabe to name a few. The list of honour will probably stretch to hundreds. Perhaps with murders, Aids and now famine Africa will one day become devoid of human beings.

It is all about race. Recently I have read many articles all of which have propounded the theory that in these post modern times the US has moved beyond racial divisions citing Obama's popularity among young and educated whites. But is it all so simple? All blacks interviewed on tv have said quite clearly that they voted for him because he is black and a lot of whites have voted for him so as not to be accused of racism and to feel a supercilious smugness about their open mindedness. African Americans ( AAs ) are quick to accuse others of racism but as an Asian I see them as one of the most racist people in the world. They were brought as slaves by whites in inhuman conditions and treated as less than animals for centuries but they have adopted the religion and names of their white masters, joined the American army and killed hundreds of thousand of Asians. They have fought in Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq. Yet these countries never shipped African slaves or ever colonised any African country. Only one AA had the courage and honour to say 'this is not my fight' during the Vietnam war and that was Mohd. Ali, the boxer. For that he was hounded and paid a heavy price. A few days back an AA film director ( forget his name ) accused Clint Eastwood of racism because he did not feature any black in his film on Iwo Jima. Clearly this fellow is proud of AAs killing Asians as part of the American army. He is not alone. African Americans have killed hundreds of thousands of Asians for no reason and are proud of it. Rabid racists.

Our first Prime Minister, Mr. Nehru did a lot of damage to the country. Apparently Gen. Cariappa told him, ' give me 24 hours and I will give you Kashmir' but Nehru chose to go to the U.N. and left a permanent problem for India. He failed to read the treacherous Chinese and the country paid a heavy price. The Chinese still occupy at least 50000 square miles of Indian territory. He followed a command economic structure which bred massive corruption and this has become institutionalised today. He was pro Russian but it was the US which saved the country from famine with PL 480 supplies. He divided the country along caste and state lines. The list goes on. He did two good things. First, he held elections every five years probably because he knew he would win. Second, he built centres of excellence and these have served the country very well. Unfortunately the present government seems determined to destroy the only legacy Nehru left behind. First, Ramadoss, the Health Minister tried to wreck AIIMS, the only quality medical institution in this country. Now some idiot has decided to open seven new IITs in seven different states. These IITs do not have any building or any faculty but will begin admitting students this year. Thus under the stewardship of the widow of his grandson, Sonia Gandhi, Nehru's only legacy will be devalued for ever. India, the country of the third class.

The Hon'ble Finance Minister has expressed satisfaction at record tax collections in the last financial year and has urged the tax department to greater diligence. He even sets targets for the department much like private companies set targets for their salesmen. While the F.M. was asking for more taxes the Prime Minister was asking the kleptocrats not to hold their meetings in five star hotels and for politicians to cut down on foreign junkets, 90% of which are for personal enjoyment. It would be funny if it were not so tragic. One politician has described the Gujjars as 'beggars' for wanting a bigger slice of reserved jobs. Surely the politicians and the kleptocrats are the biggest beggars in the world. In all this talk about increasing tax collections there is never any talk about better services and proper accountability. Every time an Inidan buys a car about half the price is a total of various taxes. Petrol is heavily taxed. Road tax is collected with registration tax. Yet all the new highways being built are toll roads. For example to travel from Delhi to Agra you have to pay toll three times but that does not guarantee you a hassle free ride. Some youngsters from the US were travelling to Agra by taxi but were pulled over by the police who noticed 'goras' and wanted bribes to let them go. When we pay tax we should have the power to say that this money is n0t meant for thieving politicians, their fat ugly wives and their drug crazed criminal children. Unless we know that our money is being spent for the right causes Indians will always be reluctant tax payers.

After dithering for a long time the Indian government has increased patrol price by Rs. 5, diesel by Rs. 3 and domestic gas cylinders by Rs. 50. This has been applauded by our free loading journalists who are always complaining about subsidies on fuel because this helps the middle class people who own vehicles and use gas for cooking. Since the subsidies are paid out of the government's tax collections there is less money left for poverty alleviation schemes. This is so false and perverted that it takes your breath away. Very little of the poverty alleviation schemes actually reaches the poor. Vast sums are siphoned off by politicians and kleptocrats. These schemes are hand outs which make the poor think that they can go on producing any number of children and then expect to be given money. Studies have shown that rapists and criminals come largely from the poorer sections of society and these people are breeding without control. The middle classes pay all the taxes, get no services and are ignored by politicians because they do not form a vote bank. We are supposed to be equal in a democracy but to be middle class in India is to have no power at all.

As feared, Barak Obama is indeed the Democratic candidate for President of the US in November. He has marketed himself as a candidate for change but one wonders what change he has in mind. Will he dare to take on the NRA and ban all guns that kill so many blacks and put so many in jail every year? Will he dare to sign a comprehensive climate change treaty against the wishes of the oil lobby? Will he pressure Israel to stop settlement building on Palestinian land and not to use disproportionate force against civilians? Will be able to change the rabidly right wing Supreme Court where judges are appointed for life and will refuse to resign of die during a Democratic administration? Will he be able to carry out comprehensive reforms of healthcare industry so that poor blacks can access quality healthcare? Will he be able to enforce human rights for terrorist suspects against the wishes of the miltary? Perhaps he will change the colour of the loo paper in the White House. One thing is for certain, he is likely to be disastrous for India. Because of his parentage he may favour Pakistan to our detriment. All Indians should pray for John McCain and those who can should try and get him elected.

Gujjars are at it again. They are listed as OBC which probably stands for Other Backward Classes but want to be classified as Scheduled Tribe which will give them greater access to reserved education seats and government jobs. However the Meenas have cornered this category in Rajasthan and have been enjoying the benefits for decades. They do not want to have to share the pie which has resulted in this confrontation between the Gujjars and the Rajasthan government in which more than forty people have been shot dead by the police. Last year the government stopped the supply of food to the agitators and so forced them into submission. The Gujjars learnt and have secured food and communication channels this time. Ominously the Jats are helping them. Maybe the Jat community would also like to be Scheduled. Andhra is also seeing similar problems. Reservations were never going to help the backward communities. When vast numbers of poor children are deprived of primary education it makes little sense to reserve seats for them in IITs. It was always designed as bribes to the 'leaders' of backward castes who were already rich is the first place and were exploiting their own communities as much as the upper castes. It has led to division of society. Upper caste children who miss out on an IIT seat by one mark and see a Scheduled Class fellow getting in with much fewer marks, even though he comes to class in a luxury car, develop enormous resentment. There is no mixing between castes even if they may be in the same class for years and reserved children are referred to as 'shaddoos'. Is it any wonder that over 160 districts have Naxal problems.

A small news item two days ago said that Research In Motion, RIM, the Canadian company that owns Blackbury has refused the Indian government's demand of disclosure of its encryption codes so, at least for now, users of Blackbury devices are safe from snooping by the authorities. On the same day Deutsche Telecom set up investigation into allegations that it had been logging calls of its personnel to find a the person who has been leaking sensitive information to the press. Deutsche Telekom did not actually listen to any conversation, as the Indian police wants to do, but just logged what numbers were being called and this has caused an uproar. Unfortunately Indians are so busy trying to survive that no one is outraged by this assault on our privacy. Government officials, including the police, have given themselves the right to bug any phone without permission. The excuse is that they want to catch terrorists. Yet terrorists are able to thrive because of the help they receive from the same sarkari officials. Bangladeshis are allowed free entry into the country and no attempt is made to expel illegal immigrants. They obtain ration cards easily by paying bribes. In the Mumabi blasts case policemen were convicted of knowingly allowing trucks full of explosives to pass on being paid money. Yet after every episode of terrorism our civic liberties are curtailed. After the recent bombs the Jaipur police has ruled that all bicycles must be registered. Presumably if a suicide bomber came with explosives up his rectum they would want to register all rectums. It is hopeless.