The regular climate change jamboree has started again, this time in Durban in South Africa. It is an occasion for expenses paid knees-up for delegates, from politicians to NGOs to civil society representatives. At the end of several days of speeches rehashing the same tired old arguments about the urgency of reducing greenhouse gases the conference will end with a meaningless resolution calling for further consultations which means more expenses paid junkets. How seriously it is taken can be judged by the fact that Jacob Zuma, President of South Africa was 40 minutes late for his opening speech as host of the conference. Already India, China and Brazil have called for recognition of " historical emissions " meaning that rich countries should atone for their past by making deeper cuts and paying for technology upgrade to help poorer countries. Rich countries counter by asking for equal commitments from developing countries and saying that they can afford to pay for such upgrades because of their economic growth. The only countries really desperate for positive action are island nations such as the Maldives which will cease to exist if sea levels rise. Not one person has the courage to lay out the truth. Rich countries must understand that they can stop immigration, they can put up trade barriers and they can stop technology transfer but they cannot stop greenhouse gases from spreading, the rise of the sea level or the depletion of the ozone layer. If the poor die they will die too. Poor countries must stop breeding. More people mean destruction of forests and more gases. We share the space ship earth and live or die together. That simple.

The world has been hit by a triple whammy. We have shameless thieving bankers, craven treacherous politicians too blinded by self interest to be patriotic and elections next year acting as nerve paralysing poison. There are the Republicans in the US bought by big business and motivated by their racial hatred of Obama so that they have mindlessly blocked everything he proposed including raising the debt ceiling. Their intransigence may see the US credit rating being downgraded increasing interest costs and making it difficult to reduce the debt burden which they caused by their stupid tax cuts for the rich. US presidential elections are next year motivating both sides to dig in harder. Next year Sarkozy faces elections and is so unpopular that even the elimination of Strauss-Kahn, who was clearly set up, cannot assure victory. Germany too has elections next year and though Angela Merkel is personally popular her party has been losing every regional election making victory very unlikely. India is perpetually in elections. If it was Bengal yesterday and Bihar the day before then it will be UP tomorrow. The Congress is busy protecting the criminals within its ranks. Admittedly it is expert in this exercise having practiced for over 55 years. It controls the investigating agencies and the judiciary so thoroughly that we see politicians in Chennai, Gujarat and Karnataka, that is politicians belonging to parties other than the Congress, in a lot of bother with the courts but Congress criminals in Delhi, Mumbai and Goa roaming around scot- free. The gutless opposition keeps opposing everything without any strategic thinking. Let the world sink. Start afresh.

The controversy over the decision to allow 51% foreign control of multi brand retail stores is either because politicians have never gone shopping for groceries or because it is a conspiracy to prevent the passage of the Lok Pal bill. Stand alone stores need a lot of land and with land prices at fairy tale levels few companies would want to take such a risk in such recessionary times. That is why in Delhi retailers such as Big Bazaar have their stores in shopping malls. Every mall charges at least Rs 30 for parking and up to Rs 60 at weekends. Most of these malls are constructed in such a way that taking heavy bags of groceries back to the car is a major problem. The small neighborhood stores are conveniently near so that multiple trips are possible and they will usually deliver to your home till late evening. Giants like Tesco, Walmart and Carrefour have stand alone stores with large parking lots and their business model encourages purchase of large quantities for it to be profitable for customers. Such stores are likely to be on the outskirts of cities so reaching them will be an effort with poor roads jammed with traffic. Shopping in such stores is very time consuming because of their sheer size and number of products on offer and, finally, you need a car to bring home large heavy bags of shopping which will rule out families relying on 2 wheelers for transport. There is, therefore, no reason for the hysterical reaction to the announcement. What the Congress is not saying is that small shop owners do not pay any tax which large stores cannot avoid. So the government stands to collect more tax while avoiding the Lok Pal bill. The entire farce is to fool the people.

It is amazing how our courts always, inadvertently I am sure, manage to find ways to protect politicians. A Delhi court has forced police to file a case for cheating against Kiran Bedi, a former IPS officer. It relates to Ms Bedi travelling in economy while charging NGOs for business class seats and using the money, thus saved, for her own NGO. The court acted in spite of objections from Delhi Police that there was no case because there had been no complaints from donors. Of course, this has nothing to do with Ms Bedi's close association with Anna Hazare who has caused such embarrassment to Congress with his campaign against corruption. The Congress has nothing to worry. All politicians are staunchly against any strong Lok Pal, regardless of their public statements, because it will put 99% of them behind bars. The opposition has decided to boycott the Home Minster, P Chidambaram for his role in the 2G scam. This plays right into Congress hands because the boycott wastes time and the Congress can blame the opposition for not giving it the time to pass the Lok Pal bill. As a back up the cabinet has chosen this moment for allowing foreign companies, such as Walmart and Tesco, 51% share in multi brand retail stores which was considered unacceptable till now because of the deleterious effect they will on neighborhood retail shops. Already opposition parties have vowed to create uproar in the House and the Congress can just sit back and relax. Last winter the Congress diverted attention from the CWG scam by refusing a Joint Parliamentary Committee investigation into the 2G scam. Why get your hands dirty when you have the opposition to help?

Former Supreme Court judge and present Chairman, Press Council of India, Markandey Katju thinks that Indians are stupid, superstitious, communal and caste ridden. In an opinion piece in TOI, November 26 he makes a case for a society based on science. Science leads to liberal values and an open society and India should become a science based society. Nuclear weapons are also a product of science as are tabun, sarin, cluster bombs, land mines, I could go on. There is a real danger that human beings may be decimated by a super bug grown in a lab by genetic engineering and released accidentally. As Chairman of the Press Council he was abusive of journalists and thinks that TV news channels should also be under his control. In support of his opinion he writes," Should one be given the liberty to spread superstitions, to fan communal or caste hatred, or put emphasis on film stars, pop music, fashion parades and cricket in a poor country like ours? I think not." Whose fault is that? Our children grew up ignorant about caste but when they sought college admission they found that people with much less marks got admitted while brilliant children lost out by 1 mark. This immediately bred hatred for " shaddus ". And yes, our children have done very well in IIT and MBBS in spite of enjoying pop music and latest fashion. When Pakistan sends terrorists because India is a " Hindu " state and our Prime Minister goes on " bended knees " to offer peace would that not breed communal rage? Finally, poor people are not cattle that need to be told how to lead their lives and what to enjoy. Justice Katju should remember that dictators always think they know best. Stop!

Ignorance, they say, is bliss. In no other country is it so true as in India. Surveys consistently show that Indian consumers and businesses are optimistic about the future and think that growth will continue until India is one of the richest countries in the world. Tell any Indian that our cities are filthy and they look all round, bewildered. We have a blind spot in our brains which no other people have and that is probably why we cannot see the shite the economy is in. Our GDP is $1.73 trillion or Rs 66.95 trillion and our sovereign debt was 64.12% of GDP in 2010, around Rs 40 trillion. However, even the RBI has said that our figures are completely unreliable which means that our debt could be considerably higher. Ten year bond yields have risen to 8.93%. It is 9.5% for Hungary and 12.64% for Portugal which have been reduced to junk status. Ireland, which required the IMF to rescue it from a default, is at 8.21% which is lower than India. The difference is that these countries have to borrow from international banks while our government forces public sector banks to finance its spending with money that we deposit in savings accounts. This allows the government to exceed deficit limits that it has set itself in the budget and that is why the Congress is so desperate for growth to continue in spite of double digit inflation. Without growth tax collections may decline and deficit will be uncontrollable. Indira Gandhi had to go begging to the IMF and was apparently humiliated. I may have been harsh on the World Famous Economist. He understands the mess we are in and is and is on a luxury trip around the world at our expense. Clever, clever.

Talking about ballooning deficit our most revered Finance Minister said in Parliament," We have to be careful not to over-do ourselves in reaching this target ( 4.6% of GDP ) since that can have an excessive slowing down impact on growth." Meaning that he has no idea of how to keep deficit in control because he cannot control insane spending with so many state elections round the corner. The easy excuse for the rising deficit is to blame " foreign forces " i.e. turmoil in the Eurozone economies and the gridlock in Congress in Washington. He also went on to say that inflation, which is over 10% at this time, will come down to 6-7% by the end of March. But how? The rupee is down 15% against all major currencies. Blaming other countries does not wash. There has been a flight of money to the safe haven of the dollar so that inter bank lending in the US is down to zero. The Euro has fallen against the dollar by about 3 cents and the pound by 4 cents. The Yen is still at its highest levels against the dollar despite the Bank of Japan buying dollars to keep the Yen down. The fall of the rupee is not because of external factors but because of uncontrolled spending, deficit and inflation. The weaker rupee is going to increase cost of imports and commodities, especially oil, on which India is totally dependent. This will push up inflation or, if the government forbids rises at the pump, fiscal deficit. Said Mr Ahluwalia, Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission," By February you will see the January data and if it turns out that inflation is not coming down by then, then we really don't know what we are doing." Quite. We agree. Over to the World Famous economist.

In 2002 brothers Vikas and Vishal Yadav murdered one Nitish Katara because they objected to his relationship with a woman named Bharti. They were sentenced to life imprisonment in 2008 and are lodged in Tihar jail in Delhi. Yesterday Vikas Yadav was given one day's custodial parole to sign some legal papers. Apparently Vikas wants to give power of attorney to family members. The parole was granted not by some fourth class magistrate in the boondocks but by a judge at the Delhi High Court. It is inexplicable why the judge did not order the papers to be signed in prison with prison officers as witnesses. According to Neelam Katara, mother of the murdered man, the brothers made 85 hospital visits between May 2008 and February 2010 and another 66 since then. They have been out of jail 151 times since May 2008. Seems that the brothers are treating Tihar jail as a hotel paid for by the taxpayer. The brothers are sons of a UP politician. Manu Sharma, the son of a Haryana politician, who is serving life for the murder of Jessica Lall, let out for 3 days to attend his brother's wedding. The putrid slime Rathore, who first molested and then drove a teenage girl to suicide, was jailed for a derisory 1 year and let out after serving a just 6 months. It is obvious that politicians, police, and civil servants can commit the most heinous crime and escape punishment. Parole comes at the end of a sentence for good behavior and showing remorse and not at the beginning and certainly not for attending a weeding. Judges are complicit for turning justice into travesty. So why award Rs 1 billion for defamation when there is no izzat to defend.

In a sudden move UP Chief Minister, Ms Mayawati got the UP assembly to pass a resolution seeking to divide the state into 4 parts, namely Purvanchal, Paschim Pradesh, Bundelkhand and Awadh Pradesh. The reason, we are told, is that UP is too big with too many people to be governed from one center. Smaller states, it is argued, are easier to administer and resources tend to be used for local benefit instead of going to a far away government. Critics say that this is merely a gimmick to fox her opponents just before next year's state elections. Ms Mayawati is strong only in UP therefore, dividing it into 4 parts multiplies her chance of becoming chief minister in at least one of the smaller state. Better to be a chief minister of a few acres than to be in opposition and not have the chance to amass billions from " love and affection of followers ". Being chief minister also gives total control of police and lower judiciary. But the biggest advantage of such division for Ms Mayawati is that she will escape prosecution for misuse of public money for constructing statues of herself and her family. If UP is divided into 4 smaller states no particular state can claim to have been defrauded and by winning one state she can stop a concerted effort against her. Dividing UP into 4 sections is a very bad idea. All state governments consist of gangsters, thieves and low class goons and this just increases their numbers with as many thieving civil servants to loot the people. It will be best to get rid of state governments altogether. Divide the country into 700 districts, each with a small elected body to run local affairs. Civil servants and police will maintain honesty. Democracy.

Arab spring is rapidly transforming into Arab blizzard. After a lull of several months protesters are back on the streets of Cairo, this time demanding the removal of the armed forces ruling council and a handover to a civilian government. Thirty three were killed and 1500 injured. The army is demanding special privileges for itself in the new constitution and will not give up its powers easily. Just like in Pakistan the Egyptian army controls large sections of trade, has a huge budget for salaries and pensions and large tracts of land for comfortable housing. Why should they give up all this without a fight? The American army demands the right to slaughter foreigners in their own countries without any of their soldiers having to face justice. It is in the nature of armies to occupy, collect booty and defend their privileges, with violence if necessary. However, a change to civilian rule may not be what the world is hoping for. Tunisians have voted in an Islamist Ennahda party to power. When given the opportunity Palestinians voted in Hamas. Al Azhar mosque is in Cairo where the Muslim Brotherhood was born so an Islamist government is the most likely. However, whichever party comes to power it will not be able to fulfill demands of the people. The protests originally started with demands for jobs, food and the means to get married. Global food prices are set to remain high. High oil and commodity prices with a looming recession in Europe and the US will restrict growth and prospects of jobs. But the main obstacle to prosperity is uncontrolled growth in population. No government can provide for unlimited numbers. Only a calamity will wake people up.

Indian companies are sometimes victims of world circumstances but most often they are victims of their own hubris, greed and shortsighted behavior. Indian companies borrowed money abroad in 2006-7 through what are known as Foreign Currency Convertible Bonds which pay fixed rates of interest for a fixed period following which the lender has the option of converting the bonds to shares of the company. About $5.6 billion of these FCCBs will be up for redemption till end of 2012 and companies do not have the money to pay. The stock market is down reducing share values of these companies so the lenders are refusing to accept shares at higher values. The rupee has devalued 14% which increases cost and interest rates in India have gone up making borrowing at home extremely expensive. Already Zenith Infotech has defaulted on its debts and other companies may follow suit which will make foreigners reluctant to invest in India. The government is so desperate for foreign exchange that it is increasing investment limit in government securities to $15 billion and on corporate bonds to $20 billion. But will foreign investors bite? After stalling number portability for cell phones for 3 years by various stratagems telecom companies are doing their best to frustrate customers with frivolous excuses. TOI, November 9. The telecom regulator, TRAI wants telecom companies to drop roaming charges but companies are fighting. A person moving residence to another state is not allowed to register his number in the new state. To avoid roaming charges he opens a new account with another company. A customer is lost. Stupid and myopic!

A small number of oligarchs controlling 90% of wealth, a powerful section to the media constantly twisting news into extreme right wing propaganda, families with little children being thrown out of their homes, paid politicians passing laws to reduce taxes of the rich 1% and police beating up people protesting peacefully against injustice - could be China, North Korea or Uganda right? Welcome to the United States of America, the greatest self proclaimed democracy in the world. The US goes around lecturing the world on democracy and human rights but just a couple of days ago police forcibly removed peaceful ' Occupy Wall Street ' protesters from a park in New York on the orders of billionaire former Republican mayor, Michael Bloomberg. Millionaire bankers produced the crash in 2008 and had to be bailed out with taxpayer money but right wing Republicans still push for reducing regulations. Republicans, of the Tea Party variety, are pushing for Bush tax cuts to be made permanent. Right wing billionaires like Rupert Murdoch churn out constant propaganda against health service reforms, tax reforms and social security. The Limbaughs and Becks spew hateful venom against Obama. Palin publishes Gabrielle Gifford in the sights of a gun. Shadowy figures like Koch brothers lurk in the twilight zone creating dubious organisations with patriotic names dedicated to financing lies masquerading as research. The Supreme Court legalising such falsehoods. Sitting far away from that country it is hard to distinguish the US from, say, Burma but obviously things cannot be so bad. Most people are probably in the center. Hopefully.

More economic news, all bad. Rural Consumer Price Index has risen from 9.25 to 9.73% in October. Inflation is reducing buying power of the people prompting the Center for Monitoring Indian Economy to warn of serious slowdown in manufacturing, cargo traffic, coal and gas production. Net profits of 1360 listed companies fell 9.2% last quarter and is set to fall further. TOI, November 19. To win the last general elections in 2009 the Congress used taxpayer money for naked bribery. Bank loans of farmers were written off, useless civil servants were given 80% rises in salaries and the MNREGA scheme was started which pays villagers for doing nothing. This massive injection of money supply resulted in inflation of over 10%. Desperate to manage the resulting fiscal deficit every activity was brought under service tax, petrol was increased to Rs 70/ lit and every road has become a toll road. Naturally so many taxes added to inflation forcing the RBI to increase interest rates 13 times to no avail. Rising prices means the rupee buys less and less so one would have expected the currency to fall against major currencies like the dollar and the euro. This did not happen all this time because Eurozone economies are struggling to contain a debt crisis and the US politicians cannot agree on how to reduce its massive debt. Ministers try to fool us by blaming external factors for the mess but so far they have been beneficial. No longer. The rupee has fallen 15% to 51 to the dollar. This will fire to inflation by increasing import prices, especially oil. The World Famous Economist is roaming the world. Perhaps he is enjoying before having to vacate his kursi.

As per the telecom regulator TRAI giving unified 2G licenses cheaply to many operators has failed dismally while causing massive revenue loss. TOI, November 16. This was apparently done to increase services by increasing competition but, in the event, 7 major players hold 93.82% of the market while 7 others have failed to establish any network and have only 6.18% of the market. Instead of lowering tariffs for consumers major players have hiked rates by 20% recently. TRAI now recommends making mergers easier to encourage consolidation but how that will increase competition is not clarified. Meanwhile passengers who buy plane tickets for domestic flights before December are being told that they will have to pay an extra Rs 200 at the airport. This charge will be added to tickets from that date. Presumably this is an increase in airport taxes. Already taxes on flights are so high that people fly only as last resort. This has caused Kingfisher to the edge of bankruptcy and Jet has declared a loss of Rs 7.13 billion. Instead of pouring precious taxpayer billions into the highly corrupt Air India the government should use that money to lower taxes on aviation fuel and other insidious taxes on flying. A flourishing airlines industry is essential for commerce and tourism and will stimulate the economy but Congress is stuck in its imbecile socialist ideology of aam aadmi which causes unchecked corruption and increases inflation. High taxes cause high inflation leading to decreasing consumption leading to declining industrial production leading to unemployment leading to fall in the rupee leading to inflation. Welcome to a crash.

As expected the situation in Syria is cooking nicely. Peaceful protests are gradually giving way to armed attacks by protesters and deserters from the army. Superficially it may resemble Libya but Syria is much more complex. It has a mainly Sunni population ruled by a minority Shia government which controls the armed forces and the civil service. This minority will lose all its privileges if Sunnis take over and, knowing the level of hatred between them, will suffer many casualties. Naturally the regime is close to Iran, the only Shia country in the middle east. It is possible that Iranian Revolutionary Guards are directing the killing of protesters. The Arab league led by Saudi Arabia, which hates Iran, has suspended membership of Syria forgetting how the Sunni minority regime brutally crushed the Shia majority in Bahrain with Saudi Arabia sending in its troops. Turkey, a close ally in the past, is giving shelter to rebels and threatening to cut off electricity supplies. Prime Minister Erdogan has said that the future cannot be built on " the blood of the oppressed " quite forgetting the genocide of Armenians in the past and the persecution of Kurds at present. The west is hamstrung. Having deceived the Security Council into authorising a no-fly zone over Libya on the pretence of protecting civilians they actively attacked Gaddafi and his family. Now China and Russia will veto any resolution on Syria. One option will be to attack Iran. Recently an IAEA report said that Iran is close to making a nuclear bomb. Was this to give US and its allies the excuse they need to attack Iran? Israel is already threatening to do so. Will the Saudis help Israel? So devious! Love it.

On September 10, 2008, Times Now, a television news channel, was reporting on a provident fund scam at the Ghaziabad District Court. During the report the channel mentioned Justice PK Samantha of the Kolkata High Court but unintentionally showed the picture of Justice PB Sawant, retired judge of the Supreme Court, for about 15 seconds. Once the mistake was realised the channel ran a public apology to the judge for 5 days. Not satisfied Justice Sawant sued the channel for defamation and the Pune High Court has awarded a mind boggling Rs 1 billion in damages. The aggrieved channel appealed to the Supreme Court for remedy but was told that it has to deposit Rs 200 million in cash and Rs 800 million in bank guarantees before the court will hear the appeal. In the past, Delhi High Court sentenced 2 journalists to jail for contempt of court because they had the audacity to write an article exposing how the sons of the then Chief Justice of the Supreme Court were benefiting from the sealing of high street shops in Delhi. The sons worked for a company building shopping malls which made huge profits from the orders of the Chief Justice. The same Delhi High Court has just given Manu Sharma, murderer of Jessica Lall, a 5 day leave to attend his brother's wedding making mockery of his life sentence. All cases of grabbing pubic land against Justice Dinakaran were dropped when he resigned. After pronouncing judgments from on high for years judges in India are clearly suffering from ' God complex ' so that any perceived insult, no matter how trivial, is deemed more serious than murder. They should beware. The remedy could be exceedingly bitter.

A group of people including former chief of Indian Airforce, S Krishnaswamy, former chief of Mumbai police, J Ribeiro and former Joint Director of CBI, BR Lal have filed a Public Interest petition in the Supreme Court asking why CB Bhave was not given a second term as chief of the Securities and Exchange Board of India. ( TOI. Nov 14 ). Mr Bhave was appointed in 2008 and his contract was not renewed after 3 years. The petition challenges the appointment of UK Sinha alleging irregularities. In defence the Congress has hit back saying that Mr Bhave was appointed even though the Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council had advised against him because he had failed to prevent an IPO scam of Rs 1.15 billion. That is damning indeed except that 3 years ago it was the same Congress and the Prime Minister in power. Is the Finance Ministry saying that our most revered Prime Minister appointed a man under a cloud? The Prime Minister was also instrumental in the appointment of PJ Thomas as Chief Vigilance Commissioner, in spite of questions about his role in the palmolein import scam of 1992, over the objections of the Leader of the Opposition in Parliament. Mr Thomas' appointment was later quashed by the Supreme Court. Meanwhile the Congress is set to probe as to who is financing the protest against the nuclear power plant at Kudankulum. This is standard Congress policy of using government institutions, paid for by the taxpayer, to attack anyone protesting against its policies as they did against the civil society movement against corruption. Politicians may try to suppress us but that only increases our belief that they are stinking lowlife.

Kingfisher Airlines, owned by liquor baron Vijay Mallya, is asking for government help in restructuring its loans. Kingfisher has a debt of Rs 7o billion and the promoters have already pledged 90.17% of their shares to secure loans. This may be a sign of its financial stress or an effort by the canny promoters to maximise the value of their share of the airline in case it goes bankrupt. Kingfisher has cancelled many flights causing crowding in other airlines and a resultant increase in ticket prices. Yesterday Mallya said in his Twitter account." Is it Kingfisher's duty to fly on loss making routes, when state governments tax heavily. Or should we be financially prudent and fly profitably." He said," Every government has gone out of the way to support airlines and connectivity. In India airlines are over taxed and over charged. Wonder why?" Jet Airways has reported a loss of Rs 7.13 billion in the last quarter. Exorbitant taxes, forcing airlines to fly to loss making small towns and taxpayer money poured down the totally corrupt government owned Air India is killing private airlines. Seems that the Exim Bank in the US is to lend $ 3.4 billion or Rs 170 billion to Air India to buy 27 Boeing Dreamliner planes. American Transport Association has written to the bank objecting to the loan and pointing out that Air India is very poorly managed to which the bank has answered that the government of India has given sovereign guarantee to the loan. Central and state governments are bankrupt and desperate to raise revenue. Next year several states will hold assembly elections and politicians need social schemes to loot so as to raise money for campaigning. The future is dark.

If you drive from Delhi to Vadodara in Gujarat, a distance of about 1000 km, you will be stopped 18 times to pay toll for a total of Rs 751, which is a tax of Rs 0.75 per km. Trucks have to pay anywhere from Rs 500-800 per stop which means that a truck will pay around Rs 10000 for delivering cargo and the same for returning empty. This is an extortionate tax on commerce which explains why growth will not be possible without stoking inflation. So lucrative is this extortion that construction companies compete to pay the government anything up to Rs 1 billion to secure a contract for building a highway for which they may spend Rs 300 billion. In return they are allowed 30 years of free hand to loot Indians, earning trillions. God knows what percent the politicians are getting out of this ' highway robbery '. The Sun, a UK tabloid, exposed that the British government earns 31.5 billion pounds every year from vehicle and fuel excise duty of which only 13.4 billion is spent on maintaining roads and environment, netting the treasury 18.1 billion or 293 pounds per person per year. A study by Taxpayers Alliance showed that rural people paid 566 pounds per head per year while urban people paid 35 pounds because of better public transport in cities and towns. Sadly we have no such study in India. Exorbitant taxes fuel inflation and make us poorer. Car sales are down more than 25% and now moped sales are also declining showing stress on rural incomes. The Congress must be delighted. Their survival depends on the naked aam aadmi which allows them to arrange easy to loot social schemes which makes them rich and khas. Great.

Stock markets around the world rebounded after Greece appointed Lucas Papademos as Prime Minister and Mario Monti is to take over from our old friend Silvio Berlusconi. The optimism is due to both men being technocrats rather than career politicians, the expectation being that they will do what is best for their countries rather than looking at the next election. But will they? Papademos was the Governor of Greece central bank when the country joined the euro with fake accounts of its finances. Was he unaware of the deception? If so, why? Mario Monti is International Adviser to Goldman Sachs and Coca Cola ( Wikipedia ). Both men seem pillars of the establishment which is seen as helping bandit bankers continue with their bonuses while piling hardships on the people. At least Monti has promised to cut perks enjoyed by politicians in Italy. If only we had someone like him in India. Here politicians believe that winning an election gives them the right to use public money for personal luxury, foreign travel and sending a private aircraft to fetch a pair of sandals. Like mongrels fighting in a garbage dump they fight to get cabinet posts which give them control of public sector companies. They then use the company's money to finance travel with wife, family and friends. Conrad Black is serving a long prison term for precisely the same crime but our politicians control the police and so are immune. At least Berlusconi is honest enough to claim that he can do it 5 times a night but our politicians claim to be impotent after raping women. There is no creature lower than politicians. We need Citizens Corporations to protect us. Urgently.

Life sentences have been awarded to 31 people convicted of killing minorities in 2002 in riots following the burning of Hindus in the Sabarmati Express. That is entirely correct and the Congress controlled press is suitably righteous in its plaudits. However, there is no righteous indignation on the killing of 3 Hindus in Sindh province in Pakistan on Monday. Any crime committed by " minorities " against Hindus do not deserve a mention. There was no condemnation from our government. It was left to the US State department to issue a condemnation and demand that the perpetrators be brought to justice. Meanwhile our most revered Prime Minister is enjoying the balmy weather of the Maldives where he is pictured shaking hands with Pakistani Prime Minister, Gilani whom he has called a " man of peace ". Much is being made of the Most Favored Notion status conferred to India by Pakistan recently, at least 20 years too late. It is not because rabid generals have suddenly seen the light but because Pakistan is bankrupt. Its traditional alms giver, the US, is cutting back and desperate visits with a begging bowl to China and Saudi Arabia have seen it remain empty. So, apart from an invitation to our Prime Minister to visit Pakistan which has been accepted with alacrity, has India gained anything from the talks? We will never know because our press will not give a balanced review. Anyway we are happy that our Great Leader is dashing about the world for us. Only recently he has been to New York, Cannes, Maldives and is off to Indonesia and Singapore on November 18. We hope the food is tasty. What vicarious pleasure for our hungry stomachs.

Our most revered Finance Minister says that food inflation is at 12.21% because Indians have become so rich under this Congress led government that we are gorging on eggs, meat, vegetables and milk. Fancy that. People are so stupid that they do not realise how full they are and keep complaining about having to stop eating eggs, meat, vegetables and milk. The economy is doing so well that the rupee is down 10% against the dollar, indirect tax collection is down 2.5% in October showing reduction in consumer spending, fiscal deficit will be higher than 6% and the trade deficit is $ 273.5 billion between April to October. Moody's has downgraded outlook for Indian banks from stable to negative because of deteriorating asset quality, capitalisation and profitability. Allahabad bank has not sanctioned any loans to state electricity boards for the last 6 months because of mounting debts. Despite enormous rises in electricity bills power distribution companies lost Rs 400 billion last fiscal because at least 40% of power is stolen by friends of politicians and civil servants. A check from Kingfisher Airlines to Airport Authority for Rs 150 million has bounced. Jet Airways is having to lay off 10% staff and the Chairman of state owned Hindustan Petroleum, S Roy Choudhury says he has no money to buy crude. HPCL has debts of Rs 310 billion and its debt equity ratio stands at 3:1 making it impossible for the company to borrow more money. All this is because of uncontrolled spending by the Congress in an effort to buy votes to win the last election and frantic increase in taxes to plug the hole. We are going down. Time to drown our worries. If only we could afford it.

In the end it was the bond market that got rid of Silvio Berlusconi. He entered politics for the safety it provided and opportunities of making money. He was accused of numerous crimes but always managed to stay out of jail because his vast wealth allowed him to appoint the best defence lawyers and the extreme corruption in Italy protected him. He lied about reducing his control of the media after becoming prime minister and was totally shameless when exposed for using a teenager, Karima el Mahroug for his bunga bunga parties. He then used his influence to interfere with police investigation of the girl. His excuse that he thought her to be the granddaughter of his friend Hosni Mubarak, former president of Egypt, is so pathetic that you wonder how Italians could allow such a clown to humiliate their country time and again. He probably saw himself as a macho latter day Julius Caesar dallying with Cleopatra but in reality came across as a slimy third rate hood lying and twisting every which way to stay out of prison. George Papandreou of Greece had the courage to offer a referendum to his people which eventually cost him his job but not so Berlusconi. Till the last he tried to stay in power until a vote on the budget showed his lack of a majority. He has used his country for his own self interest and leaves it with a debt of $2.6 trillion. Next year Italy will have to roll over $360 billion and the markets do not believe that it will be able to do so. Yields on 10 year bonds rose above the psychological 7% level this morning. Sadly India also has the Italian model and our politicians are just as slimy criminals. How to get rid of the Italian model?

In a feelgood article titled " An Autumn of Happy Tidings " in the Times of India today, one Chandrajit Bannerjee writes of all the good things that our politicians are doing for the country. The cabinet has cleared a National Manufacturing Policy which will increase competitiveness in manufacturing and provide a boost by helping to acquire land and improving infrastructure. How? Every highway that is built is a means of extorting money through tolls so onerous that traffic consists mainly of trucks and very few private motorists. The RBI has indicated a stop to increasing interest rates because of enormous pressure put on it by vested interests but it is stupid to think that uncontrolled inflation will not decrease production by reducing consumer spending. Even though we have vast coal reserves we are unable to supply our power plants. Vast amounts of our mineral wealth are being stolen by criminal politicians and civil servants. Film producer, Vinod Bachchan had to pay bribe for every scene that was shot at the Qutab Minar in Delhi because the staff, who are government employees, kept obstructing the crew. Instead of being ashamed one of the scum said that the Mr Bachchan was the guilty party for paying bribes. Subhumans! An actress Shriya Saran was abused and assaulted in Hyderabad by Telegana activists while police stood by watching. Raje Bhatnagar, Deputy Director of Directorate General of Civil Aviation has been suspended because of his involvement in importing luxury jets for a private company involving millions of rupees. India would have " happy tidings " if politicians and civil servants were eliminated. But how?

The government has embarked on a project to provide a Unique Identity Document for every citizen of the country at colossal expense that the country can ill afford. A form asks for name, age, address, cell phone number, bank and post office account details. Photocopies of various documents, such as passport, driving licence, birth certificate, school leaving certificate and others may be attached as proof of the information supplied. There is a question asking for permission for the information to be supplied to other agencies. In an effort to deceive the public the question is asked in the negative i.e. " Please indicate if you do not have any objection to this information being supplied to others ". You have to tick yes or no. Most probably this has been done deliberately so that either answer can be construed as an affirmative. The reason for wasting trillions of rupees of taxpayer money is that the government can target poor people more effectively for social services. People like me who have to pay taxes, do not belong to SC, ST, OBC or any minority community, do not receive any form of service from the government and are dismissed as inconsequential because our numbers do not qualify us as " vote bank " must not be forced to supply such details to a gestapo government. Since politicians and civil servants are criminals what is to prevent these details being supplied to a terrorist who can then make a card for himself in my name? Will I ever be able to prove my innocence? Previous experience with voter I card and PAN card shows that details of one person were often added to another one. Time to be terrified.

In a shocking example of blatant lies posing as news the Times of India today leads with the headline " Sadbahavana Stabbed ". Sadbahavana means " good thoughts " and is the slogan used by Gujarat Chief Minister, Modi for his campaign for communal harmony. Just below the headline is a photograph of one Nadeem Saiyad who was apparently a witness in communal riots at Narod Patia and was stabbed to death yesterday by 4 men. Anyone seeing the headline and the photo would immediately jump to the conclusion that either Mr Modi or the BJP had something to do with Mr Saiyad's killing in an effort to suppress evidence of communal violence following massacre of Hindus in Sabarmati Express at Godhra. The Congress pit bull press has been vilifying Mr Modi for the deaths of a few " minorities " while keeping silent about 10,000 Sikhs killed in 1984 and the Union Carbide deaths. On reading the article it turns out that Mr Saiyad was murdered by 4 of the " minority " community because he had informed the police of the illegal slaughter of cows. In a similar campaign of lies the press has been wildly exaggerating any little slip made by Anna Hazare or his supporters and constantly defending the Congress as democratic. Firstly, it is not democratic to loot the country of trillions of rupees as the Congress and its allies have been doing. Secondly, if a witness has a criminal record will he be disqualified from testifying to a crime in any court of law? The dogs of Congress never mention the Adarsh, the CWG and other crimes perpetrated by the Congress. The protectors of the corrupt are true enemies of the people.

A US investment firm, MF Global his filed for bankruptcy. It had $6.3 billion exposure to sovereign debt of countries like Italy and Spain and was downgraded by Moody's last week. Apparently, there is a $ 600 million hole in its accounts books which frightened off a potential buyer. In a curious outcome of globalisation it was an American company which was the first to go bankrupt because of debts of European government. A package has been worked out for Greece but its terms are so onerous that there will be no growth for years and Greece will not be able to pay off its debts making default inevitable. Greek Prime Minister, Papandreou promised a referendum, giving his people a chance to vote on years of poverty, but has withdrawn the offer under pressure from France and Germany and his own party. If Greece defaults the pressure will be on Italy. Already yields on Italian bonds have risen to 6.2% and if they go above 7% Italy will be unable to service its debts. French and German banks will need government help to survive and a world recession will become inevitable. We are being scared by horror stories about such an event but it may not be such a bad thing. Sure, it will be bad for politicians, looting bankers and business robber barons as their bonuses and investment values plummet but ordinary people might benefit from lower inflation and more stringent laws governing capital flows. Some degree of protectionism will be good for employment and local manufacturing. If exports dry up and growth stops there may be serious unrest in China where people have become used to high consumption. Collapse of China will save the world. Let us pray.

Forbes magazine has ranked Ms Sonia Gandhi at number 11 on a list of most powerful people in the world. She maybe no. 11 in the world but in India her power is unlimited. The Congress has been in power for 56 out of 64 years of independence and is ruling now. The Congress is the most successful syndicate in the world because they control all institutions and the most of the media. The Congress consists of spineless invertebrates whose survival is linked to the power of this one family and they will happily kill for her. So dangerous is her power that the BJP dared not investigate the BOFORS scam when they formed the central government for 4 years. Now Ms Gandhi has decreed that 4% of all governments must go to people in the reserved category. Cabinet members were hesitant but no one had the guts to oppose the move. Meanwhile Mr Amar Singh, an accused in the cash for vote scam, is to go abroad for treatment of some kidney ailment. Earlier another politician spent over a month in the US for some " medical reasons ". We have not been told what these " medical reasons " are for the luxury trip which included the son in law, who is said to be a very successful businessman. These are the same people who are responsible for quotas in higher education and government jobs for unfit people because they happen to belong to certain caste or tribe. If they had any self respect surely they would seek out " reservation " doctors for treatment and not run off to white skinned super brahmins in the west. It is possible that Berlusconi is finished and Italy's economy may collapse. That may be a good day for India. We can only hope.

When push comes to shove all politicians are dictators. A kangaroo court in Britain has sentenced Julian Assange of Wikileaks to be extradited to Sweden where another kangaroo court will extradite him to the US where a third one will send him to prison. These countries lose no time lecturing China, which is trying hard to censor internet and micro blogging sites, on free speech and human rights. While applying sanctions on Syria, police in the US beats up peaceful protesters in the Occupy Wall Street movement. One Iraq war veteran is fighting for his life with severe head injuries while bankers give themselves huge bonuses with taxpayer money. Fans at the Metallica concert at Bangalore had to dump their belongings in a field because police would not allow IPads and laptops inside. They were given no receipt and all valuable items were stolen. When they complained police beat them with batons. When police are criminals did they expect anything else? In Delhi taxes have been increasing steadily to find money looted from the Commonwealth Games. Electricity rates have jumped, circle rates have gone up by 250% and today fines for trivial driving offences have gone up from Rs 100 to 500. While the lying press constantly accuses BJP governments in Karnataka and Gujarat of various crimes there is deafening silence on the Congress government of Delhi. Is it because the Wide Receiver is protected by the Capo? Meanwhile Manu Sharma, who is serving life for the murder of Jessica Lall, is asking for parole to attend his brother's wedding. Why not? Earlier Delhi politicians allowed him out for 1 month to enjoy nightclubs. Delhi,capital of crime.

One day after proudly claiming the 7 billionth baby the Congress government in Andhra has promised rice at Re 1 per kilo. This is to trump TDP which priced rice at Rs 2 which is continuing to this day. The cost will be Rs 22.6 billion instead of Rs 2 billion and 22.6 million people will be covered. There is no information of who will pay for this largesse and, needless to say, taxpayers had no say in this blatant bribery of the " vote bank ". Inflation is in double digits, fiscal deficit is out of control and the rupee is sinking fast but, hey, the Congress can always find ways for bribery. The reason is that illiterate poor far outnumber educated middle class. Politicians find it expedient to cater to this underclass to win elections which gives them the opportunity to loot and live in extreme luxury. Therefore, instead of improving standards in education they find ways to reduce standards to levels of imbeciles. Various states have asked All India Council of Technical Education not to register any more engineering colleges. This despite reduction in entry standards for this year's students by AICTE. Education is an enormous business opportunity with parents willing to pay millions to give their children a good education. This flowing source of black money has naturally attracted politicians who have opened many dubious colleges. Already 90% of doctors in India are quacks but now officially registered quacks will be turned out with 3.5 years of training to treat the underclass. However politicians will run to the US with son, daughter and son in law and enjoy there for over a month on our money. Traitors are taking us right to the bottom. Hang the lot?

A calamitous event came to pass yesterday as the world population passed 7 billions. Countries such as Nigeria, India and Philippines are claiming the 7 billionth baby as though it is an honor when they are unable to feed the people they already have. Of all the creatures in the world humans resemble the malaria parasite the most. Malaria enters the body through the bite of a mosquito and hides in the liver to escape the immune system. Humans evolved among other primates and at first lived in the wild for protection. Malaria multiplies until its numbers overwhelm the bodies defences. Humans have been multiplying without check. Mother nature has tried every means of wiping us out. She has tried floods, earthquakes, small pox, cholera, typhoid, plague and now HIV AIDS but just like malaria we have survived through shear numbers and just as malaria develops immunity to drugs we have developed vaccines and antibiotics to stay alive. Just as the malaria parasite invades the blood stream after multiplying in the liver so humans have invaded every space on earth from the arctic to equator, from the Amazon rain forest to the harshest deserts. Just as malaria causes fever in the host so we are beginning to cause mother earth to develop fever. It is called global warming and just as malaria finally kills the host we will kill earth. There is some good news. Malaria is able to pass to a new host before death but we have no time to invade another planet. Secondly, one species of malaria does not fight against another but we will surely wipe out all humans. The clash of civilisations has begun. Mother earth must be pleased.