Empires are not built to last.

Watching the Republican convention at Tampa in Florida is both amusing and bemusing. Speaker after speaker talked about the " American Dream ", the land of opportunity and the God given right for the US to be rich and powerful. What they do not seem to appreciate is that the American dream was based on an empire supported by overwhelming military superiority which allowed them to dictate to less powerful nations and exploit their natural resources. All empires, whether Roman, Ottoman or British, were established by military force and grew rich by slavery, taxing the hapless victims and plundering their resources. However after a time the conquerors became dependent on their serfs and the easy wealth earned, not through hard work or innovation, but by extortion. When the vanquished people sensed the weakness of the conquerors they revolted and the empire fell. The British sensed their end and knew that without American might they would have lost World War II so they attached themselves to the US as a voluntary slave nation supporting any military adventure that the US embarked upon. This allowed Britain to remain in the UN Security Council and strut about on the world stage. The US used its military strength to support dictators all over the world and to force unequal trade treaties on weaker countries. In the Uruguay round of trade talks African countries were forced to open up their markets to western imports, sell their resources at cheap rates and barred from selling finished goods by heavy taxes. Thus Ivory Coast could sell cocoa, which western companies would buy at dirt cheap prices, but could not sell chocolate because of taxes. All countries have now learnt and are now refusing to sign any trade deal that is unfair. Hence the WTO talks are not getting anywhere. The US prosperity was also built on consumption of huge amounts of energy and production of greenhouse gases. When the Arabs formed OPEC and increased the price of oil in the 70s it resulted in a severe recession. Even today petrol is selling at Rs 50/lit and there is an emotional outpouring of grief in the US to any rise in gas prices. The US is suffering a severe drought this year, forest fires in the west and a hurricane has just made landfall in Louisiana delaying the Republican convention by one day. Still it refuses to recognise the dangers of global warming and is trying to force India and China to cut greenhouse gases to the same extent as the US, which they are refusing to do. Losing wars in Vietnam and Iraq and achieving a draw in Korea and Afghanistan has not enhanced its prestige. China is now aspiring to be the new empire. They are using their military strength to claim the entire South China Sea and the right to exploit any natural resources that lie underneath. Also China is paying dictators in Africa to buy up mines and oil wells. Same game, different player. Thing is that the world has become faster so any empire is likely to last a very short time.

Bribery is bribery.

The government is about to introduce changes in the Indian Penal Code to make bribing a public official a crime punishable by 7 years in prison. An employee of any private firm offering bribes as well as the management will be punishable under the act. There is no mention of punishment for the bribe taker. Surely any public official asking for and receiving a bribe should be punished more severely. At the very least he should be made to pay a fine at least 10 times the amount of bribe taken and be sacked from his job without any pension. But the greatest bribes are paid by politicians and that too openly. The Congress Party in Gujarat is promising Rs 1.5 million homes to poor urban women over 5 years if elected in elections to be held later this year. There has been a mad scramble by slum dwelling women to apply for such free dwellings. For the rural poor, who are landless, the Congress is promising 100 sq yards of land and a loan of Rs 100,000 to build a 30 sq meter house. The government will stand guarantor for the loans and pay 50% of the interest. TOI, 23 August. GPCC President, Arjun Modhwadia said that 3.1 million families live in one room houses and 334,000 families live in rented houses in rural areas and are expected to benefit from this scheme. The Congress also promises to reduce VAT on CNG, petrol, diesel and fertilisers to make them cheaper and to implement the enormous pay rises for useless civil servants as recommended by the Sixth Pay Commission. Nowhere is there any mention of where all this money is going to come from and whether other taxes will be increased to pay for this plunder of public money. This is exactly the same sort of crime the Congress committed to win the general elections in 2009 when they increased salaries of civil servants by 80%, forgave all loans to farmers, recruited 700,000 teachers for government schools and started the MNREGA scheme which pays the rural poor for 100 days per year to report for fictitious work. The result was double digit inflation, ballooning deficit, a diving rupee, massive increase in taxes on everything leading to decreased consumption and falling growth rate. That was done on the back of high growth due to policies of the BJP government. Unfortunately, the BJP did not adopt these policies early enough so the effects were not felt till after the elections of 2004 which the BJP lost. Gujarat, also with a BP government, is the fastest growing state in India with continuous electric supply, good roads and a large port. This has led to massive industrialisation, wealth creation and a booming middle class. Unfortunately, the uneducated have not benefited as much from this boom but given time everyone will benefit from increasing number of jobs in the skilled and unskilled sectors. The answer is to encourage the poor not to breed so that their numbers do not keep growing. The law to punish bribery must include severe punishment for politicians plundering taxpayer money to bribe the electorate. Sadly a freeloading press will not bring out the truth.

People are the same.

For educated middle class people in India it is completely incomprehensible and totally frustrating to see the same scoundrels being elected time and again despite their crimes being common knowledge. We tend to disparage such voters as stupid, ignorant, caste ridden and interested only in freebies offered by politicians without thinking of the greater good. But seeing the delegates applauding Ann Romney's speech at the Republican convention in Florida it was striking that people are not that different after all. Seems that the vast majority of people hear what they choose to hear and not what we would define as the truth. Ann Romney said," I have been all across this country and I know a lot of you guys. I have seen and heard stories of how hard it is to get ahead now." No hint that the present economic problems were caused by George W Bush's tax cuts in 2001 and 2003, which converted a budget surplus left by Bill Clinton into a deficit, and a war in Iraq about WMDs which did not exist. She goes on to say that if you listen you will hear people sighing at the end of the day because of having to make ends meet. " And if you listen carefully, you'll hear the women sighing a little bit more than men." Perhaps because Republicans want to deny abortion even in case of rape or in the case of Todd Akin in cases of " legitimate rape " because a woman's body shuts down. " I know this good and decent man for what he is.... He has tried to live his life with a set of values..." Mitt is also a flip flopper who will say anything to win votes. He wants to repeal the Healthcare act even though it is based on his own law as Governor of Massachusetts and he is famous for driving with his dog tied to the roof of his car. " It's true - it's true that Mitt's been successful at each new challenge he has taken on. You know what it actually amazes me to see his history of success being attacked." Actually that is not true. At $250 million Mitt Romney is undoubtedly successful but it is small change compared to the likes of Bill Gates, Warren Buffet and Mark Zuckerberg. What people are criticising is his refusal to release his tax returns. He has released his returns only for 2011 even though his father released returns for 12 years. He has hidden accounts in Cayman Islands and other offshore tax havens, which are under foreign jurisdiction, just to avoid paying taxes. This makes him come across as shifty. In India we are used to our politicians being criminals but Americans expect their presidents to be honest. However, there is no doubt that Ann Romney adores her husband when she says," I want to talk to you about the deep and abiding love I have for a man I met at a dance many years ago." Not because she had 5 sons with him but because no one likes Mitt Romney. Not even the Republicans.

A debate of lies solves nothing.

In an opinion piece in Times of India today the Union Minister for Law and Justice, Salman Khurshid tries to defend the government and the Congress Party against charges of corruption. Being a lawyer and a politician Mr Khurshid cleverly relies on a mix of facts, half truths and false logic to make his case. It is true that natural resources like coal mines and spectrum for cell phones maybe given to private operators on a profit sharing basis, without any initial payment, to expedite the use of these resources for the good of the people and to keep costs down. However, when spectrum is given to selected people for vast bribes and coal remains in the ground because those who were given licenses had no knowledge of mining then we are justified in asking why. The reason why BJP is creating so much noise in Parliament is because the Congress uses the national investigating agencies like the CBI to its own advantage to target opponents. Thus the Reddy brothers have cases filed against them in BJP controlled Karnataka but no one in the previous Congress government of Goa is facing criminal proceedings. While the Governor of Gujarat insists on a Lokyukta against the BJP government there is no such pressure on the Congress/NCP government of Maharashtra. When the Congress constantly subverts the rule of law then it should not be surprised if people will not believe it. Mr Khurshid castigates the BJP for demanding the resignation " of an unimpeachable prime minister ". But is he? Surely being a lawyer Mr Khurshid is aware of what the term " accessory " means. In case he has forgotten we should remind him that an accessory is a person who is witness to a crime but does not inform the law enforcement agencies. Our most revered Prime Minister has presided over the most corrupt cabinet for 8 years and knowingly allowed the loot of the exchequer which makes him and a very willing accessory. He forced the nuclear deal to go through parliament by threatening to resign but he has made no such offer on corruption which is ruining the country. Finally, he was built up as the world's greatest economist by the press but has presided over a collapse of the rupee, soaring inflation, falling growth rate and will see a credit downgrade to junk status. What a wonderful record! It was because of massive expenditure to win the elections in 2009 that has resulted in this state. It is no use saying that he has no power because then he should not be in office. A man without sharam or izzat is trusted by no one. That is why no one believed him when he personally guaranteed the safety of the Kudankulum nuclear power plant. The Republicans have blocked everything that Obama has tried to do but his personal honor has never been in doubt. After all he does not take his wife, daughter, son in law, grand children and sister of son in law on taxpayer money whenever he goes abroad. Trust is a Humpty Dumpty, Mr Khurshid. Once broken it can never be repaired.

Stop the hidden subsidy.

Air India, supposedly our national carrier has made a collective loss of Rs 280.46 billion between 2007 and 2012. TOI, 23 August. Between April and June 2012 a mere 16 out of a total of 184 routes that it flies have managed to meet their total cost and 9 services could not even earn their fuel costs. Yet till 2003-2004 it was profitable and made a profit of Rs 1.05 billion in that year. Today it has debt of over Rs 500 billion. Mr Praful Patel was Minister for Civil Aviation from May 2004 to January 2011. From April 2009 to April 2011 his personal assets are said to have grown from Rs 790 million to Rs 1.22 billion at the rate of Rs 500,000 per day. Even the highest paid football players do not earn that much. On 25 April 2010 Mr Patel's daughter, Avni was to fly from Bangalore to Male in the Maldives with her husband and in laws but there were not enough seats in business class. So Air India changed the plane from A 319 to a larger A 320 to accommodate them. On the outgoing flight 47 seats were empty and on the return flight on 28 April, when Air India pulled the same trick, more than 50 seats remained empty. In May 2005 the former Chief of Indian Airlines, Sunil Arora wrote to the then Cabinet Secretary, BK Chaturvedi that the Indian Airlines board was being pressured by Mr Patel and his OSD ( aide ) in taking critical commercial decisions. In his letter of 28 May, 2005 Mr Arora that decisions of the board were overruled, more planes were purchased than were necessary, Indian Airlines was not allowed to fly on viable routes to favor certain other operators and even " seating configuration " were changed to favor a particular aircraft manufacturer. Mr Arora implores the complaint to be kept secret and to be communicated only to the Prime Minister because ".... like every mortal, I fear for my personal and family safety ". He also wrote," During the last one year all board meetings of Air India, and even some board meetings of the Airport Authority of India have become a farce." Apparently the key words were " immediate and unquestioned compliance ". Indian Airlines and Air India were merged on 27 February 2011. In the light of all this the report by the Comptroller and Accountant General into the development of Delhi airport by a private consortium, Delhi International Airport Ltd, becomes clear. The CAG writes," It was noticed that Ministry of Civil Aviation and Airport Authority of India, on some occasions, violated the provisions of the transaction documents in the interest of the concessionaire." One such violation was allowing DIAL to charge passengers a development fee thus making an undue profit of Rs 34.154 billion. To cope with the economic mess one common refrain is to do away with various subsidies that the government doles out. The biggest subsidy is to politicians in the form of criminal loot of the people. But politicians are in charge. So how to stop it.

Lady Godiva economy.

The government has decided to use the tried and tested strategy which is that a lie repeated many times becomes the truth. Hence a succession of shifty mouthpieces declaring that the economy is doing just fine and a growth rate of 11% with inflation at 10% is better than growth at 6% with inflation at 5%. Unfortunately for them figures have a habit of exposing the lies. Foreign Direct Investment has fallen by 78% in June from a year earlier. It was $5.65 billion in 2011 and is down to $1.24 billion. Apparently foreign investors are spooked by poor growth, inflation and changing tax laws. Tax laws keep changing because the government is virtually bankrupt and is unable to control deficit brought about by its profligacy in winning the last elections. Thus retroactive taxes on foreign companies has choked off FDI. Huge taxes on air travel has seen a fall of 10% in domestic air travel. Airlines are making losses and may go bankrupt as Kingfisher has done. High taxes add to inflation and have resulted in fall in household savings. Savings declined from 12.2% of GDP in 2010 to 7.8% this year. This shows the stress on families and means that spending power is falling reducing consumption and profits of all companies making consumer goods. High inflation means that the buying power of rupee is declining so people are buying gold to hedge against devaluation. Gold is selling at its highest level at Rs 31,115 per 10 grams but people are still buying showing what little faith they have in the World Famous Economist. Petrol is already at Rs 70 per liter but may go up by another Rs 3 per liter. The price in the US is around Rs 50 per liter which includes tax at 14%. Thus around Rs 30 is tax on every liter of petrol. Most people rely on their own vehicles to travel to work and will sacrifice spending on other things to pay for the rise in travel cost. The RBI is desperately urging the government to reduce expenditure especially since the poor monsoon is expected to raise food prices adding further to inflationary pressure. But the government cannot. Once you have added 700,000 government teachers, who do not come to work, increased salary of useless civil servants by 80% and have a vast army of rural poor who are getting paid for doing nothing you cannot take it back. Add to this the fact that the next elections are in 2014 and the Congress, led by Ms Sonia Gandhi, is desperate to continue the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty at any cost, and the situation looks dire indeed. They have just one more budget next year to bribe their " vote bank " which means another round of massive waste of taxpayer money, further rise in deficit, uncontrollable inflation and economic collapse. Instead of a king India has an empress. Sadly she equally bare.

Cost of labor.

Last week 34 striking miners were killed and 78 injured in police firing at Marikana in the Western Bushveld Complex in South Africa. The platinum mine is owned by the British company Lonmin, formerly called Lonrho which was described as " an unpleasant and unacceptable face of capitalism " in the House of Commons in 1973 by Prime Minister Edward Heath for its role in busting sanctions on the racist government of Rhodesia which is now known as Zimbabwe. Lonmin is the third largest producer of platinum in the world, around 15%, and aims to produce 750,000 ounces of platinum this year although that is now doubtful given the month long strike at its mine. Lonmin was valued at $10 billion 4 years ago in a takeover bid by Xstrata but is now valued at $2 billion. It has debt of $945 million and is planning a rights issue to raise around $1 billion to reduce its debt. Platinum was priced at $500 an ounce in 2000 and is now at $1500 an ounce, nowhere near the price of gold which has risen from $275 in 2000 to $1665 an ounce today. Platinum is also much more expensive to extract and refine which is why Lonmin is making a loss. The mine employs 28,000 miners who are paid Rand 5,400 ( $648 ) per month and are demanding R 12,500 ( $1500 ). They say that freedom from apartheid has made no difference to their lives and they have no money to send home to their families. The miners were instigated into violence by a smaller union which wants to increase the numbers of members and thus its power. This seems to be a classical story of poor management, poverty and political exploitation of illiterate people in a developing country. The miners have large families, often with over 10 dependents, and the increasing wages are insufficient to compensate for the rising cost of food. Being illiterate they are easy to inflame with talk of rise in the price of platinum. The sudden rise in the price of precious metals and the $10 billion valuation may have tempted management to take loans which they find difficult to service today. If the mine were to shut down the shareholders would lose money but they and the managers would have already made a lot of money from the mine and would just move on to some other business. They would blame the politicians who would blame management and the miners would end up starving. Should natural resources of a country be exploited just for making money or for creating jobs for the poor? The 2G scam and the Coal licenses scam in India hinges on that question. Licenses were given away cheaply without auction incurring a notional loss of Rs 3 trillion. However cheap license meant that phone calls are cheap and the price of electricity is affordable. Finally, poor people must stop producing children or they will die. Starvation or bullets, that is the choice.

The Congress always wins.

For some unknown reason the BJP, the largest party in opposition to the Congress led government, is determined to let the Congress escape any punishment for the numerous cases of larceny that it has carried out in the last 8 years. In 2010 it disrupted the entire winter session of parliament asking for a Joint Parliamentary Committee to examine the 2G scam. The Congress was steadfast in its refusal. This allowed the Congress to keep the people's attention fixed on A Raja and the DMK which allowed the Congress government of Delhi to escape any scrutiny of its handling of the Commonwealth Games where massive loot has been alleged to have taken place. The pressure on the DMK meant that Congress got to contest its selection of seats in the Tamil Nadu elections of 2011. The Congress and the DMK were routed in those elections which made no difference to the make up of the parliament but now that the DMK was wiped out in Tamil Nadu means that it has to support the Congress in parliament in everything or else end up in prison. The Congress was able to blame the BJP for disrupting the parliament for its inability to carry out economic reforms. Immediately after Tamil Nadu elections the Congress agreed to a JPC because it had got exactly what it wanted. Brilliant strategy. The losses in the allocation of 2G and coal mining licenses were notional but the loot during the CWG and the restructuring of Delhi airport was real money. The CWG loot was under the Delhi government which is Congress and the Delhi airport loot was under the Nationalist Congress Party which is the partner of Congress in the government of Maharashtra. One would have thought that the opposition would concentrate on these 2 crimes but the concentration of the BJP is fixed only on the 2G scam which will be very difficult to prove in court. This has allowed the Congress to hide the Shunglu Committee report into the CWG scam. The BJP is now disrupting parliament on the Coal license scam and is apparently thinking of resigning en masse from parliament in the vain hope of early general elections. The Congress will never call general elections before next April when it will have the chance of bribing the electorate in the budget. Instead it will waste tens of billions on by-elections in the 114 BJP seats in parliament. If it loses all the seats it will not change the equation in parliament and if it wins a few it will claim vindication in all its crimes. It is impossible that the BJP is a party of brainless morons. So has it come to some sort of deal with the Congress in which it will help the Congress to divert attention from all its crimes? In return for what? What is it that the Congress knows about the BJP that we do not? With our lot anything, no matter how filthy, is absolutely possible.

Politicians are illegitimate.

The reaction to Todd Akin, 6 times Republican Congressman from St. Louis, Missouri has been swift and hostile. A devout Christian, Akin is opposed to all abortions, including in a pregnancy arising from rape. He is the Republican candidate against Democrat Senator Claire McCaskill from Missouri. In a TV interview he said," If it is legitimate rape, the female body has ways to shut that whole thing down." He added," ... the punishment ought to be of the rapist and not attacking the child." The idea that rape can be " legitimate " enraged a vast section of the population in the US. Akin then dropped out of an interview on Piers Morgan show on CNN at the last minute prompting Morgan to call him a " gutless little twerp ". The Republican presidential candidate, Mitt Romney said that Akin's comment was " insulting, inexcusable and, frankly, wrong " and advised him to step down from his race. John Podhoretz of New York Post tweeted," A doctor just told Todd Akin that for people who are legitimately stupid, the body politic has a way of shutting them down." Jamelle Bourie at The American Prospect magazine tweeted," Tomorrow Todd Akin explains that legitimate murders don't cause death." In our Parliament Mr Advani of the BJP had to apologize for saying that the UPA II government is " illegitimate ". Congress members were furious. Never mind that the Congress had only 29% of the the 58% of people who voted in 2009 which means that less than 18% of the electorate voted for the Congress. Never mind that even this false victory was due to massive bribery of voters by giving 80% pay rise to useless civil servants, forgiving all loans of farmers and dishing out taxpayer money to rural people for not doing any work under the MNREGA scheme. This resulted in double digit inflation, a jump in fiscal deficit, fall in the rupee and falling growth rate. We still do not know whether Ms Sonia Gandhi has renounced her Italian citizenship or whether we are the only country in the world ruled by a foreigner. However, in contrast to the US our freeloading press stays humbly respectful no matter what our politicians say. One minster said that people are happy to spend on ice cream but complain when the cost of rice or wheat went up by Re 1. Another said that farmers gain from high inflation because they are getting more for their produce as if farmers do not have to buy anything else except food. However, the prize goes to Ms Mamata Banerjee who claimed that a gangrape of a woman was a conspiracy against her government. And she claims to be a woman. It is possible that the callous stupidity of our politicians is because they protected by armed commandos and billions in loot. The press is complicit in elevating them to VIPs and VVIPs. The rape of India is made legitimate by meaningless elections every 5 years.

Cannot kill an idea.

The freeloading press has been engaged in a systematic campaign of lies and sermons to discredit and divide the civil society movement, led by Anna Hazare, against corruption. The first line of attack is that politicians and civil servants are criminals because we allow them to be. By paying bribes to get our work done and not taking part in elections the people, especially the educated class, are responsible. Tar everyone with the same brush and the real criminals escape. What they fail to point out is that although everyone should be saints it is the politicians who have taken an oath to protect the constitution and hence are guilty of treason. Also ordinary people have no defence against persecution by a vindictive government. There are always the dregs of society who will follow anyone in power no matter how repulsive he is. Thus Hitler was able to turn Germans into Nazis, Stalin turned Soviet Union into such a repressive police state that a man would testify against his own brother and Mao's Red Guards wreaked such terrible savagery in the name of Cultural Revolution that 10 million people perished. The government has such a stranglehold on our lives that paying a bribe is sometimes the only means of survival. If you buy land for, say, Rs 5 million you will not be able to register ownership without paying a bribe which means you cannot get electricity or water connections. You will not get planning permission without paying a bribe so will not be able to build your dream house and after building you will not get a completion certificate without paying a bribe. If you complain to the police the officer will be merely transferred and before going will tell his successor to brand you as a troublemaker. Your file will keep getting lost and you will have to pay a bribe on your knees to protect your life's savings. To say that we are all criminals is a vicious lie put about by criminal politicians and faithfully repeated by the press. The second prong of attack is to taunt people by saying that since we merely criticise without doing anything about it we are just full of hot air and hence should shut up. By constant goading the press has succeeded in getting Hazare to form a party to contest elections. Since he has no black money and goons to resist physical attacks by opponents he will lose badly. The lying press will then trumpet it as a rejection of Anna Hazare and his followers. What the politicians and the lying press do not realise is that Hazare has already won. He has managed to portray the politicians as criminals in the minds of the people and it will not change whatever they do. You can persecute us but you cannot change our minds. Criticism works.

Gekko was just a novice.

In the movie Wall Street the hero Gordon Gekko says," Greed is good." For our politicians and civil servants greed is everything no matter what the cost to the nation. The Comptroller and Accountant General has tabled 3 reports in Parliament cataloging systematic plunder at the cost of the taxpayer. In one report CAG estimates that the exchequer lost Rs 1.86 trillion because blocks of coal were distributed to private firms arbitrarily without auctioning. This was at a time when our most revered Prime Minister was in charge of the Coal Ministry. Anil Ambani controlled R Power was allowed to divert surplus coal from captive mines for its Sasan project to other projects giving the company windfall profits of Rs 290 billion over 20 years. But whereas these were notional losses suffered by not realising proper value for natural resources the report on Delhi International Airport Pvt Ltd, which renovated the Delhi airport and runs it, shows active looting of flying passengers. TOI, 18 August. The project was to be built with equity and debt with no new charges on passengers but when the cost of the project rose by 43%, from Rs 89.75 billion in 2008 to Rs 128.57 billion in 2010 the Aviation ministry levied a Development fee of Rs 200 and Rs 1300 on outgoing domestic and international passengers in 2009. We know that companies are awarded projects by quoting ridiculously low rates which are inflated once work has begun. Whether these companies are allowed to see the tenders of others by bribing politicians and civil servants we do not know but such incidents have happened regularly in road building leading to exorbitant toll charges on drivers. Airport charges have recently been increased by 346% making Delhi the most expensive airport in the world. The CAG report states," Out of the total capital expenditure of Rs 128.57 billion the promoter's equity has been Rs 24.50 billion out of which 26% ( Rs 6.37 billion ) was contributed by Airport Authority of India and 74% ( Rs 18.13 billion ) by the other joint venture partners. Thus with an equity contribution of Rs 24.50 billion out of which the private consortium's share was Rs 18.13 billion, DIAL has got a brownfield airport for 60 years and in addition commercial rights of land valued at Rs 240 billion with a potential earning capacity of, according to its own estimates, Rs 1.64 trillion." DIAL also constructed an extra 17.8% of floor area increasing cost and has the right of first refusal to build a second airport within 150km radius for the highest price. The response of the Congress? That CAG has crossed the limits of its mandate. Do the politicians have a mandate to loot? Gordon Gekko could learn from these scum.

It is about position. Nothing else matters.

Private equity investment in India has dropped from $2.45 billion in the first half of 2011 to $1.22 billion in the first half of this year. Last year it was 11% of total investments in emerging markets while this year it is down to 7.1%. TOI, 18 August. Foreign Direct Investment is down 50%. Last year it was $12.2 billion between April and June while this year it is a mere $5.6 billion. Consumption is falling and companies are reluctant to make new investments in India preferring instead to make acquisitions abroad. The near 25% depreciation in the value of the rupee should have boosted exports by making our goods cheaper, a tactic so long used by China by pegging the renminbi to the dollar, but instead exports have fallen by near 15% in July. Between April and July exports have fallen by 5.06%. To be sure, some of it is due to decreased demand in the US and Europe but a lot of it is due to uncontrolled inflation which has increased prices by near 100% in the last 3 years. Rating agencies have put India on a negative watch meaning that our credit rating could be reduced to junk status in the next 6-18 months. But already markets have factored in a downgrade and are treating India as junk for investment purposes. In Credit Default Swap markets India is seen as a bigger risk than emerging economies such as Vietnam and twice the risk of other BRICS nations, Brazil, Russia, China and South Africa. The CDS rating for The State Bank of India, which is seen as a proxy for sovereign rating, was already 300 basis points higher before S$P warning and is now at 320 basis points higher. At this level it is seen as a higher risk than Philippines and Vietnam and twice the risk of Indonesia. What we need is for property prices to come down by about 70%, which will reduce the amount of black money in the system, bring down inflation to between 2-3% by keeping interest rates high and reduce taxes. This will immediately increase household consumption, reduce inventories and allow companies to make new investments. There is a hysterical demand for reducing interest rates because every company has invested heavily in acquiring land hoping to make windfall profits by building apartments and selling them at exorbitant rates. Now most builders are sitting on large numbers of unsold properties and hence are howling for interest rate reduction. They are not bothered that by doing so will further reduce the value of the rupee and stoke inflation. So what is the government doing? All officials and politicians are engaged in a nitpicking debate about growth rate. While Crisil and Moody's say growth will be 5.5% the sarkari idiots argue it will be 6.7%. Why? Michael Steiner, the new German Ambassador to India says," It is not about keeping your position. Leadership is about bringing people to somewhere and not yourself to somewhere." Sadly, for these scoundrels that is all that matters.

Right of oppression.

Little Ecuador, with a population of just 16 million, has decided to take on the US, UK and Sweden by granting political asylum to Julian Assange, founder of Wikileaks. Since he became Prime Minister David Cameron has desperately tried to brandish his manhood. Margaret Thatcher had her Falklands war and the first Iraq war, Tony Blair had the second Iraq war so Cameron wanted to take on all comers to prove that he is not an upper class twit. He was the prime mover for bombing Libya which killed 30,000 and has left the country divided into zones controlled by heavily armed militia with civil war a real possibility. In February he said," There of course has to be military pressure on Al-Shabaab," meaning air strikes in Somalia but was slapped down by Hilary Clinton who said that western air strikes would " not be a good idea ". Then he unnecessarily provoked the Argentinians by sending a warship to the Falkland islands. However Britain is and will remain a slave country to the US. Britain has a one way agreement with the US wherein the US can extradite British citizen to be tried in the US but the British cannot extradite a US citizen to be tried in Britain. Hence the ruling on Julian Assange. Assange had sex with 2 women between 17 and 20 August 2010 in Sweden. The sex was consensual and the women apparently boasted about having sex with such a famous man. Then they filed charges of rape against Assange for not using a condom and one woman even charged him with having sex with her while she was asleep. It is hard to believe a woman can remain asleep while a man is having sex with her unless she is on hard drugs. Sweden has been taken over by jihadist feminists and if a woman changes her mind while having sex then the man is guilty of rape. Any man paying for sex is guilty of a crime but a prostitute is not although pimping and procuring and operating a brothel are also illegal. Whether all these charges were at the instigation of the US, who want to get their hands on Assange for releasing videos showing US soldiers committing dreadful war crimes in Iraq, we do not know. Assange appealed to British courts saying that he maybe extradited from Sweden to the US where he will be charged with spying and given a very long sentence but the obedient British court turned him down. So he took refuge in the Ecuadorean embassy in London and asked for political asylum. Contrary to international law British police forced their way into the embassy but did not arrest Assange. Ecuador said that Swedish laws are political and that Assange maybe persecuted in the US. A US spokesman said that he will be prosecuted but not persecuted. However, Pfc Bradley Manning, who supplied the confidential documents to Assange, was kept naked in solitary confinement, subjected to frequent naked inspections and deprived of sleep. Torture by any definition. In all this Australia has maintained a stony silence although Assange is an Australian. Clearly Britain is not the only slave nation.

Taxes support robbery.

Indians do not realise how we are being robbed in everything we do in the form of taxes. It is only when we look at the breakdown of what we pay that the colossal taxes we pay becomes apparent. To service a car, a simple exercise, there is a 12.5% VAT on oil filter, a 15% VAT on engine oil, a 2.5% Additional tax on the VAT, a 12% Service Tax on labor charges and a 3% SHE cess on the Service Tax. The SHE cess has nothing to do with improving the well-being of women but is a tax for Secondary and Higher Education. The total tax works out at 14.4%. Why are we paying a tax for higher education when college fees have been doubling and trebling in the last few years? This is probably to pay for the enormous rises in salaries of government school teachers, who are of poor quality and often do not turn up for work, to win the last elections. Although over 80% of children are attending schools only about 50% of children of class 5 can read texts of class 2. About 65% of parents prefer to send their children to private schools even if they find it hard to pay the fees and the school is not registered. The other obvious reason is that the government desperately needs to make up shortfall due to vast amounts of theft. Despite 2 years of effort the CBI has not been able to find any evidence to nail anyone in the Commonwealth Games robbery. The CWG was held in Delhi and both the Delhi and Central governments are Congress. To date not a single case has been proven against Congress fellows except, probably Sukhram, who was accidentally caught with notes stuffed in pillows and mattresses. Even so the case dragged on for more than 15 years to give him a chance to die of old age which he refused to do. He has been sentenced to 3 years in prison but whether he is actually in prison or has been given parole to attend weddings of relatives or to go to nightclubs we do not know. In the absence of accurate figures rumors tend to thrive and the rumor is that some Rs 200 billion was siphoned off in the CWG. The Shunglu Committee report has been quietly buried. Now the Comptroller and Accountant General is to present a report to Parliament which will show a loss of Rs 1.8 trillion in awarding coal mining rights to friends and relatives. Not only has the exchequer lost money but most of the mines were never dug and the power industry is having to buy expensive coal from abroad making us pay a lot more for electricity and suffer long hours of outage. Americans are lucky in that they have the Republicans demanding less taxes for everyone but in India there is a conspiracy of silence by all politicians because every party uses taxpayer money to bribe the electorate to win elections. The US economy is still growing, albeit slowly, whereas Europe, which is enforcing austerity, is contracting. Wish we had a Paul Ryan in India. Instead of the crooks that we are burdened with.

What independence?

The Independence Day address to the nation by our most revered Prime Minister was part sanctimonious, part condescending and mostly fiction. You say that lack of consensus is blocking progress. When you have 47 ministries just to grab power any which way, when you stay silent when the exchequer is being looted, when you do not know the difference between dharma and Adharma, when you take orders without any protest just to hang onto your chair who is going to listen to you? You say that you will control inflation but how when it was your excessive spending to win the elections in 2009 is the cause? You say that MNREGA has produced rural employment knowing full well that this is just giving money for doing nothing and is the main reason for rural wage inflation leading to 10% food price inflation. You say that 100,000 villages have been provided with electricity and soon all households will be connected. Already farmers are given free electricity by state governments resulting in a debt of Rs 2 trillion for distribution companies and high rates for those of us who pay. We will have to pay even more and suffer longer power cuts. Maybe last months grid collapse was due to this reason. You say that 51,000 new schools were established and 700,000 new teachers employed. Then why have you forced private schools to reserve 25% of seats for the poor which is a surreptitious tax on fee paying students. Government school teachers earn double of private school teachers but do not work. Do you have the courage to take on their unions to punish them for not working? You want to provide interest relief for housing loans of under Rs 500,000, what about the middle class? Will these loans be available for us as well? Will banks enforce foreclosure if people do not repay their loans or will you just write them off, to add to the deficit, like you did with farmers' loans before the last elections? You talk about increasing foreign investment but cannot persuade your coalition partners to agree to multi-brand retail even though you are convinced of the benefits that will accrue. Why would anyone want to invest here when there are so many ministers to bribe and the rules keep changing. Exports contracted by 15% to $22.4 billion in July and by 5.06% to $97.6 billion between April and July. The Commerce Secretary, SR Rao blamed slowdown in Europe and the US for the fall in exports. " The growth rate in China's shipments have drastically come down to single digits from double," he added. What drivel! China is still growing while we are contracting. The fall in the rupee should have stimulated exports by making our goods cheaper in foreign currency but zooming inflation has canceled that by making goods expensive. If the government keeps throwing money to keep people inactive industry cannot afford labor costs. You talk about working hard, making every possible effort and leaving no stone unturned. What have you been doing for 8 years? What independence when our government still takes orders from a foreigner?

What do we know?

Total corporate loan exposure of banks in India is Rs 5 trillion and 39.5 billion of which 10 companies account for 13%, up from 6% in 2006-7. ET, 13 August. Adani owes Rs 695 billion, Essar Rs 938 billion, GMR Rs 329 billion, GVK Rs 210 billion, Jaypee Rs 454 billion, JSW Rs 402 billion, Lanco 293 billion, Reliance ADAG ( the Anil Ambani group ) Rs 867 billion, Vedanta Rs 935 billion and Videocon Rs 273 billion. All banks have high exposure to these groups although how it is possible for the same company to borrow billions from different banks is hard to imagine. Apparently the loans are for mining and power projects all of which need multiple clearances from various government ministries which work against each other, partly to show their power and partly because ministries are controlled by different parties which resort to cheap point scoring to increase electoral prospects. The State Bank of India has Non Performing loans of Rs 203.24 billion which is 2.22% of total loans. This is after restructuring. Most banks grant new loans to renew old ones, a system called evergreening, to hide the levels of their NPAs. If a company is revealed to be unable to finance its loans its share price will drop. Companies take loans against shares so if the price drops the value of the collateral falls. The bank then has to ask the company to repay part of the loan to adjust the loan amount against the collateral and, if the company is unable to pay, the bank is obliged to sell off shares to get its money back. However, if a bank unloads a huge number of shares the price drops even further and the company may find itself unable to do business. So what is the response of the government to this problem of the loan mountain? The government is trying every kind of trick to entice ordinary people, called " retail investors " in official jargon, to buy shares. The Securities Transaction Tax has been reduced and there will be tax relief on the first Rs 50,000 invested in shares. The Securities and Exchange Board is thinking of making changes to rules of Initial Public Offerings wherein retail investors will be able to buy shares online to reduce paperwork and the price of a portion of purchased shares will be guaranteed for 6 months. Try anything to hook the suckers. Halonix, 66% owned by private equity firm Actis, manufactures lamps for cars and domestic use. In February 2010 the company said that it would hive off the loss making CFL division and acquire its European distributor. Its share price jumped form Rs 63 to Rs 160 but the plan was junked a few months later. Somebody made a packet but small investors lost out. Now they have complained to SEBI and to the Enforcement Directorate. The share market in India is highly manipulated with rampant insider trading, round tripping of shares and false accounting. So why does the government want to snare ordinary people into this quagmire? They are terrified of banks going belly up. Just hang in somehow till 2014.

Power can be a headache.

The Egyptian revolution began on 25 January 2011. It was a spontaneous outpouring of anger by thousands of Egyptians probably inspired by the revolution in Tunisia which began on 18 December 2010 and ended with the escape of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali to Saudi Arabia on 14 January 2011. The revolution in Egypt was secular and led by the youth whose main slogan was food and marriage which really meant good jobs and wages. Mubarak resigned on 11 February 2012 amid great rejoicing but the revolution was hijacked by the Muslim Brotherhood which won the ensuing parliamentary elections and has now won the presidential election. However, winning power by stealth was easy but holding on to it is going to be very much harder. Last month the Supreme Court ruled that the election of the parliament was unconstitutional and the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces then dissolved the parliament. The SCAF also awarded extra constitutional powers to itself to keep all the benefits it enjoys. On July 7 militant Islamists attacked a border post in the Sinai and killed 16 border guards just as they were sitting down to eat after breaking their Ramadan fast. The militants then stole 2 security vehicles and attempted to crash them through the border fence into Israel. One vehicle exploded while the Israelis destroyed the other killing 7 militants. In response to this outrage Egyptian helicopters and tanks attacked Bedouin settlements in the Sinai killing 20 militants. Blaming Hamas for allowing militants to infiltrate into Egypt from Gaza, President Mohamed Morsi called the attack " cowardly ", closed the Rafah crossing into Gaza and brought in bulldozers to destroy tunnels that the Gaza residents have dug to break Israel's blockade. Today some gunmen opened fire on a checkpoint in the Um Shyhan are near the border with Israel while Egyptian security forces claim to have killed 5 fighters and injured 6 in al-Ghora in the Sheikh Zoweid area. Meanwhile the severe drought in the US is pushing up prices of food. Egypt imports 40% of its food and some 60% of wheat and its population is growing at 2% per year which is 3 children per woman. Being from the Muslim Brotherhood Mr Morsi is hardly likely to advocate family planning. To add to the problem upstream countries such as Uganda, Ethiopia and Sudan are all demanding a greater share of the waters of the Nile which is the mainstay of Egypt's irrigation and hence its food. In fact, Ethiopia has already started work on the construction of a huge dam across the Blue Nile which will produce more than 5000 megawatts of electricity. Mr Morsi is urgently going to visit Ethiopia although it is doubtful that he can talk the Ethiopians into changing their minds. Only 3% of Egypt's land is arable and without the lion's share of the Nile there will not be enough food. No one wants to give up power but the Brotherhood may find that holding onto it is very hazardous. Ask Mubarak?

Former judge stands up for politicians.

Mr Markandey Katju, Chairman of the Press Council of India thinks Mr Anna Hazare is an " idiot ". In an oped in the Hindustan Times of 9 July he blames the media for reporting on Hazare's agitation for an effective ombudsman against corruption, called Jan Lokpal. Mr Katju writes," Yet, like the Pied Piper of Hamelin, Hazare led the gullible people of the country in this dance of stupidity and he was ably assisted by the Indian media." Clearly, not just Hazare, Mr Katju thinks that all the people of India are idiots for wanting a clean government. To show his immense erudition he quotes Shakespeare," It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing." What gives Mr Katju the right to insult all Indians and Mr Hazare in particular. Is it because Mr Hazare is a humble man, who is not wealthy, While Mr Katju is a former judge of the Supreme Court. Mr Katju berates the media for not ignoring Hazare's agitation and says that the media should only report news and not create a sensation. He repeats the arguments put forward by criminal politicians that there being millions of civil servants a Lok Pal will not be able to deal with all the cases and will, therefore, be ineffective. So what is news? Is it his view that a government run by criminals sucking the lifeblood out of the nation not news? Perhaps Mr Katju should focus on the justice system in India. When has a judge sentenced a politician to be hanged or to go to prison for life without public pressure? Why was RK Sharma exonerated for the murder of Shivani Bhatnagar? Why was the pedophile Rathore let off with just 6 months in prison? Why is Ramalinga Raju still free after confessing to robbing Satyam while Bernie Madoff is serving a 150 year sentence? Is it not a judge's responsibility to conclude a case on time? By prolonging a case for decades are the judges not helping criminals to bribe, threaten or kill witnesses into silence? A Lok Pal may not be able to handle all the cases of corruption because crime has become so rampant in India but that surely is no reason not to try. We lock our houses when we go out knowing that a flimsy lock is no deterrent against a professional burglar but it is enough against opportunist thieves looking for quick profits. An Asda store on Atherleigh Way in Leigh in Wigan, UK has installed cardboard cut-out police officers in its store and seen a fall of 75% in shoplifting. Daily Mail, July 9. Greater Manchester police are now thinking of trying this across the region. The vast majority of people are cowards and will commit an offense only if they think it is easy. Just the presence of a Lok Pal will intimidate most of them. Sitting on a bench and pronouncing from on high is likely to give you God complex. Perhaps a bit of humility will help. Or maybe Mr Katju is grateful to Congress for giving him a nice little sinecure after retirement. A little present for a lot of support, what?

Laws for morons.

A new law says that if a pharmaceutical company pays for a doctor to attend a conference then both the company and the doctor will have to pay tax on the money spent. Funny, there is no tax on a politician taking his daughter, grand children, son in law and the sister of the son in law to a foreign junket on a special plane all paid for by the taxpayer. Also since there is no customs check on said politician the spawn can smuggle in any amount of contraband. Sadly now even AIIMS has been bullied into cancelling all travel grants for faculty. " This is being done following recent directions from the Central government. So all grants for international visits to any conference is being refused by the administration," said an official. TOI, 9 August. What the morons do not realise is that medicine is constantly changing. The drugs we use today were not there when we trained in the 70s. Of course, you read about them in journals but doubts still remain. All doctors have nightmares about drugs such as thalidomide. At a conference you have access to learned professors who have actually used a new drug and can ask specific questions to clarify your doubts and form an opinion as to which patient would benefit from the new treatment. Faculty need to meet other researchers to collaborate on further work. This maybe a mindless knee-jerk reaction to a TV program by a Bollywood actor who compared prices of proprietary medicines with their generic variants and showed that there is a huge cost difference. Naturally. The charge is that doctors are intentionally prescribing expensive medicines in exchange of freebies. The actor might have meant well but he is totally wrong. The big multinationals may spend on a well known professor but generally limit their gifts to ball point pens or writing pads. That is because their products are proven and well known. It is the shady companies whose products are of dubious quality that gift cars and TVs. There are about 2000 pharma companies in India without any control on what they make or the standards of their products. Most of them make the same range of antibiotics, pain killers and cough suppressants. To increase sales and product recognition they give expensive gifts to doctors with large practices. They also give enormous margins to chemists. If you write a generic it will be up to the chemist to give whatever he likes to the patient and naturally he will choose the one where his profit will be the highest. That means the doctor loses control of the patient to the chemist and if the junk medicine does not work the doctor loses his reputation. It is the government's duty to limit numbers of companies and keep a strict eye on standards. When criminals form the government they will react only as they know how - with knuckle dusters and knee capping. Meanwhile the Chief Minister of bankrupt Punjab, members of his cabinet and senior civil servants are off the US to attend the wedding of the niece of a MLA at a ranch in Wisconsin. A few Buds at lunch and Bourbon at dinner. Standard medicines. Cheers.

A minor scam.

A minor scam.

Seems that costs of irrigation projects in Maharashtra was increased from Rs 66.72 billion to Rs 267.22 billion by the Vidharbha Irrigation Development Corporation in a period of 3 months between June and August 2009. TOI, 7 August. With inflation running at over 10% anything less will be too little to go around. The cost of one project was increased from Rs 9.5 billion to Rs 23.56 billion, a second from Rs 6.61 billion to Rs 13.76 billion and a third from Rs 12.78 billion 21.76 billion. It is not because police in Maharashtra are chillaxing while people stuff their pockets with notes. Oh no. ACP Dhoble is now a household name in India for scaring the living daylights out of teenagers enjoying a party in private. Apparently they were found to be drinking and dancing to music - boys and girls together. These are called " rave parties ", what horror. What the hell is a rave party anyway? Who is raving and why? According to the dictionary " to rave " is to " talk angrily or incoherently ". By that definition any collection of politicians should be called a rave party. They get extremely angry if told to enact legislation for an ombudsman to control corruption and then shout incoherently about how parliament is " supreme " and the only institution with the power to pass laws. But that is exactly what we, the people, are asking for. Presumably the power to pass laws also means the power not to pass laws, especially ones which will punish crooks. Further, who should boys dance with if not with girls. Surely Mumbai police do not want all young people to become poofters. Now another ACP, Firoz Patel has decided to join the party. He and his men smashed up 2 nightclubs with hockey sticks for overcrowding and loud music. Perhaps Mumbai police think that this is a better use of hockey sticks after the complete washout of our hockey team in London. The same Maharashtra has just passed an amendment to the draconian Essential Services Maintenance Act by making it a crime to go on strike. Henceforth authorities will just have to notify employees that the strike is illegal and they can be arrested by any policeman without warrant and will go to prison for 1 year and pay a fine of Rs 2000. Surely it is a basic human right to refuse to work under coercion, dangerous conditions or without proper pay. To take away that right is going back to slavery. So while Rathore, a pedophile, gets out after just 6 months in prison and Manu Sharma, a murderer, is allowed to attend nightclubs on parole people will be imprisoned for nothing more than withdrawing labor. The law has already been signed by our new President, probably his first act. Not much different from North Korea, is it? We Indians can be so proud that our Parliament is " the light pillar of democracy ". Enjoy.

TAM is normal business for India.

NDTV has filed a suit against TAM ( Television Audience Measurement ) Media Research, a 50:50 joint venture company between The Nielsen Co and Kantar Media Research, in the New York Supreme Court asking for $1.4 billion in damages and hundreds of millions more for interference and breach of fiduciary duty. NDTV is alleging that TAM, which is a monopoly business in India, was guilty of tampering with television viewership data in favor of companies which bribed their employees in India. ET, 2 July. In a 194 page lawsuit NDTV says that it confronted Nielsen with evidence of data manipulation including taped meetings with TAM employees in India. In meetings and through emails Nielsen apparently admitted that its data was being manipulated and promised to fix it by 1 July. NDTV has filed the case in New York because both Nielsen and Kantar are based there and are guilty of not investing in the India business with the result that there are not enough People Meters to get an accurate picture of viewership. The TV industry in India is worth Rs 350 billion of which Rs 150 billion is from advertising. What really hurts is that foreign companies, which behave impeccably in their home countries, resort to underhand methods in India because all Indian businesses run on a combination of bribery ( usually politicians and civil servants to obtain land or licenses ) cartelisation, fictitious balance sheets, under or over invoicing and ripping off the Indian consumer. Service providers actively connive in cheating the Indian subscriber. If a channel has few viewers it will not receive any advertising revenue and will have to become a free channel to attract viewers. Service providers help to hide such figures by an especially pernicious practice called " bouquets " in which several channels are bundled together and the subscriber is forced to pay for the whole lot if she wants to watch just one of those channels. Very often Hindi and English channels are bundled together. In this way they make it impossible to know how many viewers each channel has so the channel is able to charge viewers as well as get advertising revenue. Thus service providers help to cheat both viewers and advertisers. The telecom regulator TRAI made it mandatory for all service providers to offer individual choice of channels so they suddenly hiked prices from Rs 5 to Rs 20 to force viewers to opt for " bouquets ". This is where TAM comes in. If TAM publishes accurate viewership figures a lot of channels will be forced to become free. Hence the bribes to TAM employees in India. But, surely, it is the government's duty to stamp out crime and protect Indian consumers? A top official in the Union Information and Broadcasting Ministry, who wants to remain anonymous, said," A lot of people have been raising concerns because of which we are looking at TAM very carefully. We will soon take some action." TAM employees are not the only ones with greased palms, are they?

Who wants gold?

What a dismal Olympics for India, lying at a lowly number 44 with just 1 silver and 2 bronze medals. It is not about being rich and being able to afford the best training facilities, medical care and nutrition for your athletes as China and the US are able to do. Even a starving country like North Korea, suffering under decades of sanctions, has 4 gold medals. It is not about size because Denmark with 5.5 million people has 3 golds, Jamaica with 2.9 million people has 2 golds and tiny Grenada with just 110,000 people has 1 gold. Partly it is because every sports body in India is controlled by slimy politicians and civil servants who are there to siphon off the money and roam around the world at the cost of the athletes. Rumor is that the Commonwealth Games netted some Rs 200 billion. Our 5 member wrestling team to the Olympics has 3 coaches and 1 manager leaving no place for a physio. Wrestler Sushil Kumar is personally paying for the air ticket and stay of physio Arvinderpal Singh who will not be allowed to stay at the athletes village because he has not been accredited by the Indian Olympic Association. However, there are at least 1 million Indians in the US alone and several million in other western countries. Yet not one of these countries has anyone of Indian origin in their teams. The reason is that Indian parents want their children to excel in studies, so that they can earn a living, and actively discourage " wasting time " on sports. You can see that in the " Spelling Bee " contest in the US where children of Indian immigrants regularly win top spot. Probably because learning the spelling of extremely weird words, that one would never remember or use during an entire lifetime, is considered studying. The sad thing is that while the US team continues to excel at London NASA scientists were celebrating the perfect landing of the Mars lander, Curiosity in the Gale crater on Mars after a journey of 8 months covering 352 millions miles. This involved some extremely complex maneuvers never tried before. The scientists were calling it " 7 minutes of terror " because the lander was out of contact for that length of time while landing. Not a single Indian has won a Nobel Prize from India, everyone has been working abroad. The best students turning out of our top institutions go into management and then into very highly paid jobs in companies where they are expected to obey orders and do whatever is necessary to make profits, however immoral it maybe. Standards of education are constantly being reduced to accommodate " reservation " students who are given seats with fewer marks and cannot compete. There are shortages of faculties in every top college because they are poorly paid and are told how to teach, the emphasis being on learning by heart. What our professors use to call " commit to memory and vomit to paper ". Libya had only one Gaddafi, we have thousands. If only we could bring them to the same end.

Why do we have a government?

After the explosions in Pune last week and a warning of similar attacks in Gujarat the Gujarat police has issued a warning to all shopping malls and multiplexes to install CCTV cameras everywhere and keep an eye on everyone moving around in their premises or else they will face strict action. TOI, 6 July. " We had sent decoys to review the security system in several public places and found that adequate measures had not been taken," said a senior police officer. " All the malls, multiplexes and shopping centres should have CCTVs both inside their premises and in parking lots.....We will keep sending decoys to ensure that the security measures are in place," he said. Yet even after the German Bakery blast in 2010 in Pune, in which 17 people were killed, CCTV cameras at Dena Bank and McDonald's were not functioning because both the police and the municipality had failed to activate them. Maharashtra Home Minister, RR Patil said that Mumbai police had received " sufficient " CCTV footage from cameras set up by private shops. HT, 3 July. There was no shame when he said it. Which government in the world totally abdicates all its responsibilities by handing them over to citizens? Call centers with female employees are responsible for taking them home safely at night. If our streets are so unsafe what are the police there for and why are we paying extortionate taxes? Private schools have to reserve 25% of seats for children of poor people and the government will refund only a fraction of its fees. This when salaries of government school teachers are double that of private schools. Nursing Homes and Hospitals must treat all patients in emergencies even if they are unable to pay. Emergency treatment is usually extremely expensive. A gunman killed 6 people inside a Sikh temple in a suburb of Milwauki this morning. One of the 3 injured is a police officer who was ambushed while helping a wounded man. The shooter was killed by another police officer. When has anyone seen police in India arrive at the scene of a crime so early as to apprehend or kill the criminal? The FBI is investigating whether this is a case of " domestic terrorism ". Our most revered Home Minister, Shinde refuses to call the blasts in Pune a terrorist attack when it has all the hallmarks of the Indian Mujahiddin. After all " minorities " are a " vote bank ". While Pakistan is going to take action against the Haqqani network under US pressure we open more of our borders to the Lashkar e Toiba by allowing Pakistan to open banks in India. The most important, perhaps the only, duty of any government is to ensure the security of its citizens both from external and internal attacks. This our central or state governments fail to do. What are they there for? To travel abroad with daughter, son in law, grand children and even sister of son in law with taxpayer money, that's what. Has any country have such a collection of criminal beggars?

Newton's third law.

Every action has an equal and opposite reaction. In 2008 the Congress resorted to bribery of the electorate by forgiving loans to farmers, increasing the salaries of useless civil servants by 80%, starting the MNREGA scheme which pays rural people for doing nothing and reduced tax rates by 2% to engineer a false sense of growth. The effect of lower tax collections combined with a massive increase in expenditure meant an enormous increase in fiscal deficit and double digit inflation. Elections in 2009 produced a hung parliament so the Congress bribed other parties by creating 47 ministries with 121 departments. With so many crooks wanting a share of the booty all work came to a standstill. Desperate for cash to reduce the deficit, so that more bribes can be given away next year to win elections in 2014, taxes have been increased on everything adding to inflation and reducing purchasing power of the middle class. Rumor is that Rs 100 billion was siphoned away in the telecom scam prompting the Supreme Court to cancel all 2G licenses. Now the same licenses will be auctioned off, the reserve price being fixed at Rs 140 billion. Foreign companies who have lost a bundle will retaliate through their governments at the cost of Indian companies operating in those countries. Minister of Telecom, Kapil Sibal said recently," 3G has not delivered because they paid such huge prices for the spectrum and there is no liquidity in the market for them to invest in the infrastructure and the devices to deliver 3G, for which 2G was successful and 3G was not successful." No longer. Telephone bills will jump. In the coal scam mining rights were given away to friends and cronies. Only few of the mines have been developed which means that there is just enough coal for 7 days of power production. Imported coal is expensive adding to the Current Account Deficit. So false were the projected traffic on highways that construction companies paid a premium to build them but are now finding it difficult to pay off their debts. There was no bid for recent contracts for road building. No one knows how much was siphoned off from the development of the Delhi Airport. Result: airport charges have been increased by 346% making Delhi the most expensive airport in the world. The Airport Authority increased ground handling charges from 13% to 36% of revenue last week. While Americans fly 1.8 times a year an Indian flies once every 10 years. Jet Airways and Spice Jet have announced profits after years because of the collapse of Kingfisher and strike by Air India. Foreign flights have been taken over by Emirates, Al Arabia, Finnair and so on. Fares on domestic airlines are so high that only businessmen and those in emergencies can afford to fly. Power companies are Rs 2 trillion in debt because of theft by friends of politicians and free power to farmers to win elections. Hence the blackout of 30 and 31 July. Who says there is no growth? There has never been so much growth. But only in crime.

The plot thickens.

Mr Kofi Annan resigned 2 days back as UN envoy to Syria because he is unable to see how to bring about a peaceful end to the fighting. The UN General Assembly adopted a resolution yesterday denouncing the violence in Syria and demanding a political transition. The resolution also deplored " the failure of the Security Council to agree on measures to ensure compliance of Syrian authorities with its decisions ". Although the resolution is not binding it is an indirect censure of Russia and China for vetoing any suggestion of sanctions against Syria. Read as a whole it is asking the Security Council ( read the US and UK who are always ready to bomb the hell out of any nation ) to get rid of Bashar al Assad by force. However, Russia and China refuse to accept any hint of sanctions against Syria having been fooled into supporting sanctions against Libya only to see that being used as an excuse to bomb 30,000 to death and Gaddafi into oblivion. Libya is now a divided country and last week a video surfaced showing rebels using his corpse as a ventriloquist's dummy inside a vehicle where one rebel was asking questions while another kept shaking his head form side to side. Saif al Islam, Gaddafi's son is a prisoner in Zintan. He is wanted by the International Criminal Court for trial but the tribe holding him want him tried inside Libya. When the ICC defense lawyer Melinda Taylor visited Saif in Zintan with 3 colleagues they were arrested on 7 June on a charge of passing encoded messages to him from his supporters. They were released on 2 July only after a personal apology by the ICC President. A new government has been elected in Libya but it is limited to Tripoli and if the tribes in Misrata and Benghazi refuse to share revenues raised from oil then a civil war is not impossible. Syria has probably reached the point of no return. Couple of days ago an unverified video showed between 20-30 men, who showed signs of having been beaten up, being executed by firing squad by the rebels who claimed that the men were members of Shabiha, the hated Assad militia. They could well have been innocent Shia men caught in the wrong place by the Sunni rebels. The rebels are being supplied by Qatar and Saudi Arabia and trained by Turkey and the US. These coountries probably calculate that a defeat for the Assad regime will take away the only friend that Iran has in the region and force it to negotiate its nuclear ambitions away. But what if elements of a Sunni regime in Syria decide to support Sunnis in Iraq against the Shia government of Nouri al Maliki? A civil war in Iraq and possibly Lebanon where the Hezbollah will lose its only supply route and become a sitting duck for Israel. Maybe that is why, fearful of its soldiers being attacked by Iranian supporters in Afghanistan, the US apologised humbly to Pakistan and is now busy packing up to run with its tail firmly between its legs. The US and UK have again created a terrible mess. Wonderful.

Better than the US.

Following the power outage on 30 July lasting for over 12 hours across 9 states affecting 300 million people the power ministry assured everyone that the fault would be fixed. So, of course, on 31 July the power outage affected 13 states and 600 million people. In response to criticism the Power Minister, Sushilkumar Shinde said," We got electricity in a matter of hours.... people should appreciate how work is done at the grid." Not content with this piece of inanity he went on to compare this with an outage in some states in the US in 2003 which took 4 days to fix. " I have briefed the PMO ( Prime Minster's Office ).....in the USA light ( electricity ) does not come for 4 days, here we got it ( restarted ) in a matter of hours," he said. Oh yes! The US is represented at the London Olympics by Michael Phelps and India by Suresh Kalmadi. Need we say more? So what did our Dear Leader do to reward such efficiency? He promoted Mr Shinde to be the Home Minister, a most sensitive post considering 4 IEDs exploded in Pune on 1 August. These have all the hallmarks of the Indian Mujahiddin but Mr Shinde refuses to call this a terrorist attack. He used to be a sub inspector in Mumbai Police and has sneaked in through the Rajya Sabha, just like the Dear Leader. In February 2010 a blast at the German Bakery left 17 dead and 60 injured. At that time a CCTV camera at the north main road was not functioning. Not surprising that the case remains unsolved. Following the German Bakery bombing the police asked for 837 CCTVs but Pune Municipal Corporation installed only 79. However, the PMC left it to the police to activate the cameras while the police thought the Municipality will do it. Consequently the cameras at Dena Bank and McDonald's were not functioning. Maharashtra Home Minister, RR Patil said that the Mumbai police have received " sufficient " CCTV footage from cameras set up by private shops. Needless to say Maharashtra has a Congress government. On 18 February 2007 a bomb went off in the Samjhauta Express, which links Delhi to Lahore twice a week, killing 68. On 1 July 2009 the US Treasury and UNSC placed sanctions on Lashkar-e-Taiba for the bombing and named one Arif Qasmani as having played a role in the attack. However, a Lt Col Purohit and Swami Aseemanand are in police custody for the bombing. On 8 September 2006 a bicycle bomb, just like the ones in Pune, went off in a Muslim cemetery in Malegaon. It had all the hallmarks of Indian Mujahiddin but the police are holding Sadhvi Pragya Kumari Thakur. After the Mumbai attacks of 2008 the Congress blamed Hindu extremists. While the Congress is whitewashing terrorist attacks on India it has allowed Pakistan to open businesses here and given permission for 2 banks to open branches. The ISI now has a direct route to finance its killers. Meanwhile the US is cutting aid to Pakistan and insists that it has the right to use drones to blow up anyone it wants. That is why the US is safe and we continue to die. Only the most thick skinned moron will compare the two.

Dirty or dirtier.

In 2010 a former Member of the Legislative Assembly in MP, elected on a Samajwadi Party ticket, Kishor Samrite filed a Public Interest Litigation at Allahabad High Court accusing Mr Rahul Gandhi of abducting and raping a girl in his constituency of Amethi in UP. Mr Gandhi denied the charges and the High Court dismissed the PIL on 7 March, 2011 with a fine of Rs 5 million on Mr Samrite. TOI, 1 August. Mr Samrite filed an appeal to the Supreme Court which stayed the High Court order in April 2011. Now, at the Supreme Court hearing, Mr Samrite has claimed that he was instructed by the SP leadership to file the PIL in the first place. He is revealing all this because the UP government of Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav has termed him " mentally unbalanced " in an affidavit and wants to make him a scapegoat. Mr Samrite says that he was called to Delhi in 2010 " to meet the other senior leaders, who were in Delhi as the Parliament was in session,where he was apprised about the facts of the serious incident that had been reported from a village in UP and was requested to file a writ petition in the nature of of PIL in Allahabad High Court." Considering that he is a politician he must be exceedingly naive. Firstly, he should know that you should never take on The Family, especially on such a grave matter. The BJP was in power for 6 years and yet did not dare to investigate the Bofors scam. Secondly, being a politician himself, he should have known that you never trust an Indian politician. Whether he thought that he would be rewarded with a safe seat from UP we do not know but he should have had some written guarantee before venturing to take on The Family. We saw how Mr Yadav's father set up Ms Mamata Banerjee before the presidential elections, appearing with her in front of the media and then stabbing her in the back after just 24 hours. We do know that Ms Dimple Yadav, wife of Mr Akhilesh, was elected unopposed as Member of Parliament from Kannauj which was vacated by her husband. Not one party put up a candidate against her so the voters were deprived of any say in who should represent them in Parliament. She had lost in May 2009 from Faizabad. It is possible that, after SP's thumping victory in assembly elections in March, other parties are already calculating the chances of forming a government in Delhi with SP support after the general elections in 2014. On 26 July one Prabhat Kumar Pandey filed a case in Allahabad High Court against the election of Ms Dimple Yadav claiming that he was kidnapped by workers of her party to prevent him contesting. Should we believe all these allegations of crime, perjury and betrayal? Who knows. However, there is no filthier creature than an Indian politician who is dirtier than a cesspit. How to get rid of this infestation that is the question.

We are so gullible.

A new survey by Gallup shows that 52% of Indians think that it is a bad time to find a job while 36% think that it is a good time. Only Americans are more optimistic in that 38% of them think that it is good time while Europeans naturally are more gloomy where 72% think it is a bad time. The quarterly credit review released by the RBI this week clearly states that it cannot reduce interest rates unless the government lowers both trade and fiscal deficits. "Financing the latter from domestic saving crowds out private investment, thus lowering growth prospects. This, in turn, deters capital inflows, making it more difficult to finance the former. Failure to narrow the twin deficits with appropriate policy actions threatens both macroeconomic stability and growth sustainability," says the RBI. This, in RBI language, means that the much hyped growth story was completely false, created by enormous wasteful spending by this selfish government. In 2010-11 growth was 8.4% while inflation was 9.1% which is actually a fall in growth of 0.7%. In 2011-12 growth was 6.5% with inflation at 8.5% a fall of 2%. The RBI is predicting growth of 6.5% this year with Wholesale Price Index at 7% till March 2013 which means that Consumer Price Index will be at 10%. If the MNREGA scheme was based on providing jobs to the rural poor in building roads, waste treatment or water distribution systems it would have improved infrastructure and automatically stimulated healthy growth in the economy due to increased commerce which, in turn, would have led to higher tax collections and lower deficit. Instead money was given for doing nothing resulting in rural wage inflation feeding into food price rises and shooting fiscal deficit. Increasing salaries of useless civil servants by 80% allowed them to invest a greater share of their bribe money into property investment leading to a boom in property prices, a frenzy of construction of expensive apartments and spiraling commodity prices. Those who had access to this wealth, based on black money, strutted around in fancy cars, dined in expensive hotels and traveled abroad in style leading foreigners to believe that there was gold in them thar hills. It was all a mirage. The RBI is trying to protect banks, which are sitting on massive loans to builders, from a bad-loan bomb which will bring down their credit rating to junk status. Business fellows want interest rates to come down so that they can unload stock of unsold properties or face bankruptcy like Malya is facing with Kingfisher Airlines. The government is desperate for this myth to continue till 2014 elections. Enter Mr Chidambaram, architect of the present disaster. What budget is he going to conjure up next year leading to elections. With Congress facing a danger of wipe out will he adopt a scorched earth policy and increase deficit so much that any other party which wins in 2014 will be unable to govern? We live to die.