How does a man become a tyrant capable of keeping an population under total control for decades? Intelligence combined with street cunning, complete ruthlessness capable of blowing his own son if suspected of treachery, complete indifference to deaths of thousands or millions, complete absence of conscience, the ability to tell any lie to suit circumstances or a forceful personality capable of dominating even inspiring others to do their bidding? Maybe all of these but I feel the most important tribute a tyrant must have is to be able to read people and know which ones are weak ready to be dominated. How did Stalin, Mao or Pol Pot engineer the death of millions and still were able to carry on without challenge? They did not kill anyone personally yet were able to create conditions where people turned into monsters happy to inform on, torture and kill friends, neighbors and relatives. They always had assistants to accept their orders without question and force others to carry them out. The circus in North Korea could inspire a series of comedy movies like the ' Carry On ' series if it were not for the fact that millions of children are starving and malnourished and will never achieve full potential. A whole generation of children wasted. How can anyone style himself a ' Great Leader ' or a ' Dear Leader?' You have to have complete absence of any sense of humor to walk around with a moniker like that. Surprisingly India is not far behind. You cannot make fun of any of our politicians. Their goons will beat you up or kill you. So how are we still hanging on? Perhaps we have so many tyrants that they cancel each other out. Adam Smith's hand?

The verdict on the mosque in Ayodhya has been postponed to September 30 and Muslims are looking forward to it. Why shouldn't they? With anti Hindu Congress in power at the centre Muslims expect to win. Yet there should really be no debate. Hinduism has been around for over 5 thousand years while Islam is only some 1430 years old. Islam is an Arabic religion as the scriptures are in Arabic and may not be translated. It was brought here as an instrument of occupation and used to try and destroy Hinduism. Before the arrival of Babar all of India would have been Hindu with pockets of Buddhism therefore all mosques and churches are symbols of conquerers on Hindu land. While Muslims claim Makkah and Medinah as holy cities where no non Muslims may enter they have desecrated and built mosques on the holy places of other religions which they managed to conquer. Thus we have mosques in the holy cities of Benaras, Haridwar and Mathura while the most holy Jewish temple at the Dome of the Rock at Jerusalem has the Al Aqsa mosque. Yet Muslims have very successfully claimed the status of victims. However even as the Congress is aggressively anti Hindu it is the BJP and its allies which are doing the maximum damage to Hindus in today's India. It is stupid to focus on an old mosque when there are thousands of mosques in India and more are being built everyday. They should focus on the bigger picture which is the rapidly expanding numbers of muslims, the financing of terrorists by middle east countries and uncontrolled infiltration by Bangladeshis. By diverting attention from from the real dangers the BJP is killing Hinduism and Hindus.

That the criminal politicians of India have no sharam and no izzat is established but they should watch their mouths when speaking to or about foreigners because they are seen to represent the opinion of the Indian public which they do not. The CEO of the Commonwealth Games apparently commented about the ' population hazard ' of Delhi which was found to be ' unkind and undiplomatic ' by the Delhi Chief Minister, Sheila Dixit. Born and brought up in this country, even I find the ever exploding population stressful and dehumanising. There is not a spot in India which is not teeming with people, usually the dirty, noisy, impolite variety. There is no spot of natural beauty left. There is nowhere a young couple could go and sit in silence and solitude. The whole country is an outdoor toilet. The environment is being degraded rapidly. Trees are cut down, dry river beds taken over for construction, animals poached for their skins or body parts, beggars hanging around everywhere, increasing theft and other crimes, all because they are poor and need to survive. Yet they go on producing with no thought of how they are going to feed, clothe or educate their children. And they are aggressive with it. They will come for treatment without money, argue about the cost of medicines and threaten or beat up doctors if they think that the patient is not getting better. In this they are constantly being encouraged by criminal politicians who refer to them as ' vote bank.' So, Ms Dixit you should can it. I find the population not only a hazard but disgusting and an affront to me as a human being.

After battering Japan China has decided to take on the US. A Chinese fishing boat was challenged by Japanese coast guards in disputed waters. Such is the arrogance of even fishermen that the captain of the Chinese fishing vessel deliberately rammed and damaged two Japanese coast guard vessels. The fishing boat was detained and the crew arrested. China mounted a ferocious assault on Japan cancelling diplomatic contacts, summoned the Japanese ambassador six times and eventually arrested four Japanese citizens in China on trumped up charges of photographing military camp. Eventually Japan gave way and released the criminal captain of the fishing boat. However the Chinese are now demanding unconditional apology and compensation. Meanwhile the US Congress has decided to vote on whether to declare China a currency manipulator because China deliberately under values the yuan to increase its exports but continues to insist that it has a right to distort global trade harming other countries because it is its sovereign right. Even before the US Congress has voted on the proposal China has decided to retaliate by levying anti dumping duties up to 150% on US chicken. Earlier China arrested four Australians on trumped charges of industrial espionage because a Chinese firm was not allowed to take over Rio Tinto, an Australian mining company. The Chinese are an uncivilised barbaric people ruled by bunch of thugs as proved by its friendship with Khmer Rouge, Zimbabwe, Burma, Sudan, Iran, Pakistan, North Korea and every other despotic regime. The world must unite to stop China now. Any delay will only increase the pain.

Lots of hot air at the conference on Millennium Development goals but not one single person spoke the truth behind the miserable conditions of the world poor. There was the usual moaning about the rich countries not keeping their word on providing more aid, corruption in poor countries which prevented aid reaching the poor, climate change, sexual abuse of women, regional conflict where women and children are easy targets, blah, blah, blah. All stuff we have been hearing about for decades and is an opportunity for some people to fly off to some foreign city and have nice expenses paid holiday. Meanwhile there was an emergency meeting in Rome to discuss the rising prices of cereals which are staple food for the world's poor. The conclusion was that there is no shortage of food in the world because of bumper crops in the US and, possibly, Australia and speculators were blamed for the rise in prices. Niger in Africa is in the grip of devastating famine. Officials in Pakistan are saying that the country's growth will decline from 4.5% to 2.5% and it will take many years to recover from the recent floods. What binds all these disparate items of news? It is uncontrolled population growth. While the rich and educated people are cutting down on children the poor keep on breeding without control. Unless leaders are honest and confront the truth there can never be any reduction in poverty and the ills it brings. Some religions encourage fertility and some point to countries like Japan which has a problem with an aging population. Unless aid is tied to less birth rate nothing will change. First people have to have courage to confront the truth.

Pakistan Cricket Board Chairman, Ijaz Butt looks totally bewildered at the furious reaction of English cricket players whom he accused of being paid to lose a match. After all for decades Pakis have been raking in billions of dollars in aid from the west by pretending to help them while using the same money to help the Taliban to kill NATO soldiers. Why such song and dance for honor? Here, one fellow is being lampooned for saying that Indians have a different view of hygiene compared to foreigners. What he meant was that over 600 million Indians crap out in the open and have never seen a western style toilet. Having no idea what the the pot was for they just crapped on the floor. Fellow was just trying to be polite and avoid the word ' crap.' Then there was the comment that no athlete or VIP was going to use the footbridge that collapsed so it was no big deal. What it meant that since no ordinary person is going to attend the games and criminal beggars with passes will use other gates the footbridge was unlikely to be used. It was built to inflate the bill and make some extra money. As for the 23 laborers that were hurt, 5 seriously, they were lying in hospital in proper beds and being given free food. A relaxing holiday they could not afford. Plus the court has ordered each of them to be paid Rs. 300,000, a fortune they could never dream of. Of course, they will never see the full amount because thieving civil servants will want their cuts but, hey, this is easy money which they never worked for. Shows how wide the gap is between east and west. Iran is in the middle so no one understood when Ahmadinejad said that the US arranged 9/11.

It has been a combination shameless greed and incompetence. The athletes village has probably been well constructed because the plan is for the flats to be sold off for between Rs. 3 and 10 million each but some idiot got them built on the flood plains close to the river. This is what happens when the entire government consists of criminals and third raters. As is usual, no money is spent on the welfare of the laborers who are seen as disposable. They must have been living in flimsy shelters built with sticks and pieces of tarpaulin so when the rains and floods came they must have moved into the finished flats to survive. These people have never seen bathrooms and so must have defaecated on the floor which is what disgusted the foreigners. As for the stadiums, these will lie unused once the games are over because no one in Delhi is interested in sports. One day and T20 cricket matches draw in the hooligans with little understanding of the game but test matches draw just a scattering of spectators. Unlike in Australia, where even a school game will probably attract a full house. Probably, to save money, the stadiums were constructed with cheap material to last for two weeks after which no one would care if they fell down. This was exposed by the unusually heavy rains which washed away the flimsy structures. The Congress will be desperate to hold something so that they can lie their way out of it with endless investigations and commissions of enquiry. To save further taxpayer money the games should be cancelled. With nothing to bomb the terrorists will be frustrated. At least something to smile about.

Sadly India has been taken over by criminal beggars which includes all politicians and civil servants. Only criminals have the black money to be able to bribe the electorate and the thugs to beat up the opposition. Being beggars they have no sharam or izzat so that they can be brazen when anyone with the slightest bit of class would have died of shame. Note how the politicians agitated for higher pay. This was led by a man who is alleged to have made Rs. 9 billion from fodder and his friend who has made a similar amount from property grabbing, extortion, and violent crimes. They know they are totally despised by the people so they try to show their superiority by begging for armed escort, Z plus security, luxury villas and free air travel, as if to show us that they are some how special. This only increases the level of contempt people feel for them. They are so thick skinned that they do not seem to appreciate this, probably lulled by the homage poor people pay them to obtain alms. A perfect example of the total lack of understanding of these people is shown by the Commonwealth Games. They keep on saying that this is a national event and that we should be proud of our country. What escapes them is that people see the country quite separate from criminal politicians and thieving civil servants and they associate these games with the latter. People only see the amount of problems they have had to face due to all the construction projects and will face in the coming days due to traffic disruptions, police brutality and other unknown terrors. Very few will actually buy tickets for the games. The venues will be filled with government school children and all those who have begged for free passes. The games have brought shame on the country. If people turn on the criminal beggars it may be a good thing.

The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion will not allow foreign airlines to buy into domestic Indian carriers on the ground that ' It is not allowed in the US, UK or any other major European country ....... nobody allows foreign players to take stake in their domestic airlines, so why India should allow?' Firstly the countries mentioned do not have politicians who are all criminals and civil servants who are all thieves. Secondly no other country has a so called ' national carrier ' called Air India which has three times the number of staff required and everyone is a crook. No other government is pouring tens of billions of taxpayer rupees into such a cesspool without any consultation and doing its best to make air travel immensely expensive by levying astronomical taxes on tickets and fuel. The government deliberately kills off any competition because it knows that Air India will collapse. Also by making air travel so expensive the government forces people into trains which means that Indian Railways, a government company, always has full trains. This means that the Railways can charge very highly for first class and air conditioned classes, as long as it is less than air tickets, which in turn means that the aam aadmi can travel dirt cheap in unreserved coaches. We are told that this is public service which is garbage because survival of criminal politicians depends on hundreds of millions of naked, starving, groveling creatures. These are the source of their power. Give cheap rice here, free electricity there, free clothes in another place and you win elections, the source to incredible wealth. Never allow them to fly, keep them in the gutter. That makes Indian politicians khas.

Rathore wants parole for 42 days because he wants to get his agricultural equipment repaired as his tractor and tube well are lying idle. He has not yet appreciated what a monster he is. He molested a teenage girl. That is a crime but nothing compared to what followed. As chief of police he used men under his charge to torture the family to force the girl to withdraw the charge. Her brother was repeatedly arrested on false charges, beaten up and false cases of car thefts filed against him. All the cases were thrown out by the courts. This went on until the girl committed suicide unable to bear the torture inflicted on her family. This brutal monster tortured a girl to death over many years and subverted his own force by turning his men into torturers and totally destroying any sense of morality they may have had. Surely these men must have thought that if the boss can get away with a series of crimes why shouldn't they. Initially sentenced to a derisive 6 months in prison this was increased to 18 months after huge public outcry. He should have been sentenced to life because his actions have weakened the foundations of the state. Yet he seems completely unaware of the enormity of his crimes and what a foul, stinking monster he is. He is aided in this by his wife who is a lawyer and is probably the one who is trying to get her putrid husband out of prison. She must surely know that he is a guilty criminal but continues to waste precious court time by filing these cases. Surely she should be sent to jail as an accomplice where she can continue her role as supporting wife to her filthy husband. Women's groups are strangely silent about this woman.

When Enron failed Ken Lay and co were charged with felony and were sentenced to long jail terms. Lay escaped by dying. Lehman bros, Bear Sterns, Merrill Lynch failed but their chief executives walked off with millions of dollars in bonuses and severance payments causing a melt down of the financial system and millions of people losing their jobs and pension benefits. No one has been charged let alone being sentenced to prison. The stories of the unemployed are heart rending. These were respectable, hard working people who now face destitution. Astonishingly the richest country in the world has no safety net for such people in distress even if they have families with little children. Apparently they receive benefit cheques for 99 weeks and then they stop so these people are called 99ers, which seems a cruel mockery because the 49ers are a football team. Capitalism is the only system that works because it rewards merit and punishes failure. In the case of financial institutions that does not seem to apply. Failures were rewarded with millions and accounting fraud went unpunished. This is not meritocracy but kleptocracy on a grand scale and is vandalism disguised as capitalism. The Republicans are still supporting tax cuts for the rich and refusing to extend benefit payments for the victims. Curiously ordinary people seem to be supporting this utterly shameless crony capitalism. How is it that americans have forgotten that it was George Bush who turned Clinton's surplus into deficit and the friends of these same Republicans were responsible for the recession. Americans are truly stupid.

Former union law minister Mr. Shanti Bhushan told the Supreme Court couple of days back that 8 of 16 former Chief Justices were ' definitely corrupt ' and six were ' definitely honest ' and he was not sure of two. In his affidavit he named the 8 corrupt chief justices of the Supreme Court and these included Justice AM Ahmadi of Union Carbide fame and Justice Sabharwal who was alleged to have shut down high street stores to favor his sons who were selling shops in new shopping malls. He also claimed that two former chief justices personally told him that their immediate predecessors and successors were corrupt. We remember that allegations of unfairly shutting down high street stores were first revealed by two reporters who were sentenced to prison for contempt of court by a Delhi High Court judge without trial. These are allegations without any proof but every person in India will believe them. Such is the level of contempt and suspicion for the whole establishment that Indian citizens will readily believe any sordid story of corruption leveled against politicians, civil servants, police, judges and anyone connected with the government. Of course lawyers are almost uniformly corrupt and routinely resort to bribery, lies and deliberately losing cases to make money. Judges allow lawyers to postpone hearings on flimsy grounds so that cases go on for decades by which time the litigant is often dead. This allows criminals to enjoy complete immunity and breeds armed insurrection. If the politicians seriously want to tackle the Naxal problem they must ensure justice. Politicians are all criminals and will never allow an efficient criminal justice system.

Hallelujah. At last we have confirmation from the Pope. Yesterday, speaking in Scotland, he said that Britain should shun ' aggressive secularism.' In India we have aggressive pseudo secularism wherein Hindus are constantly taunted as ' saffronised ' and abused by being compared to the Taliban. So called ' Minorities ' have special rights and partial immunity from crimes. His Holiness also asked people to live by ' Christian values ' but did not define what these are. A precise definition would really help people like me who are Hindu or shall I say

' Hindu heathens.' Do Christian values arise from Jesus? If so, did he say that Hindus are heathens who should be converted by money, false promises or inquisition? If I am right he said that the meek shall inherit the earth. When you are converting people you are saying categorically that you are superior. It is not being meek, it is being extremely arrogant. The Pope has said in the past that yoga is evil. Did Jesus call anything ' evil?' I think he said something like ' he who is without sin, let him cast the first stone.' He surely meant that everyone is a mixture of good and bad and you should not be judgemental as that would make you feel superior to others. It is an extremely common failing in human beings. That is what makes dictators think that they can kill opponents. That is what allows Americans to go around the world, especially Asia, killing millions. That is what makes jihadis want to blow up anyone they do not agree with. That is probably the reason why for decades the bishops and archbishops stayed silent while children were being abused. Perhaps humility should be the main value.

Seems that US Treasury Secretary, Timothy Geithner is going to testify before a Senate committee that China has been manipulating the value of the Yuan against other currencies especially the dollar. There is a call to label China a ' currency manipulator ' which will allow the US government to apply trade sanctions against China. Predictably China has reacted with anger saying the value of their currency is a sovereign matter and, anyway, raising the value of the Yuan will not reduce balance of trade with the US. This really seems so childish. If China claims the right to set the value of the Yuan then surely the US has the right to set the value of the dollar. The US could set the value of one dollar at, say, 3 Yuan for all imports from China and there is nothing China could do about it. Hoist by its own petard, as it were. Maybe the US is unable to take any action because that would be inflationary and US companies, who have shifted to China to take advantage of low labor costs, will howl. Thus by artificially maintaining a low exchange value China is not only a creating trade imbalance but causing a huge transfer of american jobs to China. Meanwhile Japan is buying dollars to weaken the Yen, a maneuver destined to fail. Japan suffers from huge public debt and wasting money in the currency market seems silly. One would have expected the government to buy back its bonds. This would reduce its public debt, reduce interest payment and inject liquidity into the economy encouraging people to spend more. Are economists tempted to think of complicated solutions rather than common sense ones to appear more erudite? No wonder the world is in such a mess.

A community called the Jats have been rioting in Haryana. One youth died and 50 were injured on Monday. Yesterday they burnt buildings, cars and buses and were so out of control that the army had to be called in and curfew has been declared in parts of the state. So what is the reason for this uncontrollable fury? Jats want to be classified as Other Backward Classes or OBC which will allow them to get admission to premier institutions with very low marks and access to government jobs over more qualified candidates. Couple of years ago there were pitched battle between Gujjars and Meenas in Rajasthan. The Gujjars wanted to be classified as Scheduled Tribe but the Meenas opposed their application because they have been the sole beneficiaries so far and did not want to share their unfair, undeserved advantage. It has become a crime to be born of upper caste parents. Such children have to work 100 times as hard to get admission in good colleges. Those who can afford it put their children in private schools at great cost, pay enormous sums for private tutorials and may have to pay millions under the table to get their children into professional colleges if they miss out on the limited number of seats in government colleges. It is hard to imagine the agony of a child and parents if the child misses out by one mark and then sees useless students laughing their way in with a fraction of the marks. Three SC students were expelled as per IIT rules for failing repeatedly but the Supreme Court said that they should be allowed to continue and professors should give them extra tuition. Is it any wonder that our educational institutions are rated as rubbish? Second class citizens in our own country.

Seems that a file on Sanjay Mahendroo, who was one of the officials of the Organising Committee of the Commonwealth Games suspended for corruption, has gone missing. This file contained all the information regarding his appointment, his travel itinerary and reasons for travel and the amount of money he spent. Although his case was referred to the Enforcement Directorate for investigation this was postponed with the pathetic excuse that it might interfere with the games. This is a tried and tested tactic going back many decades which allows criminals to walk free. Public Interest Litigation has been filed in front of the Supreme Court alleging that telecom minister Mr. Raja was involved in a Rs. 700 billion scam while awarding 2G telecom licenses but he is being protected by the central government. Apparently our premier investigating agency the CBI does not know who to investigate. Did the judges fall about laughing? Not mentioned. Meanwhile Mr. Sajjan Kumar, prime accused in the killing of Sikhs in 1984, has petitioned the Supreme Court challenging criminal proceedings against him. If he had filed the petition while waiting on death row one would understand but he has been free and is still enjoying life. So what is the connections between all these criminal acts and blatant miscarriage of justice. The Congress gang. These three news items from today's front page show how the Congress controls and has been controlling all investigating agencies, the courts and freeloading journalists for decades. This makes the Congress the most successful syndicate in the whole world. At least India is first on something. Should we be proud?

A combined advertisement in today's newspapers by telecom companies warns everyone with a cell phone that they will be verified and it means everyone, including law abiding citizens who have been using the same number for years. When I obtained my Sim card about 8 years back I was required to produce a photo identity, proof of address, a passport sized photograph and my PAN number under which I have to file tax returns every year. Now I have go through the same farce all over again. The reason being given is that it is for security reasons so that terrorists can be identified. With six hundred million cell phone connections in India how they are going to check the veracity of every document is unknown. How do terrorists get phone connections? Bangladeshis illegally entering India obtain Ration Cards with ease by bribing officials and use them to obtain cell phones. Who allots Ration Cards? Government employees of course. Why is the Indian state unable to prevent terrorists from crossing into the country with such ease? After all we could fence the border and lay numerous mines so that not even a rat could cross over like the border between North and South Korea which has prevented war for over 50 years. The reason is that criminal politicians and thieving civil servants love terrorists. This gives them the excuse for Z plus security. You can see the fellow managing RTO, which gives out driving licenses, with 5 armed policemen guarding him. Why? The US has only one Air Force 1, we have Air Chors 1,2,3,4,5 at a cost of Rs. 9.5 billion. It also gives them an excuse to harass and keep tabs on citizens. Welcome terrorists.

Muslims hate each other. Muslims kill more muslims than the rest of the world put together. So how have muslims survived for over 1430 years without slaughtering each other to extinction. It is because some of their leaders have channeled this hatred towards others such as Jews, Christians, Hindus, infidels, kafirs, the US, India and so on. Rauf the Imam of the proposed mosque at Cordoba house near Ground Zero in New York writes that if the mosque is not allowed to be built muslims across the world will become inflamed and resort to terrorism. The message is ' if you do not let us do whatever we desire then we will kill you.' Then he tries to reassure us with that old propaganda that Islam means peace. However, terrorism may be dramatic but is a minor danger faced by the world. The major danger comes from the exponential growth in the number of muslims because of unrestricted breeding regardless of the ability to feed, clothe or educate children. The aim is to outnumber all other religious groups and, once that is achieved, kill off everyone else so that only muslims are left. Already a Roman Catholic priest in Europe has requested Christians to increase the number of babies they produce or else Europe will become a muslim continent in just a few decades. Muslims are determined to become the majority in India by 2030 and are well on their way. Politicians of all countries must realise that Muslims do not believe in democracy, rule of law or human decency. They believe in total supremacy and breeding like vermin is most likely to succeed. Bleeding hearts may say whatever they like but the time will surely come when it is exterminate or be exterminated. It will happen.

The shameless lies of the freeloading press knows no end. A headline in the Times of India today reads ' Govt share in total debt dips to 26%.' The figures are given under the heading ' Managing It Well ' and it shows that external debt has risen from $ 224.5 billion in 2008-2009 to $ 261.5 billion in 2009-2010. So in absolute terms external debt has increased by $ 37 billion and the decrease in percentage terms may be because of increase in corporate debt. External debt is only 11% of total debt which means total debt is $ 2377.27 billion, 89% of which is domestic debt. $ 261.5 billion is 18.9% of GDP which means that India's GDP is $ 1383.60 billion dollars. Thus our sovereign debt is almost double the GDP. This explains why the government has been frantically increasing taxes and why it will not allow the Reserve Bank to raise rates to control inflation. A survey of 139 countries by the World Economic Forum ranks India at 115 in public debt and at 123 in inflation. Since our fiscal deficit is expected to be more than 6% this year our total debt will surely be more than double the GDP next year. The Great Economist leading the government has no clue on what to do. The Congress is banking on increased growth leading to increased tax collections to bring down the deficit but increased growth means that inflation will continue unchecked and may rise to unsustainable levels. The newspaper has tried to mislead its readers with false headlines hoping no one will read the details but the figures clearly show that our economy is built on quicksand. We can only pray for a soft landing and not a catastrophic one. God help us.

The US is so used to riding roughshod over other nations it seems genuinely surprised how India has managed to pass a Civil Liability for Nuclear Damages bill which does not allow complete indemnity to american companies supplying equipment for nuclear power plants even if faulty equipment results in the death of millions of Indians. Americans think they have the right to go around the world killing innocent people and no one should hold them responsible. After all Union Carbide got away with the slaughter of thousands and Andersen said that there is a law of the US meaning US law ruled over others. Notice how the various arms of the US government went after Toyota even though majority of the accidents were caused by stupid americans pressing the accelerator pedal instead of the brake. That is why no accident happened in cars with manual drive because the car cannot move unless the gear is engaged manually which takes conscious effort. This hounding of Toyota has allowed Ford and GM to turn in large profits only a year after they were in deep trouble. However, the lesson from the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is more pertinent. Everyone from the Congress to President Obama and the media hounded BP nonstop but not a word was mentioned about Halliburten and Transocean which are US firms. It is glib to say that people can sue suppliers such as GE and Westinghouse through normal legal channels. In a nuclear accident who is going to investigate fault? The place will be radioactive and the heat may have melted much of the stuff anyway. When Obama comes calling we should tell him to shove off but do our lot have the spine.

If my memory serves me right Vodafone bought its telecom business in India from Hutchison Whampoa, HW for $ 11.1 billion who in turn had bought it from Max Telecom for Rs. 5 billion which means that HW got 100 times the amount they paid. You would be expected to pay tax on such astronomical profits anywhere in the world. To prevent foreign companies from scarpering with the loot, as HW has done, the law in India obliges the buyer to deduct the tax amount from the sale price and deposit it with the tax authorities. It was incumbent upon Vodafone, therefore, to deduct the tax amount of $ 2.6 billion from the sale value of $ 11.1 billion and deposit it as tax and pay HW the remaining $ 8.6 billion. To say that the deal was conducted in Hong Kong is facetious. The business is based in India, the customers are all in India and all future profits will accrue in this country. So the tax on capital gains must also be paid here. To threaten us by saying that other foreign companies will be chary about doing business in India is insulting. No one invited Vodafone to invest in India and they have not done so out of altruism. If they cannot compete in the Indian market they should sell up and go home but pay all taxes they must. The fact is that Vodafone realises that it has been shafted by HW and knows that suing HW in Hong Kong will be fruitless. China is a lawless country and no court is going to favor a UK company over a Chinese one. So far telecom companies have managed to delay number portability by various stratagems but when this happens it will get really ugly. If Vodafone wants to stay it better gird its loins.

Instead of giving the best possible deal to their customers businesses in India are always on the look out for ways to screw the customer because they know that it is almost impossible to obtain redress for any grievance. Sure, there are consumer courts but it takes years for the case to be heard and judges cannot always be relied upon. Public sector companies treat people with arrogant disdain because they know they have government money to fight cases in courts and go on appealing uselessly all the way to the Supreme Court. In other words they use our money to harass us. Private sector companies take advantage of the standards set by the government workers. Television channels are provided through cable or directly through satellite, also called DTH companies. For years these companies have been looting customers through a practice called ' bundling ' wherein they would offer a number of channels as a package forcing customers to pay for channels they never watched for the privilege of watching one favorite channel. When I complained to Tata Sky last year they said that they would not allow me to choose individual channels until the regulator, TRAI mandated it. A few months ago TRAI asked DTH operators to allow customers to choose individual channels and pay accordingly from September 1 but this has not happened. When asked Tata Sky says that it may take a few months which means they will delay as long as possible so as to make as much money as possible by screwing customers. Meanwhile Tata Photon is screwing customers by another method called ' validity.' And Tata has a reputation for honesty. Imagine what other companies are like.

We are rapidly becoming a peeping tom society. There is nothing private that cannot be revealed to others, no promises that cannot be broken, no secrets that cannot be betrayed, nothing intimate that cannot be displayed to the full view of voyeurs. One would have thought that sex is the ultimate private act between two individuals, an act of total trust and an act that must have dignity or else it is reduced to pornography. However, we are assaulted by a variety of revelations involving famous people, usually sports stars, everyday. There are the usual cheap tarts who lure famous men and presumably enjoy the experience. They accept valuable presents and even money to keep quiet but then run to tabloids to disclose every sick detail for money. This is what happened to David Beckham and probably to Tiger Woods. Now even whores are beginning to betray their johns. First Peter Crouch and now Wayne Rooney, both betrayed by professional whores who charged for their services. Rooney apparently paid 1200 pounds for a night. At that price he had every right to expect total discretion but he has been stabbed right in the soft parts. Whoring is the oldest profession and surely by this time there ought to be ethical guidelines on how to behave. Just as doctors have to guard patient confidentiality whores are expected to protect the identity and pillow talk of their johns. But no longer. By breaking their ancient code these two whores have struck at the very heart of society. We do not trust politicians or civil servants or lawyers or priests even our teachers. Now we cannot trust whores. Will society survive this trauma?

An earthquake measuring 7.1 on the Richter scale strikes New Zealand's second biggest city, Christchurch, with a population of 2 million, at 4 AM when everyone is in bed and no one dies. Just two people are injured. An earthquake of similar magnitude at a similar time in India would result in the deaths of hundreds of thousands. One obvious reason is the uncontrolled population growth with more and more people crammed into limited space but the real reason is that virtually all builders are criminals ignoring all safety precautions and using substandard materials to maximise profits. They are able to get away with mass murder because of criminal politicians and thieving civil servants. After every calamity politicians make lofty promises of tightening the rules but do nothing. Whatever rules that exist are blithely ignored because civil servants in charge of enforcing the rules take bribes and look the other way. All municipality workers and officials are thieves constantly on the look out for opportunities. They are convinced that taking bribes is an entitlement and the massive rise in property prices just increase their expectations. Indian politicians are all criminals and they are never punished. Madhu Koda and Sadhu Yadav are allowed out to attend parliament. Contrast this with the suspension of the three Pakistani players for spot fixing by the ICC. Who is the president of the ICC? An Indian poitician, who else. No wonder the Paki High Commissioner keeps insisting that the players are honest. After all a no ball is only one run. Collapsing buildings are a different thing altogether.

If any man deserved to have shoes and eggs thrown at him, even though he remained untouched, it is Tony Blair. Notwithstanding all his protestations he is a war criminal and should be facing judges at the International Criminal Court at the Hague alongside Karadzic and Charles Taylor. It was his completely spineless surrender to George Bush that facilitated the illegal attack on Iraq with the consequent loss of hundreds of thousands of lives. Shedding tears is no defence. Eichmann and Rudolf Hess may also have shed tears but that did not lessen their crimes. On the other side Bush, Cheney and their henchmen also seem to be getting away with their crimes. The reason is that the Democrats are cowards. They had a Democrat as President, majorities in both houses of the Congress and yet did not have the nerve to call the criminals to account for their actions. Lying to the people about WMDs, rendition and torture of prisoners, creative accounting by companies such as Halliburten, creating a huge tax deficit by giving tax breaks to the wealthy, death of US soldiers because of totally inept administration after Saddam's fall, so many reasons to prosecute Bush and his coterie of criminals. Yet the Democrats did nothing. They forgot the savage and shameless way the Republicans misused government machinery when Clinton was President. Even now they are scared to confront the lies being spread by the likes of Limbaugh, Glen Beck and Sarah Palin. Reminds me of how Walter Mondale backed off after cornering Reagan with ' where is the beef ' and allowed him to win. Cowards allow criminals to flourish. Democrats deserve to lose in November because they are cowards.

It is one year since the death in an air crash of the Andhra Chief Minister, YSR Reddy. Since then his son Mr. Jaganmohan Reddy has been campaigning to become the Chief Minister of the state in place of his dad. His eligibility is based solely on the fact that he is the son of his father. In his mind that gives him a God given right to be Chief Minister of the state. Why does he think that the state is an estate and the people are chattels to be transferred to his ownership? Because he belongs to the Congress gang which has made this country the property of the Nehru/ Gandhi family. Such is the lack of any talent, personality or integrity in the Congress that it will support anything, with cognition or without, with that family name. We had Lal Bahadur Shastri for a short while. But long enough to sell us out in Tashkent where he snuffed it. Gulzari Lal Nanda lasted just three months because he was considered honest which, in the Congress, is a gross disability. Otherwise we have been ruled more or less by just that one family. Mrs. Sonia Gandhi has been elected unopposed as the President of the Congress gang for the fourth term and it is she who has been running the country for the last six years. Mr. Reddy must be thinking that if the country can belong to that family why can Andhra not belong to his family. It is only fair. That is why the majority of people have been kept illiterate for 63 years so that they will remain dirt poor, breeding like rats and grateful for any handful of food thrown at them. These are, in Congress terms, the aam aadmi and they are the reason the Family has been khas for six decades. He just wants a small share, that's all.

Pakis are very angry with their cricketers for accepting money for ' spot fixing.' They are being accused of dishonoring the country. What puzzles me is how that is possible. This is a failed state ruled by its army and intelligence agency, ISI running around the world with a begging bowl to survive on alms thrown by the US, IMF, Wold Bank, China, Saudi Arabia and any one with a copper to spare. Its citizens keep blowing each other up on a regular basis. Its biggest export is terrorism and slaughter of innocent civilians. Its politicians are criminals, the President widely renowned as Mr. 10% ( if he has now been promoted to Mr. 25% then I apologize for the unintentional slight ), opposition Sharif brothers are both thugs and the army controls vast business empires. Most of its people are illiterate and inherently savage like rabid dogs. They want to be a religious state but do not have the basic decency of being grateful for being kept alive by western aid and would happily help the Taliban in killing Americans. The recent floods will adversely affect the economy for many years to come. The cricketers have grown up without any role model with any shred of honor and so decided to make as money as possible to be able to survive for the rest of their lives. One Paki minister has insisted that the cricketers are completely innocent. Of course they are. This is surely legitimate business enterprise in a country of criminals. They are entrepreneurs. It must be a ' conspiracy ' by the The News of the World, CIA, MI6, Zionists, Hindus, aliens from outer space or all them put together.

The freeloading, lying press built him up as a physician who was going to cure all the ills besetting this country. The good Doctor, we were told in large letters, is not a politician, was honest and a whiz in economics so India was going to lead the world. Six years on we have a Chemicals Minister who has wasted Rs. 2 million of taxpayers' money commuting to his home in Chennai. The Railways Minister uses the Railway Police as her personal servants for a political rally in Bengal. The Agriculture Minister is happy with 50000 tons of food grain rotting away without proper storage. The Telecoms Minister has been directly implicated in the 2G scam which resulted in an estimated Rs. 1 trillion loss to the exchequer. So much has been looted from the Commonwealth Games that they are now finding it difficult to somehow complete the various projects even with makeshift covers. So what is the Captain doing? Has he sacked the wrongdoers in moral outrage and asked the police to investigate them before throwing the lot into the bin? Perish the thought. He is hanging onto his seat for as long as possible and for as long as Madam allows. To tolerate crimes in silence, to tolerate the humiliation of being reduced to a spectator while others do whatever they like and to tolerate being ordered to shut up so that the gang can hang on to power is surely a sign of a man totally without honor. And what about the economy? It is a house of cards floating on a huge asset price bubble which, if it bursts, could lead to collapse. What an irony speaking on Independence Day marking the departure of white skinned British that 1 billion brown skinned Indians are still being ruled by a ' gori chamri ' or white skin.

As President Obama announces the withdrawal of US forces from Iraq the question that begs an answer is ' what allows Americans to illegally invade Iraq and kill a million Iraqis and leave the grateful for having done so?' The US is still a white country and is instantly and unquestioningly supported by other white countries mainly based in Europe, especially Britain, and including Australia. Whereas Iraq is a divided country with Shias immensely grateful to the US in getting rid of Saddam's Sunni regime. The whites gang up in killing, looting and covering up their crimes by their control of all the world's news media. Al Jazeera was the first to break the stranglehold by showing some of the crimes committed by the US and NATO and so was deliberately bombed by US aircraft on at least three occasions killing journalists. Iraqis are immediately called terrorists when it is the US which is the invader and private US security firms like Blackwater, which are not covered by the Geneva convention, are the real terrorists. We are told that Iraq's economy is better than before the invasion. Iraq was a highly developed country before the Gulf War following which it was systematically looted by western countries under the abominable ' oil for food ' program which was collective punishment for the entire people because of Saddam's mistake in invading Kuwait. It was not really a mistake. Kuwait had always been a part of Iraq until the British cut it off. If China is allowed to kill Tibetans claiming it was a part of China during the dinosaur era then Saddam surely had a right to go for Kuwait. One white country commits a crime and then supports another in committing genocide. The whites rule.