In their investigation of the CWG scam the CBI is complaining of key files gone missing and lack of cooperation from the Organising Committee, OC officials which is not surprising seeing that the prime suspects, Kalmadi and Bhanot are still in charge and are refusing to resign. Apparently they can only be removed by an act of parliament or by an ordinance passed by the government but the Congress led government refuses to pass such ordinance. Since politicians can only be arrested with the permission of the government, which means other politicians, it appears that Messrs Kalmadi and Bhanot are completely immune from any sort of prosecution or arrest. This is not surprising because seeing the enormous amount of money stolen a lot of politicians must have taken their cuts. Whenever asked Mr. Kalmadi repeats the same answer which is that the OC had a budget of only Rs. 40 billion whereas the Delhi government had a budget of over Rs. 700 billion implying that most of the money must have been stolen by the Delhi government. Is there an implied threat as well? If you dare to touch me I will open the entire can of stinking worms. Maharashtra and Delhi are the two most lucrative governments to control and Congress has been in charge of Delhi for 15 years. The Wide Receiver has given sterling service during this period and the Capo will do anything to protect such loyalty. Sadly the stupidity of the opposition added to a compliant foot licking press has allowed the Congress to divert all attention to the 2G scam. Perhaps the Ndragheta should come and take lessons on how to loot. No sharam, no izzat.

A community called the Gujjars are blocking road and rail traffic in Rajasthan over their demand for reservation of 5% of all government jobs in the state. Under the perverted caste system adopted by the criminal politicians in India Gujjars were classed under Other Backward Classes, OBC which gave them unfair advantage in government jobs and higher education. Then Jats, who are politically powerful, were also included in the OBC category thus eating into the Gujjar share of reserved seats. They are now agitating for Scheduled Tribe status which is occupied by the Meenas who are violently opposed to any reduction of their share of undeserved facilities. Curiously, Gujjars claim to be descendants of Suryavanshis who were Kshatriyas and should therefore be classed as upper caste not be eligible for any reservation. About 3 years back around 70 people were killed in police shooting during similar agitations. Gujjars learnt their lessons well and this time round are determined to be seen to be protesting peacefully. Their leader, a retired army colonel, has formed a force of retired army officers who who keep a lookout for troublemakers. Anyone throwing stones or behaving in an unruly manner is quickly rounded up and punished. The Congress government of Rajasthan is unwilling to use force against the Gujjars since they won the last elections by criticising BJP's use of force. Meanwhile the state is losing billions of rupees in lost business. Most bizarre, the Congress which bleeds for the aam aadmi is an organisation which has elevated one family to the status of royalty and taken crawling and foot licking to a new level. Makes you cringe.

People in Andhra are waiting for the publication of the report of Srikrishna commission regarding the pros and cons of carving a new state of Telangana from Andhra. Agitation for a Telangana state has been going on for decades and is set to reach some form of conclusion with the publication of the report on December 31. Strangely there has never been any study on who gains by the formation of new states. There can be no doubt that it gives criminal politicians and thieving civil servants to rake in billions of rupees. A new state means a new assembly, a new chief minister with his cabinet of criminals, masses of thieving civil servants to help the criminals loot the exchequer and a governor who will be a retired politician or a government fellow and hence adept at the art of looting. But does a new state help its people? A new state of Uttarakhand was carved out of UP some 8 years ago with its capital at Dehradun. The sudden influx of so many politicians and civil servants resulted in a massive increase in the amount of black money which is reflected in the rise of property prices by at least 10 times. This enormous escalation in land prices has attracted thousands of criminals from surrounding states resulting in a sudden ballooning of population. Trees have been cut down as thousands of new buildings have come up, roads have become jammed with vehicles, crime has soared and taxes have gone up. People are still dirt poor and suffering from new diseases due to pollution and traffic accidents. The only solution is to dissolve state governments and municipalities and allow each district to administer itself. Reduce the thieves to reduce crime.

The dictionary meaning of the word ' sedition ' is ' actions or speech inciting rebellion.' One Dr. Binayak Sen has been sentenced to life in prison for sedition in Chattisgarh. Dr. Sen is a noted humanitarian who has spent his life serving poor people in tribal areas and has been awarded many prizes for his humanitarian work. His crime was that he criticised the state government for arming militias and encouraging them to terrorise locals so as to reduce support for Naxals. Apparently he met a Naxal leader in prison several times and his acquaintance was found carrying a letter from the same prisoner. So, that putrid slime, Rathore is freed after just six months in prison even though he used the police force under his command to file a succession of false cases against the brother of Ruchika Girhotra, a teenage girl he had molested, driving her to suicide. One Congress fellow claims that officer Karkare, who was gunned down by Paki terrorists in Mumbai on 26/11, had confessed to being afraid of Hindu nationalists. He did this at the Congress party plenary session to get ' minority ' votes and to ingratiate himself with the Congress chief who is not a Hindu, the most cringe making public show of boot licking that I have ever seen. No one in the Congress gang advised him to wash out his mouth with a toilet detergent for uttering such nauseating garbage. Meanwhile a Paki singer called Sami has bought 8 apartments and 3 car parking spaces in Mumbai even though foreign citizens, including children of Indian expatriates, are not allowed to buy properties in India. It is no surprise that a person may want to rebel. It is surprising that all Indians do not.

Congratulations to Sachin Tendulkar for scoring 50 centuries in Test Matches. With Ricky Ponting in danger of losing his place in the Australian team this record will not be broken in a hurry. Although India has a billion people our tragedy is that we have no one whose achievements make us proud. Sure we have plastic celebrities such as film stars, disposable ones such as politicians and photographic ones who have been dead for a long time. Thus the frothy Indian press has been effusive in its adjectives and certain that Sachin is greater than Bradman. Two great batsmen from different eras cannot be compared and while he has his centuries Bradman finished his career with an average of 99 which is unbreakable. While agreeing that Sachin is statistically the best Indian batsman ever another man, in my opinion, is greater if we consider his effect on Indian cricket and the way he changed our mindset for ever. That man is Sunil Gavaskar. He came into the Indian team when our players were overawed by foreigners, lacked confidence and regularly managed to turn winning positions into defeats. Indian batsmen were most vulnerable against fast bowlers and one famous opening bat used to shuffle slowly towards square leg leaving his stumps wide open when faced with a genuine quickie. In one Test Match in Calcutta against the West Indies led by Gary Sobers the Indian team went in with two wicket keepers, Engineer and Kunderan, because no one wanted to face Wes Hall. Gavaskar changed all that when on his first tour to the West Indies he smashed Holding, Roberts and co for an average of 150 without a helmet. That, in my book, is a true hero.

Today's news is entertaining. Seems that CBI officials have complained that several crucial files dealing with tendering, budgetary allocations and contract details are missing from the office of the CWG OC or Organising Committee. Really? When you have given the thieves months to clean up and when Kalmadi and Bhanot, the gang leaders, are still in charge what did you expect? Anyway the OC is just small fry, the real action was with the Delhi Government which is Congress and, therefore, the CBI will never go anywhere near it. Meanwhile the attorney general of New York, Andrew Cuomo has filed a suit against the accounting firm, Ernst and Young alleging that the firm collected $ 150 million in fees to help Lehman Brothers disguise its financial condition. Another accounting firm Andersen went out of business for helping Enron while here in India not a finger has been laid on Price Waterhouse Cooper for their lapses in the Satyam collapse. Sure, a couple of accountants of Indian origin have been charged but the firm has escaped any censure. After all, they are Americans and expect brown Indians to kow tow to them. Ex Satyam owner Ramalinga Raju, meanwhile, is enjoying life as class A prisoner at Chanchalguda prison with tv, internet connection, private kitchen, cable connection and badminton court. Who is paying for all this luxury? The gullible tax payer of course. He should have been allowed to carry on staying at the private hospital with his imaginary illnesses and threatened with jail if he was well enough to go home. At least he would be spending some of the money he stole. Perhaps we should ask Andrew Cuomo to take over our law ministry.

A small news item to bring cheer for the New Year. In an application to Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, Vinod Yadav two inmates at Tihar Jail in Delhi, Amit and Nishant have claimed that they were shifted to the high security ward and provided with a knife and a country made pistol and told to kill 2 of 3 CWG officials lodged there while they are under investigation for the CWG scam. Jail officials have rubbished the report. They say that Amit and his brother Pawan, who are serving life for murder, were separated because they were assaulting other prisoners and jail staff. Their mother Munni Devi has also filed a similar application and asked for protection for her sons. The magistrate has asked the head of Hari Nagar police station to investigate the allegations. The 3 CWG officials in Tihar are TS Darbari, M Jayachandran and Sanjay Mahendroo. What makes this news especially delightful is that it brings some attention back on the CWG scam which the Congress had brilliantly managed to divert with the aid of an obedient free loading press and a stupid opposition wasting energy asking for a Joint Parliamentary Committee to probe the 2G scam. If there is any truth in the allegations all sorts of questions will arise regarding motive and the power to order jail officials to silence these officials. Even if the allegations are false and merely mischief making they may spook these officials into making full confessions and naming every politician who made a killing from the CWG scam. For 63 years the Congress has managed to evade any punishment for all the wrongs it has perpetrated. We can only pray that this time they are made to pay. Heavily.

Vile though they are dictators do get their comeuppance once in a while. Thus Idi Amin spent the latter part of his life as an exile hiding in Saudi Arabia, Charles Taylor is on trial at the International Criminal Court at the Hague, Ceausescu was shot after a brief trial and Saddam Hussein was hanged. In so called democracies, however, criminals always get away with everything from grand larceny to mass murder. India is top of the league in that every politician caught red handed claims he has ' nothing to hide ' while other politicians ensure that investigations are hindered at every step and the case drags on for ever. Thus Sukhram is still free on bail and the Prime Minister is hailed as some sort of saint for his apparent honesty when he is responsible for protecting the thieves and is surely an accessory. Mass murderer, Tony Blair is freely roaming around the world promoting his delusional autobiography as is his master, George Bush whose shameless tax cuts for the rich as payment for supporting his election has led to the economic crisis in the US. Berlusconi entered politics to escape criminal charges and bankruptcy and is still managing to hang on in spite of revelations about sex with under age girls. The common shield is that they have been elected by the people. Only one democracy is an exception and that is Iceland where the previous Prime Minister, Geir Haarde is to stand trial for misconduct in office for the economic debacle. Iceland is also the only country whose present Prime Minister, Johanna Siguoardottir is a practicing lesbian. Is it a coincidence or should every country follow Iceland's example?

At the ongoing Congress plenary session Crown Prince, Mr Rahul Gandhi called out for severe punishment for all those guilty of corruption. Unfortunately words are no substitute for action. To punish anyone you have to catch him first and the Congress is doing all it can to shield the real thieves within its ranks. First it took ages for the Congress watchdogs, the CBI to start investigating the 2G scam thus allowing the villains time to destroy all incriminating evidence. The second strategy was enacted by the Prime Minister who again offered to appear before the Parliamentary Accounts Committee but once again ruled out any Joint Parliamentary Committee on the 2G scam, saying that he ' had nothing to hide.' This is designed to enrage the stupid opposition and keep their attention focussed firmly on the 2G scam and thus put DMK under pressure while diverting attention away from the CWG scam where Congress gang members were the only beneficiaries. With elections in Tamil Nadu scheduled sometime next year a panicking DMK will bend over forwards and allow Congress total dominance in seat and power sharing. Beautiful. The Congress gang is to be admired for being the most successful syndicate in the history of the world. However, I find myself partially agreeing with the Crown Prince, Mr. Rahul Gandhi that terrorist attacks by Hindu organisations could be more dangerous than those from Pakistan. Muslims are too many in India and starting a civil war is stupid. Hindus should improve their services and teaching luring others to convert to Hinduism. It is the stupid and equally crooked opposition that allows Congress to survive.

The one hundredth year of Delhi becoming the national capital of India has started. It is said that the mythical capital Hastinapur was situated where Delhi is now. It was destroyed because of the immense meanness, greed, and total lack of just rule by its physically, mentally and spiritually blind king who lost his kingdom, one hundred sons and the lives of thousands of his subjects in the battle of Kurukshetra. Even Lord Krishna in person failed to transform his embittered soul.Present Delhi is not much different. It is the political capital of India and as such is full of politicians, pushers and pimps. Black money and show off substitute for culture. People are rude, aggressive and habitual liars. In spite of all their superficial wealth and loud boast they are most miserable and delight in harassing strangers for no gain. To recognise a true Dilliwallah just ask directions to any well known place. He will either pretend ignorance or deliberately send you the wrong way. Women are no better. Foul mouthed, ill tempered and mean they seem to lack any fineness or breeding that makes a woman attractive. A true Dilliwallah will sell his mother for money. It is no wonder that every foreign invader from Tughlak to Nadir Shah, from Baber to the British chose Delhi as their capital knowing that they could count on the people to support them in their rape of India. Crime is rampant, any lone woman is fair game for molesting or rape and the police are gangsters in uniform, more interested in collecting bribes than protecting the helpless. They refuse to register violent crimes to reduce work load. The best view of Delhi is from the air when you are leaving it.

For nearly 50 years after independence two government companies had complete monopoly on telephone services throughout India. Delhi and Mumbai had MTNL while the rest of India was in the hands of BSNL. Their service was lousy, staff were rude and rates extortionate. A call between Delhi and Chandigarh would be considered a trunk call and charged at Rs. 100/minute but now costs less than one rupee/minute. These two companies were given 3G spectrum a year back to give them a head start over the private sector but have failed to generate customers. Now BSNL is on course to report a loss of Rs. 60 billion this fiscal and the government is unable to sell off 30% of its shares. Meanwhile another erstwhile government mess Air India is demanding Rs. 20 billion just to pay interest on its loans of Rs. 400 billion. It has the highest staffing ratio of all airlines in the world, huge salaries and very high levels of dishonesty. Criminal politicians and thieving civil servants are allowed to travel free in first class with any number of relatives, servants and friends. Air India maintains 5 luxury planes in perpetual readiness for so called VVIPs costing Rs. 8 billion a year. Not even the most advanced economies can boast of such criminal waste in tax payer money. There is no hope of rescuing Air India unless the government reduces staff numbers to international norms, reduces extortionate taxes on air travel and taxes on air fuel to encourage more people to fly. Problem is that private airlines, being more efficient, will benefit most and Indian Railways will go bankrupt. Only solution? Waste tax payer money on useless parasites!

After 63 years of independence the criminal politicians seem to have woken up to the fact that more than half the population in India remains illiterate. However, as usual their remedy is mere political gimmick. They have passed a Right to Education Act which forces private schools to admit poor children from their neighborhood. At the same time they have laid down stupid guidelines which has meant the closure of cheaper private schools which did not have playgrounds but were affordable for the poor. Because of unmet demand schools are extremely lucrative businesses and the elite ones are unhappy at perceived loss of revenue as they will not be able to charge the same fees from poor children. They do have a point when they say that poor children will have difficulty in adjusting and will be under stress. Middle class children do well not only because of the school but because of the support at home which illiterate parents will be unable to provide. Besides children can be cruel. Who will the politicians blame if there are a few suicides? Everyone except themselves, no doubt. The reason politicians are using this cynical ploy is because the government school system is a complete disaster. Teachers are highly paid but semi literate and delinquent. Absenteeism is common and they are used as agents during elections which probably gives them the means to influence voters. Thus politicians do not want to take on their powerful unions. The best solution is to hand over government schools to private trusts who will ensure proper attendance and teaching but the useless government teachers will riot. Hence the regressive act.

In a speech to Indian businessmen our most revered Prime Minister has urged them to be ethical. This is probably because of revelations about top business leaders employing the services of a lobbyist, Niira Radia to influence the choice of telecom minister in the present government. Sadly pious lectures do not solve the basic problem which is that politicians are criminals and civil servants are useless parasitic thieves. The reason why businessmen are forced to employ lobbyists is because without their services and copious bribes they will not be able to run their businesses. In recent elections in Bihar 59% of elected candidates have criminal records and the Congress knowingly fielded known criminals. Even after revelations about the 2G scam the Prime Minister refused to sack Mr Raja who was finally forced to resign most reluctantly after the pressure became too much. Even now there is no case against Kalmadi and the Delhi government for the CWG scam. Reports suggest that Rs. 5 billion was paid in cash in the 2G scam. How is it possible to accumulate and transport so much cash whose volume will fill a large room? How was the money converted to foreign exchange and transported abroad? Clearly a very large bank is involved. Why is it so difficult to find out? Alleging that some micro loan companies were exerting pressure for repayment of loans the Congress government in Andhra has asked women not to repay those loans thus turning once honest women into thieves. The Prime Minister should correct his own colleagues first, especially the Congress. Start at the top, Sir. The rest will follow automatically.

Governments, that is politicians and civil servants, all over the world are behaving like criminals, breaking or ignoring laws without being held to account. The Congress led government in India has been misusing the investigating agencies in a witch hunt against Narendra Modi of Gujarat as part of their campaign against Hindus to get ' minority ' votes. The same Congress offered to drop all corruption cases against Ms Mayawati of UP if she agreed to a deal with them before the elections in 2004. Similarly it seems that the US is going to pay $ 250 million to Nigeria to get them to drop charges against former Vice President, Dick Cheney of illegally paying officials in Nigeria to get oil contracts for Halliburten, the company he was heading at the time. At the same time three governments are conspiring to keep Julian Assange in jail for nothing. Firstly, the charges of rape against him in Sweden are laughable and most likely instigated by the US. Secondly, British courts are holding him for extradition to Sweden on charges of sex without protection. Is this a crime in Britain? If not, why are they even considering extradition? Would a British court extradite a homosexual to Iran where homosexuality is illegal? Definitely not. Instead they will spout a load of sanctimonious bilge about human rights. Truth is that Britain is a slave country of the US and routinely extradites its own citizens while the US refuses to do so. Thirdly, why is the US alleging Assange is a spy without charging the New York Times and The Guardian which published the extracts. Finally, Australia is doing nothing to protect its citizen against persecution. Fascists all.

On the eve of Prime Minister Wen Jiabao's visit to India a Chinese envoy has said that relations between the two countries were fragile and a war of words should be avoided. So let us list some facts. China attacked India without provocation in 1962. China still occupies more than 50 thousand sq miles of India territory in Kashmir and the North East. China claims Arunachal is Aksai Chin, that is Chinese territory. Chinese built nuclear weapons for Pakistan. China vetoed sanctions against the JuD in the UN Security Council. China regularly puts up non tariff barrier against Indian exports. Chinese officials regularly insult India by acting as mad dogs, summoning the Indian ambassador at 2 am and demanding that India does not attend the Nobel Peace award function. China is damming the Brahmaputra river which will cause severe drought in the east of India. The Chinese are wiping out Indian tigers and rhinos by using their parts in Chinese medicines because of a severe complex about their manhood. Chinese soldiers regularly violate the land border between the countries. China is building naval bases along the Indian ocean shoreline,called a string of pearls, to attack India if it so wishes. So here is my wish for China for 2011. I wish that the Chinese economy collapses so that there is no money for weapons. That there is civil war in China which will lead to the independence of Tibet and Taiwan. That the Chinese regress back to pajamas and bicycles so that they have no money for tiger and rhino parts. That all the Communist Party thugs are lined up and shot. That the Chinese remain coolies for ever. Happy New Year.

India has been called a licence raj because citizens need permission from thieving civil servants for any activity such as building a house or opening a business. To build a house one has to submit plans for approval and this file then disappears into the system. To know the status of the file one has pay bribes and then more bribes to get the plans approved. Without bribes any enquiry would be rudely refused or the person sent from one department to another in circles. This way the thieving scum have maintained a stranglehold on the people for 63 years. The Right to Information Act was passed to solve this problem. Under the Act civil servants are obliged to give clear answer to any enquiry put to them by citizens thus causing them enormous discomfort. They have now prevailed on their criminal politician friends to come up with a bill which will reduce the effectiveness of the Act by putting up more hurdles such as, any enquiry cannot be more than 250 words and multiple questions may not be grouped together in one application. While people are appalled at the recent revelations of so many cases of blatant larceny this utterly shameless defiance of the scum has to be fought vigorously. The RTI Act is not enough. To really give power to the people we need a law that makes it obligatory for a civil servant to approve or reject any application within a fixed time frame, say one month. Instead of going through different levels of civil servants only one high ranking officer will handle the case and will give reasons in writing for his opinion. If his reasons are frivolous he will lose one month's salary and after 3 offences will be sacked. Hit the scum hard.

In the past millennium two religions came into India from the west determined to send Hindus to ' paradise ' if necessary by wiping them out. Both have manged to convert tens of millions with tens of billions of dollars of funding from abroad. That Hinduism is still surviving is because of sheer tenacity of Hindus to survive in the face of persecution, the all embracing nature of the faith and enormous courage that enables Hindus to withstand murderous attacks despite being deprived of the means to defend ourselves by a pseudo secular government led by the anti Hindu Congress. The two religions are Christianity and Islam. But there is a major difference between the two. While motivated by the desire to convert all Hindus to Christianity, Christians engage in a great deal of social service for the poor and the disadvantaged. They have set up schools, hospitals and shelters for the handicapped. Although the schools do not seem to teach anything except basic literacy and theology with the aim of sending their students out to convert their families and communities they do look after the children, giving them food and paying for any medical care as necessary. A shelter cares for girls rejected by their families because of blindness, keeping them safe and catering to their physical needs. Some have been there for decades and have even forgotten their families. Thus Christians provide an invaluable service to the extreme poor and downtrodden. Not so the Muslims. Muslims do no good. Vast sums are channeled to jihadis to make bombs and buy guns to avenge any number of invented offences against them. And it is all in the name of their ' God.'

As was to be expected China reacted with savage fury to the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to Liu Xiaobo calling the Nobel committee a bunch of clowns and the Prize ceremony a ' political farce.' By its very nature the Peace Prize has to be a political statement. It has to be awarded to someone who stands up to tyranny and oppression at some personal risk and not to some boy scout helping an old lady cross the road, laudable though that is. China is an uncivilised and barbaric country governed by a set of thugs no less brutal than the Nazis. A monkey wearing a suit does not become human. However, what about the US, where even pornography is legal under free speech? The US is behaving as brutally as China towards Wikileaks for releasing confidential messages sent by US ambassadors to the State department. It is certainly annoying and an invasion of privacy to reveal opinions and conjecture written in private that may lead to embarrassment but, so far, there has been no earth shaking secret revealed. Wikileaks did not steal the cables which were handed to them by a US army private, Bradley Manning and that every act made them public. Why did Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein receive the Pulitzer Prize for publishing White House secrets which led to the resignation of Richard Nixon and was thus much more subversive in nature while Wikileaks founder Julian Assange is in prison on trumped up rape charges? How was Manning able to download a quarter of a million pages without detection? It is not unusual for countries to resort to misinformation to achieve political goals. Is the US trying to be too cute and play both ends against the middle.

Salute to Mr. Vishwanath Chaturvedi of Lucknow who has filed some 3 dozen Public Interest Litigations, PILs in the UP High Court against politicians. His latest PIL relates to a scam in which subsidised foodgrains meant for the poor was sold off to private traders. Some 34 of 71 districts in UP were affected and 450 class 1 government officers and 800 of lower ranks may be involved. In total 5000 charges may have to be filed. The total cost of the scam maybe between Rs. 350 billion and 2 trillion. So blatant were the crooks that they carried on looting even though the scam was discovered in 2005. The reason for such confidence is the almost total immunity enjoyed by criminal politicians and thieving civil servants. Mr. Thomas has been appointed chief of Vigilance in spite of a serious case pending against him in Kerala. Mr. BS Lalli, CEO of Prasar Bharti accused of favoring some broadcast companies and financial mismanagement can be investigated by the Supreme Court only after the President Of India has given her permission. Neera Yadav was promoted to Chief Secretary of UP even after being voted the most corrupt officer by her fellow IAS officers in 1997. She has just been sentenced to 4 years in prison for her role in the Noida land scam. That putrid piece of slime, Rathore has been freed after a derisory 6 months in jail in spite of having hounded a teenage girl to suicide after molesting her. Only those who want to loot join the IAS and all politicians are criminals. The IAS school must be closed, there must be no immunity for politicians and civil servants and the police and CBI must be under citizens corporations. Hang the present lot.

It is not a surprise that Wikileaks founder, Julian Assange is under custody charged with rape. The US has used the woman angle in the past. Jack Johnson, Mike Tyson and now Assange. The Republicans tried to get Bill Clinton through Monica Lewinsky but when first Newt Gingrich and then the fellow following him had to resign in quick succession they showed the white flag. Strangely a judge on the US Supreme Court is still serving even though accused of sexual harassment at his confirmation hearings. What of the accusers? They do not deny having sex with Assange of their own free will but say that he was not wearing protection in one case while the protection burst in the other. If they have not been made pregnant or suffered any ill effects then surely there is no case. These are not illiterate, innocent virgins from a village in India but Swedish women who have been around and know the score. It is as if Assange is guilty of rape because maybe he imagined it. In that case every person who owns a gun should be charged with murder because they have thought about shooting at people. Laws on rape have been enacted to protect women but if women use them as weapons against men because of promised gain or under pressure then the laws will be discredited and women will suffer. As has happened with dowry laws in India. Judges have woken up to the fact that women were accusing their husbands or in laws of dowry harassment for revenge or as blackmail to get money. In future genuine victims may be treated with suspicion. If women want to be respected as equals they must stop pretending to be victims. Losers do that.

So President Obama capitulated to the blackmail by the Republicans. In his press conference he said that it is not about ' a fight.' But that is exactly what it is about. The people elected you with a clear majority to fight for them, to protect the weak and stand up to self serving bullies and if that means that you do not get a second term so be it. At least you will be remembered as someone who went down fighting rather than a weak, vacillating and narcissistic gas bag who just enjoyed looking into the mirror. And what about the Republicans? These are people parading their religious convictions while selling themselves to the highest bidder without any pangs of shame or moral pride. So utterly devoid of any humanity are they that they were ready to cut off unemployment checks to the needy during festival season unless their paymasters were given tax cuts they do not need. Did they not think that these people, who they are ready to treat with such supreme contempt, may have children who might need food, clothes and medicines during the coming winter cold? Or were they so sure that Obama would surrender cravenly as Democrats usually do? Democrats had control of both houses of Congress and could have forced through the healthcare reforms, a tax bill and a bigger infrastructure stimulus if they chose and, if the Republicans did not like it, invite them to jump into the Potomac. They should definitely have started a criminal investigation of why Dick Cheney released Valerie Plame's identity to punish her husband. They seemed scared of Republican thugs. Republicans have no soul and Democrats have no guts. And they presume to preach to us.

Here we go again. Presidential elections held in Ivory Coast last week has descended into farce like elections tend to do in Africa. According to the UN, the African Union and rest of the world elections were won by Alassane Ouattare, who got 54% of votes, but the current President, Laurent Gbagbo refused to recognise the results and got the Constitutional Council, staffed by his friends, to cancel votes caste in 7 northern departments thus making him the victor with 51% of votes. Former President of South Africa, Thabo Mbeki has flown over at the request of the African Union which does not fill one with confidence. This is the man whose support has allowed Robert Mugabe to hang on to power in Zimbabwe with disastrous results. In September, 2002 former President of Ivory Coast Robert Guei was killed and his body was shown lying on the streets and Outtare had to take shelter in the French Embassy. Is Gbagbo terrified of relinquishing power in case he ends up like Guei whose death has been laid at his door? Come to power by deposing your predecessor, hang on to power by dispatching opponents and then spend the rest of your life trying desperately to hang on somehow to save your miserable skin. Wonder what Abhisit Vejjajiva will do with the slaughter of Red Shirt protesters hanging around his neck. It is much more civilised in India. Politicians of all gangs have an unwritten understanding that no one should be punished for crimes. The gang in power loots the country and uses police to charge opponents with various crimes mainly for point scoring. It is all strategy to win the next elections and continue to loot. The people watch helpless.

The climate change conference at Cancun will probably go the way of the Doha round of the WTO talks with each country talking with forked tongue. The biggest polluters today are the US and China which are the numbers one and two economically. The US refuses to recognise its responsibility constantly repeating the tired demand for developing countries to share the burden. Republicans, now in charge of the House, have been bought by polluting industries and will never support any meaningful treaty. Japan refuses to extend the Kyoto Protocol probably because it is jealous of China's wealth and wants to get back at China because of its recent brutish behavior. China continues to insist that it is a developing country while triumphantly announcing that it is the second richest country in the world. China not only pollutes by producing green house gases but by devouring anything that moves including rare species of animals. Also the Chinese inferiority complex regarding their manhood leads to the poaching of tigers and rhinos almost to extinction. The poorer countries demand financial help to develop non polluting sources of energy and protect forests. That is patently rubbish because growing numbers of poor will chop down forests to sell as timber and for land for farming. Poorer countries should be offered money only in return for reducing populations which will, in turn, automatically reduce pressure on forests. Increased warming means increased evaporation which means huge snow fall in Europe and floods in Columbia, Venezuela and Albania. Do nothing and mother nature will find her own solution. Will be drastic.

Noted pundit Mr. SA Aiyar writes in the Sunday Times of India today that he was at an airport in New Zealand last week when they held a two minute silence for the 29 miners killed in a mine explosion. Mr. Aiyar was overcome with grief for the thousands who die every year in India without notice. He blames the middle class for being exercised over Jessica Lall while being indifferent to the death of the poor. A question Mr Aiyar. While in New Zealand did you notice any bars or grills on windows like we have in India? Raju and Modi may have stolen millions but they are not a direct threat against our lives or properties. The poor are. Jessica Lall had a face, thousands become faceless. Drive in Delhi at night in January and you will be approached by a little girl wearing a thin frock, shivering in the bitter cold and holding a magazine to sell. Your heart breaks at the sight and you buy the unwanted magazine so that she can get back home and at once another ten such children rush out begging you to buy their offerings. Suddenly you are overcome with anger and despair at the cruel torture these little children have to endure because their parents produce them to them send out to work. The middle class is irrelevant. Criminal politicians and thieving civil servants love the poor because the more the poor the more the social programs which means billions to loot. If the poor choose to breed like rats then let them die like rats. Does that sound sufficiently brutal Mr. Aiyar? If so stop repeating lies told by politicians and tell the truth that population control is the only answer. If you do not have the guts then, at least, spare us the pious bombast.

Despite the severe cold wave gripping Britain its people have been heated up by the rejection of their bid to host the football World Cup in 2018. Newspapers are spitting venom claiming that FIFA rejected the British bid in spite of their infrastructure, presentation and stadiums being the best among all countries. There is some truth in that. Britain will be hosting the Olympics in 2012 and hence will have newly built stadiums ready to host football matches. Britain being a tiny country travel between venues in summer should be no problem and they did mount a very serious attempt by sending the Prime Minister, David Cameron, Prince William, David Beckham among other big names. However, their fury seems out of proportion. FIFA delegates are being accused of accepting bribes and lying about their voting intentions. Apparently Russia knew 24 hours before the vote that they were going to win. Roger Burden, Chief of English FA has resigned accusing FIFA of dishonesty. English fury is probably because of a perceived insult of having been rejected in the first round getting only 2 votes. Also the English know that despite their immensely publicised league and absurdly paid players they have no hope of winning the Cup unless it is held in Britain. There is terrific nostalgia for 1966 when they won for the only time because the Cup was staged in Britain and there was some very dubious refereeing. However FIFA may have been too clever. Russia will have problems because of the lack of infrastructure in a vast country and if Iran gets the bomb Qatar may not be around in 2022. Not just the voting even results of the World Cup are suspect.

Booming economy, absurd property prices, rising government debt, flood of foreign money. The US in 2007? No, it is India today. The GDP is growing at 8.9% and may surpass 9% by the end of the fiscal year. The Sensex has doubled since 2008 because of the flood of foreign money. Foreign investors have poured in $ 39 billion this year. No one knows precisely how much property prices have gained since much of the price is paid in black money but prices have increased around 400% since 2001, a gain of some 40% per year. However fiscal deficit is projected at 6.2% and would have been higher but for the windfall gains from selling 3G licenses and shares of public sector companies like Coal India. Exports grew 21.3% to $ 18 billion in October while imports grew 6.8% to $27.7 billion. Trade deficit between April and October stands at $ 72.77 billion. Inflation has come down to just over 8% due to bumper harvest following heavy monsoons but will probably start rising as seasonal increase in agricultural produce starts decreasing in spring. Foreign debt is $ 260 billion which is only 11% of total government borrowings. This means that the total debt is some $ 2.3 trillion, nearly double the GDP. The cost of servicing this debt must be phenomenal. Of course Indian and US economies are totally different in that Indians save around 30% of income and pay half the price of properties in cash and hence will do anything to prevent foreclosure but we cannot print dollars like the US can. Will India's economy suffer a crash like that of the US we do not know since the government talks only of the GDP and the opposition simply shouts. Liars all.

I am yet to understand the sanctimonious hysteria surrounding the release of some highly dubious recordings of well known journalists speaking to one Niira Radia, a lobbyist employed by some of the top industrialists in India. Journalists are heard discussing the appointment of minister of telecom and the dispute between the Ambani brothers. Indian journalists, especially of leading english dailies, are highly biased in favor of Congress and viciously anti Hindu to promote the deception of pseudo secularism prevailing in India. This is because they are freeloaders and loathe to jeopardise the five star meals, free travel with ministers, subsidised housing, cheap alcohol and other goodies they receive at taxpayer expense. This was so obvious during the Tehelka scandal which exposed serious corruption in the then BJP government but was shamelessly betrayed by all journalists while the BJP used government agencies to bring a succession of false cases against the newspaper and managed to drive it to bankruptcy. Since all politicians are criminals journalists, being citizens of India, could show preference for a chain snatcher over a rapist. Surely that is not wrong. What is interesting is why the investigating agencies, known to be working for the Congress, have leaked selected sections of private conversations recorded by tapping Ms Radia's phone. Is it a warning to the journalists not to be too critical of the Congress involved in a morass of corruption? The Congress must think that all the people are brain dead. When they are insisting on appointing a man charged with a serious crime as head of Vigilance surely they must be criminals as well.

So far, so not much. A lot of unnecessary drama about releases of US State department documents by Wikileaks. The first tranche of some 3000 documents released have not been embarrassing for any country so far. They show US diplomats doing the jobs they were appointed to do and providing personal assessments of countries and their leaders where they are posted. The language is restrained and, at times, scholarly, not what people, bought up on Hollywood movies, would expect from Americans. Anyone who has worked in the middle east would know that Arab leaders would view Iran's nuclear program with particular alarm. Arabs and Persians are ancient enemies but even that is less then the hatred between Shias and Sunnis. King Abdullah's desire to cut of 'the head of the snake ' is pretty mild. It is surprising that he was not more forthcoming on the stupidity of George Bush in getting rid of Saddam Hussein who had kept the Shias in Iraq under control. With him gone and Shias ruling the country, Iran's influence on the southern third of the country has increased infinitely which also gives them access to a long land border with Saudi Arabia. The assessment of India's cowardice is as I have long suspected. A million strong armed forces, Border Security Force, Indo Tibetan Border Police, trillions spent on aircraft and weapons, all fit for poncing around in fancy dress during the Republic Day parades. They have been emasculated by criminally selfish politicians and civil servants who have personal financial interests in the west. Their ' moral high ground ' is to allow Pakis to murder our citizens without fear. Internal enemies.