The Congress is doing everything in its power to prevent the passage of a strong Lok Pal bill. Having accepted that lower level civil servants or Group C, as they are officially known, should be included within the ambit of the Lok Pal on Wednesday evening the Congress suddenly summoned a meeting of the parliamentary committee on Thursday and reversed the earlier decision. The excuse is that the Lok Pal will be inundated if it has to police 5.7 million Group C employees as well, so only top level civil servants will be answerable to the Lok Pal while the Central Vigilance Commission, which is controlled by the government, will be in charge of the Group C. The civil service in India considers itself above the people and operates on the principle of " through proper channel " which means that an ordinary taxpayer has to approach the lowest level clerk first if he has to get any work done. The clerk will open a file and present it to the fellow above him and so on up the ladder to the decision maker. The diligence of the clerk most often depends on the amount of bribe a person can afford and the money is distributed up the chain. Naturally politicians and civil servants will do anything to see that the spigot is not turned off. A couple of days ago a snake charmer released dozens of poisonous snakes in the tehsil office of Haraya Tehsil in the Basti district of UP is protest against the demand for bribes. He wanted a safe area where to release this snakes and had even written to President Patil, who had instructed tehsil officers to help the snake charmer. They, naturally, demanded bribes and the man retaliated. The scum should beware. Tomorrow it could be bullets.

As expected elections in Egypt are going the way of Islamists. In early results the Muslim Brotherhood has about 30% of votes but the hardline Salafists are said to have received 20% of ballots cast so far. Members of this group were held responsible for the killing of 10 Coptic Christians a few weeks earlier. Israel must be feeling particularly vulnerable as it sees its peace treaty with Egypt becoming redundant. On the other hand Israel will be pleased with the situation in Syria as civil war seems to be getting likelier by the day. If the Assad regime falls and Sunnis gain power it is unlikely to be as close to Iran as the Alawites and arms supplies to Hezbollah, an especially venomous enemy in Lebanon, may dry up. The situation with Iran is very interesting. Following a report by the IAEA saying that Iran is capable of a nuclear weapon US and UK announced increased sanctions. The British embassy in Teheran was trashed by a mob which gave Britain an opportunity to expel the Iranian ambassador in London. Other European countries are taking similar diplomatic measures. Whether this is a last ditch attempt to preempt an attack by Israel on Iranian nuclear facilities, thereby drawing in the US and Britain, or clearing the way for an air attack we do not know. Turkey has suddenly become a key player in this game. Turkish Prime Minister, Erdogan, a cunning Islamist, had good relations with Iran and Assad but has become the most vocal critic of Assad. Turkey does not want a civil war in Syria with thousands of refugees pouring across the border but is risking its relations with Iran. The middle east is motivated by hatred. So which hatred is stronger?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The whole of India heaved an enormous sigh of relief yesterday when the inaugural Formula 1 Grand Prix passed off without a hitch. This was held in Noida in UP which is the cesspit of India. There was no electricity failure to delay the start of the race, no attack on spectators by the police and the winners were presented with beautiful cups and not hideous statues. Today's newspapers and TV anchors are screaming about how the prestige of Brand India has been enhanced by the event. What no one is saying that the event was a success only because it is a wholly private enterprise. Formula 1 is owned by Bernie Ecclestone and was organised by private business people in India. The only other sport which is even remotely successful is cricket which is run by BCCI, an autonomous body. All other sports are controlled by filthy politicians and civil servants who loot all the money, travel around the world with family and friends and treat athletes as servants. The Commonwealth Games were a classic example of complete lack of class of our politicians who shamed us in front of the world. Being of low class politicians and civil servants think that accumulating vast wealth by looting taxpayer money, travelling around with Z+ security and getting photographed with world leaders gives them class. What they do not understand is the level of contempt people have for them. Diplomats of other countries will be openly polite but will snigger in private. That is why China is able to summon our ambassador at 2 in the morning, Sri Lanka kills our fishermen and Pakistan sends terrorists at will. When you have a Bofors you will have a Union Carbide.

Even as politicians and business people blame the RBI for slowing growth by raising interest rates food inflation jumped to 11.4% in the week to October 15. It was 14.2% at the same time last year so the present rise is based on an already high level of inflation. From March to October food prices have risen by 12.1%. Inflation should drop from December when summer crops are harvested and winter vegetables come to the market but this will be a seasonal dip and prices could go up again next summer. As I have been saying the foundation of this inflationary trend was set in 2008 when the Congress used public money to bribe voters by forgiving loans of farmers, started a scheme called MNREGA which pays rural people Rs 162 per day for 100 days a year for doing nothing and increased salaries of useless parasitic civil servants by 80%. Unable to control its ballooning deficit our most revered Finance Minister is now contemplating reductions in fund allocations to these schemes. The bond market has proved that those who blame the RBI are lying. In Friday's auction, yields on 11 year government bonds reached 8.95% which means traders believe that the government will not be able to reduce fiscal deficit forcing it to borrow from the market pushing up rates and inflation will remain high preventing the RBI from reducing rates. The only good news in this dismal picture is that dealers are predicting a fall in sales of properties. The only way to control inflation is to eliminate black money and that can only be done by reducing property prices by 70%. Once black money is sucked out of the system real growth can start. What will the criminals do?

A concert at Gurgaon near Delhi by the heavy metal band Metallica was cancelled yesterday at the last minute because organisers were unable to replace a security barricade near the stage that broke due to crowd pressure. Naturally people reacted with rage and some $200,000 worth of equipment was destroyed. Meanwhile in Bengal 12 babies aged between 3hours and 10 months died within a period of 24 hours. Two days earlier 11 babies had died at BC Roy Hospital in Kolkata in one day. Freeloading journalists go hysterical at this " neglect " of children of poor people because it is only the poor who go to government hospitals. Babies less than 2 years of age are extremely fragile and vulnerable. Infection in one will infect others within a period of hours. An infected baby needs to be isolated, needs barrier nursing, incubator and expensive antibiotics none of which can be afforded by a government hospital. All these hospitals were built 50 years ago and no one foresaw the population explosion that has ruined this country. With 3 babies to each cot there is no way any hospital can prevent spread of infection. The doubling time of E coli is around 20 minutes so starting with one bacillus and doubling every 20 minutes you would have billions within 12 hours. Little babies, malnourished and underweight to start with, stand no chance. In other news, Income Tax fellows are now targeting Kejriwal's wife while other Gestapo agencies of the government are after Kiran Bedi. The Feral Dog continues to spew venom against civil society members while the Wide Receiver increases taxes to cover for the Commonwealth Games loot. Incredible India.

The Indian government has great objections to the travel advisory put out by the US, Canada, Australia, Britain and New Zealand advising their citizens against travel to India during the festival season although they deny knowledge of any specific threat of terror attack. Not surprising because during the night of Diwali not one police person was to be seen anywhere in Delhi even though we had been warned of being careful. Instead of objecting our government should request these countries very politely to inform us if they do come across any credible information of terror attacks because our most revered Home Minister insists that " No intelligence does not mean intelligence failure ". Which means that our politicians are least bothered about the safety of citizens as long as the scoundrels get Z+ security. Apparently the Foreign Minister of New Zealand, Murray McCully has said soothingly that this was just to advise citizens to avoid any demonstrations. If this sounds that he thinks Indian politicians are a bunch of morons then he has good cause. There has been no serious attack on US, UK or Europe for at least 8 years because of intense intelligence gathering and preemptive arrests of terrorist cells. The US has been eliminating terrorists by using drones whereas our fellows are going on " bended knees " to talk to Pakistan which is the source of all terrorism in the world. The Demilitarized Zone in Korea has ensured peace for over 60 years with fencing and innumerable land mines but we have started a train called Samjhauta Express ( meaning understanding ) so as to bring Pakis across the border in great comfort. Indians need advisories to travel in India.

In the " Russia and India " supplement in the Times of India yesterday one Alexander Yemelyanenkov, writing on Kudankulum nuclear power plant, which was built with Russian collaboration, says that people in Lithuania, Armenia, Russia, Belarus and Ukraine are puzzled by the opposition to plant when Rs 131 billion have already been spent constructing it. He gives a list of plants with similar technology operating trouble free for years in Hungary, Czech Republic and Finland and lists 7 preventive technological safety systems in place. He says that seismic background of the region has been incorporated in the design and finishes with the killer argument that during a tsunami local people sheltered behind the breakwater of the plant. Any Indian will know the reason for the recent activism against the plant. The present Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu hates the party of the previous government, the DMK. DMK is an ally of the Congress at the center so she will oppose anything that Congress does even if an uninterrupted supply of power will provide an enormous boost for industries in the state, in turn boosting employment and standard of living. For Indian politicians personal gain or petty grudges are more important than progress of the people. The more important reason is that people have total contempt for civil servants and politicians and do not believe a word of what they say. For decades we have been ordered around like serfs and given no information. Even now simple information has to be dragged out of these criminals by using the RTI Act. People see the government as their enemy and reject everything they are told. With reason.

Man called Raja Khan committed suicide by self immolation in front of the parliament in Pakistan. In his note he says," I am committing suicide following acute financial crisis which my family is confronting." He accuses the President and the Prime Minister of promising " bread, cloth and roof ", or roti, kapda and makaan as we say in India, before elections and failing to deliver. Before that, also in Pakistan, a young man shot 8 people, including both parents, 4 brothers and 2 sisters, to death because his father was unemployed and he was tired of poverty. From Africa, across the middle east to south Asia poor people are breeding like rats in the belief that their governments will provide them with food, clothing and shelter for life without any responsibility. China started its one child policy in 1991 and has seen explosive economic growth as children have been better nourished and educated, women have joined the work force in droves increasing the pool of labor and less spending on food has meant greater spending on household goods stimulating production and employment. Indian economists try to hide the truth saying that an aging population will be a burden on future generations as a smaller work force has to look after large numbers of elderly. That is surely better than an average life span of 55 years, which the poor suffer in India, and poverty means that the elderly are neglected anyway. China has enormous currency reserves to look after the elderly and can look forward to people working to very old age as medical advances make old people healthier and more active. Politicians will not tell the truth- if you breed like rats you will die like rats.

Gaddafi has been buried and the new government promises a moderate Islamic state. Companies from Europe and the US will be queuing up to loot Libyan oil. This has been an enormous victory for Messrs Cameron and Sarkozy who will surely strut their mojo. UK and France secured a UN Security Council resolution to protect civilians, converted it to an outright declaration of war against Gaddafi's family and tribe and actively collaborated in his murder by bombing his convoy. They bombed his private residence, murdered a grandson, who was a minor, and killed hundreds of his tribe not in honorable battle but in cowardly sneak bombing from the air. NATO flew 26000 sorties of mass killing and did not lose a single soldier. Gaddafi was captured by the Misrata fighters, tortured and killed in cold blood. Finally, his body was exhibited to the public clad in an under pant whereas muslim custom dictates burial at the earliest. No doubt revenge killings are taking place all over Libya. Countries of the middle east and Africa are extremely tribal and Gaddafi's people will always remember the way he was humiliated and his body desecrated. Once dust settles disagreements are bound to arise over distribution of oil money. People of Benghazi and Misrata will want to keep the major share as payment for suffering the most and will be contested by tribes from the west and south. How long before we see a situation like Iraq? Tunisia has voted for an Islamist party. The Muslim Brotherhood originated in Egypt. The west hopes that Syria will be next. What if it is Saudi Arabia? UK tabloids call Gaddafi a " mad dog ". Will Cameron be a son of a b....

Indians are the most deceived people on the planet. Politicians are professionals liars. Most journalists are free loaders and our " economists " sit of boards of various companies and so have a vested interest in hiding the truth. In today's papers we are given a liberal dose of such lies. Apparently 67% of CEOs of companies feel that growth will be cut to 7.5% because of high interest rates. They would like to see the RBI start to reduce rates even though inflation continues to be above 10% and is hurting consumer spending. It is possible that they are more worried that if interest rates continue to remain high property prices may crash and since their black money is in property they want the RBI to reduce rates. Another news item blames the euro zone for the fall in the value of the rupee. Apparently foreign funds are selling Indian stocks and moving into the safe haven of the dollar because of the anxiety over the euro. No attempt is made to explain how the Yen, pound sterling and other east Asian currencies continue to remain strong. The truth may be that the government has lost control over spending and, consequently, fiscal deficit. Uncontrolled inflation means a continuous fall in the purchasing power of the rupee which, in turn, raises cost of imports like oil and leads to further inflation. Instead of cutting spending the Congress is desperately trying to bribe different sections of the electorate so as not to be routed in next year's state elections. Rs 5.5 billion plus Rs 6.92 billion is to be spent on building two stretches of highways in Rae Bareli which is Ms Gandhi's constituency. Wonder if there will be cut throat tolls on these roads?

Nepalese Prime Minister, Baburam Bhattarai said," The copied traditional democracy in South Asia serves only small sections of society." Not just South Asia, democracy has become the ultimate refuge for scoundrels, knaves and flunkies the world over. Politicians in every country are self-seeking bullies ready to sell out to the highest bidder. People have suffered monarchy, feudalism, fascism and other forms of tyranny. Communism was a utopian concept wherein everyone would be equal with resources divided according to need but turned into a great evil controlled by some of the biggest mass murderers the world has seen such as Stalin and Mao. Seems that criminals and psychopaths always manage to conquer power no matter what system of government we devise. So it is with democracy. The US is paralysed because its politicians are bought by big business who will block any attempt to regulate or tax the rich. Greek politicians falsified accounts to join the Euro leading to a binge of borrowing bringing the government to the brink of bankruptcy. Sarkozy wants to be Nepoleon and has become a father to prove his size. Cameron has wasted at least 500 million pounds on bombing Libya while cutting health care and education. India is a police state controlled by the Congress. Delhi Police has decided to stop all construction work and remove laborers at Aerocity near Delhi airport for 3 hours before movement of VVIPs. Meanwhile our VVIP Prime Minister says," We must guard against the mood of negativism that seems to have gripped the country." How? When we are and will remain aam while you and your friends are khas forever.

After being stung by the exposure of its massive corruption, people's support for Anna Hazare and trouncing in the recent bye elections the Congress is attacking back on many fronts. Its vicious attack on sleeping supporters of Baba Ramdev at the Ram Lila grounds led to the death of one innocent woman. No Congress fellow has been charged with murder so far. Using same tactics on Hazare backfired because Hazare has no wealth to protect. He was content to be imprisoned and refused to leave jail until his demands were met causing a most humiliating climb down. He was taunted as a rabble rouser and asked to stand for elections which he has refused to do. Firstly he does not have the black money and goons to fight an election and secondly, who would want to associate with a bunch of criminal beggars anyway? Hazare was accused of being in the pay of the BJP. The freeloading press went hysterical when the RSS, a Hindu organisation admitted helping Hazare, as though it was a crime to be supported by Hindus. A Pakistani has confessed to being an admirer of Hazare and has vowed to fast against corruption in Pakistan. Dies this make Hazare an ISI agent? Now Hazare's team members Kiran Bedi and Kejriwal are under attack. Meanwhile our most revered Prime Minster says that a new law will seek to punish corruption in the private sector. Does this mean that anyone seeking to bribe public officials will be punished? This is a variation of the government's version of the Lok Pal Bill which contained more severe punishment for whistle blowers than for thieving civil servants. No wonder the Congress is the most successful syndicate in the world.

Another example of criminal waste of taxpayer money. Seems that the government is determined to pour a further Rs 260 billion into Air India to pay its debts. This is a bankrupt company with poor management and too many overpaid corrupt workers with salaries and perks that Bill Gates would be proud to receive. Seems the the CEO gets club membership worth Rs 7 million. When fiscal deficit is set to be above 6%, inflation fixed stubbornly above 10% and the rupee is dropping like a stone what is the reason for this generosity? Perhaps because politicians are allowed to travel free with family, friends and other dubious companions by this state controlled airlines causing massive losses to the public. There are only 3 Public Sector Companies which provide valuable service to the people - the railways, the postal service and the State Bank of India. While the SBI is hugely profitable the other 2 are in desperate need for investment. The railways need money for laying more tracks, new more fuel efficient engines and new passenger friendly bogeys. The postal service is becoming irrelevant as private couriers eat into its business. Post offices should be allowed to sell stamp papers, which are controlled by lawyers at present giving them undeserved earnings, accept passport forms and renew driving licenses. This will greatly enhance earnings as well as offer great public convenience because post offices are easily accessible. Money can easily be found by allowing Air India and BSNL to fail and scrapping the Nazi inspired compulsory numbering of every citizen called Aadhar. Indian citizens have less power than in China. Criminals rule.

On his return flight from South Africa our most revered Prime Minister confirmed that the economy will grow by 8-8.5% this year and 9% next year. Every indicator points in the opposite direction. Inflation is out of control despite the RBI raising interest rates 11 times. Growth in industrial output is stalling. Politicians try to pass the blame on to " foreign factors ", high commodity prices and the high interest rates when they are the ones responsible for this mess. Fiscal deficit will be above 6%. Revenue shortfall could be between Rs 500 billion and 1 trillion. The government will need to borrow to fill the hole and this will put upward pressure on borrowing costs. Although India has huge coal reserves lack of coal is causing power shortage. Demand for power is growing at 7% per year while production is growing at 2.2% causing damage to industrial output by 25%. Manufacturers of clothing are looking to shift production to Bangladesh after India raised the number of items of clothing from Bangladesh to 10 million pieces a year. India charges excise duty on finished clothing and wages are much higher here with workers agitating for more money due to inflation. Since textile industry is very labor intensive shifting production to Bangladesh will reduce employment prospects. With the economy almost moribund ministers are debating whether to eliminate Securities Transaction Tax to stimulate the stock market. Share markets are indicators of economic health like fever is a sign of underlying disease. Eliminating STT is like prescribing aspirin for tuberculosis. Perhaps, if politicians stopped travelling around wasting public money it might help. Criminals.

After 5 years of captivity in Gaza 25 year old Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier who had been kidnapped and held incommunicado by Hamas, was exchanged for 1050 Palestinians imprisoned in Israel for various offences against the Jewish state. While families and friends on both sides were happy Hamas portrayed it as a victory in its war against the Zionists. At first glance it would seem to be an overwhelming victory for Hamas but a little thought shows how dangerous the implications could be. It seems to lay down a new benchmark - one Israeli equals 1050 Palestinians. In any future confrontation, which is inevitable, Israelis would be tempted to treat Palestinians with contempt, as human dross with no value. Israel has traditionally responded to any attack with disproportional violence in an attempt to instill fear into their adversaries. After this exchange Israeli soldiers may be tempted to be even more indifferent to Palestinian suffering. On the other side it shows how little value Hamas places on its own people. This is probably why Hamas is able to send women and children as suicide bombers. Thus Hamas exhibits the same callous indifference for Palestinians as Israelis do. Since it does not have any value for Palestinians it is not surprising that Hamas wants to wipe out Israel and its people. Also it will do anything to subjugate its people to stay in power. Like communist states keep their citizens poor so as to prevent dissent Hamas will keep Palestinians in Gaza in abject poverty to encourage anger and channel it against Israel. Its killing of Fatah supporters shows its intent. This exchange will not bring peace, it may bring more brutality.

According to Mr Narayan Murthy, an alumnus of Indian Institute of Technology and ex chairman of Infosys, students qualifying from IIT today are of poor quality incapable of independent analysis and creative thinking. He blames it on coaching classes that students go through to get through the IIT Joint Entrance Exam. This is a competitive examination where success is determined by percentile level rather than actual marks earned. In other words you qualify as long as you are better than your competitors no matter how good you are so if the competition is poor you get a place. Initially there were just 5 IITs which were recognised internationally as centers of excellence. A few years ago the Congress party suddenly added another 7 institutions under the IIT label without adequate infrastructure or faculty, their excuse being that you can never have too much of a good thing. Reservation for OBC category went up by 54% while staff to student ratio declined. At present there is a need for another 2500 teachers. It does not take a nuclear scientist to realise that if the quality of students is diluted and staff numbers are inadequate standards are bound to fall. Since half the seats are reserved for various groups of undeserving candidates good students from the " general list " have to fight hard to get a place. Coaching classes teach students how to succeed in the exam. It is not as if they have access to questions. Surely any teaching must be good so why the hysteria. It is probably based on the old socialist stupidity. Only middle classes can afford coaching classes so they are bad. Why not stop students going to Harvard? Imbeciles.

In India everything belongs to the government, which means a bunch of criminal politicians and thieving civil servants, and not to the people. That is why people have no rights and are treated as dirt by the filthy scum. An Air India plane was diverted to Gatwick, south of London, because Heathrow was closed due to fog. Passengers were not allowed to deplane by air India staff and no information was provided to them as to why they were made prisoners for 8 hours. Air India would not provide any food because their catering staff are at Heathrow and Gatwick airport staff could not help unless the passengers were in the terminal building. Passengers had to survive on crisps and Coke until the flight managed to reach Heathrow in the evening. Food in households is usually cooked on gas cookers supplied by government owned companies in canisters called " cylinders ". There are elaborate rules on how one obtains a cylinder and what to do when changing residence. A person travelling from one state to another has to surrender his cylinder and obtain a certificate which is then submitted to a gas dealer nearest to the site of the new residence. It is like shifting one's account from one state to another in the same company and should be easy. But, like all government work, not so easy. In Gujarat one needs a copy of a ration card, which has been abolished in the rest of the country, for the transfer. Naturally a person coming to the state will not possess one so he is made to get an affidavit from a notary on a Rs 20 stamp paper, provide proof of residence and photo identity. Whether in London or in Gujarat we are always dirt.

Our most revered Prime Minister thinks that the Right To Information law is a bad idea, apparently because it prevents civil servants from writing down their personal opinions in files. What our great leader does not explain is why. Doctors are required to write very detail in the history sheets of patients and patients have total right to access their files. Doctors work under great stress and very often with little or no information where they have to make life saving decisions quickly. Civil servants, on the other hand, are a bunch of pampered parasites, who are the biggest obstacle to any reforms or progress, because any transparency will reduce the darkness that protects them and the huge black money they earn. Not surprising that they hate the RTI Act and would dearly love to be rid of it. " Even as we recognise and celebrate the efficacy and effectiveness of the RTI Act we must take a critical look at it. There are some concerns that need to be discussed and addressed honestly," said the Prime Minister. H What the Prime Minster fails to understand, because he has been a civil servant all his life, is that if there is no secrecy there will be no need for RTI. Apart from defence and foreign affairs there is no need for secrecy. Indeed, as the Wikileaks exposures have shown even these do not need secrecy. Secrecy gives unnecessary and dangerous powers by eliminating accountability and that leads to corruption. As doctors have discovered honest notes are the best protection because the Supreme Court has held that a mistake made in the " best of faith " is not punishable. Opinions discussed honestly will be respected by the people even if proved wrong later.

Indians are the worst informed citizens in the world. Every few years we are asked to vote for some politician who is most likely to be a criminal or a relative of another politician. Once elected they take off for the state capital or for Delhi where they reside in palatial government accommodation at taxpayer expense and roam around in white Ambassador cars with red beacons and sirens and are guarded round the clock by heavily armed police. High ranking civil servants, usually of Indian Administrative Service, also live in protected houses provided by taxpayers and work anonymously behind high security. Ordinary citizens, therefore, have no information on how decisions are taken and no say in how laws are formulated and taxes levied. No information means complete lack of power so we suffer extortionate taxes and bad punitive laws in silence. No one can understand what is happening at Maruti's Manesar plant where workers have been on strike for over a month. Maruti was the brainchild of Sanjay Gandhi who was given land and a lot of money by his mother, Indira Gandhi to set up a completely indigenous car plant but when he died there was nothing. Suzuki was selected to set up a plant and was given a lot of official help. From the dribble of news we understand that Suzuki treats its workers very badly. They are paid poorly, are expected to work long hours and have time allotted for everything from tea break to toilet break. The slightest deviation is fined. They also want workers to sign a good practice oath which bans all strikes. This is against Indian laws so why is the Congress siding with Suzuki? Mystery!

Mr PD Dinakaran was Chief Justice of Karnataka High Court in 2009 when he was recommended for elevation to the Supreme Court by the collegium of judges who decide such things in great secret. The Bar Council objected to his appointment to the Supreme Court alleging acquiring property illegally and encroaching on government land so the then Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Mr Balakrishnan, asked Mr Dinakaran to go on leave while the allegations were being investigated. Naturally Mr Dinakaran refused, following which he was transferred to Sikkim High Court as Chief Justice. The lawyers in Sikkim kicked up a fuss and the Rajya Sabha decided to take preliminary steps on a long process of impeaching him. Seeing matters becoming sticky Mr Dinakaran resigned his post complaining of being victimised because he is of a lower caste as if being lower caste is some sort of immunity against being punished for crime. Mr Balakrishnan, who has retired since then, has been appointed as Chairman of the National Human Rights Council as a sinecure and there have been reports of his family members acquiring public land at throw away pries. There has been a public outcry against him and calls for his resignation but, as usual, greed is far stronger than sharam or izzat so he has refused. On June 13, 1997 a film hall in Delhi called Uphaar went up in flames after a transformer exploded in the basement. Fifty nine people died and 100 were injured. Ansals, the owners of the hall were sued for lack of emergency exits. Today the Supreme Sourt awarded Rs 1 million for those over 20 years of age and 0.75 million for under 20s. Such are our justices.

The Service Sector Business Activity Index fell to 49.8 from 53.8 in September showing a contraction for the first time since April, 2009. TOI, October 6. Growth in the manufacturing sector has fallen to around 4%. Naturally employment is also falling. Direct tax collections grew by 6.7% as opposed to 17% expected in the budget. Fiscal deficit will be near 6% as opposed to a target of 4.2%. Lying politicians are quick to blame interest rate rises by the Reserve Bank for the stalling economy but even after raising interest rates 12 times inflation continues to be above 10%. The rupee has fallen from 42 to the dollar to near 50 which will also add to inflation. The RBI is at fault not for raising rates but for not raising them quickly enough and by a higher margin so as to bring inflation down sooner. Government policies are solely responsible for uncontrolled inflation. By increasing salaries of useless civil servants by 80%, wasting Rs 600 billion in forgiving loans to farmers and starting the MNREGA scheme which pays rural poor Rs 162 for 100 days a year for not working, to win the elections in 2009, deficit has gone out of control. Bad loans for banks are increasing and the enormous cash injection has caused inflation. Increasing salaries of civil servants has not cut down bribery but has instead increased their price leading to an explosion of black money as seen by the fairy tale property prices. To counteract the immense unpopularity of the Congress the inner gang is recommending a food security bill to cover 75% of the population. This can only lead to out of control deficit, fall in the rupee and further inflation. Disaster beckons. The Congress did it.

The semifinal match between Australia and South Africa at the Rugby World Cup in New Zealand was an amazing example of why Australian sport is so strong even though it has a population equal to Mumbai. From the first drop out the game was played in the Australian half and it seemed as though the Africans would win comfortably with a wide margin but the Australians had other ideas. They took the lead through an opportunistic try when captain James Horwill went through the SA line and then added a penalty to lead 8-0. Morne Steyn kicked a penalty and dropped a goal to bring the score to 8-6 and when he kicked a third penalty in the second half to take the South Africans ahead 9-8 it seemed that Australia would cave in. The Australians were exhausted at having to defend near their goal line phase after phase waiting for the Africans to make a handling error to get out of impossible situations but they hung in there. Finally on 72 minutes they were awarded a penalty near the right touch line which James O Connor converted. How such a young man kept his nerve with the hopes of his entire country riding on him is impossible to know but he did. Australia ran out winners 11-9, a low scoring game with just one try but nail biting in excitement. It was an exhibition of total commitment, self pride, immense physical fitness and discipline so as not to give away scoring opportunities. Compare that to our cricketers. A bunch of average abilities with bloated self esteem, physically unfit, putting money before country and enjoying parties before practice. Sporting life is short so there is not harm in making money Sadly they have no shame in losing.

" Fascism " comes from the Italian word " Fascismo " ( 1915-20 ) which means rule by a group or party which is intolerant of any criticism and ruthlessly eliminates any opposition. Benito Mussolini started his fascist party in 1914 and members called themselves fascisti or fascists. Mafia likewise was established in Sicily between 1870 and 75 as a secret society to oppose the establishment. " Mafia " means courage or honor. A succession of prime ministers in Italy have been criminals. Bettino Craxi was convicted but managed to evade prison by fleeing to Tunisia where he died. Giulio Andreotti has been accused of many crimes including connection with the Mafia as well as the P2 Masonic Lodge but has managed to remain free. Berlusconi is still in power in spite of numerous charges of crime including connection to the Mafia, false accounting and bribery of public officials. He has used his wealth and his control of the media in Italy to become prime minister which then allowed him to change laws regarding statutes of limitations so as to escape justice. Anyone growing up in Italy would naturally be inclined to crime and fascist tendencies. A group of ministers has decided not to renew licenses of TV news channels if found guilty of 5 " violations " of conduct. These violations will be decided by criminal politicians and their thieving, parasitic civil servants. This is clearly a reaction to the coverage of public support of Anna Hazare's fast against corruption. The similarity between our government and the Italian one is obvious. A crime mafia and a fascist tendency to silence any criticism. The state is the enemy of the people.

Lying for a small gain can result in a bigger loss. France and the UK managed to get UN Security Council support for acting to save civilians in Libya but used the resolution to actively help armed fighters by bombing Gaddafi soldiers and supporters. Sarkozy is to face reelection next year while Cameron desperately wants to be the next Margaret Thatcher but is an upper class, right wing despot. Gaddafi is gone but a resolution to impose sanctions on Syria was vetoed by both Russia and China. The Assads, father and son, are much more ruthless dictators than Gaddafi has ever been but there is nothing that western countries can do. Already more than 2000 protesters have been killed by armed forces in Syria, nothing compared to some 10000 killed in Hama by Hafez Al Assad in 1982, but many more may be killed if protesters take up arms. Bashar Al Assad has threatened to attack Israel if there is any NATO bombing in his country like there has been in Libya. Apparently he has said that he can transfer thousands of rockets to the Golan Heights within 3 hours from where he will attack Israel and will also ask Hezbollah in Lebanon to unleash there arsenal. Israel has never been in greater danger than at present. The Muslim Brotherhood is already influencing policy in Egypt and will shortly take power in Libya, Turkey is becoming increasingly Islamic, Palestinians have applied for membership of the UN which will be vetoed by the US increasing Arab fury and now Syria may become unstable with a possibility of an all out war. If Israel is in serious danger the US and NATO may become involved. Sadly small men will always try to act big.

Delhi International Airport ltd, a consortium which has a 30 year contract to run the airport, is facing a loss of Rs 8.25 billion because passengers refuse to pay its high charges for developing the airport. HT, October 3. No fault of the passengers. Ticket prices are already very high because of extortionate taxes levied by a rapacious government to fund its immoral waste. Taxes are calculated on " normal " ticket prices charged by regular airlines which means that a low cost airline loses its advantage. Thus a ticket of Rs 100 could end up costing more than Rs 3000 making it much cheaper to take a train. Deccan Airlines went out of business and now Kingfisher is closing its low cost arm. With ticket prices already so high it is not surprising that passengers resent paying even more for development costs. The same reasons apply to electricity rates in Delhi. The private companies are being forced to pay over Rs 10 billion to the government controlled company in charge of transmission lines. There was so much money looted during the Commonwealth Games that there is a canyon sized hole to fill. The people, already reeling from double digit inflation, are being squeezed to death. One reason the RBI is unable to control inflation is because of indiscriminate spending by the Congress led central government on " social schemes " which are looted to finance election expenses. Next year several important states, including UP, will be electing new assemblies which means vast sums of black money are required. In his Dussehra wishes our most revered Finance Minister " hopes " that prices will come down. Which means he has no clue. Scary, what?

The combination of very high inflation, ever increasing taxes and high interest rates are beginning to take their toll. Manufacturing is contracting and the rupee is dropping against the dollar. This raises import costs and further worsens inflation. The fall of the rupee has frightened foreign investors into selling stocks because their returns, after conversion to dollar, decreases with the falling value of the rupee. According to RBI officials the government may need to borrow an extra Rs 1 trillion to meet its spending needs. This is not stopping criminal politicians from junkets abroad. Increasing taxes will just add to inflation and stop consumer spending which is dropping anyway. The State Bank of India, the largest bank in India, was downgraded by Moody's forcing an injection Rs 80 billion by a clueless, panicking finance ministry. Next month India's sovereign rating comes up for review terrifying the government. Any downgrade will raise borrowing costs for Indian companies cutting profit margins. In an effort to support the equity market finance officials are thinking of reducing Securities Transaction Tax and allowing individual foreigners to buy Indian shares. That would be dangerous. Indian companies indulge in false accounting, diversion of funds for personal use, insider trading, under and over invoicing, rampant bribery and other criminal acts. Foreign shareholders could file cases in foreign courts where trials will be speedy and sentences heavy. We could see most of our industrialists in foreign prisons. The economy is on quicksand. But, no worries. With the world's Most Famous Economist in charge we are safe. Are we?

As expected Amanda Knox, a US citizen fondly known as " Foxy Knoxy " to her loving friends, walked free from a Peruggia court in Italy where she had been in prison charged with the murder of a British girl, Meredith Kircher. No big deal. Americans can commit the most disgusting crimes anywhere in the world and depend on the US government to bully the host country into freeing them. Last week 2 US men were freed from Iran where they were charged with spying. They just happened to be " hiking " along the Iraq-Iran border, no doubt taking numerous photos of natural beauty such as Iranian defensive positions. Before that Raymond Davies murdered 2 Pakistanis in cold blood and was suddenly transformed into a " diplomat " after the incident. Pakistan was forced to free him. Half a million Iraqi deaths are dismissed as " collateral damage ", as if they are inanimate objects. We have heard of US pilots laughing as they were hunting innocent Iraqi civilians, killing a Reuters journalist in the process, courtesy of Wikileaks. To further humiliate their victims and trivialise their deaths the US even bestows humerous names on their weapons. A hydrogen bomb was named " Fat Boy ". We will never know how many Japanese died laughing. Then there was Agent Orange whose juice is still producing deformed and dead babies in Vietnam some 30 years later. Yet Afia Siddiqui, a Pakistani doctor was abducted from Afghanistan by US invaders and sentenced to 36 years in prison for " trying " to kill Americans. Surely, every person has a God given right to kill invaders. The US should seriously consider. Revenge could last centuries.

The Municipal Corporation of Delhi has demanded Rs 100,000 from owners of apartments in housing societies because it has no money. It has also decided to levy taxes on social structures such as guard houses, swimming pools and community centers, essential for a healthy society, inside these societies. HT, October 2. The Delhi government has been increasing taxes on every service in the city no matter how poor they are. Electricity charges are becoming unaffordable. The reason for the desperate finances stem from the gigantic larceny that took place during the Commonwealth Games. Citizens of Delhi are having to pay for the loot by thieving civil servants and criminal politicians. However, there is money for half page ads in every newspaper with photos of Mrs Sonia Gandhi, Mr Manmohan Singh and the minister in charge of the relevant ministry publishing the ads with public money. Clearly political advertisement of the dirtiest kind. The answer to the financial problems of the MCD is simple. Get rid of the MCD, the NDMC and the state government of Delhi. Vast sums of money will be saved on the salaries of legions of useless, parasitic civil servants and the expenses of criminal politicians and even more on bribes that we have to pay. Delhi can be run by a small number of elected officials who will outsource public services and impose strict quality control and impose severe fines for negligence of service. In fact, get rid of all state governments and municipalities and divide the country into 700 districts which will be run by the people living there who will answer to there communities. First, there was Bapu. Now there is the Capo. And the Wide Receiver.