Japan has suffered enormously from the recent tsunami and the resultant problem with the nuclear power plant at Fukushima. One industry which has probably suffered the most is the fishing industry as coastal communities lost large numbers of people as well as almost all fishing boats. Fears about radiation in sea water is preventing people from eating fish. The industry will take months, if not years, to recover. This gives the government an opportunity to set guidelines for the industry. Overfishing is depleting the oceans of fish stock. Japan caught 65000 tons of shark about 40 years ago, by 2009 it was down to 35000 tons. Blue fin tuna has become an endangered species and may soon disappear. However it is probably whaling that gives Japan a bad reputation. Whales are mammals and their enormous size makes them difficult to kill quickly. They must suffer terrible pain as they are harpooned and try frantically to escape. Yet Japan refuses to stop this barbaric practice insisting that it has the right to catch small numbers of sperm and minky whales for experiments. All the whales end up on restaurant menus. What kind of experiment starts by killing the subject? Surely one whale killed for dissection is enough, there is no need to kill so many year after year to study the anatomy and physiology of whales. Clearly it is a lie to cover the continuation of this cruelty and gives Greenpeace and Sea Shepherd an opportunity to campaign against the country. We admire the courage, discipline, and industry of the Japanese and pray that they recover quickly from the tragedy. We hope they will protect other species in the future.

When will we stop sucking up to the Pakis? Nehru would not give 24 hours to General Cariappa to rid Kashmir of Paki infiltrators. Lal Bahadur Shastri signed away all the gains made by our brave soldiers against far superior weapons such as Patton tanks and F14 fighter jets at Tashkent without getting anything in return. Indira Gandhi returned 80,000 Paki soldiers for nothing by signing an accord at Shimla with ZA Bhutto who had no intention of honoring what he signed up to. Rajiv Gandhi is said to have refused refueling facility to Israelis who wanted to take out Pakistan's nuclear plant which has allowed the Pakis to build up an arsenal bigger than ours. Now our most revered Prime Minister has invited the Paki Prime Minister, what's his name, to watch the cricket World Cup semifinal being held at Mohali. We know that our politicians and civil servants consider Indian citizens as dross to be treated with ultimate contempt. They demand right of way on our roads. They can turn up at the last moment and occupy a seat in first class on any train by throwing out someone with confirmed reservation. They even demand special service from Hindu Gods by going right to the head of a queue of people waiting to offer prayers. But this time it is humiliation not just for citizens but for the entire nation. People living around the cricket ground at Mohali have been forbidden from going to the roofs of their buildings because sharpshooters will be positioned on the roofs to guard Paki politicians. Indians are to be denied right to their properties not just for our scum but for Paki scum as well. Does the Congress want to destroy the country?

How innocent our judges are. Supreme Court judges were upset at a 14 page status report submitted by the Enforcement Directorate investigating black money stashed abroad by Indians. " No further information is forthcoming from you. The whole concentration is focussed only on one individual ( Hassan Ali Khan ). What about the others?" the judges asked. They said, " We would like to know what progress has been made by you in each case. We would also like to know from you on next hearing the progress made in investigation from the national security aspect and what is the source of such money which is more serious aspect." Hear, hear. All of us Indians would definitely like to know the answer to these questions. The sleuths are helpless. They are being told by their superiors not to find anything that will embarrass criminal politicians and thieving, parasitic civil servants. We certainly do not want another Bofors style comedy wherein our sleuths investigated all the hot fleshpots of the world before closing the case. The justices should keep things simple. Order the detectives to concentrate on stopovers. Go through the itineraries of all the politicians and civil servants as they fly around the world on junkets at taxpayer expense. Find out who stopped off in Switzerland, Luxembourg, Lichtenstein, Cayman islands, Bermuda and so on and the picture will quickly come into focus. There will be the occasional confusion as in the World Economic Forum at Davos, which happens to be in Switzerland, but in most cases the answer will be oh so clear. We would also like to enjoy this game of hide and seek. What fun.

As part of bankruptcy proceedings the US Northwest chapter of the Rome based Society of Jesuits has agreed to pay out $ 166.1 million to compensate 500 victims of sexual and psychological abuse by priests in 5 US states lasting for decades. Lot of people feel that this is because of enforced celibacy demanded by the Catholic church of its priests. This stems from the concept of the " Original Sin " wherein Adam and Eve were thrown out of paradise for having sex. What is not explained is why did God create sex organs in the first place and why did he create Eve when Adam was lonely instead of giving him some other source of entertainment such as video games or Facebook. The second problem is the absolute faith demanded by the church. Bishops arm themselves with a shepherd's crook and the worshipers are called a " flock " as in a flock of sheep who are expected to follow without question. Such absolute power leads to abuse as the victims are conditioned to believe that they must suffer in silence. Power is not static. To extend its power base the church resorts to conversion. Did Jesus ever say, " Thou shalt call them heathens and convert them in my name for, verily, I am Jesus the Christ." ? Conversion is thus a form of conquest. That is why there is and has always been so much violence in the world in the name of religion. Hinduism is the only religion which does not convert anybody and so Hindus have never gone out of India to fight with anyone. Instead throughout centuries we have suffered wave upon wave of attacks by other religions who have wanted to send us to paradise by slaughtering us. Conversion and killings are still going on.

Apparently Earth Hour is held on the last Saturday of March every year where people switch off their lights and electrical appliances at 8.30 pm local time to save electricity and thereby reduce greenhouse gases. In other parts of the world it is a serious matter but for Indians it is a joke. Because we already have blackouts, known euphemistically as " load shedding ," for hours on end without any warning. Any idiot in the company supplying electricity, usually under state government control, can switch off power at whim and phones are taken off the cradle so that consumers do not disturb reception fellows with repeated calls wanting to know when power supply will return. China has been building one power station every week for the last few years. Damage to Japan's power plants have become international cause for concern and is being discussed on major international news channels. But here in India we are supposed to be grateful for every hour we receive electricity. In some states such as UP power cuts can continue for 20 hours a day yet the Chief Minister cancelled the building of a plant, which would have supplied 4000 megawatts, because the businessman building it was close to the previous Chief Minister. Yet criminal politicians and thieving civil servants get preferential supply of electricity so that air conditioners can be on 24/7. Already we are being warned that there will be massive shortfalls this summer because coal production has not been as predicted. The idea is to keep the people so harassed because of lack of essential services that they will be too busy trying to survive to question the scum. Incredible India.

First tell a whopping lie, then get your propaganda channel to repeat it endlessly and people will start accepting it as truth. David Cameron and Sarkozy claim to be bombing Libya apparently to save innocent civilians. The BBC endlessly repeats the lie in every news bulletin. We hear a voice of some Dr Sinbad from Benghazi who confirms that hundreds of women and children have been killed and wounded by Qaddafi's aerial bombardment. He then thanks the British for bombing Qaddafi's forces and pleads for it to continue. The truth is that the allies are supporting the eastern tribes in a civil war against Qaddafi's western tribes. We see heavily built armed men who are fighting against Qaddafi and told that their arms are no match for Qaddafi's forces. Occasionally we see a burnt out wreck of a truck but till date we have not seen any modern tanks or other military hardware. On rare occasions a plane would drop a bomb but far away from residential areas probably as a warning to the rebels. The allies, on the other hand, are using cruise missiles and bombing Tripoli from the air. We are never shown how many civilians they are killing who are probably being dismissed as " collateral damage " as has happened in other places. If the eastern tribes do manage to defeat Qaddafi there is every chance that they will slaughter those of the western tribes and anyone they suspect of having been in the army. How will the allies stop such a massacre if it happens. Will they start bombing Benghazi? Will Cameron and Sarkozy be tried as war criminals? Sadly Amnesty International and the International Criminal Court are controlled by whites so the villains will escape.

Syria seems to be following a familiar path. Ban protests, use police to try and stop protesters, use lethal force killing a few dozen and when infuriated people come out in greater numbers announce some cosmetic reforms hoping to divide the protesters. This is what Saleh has been trying in Yemen with little success as the crowds keep getting larger. Syria should study what other countries have done. Bahrain invited Saudi Arabia to send in forces, declared a state of emergency, forcibly cleared out all protesters from Manama and arrested some of the leaders. They could do this because the rulers are Sunnis while the protesters are Shia so Bahrain blamed Iran for fomenting trouble. Iran is furious and recalled its ambassador to Bahrain but can hardly complain. Iran used maximum force against its protesters shutting down the internet, arresting leaders and allowing the Basij militia to kill and rape at will. This has worked for two years but tensions remain. Algeria has used its oil wealth to increase salaries of teachers, police and other government employees and is selling food at heavily subsidised rates. There remains another strategy that Syria could adopt. Try and engineer a proxy war against an external enemy which, in this case, would be Israel. Syria has longstanding grievance over Israeli occupation of the Golan heights. Hamas has been firing rockets into Israel for the last few days and a bus was bombed in Jerusalem a couple of days ago. Syria could ask Hezbollah to fire missiles into Israel to prod Israel into aerial bombardment. Would Iran send fighters into Saudi Arabia in the confusion remains to be seen. Endless possibilities.

A Delhi court has charged a government engineer with negligence because he allowed mosquitoes to breed in a south Delhi court complex. Five judges contracted dengue. The engineer contested the decision saying that as a civil servant he could not be prosecuted without permission from his department. Additional Sessions Judge, Virender Bhatt said, " The negligence shown by a public servant is an anti-thesis to the carefulness and diligence with which he is expected to discharge his official functions" ( Hindustan Times, March 20 ). We feel sorry for the engineer. It was his bad luck that judges came down with dengue. Had a million ordinary citizens been infected with the deadly virus instead he would be safe. Children die regularly by falling into manholes left uncovered. Motorists die in accidents because roads have been dug up and left without any warning signs. People are electrocuted when badly connected power lines fall down. Everyday thousands of people all over India are dying because of negligence of thieving, parasitic civil servants but we are helpless. A civil servant is immune from prosecution no matter how lethal the consequences of his callous negligence. Thousands of people die everyday in traffic accidents. Freeloading press immediately clamor for tougher punishments for speeding motorists and politicians are happy to oblige. Higher fines mean more revenues and more earning from bribes for the police. The truth is that no one in India knows how to drive because everyone has obtained licenses with bribes. Who is in charge of licensing? The police, of course. When the state is the enemy people will die.

Former President of Israel, Moshe Katsav has been sentenced to 7 years in prison for rape and sexual assaults. His punishment is for assaults and rape of a few women but in India politicians are regularly raping the country and assaulting the constitution with complete impunity. Exposures by Wikileaks of cables by US diplomats show a Member of the Rajya Sabha bragging about bribing some members of the opposition to win a trust vote in 2008. Answering to the leaks the Prime Minister said that he could not " confirm the veracity, contents or even the existence of such communications." In response Wikileaks founder, Julian Assange said, " The comments I have been hearing from Prime Minister Singh these, to me, seem to be a deliberate attempt to mislead the public by suggesting that governments around the world do not accept the material." He further said, " A man who is innocent does not behave like that. That doesn't mean people making those statements like Prime Minister Singh and so on are guilty of this particular crime." What Assange is implying is that our most revered Prime Minister is lying his head off. Well we are used to Indian politicians lying after committing the most heinous crimes. After all what criminal is going to plead he is guilty.

Several states will be holding elections to their assemblies in the next few months and the air is already thick with promises of bribery. One party is promising free mixer/grinder to women, free laptops to Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe students, 35 kg of free rice to Below Poverty Level families and free bus travel to senior citizens if elected back to power. This is in addition to free color televisions which it promised in the previous election. So who is going to pay for this bag of goodies that this party is so generously promising? The taxpayer, of course. Why do politicians make such extravagant irresponsible promises which will bankrupt the exchequer? Because winning elections is extremely lucrative for politicians, their families, including several wives, and friends. This is the same party which is said to have caused a loss of Rs 600 billion to the exchequer in the 2G scam where, according to rumor, it made a cool Rs 100 billion from telecom companies who were given licenses illegally for token sums of money. There is no business in the world where the investment is paid by the taxpayer but the profits go to the players. However, no one will dare protest about such blatant robbery. Three journalists were killed when they exposed one of the players as a thief but the murderer is not only free but is promised a very high post if victorious. The money for the bribery will be raised through illegal loot. One way is to force doctors to renew their registrations every few years for large sums of money. This while selling fake flying licenses for Rs 500000. Politicians and civil servants continue to loot while hapless citizens pay the price.

Arab League Secretary General, Amr Mussa says, " What has happened in Libya differs from the goal of imposing a no-fly zone. What we want is protection of civilians and not bombing other civilians." Is he trying to be cute? A look at the history of Europe would have shown him that these are blood thirsty barbarians have a history of slaughter going back thousands of years. Apart from the two World Wars they used to have 30 years wars and even a 100 years war. Gaddafi was always a bogey man for them and of course Libya has oil. Mugabe has killed many more people and survives by abusing Britain in every speech he makes but who cares if there is nothing to loot. Arab countries wanted to feed Gaddafi to the killers hoping they could continue suppress their own people without interference. Did they expect that Cameron would be happy with his pilots roaming the skies of Libya? He wants to be a Margaret Thatcher or at least a Tony Blair and only warm, red Libyan blood on desert sands will appease his thirst. Small man with delusions of grandeur. As for the opponents of Gaddafi they should realise that his supporters will blame them for loss of life and a long civil war looks very likely. The criminals bombed the Serbs but have they been able to unite Bosnia? Only the presence of UN troops is keeping the two sides apart. When Saddam fled Iraqis were overjoyed and we remember the scenes of his statue being toppled and people hitting it with shoes. Well, guess what? His victor also had shoes thrown at him in Baghdad and Iraq remains a deeply divided country. If Gaddafi is wrong to kill Libyans then Britain and France are equally wrong.

Chief Justice of the Sikkim High Court, Justice Dinakaran has been charged with 16 acts of corruption by a Rajya Sabha panel. Some of the charges are so serious they would do credit to a mobster. They include - illegal encroachment on public property and land belonging to Dalit and other weaker sections, 5 Tamil Nadu Housing Board plots in favor of his wife and two daughters, destruction of evidence, undervaluation of sale agreements, evasion of stamp duty and illegal constructions, and resorting to irregular and dishonest administrative actions by fixing rosters of judges to facilitate dishonest judicial decisions while he was Chief Justice of Karnataka High Court. What does " fixing rosters of judges to facilitate dishonest judicial decisions " mean? Does it mean that he knew which judges could be induced to pronounce deliberately wrong decisions or, in other words, were crooks? That surely means that a substantial number of judges are corrupt which, in turn, prompts more appeals to the Supreme Court which is already overloaded. A bench of the Supreme Court has said, " No government wants a strong judiciary." ( Times of India, February 13, 2011 ). This remark came in a phone tapping case that has been so delayed by adjournments that only one witness has been examined in last 4 years. But surely judges preside over their courts and can refuse unnecessary adjournments, a ploy to waste time by unscrupulous lawyers. Judges want higher salaries, more judges, better courts and better facilities but that will not stop lawyers from asking for a case to be adjourned. Delays help criminals. Stop hand wringing, do something.

The UN Security Council passed a resolution authorising a no fly zone over Libya. This was authored by the French and the British who, no doubt, see it as a foreign policy triumph. Sarkozy of France is a small man with pretensions of being a Nepoleon. He should realise that Nepoleon led from the front and did not hide behind his wife while his pilots killed hapless Libyans from the air. As for David Cameron of Britain he would dearly love to suck up to Obama as Tony Blair did with Bush. How he would love to have photos showing him standing shoulder to shoulder with Obama in the Rose garden of the White House or walking in casual wear outside Camp David. He failed to win outright majority in the last general elections and is Prime Minister because Nick Clegg of the Lib Dems saw this as his only chance to ever hold a ministerial post. Cameron promised no " frontline reductions " in essential services and an " end to top-down reorganisation of the NHS ", promises he has not kept. Indeed he has broken every promise including VAT, child benefit, education maintenance allowance, increasing NHS spending " in real terms every year ", incapacity benefit and many more ( Guardian Weekly, March 4 ). His vicious cuts in public spending, prompted by some weird right wing ideology, has already resulted in job losses and will most probably tip the economy into a second recession. He knows people will feel real pain very soon and he will quickly become a hate figure in Britain and desperately needs some photo ops to appear statesman like. Sadly killing a few Libyans will not achieve that. He may end up a war criminal like Tony Blair.

Exposures from Wikileaks seem to show that the Congress paid some opposition MPs in the last parliament Rs 100 million each to win a trust vote. Is it possible and will Indians believe such a charge? Absolutely. Politicians are capable of any crime and, since they control the police, will escape as usual. Defending the government our most revered Finance Minister said, " I cannot confirm or deny the contents of the cables. The government elected is accountable to the 15th Lok Sabha and not to the 14th Lok Sabha." How weasel is that ? This is the old argument that winning an election condones any crime because the people must have taken it into account while voting. Firstly, we did not know and secondly, what choice do we have. As an old Bengali saying goes, " Feces stinks the same from any side." However, the Americans knew and this may explain a cable saying that the new cabinet is pro US. If foreign governments know of the crimes committed by politicians they can, naturally, dictate our foreign policy. After Kargil, attacks on the parliament and the Mumbai attacks our government goes on " bended knees " to offer " unconditional " peace talks to Pakistan. Doing so allows the Pakis to reduce troop deployment on its borders with India and shift them to the Afghanistan border. Here they can engage the Taliban and help reduce attacks on US soldiers. Meanwhile the US is supplying the Pakis with F 16s, night vision goggles, smart bomb equipment and other military hardware to kill Indians. US lives are more valuable than Indian lives, right? When the government is the enemy of the people there will be a Union Carbide every day.

So, the double murderer, Raymond Davies walks free as we all knew he would. After all he is an American and Americans grow up with the knowledge that they are allowed to murder, torture, rendition, lock up without trial, in short commit any crime without any fear of punishment. They learn from their history lessons about Nagasaki and Hiroshima, Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq and about how to use nuclear weapons, napalm, dioxin, depleted uranium, cluster bombs, land mines and, in the case of Davies, plain old hand gun. At least the Pakis dragged out the affair for sometime and put the spotlight on crimes committed by Americans while our ministers accompanied Andersen to the airport and gave him hearty send off after the Union Carbide massacre. There have been riots in Pakistan as religious fanatics have tried to attack US consulates. The government, which is already deeply unpopular, will be under even greater pressure and Zardari's days could be numbered. The news must have excited Nawaz Sharif so much that he has apparently been admitted to hospital with chest pains. However, the Americans may have made a long term strategic error by publicly bullying the Pakis to release Davis by holding up aid. The civilian government is weak. The army controls much of the economy and desperately wants control of Afghanistan so that they can continue to target India. The ISI is infiltrated with jihadists and there are disparate groups of crazy fanatics who will be enraged and hurt Americans elsewhere. Americans may end up losing a lot of lives in exchange for one. Sometimes brain is better than brawn.

About couple of weeks back the COO of Air India was forced to resign by the government because it did not like comments made by him. Mr Gustav Baldauf was brought in to turn around the loss making airline and is said to have remarked, " When you call someone from outside, let him work. The government should control but let him work. It should not be involved in day-to-day operations." Eminently sensible we think but not for the criminal politicians. A minister's daughter is said to have forced Air India to cancel a scheduled domestic flight and used the aircraft to take her and her friends to a cricket match. Meanwhile the Aviation Minister admitted in the Lok Sabha that Air India earns Rs 360 million/day while spending Rs 570 million a loss of Rs 210 million/day. The company owes Rs 1.9 billion to oil companies which are also owned by the government so the taxpayer is losing out because criminals and their families are using the airlines for personal junkets. Meanwhile Parminder Kaur Gulati, captain of an IndiGo flight to Goa landed her nose wheel first and, on investigation, was found to have obtained her license based on a fake mark sheet. Since then 3 others have been suspended on similar grounds. Licenses are granted by the Director General of Civil Aviation, a government body. Seems that officials change marks of failing candidates on payment of Rs 5-7 hundred thousand with touts collecting Rs 60000. Just Rs 5 hundred thousand for the lives of 300 innocent people. Hindu mythology has stories of Gods fighting demons to protect humans. Today all politicians and civil servants are demons and the Gods have given up. Can anyone save us now?

The middle east is slowly but nicely coming to a boil. About a thousand troops with tanks have crossed over from Saudi Arabia into Bahrain, apparently, to guard official installations against protesters. Saudi Arabia is 90% Sunni while Bahrain is 80% Shia ruled by a Sunni royal family. The protesters want an end to Sunni rule and see Saudi forces as an invasion and an act of war. The Saudi government is worried about a Shia takeover of Bahrain because that will increase Iran's influence right at their doorstep and also because the oil containing eastern region of the country is home to its Shia minority. The Sunnis hate Shias with such ferocity that if necessary the Saudis will push the Shia into the waters of the Gulf but they will never allow them to gain power. In contrast to the venom being poured over Libya the US will only bleat about " restraint," " dialogue" and " political reforms." Iran, the only Shia country on the other side of the Gulf, will be furious but are hardly in a position to protest having treated its own protesters with extreme violence. Saudi Arabia has a long border to the north with Iraq, 60% of whose population is Shia and live along the Saudi border. The Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki, a Shia, has used security forces against students protesting against corruption killing at least 20. Iraqi leaders took shelter in Iran during Saddam's crackdown and will always side with Iran in whatever it may do. The Shias would love to control the two holy mosques at Makkah and Medina. Will Iran mount an attack on Saudi Arabia from the north when the US troops leave? Will the war draw muslims from all over? Whatever happens it will be very interesting.

The government is set to introduce a bill called the Information Technology Amendment Act, 2008. This act demands due diligence from any " intermediary " which is defined as " any entity which, on behalf of another, receives, stores or transmits any electronic record." Such a broad definition, naturally, includes all service providers including internet cafes and telecom companies. In a sinister move they have included bloggers in the catch all definition which means a blogger will be held responsible for any comment left on his blog site and may end up in jail. Any material which is " threatening, abusive, objectionable, defamatory, vulgar, racial " or any other that they can dream of will invite punishment. So who will decide what is " objectionable "? Some criminal politician or thieving, parasitic civil servant, of course. Dr Binayak Sen is serving a life term for the crime of " sedition " because he allegedly carried a letter from a Naxal leader in jail. The government released 5 dangerous Naxals in exchange for the release of a kidnapped IAS officer but, hey, what judge will dare send a politician or a civil servant to jail. This act is an attack on freedom of speech. The politicians have controlled the organised media by a combination of threats and hand outs. Journalists are given cheap land for houses, cheap drinks at army rates in their clubs and free seats on ministerial flights. Tehelka showed the big stick when taxpayer money was used to drive it out of business. Like vermin politicians and civil servants like the darkness. They hate the light of truth that bloggers bring. Libya has but one Qaddafi, India has hundreds. Eliminate the vermin.

Of all natural calamities earthquakes are the most frightening and the most cruel. In most disasters such as floods, tornadoes, even volcanic eruptions end is mercifully swift but to die slowly over several days trapped under a collapsed building with broken limbs as happens in an earthquake is horrific. However, in Japan the quake did not bring down buildings, if we believe the video clips being shown on news channels, but it was the following tsunami which caused all the deaths. We see an entire town of 13000 people in the Miyagi prefecture being swept away. Only the hospital is left standing with, perhaps, no survivors to treat. This must be because of strict building codes in Japan which experiences 20 shocks daily. Imagine a quake of that magnitude hitting India. Builders are mostly criminals using low quality materials and their proximity to criminal politicians to escape scrutiny. Inspectors grow rich on bribes. Not one public building has emergency escape routes because that would be a waste of space which means money. Japan is a small country with a shrinking population. In India, with our population and unsafe buildings, a quake of 8.9 on the Richter scale will kill tens of millions. The government is intent on building nuclear power plants. Criminal politicians will take bribes from contractors, thieving civil servants will make money by cutting corners and contractors will use substandard materials. In Fukushima reactor no 3 has suffered partial meltdown. In India it would be total. People are merely " vote bank ". After elections who cares how many die. Certainly not criminal politicians or thieving civil servants. Great.

The IMF has released figures showing that inflation is not related to a growing economy ( Times of India, March 7, 2011 ). China grew by 11.4% between 2005 and 2009 but inflation was only 2.7% whereas India grew by 4.7% from 1990 t0 1994 with inflation at 10.2%. The article does not discuss other factors possibly contributing to such figures for example China's one child policy which could have reduced demand and India's exorbitant tax rates fueling rise in prices. To combat inflation interest rates were raised so high that banks were offering 14.5% on fixed deposits but this would have been counteracted by falling tax levels due to WTO rules so that from 1995 to 1999 growth was 6.8% with inflation at 8.9% in India. High interest rates with the dot com crisis led to a crash in property prices which brought inflation down to 3.9% from 2000 to 2004 but the economy still grew at 5.6% but low interest rates created a property boom raising inflation to 7.2% with growth at 8.2% from 2005 to 2009. The reason is that rise is property prices mirror rise in black money which is beyond the control of the Reserve Bank. Today inflation is being blamed on increased demand for food due to rising prosperity but daily calorie intake in rural areas has declined by 5% in 2004-05 compared to 1993-94. The RBI has been raising interest rates timidly to control inflation but has failed so far. Today we learn that industrial growth has fallen to 3.7% in January. Unless the RBI raises interest rates to reduce property prices by 70% inflation will remain out of control. High inflation reducing demand or high interest rates reducing output, that is the choice. Tough.

A new low for our freeloading journalists. In an opinion piece dripping with contempt, venom and sarcasm in the Times of India yesterday one Bachi Karkaria defends her friend, Ms Pinki Virani under the headline - " My friend Pinki." Ms Virani , a writer has written about the plight of Ms Aruna Shanbaug who has been lying in a vegetative state in KEM Hospital in Mumbai for 37 years after being sexually assaulted by a hospital sweeper. Ms Virani applied to the Supreme Court for permission to allow Ms Shanbaug to die which was opposed by the nurses who raised slogans saying, " Pinki Virani murdabad ( death to Pinki Virani )". Ms Karkaria is incensed at the audacity of faceless, low paid nurses opposing a journalist. She praises her friend for having written the book and taunts the nurses for wanting to keep Ms Shanbaug alive because " she belongs to us." She is scornful about the Supreme Court pointing out the lack of bed sores as evidence of dedication of the nurses. It is obvious that Ms Karkaria has never cared for an unconscious person. In western countries hospitals have water beds, air mattresses, nets, sheepskins and other aids to prevent bed sores but the a municipal hospital would have nothing. The nurses have kept Ms Shanbaug alive and, yes, free of bedsores just by sheer hard work for no extra pay. Ms Karakaria finishes the article with the lines - " Aruna will remain in her twilight zone, neither living nor dead. But look, Milord, no bedsores." Vicious sarcasm. Perhaps Ms Karkaria should spend just one day in any hospital caring for an unconscious adult to understand what it entails. Why do research when it is easy to write spiteful garbage?

Credit ratings agency, Standard and Poor's have assigned a BBB rating to India's foreign currency borrowings indicating a stable outlook. However, they warn of a downgrade in rating should deficit increase. They applaud the government's efforts at reducing reducing subsidies on food, fertilisers and fuels and predict that a uniform Goods and Services Tax will stabilise and even increase government tax revenue. It is not known whether these international agencies base their predictions based solely on what the government says and are constrained by political correctness from digging deeper into economic reality. Subsidies are a minor part of government expenditure, a major part which is taken up in paying an army of totally useless, parasitic, thieving civil servants. To bribe these hordes of parasites the government increased their salaries by about 80% before the last elections without any reciprocal increase productivity, honesty or accountability. Desperate to keep the deficit in check they are increasing taxes which, in turn, are increasing inflation. Another act of bribery was the waiver of farm loans to the tune of Rs 700 billion. Naturally farmers are defaulting on repaying new loans they have taken from public sector banks expecting to be forgiven once again. The total Non Performing Assets, a euphemism for bad loans, till December 2010 was a mammoth Rs 2.94 trillion ( Times of India, March 8, 2011 ). Bad loans at State Bank of India have risen from Rs 23.22 billion in 2009 to Rs 37.17 billion, a rise of 80% . Other banks report rises ranging from 100 to 2000%. With oil at over $ 100 dollars what hope is there of reducing our deficit?

The propaganda channel BBC is portraying Qaddafi as a monster trying to wipe out his opponents when it seems that he is taking utmost care in reducing casualties. Words such as " carnage " and " slaughter " pepper every report from Libya. Just a couple of days back a US bomb slaughtered 9 boys in Afghanistan but the US got off by saying " sorry." There are reports that British and American agents are offering up to $ 10 million to anyone who will assassinate Qaddafi. This is contract killing pure and simple. Tony Blair and Dick Cheney are two of the most repulsive men in the world but would it be right to put out a contract on them? While they are at it why not put out contracts on Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, Laurent Gbagbo of Ivory Coast and Hassan Nasralla of Hezbollah?Britain is pushing for a no fly zone over Libya. Iran has already killed many protesters, shut down the internet, is developing nuclear weapons with missiles for delivery, denies the Holocaust and is committed to wiping out zionist Israel. Why not a no fly zone over Iran? Western journalists trying to cover small protests in China have been beaten up and China actively blocks the internet but not a peep of protest. Saudi Arabia is the world's biggest financier of terrorists while Pakistan is the cradle of all terrorism in the world. Pakistan developed nuclear weapons with full knowledge of western countries, shelters Taliban fighters who kill US and NATO forces, openly vows to use nuclear weapons and yet receives billions in aid. Pakis use american weapons to kill Indians. Britain and the US should understand that no one feels grateful for being killed by them. Death has no friends.

On November 27, 1973 Aruna Shanbaug was a nurse at KEM hospital in Mumbai when a sweeper, Sohanlal Walmiki wrapped a dog chain round her neck rendering her unconscious and sodomised her as he was unable to rape her because she was menstruating. Deprived of oxygen her brain suffered irreversible damage and she has lain in a vegetative state ever since looked after by the staff of the hospital. A writer Pinky Virani, who first wrote about her, applied to the courts that she be allowed to die by withholding her food and fluids. The Supreme Court denied the request yesterday as Ms Shanbaug is not brain dead. The sweeper who reduced her to this state served a mere 7 years in prison. This case typifies all that is rotten in India's justice system that a sub human beast is free to enjoy life while we debate whether it would be best to kill this unfortunate lady. The police are thugs in uniform, brutal, unhelpful, totally incompetent, ready to carry out any act of brutality demanded by superior officers and politicians. Lawyers are mostly criminals, ready to sell out their clients for money. Judges are dripping with the milk of human kindness but only for criminals with no regard about the suffering of victims. Take Rathore. He molests a teenage girl, is promoted in spite of his crime, uses his position as police chief to arrest the brother on a succession of false charges, instructs officers under him to beat up the innocent boy, hounds the family until Ruchika commits suicide, is defended by his lawyer wife and is out of jail after a derisory 6 months. Maybe Ms Shanbaug's suffering will shame us into improving the justice system. Or maybe not.

In an article titled " PM Redeems his image " in today's Hindustan Times, one Pankaj Vohra writes that by claiming responsibility for appointing Mr PJ Thomas as Vigilance Commissioner the Prime Minister has answered every accusation in a heroic act of self sacrifice. It is shocking to see such a puerile piece of shameless foot licking being printed as serious journalism by a leading english daily. What value do the words " claiming responsibility " have if not accompanied by any action? Today the Japanese Foreign Minister, Seiji Maehara has resigned because of doubts about campaign funding. The German Defence Minister resigned a couple of days ago after reports of plagiarism in his PhD dissertation. A French minister resigned after admitting her family had business links with Hosni Mubarak. Here in India our most revered leader just admits " responsibility." Does he admit responsibility for protecting the previous telecom minister, Mr Raja for over one year while Mr Raja was apparently making billions of rupees in bribes gifting 2G licenses? What about the Commonwealth Games which cost Rs 800 billion and was a complete Congress affair? The total amount of money stolen has not yet been published nor the names of all those who looted the nation. Crooks we understand. All our politicians are criminals and all civil servants treacherous thieves. Once in a while one goes too far, is caught in the act and prosecuted. Though not one has been jailed so far at least we get the satisfaction of knowing who to abuse as in the case of Sukhram, also a former telecom minister. But a man completely without honor, clinging on despite being tarred is most dangerous. What do you do to someone so low?

After seeing the details we realise what a disaster this year's budget is likely to be. It promises to lower deficit to 4.6% while maintaining growth at 9%. But how? Oil is over $100 a barrel and is likely to stay there. Any attempt to pass the cost on to customers will cause hyperinflation. Excise duty on medicines has been increased by 1%, service tax imposed on lab investigations and on hospitals with 25 air conditioned beds. Health insurance is already taxed. Cancer therapy, coronary bypass or kidney dialysis can not be offered in a rural health center. One can avoid paying tax by not eating in a restaurant or seeing a movie in a multiplex but a sick person has no choice but to be admitted to the nearest center offering life saving therapy. To tax such helpless, vulnerable people is nothing less than crime against humanity. At least Qaddafi's opponents have the option of running away from his bombs but we Indians have no such option - pay tax or die. Social spending is set to rise to Rs. 1.4 trillion. This is a bottom less pit and the economy cannot afford to go on paying uncontrolled increase in the numbers of the poor. There has to be a cut off date. Only those born before, say, April 1, 1993, that is those above the age of 18 years will hence forth receive subsidies. Anyone born after this date will get help if they have no children, 90% if they have one girl child and 70% if they have one boy child. Anyone with more than one child gets nothing. Every child will grow up with this knowledge and birth rate will drop. Other countries have economists who provide truthful analysis, we only have foot licking chamchas. That is our greatest tragedy.

Some people opposing Mr Qaddafi in Libya want the US and NATO to impose a no fly zone across the country to protect them from aerial bombardment. Predictably Britain is most vocal in supporting this idea to project an image of virility to mask its increasing irrelevance in world affairs. US Secretary of Defence, Mr Gates was much less enthusiastic in his testimony to a congressional committee. It is possible that the US has been warned off by its friends in the middle east who would be extremely relieved if Qaddafi succeeds in holding off his opponents as this will stop the domino scenario of falling governments. Libyans should reflect before asking foreigners to kill fellow citizens. Why is it wrong for Qaddafi to bomb Libyans but right for Americans to do so? So far Libyan planes seem to have missed their targets. Whether this is deliberate to prevent civilian deaths or due to inept pilots is not known but their have been no reports of large scale deaths. Qaddafi's forces attack one area and then withdraw when defenders fight back. It is as if he is trying to win by gradually weakening the physical and moral resolve without causing much loss of life. The Americans will not be restricted by such niceties. They will use their biggest arsenal and when children get killed, as they inevitably will, they will shrug and call it " collateral damage " with callous indifference. Wikileaks expose has shown US pilots laughing as they deliberately targeted civilians in Iraq and marriage parties are regularly blown up in Afghanistan. Independence should be earned by the protesters. Inviting foreigners to kill fellow Libyans will leave lasting bitterness. As in Iraq.

Central Vigilance Commissioner, PJ Thomas resigned yesterday after the Supreme Court found his appointment illegal. Mr Thomas has been implicated in a criminal case in the import of palm oil in 1992 in his home state of Kerala. The Leader of the Opposition in Parliament, Ms Sushma Swaraj objected to his appointment but she was overruled by the Prime Minister and Home Minister. Mr Thomas was Chief Secretary at the Department of Telecom at the time the 2G scam took place for which the then minister Mr Raja is in police custody yet he has not even been questioned about that. Instead he was appointed CVC and was in charge of investigating the same scam. Not shamed by the utter immorality of his appointment the government used taxpayer money to defend him in court. That is not surprising from the Congress gang. What is surprising is the power wielded by Mr Thomas, an IAS officer who has been able to evade justice for 20 years and rise in rank to the post of CVC despite being Mr Raja's Chief Secretary while the 2G scam was taking place. How was he able to force the Prime Minster and the Home Minister, the two most powerful men in the cabinet, to appoint him and then defend him in court? Is the IAS so powerful that officers can commit any crime, avoid investigation and then force politicians to promote them? Is it because they know the crimes committed by politicians and use the knowledge to blackmail them much like Edgar Hoover did to John Kennedy? If so we have a shadowy group of men and women wielding absolute power, without any accountability, in the heart of government. Terrifying.

China is not just a brutal country of uncivilised barbarians it will probably be the cause for a worldwide disaster. The reason is the uncontrolled growth of its economy which is now second only to the US. Politicians the world over have been mesmerised by the dizzying speed of building. Thousands of miles of wide roads, huge dams, magnificent buildings, high speed rail, power stations, the numbers are mind blowing. Our politicians, including the world famous economist, want to achieve the same rate of growth as China with freeloading journalists applauding from the sidelines. No one is thinking of the consequences of unrestricted growth. Earth's resources are finite and as easily accessible minerals are exhausted companies will start exploring in remote and difficult terrain with the potential of destroying ecologically delicate areas. This is happening already as seen in the deal between BP and Rosneft of Russia to explore for oil in the Arctic sea. The more immediate consequence for this rush for growth is the rise in commodity prices. Prices of everything from oil to copper to cocoa are shooting up. How long before prices rise to such levels that no one will be able to afford the goods they produce? Around 20 years back gold was $ 260 an ounce whereas today it is $ 1430 an ounce. What does it say about the value of currencies? Sadly, for political reasons, no one mentions the one brilliant policy which somewhat mitigates the ill effects while contributing to China's growth and that is strict population control. Fall in the numbers of people will bring down demand and growth can continue with low inflation. As it is the world is heading for disaster.

Bush attacked Iraq because his daddy had been insulted but the US has not learnt from the catastrophe. Its reaction to the events in Libya is an emotional response to the release from prison of al Magrahi, the Lockerbie bomber along with the infantile urge to shoot the bad guy as in a John Wayne movie. If Qaddafi falls it will further energize protesters in Arab states like Bahrain, Oman, Jordan and even Saudi Arabia. Already 6 protesters have been killed in Oman and Yemen, south of Saudi, is boiling. In public Arab governments are supporting US moves against Qaddafi because to do otherwise may further inflame their people but in private they must be hoping that Qaddafi survives or that there is prolonged civil strife in Libya. This will keep oil prices high allowing them to increase social spending to buy off opponents. Countries like Algeria may even want to help Qaddafi. Britain is pushing for a no fly zone over Libya like the one over Saddam's Iraq but Russia has already ruled out such an option. As an oil producer Russia is gaining from rising oil prices while China has banned the word " jasmine." As it becomes progressively irrelevant Britain tries to flex its muscles, behind US skirts of course, to justify its undeserved seat at the UN Security Council. Large numbers of protesters in Libya do not want any military intervention by foreign powers because they have learnt from the destruction of Iraq. The US should try not to get sucked into another illegal war which it cannot afford. Allowing Qaddafi to keep his cash and a hacienda in Venezuela with a bevy of buxom women may work. The lure of Amazons in the Amazon. Phwoar.

The biggest non event of the year, the union budget, was presented yesterday. Apart from some tinkering with direct tax rates there was nothing much of interest apart from a reduction of customs duty from 30% to 10% on cranberry products. Cranberry is not grown in India and its sauce is said to be essential for Thanksgiving day in the US and Canada. How this will reduce food inflation running at 12% is impossible to tell. The Finance Bill is indecipherable. Fish products take up the maximum number of columns. I am not sure if anyone in India eats Ctenpharyngodon or Hypophthalmichthys but they are taxed at 30%. Meanwhile ginger is taxed at 30%, bananas at 20%, cardamom at 62.5%, seeds of bajra, jawar and ragi, which are staple cereals, are taxed at 70%. Beet sugar and cane jaggery are taxed at 100%. We had heard earlier that the railways are in financial trouble so tax on air tickets have been increased by Rs 50 for domestic and Rs 250 for international travel. We are reminded that criminal politicians and thieving civil servants are allowed to travel free in first class with relatives, servants, friends and, may be even, mistresses. To boost the stock markets foreign investors will now be allowed to invest in domestic mutual funds. Predictably the Sensex has jumped by 623.10 points that is over 3% today. This is dangerous as FIIs, because of their huge assets, already control the markets and will now control the mutual fund industry leaving retail investors at their mercy. Whether this is to help criminals bring their black money from broad without paying taxes is not known. To think that taxpayer money is paying for this twaddle!