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'.