No world war, just fighting everywhere.

As the centenary of World War I on 28 July approaches pundits are unanimous that a World War III is impossible because globalisation has tied economies together, making us interdependent, and the fear of nuclear weapons creates hesitation in starting a conventional war. This kind of reasoning presumes that world leaders are saintly, unselfish altruists who are not motivated by self interest. The US created Osama Bin Laden by its supply of arms and money to the Afghan Mujahideen. But has it learnt from its stupidity? No. It continues to supply money and arms to the Pakistani army, which masterminded 9/11, it has created an unnecessary flash-point in Ukraine and is now planning to supply arms to ' moderate rebels ' in Syria when ISIS fighters have posted mocking pictures of Michelle Obama asking for their humvees to be returned.  China has enormous wealth and military power but, being uncivilised, does not have the wisdom of building a strong Asia. Instead the Chinese government brutally represses its own people while aggressively claiming territory from its neighbors. Nuclear weapons are no deterrent against a nation of barbarians which will not care how many die. If you use nuclear weapons then you must be prepared to completely wipe out the response capability of the other side. Only the US has such a capability and only the US has used nuclear weapons in the past. Will globalisation stop the US from using such weapons? Probably not. The US is already exporting gas and will now start to export oil products known as ' condensates ' and the dollar is the reserve currency of the world. We know that Americans consider people of other countries as ' collateral damage ', like some sort of garbage, and will not hesitate to use nuclear weapons. The ISIS has declared an Islamic State with Abu Bakr al Baghdadi as the new caliph. It has issued a map of the future Caliphate, spreading from Spain to the whole of India and China. Naturally, to be a real Caliphate they must have control of the 2 Holy Mosques in Makkah and Medina. This has so terrified the Saudi royal family that the King now wants Sunnis to join the government in Baghdad. Just as the US created Al Qaeda so Saudi and Qatar helped to create the monster that is now threatening to devour them. Pakistan has been trying to create Taliban Dobermans which will stay on the leash only to be released against India from time to time. Now they are having to bomb them in north Waziristan. If the holy sites in Najaf and Karbala are threatened Iran will surely attack ISIS. Will the Taliban join up with ISIS to overrun a nuclear weapons silo in Pakistan? It will not be a war of armies but fighting will be everywhere. Will anyone learn?

And so they come tumbling down.

Couple of days ago we pointed out how residents of the Campa Cola compound in Mumbai have been evicted from illegally constructed floors but no official or builder was sent to prison. On the same day 10 people were killed when a building collapsed in Tulsi Nagar in Delhi. Apparently an adjacent building had been demolished and an illegal basement was being constructed in a plot measuring just 18 sq yards which would be 6 yards or 18 feet by 3 yards or 9 feet. Cost of land is so high in India that even a handkerchief sized plot is not left vacant for long. Over the last 5 years there have been at least 11 major building collapses in which people have died. After such an incident various departments blame each other, a few junior officials are suspended and the owner of the building is charged with manslaughter. Cases drag on and after sometime the officials are quietly reinstated with full back pay and cases are dropped by the police. One major problem that politicians do not want to touch is the draconian Rent Control Law under which it is impossible to evict tenants. Many of the old houses are completely occupied by tenants for over 50 years who pay the same rent as 50 years ago. Landlords see no reason to waste money on repairing buildings and allow them to decay in the hope that when the building collapses the tenants will be forced to move. The Act was modified in 1995 and even signed by the President but the government surrendered to pressure from a few traders and the new Act was not notified. In the 30 years since 1984 gold has given an average annual return of 3.5%, shares have returned an average of 8.3% per year while properties have given a phenomenal return of 16.59% per year. Thus Rs 300,000 invested in gold in 1984 would have become around Rs 1.2 million this year, the same invested in shares would have become around Rs 5 million this year but if Rs 300,000 was invested in a property in Delhi it would have become Rs 30 million. Builders have to pay huge bribes to get their plans passed by officials so they build extra floors, use substandard materials and ignore safety regulations. Owners of buildings have added extra floors without proper foundations to earn rent. Similar conditions prevail in every city in India. Yesterday a building under construction in Chennai collapsed in the rain, killing 14 people. Which is strange because cement becomes harder in water. Property dealers increase prices to increase their commissions. Which feeds the greed of all. Either property prices will fall or the rupee will have to fall to adjust for the bubble. Hope Mr Modi is watching.

Stop discussing, just ban it.

A 62 year old lawyer based in Dubai, called Sarachandra Bose is travelling 14,000 km across all the state capitals of India distributing copies of his book titled ' Caste Away! India, Hinduism and Untouchability '. His name sounds Bengali but he is from Kerala, both states that used to be strongholds of communism. We have not read the book but most articles by Bengalis are full of communist, anti-Hindu gibberish. Still, we agree. Caste is just another name for class discrimination but it provides a marvellous opportunity to enemies of Hindus to persecute us constantly with biased laws, police violence and conversion. For instance dowry laws are specifically aimed at Hindus and exclude ' minorities '. While politicians accused of murder, rape or plunder are always presumed innocent unless proven guilty a man accused of asking for dowry has to prove his own innocence. In fact if a woman dies in circumstances not considered to be natural in her husband's home within 7 years of marriage it will be considered a dowry death. Minorities of the US send vast amounts of money to convert illiterate Hindus by preaching against caste while conveniently forgetting to mention how Africans slaves were treated worse than animals and how blacks face severe discrimination to this day. Discrimination in any form is wrong so how do we get rid of caste? It is easy. Just ban it. India has banned sex selection to try and stop abortion of female fetuses. Some states in India have banned portable ultrasound machines to stop sex selection. There is a long list of books banned in India which probably does not have the names of books voluntarily recalled by publishers. The Congress has been in power for 56 years out of 66 years of independence so why has it not banned caste till now? The glib answer is that Nehru was a Brahmin so upper castes were preferred. That does not wash because the Congress has been ruled by a ' minority ' foreigner since 1998 and was in power in Delhi from 2004 to 2014. The reason is that the Congress is a colonial party which has exercised power through the principle of ' divide and rule ' Thus Hindus have been sliced and diced into Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Castes for reservation in government jobs and higher education. In a most cynical ploy the Congress listed Jats in the OBC category just before the recent general elections to win votes. The government should pass a law banning caste selection and mandating equal treatment for all castes. But then how will politicians use caste to either bribe or punish sections of Hindus? Perhaps we Hindus will be wiped out.

Legalised knee-capping.

The Campa Cola Compound case in Mumbai is a vivid illustration of how our laws actively help criminals while penalising the innocent. In short the story is that a plot of land belonging to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation was leased to the Pune Drinks Company which used to make a soft drink called Campa Cola. This company sold development rights to 3 builders who proceeded to construct residential buildings between 1984 and 1989. In violation of local building laws they added 35 extra floors. While the work was in progress the BMC issued notices to the builders to stop work but they carried on regardless and sold all the illegal floors, promising that they would be made legal. This was really cute because the BMC merely issued notices, to cover themselves, but made no attempt to obtain an injunction against the builders to stop work nor did they use the police to force the builders. Virtually all builders are linked to organised crime so the officers may have been threatened or cash may have changed hands, we do not know. The BMC refused to certify the illegal floors or to allow water connection so the residents have been managing with water tankers. The residents went to court to force the BMC to give water connections at which point the BMC argued that the floors were illegal and should be demolished and the courts, including the Supreme Court, agreed. So now the residents have been forced out by the police and presumably, given the horrendous price of properties in Mumbai, have nowhere to live. It is interesting that the BMC used the police to turf out helpless residents but did not use the police against the builders. The courts did not send the builders or any of the officials to prison. The residents were right to believe that their flats would be made legal because entire colonies of illegal buildings are made legal before elections. They are said to be ' regularised ' and touted as helping the poor. So no laws for the ' poor '. Politicians regularly refuse to vacate expensive government bungalows after losing elections. Pointing to others is no defence as the courts say that 2 wrongs do not make a right. True, but that means that people are left to the mercy of officials who will prosecute only those who are unable or unwilling to pay bribes. This is exactly what criminals do. Break the knee caps of one man to set an example so that others are terrified into paying extortion money. So selective justice is legal knee-capping. The beauty is that it is done with taxpayer money and the one who pays is punished while the one who takes gets away. Incredible India indeed.

Some bites are called love bites.

Not a single country at the World Cup is vegetarian. Even so it was wrong of Suarez to bite the Italian defender Chielini. Italians are experts at needling their opponents, especially off the ball, when the referee is not watching. In 2006 Materazzi is alleged to have said something vile about Zinedine Zidane's sister in the Final with France. Zidane responded with a headbutt for which he was sent off and Italy went on to win. Suarez has been banned for 4 months, which means he will miss the rest of the World Cup. The extremely racist British press went hysterical over the incident as a revenge for Suarez scoring 2 goals to beat England. If we can't beat you on the pitch we will get you off it. In fact biting anyone is much more dangerous for Suarez than his victim. The victim gets a punctured wound which will heal in a few days but Suarez could get Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C or HIV from the blood of the other person which could kill him. Strangely the British press is muted about the Netherlands thugs who regularly slide in with 2 footed tackles with studs showing. This is extremely dangerous as it can break a man's leg and maim him for life. In 2008 Martin Taylor of Birmingham City broke Eduardo's leg so that the bone was sticking out and in 2006 Reading's Stephen Hunt went down with his knee on Peter Czech's head when he was lying on the ground. Czech required a metal plate in his head and still plays for Chelsea with a head-guard. The 2 perpetrators were English and everyone said what good chaps they were so they could not possibly have done it with intent. So no hounding of the players. If De Jong, Van Persie and at least one other Netherlands player receive straight reds then there will be some justice. Meanwhile our old friend, ladyboy Cameron is in the news again. He had to apologise for appointing Andy Coulson as Director of Communications after Coulson was convicted for phone hacking as editor of News of the World between 2000 and 2006. Rebekah Brooks was freed. She and Cameron belong to the Chipping Norton set. Cameron used to text her 10 times a day and she used to go riding at Chequers, the country retreat of the Prime Minister of Britain. Who she was riding is not clear. Cameron's old friend, Poland's Foreign Minister, Badek Sikorski, who used to be a member of the exclusive Bullingdon Club with Cameron, has been caught using pretty explicit language about Cameron's wish to renegotiate Britain's contract with the EU. " It's either very badly thought through move, or, not for the first time a kind of incompetence in European affairs," said Sikorski. The Brits have to learn that there is more than one kind of biting.

Dumb charades is for children.

A witness in Salman Khan's case, where he is alleged to have rammed his Land Cruiser against a building in Bandra in September 2002, killing one person and injuring 4 others, turned hostile in court. Why are we not surprised? This is a recurrent happening in India where lawyers keep asking for time and our judges keep obliging, so that witnesses maybe threatened or bribed into silence, making the whole process a mockery. After all, 88 witnesses apparently turned hostile in Varun Gandhi's hate speech case. In December 2008 Bernie Madoff was arrested for running a Ponzi scheme in the US. In June 2009, after just 6 months, he was sentenced to 150 years in prison where he resides at this moment. Ramalinga Raju confessed to falsifying the accounts of his company, Satyam Computer Services to the tune of Rs 71.39 billion in Jan 2009. This was a confession made voluntarily when no one was even aware of the scam. Yet he has been allowed to withdraw his confession and employ a battery of top lawyers to muddy the waters and get him off. Rs 71 billion can buy an awful lot of lawyers. In January 1999 one Sanjeev Nanda killed 6 people, including 2 policemen, when his BMW  failed to stop at a check point. He did not stop to help the injured people, destroyed evidence by getting the car cleaned and his lawyers were heard bribing witnesses. In 2012, after 13 long years, he was rewarded with 2 years community service. It would be so easy to fix. Just pass a law that makes it mandatory to finish all cases in 2 years with no more than 2 extensions allowed to each side. All appeals to be completed in 1 year. Tampering with evidence or witnesses to be punishable by a minimum of 10 years in prison. Politicians are never going to do that are they? Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister, Shivraj Singh Chauhan has been accused of tampering with results of Public Sector Commission exams to get his niece, Ritu appointed as a Deputy Collector even though she did not have the requisite marks. " As RTI applications multiplied, the CM ordered a change in PSC records maintenance period to wipe out the evidence," said Katare of the Congress. His wife is alleged to have interfered with the MP Professional Examination Board. Mr Chauhan is a hero in the BJP for his massive victory in the assembly elections. But why blame the politicians? The Income Tax department has found the daughter and son-in-law of former Chief Justice, KG Balakrishnan guilty of black money transaction.  Justice Balakrishnan has a nice little sinecure as Chairman of the National Human Rights Commission. You scratch my back and I scratch yours. The whole thing is a charade.

A time for cliches.

It is a time for cliches in India. It doesn't rain but it pours, trouble always comes in threes, don't trouble trouble till trouble troubles you and so on. After a few days of rain along the western coast the monsoon has stalled. In the east it is raining heavily in Burma and Bangladesh but is not spreading to Orissa, Bengal and further inland. The trouble in Iraq has already increased oil prices to 9 month high. The reason it has not jumped higher is because the fighting is in Sunni areas whereas Iraqi oil wells are in the north around Kirkuk, controlled by the Kurds, and in the south near Basra, controlled by the Shias. Libyan oil supplies are improving and the US has huge stockpiles of oil and is exporting gas from fracking. But if the fighting gets worse, especially involving Iran and the Gulf states, oil prices would rocket. Although retail price inflation fell to 8.28% the wholesale price index rose to 6.01%, mainly due to increasing food prices. The rupee has fallen to 60 to the dollar after climbing to 58 which adds to the cost of imported oil. Thus, there is no need to go looking for trouble, it is raining on us already. The biggest trouble is that previous governments have used public money for short term gains rather than building for the long term. The government has no business running banks, an airline and manufacturing companies. Ministers direct banks to lend money to projects to increase votes and not for public gain. Air India is heavily in debt because it is used as personal carrier by politicians and civil servants and many public sector companies are surviving on life support, wasting taxpayer money. Extortionate taxes and inflation have squeezed middle class spending reducing both the service and manufacturing sectors, reducing growth to 4.7%. But trouble maybe brewing elsewhere as well. According to some economists the loose monetary policies of the Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank, the Bank of Japan and the Bank of England are producing asset price bubbles which will surely burst in the near future, causing an even bigger collapse than 2008. A senior official at the IMF has warned of a housing bubble. House prices in India maybe declining slightly but that is because we are sitting on a humongous bubble already which is ready to explode. House prices have risen so fiercely in Britain that there are fears that only the very rich will be able to buy properties, leaving others in poverty because of rising rents. Other cliches come to mind. When the going gets tough the tough get going and cometh the hour, cometh the man. Is Mr Modi that man? We can only pray.

How do we protect ourselves from headless chickens.

Had India not been adversely affected by the fighting in Iraq the way Obama and co are running around like headless chickens with no idea of what to do would have been so amusing. Sadly many thousands of Indians are trapped in Iraq and oil prices have jumped at a time when the monsoon rains maybe affected by El Nino, increasing food prices. The US is mostly responsible. First they destroy the government and the economy of Iraq and then they withdraw completely leaving it in the hands of Nouri al Maliki, a Shia, who took refuge in Iran to escape a death sentence for opposing Saddam Hussein, a Sunni. He filled all government posts with Shias resulting in massive unemployment among Sunni youths. Not much different from what Mr Akhilesh Yadav did when he filled UP police with Yadavs resulting in a huge crime wave as they refused to register crimes committed by their community. Meanwhile in Syria the majority Sunnis were losing the war against the army controlled by Alawis, a Shia sect, with support from Hezbollah from Lebanon. An extremely fanatical group called the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria entered Iraq and has made rapid progress supported by angry Sunnis and remnants of Saddam's Baathist Party along with surviving Republican Guard officers. The west is in utter chaos. The British press is recommending impeaching Tony Blair which is stupid because he is not in office. He should be tried as a mass murderer at the International Criminal Court. In the US some want to do something while others recommend doing nothing. But do what? The ISIS is not a bunch of wild eyed towel-heads as they imagine. They publish their accounts, are active on social media and have become extremely wealthy by looting banks in the areas they have captured. It is receiving support in Europe and the US. It would not be enough to bomb a few of them in Iraq. They must be defeated in Syria too but that will hand an easy victory to Assad which the US does not want. The US could ask Iran to help. Iran's army would run over ISIS in a few days and reach Syria but that would unite Iran, Iraq and Syria along with Hezbollah in Lebanon making it extremely strong and taking it right to the border with Israel. So far ISIS has been careful not to approach the Shia shrines in Najaf and Karbala but should that happen Iran will come in anyway. How to defeat Shia Assad in Damascus by using Sunni ISIS ,with support from Qatar and Saudi Arabia, but support Shia al Maliki in Baghdad by defeating Sunni ISIS in Iraq without making Shia Iran extremely strong? How to square a circle, in other words. And if Iran becomes so strong how to protect Israel and stop Sunni Turkey and Egypt from joining in a free for all. Headless chickens are not known for taking logical decisions. We should insulate ourselves.

No one is to be trusted.

Various organisations are carrying out social experiments in public to show how people in India ignore those in distress. In one experiment a woman inside a locked van was heard begging to be allowed to go while a man threatened to shoot her if she did not keep quiet. Men walking by stop but do not help until one man tries to open the door of the van and then tries to break the window. In another experiment one man was lying on the ground spattered with blood while another man tries to stop passing cars to take him to hospital. No one stops. So are we Indians totally callous and uncaring? Some maybe but for the rest of us it is a lack of trust that governs our actions. In the first case there is fear of getting shot if the man is a criminal or a politician but even if the man is apprehended our kindhearted judges will promptly set him free on bail and he will come after you. He will threaten you and your family and the police will do nothing. If he is a politician or civil servant he will register false cases against you or members of your family until you are destitute. That is precisely what Rathore did, driving Ruchika Girhotra to take her own life, and why Shayan Munshi, a witness in the Jessica Lal's murder, turned hostile. When the state protects criminals it is better not to get involved. To protect criminals further the Department of Personnel and Training has issued a direction that the identity of a whistleblower must be established first before proceeding against the accused. This order is designed to stop all complaints of corruption against civil servants. How many activists probing crime through the Right to Information Act have been killed so far? In the second experiment people do not help an injured man because beggars try such stunts to extort money and hospitals will refuse to take him unless he is able to pay which means you will need to take him to a government hospital which are always overcrowded. It will take a lot of time, then the police will harass you and finally you may have to spend days hanging around dirty courtrooms while a trial drags on forever. That we are right not to trust anyone is proved by former UP politician Mr Amar Singh who says," If I speak up, they will all be exposed." He is going to write his autobiography which will be published 10 years after his death. " It will be in 3 parts: Corporate India, Bollywood India and Political India," he said. He is taking out a life insurance. If he publishes now they will all come after him but now they have to keep him alive as long as possible because the clock starts ticking the moment he dies. Lack of trust leads to fear and fear makes us blind and deaf.

The power of one.

On 28 June, 1914 a 19 year old Serbian student named Gavrilo Princip assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife Sophie in Sarajevo. Exactly one month later on 28 July Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia and the World War I had begun. It stopped in 1918 after 10 million men had died. On 17 December, 2010 a 26 year old roadside vegetable vendor, Mohamed Bouazizi set himself on fire in front of the municipal building in the town of Sidi Bouzid in Tunisia. On 14 January the President Zine Abidine Ben Ali fled to Saudi Arabia and the middle east was on fire. On 8 June, 2010 Wael Ghonim a 29 year old Egyptian Google employee found a picture of 28 year Khaled Mohamed Said who had been beaten to death by the Egyptian police. He started a Facebook page titled ' We are all Khalid Said '. On 12 February, 2011 President Hosni Mubarak was forced to resign. In March 2011 protests began in Syria leading to civil war which drew in terrorists from all over the world, leading to the formation a fanatical group, the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. On 13 March, 2003 George Bush, then President of the US invaded Iraq leading to the capture and hanging of Saddam Hussein. Today, 39 Indians are trapped in Mosul and Tikrit in Iraq by the fighters of ISIS who maybe using them as human shields. The world has never been changed by mobs but by the action of single humans. Sure, there have been monsters such as Churchill, Hitler, Pol Pot and now Kim Jong Un but civilisation has been built by men like James Watt who designed the steam engine, Thomas Edison who invented the light bulb and Alexander Graham Bell who invented the telephone. Very few people would know that George de Mestral invented the velcro, which has made laces and buttons redundant, Tim Berners-Lee designed the World Wide Web in 1989, without which life would probably come to a halt, and professors of economics still quote from ' An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations ' published in 1776 by Adam Smith. The middle east produced prophets which is why it has been the killing field of the world for millenia. The problem has been compounded by exploding population growth with global warming, leading to poor crops and rising poverty. We are not eating our dead as yet but that day come. Meanwhile unemployed people with nothing to do, crammed together in crowded slums read the fiery words of prophets and kill each other. Perhaps it is best that human beings become extinct before we end the world.

Everything is not politics.

Pundits never stop talking, even if it is confused mish-mash. Two events have got them terribly excited recently. The present government, on coming to power, has politely asked several governors, appointed by the Congress, to resign. For Congress stooges this is completely unacceptable, never mind that the Congress did the same when they came to power in 2004. Governors are ceremonial officials, they say, and not employees that they can be thrown out at will. They have been appointed at the President's pleasure and can only be removed by the President or on completion of their terms. The President is also ceremonial and must work on the advice of the council of ministers and if that is what they want then that should be ' his pleasure '. The bigger problem is that every governor is a political appointment, some as a reward for doing the dirty work for the Congress, some to harass opposition parties in power in the states while some were appointed to protect them from allegations of crime. Governors are there to provide a dispassionate report on the functioning of the state government to the center but if they are political stooges then they are clearly unfit for office. The other event that has the pseuds frothing at their mouths is a report from the Intelligence Bureau that NGOs funded by foreign money are working actively to stop development of India. In scathing criticism they allege that the IB is working for the government, that NGOs protect the vulnerable in the society and that the government wants to destroy the environment and livelihood of tribal people. There is obviously some truth in that but it is also true that if foreign money is coming from unknown sources then there is great scope for creating disturbances and undermining the state. Sadly for the pseuds the Secretary-General of NATO, Anders Fogh Rasmussen has accused Putin of supporting NGOs to stop fracking for shale gas in Europe. " I have met allies who can report that Russia, as part of their sophisticated information and disinformation operations, engaged actively with so-called non-governmental organisations - environmental organisations working against shale gas - to maintain European dependence on imported Russian gas," he said. Russia recently banned US educational NGOs, blaming them for creating the riots in Ukraine. The US has over 450,000 productive gas wells. How many do we have? With over 7000 miles of coastline how much has been explored?. We are even buying coal with more than 250 billion tonnes in reserve. Some NGOs do good work but most are probably agents of foreign governments or companies. Time to get rid of them.

The higher the taxes the greater the evasion.

A government panel headed by a former tax chief and economist has recommended sweeping changes in our tax administration. " The tax department and taxpayer should have a service relationship rather than one of enforcement," says the report. Tax officials will resist this tooth and nail. Their income comes from having absolute power to harass and intimidate ordinary people who do not have the means or the courage to hire lawyers to fight against injustice. An 90 year old man dies suddenly leaving behind several million rupees worth of assets. Since he has always handled the paperwork his 85 year old wife is totally bewildered about how to file tax returns for the year. The taxman is empowered to demand all documents for the previous 7 years. The poor widow provides what she can and is then hit with a demand for millions of rupees in unpaid taxes, which is totally fallacious. The widow goes to a tax accountant who settles everything by paying Rs 100,000 to the taxman, in cash. The widow breathes a sigh of relief but now has to pay Rs 100,000 every year or else further demands will be made on her. A true story. Taxes are so high that it is hugely profitable to pay a bribe. Tax officials become very rich while revenue collections suffer. Falling revenue means that the government is unable to meet its commitments. First, it has to borrow vast sums from banks leaving little for lending to private businesses. This pushes up interest rates for private companies who cut down on investment which reduces employment. Lower employment means fewer people paying taxes and the fall in spending lowers indirect tax collections while lower corporate profits mean lower corporate taxes. Second, to fill the hole in its budget the government increases taxes on everything, which reduces consumption, leading to less profits. When taxes are very high it becomes extremely profitable to evade them so people start dealing in cash to avoid leaving a paper trail. That is why cash transactions in India vastly exceed payments by credit cards, although this is changing slowly. One example known to every Indian is the property market. Because stamp duty and registration charges are so high half the price of any property is paid in cash. This saves on taxes and also serves to hide the source of funds which means it is ideal for money laundering. Yesterday a bungalow was auctioned in Mumbai for Rs 3.72 billion. For 17,150 sq feet it apparently works out at Rs 280,000 or $4550 dollars per sq foot. These are Manhattan rates. This adversarial system was inherited from the British. The British were conquerors and hence our enemies. Our government has to treat us with respect and serve our interest. Taxes must be lower and easy. 

Why can't fanatics understand other fanatics

The United States was born in 1620 when a bunch of fanatics from England crossed the Atlantic in a ship called the Mayflower and landed on the coast of New Plymouth, a day still celebrated as Thanksgiving Day. They were Puritans, an extreme Protestant sect, who saw England as ' ungodly ' even though the reign of Elizabeth I, between 1558 and 1603 is considered a Golden Era for England, politically, militarily and culturally. Such was their fanaticism that they considered the New World as devoid of people because they did not consider the native Indians as human beings. " The place they thought of was one of those vast and unpeopled countries of America which are fruitful and fit for living. There are only savages and brutish men, just like wild beasts." So, though they initially survived with the help of Indians, it was easy to hunt them down as animals and eventually confine them in Reservations, where they remain till today. As immigrants poured in from Europe they grabbed California, New Mexico and Texas from Mexico. The purchase of Alaska on 30 March, 1867 from Russia for $7.2 million was sheer genius. The ability to see humans as wild beasts allowed slavery to flourish until it was ended by the Civil War in 1861-65. Given this history one would think that the Americans are uniquely qualified to understand the hatred between Sunni and Shia and the ferocity of the ISIS fighters as they rampage across Iraq in an attempt to establish a Sunni caliphate. They still see the unprovoked attack on Iraq, based on lies about Weapons of Mass Destruction, which killed 200,000 Iraqis, as sacrifice. Apparently US Vets are heartbroken because there efforts to make Iraq a civilised country has failed. They cannot understand why Iraqis are not living together as one large happy family when they used depleted uranium, white phosphorus and cluster bombs to slaughter tens of thousands of innocent children. Walter Russell Mead, Professor of Foreign Affairs and Humanities at Bard College writes that the US has a happy view of history. " Americans tend to believe that history is easy and that things usually work out for them," he writes. The US has an infantile view of good and evil which is why it allowed Sunni Pakistan to make nuclear weapons while imposing severe sanctions on Iran. It wants Nouri al-Maliki to embrace the Sunnis who, supported by Saudi Arabia and Gulf states, are killing Shias. The only way to stop ISIS maybe to ask Iran to help. The Gulf states will be no match for the Iranian army but that may draw in the 2 huge Sunni armies in Turkey and Egypt. Fanatics of the US do not understand fanatics of Sunni and Shia. We should just sit and watch the fireworks.

Pruning corruption is of no use, uproot it.

The new Prime Minister, Mr Modi must be the most hated man by the older politicians. He has a wife but has been separated from her for decades. He has no children so he does not have to steal or provide cover for criminals so that the children can follow him into politics. Apart from visiting his old mother for her blessings he has little contact with his family so there is no need for nepotism. He has traveled alone to Bhutan on his first foreign trip whereas other politicians take their entire families along. The worst thing is that there is no customs check on them when they return so they are able to smuggle in vast quantities of contraband. There are no security checks either which puts all other passengers at risk. Mr Modi has not accumulated billions of rupees, as other politicians have done, despite being Chief Minister of Gujarat for nigh on 13 years. But personal probity and thrift are not enough. In fact, this was the constant refrain of the previous Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, even as he presided over the biggest loot of the exchequer by coalition partners. The thieves must be sent to prison and kept there and not allowed out on bail to continue with their lives of luxury on looted wealth. Governors appointed by the Congress have been asked to resign but some are reluctant to do so. Ms Sheila Dikshit was appointed in a hurry, after she lost her seat in the assembly elections last December, to protect her from any investigation of the Commonwealth Games scam. She should be given the opportunity to stay if she reveals every detail of the scam and how the booty was divided. Or else force her to step down and go after her. Either the posts of governors should be abolished altogether or only people from civil society, who have no contact with politics or the government, should be appointed as governors. The Rajya Sabha must not be a dumping ground for failed or decrepit politicians who refuse to pass away. At least two thirds of the seats must be for eminent people from civil society. Sachin Tendulkar is a good start. The Prime Minister must be elected by the people and not sneak in through the backdoor of the Rajya Sabha. Politicians must not have control of banks, Prasar Bharti, Air India or manufacturing companies. VIPs are an abomination and must be abolished forthwith. There must be a time limit to finish every case and lawyers should not be allowed to seek endless extensions. No sinecure for judges after retirement. We realise that these wishes cannot be fulfilled in a hurry as the opposition will be ferocious but we hope that some start will be made. Mr Modi says he is proud to be Indian so he would want to leave a legacy. That is why we dare to hope.

Beer is excellent for the economy.

Economists, CEOs of companies, bankers and assorted pundits are waiting with bated breath for the first budget of the Modi government. If you are a pundit you will have opinions and if you have opinions you will not shrink from offering advice, so there is an outpouring of advice and warnings in the press. We also have some advice for the Prime Minister. Please lower taxes on drinks, especially beer. With just 4% alcohol content beer is the glass that cheers but does not inebriate. Nothing is more relaxing after a harrowing day at the office, having to deal with ignorant customers and a demanding boss, and then a slow frustrating drive home through chaotic traffic than a chilled glass of beer after a cool shower. You feel instantly relaxed. No need to snap at your missus or shout at your children to keep quiet. Some scientists believe that humans started agriculture 10,000 years ago to brew beer, not to make bread, and therefore beer is at the root of all civilisation. Although breweries advertise beer as a drink for men, and you will see men with glasses of beer at the ongoing Football World Cup, it was women who started brewing beer in the ancient world. It was mentioned in the Epic of Gilgamesh from 3500 BCE and the ancient Egyptians even had a goddess of beer, named Tenenit. It is so ancient that no one really knows who invented it but it was being commercially manufactured 3000 years ago. Take some malt, add water, throw in a handful of yeast and let nature do the work for you. When it is done strain off the liquid and bottle it. It is cheap and easy to make and the value addition is phenomenal. There is a huge demand all over the world for cheap beer so it could earn vast amounts of foreign exchange. Politicians want to add absolute alcohol to petrol to reduce our import bill. It is extremely expensive to make absolute alcohol because it needs to be distilled so energy requirement is very high, adding to pollution. It will be much more profitable to export beer and import petrol, saving time and money. Using malt to make beer will increase profits of sugarcane farmers. By raising the cost of sugar it will cut sugar from our diet which will improve health. Sugar is now recognised as the leading cause of obesity and heart disease. Indians are genetically prone to ischemic heart disease so reducing sugar intake will cut mortality and morbidity from coronary heart disease, saving vast sums of money. Doctors in the west are demanding higher taxes on sugar to reduce obesity related illnesses. So our request to the Prime Minster," Please reduce taxes on beer." It will earn dollars, improve health and make more money for farmers. People will be happier and your second term will be assured. And it is purely vegetarian. Cheers.

If only they had asked us?

Why is the Netherlands team allowed to beat up opponents? Have the referees been told to be soft on them? In 2010 they fouled their way to the final and lost to Spain after De Jong, who belongs in a prison and not on a football field, planted a boot on Xabi Alonso's chest. He did not receive even a yellow card. Van Persie should have received at least 3 straight reds through the tournament but got nothing. In the game against Spain, couple of days back, they were deliberately stamping on the feet of the Spanish players, lunging in with studs up and elbowing them in their faces but not one red card. From red cards to red faces.
Seems that the US is going to ask Iran to support the Shia government in Baghdad in the face of the rampaging hordes of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. With so many top universities and so many think-tanks, staffed by the best students from these universities, the ignorance of the US government is breathtaking. The removal of Saddam Hussein based on lies about WMDs was stupid. Sunnis and Shias are permanent enemies so once the Shias gained power they were going to take revenge for the humiliation that the Sunni Saddam had inflicted on them for decades. It was the turn of the Sunnis to feel aggrieved. In Syria the opposite prevailed where the minority Alawis, a Shia sect, was ruling the majority Sunnis. When Ben Ali of Tunisia fell, followed by Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, the Sunnis started protesting in Syria. Afraid of being swept away Assad reacted brutally, supported by Iran and the Hezbollah. Not having any clue about the ancient hatreds that drive the middle-east western powers, especially ladyboy David Cameron, were itching to bomb Assad's army. However, having lied about protecting civilians in Libya to kill Gaddafi they could not get any support from Russia and China in the UN Security Council who continued to veto every proposal. It will not be enough to bomb ISIS in Iraq, they have to be eliminated from Syria as well but that will hand an easy victory to Assad. The ISIS is so fanatical that even Al Qaeda keeps its distance. If the Iranian army enters Iraq it could go straight into Syria. Militarily the Sunni Gulf states are no match for the Iranians so how will the US restore the balance of power? In their anger against Russia they created an unnecessary crisis in Ukraine. Just as the help to the Afghan Mujahiddin caused civil war in Afghanistan so Ukraine will be divided by civil war. Meanwhile Pakistan is having to bomb terrorists inside its own borders who they thought they could control. If the Sunnis in the Gulf countries are overwhelmed by Shia Iran will Pakistani nuclear weapons find their way into Sunni hands? India has to stay awake.

The piggy bank is empty.

At last confirmation of what we have been writing for sometime now. In a deliberate scorched earth policy the previous Congress government has left behind a bankrupt country, hoping that any party coming to power will take so long to sort out the extreme mess that they will be able to come back to power by blaming others. What cynicism. We will destroy the country if we cannot hang on to power at any cost. Now the Prime Minister, Modi has warned of " tough decisions " over the next couple of years to rescue the economy. " I have taken over reins of the country in circumstances when there is nothing left behind by the previous government. They left everything empty. The country's financial health has hit rock bottom," he said. There is the occasional dribble of good news amid the torrent of bad. Industrial production grew by 3.4% in April but the base was low as IIP contracted by 0.7% in the last fiscal. Consumer Price Inflation fell from 8.59% in March to 8.28% in April but the met office is predicting that this year's monsoon will be 93% of normal because of an expected El Nino effect. Exports grew to $28 billion in May and vehicle sales rose by 2.76%. Oil prices are set to rise because of the unrest in Iraq and Libya. The government is caught in a situation where efforts to improve one part of the economy may damage some other part. If pump prices are allowed to rise inflation will jump and if prices are controlled the subsidy bill will balloon. Rising oil prices will increase the Current Account Deficit. This could be reduced if the rupee is allowed to appreciate against the dollar but that will immediately reduce our exports by making them more expensive and so add to the CAD. Taxes have to be reduced to stimulate consumption but without revenue there can be no infrastructure spending. Interest rates need to come down so that companies can borrow for new investments and people are encouraged to lake loans to buy new cars or houses but inflation will rise even higher. Without roads and cheap energy manufacturing cannot succeed but they require vast sums of money. Electricity generated from imported gas is very expensive so we need cheap coal, which we have in abundance. However, coal is highly polluting and mining may destroy forests. If the government borrows the vast sums required the fiscal deficit will soar and banks will have little to lend to the private sector. The Congress has no shame for creating this disaster. It is claiming that the position of Leader of The Opposition is its right because it is the largest party. No it is not. The people refused to give you the 55 seats required for the post so keep quiet and keep your heads down. No sharam, no izzat.

Why is it a crime to be kind?

Our ego is a strange beast. By making us stubbornly resistant to see our mistakes it makes us go on defending a course of action which has been repeatedly shown to be wrong. This is beautifully demonstrated in a rambling article which starts by saying," Voters who gave the Congress its worst drubbing did not reject its welfare agenda, but its performance." Those who are receiving handouts for free will always want to protect them but those who pay taxes and receive nothing in return will be angry. That is why the Shinawatra family easily wins elections in Thailand but keeps getting removed by army coup. Recep Erdogan also keeps winning elections despite protests and allegations of corruption. Even though he is dead followers of Hugo Chavez go around killing people protesting against inflation of over 50%, shortage of basic necessities and very high rates of violent crime. " The Jawahar Rozgar Yojana which for the first time recognized the rights of slum dwellers to be settled in their present locations with in situ upgrading of public services rather than demolition was never implemented," he writes. That is shocking. Land is extremely expensive and a scarce commodity in India so to encourage land grabbing in the name of poverty is to encourage crime. " The end result after five years was that the government had no credible story to tell about either its priorities or its performance to the voters." Not true. Poverty declined from 37.2% in 2004 to 20% in 2012 which is an enormous achievement. The reason why there was a " fatal malfunction of communication " was because the Congress would not be able to announce more handouts to buy votes if it boasted about fewer poor people. Therein lay the paradox. " ..... public expenditure in public education, public health, social security, decent housing and nutrition are not doles but investments in human beings...." he writes. Absolutely, provided it is for everybody and those who pay taxes also benefit from state spending and are not treated as compulsory blood donors by our elected government. Why are these communists so blinkered that they cannot understand that a policy where public finance is treated like personal booty, to be distributed selectively to win votes, is bound to lead to " the ignominy of gigantic corruption scandals ". If the government shows no respect for public money then no one will and the loot will go out of control. That is why the USSR collapsed, Cuba is opening up and China practices harsh capitalism and has to suppress its citizens to stay in power. It is time to junk their egos and accept the simple truth that India should be for everyone so make everyone wealthy and not selected ' vote banks '. Selective kindness is a crime.

Men must be included if it is to stop.

An editorial in today's newspaper says that we should stop discussing rape and just put every rapist in prison. Absolutely. Trouble is that apart from some satisfaction it does not help the victim who has gone through this horrific trauma. What was the use of a 7 year jail sentence for the beast who left Aruna Shanbaug in vegetative state for 41 years. He is enjoying life while she is a living dead. Our munificent judges sentenced the most perverted villain in the Nirbhaya gang rape case to a derisory 3 years in a correctional institute. Because he was a ' juvenile '. Yet Rathore served a mere 6 months for molesting Ruchika Girhotra who was only 14 years old at the time. Just 6 months for pedophilia. We never hear of a woman raping a man so it is a crime committed by men against women. Yet men do not come from mines or trees. We are born of women. Our mothers, aunts, sisters and daughters are all women that we respect. Because fathers usually go out to work boys are brought up by their mothers. Why do women not teach their sons to respect every woman as they respect her? If we have to prevent this crime then women must talk to men. Trouble is that the whole discussion has been hijacked by feminists with their own hate talk against men. But there is another side to this discussion. Mike Tyson had a reputation for violence, he had been a member of a gang and he was beating up white men. So they set him up. With the help of a black woman. Ms Washington went to his room at 2 AM knowing that he was single. For what? To discuss economics? Yet feminists were conspicuously silent when Ms Khobragade was sexually assaulted by the New York Police baboons or when Ms Krittika Biswas was tortured and humiliated after a false accusation. Because they were Indians, therefore foreign. If you value women's honor then you must value all women, not just whites. Then there is the desire for the ' 15 minutes of fame '. Every other day you read about another woman who claims to have been molested by Jimmy Savile in Britain, decades ago. Jimmy Savile was undoubtedly a vile and disgusting man and there is no doubt that he molested many innocent girls but it would have been impossible for him to have molested some 5 million girls. A respected US columnist has written that rape claimants seem to have " coveted status " in US college campuses and that victimhood " confers privileges ". This has caused an outcry by women. Women are not responsible for rape. They are victims. But they are not helpless either. They must be the teachers who prevent this crime. Use your power as mothers.

A fantasy called democracy.

Prof Nouriel Roubini is worried that the Great Recession following the global financial crisis of 2008 is leading to economic nationalism all over the world, leading to " trade barriers, asset protection, reaction against foreign direct investment, policies favoring domestic workers and firms, anti-immigration measures, state capitalism, and resource nationalism." A weak recovery of the global economy coupled with increasing wealth inequality in every country has given rise to the perception of politicians in bed with the rich, leading to a rise of nationalism. Except in Tunisia the Arab Spring has failed, the UK might leave the EU, Scotland may become independent of the UK and Spain and Belgium may break up. A similar nationalism after the Great Depression led to World War II and his gloomy conclusion is that the Great Recession is following the same trajectory. Prof Roubini does not address the question of whether global growth is possible without producing a resource crunch, which will act as a brake, and the unrestrained population growth in developing countries which is suppressing wages of workers, not just in their home countries but in rich countries as well, leading to income inequality. Prof Francis Fukuyama, on the other hand, is very optimistic while recognising that he was hasty when he predicted the end of history in 1989 at the fall of the Soviet Union. At the time he had argued that," History appeared to culminate in liberty: elected governments, individual rights, an economic system in which capital and labor circulated with relatively modest state oversight." In 1974, there were only 35 electoral democracies, representing less than 30% of countries while in 2013 there were 120 representing 60% of countries. He concedes that some governments have become more authoritarian and that inequality of wealth means that the rich control political systems to their benefit but he is certain that the desire for individual freedom will prevail. Sadly, he seems to have a simplistic Hollywood view of the world in which the US is good and Russia is bad. Thus what Russia is doing in Ukraine is wrong while the repeated genocides committed by the US in Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq find no mention. One of the reasons why there were so few democracies in 1974 was the CIA support of despots around the world. All politicians aspire to have absolute power: the Chinese Communist tries to control the internet while the NSA in the US monitors all phone calls and internet activity. Just casting a ballot every few years is not democracy. We need a balance of power between politicians and citizens. Perhaps wars are inevitable.

A slow spiral downwards?

Seems that Barack Obama is unable to do anything right. While 48% of people approve of him 50% of people disapprove, with 24% disapproving strongly. The roll out of the Affordable Care Act, which was to be his legacy, turned into a fiasco. Now the swap of 5 Taliban prisoners from Guantanamo for Sgt Bowe Bergdahl, which was built as the-US-always-brings-its boys-home moment, has turned into a nightmare with former comrades of Bergdahl accusing him of being a deserter who caused the death of 6 soldiers sent out to rescue him. His foreign policy is confused. He talked of a ' red line ' in Syria but did nothing and now his support for the right wing thugs in Kiev has precipitated a civil war which is almost sure to end with a division of Ukraine. Bashar al Assad has just been reelected with a massive majority. The US called it a sham but has been criticised by foreign observers who have endorsed the election as ' free and fair '. Even his efforts to bring peace between Palestine and Israel seems to have been hijacked by the Pope. Obama's problem is that he is a natural gasbag and his every action is based on calculation of political gain rather than on principle. Of course, not all problems are of his doing. The removal of Saddam was probably the most moronic act of George Bush. As we predicted at the time the country is slowly disintegrating into a Shia south, a Sunni middle and a Kurdish north. A hardline Islamist group, the Islamic State in Iraq and Levant has captured Mosul in the north, after the army ran away, prompting the government to declare a state of emergency. The extreme fanaticism of this group has made the Free Syrian Army redundant and made Assad more popular. Problem for Obama is that he cannot denounce Assad's election completely because Christians in Syria voted for him. Oh dear. If Iraq does break up into 3 parts Iran will become extremely strong because the south of Iraq has a long border with Saudi Arabia which is the headquarters of Sunnis and its visceral enemy. Iran could send in small teams of terrorists if it chose to do so, to destabilise Saudi Arabia. The oil producing region of Saudi is in the southeast, across the Gulf from Iran and has a sizable Shia population. Turkey is never going to tolerate an independent Kurdistan and may try to annex it. Infighting among various armed factions in Libya is reducing its oil output, opposite to what the west had planned when it murdered Gaddafi along with 30,000 Libyans. After Congressional elections in November Obama will be a lame duck and will limp out of office in 2 years. What a disappointment.

Problems are well known. Only action matters.

The President's address to Parliament yesterday laid out a road map which the new government wishes to follow. Opposition politicians were quick to criticise the government's agenda. Mr Anand Sharma of the Congress said," There is no new line of thinking.... no original thought.It is just jugglery of words, full of platitudes and replete with cliche and slogans which the country heard during the last six months." Mr Anand Sharma is the erstwhile Minister of Commerce who managed a contraction of 0.7% in industrial production in the last financial year. The reason the speech seems full of cliche is because everyone, including school children, knows the severe problems that need urgent solutions as we face blackouts even as temperatures break record levels. Water and sanitation will save girls from rape as they have to go out to the fields under cover of darkness to relieve themselves. Extortionate taxes are strangling the economy so the Goods and Services Tax bill needs to become law. Roads, railways and airports are essential to boost commerce. Mr Sitaram Yechury of the CPM said," Compilation of election slogans was repeated in the speech. But how it will be implemented was not there. It has only expressed intention not the solution." Quite. The CPM left Bengal with a debt of over Rs 2 trillion after destroying the entire industrial base by going on strikes and slogan shouting. Perhaps the omission of detailed steps of implementation was deliberate to prevent sabotage from such people. The BJP government of Rajasthan has proposed fundamental changes to labor laws which will be anathema to corrupt union leaders whose power and wealth depend on holding companies to ransom by organising strikes and then selling out workers in a fraudulent deal. Perhaps the most significant point was the absence of the phrase ' inclusive growth ' which meant spending vast amounts of money in handouts to the poor while allowing friends and relatives to loot trillions of rupees from telecom licenses, mines and every deal, whether in purchase of trucks or helicopters. Handouts increase inflation and poverty while reducing jobs. So the latest wheeze was targeted subsidies to the poor through biometric Aadhar cards. The Bolsa Familia program in Brazil is admired for lifting millions out of poverty while empowering women. Why then is the government of Brazil having to use teargas against protesters just before the World Cup? There is only one solution to poverty in India. No handouts to those who have more than one child. It will reduce deficit, reduce inflation, improve education, improve health and protect the environment. So simple.

Same old disease will have the same old end.

The first act of Mr Chandrababu Naidu on taking oath as Chief Minister of the new truncated Andhra Pradesh was to announce a raft of freebies. Last time he was chief minister he had focused on development but lost to the Congress who promised freebies. After 10 years in the wilderness he is taking no chances, he will ' get his retaliation in first '. He has waived crop loans for farmers, women's self help groups and weavers. He has increased pensions to Rs 1000 for widows and the elderly and to Rs 1500 for the handicapped. He has promised to supply mineral water at Rs 2 per 20 liters to all villages. In short he is destroying the economy of his state even before he starts working. In an angry article one Mr Aiyar, with a masters degree in economics from Oxford no less, advises our new Prime Minister Modi not to give Rs 540 billion to Mr Naidu for this ' super-freebie '. He writes that writing off loans helps only those with bank accounts and not the real poor who borrow from local moneylenders. It punishes the honest who have already paid off their loans while rewarding the crooks who had no intention of repaying in the first place. It will destroy micro-finance for women which is based on responsibility to a peer group. Mr Aiyar is absolutely right in what he says. It is a pity that he did not write the same article in 2005 when the Congress started the MGNREGA scheme which paid the rural poor for 100 days a year for doing nothing or in 2008 when the Congress forgave all loans to farmers at a cost of Rs 700 billion and increased civil service salaries by 30% to win elections in 2009. These moves resulted in retail inflation of 8.6%, a growth rate of 4.7% and a fiscal deficit of Rs 5.08 trillion. Manufacturing actually contracted by 0.7% as extortionate taxes, to pay for the social schemes, have taken away purchasing power from people. This meant that few new jobs were created and most of these were in poorly paying services such as construction, restaurant waiters or household servants. Despite such poor numbers the RBI Governor is unable to lower interest rates which is at 8%. He lowered the Statutory Liquidity Ratio to inject more liquidity into banks hoping to increase lending to customers which may kickstart the economy. Other countries can take more robust measures because their inflation is low but not here. Strangely no one asked any questions of Ms Sonia Gandhi who ruled the country for 10 years with her communist advisers in the National Advisory Council. So who to blame? The Congress for ruining the economy or the highly educated pseuds who suffered intentional blindness? 

They are pretending. They do not have a clue.

The European Central Bank has cut interest rates from 0.25% to 0.15% to stimulate the European economy. Seems meaningless. Does it matter whether you get 25 paise or 15 paise interest on Rs 100? This is unfair on savers who are losing money because the rate of inflation is 0.5%. The ECB wants to force people to spend money by making savings unattractive and by making it cheap to borrow money. The reason is that the ECB is in a state of pure funk. Inflation has fallen to 0.5% and there is a real possibility of deflation as has been going on in Japan for over a decade. In desperation the Bank of Japan is buying bonds up to $350 billion a year to increase money supply, targeting an inflation rate of 2%. The Federal Reserve in the US was buying bonds and mortgage backed securities of $85 billion every month in a program known as Quantitative easing. To force banks to lend more to people and businesses the ECB is going to charge banks 0.1% for funds parked with it by banks. ECB President, Mario Draghi said," Are we finished? The answer is no. If need be, within our mandate, we aren't finished." He is saying that but his hands are tied by Germany which is the biggest economy in the Eurozone. Germans blame the hyperinflation in the 1920s for the rise of the Nazi party, the defeat in the war that followed and the resultant division of the country. Germany has imposed austerity on countries that were in debt resulting in severe contraction of economy and painful unemployment. Unemployment level in Greece was 23.8% in March 2014 but the rate among 15-24 year old was an unbearable 58.3%. An entire generation is going to lose out unless the ECB is able to stimulate the economy sufficiently to generate more jobs. The British have also imposed austerity by cutting benefits for the disadvantaged and have generated a boom in house prices by helping buyers. The British should learn from India. The Congress has left us with a huge property price bubble which has increased black money in the system, stoked inflation and made people poorer by increasing rents. Already first time buyers find it impossible to enter the housing market in Britain. While the ECB and Britain are imposing austerity the US and Japan are injecting vast sums into their banks. Ideally all central banks should be formulating a joint policy so that all countries benefit from it but central banks are constrained by their political masters to produce quick results to win elections. Unilateral changes by these large banks may produce massive currency flows which would cause a big headache for the RBI. They use big words, trying to sound clever but no one has a clue. Scary isn't it?

What if the Axis powers won World War II ?

In hideous triumphalism the US and Europe are celebrating the landings on Normandy beach 70 years ago in what would be the final push towards Hitler's defeat. But what if the Axis powers had won World War II? What would it have meant for India? For a start the British would have been defeated and India would not have been divided. There would be no Pakistan so no ISI, no Lashkar-e-Taiba and no Taliban. There would be no Bangladesh and so no infiltration of illegal immigrants feeding the Indian Mujahiddeen. The famine in Bengal was created by the British, to take revenge for freedom fighters, in which more than 3 million died. So Churchill would have been hanged as a mass murderer that he was. Had Japan not bombed Pearl Harbor the US would have stayed out of the war and there would have been no nuclear bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Without the support of the British and the French the US would not have dared to commit genocide in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan or Libya. Cockroach-eating Chinese would have been ruled by Japan and India would not have been humiliated in 1962. Tibet would be a free country. The UN Security Council would consist of Germany, Japan, Italy, India and maybe the US. There would have been no arms race between the US and the USSR so only the US would have developed nuclear weapons and since they would have no need to use them the technology would wither away. The world would have been a nicer and more peaceful place. As it is the west precipitated an unnecessary civil war in Ukraine to needle Russia. The east of Ukraine is Russian speaking and do not want to be part of the European Union which the western half wants. Surely that is not a crime and does not justify the Ukrainian government using helicopter gunships and tanks to kill its own citizens. David Cameron of Britain is a virulent critic of Russia for supporting the rebels in the east of Ukraine. But he is threatening to leave the EU if Jean-Claude Junker is elected Chief of the European Commission. Surely, the US and other European countries should jointly bomb Britain if it leaves the EU. Former French Prime Minister, Michel Rocard has told him to get out of Europe. Scotland is to hold a referendum on independence from Westminster in September of this year. If Scotland becomes independent then the United Kingdom will cease to exist. India should demand that Britain should be thrown out of the UN Security Council to be replaced by us. Not as good as hanging Churchill perhaps but a little revenge at last. It will be sweet none the less.

What about name or reputation or honor?

The rape and hanging of 2 teenage girls in Badaun in UP is causing enormous anger, not just in India but around the world. This is not what we want our country to be famous for. The 2 girls were raped and hanged by Pappu Yadav, Awadesh Yadav and Urvesh Yadav who have been arrested. They were protected by 2 constables, Sarvesh Yadav and Chhatrapal Yadav who refused to register a First Information Report on the missing girls. Both have been sacked and arrested. Police outpost in-charge of Katra Sadatganj, Ram Vilas Yadav has been suspended. The MP for Badaun is Mr Dharmendra Yadav, son of Mr Abhay Ram Yadav who is the younger brother of Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav whose son, Mr Akhilesh Yadav is the Chief Minister of UP. Does that mean that all Yadavs are bad people? Definitely not. But when you appoint police officers based on caste and not on merit then bad things will happen. The situation has been made worse by stupid comments from various politicians, the latest being Mr Babulal Gaur, a BJP MLA in MP who said," This is a social crime which depends on men and women. Sometimes it's right, sometimes it's wrong." He probably meant that occasionally women will accuse an innocent man wrongfully of rape but if your English is weak keep your mouth shut. These comments are pounced on by anchors on news channels who demand stricter laws. What no one is saying is that women politicians have been completely silent. Ms Dimple Yadav, wife of UP Chief Minister, Akhilesh Yadav has just been elected to parliament. Why is she not outraged that such incidents are happening in her state, committed by members of her own caste? Ms Mayawati made a hurried visit by helicopter and demanded that the UP government be dismissed and President's Rule imposed. That is so coldly political that it would be a catastrophe as it would allow the Yadav's to cast themselves as victims. Ms Mamata Bannerjee transferred Police Commissioner, Demayanti Sen in anger for solving the Park Street gang-rape case. However, all this is irrelevant. We are human because we have feelings. This was lacking when Mr Akhilesh Yadav said," Whenever there has been an incident, we have taken immediate action. We have even recommended a CBI enquiry into the Badaun rape case." How forensic is that? Two dead girls are not ' an incident '. Go to Badaun, see the photos of the girls and cry. Stop defending yourself. This is not about politics. This is about your mother, sister and daughter. Do not try to protect your seat. Try to protect your name, your reputation and your honor. By showing you are human.

Socialism or secularism, being pseudo does not work.

People who describe themselves as ' liberals ' are devastated by the defeat of the Congress in the recent elections. They should try to understand a quote from Abraham Lincoln which says," You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time." Liberalism in India means abusing Hindus constantly while protecting every crime committed by minorities against Hindus. It did not work for the Samajwadi Party in UP, after riots in Muzaffarnagar, and it did not work for the Congress either. Used to being always protected the Muslims wanted more while the Hindus voted for the BJP so that the BJP won 71 seats out of 80 in UP with the SP getting 5 and the Congress only 2. Just as pseudo-secularism is failing so is pseudo-socialism. In proper socialist countries such as the USSR and Cuba education and healthcare were cheap and the same for everybody but in India socialism means to bribe the ' vote bank ' with handouts while taxing the middle class into poverty. Higher education is already too expensive for everyone except the wealthy. The only option for the majority would be take bank loans but starting salaries are not so high that the loans maybe paid off easily. So, either go abroad or cut corners. Private medical schools in Tamil Nadu are charging Rs 10 million for a basic MBBS degree. When you spend that much it ceases to be an education and becomes an investment so doctors will want a return as soon as possible. The result is that medial care, especially for serious illness, is now out of reach. In a population of 1.25 billion, where only 35 million pay income tax, such services cater to 5% of the people who can afford it or those paid for by the government. Hence the fight to get into SC,ST or OBC status. The solution is to reduce taxes so that everyone has equal opportunity regardless of wealth, class or caste. But the pseudo-liberal politicians have been winning elections by using pseudo-secularism by creating strife between Hindus and so called minorities and by using pseudo-socialism by selectively distributing handouts to certain sections, paid for by extortionate taxes on others. They never stop. Now a panel has recommended that there should be a cess of 75 paise on every liter of petrol and diesel. Even today petrol is $3.7 per liter in the US which works out to Rs 60 per liter. If a tiny country like Britain can find oil and gas under the North Sea and now under Sussex why can we not find any with 7000 miles of shoreline. It is the duty of the government to reduce prices so that everyone can benefit. But will they?

We need a constructive opposition.

The complete wipe out of the Congress in the recent elections is not good news for India. It is a good thing that the BJP has absolute majority in parliament so that we do not have to endure another 5 years of ' coalition dharma ', like the last 10 years, when we had 79 ministers in 51 ministries fighting with each other for more power because the more the power the more the chance to loot. But a large opposition party is extremely necessary, not to disrupt the parliament with noisy demonstrations, but to scrutinise the actions of the government, ask for explanations and inform people of any transgressions by the ruling party. Today the opposition is fragmented, the 3 largest parties being the Congress with 44 seats, the AIADMK with 36 and the Trinamul Congress with 34 seats. No party has 55 seats which would entitle it for the post of the Leader of the Opposition, which is not just a fancy title with perks, but has seats on important committees. When Sushma Swaraj of the BJP was Leader of the Opposition in 2010 she opposed the appointment of PJ Thomas to the post of Chief Vigilance Commissioner because of allegations of improper conduct in the past. Eventually Mr Thomas had to resign the post. The AIADMK is limited to Tamil Nadu and the Trinamul Congress to Bengal so only the Congress is recognised all over India. One man who carries the biggest responsibility for the Congress debacle is the previous Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh. People blame him for not protecting The Family by taking the blame on himself. He was picked from the Rajya Sabha in 2004 by Ms Sonia Gandhi because he had no political base and would not challenge the ascendance of her son, Rahul to the post in due time. He was supposed to keep the seat warm until Rahul had learnt the tricks of the trade. And Singh played the part to perfection. He did nothing. He appointed vast numbers of ministers without any supervision allowing everyone to loot to heart's content while keeping his own hands scrupulously clean. He said almost nothing except proclaiming his own honesty and blaming ' coalition dharma ' for all the ills in the economy. He followed every diktat issued by Ms Gandhi.  He must have known that all the handouts would lead to disaster so he constituted 21 Groups of Ministers and 9 Empowered Groups of Ministers as a layer between The Family and himself. The Congress is in total disarray. For now The Family will hang on but if it loses elections in major states over the next 3 years then the knives will really come out. Once The Family is banished then the Congress can rebuild again. We certainly hope so.