Raymond and Amanda are both Americans.

On 1 November, 2007 a 21 year British student Meredith Kercher was found dead on the floor of her apartment in Perugia in Italy. Her roommate, an American called Amanda Knox, and her Italian boyfriend Raffaele Solicito were charged with the murder. Under questioning by the police Knox changed her story several times and her alibi did not hold up. They were tried and sentenced to 26 and 25 years in prison. One Rudy Guede of Ivory Coast is serving a 16 year sentence for the sexual assault and murder of Kercher. However, in October, 2011 an appeal court overturned the guilty verdict and Knox promptly flew back to the US where she has been appearing on TV and has earned lots of money from a book. No wonder she was known affectionately as Foxy Knoxy by her friends. The Italian prosecutors appealed and now a higher court has set aside the earlier verdict and has sentenced Amanda Knox to 28.5 years in prison and Sollecito to 25 years. On hearing the news Knox said, " I'm going to fight this until the very end. And it's not right and it's not fair and I'm going to do everything that I can." No remorse or any conscience. And why should she? Isn't she an American and don't Americans have the right to kill and torture anyone in the world? How dare any court convict an American? Raymond Davies killed 2 Pakistanis in cold blood in Lahore, Pakistan in January 2011 and a car coming from the US Consulate on the wrong side of the road killed a third man in a hit and run. The US claimed retrospective diplomatic immunity for Davies and forced Pakistan to release him after paying blood money to the families. In 2007 an Apache attack helicopter went hunting over Baghdad and shot dead 12 innocent people, including 2 Reuters journalists. The murderers went unpunished. The US government has committed more mass murders and genocides than any other nation in the history of the world. Hydrogen bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, napalm on Korea, napalm and dioxin on Vietnam, and depleted Uranium and Phosphorus bombs on Iraq. However, Americans do not kill only foreigners. Unarmed 16 year old, Trayvon Martin was shot dead by a much bigger man, George Zimmerman in Florida in February, 2012. Zimmerman walked free under the ' Stand Your Ground Law '. Unarmed Martin was not allowed to stand his ground. Every year 20,000 are killed by guns because it is sanctioned by the 2nd Amendment of the Constitution. Yet we die to go to this country of killers.

Quality education. But how?

In a reasoned op ed piece titled ' Body Of Unequal Evidence ', Sunil Khilnani, Avantha Professor and Director, King's Indian Institute, London says that every politician in India has his own agenda but " each leader sidesteps a glaring fact about the country they seek to lead: rising economic inequality threatens our future." Although inequality is growing everywhere, as evidenced by the ' Occupy Wall Street ' movement in the US, which was brutally put down by authorities, the rapid growth in numbers of young people with little prospect of escaping the poverty trap is widening the gap between rich and poor to unbearable proportions. He says that inequality in India is " rooted in the two-tier education system that primes wealthy students to become global crorepatis while granting poor students skills as flimsy as their certificates ( if they are lucky to enough to get one )." A survey of 100,000 students showed that only 30% are fit to be employed. Prof Khilnani writes," Indian and Chinese growth is viewed as a direct threat to the West's well-being in terms of jobs, environmental conditions, access to resources, and more." We beg to differ. China and India are completely different. While China grew by building a world class infrastructure which supported an industrial explosion of such magnitude that it became the factory of the world, India's growth was based on construction of private and commercial properties, fed by vast amounts of cheap debt, a soaring stock market boosted by billions of dollars from Foreign Institutional Investors and bundles of notes distributed by politicians seeking to buy votes to win elections. The growing inequality in the west is partly due to multinationals shifting production to China, Thailand and Vietnam in the quest for cheap labor and the resulting loss of secure jobs, with health insurance and pensions. The good professor should surely know that students have very different capabilities and those with high intelligence will seek premium institutes and centers of excellence, such as Harvard, Oxford and the IITs, will automatically rise to cater to this market. As in everything in the world it is a matter of supply and demand. To increase the worth of human beings we must reduce supply which means reducing population. By reducing competition for low paid jobs it will reduce exploitation and bring equality. Someone has to have the courage to say so.

Why Indians want to emigrate to the US.

In his State of the Union address President Obama bragged about how the US is now producing more oil and gas than it is importing and how manufacturing is returning to the US for the first time in 20 years. As the world's largest energy user the US is now able to maintain a steady supply of energy because it has adopted hydraulic fracturing in a massive way and is not as dependent on unpredictable supplies from the middle east and Venezuela. The US has been suffering bouts of extreme cold weather with temperatures dropping to -30 Celsius in places resulting in a huge demand for heating but unlike other years electricity and gas rates have held relatively steady. Compare that to Delhi, the capital city of India, which suffers daily blackouts because the previous Congress government did nothing to increase production of electricity and transferred transmission to private monopolies which have increased bills to astronomical levels. The present Chief Minister wants rates to come down so the duration of blackouts have increased, whether as a warning to the government is not known. Gujarat has the same rates but there bills are much lower which is a puzzle. Most of our more than 7,000 kms of coastline have not been explored for oil or gas. The reason is the demand by politicians for personal bribes and for massive amounts of money to be paid to the government to be granted any contract. This is then used for social schemes to buy votes. This is called Private Public Partnership but in reality companies do not invest any money at all but borrow every penny from public sector banks. Thus taxpayer money is being borrowed by private companies to pay the government to obtain contracts and the companies then repay the banks by charging toll from taxpayers in the case of roads or exorbitant rates in the case of electricity. The result is soaring inflation, rising labor costs and falling industrial output. Ten years back the cost of hiring a plumber, mason or electrician would have been 20% of the cost of materials but today the cost of labor is the same or more than the cost of materials. Bribes paid to politicians are invested in properties, raising the property prices and rents. Social schemes, such as the NREGA, are linked to inflation and so wages rise with inflation which then leads to rise in prices, raising inflation, in a mad cycle. Today rural inflation is higher than urban inflation which means higher food prices to come. That is why Obama can boast but our lot want to be treated as VIPs by airlines so that they can smuggle in contraband in complete safety. Is it any wonder Indians die to go to the US.

We must write our own fate.

Couple of years back India was one of the BRICS countries but today we are one of the ' Fragile Five ' comprised of Turkey, Indonesia, South Africa, Brazil and India. Dangers to the country are very high fiscal deficit, persistent inflation and a hung parliament in the general elections in April. To this list we would also add a massive property price bubble waiting to collapse, unknown amounts of circulating black money and a lack of manufacturing, leading to import of almost all items of daily use. " I am concerned that we have not been as successful as we need to be in generating employment in the manufacturing sector," said our most revered Prime Minister. Which is inexplicable because we have enough natural resources, large numbers of young people looking for employment and thousands of educated and talented Indians working abroad because there is no prospect of advancing at home. The British built the first railway line in 1853. In the 66 years since independence India has added 13,000 km of new railway lines while China has added 14,000 km between 2006 and 2011. For years passenger fares have not been increased even as cost of fuel has jumped. The reason is the socialist vision of our politicians who seek to protect the poor with policies that lock them into poverty for generations. Thus, a person can travel from one side of the country to the other for Rs 200 if he is prepared to fight for an unreserved seat in an overcrowded carriage in a passenger train, which will crawl to its destination in 3 days, often late by 6 hours or more. This person will be cooked in summer and frozen in winter as the carriage will not be air conditioned, will have to pinch his nose to use a filthy toilet, often without water and sleep sitting up as there will not be any space to lie down. To subsidise these passengers fares in air conditioned trains and first class have to be very high but not so high as to encourage passengers to fly instead of going by train. To maintain a difference in price between first class train fare and air fare taxes of air tickets, airport charges and taxes on fuel have been kept at exorbitant level. So poor people can only see planes fly high above them but can never hope to set foot in one. Although we have been making engines and carriages the designs have remained almost static while other countries have advanced way ahead. It is time we started to aim high, higher than the world.

The democracy trap.

Couple of years back people were talking about the rise of emerging nations and ' convergence ' with rich countries. Brazil, Russia, India and China were lumped together as BRICS nations. Our ministers were strutting around the world, drunk with hubris. The only argument was about when India will overtake the US to become the richest country in the world. No longer. Growth rates of emerging nations have tumbled from 8.7% in 2007 to 4% in 2013. Only China grew at 7.7% but even here there are doubts about how long the Chinese can continue to stimulate growth with debt, especially in the shadow banking system. Now the talk is of a ' middle income trap ' in which a poor country grows up to a certain level, often based on high commodity prices, and then stops growing or sinks back into poverty when conditions reverse. Perhaps it would be better to call it a ' democracy trap ' where politicians refrain from undertaking reforms needed to continue growth for fear of losing elections. It is easier to distribute largesse to the poor under the umbrella of ' inclusive growth ' which helps in winning elections. Slowing growth in China and falling commodity prices have slowed growth in Brazil. The Bovespa stock index has fallen by 20% in the last 12 months and the Real has fallen 8.63% in the last 3 months. This has been blamed on broad concerns over economic fundamentals, erratic policy implementation and heavy-handed government meddling in the private sector. " I want to emphasize that we will not be weak on inflation," said Dilma Rousseff, President of Brazil. " Today, the stability of our currency is a central value of our country," she said at the World Economic Forum at Davos. That is where our most revered Finance Minister has gone as is his wont. But that is where the similarity ends. Our ministers have shrugged off all responsibility by blaming the slowing economy on ' external factors ', have allowed inflation to increase out of control by pressuring the Reserve Bank not to increase interest rates and have increased government expenditure recklessly on social schemes. Instead they have passed on responsibility to private companies in the form of the Corporate Social Responsibility Act. However, the recent defeats in state elections have come as a sudden jolt to the Congress which is now trying to present free handouts as health schemes. They may call it what they will but it is definitely unhealthy for the nation.

The poor rupee.

Like the national flag and the national anthem the rupee is a symbol of the nation of India. At independence the rupee was at par with the dollar but today one dollar will buy you Rs 62.76. It did rise to 39 to the dollar in 2007 but irresponsible spending by the Congress to buy votes has squandered all the gains. Partly it is because it suits our politicians to show excessive sympathy for the poor, especially during election times, so that they announce large numbers of handouts, such as cheap food, free electricity, free televisions and so on. During the last assembly elections in Gujarat the Congress announced distribution of free apartments for the poor, called the ' Ghar nu Ghar ' scheme. When one party announces freebies other parties follow suit to counter it. This results in mounting deficits and soaring inflation which leads to a fall in the value of the rupee against other currencies because of falling purchasing power. Had the same amount of money been used on infrastructure we would have continuous, cheap power supply and world class roads without toll which would make our industries the most competitive in the world. The other reason is rampant corruption by politicians, civil servants and the police which results in accumulation of vast amounts of black money which can only be invested in property or sent out of the country to secret bank accounts in tax havens. These activities also act as a drag on the rupee because the Reserve Bank is unable to control money supply as no one knows how much black money is circulating in the country, the government cannot tax black money transactions and so has to increase taxes on legitimate activities and there is a huge property price bubble waiting to collapse. Hence the weakness of the rupee. Last year the rupee fell to below 68 to the dollar when the Fed announced a reduction in its bond buying program which was injecting $85 billion into the market every month. The RBI acted by guaranteeing interest paid on dollar accounts, drawing dollars into India. This has now been stopped and the rupee is falling again, not as fast a the Argentine peso or the Turkish lira but gently subsiding like an autumn leaf. In 3 months to January it has fallen by 1.94% and will probably fall more as the US economy gains steam. The World Famous Economist blames external factors for the looming crisis but he is solely responsible for the sorry state of affairs. Poor rupee. Poor India. Poor us.

On Republic Day we wish to become a genuine republic.

The Congress loves the aam aadmi or the common man. Indira Gandhi used ' garibi hatao ' which means 
' remove poverty ', to win elections  and then went on to increase income tax levels to 98.75% which created more poverty. In 2004 the Congress used the slogan, ' what did the aam aadmi get ' to win against the BJP. It then went on to start a host of social schemes paid for by the growth engineered by the BJP. In 2009 the slogan was ' Congress hand with the aam aadmi ', sweetened by the farmers' loan waiver at a cost of Rs 600 billion, NREGA scheme, which has cost Rs 2 trillion since 2006, and more trillions spent on the Sixth Pay Commission, which increased civil service pay by 80%. We all know that it led to increasing fiscal and Current Account deficits and to double digit inflation, hurting the aam aadmi and leading to a thrashing in elections in 4 states in December 2013. This time round the Congress is in a fix. If it builds a campaign around the aam aadmi uneducated people might think that it is campaigning for the Aam Aadmi Party or AAP which has formed the government in Delhi, with Congress support. Also. the AAP is promising even more handouts, than even the Congress dares to promise, secure in the knowledge that it has no chance of forming a government at the Center. Our most revered President is so peeved with the upstart laying claim to the old con trick that he said," Government is not a charity shop. Populist anarchy cannot be a substitute for governance." Oh dear, amnesia strikes again. As Finance Minister Mr Mukherjee invented numerous direct and indirect taxes to pay for social schemes.  So this time the advertisement says," No hand has a magic wand that can be waved to achieve progress. We have to form a great India together. Therefore, the Congress's aim is to give power to every hand so that everyone gets full opportunity for progress." The question rises as to why the Congress did not give full opportunity in the 10 years since 2004 and in the total of 56 years since independence. The answer is because the only aim is to win elections any which way and then to use taxpayer money to build massive assets so that the next 10 generations will not need to work and to bequeath seats to sons and daughters in a hereditary transfer of power. The king is dead, long live the king. Today is Republic Day. Sadly, we are yet to become a republic.

The urge to meddle.

Doctors have long been aware of the dangers of polypharmacy wherein sympathy for a patient's suffering leads to prescription of many types of medication, resulting in toxicity and even death of the patient. Trying to do good without understanding the finer nuances of a problem often results in more harm. The same applies to nations. Saddam Hussein is a vicious dictator so his removal should bring peace and stability to Iraq.That simplistic theory was behind the attack on Iraq based on lies about Weapons of Mass Destruction but in practice Iraq is now on the verge of civil war as Sunni extremists have taken over parts of Anbar province in western Iraq, including Fallujah, where the US used chemical weapons in the form of phosphorus to win in 2004.  Sectarian violence led to the deaths of 9,000 people with 25,000 injured in 2013.The same has been the result in Lybia where NATO bombing, fraudulently using a UN Security Council resolution permitting use of force only to protect civilians, led to Gaddafi being ousted and killed along with 30,000 civilians. Libya is now divided along tribal lines and the national government is confined to Tripoli. Now it is Syria's turn. Here the situation is complicated by Russian and Iranian support for the Assad regime. Russia has a base at Tartus and Iran is sending in fighters from the Republican Guards as well as the Hezbollah. While the western media has portrayed Assad as a vile dictator, which he is, they are quiet about the equally odious friends of the US, such as Saudi Arabia, which is the financier of global jihad, and Pakistan which is the epicenter of terrorism in the world. They were predicting Assad's removal within weeks but 2 years on it seems that Assad's forces, with Hezbollah reinforcement, are pushing back the rebels on many fronts. To make matters worse for the west various rebel groups are fighting among each other. So now they they have arranged a conference in Geneva but can they really understand that the middle east survives on hatred. The Shias and the Sunnis hate each other. Tribes hate each other even if of the same religion. The sheikhs hate each other. Sometimes they just hate. When the protests in Tahrir Square in Egypt brought down Musharraf they were predicting a democracy like Turkey. Today Egypt is more like Pakistan, with the Muslim Brotherhood playing the role of the Taliban, and Erdogan is becoming a dictator everyday. Physicians have learnt the value of masterly inactivity. Perhaps politicians should take lessons.

The RBI wants to impose financial discipline.

A committee set up by the Reserve Bank, chaired by Deputy Governor, Urjit Patel says that the RBI will set its monetary policy in relation to the Consumer Price Index and not the Wholesale Price Index, which is lower. The report recommends the CPI be gradually reduced from 9.87% in December to 4% plus, minus 2%. The aim will be bring it down to 8% in 12 months and 6% in 24 months. The report also recommends abolishing the Statutory Liquidity Ratio or SLR.  Already the government is trying to undermine the report. Economic Affairs Secretary, Arvind Mayaram said," It is a little premature for India to consider CPI index for nominal anchor for monetary policy." He said this because a strict control of the CPI would mean higher interest rates for longer which means that the government will have to pay more for its borrowings. The increased payments will add to government expenditure and increase the fiscal deficit which the Congress has promised to keep below 5%. But surely low inflation helps the poor who are the greatest love of the Congress? Therein lies the paradox. The Congress loves the poor so much that it wants more of them by taxing the middle class into poverty so that it can earn their gratitude by giving handouts on taxpayer money. If that wins them elections that only proves how much the poor appreciate being treated as beggars. SLR is the money that banks have to hold in reserve in the form of government bonds, gold and cash. SLR is set at 23% at present. In an effort to control the spiraling Current Account Deficit the Congress has increased taxes on gold to 10% and on jewellery to 15% and severely restricted its import. Since banks are forced to buy government bonds it maybe keeping yields lower than they would have been. This keeps borrowing costs lower. The real reason why the Congress does not like the report is because it will impose discipline in government spending which it does not want. Our politicians think that taxpayer money is their property to spend as they like which is why our most respected Finance Minister is even now enjoying the annual jamboree at the World Economic Forum at Davos in Switzerland. Use taxpayer money to bribe the electorate to win elections and then enjoy yourself all over the world with wife and family, paid for by the hapless taxpayer. Better than being Bill Gates isn't it?

We must not wait for famine.

Agriculture Ministers meeting in Berlin have issued a statement saying that food production in the world will have to rise by 60% by 2050 to feed an expected population of 9 billion people. The Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that 870 million people were undernourished in 2011-12. These would probably be those who are not receiving an adequate number of calories everyday. However, vast numbers are surviving on cheap carbohydrates but cannot afford adequate amounts of proteins, such as meat, fish and eggs, milk, fruits and vegetables, which are more expensive. These are known as ' empty calories '. In rich countries rates of obesity are higher in the poor than in the rich, who can afford a balanced diet, adequate in calories but high in nutrients. That is why lifestyle diseases, such as diabetes, hypertension and heart attacks which were once thought of as diseases of the rich, are commoner in the poor. The statement is both stupid and defeatist. The ministers have accepted that they will do nothing to control and reduce populations of their countries. The World bank provides a list of the total amount of arable land in each country of the world. Arable land is used for temporary crops, such as grains, vegetables and legumes, as opposed to agricultural land which is used for permanent crops, such as fruit trees, rubber, coffee, and for pasture. Percentage of arable land in Algeria is 3.1%, Angola 3.3%, Bahrain 1.8%, Bhutan 2.4%, Egypt 2.9% and Costa Rica 4.9%. All these countries will probably be importing food and if populations continue to grow increasing demand will raise food prices to unaffordable levels, leading to famine. Arable land is not only limited but is being lost at the rate of 38,610 square miles every year. Exposures by WikiLeaks show how Syria suffered drought from 2006-10 and its UN representative, Abdullah bin Yehia predicted social unrest in 2008. One alternative is Genetically Modified food but these have not been tested for safety. Bacillus thuringiensis produces Cry proteins which are toxic to insects. While BT cotton maybe safe surely BT Brinjal needs to be thoroughly tested over years before being allowed. More ominously GM food is controlled by huge multinationals who do not allow production of seeds. If we do not reduce populations famine and epidemics will. Do we really want that?

Monopolies and corruption increase costs for us.

Around 20 years back, when Rs 100 bought you so much vegetables that you would not be able to carry them, a phone call from one part of India to another was called a trunk call and cost Rs 100 per minute. At the time the government operated a monopoly in which MTNL supplied Delhi and Mumbai while BSNL supplied the rest of the country. Then, under pressure from the US, the telecom sector was privatised and prices have fallen to Rs 2.50 per minute for the same call today. The Electricity Act of 2003 privatised the distribution of electricity in Delhi but unlike in Mumbai, where Tata and Reliance compete for customers, the city was divided into 3 zones of which Reliance has 2 and Tata has one. Thus instead of a government monopoly Delhi has a private sector monopoly which is much worse because of the predatory nature of all private companies. Now add massive corruption in the distribution of coal mines to people with absolutely no experience in mining, such as gutka manufacturers, and it means that India has to import coal from abroad despite having 250 billion tonnes in reserve. A bemused Supreme Court has asked the government to explain how 11 private firms were allocated blocks without screening even when the ' Honest Man ' was heading the Coal Ministry. So we have coal mines given to unsuitable people, which have not been developed, leading to import of coal at much higher costs, increasing cost of production, plus private sector monopoly, plus the hidden rent seeking, all leading to exorbitant electricity charges. When a minister claims to have been threatened by an oil import mafia, which blocks development of oil and gas wells, we can understand why coal is imported rather than mined inside the country. The same goes for Delhi Airport where charges are so high that airlines are reluctant to use it. Charges were increased by 346% in 2012 so an aircraft landing at Delhi has to pay Rs 2,97,543 while at Dubai it is only Rs 85,769. No wonder Delhi has ceased to be a hub and Indian passengers are now using Dubai or Abu Dhabi as hubs when travelling abroad. A private consortium developed the airport and is supposed to recoup its expense from charges and developing the surrounding land. So if the government did not spend anything why is it levying such high taxes? The Indian citizen is a blood donor to thousands of parasites. Will we survive?

Slavery is still here, only hidden..

During the age of slavery human beings were completely fungible, that is they were harvested in poor countries, transported in ships to the rich world where they could and were bought and sold like any commodity. Overt slavery is not politically correct these days so it is contracted out by multinationals to national companies. Deaths of more than 1000 people in the collapse of the Rana Plaza building in Bangladesh was caused by workers being forced to work inside the building which was known to be unsafe. Suicides at the Foxconn factory in China, manufacturing the latest Apple products, was because of very long working hours with very low wages. In India, the much hyped growth during this Congress led government was based mostly on a frenzy of construction fueled by a humongous property price bubble. However, the bricks required for the booming construction industry were made by slave labor, some as young as 4 years old. These bricks have now been labelled as ' blood bricks '. But surely human beings have the choice of refusing to work as slaves in today's world? Seems that they cannot. A loan taken from a moneylender in an emergency can bind succeeding generations to slave labor. But there are governments, pundits, NGOs and do-gooders to protect the poor and the vulnerable from exploitation. Why are they failing? Maybe it is their actions that keep the poor where they are. In India, the last BJP government reduced the level of social schemes relative to the GDP by economic reforms which led to the ' India Shining ' campaign. This was a disaster as the Congress grabbed power by promising free handouts to the poor. Since 2004 spending on social schemes has risen as parties have competed to give handouts. The result has been massive fiscal and Current Account Deficits, leading to soaring inflation harming the very poor that social schemes are supposed to help. The Right To Education Act has resulted in falling levels of literacy among children while increasing the numbers going to school. More than half the children cannot read or do basic level math. What the Act has done is to increase school fees by 433% as 25% reservation in private schools for poor children has acted as a tax. The only way to stop slavery is to reduce numbers of the poor. Social schemes increase the numbers of slaves by encouraging births. But they win elections.

Only term limits can protect our politicians.

An illegal multi-storied building on defense land in Mumbai where politicians, ex army generals and civil servants own apartments, often not in their own names, has come to be known as the Adarsh scam. Just one among the myriad scams perpetrated on the nation by this Congress led government. So what? The Congress has been looting and betraying the nation for over 50 years so what is the big deal? Like the Commonwealth Games scam and the Coalgate scam, and unlike the 2G scam, the Adarsh scam is a purely Congress enterprise without any help from its coalition partners. Much like the Bofors scam in days of yore. And much like Bofors, the CBI wants to drop the case against the previous Congress Chief Minister, Ashok Chavan because the governor is refusing permission for his prosecution. So, so different from Gujarat where the governor has not stopped any of the scores of false charges against Narendra Modi of the BJP. In UP, which has always been known as a lawless state, members of the ruling party are now being shot dead in public in broad daylight. Leader of the Samajwadi Party Youth Brigade, Arvind Yadav, with 16 criminal cases against him, was shot dead in Barabanki, 25 kms from the state capital, Lucknow. He was chased through a busy street, shot thrice and the killers left after making sure that he was dead. Good riddance it maybe but it reinforces our complete contempt for all politicians. Meanwhile in Bihar, the other state also renowned for its criminals, the Chief Minister, Nitish Kumar is looking to sack 576 government officials for taking bribe. Mr Kumar was elected with the support of the BJP but his ambitions to become Prime Minister made him break off the alliance to get " minority votes ". The Congress naturally encouraged him by promising special status for Bihar, with increased allocation of funds from the center. The Congress will do anything, including destroying the economy, to keep Mr Modi from becoming Prime Minister because he may look into the affairs of The Family. Having broken up the alliance the Congress is now embracing Mr Lalu Prasad Yadav. Mr Yadav has been released on bail after serving just 2 months of a 5 year sentence for the Fodder scam while Mr Kumar is hanging on as head of a minority government with Congress support, ready to be a sacrificial lamb at Congress's choosing. Poor politicians. Only term limits will save them.

Indians are ignorant of what is going on.

India has the largest number of newspaper readers in the world, around 330 million. Shocking fact, considering that the Congress has proudly taken out half page advertisements in newspapers boasting of a
" 3 fold increase in food subsidy " to 810 million people. Seems that in their quest for knowledge Indians would rather buy newspapers than food. The tragic death of Sunanda Pushkar, wife of Union Minister, Shashi Tharoor has been front page news for the last few days. All articles focusing on her illnesses, on her tweets regarding her husband's relationship with a Pakistani journalist, Mehr Tarar and on whether she took her own life. Not one article has questioned the propriety of a minister corresponding privately with a Pakistani woman, ISI agent or not. In 1963, the British Secretary of State for War, John Profumo had to resign because he had relations with a call girl, called Christine Keeler who was also entertaining the Soviet Naval Attache at the time. Indians in sensitive posts falling for Pakistani honey traps are well known. The usual refuge for any Indian politician caught in the act is to get admitted to hospital and Mr Tharoor took refuge in AIIMS. AIIMS is perhaps the most premier medical institute in India, handling only difficult cases so Mr Tharoor would be suffering from something very serious, yet it did not stop him from carrying his wife's body for cremation. While we invite Pakistanis with open arms our armed forces lack basic necessities. They need howitzers, helicopters, anti-tank guided missiles, assault rifles and night-vision devices. As we know all purchases of defense equipment is full of bribes and waste. While China has commissioned its first aircraft carrier and is rushing ahead with a second the Scorpene submarine, marred by Rs 5 billion in bribes, will be delayed yet again. By the time the navy gets its first submarine it will be obsolete. We are continuing to buy obsolete Tatra trucks at Rs 5 million a pop which Tata or Ashok Leyland can supply at Rs 1 million each. Pakistan blatantly sends terrorists across the border to kill Indian citizens, the Chinese army comes across our borders at will and even Sri Lanka shoots at our naval vessels. From Kashmir to Tashkent to Shimla to Sharm al-Sheikh, it is a long story of betrayal. Meanwhile our newspapers advertise more alms for the beggars.

Gini coefficient measures equality but not wealth.

Equality is against the laws of nature. There is the whale and there is the mouse, both mammals. A cheetah kills a gazelle for food and then is chased off its kill by a hyena. Even a herbivorous animal like the elephant is unaware of how many ants it crushes at every footstep as it forages. Human beings are the top predators and the only animal that preys on its own species. Thus the powerful control land, resources and finance while the poor survive by physical labor. The Gini coefficient measures the inequality in any society where zero indicates complete equality and one indicates very high inequality. It should be the effort of every government to bring down the number as close to zero as possible. This they do by taxing the rich and helping the poor through social schemes such as income support, health benefits and free education to help the poor to step up to middle class where they can control their own finances. However to distribute wealth it has to be created. The collapse of the Soviet Union, the high inflation and lack of basic commodities in oil rich Venezuela and the aggressive capitalist policies of China prove that socialism produces equality by making everyone poor. In an article " Gini Coefficient and India ", Mr Rajwade shows how Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan increased inequality in the UK and the USA by destroying trade unions, reducing the role of manufacturing and deregulating financial institutions, leading to a small number of people with enormous wealth while the majority has seen no rise in living standards in over 30 years. The Gini coefficient in these countries is higher than that of India but Germany, which has a thriving manufacturing sector, and Sweden, which has an efficient social support system, have much lower coefficients. At around 68 South Africa has the highest coefficient in the world, probably because a tiny elite controls its rich mineral resources . But what is most interesting is that the coefficient of the whole world is also at around 68. Which means that the rich countries are exploiting the poorer ones. They are doing it by spending very little by manufacturing in poor countries and making huge profits by selling the finished products in their own countries. However, by destroying manufacturing in their own countries they have produced high inequality there. The only way to stop exploitation and make people equal will be by controlling population in poor countries. Our government works to keep everyone poor so that our coefficient is around 38.

The economy does not forgive bribery.

Having created very high inflation by dumping our money on useless social schemes the Congress is in a fix. General elections must be held by May and the people are furious as recent elections in 4 states have shown. To prevent a credit rating downgrade to junk status the fiscal deficit must be controlled, which means cutting expenditure, but if you stop giving handouts you have started it will be bye bye vote bank. It is not enough to bribe voters. Smaller parties must also be bribed to hang on to power because without power you cannot lay your hands on taxpayer money to bribe voters. Thus there are 51 ministries with 79 ministers with legions of civil servants, all sucking the blood out of the economy. For comparison, the US, a $16 trillion economy, functions very well with 15 Secretaries and 7 of cabinet rank, making 22 in all. If you cannot reduce expenditure you are forced to increase revenues. So the Congress has increased taxes on everything, which has increased prices further and reduced consumer demand. The RBI wants to the Wholesale Price Index to come down to 5%. WPI consists of manufacturing which constitutes 55%, fuel group at 15% and primary articles, which are raw food, processed food and minerals, at 30%. Cost of fuel has been rising because the government has been reducing ' subsidies ' on fuel without reducing taxes. Food costs cannot fall because the MNREGA scheme is index linked, thus setting an ever higher floor under rural wages, bribing farmers with the Minimum Support Price and hoarding food grains for the Food Security Act. Thus, if the WPI is to fall to 5% from 6.16% in December manufacturing will have to keep prices low. With raw material, fuel and electricity prices increasing and labor demanding higher wages to compensate for inflation the only way to make profits will be to increase productivity and cut costs. This was shown by  a fall in new investments in the quarter ending December 2013. Manufacturers shelved investments worth Rs 2 trillion. While the stock market is reaching for the stars because of foreign investors the Foreign Direct Investment, which is stable inflow, dropped by 36.6% in October compared to 2013, from $1.94 billion to $1.23 billion. This will naturally reduce employment. If bribery is a crime for us it must be made a crime for the politicians.

Such joy, all because of onions.

Wholesale Price Index fell to 6.16% in December from 7.52% in November. The Sensex jumped up by 1.22% or 256.61 points. Couple of days back the Sensex zoomed 375 points or 1.8% because the Consumer Price Index came in at 9.87% in December from 11.16% in November. Both the indices have fallen because onion prices had fallen from its highs. Onion prices increased by 190% in November compared to 2013 and but was higher by 39.56% in December compared to the previous year, showing a fall in the price. So, our stock market has risen by 625 points on the back of a fall in onion prices. This is no laughing matter because the market capitalization of a company depends on the price of its shares, based on which it can raise further financing or loans from banks. The market capitalization of the 30 companies that make up the Sensex would have increased by hundreds of billions of rupees. All for the price of one vegetable. Does this make the Indian economy a joke? Even though markets are rejoicing at the fall in the indices the rate of inflation is still inexplicably high because consumer demand has collapsed as shown by the Index of Industrial Production which fell by 2.1% in November. If demand is low surely prices should come down equally but that is not happening as shown by the Core Inflation, which excludes fruits, vegetables, milk and edible oils, from 2.66% in November to 2.8% in December. The reason is excessive government spending, not on productive investments such as infrastructure, but on unproductive social schemes. This is money handed out to buy votes in elections and, apart from increasing fiscal deficit and inflation, does not add to public assets. To balance its books the Congress is raiding public sector companies. Coal India is being forced to pay a special dividend of Rs 29 per share which gives Rs 164.85 billion to the government but also Rs 10.01 billion to Foreign Institutional Investors. This is our money which should have been invested in boosting coal production so that we do not waste hundreds of billions of dollars buying coal form other countries for our power plants. So many Mir Jafars. The Congress is also raiding public sector banks although our banks will need capital infusion to guard against bad loans. Perhaps the Congress wants to burden the next government because it knows it is going to lose. Diabolical isn't it?

India is a land of coincidences.

The Congress is so, so lucky. After misusing the CBI to hound Narendra Modi, who is the BJP candidate for Prime Minister in the coming general elections, the Congress was terrified of a BJP victory in case Mr Modi repaid The Family in kind. Out of nowhere a new party called AAP has suddenly transformed the landscape. The AAP has created a frenzy with its anti corruption stand and its rejection of all perks that politicians have shamelessly awarded themselves all these years. If the BJP fails to get sufficient number of seats because of the AAP the Congress will try to cobble together a third front, comprised of smaller parties, and offer it outside support to keep Mr Modi out any which way. Riots between Hindus and Muslims in Muzaffarnagar in August last year are being blamed on the BJP and the SP, which governs UP, as though Hindus should always consent to being slaughtered and never put up any self defense. Freeloading journalists further fanned flames by sensational reporting alleging lack of compensation. The Congress can form an alliance with the BSP, after having dropped corruption charges against Ms Mayawati. An intern brought unsubstantiated charges of sexual harassment against retired Supreme Court judge, Ganguly who was forced to resign from his post as Chairman of the Human Rights Commission. Justice Ganguly cancelled 2G licenses and fined a Congress Chief Minister of Maharashtra Rs 1 million. Strange that another judge, whose family was accused of making billions from being presented with government land at dirt cheap rates, is still occupying a similar post. Now another intern has made allegations against another retired Supreme Court judge, Swatanter Kumar. Supreme Court judges had been against the Judicial Acountability Bill. Then in June last year Mr Nitish Kumar, who was elected Chief Minister of Bihar with the help of the BJP, broke off his 17 year old alliance with the BJP apparently because he wanted ' minority ' votes. He is now hanging on in power with the support of the Congress. However, if he thought that the Congress would naturally form an alliance with him he was mistaken because Mr Lalu Prasad was released on bail after serving only 2 months of a 5 year jail term in the fodder scam case. So many coincidences helping the Congress. Miraculous.

Clutching at straws.

The stock market jumped 1.81%, that is over 375 points, yesterday when the Consumer Price Index for December came in at 9.87% as compared to 11.16% in November. Vegetable prices have been falling in recent weeks, some vegetables which cost Rs 80 per kg are now available at Rs 20 a kg. The Congress has been pushing for lower interest rates, saying that retail inflation was due to the high cost of food which is driven by seasonal supplies and not controlled by monetary policies. Vegetable prices have dropped by around 30% but retail inflation has dropped by just 10%. That is because food grain prices cannot drop as they are set by the government, which pays higher than market rates to farmers, and then hoards the grains to be distributed at very low rates under the Food Security Act to buy votes. Since grains are also used as fodder for animals prices of meat and milk continue to rise. By March when the effect of the abundant monsoon starts to fade vegetable prices will rise again. So what explains this exuberance of the stock market? The markets are rejoicing because they feel that this will reduce pressure on the Reserve Bank to increase interest rates, never mind that at almost 10% retail inflation is still higher than interest paid by banks on term deposits, which means that savers are still losing out. The reason is the growth that the Congress keeps banging on about was mainly due to extraordinary borrowing by companies. As of September, 2013 3700 companies had a combined debt of Rs 24 trillion, which is one quarter of our GDP, and of this Rs 8 trillion was with companies whose interest payments exceeded their operating profits for that quarter. Scary stuff. " We are learning the lessons of growth," said Arundhati Bhattacharya, Chairperson of SBI, India's largest lender. What she means is that the growth was a mirage fueled by debt. If inflation stays high, pushing interest rates higher, companies may default on their loans leaving banks struggling with massive bad debts. Another reason for cheer is that if interest rates were to remain high property prices may crash as people will refrain from taking mortgages to invest in properties. Since most of the black money is invested in properties any fall in interest rates causes euphoria. People tend to clutch at straws when they are drowning.

Crisis? What crisis?

It is very puzzling how economists seem to live in a state of denial all the time. Maybe that is why they can never predict any crisis that hit the world regularly. For years everyone, including the World Famous Economist, has been denying that the Indian economy is in deep trouble, arguing about decimal points on the growth rate, when it is obvious that it is sinking. Now suddenly people are talking about a crisis when the November Industrial Production has come in at -2.1%. " It is disappointing that growth is so lacklustre despite a favorable base effect and festival demand," a note from India Ratings said and added that " sustained and high inflation appears to be acting as a spoiler ". What it is saying that growth was low last year, giving us a low base, but industrial production has fallen even lower than that. They seem surprised that it is because of inflation. India is not an exporting nation. Helped by a weaker rupee our exports rose by 3.49% in December to $26.35 billion which means our total export in the financial year will be around $300 billion, an amount that China exports every month. Since our economy is driven by domestic consumption inflation is bound to affect growth by reducing consumption. Surely you do not need a PhD in economics to see that. Car sales fell by 9.6% in 2013, the first time in 11 years. It shows that people are not changing their cars and not enough young people are getting lucrative employment. It also has a knock on effect on dealers, manufacturers of components and transporters. The reason we are in such trouble is only because the Congress wasted trillions of rupees on social schemes to buy votes to win elections, running up huge fiscal deficits, causing inflation and then pressuring the Reserve Bank not to increase interest rates. But surely distributing handouts to the rural poor, plus generous monsoons, will increase their buying power and thus increase demand? Seems that rural folk are also choosing to spend carefully. The world is full of examples of how excessive social spending causes inflation and increases poverty because it is not productive and diverts funds from productive infrastructure projects. See Venezuela, an oil producer, and Zimbabwe, once the bread basket of Africa. Are all economists blind?

We are insulted because we are poor.

Credit rating agency, Moody's says that high inflation combined with low growth could lead to a rating downgrade for India. That seems paradoxical because India's debt to GDP ratio fell to 66% in 2012-13 from 83% in 2002-03 despite an average fiscal deficit of 7% over that period. Indian government borrowing is mostly domestic so foreign lenders such as banks, sovereign funds and the IMF cannot exert any pressure. All the government has to do is print some more notes to pay its debt. This causes inflation but that helps by reducing the overall value of the debt. So what are Moody's gripes? Uncontrolled inflation reduces consumer demand by making everything more expensive. This, in turn, reduces sales and forces companies to stop new investments, maybe even to fire employees, increasing unemployment. Reduced consumption reduces indirect tax collections while lower employment reduces direct taxes, hitting government revenues and increasing deficit. This causes the rupee to drop in value increasing prices further. In an attempt to curb inflation the Reserve Bank increases interest rates which increase borrowing costs for businesses, further reducing new investments. Although it has fallen, India's growth to GDP ratio is highest among developing countries. In 2013 it was 67.9 compared to 60.3 for Brazil, 42.9 for Philippines, 24.5 for Indonesia and 34.4 for Turkey. Moody's is warning that high inflation with high interest rates will suppress growth and this will reduce tax collections leading to uncontrolled fiscal deficit, at which point we will be reduced to junk status. The Congress says that this is due to ' external environment ' which is a complete lie because the deficit is due a massive increase in spending on useless social schemes to win elections. The Food and Agriculture Organization says the food prices fell globally by 4.4% in November and 3.5% in December. Over the whole of 2013 it was down to 209.9, 1.6% lower than in 2012. Food inflation in India was 20% in November and has been running at over 10% for years. That is because the government pays a higher price to farmers for grains and has been hoarding grains for the Food Security Scheme to bribe voters. With elections due shortly there is not hope of cure. When you are junk status other countries will sexually assault your diplomats.

Promises are easy to make but hard to keep.

The first lesson in reality. The Aam Aadmi Party won 28 out of a total of 70 seats in the assembly elections in Delhi, by making many promises to the ordinary people. They promised severe punishment for corrupt politicians and civil servants. This will take time. They promised to do away with VIP perks that politicians have awarded themselves in the 66 years since independence. That they have done, forcing Vasundhara Raje of the BJP to reduce security personnel in Rajasthan by 300. They also promised permanent status to all contract workers of Delhi, regularisation of unauthorised colonies, 700 liters of free water everyday for every household and reducing the cost of electricity by half, up to 400 units per month. Today they held the first ' janta darbar ' or public hearing to interact with the public. More than 50,000 people turned up creating such chaos that the police had to rescue the Chief Minister and other ministers for their safety. Most were contract workers wanting to be made permanent. That will cost vast sums of money as their salaries will increase, they will have to be paid Dearness Allowance at 90% of basic salary, healthcare costs and pensions. Contractors will refuse to bear such burden so either they will sack all workers or ask the government to take them over. Some people wanted water connections so that they can avail their free water straight away. When AAP was campaigning against high electricity charges they advised people not to pay their bills. Some people took them literally and had their electricity discontinued. They say it is not their fault and want their electricity supply to be resumed straight away. Auto-rickshaw drivers campaigned vigorously for AAP before elections. The Congress led central government raised gas prices by over 10% after the elections. Autos run on Compressed Natural Gas so they want their meter charges to be doubled so that they are rewarded for their loyalty. That will increase commuting costs for the people of Delhi, resulting in anger. The Congress at the center has been distributing handouts since 2004 to win elections bringing the economy to its knees. The AAP tried to outdo the Congress government in Delhi in making promises. It is now finding that winning an election is only the beginning. It is our misfortune that politicians are ready to sacrifice the nation only for personal wealth. Today people have become much more aware. There is not place to hide.

Taxes are legalised extortion.

Everyone in the world hates paying taxes. Rich people buy politicians through campaign contributions, hire lobbyists to ensure plenty of loopholes in tax laws and then hire armies of accountants to take advantage of these loopholes. The poor do not pay any tax because their income is too little to be taxable. Only the middle class, especially salaried ones, earn enough to be taxable but not enough to hire top accountants. In India only 35 million people file tax returns and over 80% show income less than Rs 500,000 per year. Rural income is completely tax free so large numbers of politicians have taken up farming to hide their black money. However, the government is hungry for money, partly to spend on the armed forces, infrastructure and diplomats but mainly to fund foreign junkets for politicians, salaries for a vast army of corrupt civil servants and for useless social schemes to bribe voters. Since so few people pay income tax money is raised through very high indirect taxes such as sales tax, customs and excise and services taxes. Trouble is that they raise the cost of goods and services and depress demand, thereby reducing growth and hurt poor people. That is why the new proposal by the BJP to do away with all direct and indirect taxes in favor of a banking transaction tax is very exciting.  This will tax every bank transaction at a rate of 1% and will apparently raise Rs 15 trillion. Since there will be no tax there will be no need for black money. The Reserve Bank will be able to control money supply and get a grip on inflation. Property prices will fall to realistic levels. Trillions of rupees stashed abroad in tax havens will return, making the rupee stronger which will reduce prices of imports, especially oil, and bring down inflation. With a stable rupee and low inflation people will have no need to buy gold and that will reduce the strain on the Current Account. With no indirect taxes prices of goods and services will fall, encouraging consumer spending, which will lead to more investment, higher employment and wealth creation. Daily wage earners are paid in cash and spend it on daily needs so they will not be affected. There will be opposition to such proposals as vested interests will find all sorts of reasons to criticise. This can only happen if the BJP wins elections in April. Let us pray they do. 

Anything bad for China can only be good.

Economists frequently warn us that if something seems too good to be true then it probably is. This is usually a warning to keep away from Ponzi type schemes which promise mouth-watering returns to tempt gullible investors. A similar logic operates in relation to China. Starting from desperate poverty after Mao's Cultural Revolution China has grown at a phenomenal pace for 4 decades to become the second largest economy in the world. A fantastic infrastructure has been built and millions of people have been dragged out of poverty, not through corrupt social schemes as in India, but by providing jobs in an export driven manufacturing sector, as China has become the factory of the world. With rising wealth has come rising consumption but inflation is at a comfortable 2.5%. All of this looks too good to last and some, including billionaire investor, George Soros, have been warning that a fall could come at any time. Are these people carping because they are ' running dogs of capitalism ' or is there some truth in what they say? Seems that China's total debt has risen from 125% of GDP in 2008 to 215% of GDP in 2012, from a total of $9 trillion in 2008 to $24 trillion today, which is more than the total debt of the US which is at $18 trillion. Thus China's debt has grown by $15 trillion in 5 years which is equal to the entire US commercial banking sector. Such a huge debt needs more money to be serviced so when the People's Bank of China decided to limit further lending the financial system came to a halt as interbank lending rate soared to over 10% in June and then again in December last year. The PBOC hastily injected $55 billion to calm the market. A large part of the economy is dependent on construction, whether of domestic residences or infrastructure and is heavily reliant on debt. Banks only show bad loans of less than 1% but this is because most of the debt is rolled over with more debt. If this is true of China it is true also of India. Indian banks show Non Performing Assets of 4.2% at Rs 2.30 trillion but how much is hidden by evergreening, which means issuing new debt to cover the old one and taking it off the books, is not known. At least China has built up a state of the art infrastructure while a large part of our debt has just been stolen by the very rich who have political support. The only good thing is that China being a harsh dictatorship any economic slowdown could lead to social breakdown. Let us pray it happens.

The Congress has killed the goose.

With growth stagnating and inflation very high India is in stagflation. Even though the fall in the value of the rupee has made exports cheaper manufacturing activity is still tepid. PMI for manufacturing in December was 50.7 from 51.3 in November. Any number above 50 means growth so it is just about in positive territory. Not so the services PMI which came in at 46.7 in December compared to 47.2 in November. New orders index fell to 47.3 in December from 48.2 in November. For a $16 trillion economy like the US a 3% growth is huge because it amounts to about $500 billion but for a $1.9 trillion economy like that of India a growth of 5%, although higher in percentage terms, amounts to only around $100 billion. Thus while India will become a $2 trillion economy the US will jump to $16.5 trillion this year and, given the same rate of growth, to $17 trillion next year. The US has a population of about 300 million with 7% unemployment while we have humongous population of 1.2 billion with such poverty that the Food Security Bill aims to distribute cheap food grains to around 800 million people. In order to encourage high grain production the government buys from farmers at an artificially raised price, called the Minimum Support Price, instead of at the market price. This, plus other social schemes, need vast sums of money that can only come through taxes but with growth stagnating tax collections are below that predicted in the budget, increasing fiscal deficit. High inflation decreases consumer spending and reduces tax collections. Inflation can be controlled through monetary tightening but high interest rates, along with severe reduction in non-plan expenditure by the government, reduces investment and affects growth. Another way would be to try and increase the value of the rupee by facilitating inflows of foreign currencies by offering very high interest, which the RBI has been doing, but that would reduce exports and increase the Current Account Deficit. With elections in April the Congress is desperate for more money to bribe voters and would happily increase taxes but taxes are already so high that raising them further will only add to inflation and reduce consumer demand. It is the old story of the goose that laid golden eggs. The Congress has succeeded in killing it.

We can make rockets but not helicopters. Why?

Two days back, on Sunday, India successfully launched its first Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle, or GSLV, from Sriharikota. India has been successfully launching the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, or PSLV, for a long time but it took 20 years of hard work to make this a success. The GSLV can carry a much bigger payload but needs a cryogenic engine using liquid hydrogen at -253 Celsius and liquid oxygen at -183 Celsius and is a difficult technology to master. The reason why it has taken so long is because the US applied pressure on Russia not to transfer the technology to India and the scientist, Nambi Narayanan, who was in charge, was arrested on trumped up charges of espionage. US enmity is nothing new for India and did not start with the sexual assault of our diplomat. While it blithely turned a blind eye to Pakistan acquiring nuclear weapons, masterminding the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center and constantly assisting the Taliban in killing US and NATO soldiers in Afghanistan it has consistently taken a hostile stance against India. Trouble is that many of our politicians have large amounts of money stashed away in western countries and like to travel frequently to the US where their children are studying or working, so they are unable and unwilling to take retaliatory measures. Already the worms are gnawing away at the achievement, saying that it was only partial success because the payload was not big enough. The mystery is that while we seem to have mastered rocket and missile technologies we are unable to develop our own aircraft or helicopters. Tejas, a light combat aircraft is being developed since 1983. The government has just announced that it is canceling the contract for Agusta Westland helicopters worth Rs 36 billion because the company had paid bribes to obtain the contract. Only 3 of the helicopters have been delivered but the government has already paid for 5. The government is now looking for more luxury helicopters for VVIPs because they do not have enough spares for the Agusta copters. We could have been making our own helicopters, aircraft, both military and civil, ships and submarines if they encouraged our private sector to make them. When we are buying from private companies in other countries there can be no reason why our companies should not be in the business. But then there would not be billions of rupees in bribes. When you have sold your soul it is easy to sell the nation. 

Honesty is a terrifying proposition.

Share prices have been falling in the last few days and the Sensex is down some 60 points today although it is still at 20,790. Apparently this is because the Aam Aadmi Party or AAP has formed a government in Delhi which is giving away 20,000 liters of water free every month to every household and has reduced electricity rates by 50% only for those who consume up to 400 units a month. These populist policies have spooked the markets. " AAP has started on a wrong note, and if its surge continues, it could be a disaster for the economy and stock markets," said Deven Choksey, MD of KR Choksey Shares and Securities. " Markets are wary of AAP. The party must give a clear road map on how and why it will fight corruption. How is Kejriwal different from other popular governments." Exactly. In the downward race to national bankruptcy every party promises free goodies to bribe its perceived ' vote bank '. One party was handing out free color televisions, another promised free laptops, a third promised gold mangalsutras and all promised food grains almost free. States distributed free electricity to farmers leading to massive debts for the electricity companies, long periods of blackouts, destroying manufacturing activity, and gross waste of ground water as farmers ran pumps for unnecessarily long periods. However, nothing compares to the handouts that the Congress has been dishing out for the last 10 years to win elections. The MNREGA scheme, the Sixth Pay Commission, farmers' loan waiver, Backward Areas Grant, Food Security Bill and many others, costing the taxpayer tens of trillions of rupees. But no one was complaining. The stock market was zooming ever higher and the same fellows, who are moaning now, were gleefully predicting record territories. When Lehman Brothers failed markets all over the world crashed but, whereas other markets started to get back to pre-crisis levels towards the end of last year, the Sensex rebounded almost instantly in a V shaped recovery. The difference this time is not that the AAP is promising more populism, which it is, but that it is talking about zero tolerance to corruption. It is auditing books of the private sector electricity suppliers in Delhi who were given monopoly contracts by the previous Congress government. That is truly terrifying.

VVIPs must die.

Since independence 66 years ago the Congress has instituted a feudal system in which they have designated themselves as VVIP or Very, Very Important Persons while the people have been contemptuously labeled as ' aam aadmi ' which means ' ordinary people '. They built up a hierarchy in which politicians fought and begged for perks, much like feral dogs fight for bones in garbage bins. Massive bungalows, body guards armed with automatic weapons and cars with flashing red lights and sirens demanding right of way over everyone, even if someone died for not being able to reach a hospital in time. It was a matter of pride, the more the perks the higher the social status. So when the Aam Aadmi Party or AAP was formed Congress fellows found it amusing enough to mock as the ' mango party ' because the word ' Aam ' means either ' common ' or ' mango ' according to context. Until elections in Delhi when the AAP reduced the Congress to a rump party with just 8 seats and former Chief Minister, Sheila Dixit lost her seat to Arvind Kejriwal by over 25,000 votes. Talk about humble pie. The victory of the AAP was based on promises of free water, lower electricity costs, an end to corruption, transparent governance and a refusal of all perks that other politicians crave. Experts are calculating the economic consequences of promises made by AAP and whether the logistics are feasible. Politicians are criticising and challenging them to fulfil their promises, willing the AAP to fail so that they can go back to their old shameless corrupt practices. They also say that refusing perks is just show and has nothing to do with good governance. The older politicians, who try to cling on to their seats regardless of age, still demanding billions in black money and trying to get their criminal children into politics so that the loot can continue for generations, do not understand why anyone would be so stupid as to refuse the biggest attraction of making a career in politics. But for the people these are of enormous importance. When Kejriwal was given a 5 bedroom house, tiny by comparison to any other chief minister, there was an outcry. He has been forced to reject it and has demanded a smaller residence. For us the death of all perks is absolutely essential. We want that politicians should be our servants and not our masters, as they seem to think. If the AAP can destroy the old system they will go down in history as heroes. 

History will not accept lies.

In 1946, after World War II ended, Britain hanged William Joyce as a traitor. He had not fought against the Allies or killed anyone. He used to broadcast a Nazi propaganda program called ' Germany Calling ' from Germany to Britain and the US over the radio. He had been nicknamed Lord Haw-Haw because of his plummy accent. Lying to the people and causing grave damage to the nation on the orders of a foreigner is a much greater offence than simply broadcasting propaganda. HSBC Purchasing Managers' Index fell to 50.7 in December from 51.3 in November. Although anything above 50 means growth it is nothing to boast about. " Manufacturing activity decelerated slightly in December as a slowdown in domestic order flows led to slower growth output," said Leif Eskesen, Chief Economist at HSBC. Despite reducing interest rates on bank loans consumers are borrowing less. People normally borrow for expensive purchases such as houses, cars or high end televisions. What really concerns the Congress is the slowdown in the property sector as most of the economic growth under this government came from a massive construction boom caused by a gigantic price bubble. Although inflation and the fall of the rupee means that properties should be relatively cheaper than before, rising prices of imports and high taxes are making properties too expensive for those without access to vast amounts of black money, such as politicians, police and civil servants. The whole industry is totally dependent on cheap, even slave, labor which is why no politician will ever talk about reducing population. It is a simple matter of supply and demand. The more the numbers of the poor the less is their bargaining power and the easier they are to exploit. Vast numbers of poor people in developing countries enables multinational companies to slash labor costs by shifting manufacturing away from rich countries. As jobs have shifted away from richer countries workers there have lost bargaining power, unions have virtually disappeared and the middle class has seen a fall in living standards even as the super rich have become richer. Thus the exploitation of the poor leads to exploitation of the middle classes in the rich countries. Can such immense damage to the people be wiped out with lying excuses?

Women do not protect other women.

What a start to the new year. In Assam a woman was fighting for her life after being repeatedly raped by a trader who then discarded her at a deserted place. The poor woman had gone to apply for a job at a government school and was abducted on her way back. In Odisha a woman, running a fair price or ration shop, was stabbed repeatedly, when on her way back home, by 4 men, who wanted her to give up the shop. They then poured kerosene over her and set her on fire. She had been receiving threatening letters and phone calls for some time but probably could not abandon her source of livelihood. Whether she had asked the police for protection we do not know but we do know that the police in India are brutal gangs in uniform who prefer to serve as thugs for politicians rather than serve the people. The case of a 16 year old girl who was burnt to death on 23 December, after being gang-raped on 26 October 2013, in Kolkata vividly illustrates how the police will assault an innocent even after death on the orders of politicians. First they did nothing to punish the rapists and then when the girl was murdered by the same men, who had been pressuring her to withdraw her complaint, they tried to snatch her body and quickly cremate her to prevent any protests from her family. At post mortem the girl was found to be pregnant so 2 lives were lost. Rape seems to have become a routine occurrence in Kolkata, once considered one of the safest cities in India, since Ms Mamata Banerjee became Chief Minister. She famously said that the rape on Park Street last year was a conspiracy against her government and transferred DIG Damyanti Sen from Crime to Training department because she dared to prove that the rape had actually taken place. Whereas women did not worry about being out late in the evenings in Kolkata today they are afraid. Sheila Dixit was the Chief Minister of Delhi when Jyoti was so viciously gang-raped in a bus she died. When people came out to protest they were brutally beaten up and falsely charged with the death of a policeman who had died of a heart attack. Delhi is also the residence of the Congress President Ms Sonia Gandhi. We are told by feminists that women would make better leaders because they are caring and have greater empathy. Sadly, in India, women in power are not safer for ordinary women.

The road to power and pelf.

Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav has taken a dim view of Mr Lalu Yadav visiting refugee camps in Muzaffarnagar. " He is a stooge of the Congress.....licking its feet," said Mr Mulayam about Mr Lalu. The riots took place in August following which around 40,000 people were apparently displaced. Only 43 people died, which maybe a large number in many countries, but would be less than the number killed in a bus accident in India. These incidents are always made worse by hysterical and biased reporting by news channels, eager to gain eyeballs. A lot of so called refugees are probably opportunistic villagers from surrounding areas who hope to profit from cash handouts from relief funds. Political parties are milking the incidents for all they are worth, hoping to gain in the coming general elections. Hence Mr Mulayam's anger. However Indian politicians are notorious for their selective amnesia. Mr Mulayam has very conveniently chosen to forget that his party, the SP has kept the Congress in power since September 2012 after Ms Mamata Banerjee withdrew support of the Trinamul Congress. Even worse, he did this along with his chief opponent in UP, Ms Mayawati's BSP. It maybe relevant that the CBI chose to drop corruption cases against both Mr Mulayam and Ms Mayawati. It is the foot licking by the CBI which makes the Congress more dangerous than the N'Drangheta. However, when it comes to foot licking nobody in the world can beat Congress members themselves. The survival of this party is entirely linked to the survival of The Family and to that end Congress fellows are a bunch of spineless creepy crawlies, willing to destroy the economy, in an act of treason, only to keep The Family in power. Mr Narasimha Rao was not willing to genuflect to The Family so he has been brushed out of the history of India and The Pretender has been given full credit for the recovery of the economy in 1991 by a foot licking press. Thus, the fourth estate has become the fifth column and is largely responsible for the economic mess we are in by constantly building up The Pretender as an honest man despite the fact that he knowingly allowed coalition partners to loot thousands of billions of rupees, only to keep The Family in power. This epidemic of foot licking keeps the politicians in power and the people as serfs. Brilliant.

Hundred years ago today.

Exactly one hundred years ago today everyone would have been wishing a Happy New Year to everyone else as they hoped for good health, peace and prosperity. But it was not to be. On 28 June Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria was assassinated in Serbia and exactly a month later the first shots were fired as Austria and Hungary prepared to invade Serbia in what was to be the start of the First World War. It would be 1918 and 9 millions deaths later before the war stopped. Surely that would not be possible today? Europe is now a common market of 28 countries, 18 of whom share a common currency, the Euro. However, the common currency means that countries cannot reduce their debt load by devaluing their currencies, as Greece and Ireland have found to their cost. Instead they were forced into savage austerity which led to more than 50% unemployment in the young. Everyone is blaming Germany for not being more generous. The middle east is in turmoil. The war in Syria seems to have reached a state of balanced killing. The Hezbollah in Lebanon is openly fighting in Syria in support of Bashar al- Assad which is inviting Sunni revenge attacks. Iraq is slowly spiraling into civil war as tit-for-tat bombings kill people on either side. Iran is playing its usual game of one foot forward and two feet back as it goes full speed towards becoming a nuclear weapons state. Saudi Arabia has warned of acquiring its own nuclear weapons from Pakistan which it financed. Israel cannot afford its mortal enemies to be armed with nuclear weapons. How it will respond is anybody's guess. It knows that its biggest support, the USA is led by a weak gasbag who hopes to dither long enough to finish his occupancy of the Oval Office without having to to take any decision. So what about us in India? This year we must hold general elections by May to decide which gang of villains will be handed the keys to the vault. The Congress, led by a foreigner, is in power which means it gets to decide the rules of the game. In 1991 Narasimha Rao rescued the economy but lost in 1996 because of severe tightening by the Reserve Bank. The Pretender who has taken all the credit of 1991 increased deficit massively in 2009 to win and probably feels pretty good about it. Sadly we cannot punish him but can certainly hope for divine punishment. We certainly deserve some good fortune, let us pray that we get some. At last.