No system is immune from greed.

When Nestor Kirchner was elected president of Argentina in 2003 he was said to be worth $2.5 million. He died in 2010 since when his wife Cristina Kirchner has been President. Today she is said to be worth $17.7 million. Critics allege that this is money stolen from the state. A business friend, Mr Baez would transport the money in sacks which were weighed because there was too much money to be counted. Argentina defaulted on $100 billion foreign debt in 2001 and is offering 30 cents to the dollar to settle its accounts but some US bondholders have gone to court demanding full payment so it maybe forced to default a second time.  Politicians in India are known to multiply their wealth in very short time. They have to. Poor fellows do not know if they will be dumped in the next elections. Brazil's economy contracted by 0.6% in the second quarter, from April-June, having contracted by 0.2% in the first, which means Brazil is in recession. Interest rate in Brazil is at 11% in an effort to control inflation. A mix of corruption and socialism has wrecked the economies of both the countries, much as the Congress did to India. In France, Francois Hollande became President by promising socialism. He has increased the top rate of income tax to 75%, prompting the wealthy to flee, which would hurt tax collection. Unemployment is up to 11%, house prices have fallen by 2% and 57% of public spending is on welfare payments, which are so generous that many people find it more lucrative not to work. The rural wage inflation in India due to the NREGA scheme is similar. Across the Channel Britain is growing by 3% but much of that growth is based on a phenomenal rise in property prices so that a shoebox in London can cost 4000 pounds, Rs 400,000, per month to rent. Just as the Congress forced the RBI to keep interest rates low, punishing savers, so a British MP has warned that if the interest rate is raised from the current 0.5% it will be a catastrophe for borrowers. Surely if socialism and welfare are bad for the economy a capitalist country like the US should be the ideal. But even here one-third of the population needs some help from the government. To reduce their tax bills some companies are ' merging ' with foreign firms in a low tax country and transferring their headquarters to that country, as Burger King has done recently. This process is known as ' inversion ' and Obama has called in unpatriotic. At least this is visible. Seems that multinationals and wealthy people show more liabilities than assets because of blatant tax evasion. Capitalism creates wealth while socialism destroys it but greed destroys both.

Lack of conscience and understanding is dangerous for all.

When they have the best universities, the cleverest scientists and the largest companies in the world why do the Americans keep electing egotistical clowns as presidents? In an interview with Thomas Friedman of the New York Times the gasbag, Barack Obama said," We did not start airstrikes all across Iraq as soon as the ISIS came in because that would have taken the pressure off Nouri al-Maliki." That is so callous, so inhuman, so immoral that it takes your breath away. What he means is that he wanted the ISIS to kill thousands of Iraqis to force Prime Minister Maliki to resign, which he has done since. This is the philosophy of contemptuously lumping innocent people of other nations as ' collateral damage ', as if they are inanimate objects, like furniture or cars. This is what Ronald Reagan did with Gulbuddin Hematyar to defeat Soviet troops in Afghanistan, who then destroyed Kabul and killed thousands. He is still there, this time killing US forces. US companies are paying Jalaluddin Haqqani, another old Afghan friend of Reagan, who called him a " freedom fighter ", for not killing US contractors building roads and not destroying trucks supplying US troops. Having killed thousands of Afghans to find one person, Osama Bin Laden, the US is running away with its tail between its legs and thousands more will die in the civil war that is sure to follow. The stupidity lies in not understanding that Bin Laden did not organise 9/11, sitting in a cave in Tora Bora, the ISI did. An equally stupid move was to create the confrontation with Russia in Ukraine over a lie. President Yanukovych had 2 choices, join the EU and suffer severe austerity with high unemployment, severe poverty and starvation, as in Greece, or take Russia's offer of $15 billion with a long term contract of cheap gas. It was a no-brainer. When he chose Russia's offer western countries instigated an armed insurrection with neo-Nazi Right Sector and Svoboda thugs. That is probably what Putin was referring to when he said," Sadly, it reminds me of World War II, when German fascist forces surrounded our cities, like Leningrad, and shelled population centers and their residents." Britain could be crushed as an ant by Russia, but hiding behind American skirts Cameron is itching for a fight. Why can he not understand that he can never be Margaret Thatcher? Because he does not have the cojones. Meanwhile by getting cheap gas from Russia China has become even more powerful. While the army has sidelined Nawaz Sharif by supporting a civilian coup in Pakistan. India is in much greater danger than before. You can never explain to an unscrupulous gasbag.

If everything is illegal does it protect the crooks?

Indian companies have become used to being protected from foreign competition by high import duties, making easy money from natural resources, given free by bribe-taking politicians, and by price gouging Indian consumers. Indian telecom companies want the government to impose charges on WhatsApp, Viber and Skype because they offer free messaging and voice services based on the internet. Mobile number portability was announced with great fanfare 3 years ago but the companies completely changed the meaning of the exercise. For us it meant that your number will be portable, which means that you pay the same charges wherever you go in India, but the companies restricted it to mean that you can keep the same number if you change your service provider within the same circle. And then last year 2 companies loudly announced free roaming. Which meant you pay Rs 5 per day or a mere Rs 79 for 30 days for incoming calls. For us paying even Re 1 means that it is not free and you still have to pay for outgoing calls, so they were lying. Our mineral wealth is being looted by criminals, with help from politicians, of all parties. The Coal mines scam, between 2004 and 2009, is said to have resulted in a loss of Rs 1.86 trillion, during which time the Congress was in power. The Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh was in charge of the Coal Ministry and defended his decisions as being in accordance with ' coalition dharma '. A few days back the Hon'ble Supreme Court pronounced that all licenses awarded since 1993 were illegal because," The screening committee has never been consistent, transparent, there is no application of mind......Hence, the allocation of coal blocks based on the recommendations made in all the 36 meetings of the screening committee is illegal." So what happens now? The CBI was investigating cases of corruption in the allocation of mines between 2004 and 2009. Does the investigation become irrelevant if all the allocations going back to 1993 were illegal anyway? Since the BJP was in government from 1998 to 2004 does it meant that the Congress does not have a case to answer? Does the judgement protect all those who have benefited from the scam? Although originally proposed by the Congress the perceived haste of the present government in taking up the Judicial Accountability Bill has angered the judges. In particular they want judges to be appointed by a collegium of judges whose activities are secret. Power companies have taken huge debts for the projects so if all the mines are cancelled the banks will see a huge rise in bad debts and the economy will suffer because of a shortage of power. We hope the judges will consider the nation.

Enjoy on earth and get rewarded in heaven.

A succession of cases of so called ' Love Jihad ' is being reported by the media in India in which Hindu girls are either kidnapped, forced or blackmailed into marrying Muslim men and then beaten to convert. Instantly a multitude of pseuds have rushed forward to claim this as a Hindu conspiracy to tar Muslims and that these are all cases where women have fallen so madly in love that they deserted their families, friends and culture to rush into the waiting arms of Muslim men. Of course, some women will convert for ' love ' until such time that they are thrown out as trash when the fellow says Talaq 3 times, even on a cell phone. The pseuds are able to get away with their blatant lies because most people do not read newspapers of other countries and political correctness prevents TV channels from reporting on such incidents. In Rotherham in England 1400 girls were abused, beaten and raped between 1993 and 2013 by men of Pakistani origin. Just like the anti-Hindu liars in India officials in England were so afraid of being accused of racism that they did nothing even when girls reported their abuse. And just like the so called ' juvenile ', whose extreme depravity killed the 23 year old woman, named Nirbhaya by the press, was rewarded with a joke sentence of 3 years in a correctional facility so the judges of England are treating these lowlifes with TLC. Yet English judges had no hesitation in handing out very long sentences after the riots in London in 2011 even for people who were present at the scene but not taking part in the riots. In Iraq hundreds of women are being sold off as sex slaves by the Islamic State fighters. Their crime? They are Yazidis, a very old religion which survives only in certain parts of Iraq. The rewards are great. Enjoy yourself by raping women of other faiths here on earth and enjoy for ever with 72 virgins and boys after death. In Birmingham a conspiracy named ' Trojan Horse ' sought to promote Islamic teaching in mixed schools. Teachers and head teachers were hounded out of the schools and school boards were infiltrated by the fanatics. But it is not only about women and children. In Syria 300 government soldiers captured by the IS were shot to death. The video has been uploaded on the net and will no doubt be enjoyed by millions of faithful. It will also bring in more volunteers to fight for the IS and ' enjoy ' the fruits of victory. Meanwhile all governments make excuses by saying that these are a tiny minority and that we must embrace the majority. What they do not understand is that these people are following Jihad, whether love or otherwise, and to deny Jihad is to be an apostate. Or maybe they do understand but are lying for votes. Cowards.

Does death have a color?

A nine year old girl accidentally shot her gun instructor in the head with an Uzi submachine gun in Arizona in the US. Apparently parents teach children as young as 5 years of age to shoot. But there is no UN or Amnesty International reports of children being armed in the US as there is about Syria. Seems to us that the only difference between children armed with guns in the US and in Africa is the color of their skins. Of course, children in the US are better dressed. Is there a difference between children killed by civil war in Syria and those killed by Adam Lanza at Sandy Hook Elementary School in December 2012 with 5 year old children having an average of 11 bullets in their little bodies? Is it very bad to be killed by a barrel bomb dropped by Assad's planes in Syria but good to be killed by a Daisy Cutter dropped by a US plane or by a Hellfire missile launched by a US drone? Do you go to heaven if killed by a white man but go to hell if killed by a colored one? The apparent beheading of the American freelance journalist, James Foley by an Islamic State fighter, nicknamed Jihadi John, has caused uproar in the US and western countries, although the video has been pronounced a fake. British and US special forces are already in Syria to try and catch the culprit. The US was already bombing IS terrorists in Iraq but Obama has given orders for them to be bombed in Syria as well. First massacre tens of thousands of Iraqi Sunnis by using ' Shock and Awe ' tactics and when they come looking for revenge bomb the hell out of them again, regardless of how many civilians are slaughtered as ' collateral damage ' in the process. It is like a doctor prescribing very strong medicine which causes side effects and he then prescribes further medicines for the side effects which cause different side effects and so on until the patient dies. What is already happening in Iraq and Libya and will shortly happen in Afghanistan. If the killing of James Foley was bad what about the shooting of sound recordist, Bryce Dion by police in Omaha, Nebraska while filming an episode ' Cops ', a TV series on real life police action? Oh yes, it was an accident, just like that of the 9 year old girl. But Dion was wearing a bullet proof vest so what kind of ammunition were the police using in a city neighborhood? The man in Foley video will be hunted down and probably killed because Foley was white but the killer of Trayvon Martin walked free and so probably will the killer of Michael Brown, because both the killers are white. What we would like to know is, " Does death have a color? "

Some stories never change.

If we had thought that the BJP government will improve our lives with lower taxes and better services we were sadly mistaken. Indian politicians and civil servants cannot overcome their addiction to raising taxes for the most derisory excuses. Already the price of beer in Delhi has gone up by Rs 15 and the price of wine and spirits by over Rs 100. Now we hear that taxes on fuel and new vehicles will increase and there will be a surcharge on stamp duty on the sale of properties and on property tax. The excuse for this extortion is the government's desire to build 100 new smart cities. New taxes will immediately add to inflation so we end up paying more for fuel and property tax but also for essential goods which are transported by trucks. Building new cities will help the construction industry and draw more labor away from agriculture, raising rural labor costs and feeding into food inflation which is already running at 10%. Rural labor has fallen by 8.6% to 64% between 2004 and 2012 while labor in the construction industry has risen by 6% to 11%. The funny thing is that even with all this manic construction real estate prices have continued to rise so that any honest person without rich parents cannot afford to buy any property. Which means you have to pay rent which is a complete non-productive waste because it does not build up your asset base. Also landlords, fearing the stupid Rent Control Act, insist that you move every year, which is further waste of money. Although workers save 16% of their wages, which is second only to China, 78% face poverty on retirement because inflation, stoked by high taxes, erodes the value of their savings while the pressure on the Reserve Bank to keep interest rates low means that real interest on savings is not enough for survival. Construction firms build on borrowed money and banks are already groaning under unpaid infrastructure loans so all this construction could mean more bad news for banks. One defaulter, although dealing in diamonds, diverted Rs 65 billion abroad. Public sector banks will be recapitalised with taxpayer money which is where our taxes are going. However, not everyone is complaining about paying high taxes because the really wealthy know how not to pay any. Recently JM Arbitrage Advantage Fund has raised Rs 55 billion in quick time. In this scheme money is invested in equity. The fund distributes bonus shares immediately which brings down the NAV of the shares. You sell off the original shares at a loss which you can set off against other gains but keep the bonus. You can sell the bonus shares after 1 year with no capital gains tax. The middle class remains the suckers.

The secret mines of bad loans.

The ongoing investigation into the scam at Syndicate Bank, where the chairman of the bank is alleged to have dished out hundreds of millions of rupees in loans in return for bribes, has once again focused attention on the finances of public sector banks. As they dig into the scam the police are discovering that the crooks were friendly with officers at many other PSU banks. So how high are the bad loans at these banks? We are told that the total Non Performing Assets of PSU banks was Rs 2.5 trillion, or 4% of total outstanding loans, at the end of June but banks hide bad loans by restructuring them in a process known as ' evergreening ', in which they issue new loans which are used to pay back the old loan. This is shown as a new loan in the books and the bad loan disappears. Around 5.9% of bad loans have been so restructured which takes the total bad loans to 10%. Combine the bribes paid to managers with restructuring and you have people borrowing billions of rupees with no intention of paying them back. Then there is Rs 1.44 trillion stuck at Debt Recovery Tribunal. How much of that has been written off by the banks, so that they do not show up in the books, we do not know. Banks lend the money we save from our meager salaries for the future. We save in government banks because we see them as safe because the government will never allow one of its banks to fail. However, these bad loans are written off with taxpayer money, which is our money as well, and printing more notes results in inflation as the value of the rupee drops. So we lose out while the crooks laugh with our money. If we thought that this was it and we can now take a deep breath then we were sadly very wrong. Seems that bad loans at power projects are over Rs 3 trillion. According to the terms of the loans repayment will only start from the Commercial Operation Date, or COD, which is the day when the plant starts to produce power. Trouble is that although the power plants have been built they cannot obtain a steady supply of coal and hence cannot start producing power. Plants capable of producing 28,000 megawatts are lying idle because of lack of coal. Companies are refraining from starting production because repayment of loans will immediately kick in while banks are afraid of insisting on a COD in case the companies default which will turn the loans into NPAs. " Everyone is aware of this practice. The banks are not insisting on COD as it will increase their NPAs. Then the real banking crisis will unfold. The numbers are artificially suppressed till there is a revival in the sector," said an anonymous power sector analyst. Now that the Supreme Court has cancelled all coal mining licenses dating back to 1993 will we see a banking disaster. We can only pray.

Assad and Ayatollah- Obama's new friends?

When your policy decisions are made by a bunch of spin doctors to improve your opinion poll ratings then expedience overrides principle and conscience. Barack Obama boasts repeatedly of being the commander-in-chief but actions based on popularity ratings are bound to be wrong. He is right to say " Don't do stupid shit ", given the reluctance of Americans to get involved in any military adventure overseas after the debacle in Iraq, but his craving to appear presidential impels him to kill civilians indiscriminately by using drones, so that he has been named the Drone Master by his admirers. The stupid killing of Gaddafi by NATO bombing has resulted in the Islamist takeover of Tripoli. Libya is in the grip of a civil war just like Syria and Iraq. When Bashar al-Assad used violence against civilian protesters he was demonised by the western propaganda press. The neo-Nazi, anti Semitic Ukraine government is using tanks, artillery and aerial bombing against towns in the east only because they speak Russian. Hundreds of thousands have been forced to flee in a deliberate policy of ethnic cleansing with encouragement of the US and Europe, who want to spite Russia. Sanctions have been imposed on Russia which has retaliated with its own sanctions against imports of US and European goods. Russia has been forced into a 30 year deal to sell gas to China at dirt cheap rates while it has cut off all gas supplies to Ukraine. Europe is already reeling from an inflation rate of just 0.4% which has raised expectations of deflation. Even the German economy, the largest in Europe, has felt the pain of Russian sanctions. Even after the disaster of the Orange Revolution in Ukraine Obama thought that he would get some cheap approval at home by humiliating Putin. Gasbag versus KGB agent, who will win we do not know or care but by boosting the Chinese economy Asia has become immensely dangerous. The killing of the US journalist, James Foley, in response to US bombing, has suddenly focused US attention on the Islamic State which has won large tracts of land in Iraq and Syria. Americans do not want to get militarily involved in Iraq but they want action for Foley's death. If he can get the killer that will add a few more points to his ratings. Seems that Obama is now considering talking to Assad of Syria and to Iran to stop the Islamic State.  All killing is wrong whether it is James Foley or Trayvon Martin or Michael Brown or blowing up babies and pregnant women by using drones. You cannot bring peace by more killing. For once Obama should think of others as human beings and not just of his ratings. Be human.

We really do not understand why.

If Mr Modi was hoping that inviting Nawaz Sharif to his swearing in ceremony would infuse some civility in the behavior of the uncivilised Pakistanis then he was mistaken. Pakistani army regularly fires heavy weapons at our soldiers from across the border. India broke off secretary level talks with Pakistan after their High Commissioner met Kashmiri separatists privately. Instantly critics have attacked Mr Modi. One writes that Kashmiri separatists must obey Pakistani summons or they will be killed. Apparently the ISI killed Maulvi Farooq in 1990, Abdul Ghani Lone 12 years later and killed Maulvi Mushtaq Ahmed and torched his 100 year old school in Srinagar in 2004. In 2005 the then Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh asked separatists to meet him before they met Pakistanis but they refused. The author was told bluntly by Abdul Ghani Butt," If we do this we will be killed." Another writes that Pakistan will continue to interfere in India's internal affairs and mount attacks against us regardless of all talks so we must continue to talk to them. The logic escapes us. Why do we continue to kneel to Pakistan after decades of attacks, terrorism and abuse? After being thrashed repeatedly by the Indian armed forces how does the Pakistani army dare to continue with constant provocation? Why have our Prime Ministers repeatedly betrayed the nation by handing over gains made by the brave sacrifice of our soldiers? Lal Bahadur Shastri was surely murdered in Tashkent in 1966. Did he sign the accord with Pakistan or was his signature forged after he was killed? In 1971 Pakistani cowards surrendered with 90,000 soldiers in Bangladesh. Indira Gandhi betrayed us in Shimla in 1972 by giving everything to Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, getting nothing in return? Then there was the sharam at Sharm al Sheikh in 2009, barely 6 months after the Mumbai terrorist attacks. Are Indian politicians receiving orders from abroad and if so from where? Is Russia not the friend it pretends to be or are our politicians taking orders from the US to guard their black money abroad? The fact is we do not need Pakistan. It is not even 1% of out foreign trade. South Korea has not suffered by isolating itself from the North. The Demilitarized Zone has kept peace for over 50 years. The North has dug tunnels under the zone but have not been successful in sending soldiers so far. Tiny Israel reacts ferociously to any attack on its citizens but we react by begging for talks on ' bended knees '. The ISIS in Iraq presents us with the greatest opportunity. Build a fence along the border, lay landmines so thickly that not even a mouse can cross, stop any Pakistani making money in India by working in Bollywood and react violently to any provocation. If we keep them bottled up they will fight among each other forcing the west to take our their nuclear weapons to prevent them falling to terrorists. You do not talk to mad dogs, you shoot them. Simple.

So many theories but what is the solution?

The Food and Agriculture Organisation says that its Food Price Index increased by 9.6% from 1990 to 2013 but the Wholesale Price Index for food in India increased by an eye watering 51.4% during the same period. While FAO index for foodgrains increased by 12.5%, India's WPI increased by 47.2% from 1990 to 2013. The FAO diary index increased by 22.0% while the WPI in India increased by 43.9%. Only the prices of edible oils increased by exactly the same amount of 15.9%. Apparently the reason is that the government controls prices by increasing import tariffs when there is surplus production in India, thereby stopping the import of cheaper alternatives, and bans exports during shortages, to keep prices down by stopping further reduction in supplies due to exports. This reduces volatility in prices but a closed market results in high average prices over the long term. These maybe indirect causes but the government raises prices of food directly by paying a Minimum Support Price for foodgrains, which is higher than the market price. Since the majority of people are still dependent on income from farming they form the largest ' vote bank ', which no politician can ignore. By promising a 50% profit on farm produce our Prime Minister virtually locks in food inflation forever. This higher price is guaranteed only for grains, which can be stored, so that naturally encourages farmers to switch land to grain production leaving less for producing vegetables whose prices are rising daily. The MNREGA scheme which pays the rural poor for 100 days a year, for doing nothing, caused rural wage inflation by putting a floor under wages for labor. RBI Governor, Raghuram Rajan thinks that MNREGA added only 10% to inflation and the rest came from MSPs. The massive government spending on these schemes caused the fiscal deficit to balloon and that combined with inflation caused the rupee to tank. The weak rupee in turn caused the price of diesel to rise by 19%, fertilisers by 9.7% and electricity by 12.7%, increasing cost of production. Depending on who you ask between 20 and 40 million women have dropped out of the job markets while some 14 million men have moved to construction because of the boom in real estate prices. This has naturally caused a sharp rise in labor costs which is reflected in rising food prices. The massive increase in construction has reduced land for agriculture, thus reducing the ability to raise production to take advantage of high prices. The present government is aware of the dangers of inflation and a falling rupee but it has to stay in power to improve matters. To stay in power it needs to win elections in states which means it cannot stop freebies altogether. Bring down demand by reducing births. Reduce births by linking all subsidies to not having children. Simple but tough.

Have guns, will shoot.

It was bound to happen again, and it did. Last night police shot a 23 year old man in a black neighborhood of St Louis, Missouri, not far from Ferguson where 10 days back a white policeman shot dead 18 year old, unarmed black teenager, Michael Brown for jaywalking. The population of Ferguson is 67% black but the administration, including the police is almost all white. When people of the town started protesting with the slogan " Hands up, don't shoot ", referring to the fact that Brown was shot when he had his arms up in the air, the police responded with the usual brutality. We Indians were outraged when Devyani Khobragade and, especially, Krittika Biswas were treated with extreme brutality but we have to be thankful that they were not shot dead. Last night the young man was said to have been behaving erratically with a knife in his hand. St Louis white Police Chief, Sam Dotson III said," If you're the family of a police officer and somebody approaches you within three feet with a knife, I think you have the right to defend yourself. So I think it certainly is reasonable that an officer has an expectation to go home at night." Absolutely. But has the great white Chief heard of pepper spray, mace, rubber bullets, truncheons, tasers, or even a rugby tackle by several officers? Israeli takes greater care with Palestinians than the US police do with their own citizens. Perhaps the Chief should see the ongoing Kabaddi league on Indian TV. Rauf Muhammad, a retired building contractor, said," People are fed up with getting this kind of treatment only because of the pigment of our skin. Do you think they would kill a white person like this? It could have been handled with a taser or a nightstick. They could have shot him in the leg. Crippled him. He's going to fall." But why go to such trouble to save a nigger, just shoot him. Michael Brown was shot 3 times in his right arm, once at the bottom right of his throat and once just above his right eye. Anyone with a severe injury will instinctively tend to adopt a fetal posture. The last bullet entered through the top of the skull. People are agitating for justice. Will the white police officer be punished? Not a hope. The prosecutor will present such a weak case that it will be laughed out of court, as happened with Trayvon Martin's killing by the white George Zimmerman in Florida in July 2013. Why has the US become a nation of baboons, forever killing, whether abroad or at home? Is it because first Bush in Iraq and now Obama with his drones have slaughtered thousands and are being seen as role models? Or is it because the election of a black president has released whites from any qualms about racism? The US should stop worrying about terrorists from abroad. There are plenty of killers at home.

No responsibility, only excuses. Will it work?

A panel led by Mr AK Antony, loyal servant of the Congress and faithful follower of the Nehru-Gandhi clan, has blamed the Congress rout in the general elections in May on inflation, corruption, the excessive media focus on Mr Modi, leaving no time for the Congress to get its message across, and the majority of Hindus voting for the BJP because of an assumption of Congress bias for minorities. Perhaps the biggest problem for the Congress is that it is filled with people like Mr Antony, who though personally honest, are too ingratiating to tell the truth to Ms Sonia Gandhi. There was great mirth in the Lok Sabha recently when first time MP from Coimbatore, P Nagarajan started his question saying," My namaskaram to my leader, Puratchithalaivi Tamil Tai Amma and our honorable Speaker known as Hindi Tai ..... Madam with blessings of our leader, Puratchithalaivi Amma, I want to raise my first supplementary question." But is sycophancy for Ms Jayalalitha any different from sycophancy for Ms Sonia Gandhi? If a majority of Hindus voted for the BJP it was not because we label others as heathens or kafirs but because there was a definite fear of persecution by the Congress. The youth of today may not care much about religion but they do care if being a Hindu becomes a crime in itself. Mr Antony blames the media for focusing on Mr Modi, completely forgetting that it was the Congress which put Mr Modi in focus by instigating the CBI to file a series of false cases against him. This gave Modi the opportunity to enumerate all the cases of corruption in the 10 years of Congress rule and to question Mr Robert Vadra's land dealings with great relish. Mr Vadra, son-in-law of Ms Gandhi, was absolved of any wrongdoing by the Congress government in Haryana. The problem with sycophants is that they think that if people do not worship Ms Gandhi, like they do, it must be a misperception because of a failure of the Congress to communicate properly. That suggests that people are stupid and is insulting. That there were a multitude of scams during Congress rule is a fact. When the Prime Minister excuses all cases of corruption by invoking " coalition dharma " then the Congress becomes an accessory to the loot. The indecent haste with which Ms Sheila Dixit, former Chief Minister of Delhi, was appointed the governor of Kerala was seen as trying to protect her from being investigated for the Commonwealth Games scam. The trillions of rupees looted in the succession of scams led to an explosion of black money which is one very important reason for the runaway inflation. The other was the wasteful handouts by Ms Gandhi, creating a massive deficit which led to a fall in the rupee and a rise in the cost of oil. A leader has to take responsibility.

We Indians are so happily confused.

A league, where privately owned teams play for prize money, has been started for Kabaddi, like the Indian Premier League for cricket. This is to popularise the sport throughout the world and hopefully include it in the list of disciplines at the Olympics. After all, if they can have curling, where a fat disc is slid across the ice and 2 people frantically polish the ice with floor wipers, and beach volleyball, very popular with middle-aged men hoping to see a wardrobe malfunction as lithe young women contort themselves in tiny bikinis, then why not Kabaddi. But do we really want others to play the sport? If western countries take to Kabaddi they will do to us what they have done to us in hockey. England has just wiped the floor with our cricket team despite our players being some of the highest paid in the world. They can truly be described as a team of quacks seeing the number of ducks they have scored. No wonder our youngsters are a little confused, as a recent survey has shown. For instance, 88% in Jaipur said that they are very happy with life at the moment yet 65% confessed to being worried about their future. Perhaps there is something in the water in Jaipur that makes them worried and happy at the same time. When asked about role models, 31% mentioned the gasbag, Obama, the Drone Master, whose legacy will be the serial killings of hundreds of innocent children by using drones. By unnecessarily starting the crisis in Ukraine, inviting Russian response, and then using Russia's actions to impose sanctions Obama drove Putin to sell gas to China at a ridiculously low rate of $350 for 1000 cubic meters, which is half of what we will have to pay. The Chinese get very cheap energy, which will make them much richer and immensely more dangerous for India, and by paying in Yuan will encourage Chinese hegemony in the region. The 17% who chose Angelina Jolie have good taste but the 9% who chose Justin Bieber as a role model surely need counselling. Of the challenges facing India 44% chose corruption as the most important. Yet 53% of women and 46% of men said that they always find a way to achieve what they want in life. In India that can mean only one of 2 things: They have powerful parents, possibly politicians or civil servants who can pull strings, or their parents, possibly property dealers, have lots of black money with which to bribe people. This is also shown by about half having very high expectations from their future and wanting to get rich quickly. It is this confusion that makes us the most optimistic people in the world which makes us happy. Who needs marijuana?

Only quality services can improve manufacturing.

In his Independence Day speech the Prime Minister invited the world to manufacture in India. " I tell the world, Make in India! Sell anywhere but manufacture here. We have the skill and the talent," he said. Rousing words, but do we? The cost of education has gone up by 433% as the Right to Education Act passed by the Congress means that middle-class students have to pay for the 25% seats reserved for poor students. While millions of students go to college surveys consistently show that 80% are not fit to be employed. Most artisans are self taught so their work is shoddy. They have to earn everyday to survive so have no time to waste on training classes. Manufacturing is very important because foreign exchange earned through high quality products will make the country rich, as shown by China, Korea and Taiwan, but our lives can only be improved through honest, prompt and caring services. Healthcare is so expensive that a quick death is probably the most merciful option for most people. At least that will prevent the rest of the family from starving. Police are used as enforcers against citizens to tow away cars or hide behind trees to catch minor offences or start a pollution drive against car owners. Which country enforces pollution checks on cars every 3 months? Yet not a single policeman is ever seen patrolling the streets to help people. You pay toll every 30 km on highways but there is no emergency telephone to help in accidents, no ambulance service or police patrol to catch trucks driving the wrong way. If citizens are treated as dirt foreigners are treated no better. An Indian living in the US has obtained British citizenship because he wants to avoid the hassle of obtaining a visa every time he has to travel to Europe for work. He was told by the embassy in Washington that he could travel on his Indian passport for 3 months. He came to India on his Indian passport and then went to the passport office to surrender it so that he can apply for Overseas Citizenship of India. He was charged Rs 5,000 for the Surrender Certificate and Rs 10,000 as penalty. He then had to pay Rs 7,100 for permission to stay in India for 5 days and an exit visa, at the Foreign Regional Registration Office in Delhi. There you wait under a plastic shed, sweating profusely as there is no fan. There are some desert coolers but they are useless in the monsoon season. Indians are treated badly abroad because of our shabby treatment of foreigners. Millions of Indians work abroad and their remittances provide valuable foreign exchange for the government.  The opportunity is great as the Chinese government is bullying western companies but if we want India to become a manufacturing hub we must have top quality services which people can afford. Or else forget it.

Globalisation bites back.

One of the reasons why India was being tricked to sign a 4 year ' peace clause ' on agriculture by western countries, while agreeing to a full Trade Facilitation Deal, has now been exposed. The Eurozone economy grew only 0.2% in the second quarter after growing at 0.8% in the first. The biggest economy, Germany contracted by 0.2% from the first quarter, Italy also contracted while France was flat. The European Central Bank had forecast a growth of 1% for 2014 but now it seems that growth will be an anemic 0.5-0.7% this year and maybe 1% next year. What is really worrying economists is the threat of deflation as the inflation rate came in at only 0.4%. Japan contracted by 6.8% in the second quarter because the sales tax was increased from 6 to 8% from 1 April. This is the most graphic illustration of how high taxes reduce growth by cutting consumption, even in the world's third largest economy. Will Indian politicians learn? We doubt it. Volume of consumption fell by 2% in India as inflation is multiplied by VAT and Service taxes, higher than in Japan. The US economy grew 4% in the second quarter but here too manufacturing has not improved. While Europe resorted to austerity and drastically cut spending to reduce deficits the US did the opposite with the Federal Reserve buying bonds worth $85 billion every month to increase liquidity. It is now cutting this down by $10 billion every month and will stop it altogether in a couple of months. With interest rates at zero percent a lot of this money was coming into emerging economies, including India, strengthening our currencies and creating asset price bubbles in stocks and real estate which could fall severely once the stimulus stops. Asset price bubbles are not restricted to developing countries only. There is a possibility of another market crash in western countries. Reserve Bank Governor, Raghuram Rajan is warning of such a crash and is building up foreign exchange reserves to combat a sudden fall of the rupee. Banks are up to their old tricks as politicians cravenly surrendered to their pressure not to increase regulations. Pharma companies in the US are buying foreign companies so as to shift their tax base to a country with lower rates. Maybe other companies will follow suit. Western countries thought that globalisation would allow them to exploit weaker countries. They may yet find that it has bitten them the hardest.

At last we are teaching the Brits?

As land becomes scarce in India there is a secret war going on between adults and children in our cities. Resident Welfare Associations are banning children from playing in parks within gated communities. There is absolutely no debate. Children who do not play outdoors are fat and in poor health. Sadly, the incidence of Type 2 Diabetes, which was a disease of adults even 20 years ago, is rising in children and adolescents. The trouble is not with the children but with their parents. Middle class parents in India are extremely indulgent and no one has any civic sense. If a child breaks a window or the windscreen of a car his parents will refuse to pay for it to be replaced. So people react angrily by stopping children from playing. If you are travelling by Shatabdi or Rajdhani invariably a couple with a baby will ask for the air conditioning to be switched off because the baby might catch a cold. Since compartments on these trains are airtight they quickly become stuffy. If you are at an airport you will immediately make out children of Indian parents by the way they run around, creating noise, upsetting bags of other passengers and behaving as if in the wild. Boys are much more spoilt than girls, which is shown in results of Board exams, and are brought up with such a sense of entitlement that they are unable to hold down any job for very long. It seems that they expect to start life as chairman of a company, with a massive salary, paid foreign travel and beautiful secretaries to reserve their restaurant tables. But, thankfully, it seems that we are not alone. Apparently British children are so badly behaved that when parents check in online they make sure that their brats are a few rows away from them on the plane. Previously mothers used to sit next to their children to try and keep them quiet but now they sit far away to get some peace while other passengers suffer. Children in Britain are also growing up with unrealistic expectations of life and are bitterly disappointed when they find out how harsh the world is. But it is not the fault of the children, is it? In an increasingly materialistic world, with both parents working, they are left to their own world of TVs and the internet. Adults have taken away their future and shattered their dreams by destroying the economy so that good jobs are not available even with university degrees. Bankers continue on their crooked ways. Politicians have generated a false recovery based on a property price bubble which means young people can no longer afford their own places. Meanwhile, desperate for tax revenue, the government is using tax fellows as enforcers. Seems that Britain is increasingly becoming like India. Sweet revenge.

Humans by air and vegetables by train.

The Finance Minister recently hoped that the Reserve Bank would look at " all sides " while setting rates. If the minister was expressing support for the RBI in its fight against inflation then his opinion is welcome. If, however, this was a sly way of putting pressure on the RBI to reduce rates then he is no different to his predecessor who was ready to destroy the economy for a spurt of false growth to win the elections in May. This government has absolute majority in parliament and so should be taking tough decisions now so that they can reap the benefits of a growing economy by the time the next elections come round in 2019. This will not happen unless inflation is controlled. Why are politicians in India so keen to protect borrowers, the vast majority of whom are rich, when they should be protecting vulnerable savers, such as pensioners? The glib answer is that if companies can borrow cheaply that will encourage new projects which will stimulate growth and increase job creation. The true answer is that the government is the largest borrower and wants to continue its wasteful spending without consequence. The nagging fear is a collapse of the humongous property price bubble just waiting for a pin. Fortunately the RBI has kept interest rates on hold but cut the Statutory Liquidity Ratio by 50 basis points to free up more cash for banks to lend. The proof of its wisdom was realised when the Consumer Price Index in July came in at 7.96% compared to 7.46% in June. Factory output growth fell to 3.4% in June from 5% in May and growth in manufacturing slowed to 1.8% in June from 5.1% in May. Vegetable prices increased by 37% from June to July, tomato price increased by 80% in one month. By decreasing the value of money inflation reduces the value of our savings while prices of assets such as properties, stocks and gold rise. So inflation acts as a transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich. Politicians don't care because they are very wealthy and inflation proof, because everything is paid for by the taxpayer. Inflation in the cost of services, such as healthcare, transport and education, which are essential, is even higher than in merchandise, which is killing the middle class. However, there maybe some inadvertent good news. Seems that the Minister of Civil Aviation is keen on building new airports in every city. It is much cheaper to build an airport than to build new railway tracks. If charges are kept low most passengers will opt for air travel. The government should then use rail tracks for the high speed movement of goods, like Rajdhani trains. At present vegetables are transported by trucks and, being perishable, cannot be transported over long distances. Air conditioned trains will be able to cover the country overnight. By transporting from high output areas to high demand areas costs will be reduced while farmers will gain. Bring retail inflation down to 3% and no one can defeat you.

You have to hand it to the Americans.

The Ebola epidemic in west Africa apparently started in a 2 year old child in Guinea. How the child came in contact with a sick animal is not known but the disease killed his mother and sister before spreading through funeral attendants to other villages and then to Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria. Ebola pops up in Africa from time to time but this time it has spread over a much wider region and already killed 1000 people. Such is the terror of the disease that governments have enforced strict quarantine on entire villages, cutting them off from the world and probably causing death from starvation. The Finance Minister of Liberia, Amara Konneh writes how the disease is devastating the economies of already poor countries. Since there is no treatment or vaccine the only way to fight the disease is to contain it geographically so that it dies down. " Save for the two airports remaining open in Liberia, our borders have been closed, schools and markets shut, the movement of people restricted, affected areas quarantined and troops stationed on the streets. All of this means a virtual economic standstill," writes Mr Konneh. Even after the outbreak comes to an end these countries will need a lot of help for their economies to recover. Mr Konneh continues," For our economies to fully recover, we will continue to need access to foreign markets for our goods. New tariffs being imposed on African goods by the US and Europe because of stalled trade talks would be bleak news for an economy left reeling by Ebola." Western countries will try to blame India for the failure of the WTO talks at Geneva but they are squarely responsible for selfishly refusing to substitute the word ' or ' for a comma. The story of another viral epidemic originating in Africa, HIV vividly illustrates how western countries have constantly exploited this continent with threats and lies. How big pharma companies have tested drugs on the poor in Africa and then walked away has been captured in the novel ' The Constant Gardener ' by John Le Carre. However, to stay in business pharma companies have to make a profit on their investments and cost of production, so they avoid diseases which are very rare or are predominantly in poor countries where people cannot pay high costs of patented drugs. These are known as orphan diseases. The film ' Lorenzo's Oil ' told the story of a couple's relentless determination to save their son who had such an illness. And yet one American company was experimenting with a serum to treat Ebola. Two Americans who were given the serum recovered but a Spanish priest died. This is why the US is the richest country in the world. Because they are willing to invest in research out of intellectual curiosity without knowing whether they will make money. Like them or loathe them we have to admire their zeal for innovation.

It maybe in the stars after all.

We may think that Indian politicians are a bunch of useless, selfish crooks but politicians of most major countries seem to be worthless pretenders, completely lacking in ideas. China is a secretive society where politicians take great pains to appear similar, even dying their hair black to blend in. Bo Xilai, although with jet black hair, tried to be charismatic and is now being reeducated in prison. If Carla Bruni was more famous than former president Nicolas Sarkozy the present French President, Francois Hollande has made a laughing stock of himself after being photographed riding pillion on a motorbike for trysts with his mistress, Julie Gayet. Ms Gayet seems to have dumped him for another man. Turkey's Prime Minister, Recep Erdogan has just won election for president, after being Prime Minister for 2 terms. We know that all politicians want to be dictators and cling on to power forever so what's new? What is to be noted is that there was abusive criticism of Putin for rotating himself through the post of prime minister to beat the 2 term rule but there is not a peep out of the US, UK or Europe about Erdogan although he is an extremely corrupt man. He will kill anyone who protests against him and arrested all police chiefs who dared to investigate the allegations of corruption against him and his son. Trouble with thugs is that they mistake cunning for intelligence and think that power without any principle can continue forever. Erdogan is helping the Kurds in the north of Iraq to export oil from Irbil and Kirkuk, bypassing the Shia government of Iraq. Kurds are a part of the government in Baghdad so exporting oil separately is a de facto declaration of independence. Fun is that Turkey is vehemently opposed to an independent Kurdistan in northern Iraq because it has a large population of Kurds in the south who want independence from Turkey. Obama removed all US soldiers from Iraq so if the country is divided along sectarian lines he will be squarely to blame. He is already being blamed for the massive success of the Islamic State and the deaths of thousands of civilians. He has no clue as to further action so is supplying arms to Kurdish Peshmarga fighters. What will Erdogan do if the Kurds do declare independence? Previously Turkey used to send in its army but he has emasculated the army and antagonised the police so who will fight for him? Bush and Blair created the crisis by removing Saddam and Obama and Cameron created problems in Libya and Ukraine. Why is there a coincidence of completely incompetent politicians in most countries today. Is it something to do with the stars? 

Does India need a ' spring ' ?

We have written previously about how the Congress, knowing it was going to lose the coming general elections, knowingly and carefully enacted policies that would wreck the economy completely, destroying the credibility of the next government so that it could come back to power in 2019. The Land Acquisition Act makes any infrastructure project impossible. Vast wasteful spending, leading to uncontrolled deficit, led to diving growth rate. The price of natural gas was suddenly doubled, which would immediately hit the middle class, and the payment of money spent on subsidies was postponed to this year, falsely reducing last year's deficit. Last December the Trade Minister, Anand Sharma committed India to the Trade Facilitation clause at the WTO meeting at Bali. In return the rich countries allowed India to stockpile food as at present. Rich countries, especially the US, would like us to buy food grains from them to make their farmers rich. If they can stop the government from paying a higher rate for food grains, called the Minimum Support Price, and prevent stockpiling of food grains we would be forced to pay whatever they charge if crops failed because of a poor monsoon. They are trying their best to get the world to use genetically modified food so that they can control our food supply through the ' terminator technology ' which is patented by the US Department of Agriculture. There is a very vocal support group for GM crops in India but whether they are telling the truth or are being paid by the giant multinationals we do not know. In the agreement at Bali there is one sentence which reads," In the interim, until a permanent solution is found, members will be protected against challenges in the WTO under the Agreement on Agriculture....." On 18 December in the Rajya Sabha  Mr Sharma claimed," It unambiguously stated that the solution shall continue until a permanent solution is found." In the recent negotiations the present government wanted to replace the comma with an ' or ' so that the sentence will read as," In the interim OR until a solution is found," but the rich countries refused and orchestrated a vicious campaign of vilification against India. So did Mr Sharma fall for the slimy cunning of the rich countries out of tiredness or did he deliberately set a trap for this government, knowing that after 2017 the MSP will disappear, farmers will commit suicide and the Congress will win in 2019 by blaming the BJP for the chaos? After the betrayal at Sharm al-Sheikh nothing seems impossible. Should their be no punishment for treachery? Politicians will never agree to any accountability. So, do we need an Indian spring?

Humanitarian problems cannot be solved by bombing.

Anyone who sees Hollywood movies knows that Americans solve every problem with guns. If an alien comes to earth after travelling for thousands of years across space shoot him first and then ask him his name. If keys cannot be found shoot the lock. Want to protest against Obama use a gun joke. Hilarious. If everyone has a gun then the goodies and the baddies will balance out. As the man said," The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun." That is why the all American hero, John Wayne had a choice selection of guns. Never know when you need one. Mao Zedong is credited with the wise saying," Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun," but the US diligently practices it in its foreign policy. When in doubt bomb somebody. And so to Iraq. Obama came to power promising to pull troops out of Iraq. In 2011 all US troops pulled out of Iraq leaving a power vacuum. The elite Iraqi forces had already been destroyed and dispersed and the new US trained recruits were mere rabble in uniform. Obama got his reward by winning a second term as president but his actions, or non-actions, have resulted in unfolding catastrophe in the middle east. Civil war rages out of control in Libya as tribes try to gain control of lucrative areas of the country. In Iraq, Islamic State fighters are conquering new territories, even beating Kurdish Peshmerga fighters recently. Shias and Christians have been fleeing from the advancing Sunni hordes but the ancient community of Yazidies faces extinction. Thousands of them are stranded on top of a mountain with no food or water, their escape route cut off by the jihadis below. Since the US and the UK are directly responsible for this state in Iraq they have an absolute moral duty to send in troops and armor to rid Iraq of the Islamic State. But Obama's answer to the slaughter is," Don't do stupid shit." This was the guy who was built up as the intellectual opposite to George Bush, the moron. The professor who taught at Harvard. OMG. And we are supposed to be impressed with stupid schoolboy slogans? So what is Obama's answer? Drop 500 lb, laser guided bombs. On whom? Do lasers distinguish between one set of Arabs in thobe and guthra from another set wearing the same? It is easy to abuse Islamic State fighters as barbarians and fanatics but their killings, although graphic, are far fewer than what the US did with depleted uranium and white phosphorus. Gaddafi and Saddam may have been tyrants but Messrs Obama and Cameron are totally unprincipled bounders. Time for regime change?

Better to fake death than go on the run.

The Finance Minister expressed concern that gross Non Performing Assets in Public Sector banks have risen to 4.03% in 2013-14 from 3.42% in 2012-13 and 2.94% in 2011-12. " NPAs have increased as the economy of the country has slowed down in the last two years," he said. That maybe true but a major reason is that loans are deliberately given to those who have a history of defaulting on previous loans or are related to politicians and so have no intention of repaying borrowed money. Since public sector banks are controlled by the Finance Ministry politicians ensure that whoever is appointed chairman will do their bidding. The Chairman of Syndicate Bank, SK Jain has been arrested by the CBI for accepting a bribe of Rs 5 million to advance loans to Bhushan Steel Ltd. That sounds too little for a man in his position so now we learn that he also accepted a bribe of Rs 35 million from Prakash Industries Ltd. CBI is hoping to find more. If you are inclined to take bribes make it big so that you can enjoy the proceeds when you come out of jail. Bribes are no big deal in India but what makes this case interesting is that Mr Jain has 2 brothers-in-law named Vineet Godha and Puneet Godha. Mr Vineet is a lawyer who was Congress spokesman and in-charge of its legal cell. He has apparently defended many Congress leaders in court. But he is so broad minded that he is also close to Sudhir Sharma, former in-charge of the education cell of the BJP, who is in prison for his part in the MPPEB scam. Brother Puneet is one of the main real-estate developers in Bhopal. Although not connected, we know that the bulk of black money in India is in real estate. In 2007 both brothers were questioned in connection with the shooting of one Pawan Jain and his driver but were released. Every good story has some humor. On 5 August CBI sleuths raided the house of Neeraj Singhal, Vice Chairman of Bhushan Steel with specific instructions to arrest him. Mr Singhal was present when CBI officers arrived but they returned empty handed. We do not know whether tea and sweets were served but a notice under Section 160 has been served on Mr Singhal asking him to appear before officers after 4 days. Enough time for Mr Singhal to pack a suitcase, book his ticket and go on the run. We remember how the CBI ran after Mr Quattrocchi but always failed to get him. Meanwhile a woman in Jaipur got a Municipal Councillor, Rajesh Singhvi to certify her death so that she did not have to repay a loan of Rs 400,000. Sadly her husband ratted on her, the cad. Will the CBI arrest a dead woman, even if she is alive? Better to serve Section 160.

If you keep your mouth shut you won't put your foot in it.

The present Prime Minister's habit of communicating directly with people through Twitter, while ignoring main stream journalists, is causing anger and consternation. Journalists are peeved at missing out on foreign junkets at taxpayer expense and accuse Mr Modi of being " an avid one-way communicator ". " This government wants communication minus accountability," is the charge. But surely giving some information via tweets is better than giving none at all and covering up horrendous corruption, as the previous Congress government was doing. But we agree. Facebook and Twitter seem to be making people stupid as a man in Mexico sadly proved. Even more dangerous is a new game called Neknominations which calls for new depths of stupidity. It is entirely possible that as man evolved from monkeys so evolution could reverse and some humans could evolve into part monkeys. However, it is wise of Mr Modi to stay away from the media so as not to be influenced by dangerous vested interests, including foreign governments. The allegations by Natwar Singh maybe dismissed as conspiracy theories of a bitter old man, denied a ministerial post, but why did Manmohan Singh travel to the US 11 times in 10 years and what was Sonia Gandhi's mysterious illness that necessitated repeated trips to the US when the trips were too short for any definitive treatment and she looks healthier than almost anyone else in the parliament. Having maliciously denied Mr Modi a visa for over a decade the US would like to bring him under control like the previous Congress leaders. To that extent Obama has been appointing some Indian Americans to inferior posts as lackeys to various Secretaries. He hopes that Mr Modi will be so grateful for these brown Uncle Toms and Auntie Tammys that he will sign on to anything that Obama puts before him. Mr Modi should know that Preet Bharara is not the only scum and that a large section of Indians living in the US try to prove their loyalty to the US by being virulently anti-Indian, so as to further their own careers. The Chinese, on the other hand, remain loyal to the mainland even if born and working in the US. Obama is already a lame duck and after the November elections will be dead in the water. His popularity is way down and he is desperately looking for a ' legacy '. A ' Drone Master ', surrounded by spin doctors will be his legacy. Mr Modi has but one duty to the country. To drag the economy back from the cesspit that the Congress put it in. Its best to talk little and work hard. If he has time only for the occasional tweet then so be it. We can live with that.

The uncaring mediocre have inherited the earth.

Some people in India are surprised, even aggrieved, that the centenary of the First World War and the heroic contribution of Indian soldiers, fighting for the British Raj, has been completely ignored in India. They feel that it is an insult to the memory of the 47,756 men killed in action and 65,000 wounded. Others feel that there is nothing to celebrate in the sacrifice of Indians as canon fodder by a brutal colonial power. The reason why these martyrs are forgotten is because we have allowed the British to write the history of the colonial period which they have naturally embellished to show themselves as bringing technology, education and rule of law to a primitive people. We cheer Shivnarine Chandrapaul, Sunil Narine and Denesh Ramdin who play for the West Indies but should we also cheer the thousands of Indians who were enticed with false promises by the British to sail to the West Indies and then forced to work as slaves, called indentured labor. The British are the most jingoistic in their celebration of victory in World War I as they try to remember the Empire and forget that they are lackeys of the US today. But even as the politicians attend various events with phony solemnity, to get some free publicity, others are beginning to question the gains from that victory. While politicians promote the war as good versus evil the truth was that the First War invariably led to the Great Depression, the rise of Hitler and Stalin and World War II. The trouble with wars is that soldiers die and are forgotten but politicians hog all the glory of victory. So they yearn for another war, the more mediocre and bland they are the more the need to polish their mojo. Thus George Bush, the moron, assisted by Dick Cheney, the psychopath, attacked Iraq and David Cameron, the ladyboy, assisted by Nicolas Sarkozy, the moral dwarf, attacked Libya removing the only men capable of keeping control. " Some people warned us, as Gaddafi himself did, that the Libyan people could not be trusted with freedom; that without Gaddafi where would be chaos," said Cameron on 5 September, 2011. British and US embassies in Libya have been closed and all nationals have been evacuated. Obama, the gasbag, recently admitted that after 9/11 " we tortured some folks ". How easily he says that. There is no cringing, no shame and no horror at inflicting severe pain on others, a lot of whom were completely innocent. It is because they are immoral, dishonorable and completely immune to the suffering of others that they do not learn. So they have instigated a completely unnecessary crisis in Ukraine in which innocent people are dying. It has led to tit-for-tat sanctions with Russia, and may lead to war. What is the difference between the Islamic State and Messrs Obama and Cameron? Only the language.

The best character is not to get caught.

Ever since former judge of the Supreme Court and presently Chairman of the Press Council of India, Markandey Katju revealed how a corrupt judge of the Madras High Court was protected by 3 former Chief Justices of the Supreme Court, under pressure of the then Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, there has been a strong demand against the present system of appointing judges in secret by a collegium of Supreme Court judges. The government is looking to build consensus on a Judicial Appointments Commission Bill and a Judicial Standards and Accountability Bill to remove any corruption from the judiciary. It is even being suggested that ' men of character ' must be entrusted with the responsibility of appointing judges. Entirely laudable. But where do we find such men? Just because there are no charges of corruption against a fellow does not mean that he is squeaky clean. He could be very clever, or powerful, or both, so that we would know nothing about him. The Madras High Court fellow not only escaped detection till today but has gone and died, so that it is no use booing him. No wonder the Hon'ble Supreme Court is unhappy. In the current parliament 185 or 34% of members face criminal charges, of whom 112 or 21% face serious charges of rape, murder and kidnapping. 13 or 30% of ministers face criminal charges of whom 8 or 18% face serious charges. The present Prime Minister had suggested that these cases should be fast-tracked so that the parliament maybe cleansed but the Supreme Court has responded with a loud raspberry. " If fast-tracking of trials pending against MPs is needed, it is equally true for cases involving women and senior citizens," said the judges. Hang on. Who said anything about women? We thought it was all about men of character, good or bad, as the case maybe. Surely, it is a pure red herring. An Additional District and Sessions Judge of Gwalior has resigned because of sexual harassment by a High Court judge in Madhya Pradesh. Now we understand. That woman! This lady judge, who was head of the District Committee against Sexual Harassment, was asked by the High Court judge to visit his bungalow alone. Not only that, she was asked to " perform dance on an item song " at his home. Why were we not told that a judge has to know how to dance to an item song from a movie to qualify for her post? Surely it is within our human rights as citizens to be fully informed. That is why we need ' men of character ' to guard our human rights as well. Is that asking for too much?