Is a government allowed to flout the laws of the country and thus reduce the constitution to waste paper. First you get the Central Bureau of Investigation or CBI to drop the investigation into a clear case of murder to win the vote on a nuclear deal with the US. Then you bribe the useless parasitic uncivil servants by doubling their salaries at the expense of the taxpayer. Then you bribe farmers by forgiving all their loans again with taxpayer money and start a useless scheme to provide 100 days of employment every year to the rural population. Needless to say a lot of this money is siphoned off to pay for election expenses. Having squandered countless billions of taxpayer money you win the elections which provides you with five years of unlimited opportunity. The first act of the new parliament is to pass a bill allowing ministers to take family and friends with them when they embark on ' official ' travel at taxpayer expense. Since customs officers dare not sear a minister or his entourage there is unlimited scope to smuggle contraband into the country. The jealous opposition who feel deprived of so much debauch want to introduce a ' cut ' motion on the budget which if passed will precipitate new elections. After winning the elections with such depravity you are not going to lose after just one year so you threaten the murderer and the shameless woman with jail time and the ' cut ' motion is easily defeated. We the people watch helplessly as the constitution is trampled into the ground.

One time president of Panama, Noriega was extradited to France from the US yesterday. Noriega was kidnapped from Panama after the US attacked the country completely without provocation on the excuse that it was exporting drugs to the US. Then against international law Noriega, a sitting head of state, was tried and imprisoned for twenty years. Yesterday he was extradited to France on some allegation of money laundering more than two decades ago. France is the country where Baby Doc Duvallier of Haiti took refuge with his stolen millions and from where Ayatollah Khomeni launched his victorious campaign against the Shah of Iran. Thus the US gives the impression of not having any respect for any rule or statute. Outsiders get the same impression at the behavior of the Republicans who show mindless opposition to anything proposed by President Obama. First they opposed healthcare reforms and yesterday they stopped the debate on the financial reform bill. It was a Republican President, Ronald Reagan whose decontrol of financial institutions, helped by another Republican President, George Bush's tax refund that created the financial crisis. Before the elections of 2008 Republicans controlled both houses of Congress and were responsible for the oversight of the financial institutions in which they failed miserably. Apparently this is because of heavy lobbying by the shameless banks who are spending a lot of money. This seems to show that US lawmakers are up for sale to the highest bidder. Yet this is the country that stridently preaches democracy and exports regime change.

Greece has had to call in the International Monetary Fund or IMF for help with its financial crisis to prevent a default on its loans. Loans are being underwritten by countries like Germany who are laying down very strict conditions for any money advanced to Greece. Already the Greek government has announced severe fiscal tightening by cutting public sector pay and pensions but this will not satisfy the IMF. German Chancellor Angela Merkel is demanding severe cuts in public spending at a time when the economy is contracting and these cuts will create further unemployment. What is unacceptable is that all these sacrifices are being demanded from ordinary people who had no hand in creating the crisis. No one is demanding punishment for the politicians of the previous government who falsified public accounts with the help of Goldman Sachs. If a financial officer of any company was caught cooking account books he would surely end up in prison but not so politicians and others seem to protect the crooks making all of them accessory to the original crime. Just as no one is asking for former Prime Minister of Britain, Tony Blair to stand trial for war crimes at the International Criminal Court. Maybe it is a white thing because Charles Taylor is presently being tried and Omar Bashir has been indicted. If politicians get away with crime then the system is certain to collapse. The question now is after Greece who? Will it be Ireland, Portugal or Spain and will it have have knock on effect on the members of the euro zone? We will know soon enough.

Dr. Ketan Desai, the chief of the Medical Council of India or MCI, the body which regulates the standards of medical education in the country, has been caught taking Rs. 20 million in bribes from the vice president of Gyan Sagar medical college and hospital in Patiala, Punjab. This college was denied permission to admit students for this academic year because of inadequate infrastructure. MCI was once described by the Supreme Court as a den of corruption and yet is allowed to lay down new rules regarding doctors. Delhi branch of MCI forces all to register with it and to renew registration every five years for Rs. 1000. There is no reason why this penalty has been imposed other than as a sly tax on doctors. Recently a law was passed forbidding pharmaceutical firms from giving gifts or sponsoring conferences for doctors. All these rules are for qualified medical practitioners and do not apply to quacks who practice freely all over India and freely prescribe any drug without having any knowledge as to its side effects. Recently the government has decided to give diplomas in medicine to people who will practice in villages after a short training. In other words poor villagers are to be given third rate medical care by criminal politicians whose hearts are always bleeding for the aam aadmi. Mr Desai being a doctor should in a position of influence should have fought for better medical care for patients, better facilities, better education and better working condition for doctors. Instead he chose to suck up to criminal politicians and agreed to every abomination for personal gain. His arrest is a cause for great celebration.

Air Asia, a low cost airline is offering a return ticket to Kuala Lumpur from Bangalore, inclusive of all airport charges, for just Rs. 8000. Compare that to a return ticket from Bangalore to Delhi which costs Rs. 10350 in low cost domestic airlines. Why is air travel so expensive in India? It is because of extortionate taxes. Taxes on airline fuel may be upto 20%, tickets are taxed on the original price rather than the price offered by the airline and airport charges are scandalous for the quality of service offered. One would think that when criminal politicians constantly rabbit on about the poor they would bring down all taxes so that the poor can also avail of this ' luxury'. Actually politicians want the poor to remain in their place and not get too uppity so that they are adequately grateful for a few paise thrown at them. Of course, ministers and members of parliament get to travel first class with family and friends at our expense. Kleptocrats are also entitled to first class travel for free. State chief ministers have bought luxury jets for official use even though the state budget is deeply in the red. Taxes have to pay for this depraved beggary. Then there is the government airline Air India which is staffed by lazy crooks and is hundreds of billions of rupees in the red. There is talk of throwing Rs. 50 billion to keep it going. So why waste precious tax payer money in a poor country on an airline which is bound to fail. On April 20 Air India flight no. IC 7603 from Delhi to Coimbatore was cancelled and the aircraft was chartered to fly Poorna Patel, daughter of Praful Patel, the Civil Aviation minister and her party from Chandigarh to Chennai instead. Criminal beggars!

Tiny news item in the papers today. Seems that the Central Bureau of Investigations or CBI has registered 2439 cases against uncivil servants under the Prevention of Corruption Act. This includes 78 cases against senior officers such as IAS, IPS, IRS and other services. We can be sure that this is the very tip of the proverbial iceberg. The vast majority of the uncivil servants in India are thieves but they do not get caught. This is because they protect each other as in Rathore's case, people who pay money to get their work done are afraid to complain because others will take revenge by holding up their work for years and the CBI needs permission from seniors to register a case which may not be forthcoming. It is surprising how the CBI was able to register any case against these few. It may be because these crooks got greedy and did not pass enough loot up the food chain. This all pervading corruption has a knock on effect throughout society. Contractors pay bribes to get work and hence cut corners. Roads in India develop huge craters after just one rain shower. People with money can get anything done , however illegal. The recent deaths due to fire in a building in Kolkata was because the owner had added two extra floors on top of an old building without permission and without regard for safety. If you want to build a house you have to pay bribes to have the land registered in your name, then to get building plans passed, then to get electricity and water connections, then to get completion certificate and so on. The result is that the people now think that corruption is the norm. When the entire population is corrupted the country is in grave danger.

Whatever he may have done Lalit Modi is a business genius. He set up the T20 cricket competition called the IPL and it has been a wild success from the very first year. A combination of slam bang cricket with Bollywood stars, cheerleaders from the US and teams containing domestic and foreign players made it irresistible for the public. However, from its inception it was hated by criminal politicians and thieving uncivil servants. First they complained about cheerleaders so the girls were covered up. Last year they denied security to match venues because of general elections so Modi took the entire show to South Africa and made it a success. Finally the controversy with the Kochi franchise this year has given them the excuse to fatally wound the IPL. So why do these criminals and thieves hate the IPL so much? Probably because - 1. They could see the billions the IPL was generating and could not get their filthy hands on the money. India has no world class athlete because these thieves are stealing all the money. Thieving officials outnumber athletes at any international event. The IPL is completely private. 2. After lying to the people for years politicians have deluded themselves as their own importance when they are a cancer that should be exterminated if India is to survive. 3. Plain jealousy. They see film stars, cricket stars, rich business people, cheerleaders all enjoying the atmosphere and they burn. At night they lie beside their fat ugly wives snoring beside them with layers of blubber rising and falling and bile rises to their throats. So they will kill the IPL, the only extravaganza completely Indian. It was fun while it lasted.

Goldman Sachs, the largest finance company, has been charged by the regulators of fraud. At the same time the bank has reported increased profits from trading operation and increase in pay and bonuses of upto 17%. Seems that Goldman Sachs set up a subsidiary to hedge against financial instruments they were selling before the subprime loans crisis. The implication is that they were deliberately selling financial instruments which, they knew, were going to fail. Something like selling fake medicines and quietly setting up a company selling nice coffins. The financial crisis set off by the banks nearly caused a collapse of the entire financial system but bank chiefs have not shown any remorse. In fact, they have been brazen in their shamelessness and even now are lobbying vigorously to stop any reform of the financial sector. In this they are being helped by Republican lawmakers whose visceral hatred of President Obama makes them blind the kind of crooks these bankers are and the suffering of ordinary people who lost their jobs and homes. Goldman Sachs has angrily vowed to defend itself. Will charges against other banks follow? If the regulators have the courage to take on Goldman Sachs they will surely not hesitate too charge other banks. Thus the bank chiefs will be engaged in protecting their own skins and have less time for lobbying. The people are incensed at the behavior of the bankers and are anyway convinced that they are crooks. If they see Republicans trying to protect bankers they may go against them. With midterm elections just over six months away the result could be interesting. Nice timing.

The Reserve Bank of India, RBI has tightened monetary policy across the board in an effort to control inflation running out of control. the Repo rate, at which banks borrow from the RBI, has been increased from 5 to 5.25% while the Cash Reserve Ratio, CRR, which is the amount of capital banks must hold in reserve, has been increased from 5.75 to 6%. The increase in CRR is meant to suck liquidity out of the system and in turn will increase cost of borrowing for personal as well as commercial reasons. The RBI is predicting a growth rate of 8% and an annual inflation rate of 5.5% at the end of current fiscal that is March 2011. Whether the RBI is successful in achieving such a high rate of growth while taming inflation remains to be seen but it will need an awful lot of ingenuity. More than 50% of the Indian economy is in black wherein transactions take place in cash and no tax is paid. The biggest sector of the black economy is in property where more than half the price of any property is paid in cash. The reason is the extortionate taxes levied on property, from registration charges to stamp paper. Property dealers charge 2% in cash from both buyers and sellers and thus have an interest in elevating property prices. Naturally property is very attractive to criminals, politicians and uncivil servants to hide money from criminal activities. Thus politicians absolutely do not want property prices to fall because this will wipe out their stolen wealth. At the same time inflation makes people angry, especially the great unwashed, who will vote them out and thus take away the chance to loot. The much derided ' Hindu ' rate of growth of 2.5% may be the only option.

Seems that the Supreme Court has upheld the guilty verdict on Manu Sharma for the murder of Jessica Lall as also his life imprisonment. He is the son of a politician and was acquitted by the trial court because all witnesses had been threatened into withdrawing their testimony in court and the police had deliberately messed up the investigation. It was the untiring effort by Jessica's sister and a huge public outcry following the acquittals that the Delhi police appealed to the High Court which found Sharma guilty and sentenced him to life in prison. Naturally he appealed and now th Supreme Court has upheld the judgement of the High Court. However the Delhi government has tried its best to make his life comfortable by allowing him to attend his sick mother who was seen partying and his grandmother who was already dead. Sharma was seen drinking at a night club while out on parole. Politicians and uncivil servants in India are all criminals, whether directly committing theft, rape or murder or covering up for each other if caught. For every Manu Sharma convicted hundreds maybe thousands are getting away. The fellow who killed his secretary is Chief Minister even now, the sons of the stinking old man is a minister although he got his thugs to murder three journalists and Biti Mohanty, the son of Orissa's Chief of Police is still free although guilty of rape. Mohanty was initially suspended for not helping in the capture of his son but has been reinstated and is drawing full salary with full pensions to come. The politicians are very glib with talk about democracy but if the people do not have the basic right to life then what rubbish democracy is it.

A volcano in the south of Iceland has been spewing clouds of ash into the atmosphere. Prevailing winds are blowing the ash southwards over the UK, Scandinavian countries and over northern Europe. Over 16000 thousand flights have already been cancelled and airlines are losing $ 130 million a day. Thousands of passengers are stuck in airports all over the world. Curiously flights to Iceland from the US are operating because the northern part of Iceland, where the majority of people live, is clear. No one knows how long this will continue because if mother earth has gas she may continue to belch for a year. What happens to trade in Europe especially in the UK is anybody's guess. The UK is just recovering weakly from a severe recession but still has a huge fiscal deficit hanging over any economic recovery. If trade is upset for any length of time it could slide back into recession. Airlines such as British Airways could go bankrupt. Already airline shares are down sharply. In 2008 when the subprime crisis exploded Icelandic banks were heavily exposed and were unable to survive resulting in the government going bankrupt. At that time the British government under the leadership of Prime Minister Gordon Brown used anti terrorist laws to force Iceland to pay British citizens who had put money into Icelandic banks. What is the British government going to do now? Perhaps a little punishment for bullying a country in trouble instead of sympathising.

To file a case at the Supreme Court you need to go through a lawyer unless you do it in person. The Supreme Court has appointed such lawyers after a test and they are called Advocates-on-record. Since every case has to go through these lawyers they must be earning phenomenal amounts of money. Yet it appears that they just lend their names to the case and do not do anything to earn their fees. Two benches called this ' rampant unethical practice '.The Court said that ' The advocates-on-record do not appear when matters are listed before the court, nor do they take any interest or responsibility for processing or conducting the case '. Every Indian knows that lawyers in India are completely unethical and untrustworthy. They charge enormous amounts of money for doing very little, they have been caught trying to bribe witnesses, they riot in courtrooms often beating up prisoners or clients and you regularly read of some lawyer involved in rape or murder. Since laws are written by lawyers they are made deliberately vague and meaningless so that one is forced to pay a lawyer to make any sense. They have Bar Councils in every court which seem to be above the law in that they seem to be able to block any attempt to reform the legal profession and make it more transparent and people friendly because the more opaque it is the more they earn. Thus the legal profession is a disease and unless it is changed completely their will be no justice. Recently doctors have been invited to a conference on medical ethics to be held in Delhi. One of the speakers is, you guessed it, a lawyer.

Among all the hot air which countries are really likely to use nuclear weapons? India? Never. Our politicians and top civil servants are interested only in personal gain and if the nation faces real danger they will run to some other country to be safe. Most have children working in western countries and money stashed abroad to guarantee a luxurious life. China? Unlikely. China is too powerful to face any external danger. Its danger will come from its own people. Russia, France, UK? Unlikely. Will probably never face any existential threat to warrant the use of nuclear retaliation. Israel? Possible if existence is under threat. However the strength of its conventional forces makes it highly unlikely that its enemies will get that much success. Iran? Iran will probably never be allowed to get to that stage. As a last resort the US and the Arabs will combine to bomb its facilities. Like in the first Gulf war Israel will be told to keep its head down. North Korea? Unpredictable may be but not suicidal. The regime will collapse due to economic reasons and will hide in China. United States? Definitely. The only country to have used two atom bombs on innocent people. Americans are convinced that they alone have the God given absolute right to live. The rest of the world is disposable. Pakistan? Very, very possible. The Pakis are comfortable in the knowledge that they have attacked India since 1947 and every time the Congress has gifted them all we gained. If attacked US and China will urge restraint on India, Congress leaders will rush to various capitals with wives and children for ' consultation ' and some shopping. The US will table a resolution in the UN Security Council calling Pakistan a naughty boy. China will veto it. Indians will continue to die.

Campaigning for next month's general elections Tory leader David Cameron has promised to end the feeling among MPs that ' they are entitled '. That is the cancer eating at the heart of India today. Criminal politicians feel they are entitled to do whatever they like for as long as they can lie, bribe and kill their way to election victory. We desperately need a charter for citizens such as 1. Number of ministers must never be more than a fixed number. 2. Numbers of uncivil servants must be 20% of what they are now. 3. There must be term limits which may never be extended. 4. Family members of any politicians will be barred from standing. We cannot afford a filthy stinking old man hanging on at state level while his criminal sons and nephews are occupying various posts and looting billions. 5. No politician or government official will be allowed in the Rajya Sabha. 6. Eliminate all state governments and municipalities which will instantly reduce the looting by 95%. Divide the country into roughly equal districts and distribute tax earnings equally. That will be equitable, eliminate jealousy and by allowing local people to spend money on their own development will immediately destroy the support base of the Naxals. 7. The government's main function will be external and internal security and politicians or uncivil servants will not be allowed to interfere in sports, education, business and other aspects of life. Parliament will lay down basic laws and the government will strictly monitor performance and punish wrongdoers. 8. Strict time limits on uncivil servants to do what a citizen asks for or heavy fines. 9. Citizens corporations to monitor performance. A few needs if the country is to survive.

It is hard to fathom what the Nuclear conference in Washington is designed to achieve other than a photo op. There is not need to gather so many world leaders to discuss Iran as the UN Security Council will decide on whether to extend sanctions. Anyway Iran may become a threat to Israel but is not likely to be a threat to the US for a long long time. As for terrorist groups , it is laughable to think that any of these bunch of fanatics will have the knowledge or the materials to build a nuclear bomb and then be able to smuggle it into the US. Plutonium and enriched uranium are extremely radioactive and careless handling will result in severe burns and even death. There is no way anyone will be able to smuggle in enough plutonium and the various parts required to build a bomb into the US without being caught in seconds. As for a dirty bomb there is enough medical waste inside the US to make one but its range will be very restricted. Only a national agency can build a nuclear weapon small enough to be transported by, say, a boat and then be able to put together a team to carry out an attack. The 9/11 attacks were organised inside Pakistan and a nuclear attack is most likely to originate there. The civilian government has no control over the army, the ISI, the Taliban and other terrorist groups. Indeed the parliament is busy reducing the powers of the President and trying to bring Sharif back to power which may precipitate a power struggle. There are enough fanatic, lunatic elements within the ISI to want to attack the US again. Look out for a fast motor boat which drops from an ordinary cargo ship a makes at full speed towards a small town along the coast.

In January 2009 I bought a Lenovo laptop which I duly registered with Lenovo. I was told that it had a warranty of one year. In December I got a call from a company called Aforeserve.com ltd. in Noida reminding me that my warranty was due to expire and offering to renew it for two years. On the first of January a man collected my check for Rs. 4900. All companies in and around Delhi are liars and cheats and I thought that I had been had when I heard nothing once the check was cashed. However after many emails they sent me a registration form and told me to register the extension of warranty with Lenovo in Bangalore. Accordingly I sent an email to spac@lenovowarranty.co.in requesting them to extend my warranty but they wanted a scan copy of the registration form. Not having a scanner I sent them a photocopy by post but they refused to accept it and,like brainless robots, insisted on a scan copy which I sent from an internet cafe. I received no reply from Lenovo. After many mails they eventually acknowledged receipt of the scan copy and said that this would show on my account. However till today they have not extended my warranty inspite of repeated reminders. I do not know if emails can be blocked but the last few mails have bounced back. I know that Chinese companies are good at producing low cost low grade goods and services but never expected Lenovo to be so poor seeing that it hopes to become a global company. Bangalore has been touted as the Silicon Valley of India but the employees at Lenovo are worse than third rate government clerks. Perhaps Lenovo is saving money by employing the rejects.

George Bush squandered a budget surplus by giving out unnecessary tax refunds and created a fiscal mess. The UK and the US created the subprime crisis by deregulating banks to the extent that no one knew the amount of leveraging going on including the bank chiefs. The previous government in Greece actively falsified accounts with the help of Goldman Sachs. Politicians everywhere think that winning an election is a blank check to do whatever they like and will cling on to power no matter how much damage they do to the country. Even by such low standards Abhisit Vejjajiva of Thailand has gone beyond limit. Brought into power by collusion between the elite, the army and the courts he refuses to call fresh elections and ordered the army to use live rounds killing at least 18 protesters yesterday thus pushing the country towards civil war. In India the central and state governments are frantically raising taxes to finance the luxuries enjoyed by criminal politicians and useless parasitic uncivil servants. They have absolutely no hesitation in wasting our hard earned money to buy luxury planes, going abroad with their criminal drug addict children and bribing useless parasitic uncivil servants with undeserved salary hikes in the Sixth Pay Commission just to win the elections. This has to stop. Somehow the people of the world have to unite and demand a written code of conduct for politicians which may not be broken under any condition and overseen by corporations of citizens. Politicians have too much power which attracts all kinds of criminals and megalomaniacs. Their power must be reduced if the world is to survive.

The ministry of sports has sent an angry letter to the organisers of the IPL objecting to bowlers stepping on the word ' India ' contained in the sponsor's logo as they run in to bowl. Apparently this ' hurts public sentiment and is tantamount to showing disrespect to the name of the country'. I would like to remind these hypocrites that millions of Indians walk on India everyday and, because 70% of the people do not have toilets, 700 million crap on her everyday as well. Untreated sewage pours into the Ganga, the only holy river in the world. Indian athletes win nothing because the kleptocrats in charge pocket most of the money. Surely that is the greatest disrespect to India. The only reason that the IPL is such a wonderful showcase for India is because it is private hands and the kleptocrats are dying to get their thieving hands on the billions it generates. So please, please cut the bullshit and crawl back to whatever slimy hole you emerged from. Meanwhile in great political drama our most revered Home Minister, in his ' Harry Truman ' avatar, sent in his resignation for the massacre of 76 CRPF personnel by the Naxals because ' the buck stops at my desk'. As one billion Indians knew well beforehand the resignation was rejected by the Prime Minister. Last month Indian cities were asked to switch off all electrical appliances for one hour to reduce greenhouse gases. In a country where sudden power cuts cause such hardship and millions still use candles surely this is a joke too far even for our criminal thick skinned politicians. I suppose we should consider ourselves lucky not be born in Somalia.

Mudslides in Rio in Brazil where favellas or shanties built on the hill side have slid down claiming hundreds of lives. Of course, the survivors will blame the government for not giving them land and money to build proper houses even though they voted for President Lula who is a socialist. Massacre of 76 men belonging to the CRPF in the jungles of Chattisgarh by Naxals who are helped by the local people. The locals are extremely poor and are angry that the government does not provide for them. Drug gangs have killed thousands in the border areas of Mexico including US consular staff. Apparently it is because of poverty that young men are attracted to the money that drug smuggling brings. Violence and slaughter rage all across the world in developing countries. The reason given is always the same. Poverty. But what causes such poverty in every poor country? Loony liberals and politicians eager to get votes give various reasons such as lack of money for developmental work, corruption at the local level, lack of education, corporates not doing enough social work, lack of rain and everything except the truth which is uncontrolled breeding by the poor. Every time you see a news report about some catastrophe you see masses of pot bellied naked children running around and the mothers complaining about lack of food and money. Whether it is India, Africa or Latin America it is always the same. If the numbers of poor people keep on ballooning at this rate the wealth of the entire world will be insufficient to feed them all. It is time for politicians, perhaps the United Nations, to say in one voice ' Stop breeding.'

So Britain is to have elections next month to elect a new ' mother of parliaments.' They may be white skinned, wearing suits and ties and speaking with public school accents but British politicians are no different when it comes to deceiving the people to get votes. Prime Minister Gordon Brown is claiming to be the best man for the job because he has brought the country out of the worst recession forgetting to mention that, as Chancellor for ten years, he was responsible for deregulating banks which precipitated the recession in the first place. David Cameron is promising change by which he means tax cuts forgetting to mention that it was Bush's tax cuts that led to the crisis in the US. The LibDems ( who they? ) are praying for a hung parliament so that they can experience an official car instead of having to take the tube everyday. However, they need not fear. The collective intelligence of the British people is very low proven by the fact that The Sun is the highest selling newspaper. On any given day The Sun has news about how Posh Beckham had sex 5 times to get pregnant again, Rosie in bras, Pam dancing without wearing a bra, Danii looking pregnant and other such matters of national importance. The Sun has been anti Labour for the last few years and has headlines such as ' Brown the Clown ' about the Prime Minister. If Labour loses the elections because of Sun readers then a foreigner, an Australian turned US citizen, will have decided who rules Britain. Seems to me that we have just token democracy. Time to have citizens corporations to speak for the people.

In one of the worst bloodbaths in India, Maoist rebels known as Naxals killed 75 soldiers belonging to the Central Reserve Police Force or the CRPF. These men were returning to camp when they were ambushed. First their ' anti mine ' vehicle was blown up by landmines and then survivors were gunned down. This shows a shocking lack of intelligence, training and lack of proper equipment for the force. Even a schoolboy would tell you not to travel in one vehicle, to have advance scouts, heat sensing equipment which would have picked up the signature of massed terrorists and armour plated vehicles. Yet criminal politicians are given Z security and third grade useless, parasitic civil servants ride around in individual vehicles with policemen, flashing lights and sirens. We have seen news reports and television programs showing how India commandos are extensively trained in jungle warfare. Surely the same kind of training can be given to select CRPF personnel before sending them out to fight heavily armed Naxals who show no hesitation in killing any number of people. Indian police personnel are trained to beat up ordinary people to protect criminal politicians and useless kleptocrats and do not have the discipline, knowledge and fitness to take on a terrorist group such as the Naxals. Is any politician going to resign over this and the news about our defence computers being hacked by the Chinese? Hell, no. Indian politicians have long ago rid themselves of any sense of honor, shame or patriotism. They will cling on to power so as to go on looting as long as possible. No sharam, no izzat.

The Indian government has embarked on an expensive project to provide smart cards for every citizen of the country. The cards will be based on photographs and prints of all ten fingers and contain much personal information such as education, job, earning and so on. We are told that this is to target the poor for financial help and prevent ineligible people from benefiting from such schemes. This will cut out corruption such as inflating employee numbers in government offices. What is not mentioned is how the information will be secured. There is nothing to stop civil servants from selling such information to enemies like Pakistan and terrorists will be able to travel across India with fake smart cards. If the cards fall into police hands the innocent person whose identity was stolen will be brutalised by the police. Is there going to be constant matching of prints against names for all the billion people of India? If not there is nothing to stop a migrant family getting one set of cards in, say, Delhi or Mumbai and then travelling to their village in UP to get another set. In a report called the Shadow in the Clouds researchers from the University of Toronto have shown that Chinese hackers called the Shadow Network have hacked into secret Indian government data including missile systems, Indian embassies abroad and information about government policies. If the Chinese can do it what is to prevent Pakis or anyone else from stealing vital information about identities. Finally, corruption in India is top down and this is not going to stop criminal politicians or uncivil servants from looting the exchequer. This will greatly increase the power of the government and maybe the first step towards dictatorship.

Forget the mafia, democracy is today the home of all the biggest scoundrels in the world. Winning the first election is the key. Once you are in appoint all your thugs to lucrative posts and they will commit any crime to keep you in power. Steal the subsequent elections by beating up the opposition, intimidating people to vote for you and get your thugs to stuff ballot boxes making sure that you win. Mugabe is an extreme case but variations can be seen across the world. Afghanistan's Karzai admitted that there was false voting in his favor but curiously blamed it on foreign election observers. Thailand's Abhisit Vejjajiva got his chair due to the blessings of the Constitutional Court which, in its wisdom, overturned the election victory of Thaksin Sinawatra's party. Thaksin, though elected with large majority of popular votes, was ousted by the army at the behest of the elite. Sometimes it can become embarrassing when the supporters go over the top in showing their support as in Iran where Ahmadinejad won opposition strongholds with margins more than the total number of voters. In India such things happen on a minor scale but on the whole elections pass off peacefully. However, as in other countries most politicians are elected with a minority of votes. If 40% of the people vote and you win with 40% of that because the opposition vote is divided then you won your seat with only 16% of the eligible voters. To avoid such problems the Congress has decided to do away with the people altogether and we have an unelected Prime Minister obeying madam faithfully and keeping the seat warm for sonubaba.

Papers are full of how Sania Mirza is going to marry a Paki who, it seems, has already married another woman in Hyderabad. With the country facing so many problems journalists should not be wasting time on this non event. Sania was a third rate tennis player, never rising above 30 in world rankings. The enormous coverage she gets may be because she is pretty and insisted on wearing little shorts and skirts thus getting up the noses of the beards. To marry a Paki is to betray India but it is her choice. If she wants to spend her life in a failed state she is welcome to do so. The question is how a Paki is allowed to come into India at his will. This morning's headlines say that he has rushed over to sort out claims about his previous marriage. How could he get a visa at such short notice? Will I be allowed to rush into Pakistan and marry any girl I fancy at any time? The government never tires of accusing Pakistan of breeding terrorists at every international forum and yet allows a Paki the freedom of the country. There are Paki singers and actors making money from Bollywood films. Who knows whether they donate a part of their earnings to terrorists such as Indian Mujahiddin or not. Is it any wonder that the Indian government is treated as a joke by countries such as the US and UK. In the recent conference on Afghanistan Indian views were completely ignored and the US is refusing to allow our security agencies to interview Headley. Do the politicians think that they will gain popularity abroad by touching the feet of foreigners. They should understand that they will be, and probably are, despised. As they are at home.

The US is asking India not to participate in the gas pipeline from Iran through Pakistan because it wants to isolate Iran over its nuclear ambition. This is the same country that is supplying Pakistan with F 16s, kits to make smart bombs and other military hardware to use against India. It is not asking Pakistan which survives by begging but has the gall to instruct India. India should respond by asking Paki loving Obama to go jump into the Potomac. However India should never spend any money on building the pipeline. Pakistan is a lying treacherous nation and cannot be trusted to keep its end of the bargain. If India becomes dependent on Iranian gas we will be at the mercy of the ISI who will turn off the gas at any excuse. Also Pakistan being full of terrorists the pipeline will be an easy and tempting target for sabotage. Instead India should ask the Pakistanis and Iranians to build the pipeline upto the Indian border with their money and offer to pay market price for any gas that we buy. That way we would have the option of not buying any gas if they try to charge too much. Also after investing billions of dollars on the pipeline the Pakis will think long and hard before interfering with the flow of gas. If they interfere with supply they will displease the Iranians who will have invested precious dollars into the pipeline. We have two very hostile neighbors, China and Pakistan, with nuclear weapons and have little to lose if Iran goes nuclear. If the US wants our cooperation we should drive a very hard bargain. Unfortunately the Congress has been selling us out for 60 years and forms the government at the center.

Sixty two years after independence the Congress led government has suddenly woken upto the value of universal education and has passed a Right to Education bill making it a right for every child to get an education. Is it really for the benefit of the people or just another gimmick to win elections? Poor people do not send children to school because they want children to work so as to augment family income, so will continue as they are doing at present. Millions of government school teachers are very highly paid but are poorly educated and most never turn up for work. They cannot be touched because of very strong unions. Thus children going to government schools learn nothing and are only fit for menial jobs. The bill makes it mandatory for private schools to take 25% of students from poor families. To cater to these children private schools will have to charge more fees from other children or increase class sizes which will mean that fee paying children will get poorer education. Thus this is just a sly, underhand tax on the middle class. The Congress believes in dictatorship of the North Korean kind where power is retained in the same family and like all dictatorships hates the middle class. Its power is derived from doling handouts to the poor from taxpayer money and the glorification of one family to near God like status. Thus it needs the aam aadmi to remain poor and uneducated so that the khas can continue there vice like grip on the jugular of the nation. This is the Indian version of ' democracy.'

To keep the people happy the government of India comes out with jokes from time to time. Yesterday's was a cracker. Seems that the government has decided to set up a committee of senior uncivil servants to examine complaints against senior uncivil servants to root out frivolous complaints. Definition of frivolous is not given. Today when a modest house in Delhi can cost in excess of Rs. 100 million a bribe of Rs. 1 million might be construed as frivolous. Everyone knows that the vast majority of civil servants ( 99.99%? ) are corrupt. The reasons are many. Money is usually collected by the lower ranks who deal directly with the public and is then divided up a chain right upto the politician in charge. If anyone is honest it breaks the chain and reduces income for everybody. Such a person is harassed, threatened or killed. Jobs of civil servants are permanent and they are never sacked, merely transferred to another department but their ingenuity is such that they can make over Rs. 9 billion from even the humble cattle fodder. Promotion is not based on merit but on length of service and such factors as sucking up to politicians, protecting fellow officers from the police and not making mistakes which means not doing anything significant thus reducing the chances of making mistakes. Laws are designed to obstruct people in anything they want to do, whether it is setting up a business, building a house or getting a passport. People have come to accept that they have to pay bribes to get anything done. It follows, therefore, that anyone with money can do anything however illegal. Thus kleptocrats have corrupted the entire population of India.