Seems that the Prime Minister's Office, PMO has written to the Department of Telecom, DoT to transfer all licensing issues regarding 2G and 3G to an empowered Group of Ministers, eGoM. This was done with the consent of the Prime Minister and has effectively taken away all powers from the Minister of Telecommunications, Mr. Raja. Mr. Raja arbitrarily awarded 2G licenses to two companies ignoring the suggestion of auctioning the licenses by the Prime Minister. The companies sold their licenses making billions of rupees. There are allegations of a scam worth billions of rupees and the recent auction of 3G licenses indicates that the government may have lost Rs. 1 trillion in fees and taxes. While the people of the country are being hit by a double whammy of increasing taxes and inflation Mr. Raja, his friends and officers of DoT are able to get away after making billions by defrauding the government. Now the Prime Minister has shown his mistrust of Mr. Raja openly by taking away his powers. In any civilised country in the world Mr. Raja would have been sacked and serious investigations instituted. Not here. The Congress needs support of various gangs to stay in power and if sacking Mr. Raja results in new elections the troops will be unhappy. The only way to wealth is by accumulating loot which can only be done if you are in power. Will Mr. Raja resign at the insult which is akin to a public slap on his face. No chance. If he resigns he will get no further opportunities to enrich himself. Take all the insults and shoes across the face and hang in there. Opportunities will come. After all public memory is short. No sharam, no izzat.

Seems that a high powered committee has found 44 deemed universities to be unfit. Of these 29 were granted their status between 2007 and 2009 when Mr. Arjun Singh was the HRD minister. In some cases the order granting deemed status came directly from the minister's office. This is being reported as a scam by the HRD ministry with Mr. Arjun Singh in charge. What is not being said is that Mr. Arjun Singh was and is a Congress man and was HRD minister in a government led by the Congress during those years with the present Prime Minister, Mr. Manmohan Singh in charge. Are we expected to believe that those in Congress hierarchy were unaware of what was going on? Surely there was a system of dividing the booty. So why has the freeloading press suddenly decided to jump on Mr. Arjun Singh? Has it anything to do with Bhopal and Union Carbide? Mr. Arjun Singh has denied any responsibility in allowing Mr. Anderson to flee India thereby indirectly implicating the then Prime Minister. Any smear on The Family is absolutely unacceptable to Congress. Mr. Arjun Singh should have obeyed the law of omerta thereby taking all the blame on himself. Instead he has implicated the capo di tutti capo and all the luparas are out for him. The Congress has parasitised this country for over sixty years and thinks that it has a God given right to do it for ever. In a country where 60% of people are illiterate The Family is presented as royalty and power is genetically transferred. Mr. Arjun Singh has dared to tell the truth, albeit indirectly and he will the rage of the entire gang. Does anyone else have the guts to tell the whole truth?

I do not get it. We are constantly told that India's growth rate is 8.5% for this year but inflation is 10.5% which, to me, means that our real growth rate is -2%. That however is not the whole story. Flats in Delhi which were selling for Rs. 3.4 million in 2001 are now selling for Rs. 21 million, an appreciation of over 600% in 10 years. Against this background the government has raised petrol price by 6% without regard for inflation which would suggest that the government is desperate to raise revenues by any means, never mind the consequences. Our press being freeloading liars we never get the true picture but the reality suggests that the rupee is like confetti and the government is desperately trying to avoid bankruptcy. Yet the rupee which was 55 to the dollar two years ago has hardened to 46 today. The Japanese yen is trading just below 90 to the dollar even though Japan is still in deflation. This despite the fact that China is buying $ 2 billion dollars worth of american treasuries everyday and has accumulated over $ 2 trillion to date. Japan and Korea must also be buying up dollars to keep their currencies from appreciating and hurting exports. What does this say about the American economy? Can China go on buying US treasuries infinitely? What happens if it floats the renminbi and everyone piles into it or it accumulates so much that it has more dollars than the American government? Seems that those in power have no clue and are just waiting for ' something to happen.' Americans must stop spending and start saving but this will hurt US companies as well and unemployment at 10% will get worse. Scary. Wish someone could explain.

Football is not war but it comes second in terms of the loyalty and passion it generates especially among men. Players are treated as stars and receive huge salaries from their clubs, the equivalent of Rs. 10 million a week. Players who are representing their countries at the World Cup in South Africa wear their countries' colors and carry their flags. Each game starts with the playing of national anthems of both countries. Sadly some players seem to have come along for the ride without any loyalty to their flag or concern for their fans. Smaller countries such as Slovenia, New Zealand and Honduras battled away valiantly but unfortunately could not get past the group stage. South Korea, Japan and Slovakia have progressed to the knock out stage through hard work, team spirit and skill. The progress of USA is especially romantic. Down 2-0 against Slovenia they did not give up. They battled to 2-2 and then suffered the heartbreak of seeing their third goal ruled out by the referee for unknown reasons. Against Algeria it was goalless until the last minute of injury time when Donovan scored for a famous victory and a place in the next round. Even Italy fought away to the last kick of the match including a fight with the goalkeeper of Slovakia but their aging bodies could not keep up with their younger opponents. At least they showed some pride. Against this background the pathetic and contemptible display of selfish petulance by the French is sickening. Whether you like the coach is immaterial. You must put in 100% of your effort for your flag. It is not just soldiers who should show loyalty. I hope the French people find some way to really punish these traitors.

So what is happening inside China? Suddenly there is a rash of strikes by workers at foreign factories such as Honda and Toyota. Before that there were suicides at Foxconn which is a Taiwanese company supplying to computer giants such as Apple. Foxconn increased salaries by 30% and then again by 70%. If they are able to double salaries of workers and still hope to make a profit it shows how the workers were being brutally exploited before nine people committed suicide. This is the country where the communist party is in total control and where you would expect a paradise for the proletariat. Exactly the opposite is true. No one has any rights and strikes are usually banned. When children died of melamine mixed in milk protesting parents were beaten up and threatened into silence. When children die of water poisoned by manufacturing companies no one is allowed to cmplain. So why he strikes in foreign owned factories? Are the strikes being organised by the party only against the Japanese? Or has China decided to make it so difficult for foreign owned companies that they sell out to local competitors and move out? This will allow Chinese manufacturers to take over ready made plants along with the knowhow to move up the value chain. Instead of exporting low cost rubbish they will be able to manufacture high end products for export what Lenovo has been able to do after buying out IBM's personal computers division. Saving face is very important to the Chinese because they know that they are a brutal uncivilised people. They want to become the most powerful nation on earth. God help everyone if they succeed.

On the same day that the US started delivering the latest batch of F16s to Pakistan President Obama sacked General McChrystal who was overseeing the war in Afghanistan. Seems that an article in Rolling Stones magazine quoted the general making disparaging remarks about Obama and Vice President Biden. The general had apologised publicly for his error but was sacked anyway. Obama may feel that he is a big boss who can throw his weight around but now that he has freed the general is how is he going to control him. If the war in Afghanistan starts to go sour or if a lot of soldiers are killed, which is a real possibility, then the general could suddenly become a star who had had been sacked by a vindictive president for being right. Having blathered his way to the White House Obama is suddenly finding that action is much more difficult than hot air. The explosion in the Gulf of Mexico was bad luck but he was wrong to think that he could handle it with hot air. On the one hand people are very very angry about the delay in controlling the oil spill, on the other hand they are angry at the moratorium on new wells in the gulf because it means no jobs to be had. His attempts at dumping all the blame on BP, a British oil giant and his intemperate language has made British people unhappy especially as they see no blame coming to US companies such as Halliburten. Being a slave nation the British can do nothing but if they sense unfairness in his handling of BP there could be public pressure to withdraw from Afghanistan. India should cancel Obama's proposed trip to India in protest against supplying arms to Pakistan but we will not. The tragedy of India is that the supine who supported Union Carbide still rule.

The Criminal Bureau of Investigation, CBI has found that health ministry officials connived in granting medical colleges affiliations in exchange for money. Former chief of the Medical Council of India, MCI Dr. Ketan Desai was arrested for demanding Rs. 20 million from a private medical college for granting recognition. Now CBI is investigating over sixty such colleges which were granted recognition in the last three years. The agency has questioned top health ministry officials but has not arrested anyone as yet. The CBI has conducted raids on two medical colleges, one in Bareilly and one in UP, which were denied recognition three times by the MCI but were granted recognition by health ministry officials is exchange for vast sums of money. So what is new about this? Barring an extremely small group of individuals the entire civil service consists of thieves and bandits. Only those with criminal tendencies would want to spend their entire lives uselessly shifting files from one desk to another, being despised by every Indian and having to obey orders from low class criminal politicians. Imagine spending your entire adult life doing nothing constructive, watching colleagues and seniors taking bribes or stealing from helpless people who have come for help, covering up crimes of predatory thugs such as Rathore and bending over to sleazy politicians that make your skin crawl. In the past higher rungs of the civil service attracted good students from all over India but today they come mainly from states which also supply most of the notorious criminals in the country. Of course, no one is going to carry out such an audit.

Although its position is dependent on the spending of fanatical fans FIFA does not care about their enjoyment. Every World Cup they unveil a new ball for the sponsorship money it brings them and every time players complain about being unable to control it. This time seems to be worse than before. When players like Christiano Ronaldo shoots miles above the crossbar from freekicks there must be something wrong with the ball or the way it is introduced. Had the ball been introduced one year back every player would have had time to practice with it but what does FIFA care. Time for governments to kick FIFA around because the money is coming from fans and hence from different countries. The refereeing has been rarely good, mostly ordinary and at times disgraceful. In the match between Spain and Slovakia the Swiss players were determined not to let Spain play. The referee kept blowing for fouls thus recognising the offences but did not issue any yellow card for consistent fouling. Spain lost. In Germany v Serbia the ref was issuing cards for minor offences. Klose was sent off, Germany lost. In Slovenia v USA the ref disallowed the third USA goal which baffled everyone. It was a draw but USA lost two valuable points. In Netherlands v Japan the Dutch beat up the Japanese in the first half hour. Robin van Persie should have been sent off for at least three deliberate, dangerous fouls but the ref saw nothing. Japan lost. In Chile v Switzerland the ref completely lost it. One Swiss player was red carded. Switzerland lost. Finally, ESPN, the official presenter starts with a girl shouting what sounds like ' enapo ' which apparently means ' just do it.' Is ESPN, an american company, helping NIKE, also american, in some ambush marketing to shaft Adidas, the official sponsor but German? Fascinating.

To add insult to injury the Congress led government has formed a Group of Ministers or GOM to decide what to do about the massacre of people of Bhopal by Union Carbide in 1984. The GOM has decided to ask for the extradition of Anderson who was the chief of Union Carbide and who was so ceremoniously escorted out of India as a VIP and to pay out Rs. 9.82 billion of taxpayer money as belated compensation. All this is not being done for the benefit of the people or because their collective conscience has suddenly been stirred. This is an all out effort to protect the brand of The Family on which Congress politicians depend to get elected which gives them the chance to collect huge fortunes. At first they tried to dump all the blame on the then Chief Minister of MP, Arjun Singh. Yesterday Mr. Singh said, ' I have no locus standi on the issue,' which is taken to mean that he had nothing to do with the decision to release Anderson. Now a fellow called MK Rasgotra, who was foreign secretary, has claimed that it was the then Home Minister, Narasimha Rao who had guaranteed safe passage to Anderson. Since Mr. Rao is dead he cannot refute any calumny dumped on him. The Congress is desperately trying to deflect attention any which way from the then Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi. It has been betraying this country since the beginning. From the loss to China in 1962, Tashkent, Shimla accord, giving up the Security Council seat to China, allowing China into the WTO for no gain and protecting Union Carbide who murdered Indians. The Congress is the most successful criminal organisation in the world because it controls the government which controls the security apparatus. It will do anything to protect its brand which is The Family.

It is not very often that one is proved so spectacularly right after just a few hours. Yesterday I wrote that England's draw with the USA in the World Cup was mainly because of their midfield and forwards all of whom are highly paid and regularly eulogized as the best in the world. Indeed if English tabloids were to be believed Wayne Rooney or ' our Roo ' as he is so affectionately called was supposed to be the best player the world has ever seen except, perhaps, Pele and certainly better than Maradonna whose infamous ' hand of God ' goal has never been forgotten or forgiven. There were reports of London officials consulting with the various borough councils about arrangements for celebrating the return of the English team with the famous cup. Yesterday the goalkeeper, David James kept a clean sheet but at the other end the Algerian goalkeeper had to do nothing except getting down smartly to one effort from Frank Lampard. Mr. Capello, the English coach used all his front players without any improvement in their display. The only player he did not use was Joe Cole so now English journalists are moaning about his absence. Perhaps they are forgetting that the coach is allowed only three substitutes and anyway even if Mr. Capello had twelve players on the field it would hardly have affected the outcome. Of course, everyone knows more than the coach about what team to put out so I do not want to go there. Still in all the years of watching the Premier League I am yet to be convinced by Emile Heskey. Perhaps Mr. Capello could start with Peter Crouch up front with Rooney. The group being balanced England could still go on and win the World Cup but they would have to improve by 100% to do that.

Everyone in India watches cricket. So sports channels save huge money by showing cricket round the clock and apart from a little football show no real sports such as rugby, boxing and american football. With the start of the World Cup suddenly football experts seem to be crawling out of the woodwork. Read what foreign newspapers are saying find a few famous names from the past such as Jairzinho or DiStefano and suddenly you are qualified to write columns for daily newspapers secure in the knowledge that most people are as clueless as you are. One fat idiot had a go at Robert Green, the English goalkeeper, whose howler allowed the USA to level the match at one all, using adjectives only to be found in a thesaurus. Sure Green made a mistake as all humans do but did he lose two points for England. Certainly not. Before the start of the tournament English papers were confident that Wayne Rooney was capable of winning the cup singlehandedly and the addition of Gerrard, Lampard and others just made it child's play. Messrs Rooney, Lampard and Gerrard earn at least twice what Green earns so should have scored more than the solitary Gerrard effort. They missed all their chances and hence are equally or more culpable. As for the vuvuzellas, they have been described as a part of South African culture by a minister. If a cheap plastic instrument which makes a buzzing noise without tune or rhythm is culture then it is a sorry state of affairs. On the other hand the infernal noise prevents fans from chanting insults at opposite set of fans as well as racial insults and probably prevents fights. So is it good or bad? Anything made in China has to be rubbish.

At last a figure to aim for. BP, after a meeting with President Obama, has agreed to pay no dividends to shareholders this quarter and instead to put $ 20 billion into an escrow account to be managed by an independent third party who will quickly disburse relief to claimants. Since loss of life is vastly more serious than loss of livelihood we should aim for a fund of at least $ 100 billion for the nuclear liability bill. Given India's population density a Chernobyl style disaster will leave hundreds of thousands dead and a radioactive cloud could blow into neighboring countries. Given India's less than friendly relations with all our neighbors there is sure be great clamor for compensation from the country affected. The danger is that if people know that there is a pot of gold waiting there will be an even greater outcry but it is still better to have money set aside to be paid only to proven cases.

On to an amusing story of brotherly love. Seems that brothers Anil and Mukesh Ambani had an unwritten understanding that Mukesh would supply gas at $ 2.4 to Anil for power projects. Mukesh reneged and asked for $ 4.2. This led to a bitter war of words and a court case lasting 5 years. The government sided with Mukesh saying that the gas belonged to it and a higher price would enhance its earnings. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of Mukesh and instantly the brothers fell into each other's arms and made up. In the process NTPC, a government owned company which also had and agreement for gas at $ 2.4 got screwed. Seems that the brothers succeeded in making the government screw itself. Brilliant.

Just once in a while, very rarely, the sheer brutality and callous indifference of our government actually saves the country some money. While the rest of the world was panicking about the H1N1 epidemic last year the people loving government was totally relaxed. While other countries were stocking up on oseltamivir or Tamiflu, as it is commonly known, the Indian government banned the sale of the drug so that rich people did not buy up the entire supply and leave nothing for the aam aadmi. So instead of people hoarding the drug the government was hoarding it. People were told to go to designated government hospitals where samples would be sent to government labs and treatment would be given by the government doctor only if the sample tested positive. Since it took about two weeks for the result to be known most patients improved by that time, a few died. No doubt drugs were readily available for criminal politicians and thieving civil servants. Advertisements advised people to wash hands and avoid contact which was breathtaking in its stupidity because most foods in Indian shops are served by hand. Other countries spent billions of dollars in stocking up on drugs and in finding new vaccines. In the event the whole thing fizzled out. The virus was of weaker virulence than seasonal influenza, ordinary flu vaccine gave partial immunity and the vast majority of people improved with chicken soup. Now allegations are being made that the WHO was influenced by drug companies who made a killing by generating panic. Take a bow the Indian government. You saved us a lot of money by not caring how many died.

The Congress led government is very happy at having auctioned off 3G spectrum along with broadband for over Rs. 1 trillion. Our slavish freeloading press is all praise for what is being described as a transparent exercise. Having paid so much money to obtain licenses telecom companies will have to charge their customers very heavily to make any profit. How many Indians will afford the new services remains to be seen. Meanwhile the two government owned companies MTNL and BSNL, who were granted licenses one year ago so that they could get a head start over private companies, want to opt out of 3G services because they are unable to pay the fees. With liquidity sucked out of banks and because inflation is running at over 10% borrowing costs have to go up. So far ministers have been promising lower inflation next day to put pressure on the Reserve Bank not to raise rates because they are desperate for growth to remain high. The reason is that the government is desperate for cash having catastrophically increased spending to win last year's elections and high growth means high taxes. Add to it enormous waste such as ugly statues and meaningless Commonwealth Games and public finances must be dire. Prices are going up on everything from fuel to food to electricity. State governments are adding their own taxes as in Delhi where the government has raised all taxes. Naturally this feeds into inflation. Real inflation can be judged by house prices which seem to have risen 30% since last year. Are we at the edge of a financial precipice about to implode like Greece? Who knows since no one tells the truth.

According to report by the London School of Economics, ' Pakistan appears to be playing a double game of astonishing magnitude. It also says, ' This report is consistent with Pakistan's political history in which civilian leaders actively backed jihadi groups in Afghanistan and Kashmir.' Seems that Paki President, Asif Ali Zardari went to meet Taliban prisoners at a secret prison in Pakistan in April and told them, ' You are our people, we are friends, and after your release we will, of course, support you to do your operations.' What a surprise? It has taken 50 years for white skins to acknowledge what India has been saying all along. Even after 9/11, which was planned and set up by the ISI in Pakistan, they were in denial but now that more and more US and NATO soldiers are dying in Afghanistan they are beginning to realise that they are suckers in Pakistan's games. To get out they must eradicate the Taliban which is impossible without clearing out the safe havens in Pakistan which the Pakis are never going to allow because they are using the pretence of this fight to get more and more aid. To stay on In Afghanistan means loss of more lives and unpopularity at home. So now this report to put more pressure on the Pakis. The reason why nobody listened to India all these years is because of our weak governments led by the Congress. Every time we won a war against Pakistan with considerable loss of life Congress prime ministers returned the gains for nothing. Our politicians think that by being weak to our enemies they become more popular in the world. What they do not realise is that they are despised abroad as they are at home.

Surprised by the furious public response to the verdict in the case of massacre of people of Bhopal by Union Carbide the politicians are energetically trying to protect the Congress. It is not just the Congress and its allies in government that are engaged in this exercise to confuse, dilute and prolong the issue long enough for the public to forget and focus on another outrage which, unfortunately, is a common event in India but also the politicians of the parties in opposition. Our most revered Law and Justice Minister, Veerappa Moily has accused the judges of reducing the gravity of the charges against Union Carbide and its chief, Andersen. The opposition BJP is training its guns on Arjun Singh who was chief minister of MP at the time but are not asking whether he had his orders from the then Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi who had his orders from US President, Ronald Reagan. Seems that when the BJP was in power some five years ago they were not interested in focusing on the case just as they did not want to focus on Bofors. Even more deafening is the silence of the champions of the poor and minorities, the Communists and Ms. Mayawati who has donned the mantle of the Queen of Dalits. One would have expected them to rush to Bhopal and show solidarity with the victims and demand explanations in strident terms but nothing. When everyone is a criminal it is wise to protect your opponents when you are in power because tomorrow you may need the same service. If things get really sticky we expect Mr. Arjun Singh to suddenly develop chest pains and be admitted to hospital and then go abroad on taxpayer money for recuperation until the uproar has died down.

One more scientist has gone missing at Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research at Kalpakkam, Chennai. V.V. Radhakrishna, a 37 years old scientist at the Electrical Department has been missing since June 5 according to his wife who is a teacher in Kerala and used to talk to him on the phone at a fixed time everyday. Since then his house is locked and his phone has been switched off. In February another scientist at the same facility, Ananthanarayanan went missing and was later found dead. In between there have been mysterious fires at various departments. In any other country there would have been an outcry about such happenings at such a sensitive place but no such thing happens in India. Journalists in India are freeloading beggars and loath to upset politicians, especially of the Congress, which is in power at the center. Hence there is no aggressive questioning of politicians, police or civil servants. There is no snooping around trying to discover if criminals are responsible or some of our neighbors such as China and Pakistan. After all India is such a hospitable place that everyone is welcome regardless of friend or foe. Today comes the news that Pakistanis living in India for a long time will be allowed to extend their visas with a view to getting citizenship of India. There is no information of whether Indians, especially Hindus, will be allowed reciprocal courtesy in Pakistan. It is not just that India is already overpopulated but that Pakistan is an avowed enemy country as a matter of state policy. As it is we are overrun with illegal Bangladeshis who are breeding terrorists. Now Pakistanis as well. Does the Congress want total annihilation of this country?

Today's front page of the Times of India is dominated by the Congress party. At the top, the ongoing saga of the Union Carbide massacre of people of Bhopal. Some 26 years after the massacre a steady drip drip of revelations is building a picture of Congress complicity in the crime. Those who were officers in the state government at that time are now saying that Anderson was released on the orders of the then Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, Mr. Arjun Singh who got his orders from the then Prime Minister, Mr. Rajiv Gandhi who, in turn, got his orders from Ronald Reagan. Who the hell was Reagan to give orders to the Prime Minister of India and why did he obey? Near the middle of the page a photograph of the current Prime Minister, Mr. Singh shaking hands with one Douglas Devananda who has accompanied the President of Sri Lanka, Mr. Rajapaksa on a state visit to India. Seems that there is an outstanding warrant for the arrest of Mr. Devananda from a sessions court in Tamil Nadu for shooting to death one person and injuring four others in Central Chennai in 1986. He absconded and has been declared a proclaimed offender by the court. He should been arrested as soon as he set foot in India or at least Mr. Rajapaksa should have been told that this fellow is not welcome here. Instead he is being greeted with full protocol. Would he have dared set foot in any western country which had an arrest warrant pending for him? Shows the contempt the Congress has for our courts. Next to that picture is the news that Pacheco, minister in the Congress government of Goa is absconding after the death of his friend Nadia Torrado in suspicious circumstances. India is ruled by a gang called Congress.

Seems that President Jacob Zuma of South Africa is a one man comedy show. Apparently his youngest wife, Ntuli became pregnant with the child of her bodyguard, Phinda Thomo while she and Zuma were estranged. Thomo has since committed suicide to avoid traditional punishments that await a Zulu warrior who impregnates the chief's wife. Ntuli was made to apologise to Zuma and had to pay a fine of one goat which was promptly killed and eaten. Many questions remain? Why is it alright for Mr. Zuma to have over twenty children with a assortment of women and wrong for Thomo or Ntuli? This is a man who was accused of raping a HIV positive woman and defended himself by saying that in the Zulu custom it is impolite to refuse a woman who is asking for it. So clearly Thomo could not refuse if Ntuli asked for it. What would happen if Ntuli decided to enjoy herself with a nonZulu? Clearly he would refuse to submit to Zulu justice. Would he have to pay two goats? Which would mean a nonZulu goat herder could enjoy himself at will and just pay the fine. Finally what punishment did Zuma receive for having an illegitimate child with the daughter of a friend? In many countries of the world he would have been killed for such gross act of betrayal and dishonor. However he symbolises a much deeper problem - tribalism which is the disease of Africa. This has resulted in untold deaths from the Congo to Rwanda to Kenya to Zimbabwe. As President Mr. Zuma should have been a model of the modern african. Instead he has reinforced his tribal origin. Tomorrow he will be opening the World Cup. The world will be laughing at him and, by extension, at all africans.

The Union Carbide saga has at last reached its end. Two year jail sentences and Rs. 100000 in fines for the accused. Fittingly the verdict has come when the Congress is in power as it was when the tragedy occurred. It is no surprise that the Congress has allowed Union Carbide to win over Indians and is allowing Dow Chemicals, which bought Union Carbide, to do business here. One Robert Blake of the US Sate Department has hoped that this verdict will bring closure to the victims and will not affect the Nuclear Liability bill. This must be the most brutally callous insult ever. Let me assure Mr. Blake that there will never be closure. Closure is for the victors. As happened after World War II when Germany was occupied by four powers and the Nazis were tried and hanged. Closure could also be possible for North Vietnam, even though they suffered terribly, because they won. Closure is never possible for the losers. It is a wound which will fester for ever especially as the criminal bastard, Anderson is living in comfort in Long Island and will not be hanged. Less than three thousand died on 9/11 and in revenge the your country has taken more than half a million lives in Afghanistan and Iraq. More than 15000 have already died in Bhopal and more will die of the consequences of the crime while the site is still heavily contaminated and you talk of closure. It is another matter that we cannot revenge ourselves on your country because we are weak, because Congress has always betrayed us and because you blackmail criminal politicians with ease. Rejoice your victory but do not insult us with talk of closure. Who knows, maybe some day.

It has been a ' save Iran ' conspiracy all along. Now we learn that Iran is threatening to send Revolutionary Guards with the next flotilla trying to break Israeli blockade of Gaza. So there will be Hamas, Hezbollah, the Revolutionary Guards, Turkish islamists and the usual fanatics from Pakistan, Jordan and maybe Chechenya. It is hard to imagine a more detestable collection of psychopaths in the history of the world. Add to that an assortment of antisemites disguised as liberals from Europe and you have an army Jew haters determined to wipe Israel off the map. Iran has been under great pressure for its covert nuclear program and Ahmadinejad has no legitimacy after cheating in last year's elections. The Ayatollahs have not earned any respect by supporting theft of the elections and then orchestrating the killings that followed. Iran desperately wants to divert attention from its crimes and thus hatched this plot with the Islamic government in Turkey which is miffed at not being allowed to join the European Union. However Israel is not a collection of unarmed women and college students that the Basij can beat up, rape and kill at will. So far the US and European governments have censured Israel for the botched raid on the last Gaza flotilla which killed nine Turkish islamists, especially as Turkey is a NATO member, but if Israelis were to die at the hands of Iranian thugs then the equation might change. Iran is playing a dangerous game of oneupmanship and if it overplays its hand it might start an all out war which it cannot win. Let us hope it is just playing to the gallery at home and is just posturing.

The government has made public holding of at least 25% compulsory for publicly listed companies. Companies will be allowed to sell 5% equity every year until they reach 25%. On the surface it appears to be a good move. It will suck out between Rs. 1.6 to 2.1 trillion from the economy and may reduce inflation by reducing money supply. Since the money will be going to corporate coffers it will be better than increasing interest rates which may hamper growth. The government will be able to raise a lot of money by selling off shares in profitable public sector companies but by cleverly including the private sector it is trying to defuse union anger. This may stimulate more investment in the share market by retail investors and by broadening the base will, hopefully, reduce volatility and market rigging. However the people do not trust the market after having been repeatedly cheated. Ketan Parekh, Harshad Mehta and Ramalinga Raju are not the only villains to have robbed the public. There have been many ponzi schemes such as teak farms, gold coins, and schemes paying 25% interest. Builders regularly con people out of millions by collecting booking amounts on properties which do not exist. Buying a public sector company is risky as the government may allow it to accumulate debt while collecting taxes as it has done with oil companies. With Swiss banks proposing a withholding tax on money deposited there this may be a golden opportunity to repatriate some of the black money through the PN route. Politicians in India are not public servants but feudal bandits who want to hang on to power every which way. Wonder what they are hiding from us?

Our most revered Foreign Minister, Mr. Krishna is in Washington for Strategic Dialogue with the US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton to lay the groundwork for President Obama's visit to India in November. Mr. Krishna started his visit by saying that talks will be based on five pillars which, to someone of my generation, is a terrifying thing to say because we still remember Panchsheel and where it led us to. Mr. Krishna is an emissary of the Congress led government which makes the whole visit even more terrifying. Ms. Clinton laid on a dinner for Mr. Krishna at which President Obama dropped in and spouted his usual hot air about how important India is. He announced that he will visit our shores in November as though he will be doing a great favor to India and expecting the natives to genuflect to the half white bwana. The question is what does the US want from India and do these fellows have the guts to hold out for our interests. The US will no doubt push for the waiver to US firms in the nuclear deal. Will our fellows have the guts to point out politely but firmly how much BP is shelling out for the pollution in the Gulf of Mexico? There will be pressure to allow US agricultural products into India especially GM crops. This will allow US companies to control food production in our country and thus make us a colony of the US. Will our fellows stand up to the bullying? Seems unlikely. Our politicians and uncivil servants are criminals and always susceptible to arm twisting. Nothing overt, of course. Just some hints and enquiries about children studying or working in the US. Sadly we Indians will never know as in the Union Carbide massacre.

The government has decided to increase the price of petrol and diesel by around Rs. 3.50 a liter. This is apparently being done so that losses being incurred by oil companies because of ' subsidies ' on petroleum products can be erased. The government increased the tax on petrol by Rs. 2.50 in the budget which means that the money went straight into the pockets of criminal politicians. As on May 31 the price of petrol per gallon in the US was between $ 2.644 on the Gulf Coast and $ 3.024 in California. This works out to around Rs. 30 per liter of which 69% is the price of crude oil, 9% for Refining, 8% for Distribution and Marketing and 14% for Taxes. There is NO subsidy on petrol in the US. Thus excluding about Rs. 4 for taxes the price of petrol at the pump works out to around Rs. 26 per liter. We are already paying Rs. 50 in India and this is set to go upto around Rs. 53 shortly. Where is the ' subsidy'? Why do the criminal politicians and thieving uncivil servants keep on repeating the same lie all the time? The recent auction of 3G mobile and broadband licenses netted the government around Rs. 700 billion and has reduced the fiscal deficit from 6% to 4.5%. Why is the government so desperate for money that it is willing to increase food inflation, which is running at 16.7%, and hurt the aam aadmi for whom it bleeds and who will form the vote bank in next year's assembly elections? Why is the Reserve Bank waiting to increase interest rates to control inflation? Is the Reserve Bank really independent as we are told or is it another lie? All these questions can only be answered by honorable journalists but sadly our lot are just begging freeloaders.

In an article in the Times of India today the US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton says that, ' It ( India ) has vibrant democratic institutions, a free press, robust civil society, an innovative private sector and tens of millions of citizens whose talents have yet to be fully realised. ' Not true. Politicians are criminals, uncivil servants are thieves, police are brutal thugs, courts are paralysed, healthcare is unaffordable or lethal, education is in patches and elections are a sham. The press seems to be free but journalists being freeloaders lie all the time. The two leading english dailies are Congress supporters and articles are slanted in praise of the party while seeming to be neutral. Civil society is trying to survive in a hostile environment without roads, power, water and having to pay bribes for every service from a parasitic government. Private sector may be innovative but a lot of energy is spent in cheating customers because people have no recourse other than consumer courts which take years to hear a case. Direct to Home television services are cheating every customer of hundreds of rupees every month by the pernicious practice of bundling whereby if you opt for one channel you have no choice but to pay for several others which you do not want to watch. Tens of millions of people have little talent because teachers in government schools do not come to work even though they are highly paid. The ones with talent or high educational achievement go abroad. Hundreds of millions are continuing to breed like rats without any concern about educating their children. Seems to me that Ms. Clinton is as adept at hot air as her boss, the gasbag.

Seems that Lamborghini is to sell a limited of Murcielago LP 670-4 Super Veloce, its fastest sports car model, in India. At a price of Rs. 36 million there will be plenty of buyers for it. Apart from the usual business men all criminal politicians and thieving uncivil servants can afford that kind of price tag. No sweat. However, my question is ' where will they drive it? ' Sports cars have very low suspensions and will probably have a road clearance of a few inches while roads in India have huge potholes several feet deep. A visit to Delhi highlights the problems Indians face with roads. Delhi is preparing for the Commonwealth games and has built new roads while relaying others. Drive along any newly built road and there are sudden rises and falls for which the driver is completely unprepared. Speed is restricted by the Delhi police to just 50 km per hour which is around 27.7 miles per hour to catch drivers and earn money for the state government. Speed bumps are built anywhere to further restrict progress. These are so high that even SUVs scrape their bottoms if not in first gear. A sports car will probably be stuck halfway and swing up and down like a seesaw. So called highways connecting cities are four lane at most with farmers driving tractors or cattle herders taking herds of cows along to a pasture. Very often lanes are closed for repairs causing huge jams and for this privilege drivers have to pay toll every few kilometers. Of course, politicians and civil servants are exempt. Why we pay road tax, road tax surcharge, huge sales taxes on cars, double taxes on petrol is not known. It is the bullock cart mindset cultivated by the Congress for decades. Tax people into poverty in the name of Socialism.

Israel has begun to release and deport all the people arrested on the ships that formed the flotilla trying to break Israel's blockade of Gaza. There are Pakistanis ( Taliban, Al Qaeda, LeT ), Lebanese ( Hezbollah ), Palestinians ( Hamas ), Jordanians ( about 90% are Palestinians anyway. Indian police are looking for a Jordanian who surveyed Mumbai before the attacks ), Indonesians ( Jemaah Islamia ), Algerians ( GIA ), an assortment of anti semitic Europeans and others. These are the people that wanted to deliver a large consignment to Hamas controlled Gaza without any checks whatsoever. Why not ask every Israeli to commit suicide? At least it would be quick and more comfortable. Ever since Hamas has come to power in Gaza it has been cleansing the territory of Fatah supporters who are also Palestinians. Fatah supporters have been beaten up, killed and imprisoned. Hamas is not just a terrorist organisation, it is a band of criminals carrying out Iran's bidding. Pakistan started its support of terrorism to fight India and has now become the terrorist capital of the world. Successive Indian governments led by the Congress has been weak and has converted hard earned victories into defeats. Not so Israel. It has held on to its gains and has negotiated tough peace deals with Egypt and Jordan. If Israel is defeated and a separate Palestinian state is formed under Hamas control then there will be more uncontrolled centers of terrorism in the world. Pakistan, Hezbollah, Hamas, Yemen, the list will go on increasing. The world should be grateful to Israel for keeping the genie partially inside the bottle.

Howling outrage all over the world at Israeli attack on ships trying to break the blockade of Gaza ostensibly to deliver aid to Palestinians living in Gaza. These ships were manned mainly by Turks with a smattering of people from other countries. Israel has been saying clearly all along that the ships would not be allowed to deliver their supplies directly to Gaza because that would go straight into the hands of Hamas, a recognised terrorist organisation committed to the destruction of Israel. Instead Israel asked them to unload the aid at an Israeli port and promised to deliver it to the Palestinians. They were entirely within their rights to do so. Turkey used to be a secular country but the AKP party presently in power is an islamist party engaged in changing the constitution in little bits to effect a creeping islamisation of the state. Israel had to know whether any arms were being delivered to Hamas. Hamas used to smuggle arms in through tunnels across the Rafah border from Egypt but Egypt has installed a deep fence cutting supplies. Hamas must be desperate. The Europeans are especially critical, not surprising seeing the long history of antisemitism throughout Europe. Holocaust denial may be a crime in many countries but the image of Shylock wanting christian flesh still persists. When Paki terrorists killed more than 170 people in Mumbai these same countries immediately advised restraint. When China advises restraint over the killing of 46 South Korean sailors there is no peep out of European capitals but if Israel tries to protect itself then the howling starts. Would Turkey allow uninspected aid to be delivered to the Kurds? If not, why should Israel?