The government has decided to increase the price of petrol and diesel by around Rs. 3.50 a liter. This is apparently being done so that losses being incurred by oil companies because of ' subsidies ' on petroleum products can be erased. The government increased the tax on petrol by Rs. 2.50 in the budget which means that the money went straight into the pockets of criminal politicians. As on May 31 the price of petrol per gallon in the US was between $ 2.644 on the Gulf Coast and $ 3.024 in California. This works out to around Rs. 30 per liter of which 69% is the price of crude oil, 9% for Refining, 8% for Distribution and Marketing and 14% for Taxes. There is NO subsidy on petrol in the US. Thus excluding about Rs. 4 for taxes the price of petrol at the pump works out to around Rs. 26 per liter. We are already paying Rs. 50 in India and this is set to go upto around Rs. 53 shortly. Where is the ' subsidy'? Why do the criminal politicians and thieving uncivil servants keep on repeating the same lie all the time? The recent auction of 3G mobile and broadband licenses netted the government around Rs. 700 billion and has reduced the fiscal deficit from 6% to 4.5%. Why is the government so desperate for money that it is willing to increase food inflation, which is running at 16.7%, and hurt the aam aadmi for whom it bleeds and who will form the vote bank in next year's assembly elections? Why is the Reserve Bank waiting to increase interest rates to control inflation? Is the Reserve Bank really independent as we are told or is it another lie? All these questions can only be answered by honorable journalists but sadly our lot are just begging freeloaders.

In an article in the Times of India today the US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton says that, ' It ( India ) has vibrant democratic institutions, a free press, robust civil society, an innovative private sector and tens of millions of citizens whose talents have yet to be fully realised. ' Not true. Politicians are criminals, uncivil servants are thieves, police are brutal thugs, courts are paralysed, healthcare is unaffordable or lethal, education is in patches and elections are a sham. The press seems to be free but journalists being freeloaders lie all the time. The two leading english dailies are Congress supporters and articles are slanted in praise of the party while seeming to be neutral. Civil society is trying to survive in a hostile environment without roads, power, water and having to pay bribes for every service from a parasitic government. Private sector may be innovative but a lot of energy is spent in cheating customers because people have no recourse other than consumer courts which take years to hear a case. Direct to Home television services are cheating every customer of hundreds of rupees every month by the pernicious practice of bundling whereby if you opt for one channel you have no choice but to pay for several others which you do not want to watch. Tens of millions of people have little talent because teachers in government schools do not come to work even though they are highly paid. The ones with talent or high educational achievement go abroad. Hundreds of millions are continuing to breed like rats without any concern about educating their children. Seems to me that Ms. Clinton is as adept at hot air as her boss, the gasbag.

Seems that Lamborghini is to sell a limited of Murcielago LP 670-4 Super Veloce, its fastest sports car model, in India. At a price of Rs. 36 million there will be plenty of buyers for it. Apart from the usual business men all criminal politicians and thieving uncivil servants can afford that kind of price tag. No sweat. However, my question is ' where will they drive it? ' Sports cars have very low suspensions and will probably have a road clearance of a few inches while roads in India have huge potholes several feet deep. A visit to Delhi highlights the problems Indians face with roads. Delhi is preparing for the Commonwealth games and has built new roads while relaying others. Drive along any newly built road and there are sudden rises and falls for which the driver is completely unprepared. Speed is restricted by the Delhi police to just 50 km per hour which is around 27.7 miles per hour to catch drivers and earn money for the state government. Speed bumps are built anywhere to further restrict progress. These are so high that even SUVs scrape their bottoms if not in first gear. A sports car will probably be stuck halfway and swing up and down like a seesaw. So called highways connecting cities are four lane at most with farmers driving tractors or cattle herders taking herds of cows along to a pasture. Very often lanes are closed for repairs causing huge jams and for this privilege drivers have to pay toll every few kilometers. Of course, politicians and civil servants are exempt. Why we pay road tax, road tax surcharge, huge sales taxes on cars, double taxes on petrol is not known. It is the bullock cart mindset cultivated by the Congress for decades. Tax people into poverty in the name of Socialism.

Israel has begun to release and deport all the people arrested on the ships that formed the flotilla trying to break Israel's blockade of Gaza. There are Pakistanis ( Taliban, Al Qaeda, LeT ), Lebanese ( Hezbollah ), Palestinians ( Hamas ), Jordanians ( about 90% are Palestinians anyway. Indian police are looking for a Jordanian who surveyed Mumbai before the attacks ), Indonesians ( Jemaah Islamia ), Algerians ( GIA ), an assortment of anti semitic Europeans and others. These are the people that wanted to deliver a large consignment to Hamas controlled Gaza without any checks whatsoever. Why not ask every Israeli to commit suicide? At least it would be quick and more comfortable. Ever since Hamas has come to power in Gaza it has been cleansing the territory of Fatah supporters who are also Palestinians. Fatah supporters have been beaten up, killed and imprisoned. Hamas is not just a terrorist organisation, it is a band of criminals carrying out Iran's bidding. Pakistan started its support of terrorism to fight India and has now become the terrorist capital of the world. Successive Indian governments led by the Congress has been weak and has converted hard earned victories into defeats. Not so Israel. It has held on to its gains and has negotiated tough peace deals with Egypt and Jordan. If Israel is defeated and a separate Palestinian state is formed under Hamas control then there will be more uncontrolled centers of terrorism in the world. Pakistan, Hezbollah, Hamas, Yemen, the list will go on increasing. The world should be grateful to Israel for keeping the genie partially inside the bottle.

Howling outrage all over the world at Israeli attack on ships trying to break the blockade of Gaza ostensibly to deliver aid to Palestinians living in Gaza. These ships were manned mainly by Turks with a smattering of people from other countries. Israel has been saying clearly all along that the ships would not be allowed to deliver their supplies directly to Gaza because that would go straight into the hands of Hamas, a recognised terrorist organisation committed to the destruction of Israel. Instead Israel asked them to unload the aid at an Israeli port and promised to deliver it to the Palestinians. They were entirely within their rights to do so. Turkey used to be a secular country but the AKP party presently in power is an islamist party engaged in changing the constitution in little bits to effect a creeping islamisation of the state. Israel had to know whether any arms were being delivered to Hamas. Hamas used to smuggle arms in through tunnels across the Rafah border from Egypt but Egypt has installed a deep fence cutting supplies. Hamas must be desperate. The Europeans are especially critical, not surprising seeing the long history of antisemitism throughout Europe. Holocaust denial may be a crime in many countries but the image of Shylock wanting christian flesh still persists. When Paki terrorists killed more than 170 people in Mumbai these same countries immediately advised restraint. When China advises restraint over the killing of 46 South Korean sailors there is no peep out of European capitals but if Israel tries to protect itself then the howling starts. Would Turkey allow uninspected aid to be delivered to the Kurds? If not, why should Israel?

So, British Petroleum or BP has already spent $ 940 trying to control the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico but has failed so far. It has promised to spend as much as necessary to bring the gushing oil under control. BP has also promised to set aside $ 500 million to study the effects of the oil spill on the ecology of the area and learn from it. The company is apparently paying money to people whose livelihoods have been affected by the oil such as fishermen. President Obama is snorting fire promising to make BP pay for every cent of damage and loss of livelihood. Yet this same fellow is due to come to India and apply pressure on our government to get the nuclear deal through parliament. The bill is stuck on the issue of compensation in case of an accident. According to the present bill the suppliers of equipment such as GE and Westinghouse, multibillion dollar US companies, will be liable for only $ 100 million and the government of India will pay $ 400 million to compensate victims of any accident. The density of population in India means that in the event of a Chenobyl type of accident hundreds of thousands will die and many more will suffer radiation exposure leading to cancer, organ damage and deformed babies for decades to come. Yet the total compensation will remain a paltry $ 500 million. Perhaps it is a good thing after all because most of the money will be stolen by criminal politicians and thieving uncivil servants anyway and victims will be left begging for assistance as has happened in Bhopal after the Union Carbide tragedy. Thus American shrimps are more valuable than humans in India. Incredible India indeed.

On friday a high speed passenger train, Gyaneshwari Express was derailed by a bomb placed on its tracks while travelling from Kolkata to Mumbai. Derailed coaches were hit by a goods train travelling in the opposite direction on the adjoining tracks. One hundred and fourteen people are known to have died but this may not be the final figure. Police blame Maoist guerrillas who have been on a killing spree in recent weeks. The Railway Minister, Ms Mamata Banerjee wants an investigation by the Central Bureau of Investigation or CBI into the accident. She accused the state government of not cooperating with rescue operations. This is a serious charge. It implies that the state government allowed people to die through inaction as a political vendetta against her to make her look bad. Ms Banerjee is chief of Trinamul Congress which is opposed to the Communist government in Bengal and hopes to win next year's assembly elections. She has been accused of being absent from her desk in Delhi during a spate of train accidents recently and is said to have replied that since her home was in Kolkata she preferred to live there. For relatives of the dead it will be like a kick in the abdomen. To be told that their loved ones could have been saved but were allowed to die for political points will be unbearable. For us taxpayers to see our hard earned money being wasted on absentee ministers is infuriating. Just a month ago we learnt that Mr. Alagiri, another minister in the central government has been travelling to Chennai every three days at the cost of Rs. 1.5 million in expenses. Will the Prime Minister sack these people? Er, got to ask madam. Genuflect.

An anti whaling activist, Peter Bethune from New Zealand is on trial in Japan accused of, among other charges, assault on a Japanese sailor on board the Shonan Maru. Bethune says that he was trying make a citizen's arrest on the captain of the Japanese ship for trying to murder his men earlier. Bethune was captain of a boat, Ady Gil, which was sliced in two by a Japanese harpoon ship while trying to disrupt a hunt in the Antarctic waters. He was detained on board the Shonan Maru and arrested by Japanese coast guards when the ship arrived back to port. If convicted Bethune could receive 15 years in prison. Every year Japanese whalers kill hundreds of whales in the name of ' research '. Whale meat is a delicacy in Japan and the killed whales end up in restaurants as expensive menu. Whales are mammals. Intelligent, social, highly vocal and very large. Killing them is not easy. Harpoons are fired into them and then they are chased as they try to escape. They will be terrified and their deaths will be slow and agonising. What is this ' research ' that starts with killing the animal. This is like the ' medical research ' carried out on Chinese prisoners when China was occupied by Japan a hundred years ago. The Chinese have not forgotten this torture and killing of their people. The Japanese are quick to lecture India against nuclear weapons but seem blind about their own barbaric behavior. Norway is another country which still engages in this barbarous practice and yet will be quick to denounce cruelty to animals. Killing an animal for food may be justified if it is done in a quick and humane manner but torturing an animal for hours is unacceptable.

Seems that and American academic, Sasha Polakow-Suransky has obtained ' top secret ' minutes of a meeting between top officials from Israel and South Africa in 1975 which tend to ' prove ' that Israel has nuclear weapons. Apparently the then South African defence minister, P.W. Botha asked the then Israeli defence minster, Shimon Peres for warheads and was offered them in ' three sizes '. The South Africans asked for nuclear capable Jericho missiles and obtained an affirmative answer. The report does not say if the missiles were actually supplied and if they were what happened to them after the end of apartheid. This is old rubbish being recycled as some new revelation of proof of Israel possessing nuclear weapons. Israel has never confirmed or denied possessing nuclear weapons but it has long been assumed as a fact. In those days there were strong rumors that Israel had tested a nuclear warhead in South Africa and it was common knowledge that the apartheid regime helped Israel in every way so as to obtain oil shipments routed through Israel because it was unable to do so openly due to its pariah status. So why is all this old rubbish being rehashed at this time. Since Obama was elected President he has been pressuring Israel to stop settlement building and accept a two state solution dictated by the US. This is probably a not so subtle ploy to embarrass Israel while constantly announcing US support for the country. An Indian delegation is going to the US for discussions shortly. They would do well not to believe anything that this administration says and judge it strictly on action. Nothing is more dangerous than an ambitious gasbag.

After the sinking of a warship by a North Korean torpedo South Korea has frozen all contacts with the North. South Korea is also taking its complaint to the UN to get the UN to increase sanctions on North Korea. In retaliation the North has cut of all relations with the South and threatened war which is its only weapon because it is economically totally dependent on foreign aid. Like North Korea Pakistan is also a bankrupt failed state with nuclear weapons totally dependent of foreign aid from the US, the middle east and China. Like North Korea exists only to try and hurt the South Pakistan's only reason for existence is to try and hurt India in any way. However, unlike South Korea which takes a tough line with the North India rewards Pakistan with unilateral peace overtures, increased trade offers, direct train services, allowing Pakistanis to come to India for treatment and allowing them to make money working in Indian cinema some or all of which is donated to terrorists to mount more attacks against India. We can understand that the Indian government is terrified of a civil war in Pakistan with consequent break up of the country and millions of filthy Pakis flooding across the border as refugees just as Bangladeshis have been doing for over two decades. That is why the government is trying desperately to boost the civilian government of Pakistan by rewarding it so that it has something to brag about at home. How did we get here after 63 years of independence? Because we have been repeatedly betrayed by the Congress. From refusing the UN Security Council seat to Tashkent to Shimla the Congress has repeatedly sold the country for nothing in return. We are now reaping death.

Two Jamaican policemen have been killed while trying to find a druglord, Christopher ' Dudus ' Coke to be extradited to the US where he will stand trial. His supporters are fighting the police to protect him against arrest. They claim that he gives them money and jobs and helps them when they need. In short a latter day Robin Hood doing social service. It was the same with Veerappan, the dreaded sandal wood smuggler, who had many murders to his name. Local villagers offered him protection and warned him of coming police to keep him free for over two decades. In Bangkok Red Shirt protesters died fighting the army to get the government to call for fresh elections. This is happening because of uncontrolled population growth in the developing countries. Poor people continue to breed without having the resources to feed their growing numbers and expect their governments to give them food, clothing and shelter which is impossible. Criminals take advantage of this. Make billions from crime, distribute a few millions to the poor and get an army of protectors who see the police as enemies coming to take away their source of food. Hamas and Hezbollah get their support from such masses using them as human shields if attacked. To their credit the Chinese seemed to realise the potential dangers of uncontrolled breeding of the poor and instituted a one child policy about twenty years ago. That led to double digit economic growth in every year, reduction in poverty, increasing education and increasing aspirations in the people leading to greater economic activity. The only way to reduce poverty and crime is to reduce the number of the poor.

The football World Cup is yet to start but it seems, according to The Sun, that officials in London are already preparing for celebrations of an English victory. Consultations are going on with various borough councils as it is assumed that England have the best team since 1966. However the English are forgetting that the World Cup is going to be held in South Africa and not in Europe. Ever since Brazil beat Sweden in the 50s only European teams have managed to win in Europe. In 1966 Brazil were simply kicked out of the games. In the tournament played in Italy in the 80s Brazil must have had at least fifty chances to score but managed to miss all whereas Italy had only three chances and Paolo Rossi scored a hattrick for which he was promised a lifetime supply of free underpants. In 1998, in the final against France Brazilian players were just standing around. These were players who normally played for various clubs in Europe so their style of play was very familiar. There was talk about Ronaldo having suffered a fit hours before the final but he led the attack. Brazil lost 3-1. Yet the same team won the Cup against Germany in Japan four years later where France failed to make out of the group stage. In the last tournament staged in Germany Brazil again looked decidedly out of sorts and were in danger of being beaten by Ghana. It is good that European teams win in Europe because that is where the money is and if Brazil keeps winning then the fans might lose interest. This World Cup is being held in Africa so England should wait until they have seen how others, especially Brazil, are playing before starting to celebrate.

Seems that there had been a great deal of opposition to the new runway at Mangalore airport which was the seen of the tragic crash of an Air India plane yesterday with the loss of 160 lives. Among others an organisation called the Environment Support Group filed two cases against the runway. In their cases they said that the runway was against Indian laws and below international standards. They pointed out that the runway was surrounded by industrial smokestacks and garbage dumps which attracted birds. Being on a plateau a plane could fall down into the ravine in case of an accident and it would be very difficult for rescue teams to reach victims. Precisely what happened yesterday. The seven people who survived have given harrowing accounts of going to hospital in auto rickshaws and by motorbikes. Needless to say that both cases were dismissed by the high court and an appeal was dismissed by the supreme court in 2003. Is their going to be any soul searching by the people responsible for building a dangerous runway in the first place? Perhaps, but not because so many lives have been lost. But because Air India, which is surviving on a drip feed of taxpayer cash, will have to pay out huge sums to survivors and relatives of the dead. Criminal politicians and uncivil servants are indifferent to the loss of lives of Indians but if Air India is wound up after this the sacrifice of so many lives will not be in vain. Sadly our journalists being freeloaders sucking upto politicians are never going to ask pertinent questions.

Seems that there are 70,000 child labor in Uttarakhand, a hill state carved out of Uttar Pradesh about eight years ago, with its capital in Dehradun. If this is in one small state then there must be millions in the whole of India. There is only one reason for this depressing statistic and that is unrestrained population growth. Most people in this state are poor as is the infrastructure. Corruption is endemic. Since it became a separate state it got a separate government with a large numbers of politicians and civil servants, all of whom roam around in official cars with police protection. To pay for such criminal waste taxes are astronomically high. A bottle of beer costing Rs. 40 in Delhi costs Rs. 90 here. Taxi fares are more than double that of Delhi. Politicians and civil servants means crime and black money. The only investment to hide colossal amounts of black money is in property so property prices have gone up ten times in towns. Locals are selling land and using the money to buy big cars, lavish marriage parties and drinking themselves silly. Meanwhile political parties compete with each other to announce handouts for the poor to win elections. People are given cards for being ' Below the Poverty Line ' or BPL and this entitles them to more handouts. A few days ago a woman with four children, sitting in our clinic, proudly said that she could get a free MRI scan because she has a BPL card. She said this with a smile and no sense of shame that she had produced so many children while on handouts. This is the story of all of India. No country can feed unlimited numbers of people. How long before people are dying of starvation on our streets?

Seems that Dr. Craig Venter, the private geneticist, has created a new bacteria in the lab. He took out genetic material from a soil bacteria and inserted genetic material created by assembling amino acids in a predetermined sequence. This has naturally created comment. Some scientists have hailed it as a breakthrough and a eureka moment. They say that this will create a whole new branch of industrial production of new bacteria which will revolutionise the future. Opponents have deplored it as ' frankenstein bugs ' or ' playing God '. Using emotional language of ethics, morality or religion is not the answer. Since this is science then it has to be looked at logically. We already have many diseases caused by bacteria. Typhoid, cholera, pneumonia, tuberculosis still kill millions every year. Worse, bacteria have learnt to evolve with humans. Thus staphylococci have become meticillin and now vancomycin resistant. MDR and XDR tuberculosis is spreading. Bacteria which are harmless can cause disease and kill. Legionella are ubiquitous in the soil and water but when it got into the ventilation system at a veterans' convention people died. Creating a new bacteria may be very profitable but what if it escapes from the lab and is resistant to all known antibiotics. Creating dinosaurs is much safer. T. Rex can be killed but a drug resistant bacteria will not be eradicated so easily. And what about mistakes? The substitution of one amino acid, valine for another, glutamic acid causes sickle cell disease in humans with millions of genes. How much greater will be the difference in a bacteria. Creating something new just because we can is stupid. That is how nuclear weapons came into being and the world in immensely dangerous as a result. Time to stop and reflect. Logically.

Seems that every person in India is to be issued a twelve digit identification number which would serve as proof of identity for various transactions. No identity card will be issued, just a number which each person will have to remember. Even for the Congress it seems a breathtakingly stupid idea. According to Mr. Nandan Nilekani who is head of the program, named Aadhar, this will not be a proof of citizenship but just a proof of identity. Already educated Indians are forced to carry many photo identities for instance passports, driving licenses, PAN cards, voter identity cards to name a few. On top of this we will now have to remember a twelve digit number as proof of identity. This is apparently because poor people have no identity cards and hence lack access to public services. Prints of all ten fingers and iris scans of every person, including children older than five, will go into the data base and will be accessible online. What happens to people who are blind, have corneal opacities or have lost both their arms? What about people of low intelligence who are unable to remember their number? What if a person with low intelligence has five children, how will he or she remember so many numbers? Possibly such a person could get someone to write to write it on a piece of paper keep it near all the time. What if a terrorist or a criminal steals a number and uses it to get a cell phone how will the original person prove his innocence? Perhaps a few years later a person's number will be tattooed on his skin just as the Nazis used to do. Numbers in our own country and no one is protesting. Disgusting, freeloading press.

China's richest businessman, Huang Guanyu has been sentenced to 14 years in jail on charges of bribing officials and insider trading. Huang had built up Gome Electronics into the largest appliance retailer and is reputed to be worth $ 6.3 billion. According to China Daily at least 30 billionaires are in jail or waiting sentencing for corruption. Bribery of officials and use of facilitators is the norm of doing business in China. It is an opaque society where power is centralised in the hands of the Communist Party and anyone becoming too rich or powerful is seen as a threat. Trials are held behind closed doors and accused are nearly always found guilty as Rio Tinto found earlier this year. Yet foreign businessmen are eager to set up businesses in China because of the gigantic size of the economy and its scorching double digit growth rate. As it has grown in riches China has expanded its defence forces capability so that it is now the biggest threat to neighboring countries. All forms of information is strictly controlled inside the country and the government controls the internet rigorously. Any form of dissent is immediately stifled with harsh measures. To maintain public support the government spews out nationalistic propaganda full of lies against other countries such as Japan, India, United States and so on as it suits its purpose. The Chinese are aggressive, barbaric and lacking in any form of civilised behaviour. Can a country go on growing indefinitely without collapsing under its own weight? We can only pray that something like that happens to China. Otherwise all countries in Asia will feel the weight of Chinese boots on their soil.

The junior doctors committee of the British Medical Association wants the National Health Service to stop paying for homeopathy treatment. Homeopathy was devised by Samuel Hahnemann who theorised that diseases can be cured by giving substances, which produce the same symptoms, diluted many hundreds of times. According to this theory the final solution is so dilute that there is no trace of the original substance but a memory remains in the water. Thus homeopathy prescribes deadly poisons such as aconite, strychnine and arsenic and claims to cure all diseases including cancer. British doctors have long argued that this is junk science and always fails the scrutiny of scientific trials. In India there is no such debate. When it comes to health even educated Indians are extremely stupid. They are unwilling to accept that many medical conditions such as diabetes, asthma or high blood pressure cannot be cured but can be controlled very well. Thus they are willing victims of the swindlers masquerading as homeopathy specialists. These ' specialists ' never write prescriptions naming the medicines because mother tinctures are dirt cheap. Instead they give medicines without labels to patients at huge prices just enough to last a week so that they can extort as much as possible. They often give out powders, which are ground steroid tablets, and claim credit for symptomatic improvement. They always trash doctors practising western form of medicine although such doctors have undergone rigorous training while homeopaths are lying charlatans. Since law and order is a joke in India liars and cheats prosper. People die.

The great sage Mr. Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Chairman of the Planning Commission, has been silent of late. Normally he predicts everything from rainfall to food production to rate of inflation to growth of the economy. He had been predicting that inflation would would start falling ' next week ' but sadly it is just the opposite. Wholesale price index in April was 9.5% and food inflation is over 16%. With inflation so high, fiscal deficit at over 6% and the combined central and state government debt at over 100% of GDP one would think that the rupee would sink in value. In fact, the opposite has happened. The rupee has strengthened against major currencies. One dollar now buys Rs. 45.25 and one pound sterling is down to Rs. 65.75. One reason may be because of high interest rates in India as opposed to near zero in the US. For Non Resident Indians it makes sense to keep money in India to earn higher interest. Foreign Institutional Investors or FIIs have been pouring money into the stock market which has doubled in value since the last year. The government probably feels that the strength of the rupee helps in keeping inflation in check by reducing cost of imports, especially oil. In fact, there is very little the government can do. Increasing interest rates further will bring down the growth rate. Having wasted money by increasing public sector pay and forgiving loans to farmers to win the last election it is desperate to collect higher taxes. It had to increase indirect taxes thus stoking inflation. All that the Congress can do is pray for a good monsoon to bring down inflation and that the hot money does not take flight because of external factors. The Congress has brought us close to bankruptcy many times before. It will do anything to stay in power never mind the consequences.

In an exclusive news report in the Hindustan Times of Saturday, May 15 the paper claims to have knowledge that the Central Bureau of Investigations or CBI is going file a report absolving S.P.S. Rathore, former Haryana Director General of Police of all further charges. Rathore has already been convicted of molesting 14 year old Ruchika Girhotra in 1990 and sentenced to a derisory 6 months in prison. He has been accused of mounting such a ferocious campaign of terror against the family of the girl to force her to withdraw her complaint that she committed suicide. The Girhotra family allege that Rathore fabricated records related to Ruchika's postmortem and got his police force to register false cases of car thefts against Ruchika's brother who was also a teenager at the time. The brother was repeatedly picked up and beaten up by the police. Now the CBI says that it has found nothing to substantiate these claims. It says that there are inconsistencies in the statements of the family. Of course, there are. After 20 long years of waiting for justice and being subjected to unrelenting torture is it any surprise that there are, so called, inconsistencies. The cases of car thefts against the brother were thrown out by the court. Surely there must be court records to show what evidence the police provided. Has the CBI questioned all the police officers involved in the case? From Quatrochi to the Provident Fund case to the secretary murder case the CBI never seems to find any evidence of wrongdoing against any powerful person. The BJP has accused it of acting as enforcers in the recent ' cut motion ' in parliament. Surely it is time to save to billions of rupees of taxpayer money for a useless organisation. Let us get rid of the CBI.

Seems that the Commonwealth Games to be held in Delhi shortly is going to cost fifteen, yes fifteen times the original estimate. Apparently it was estimated that it would cost Rs. 18.99 billions to hold the games but it is going to cost 15 times as much. This is a small item tucked away in the middle pages of today's newspaper. As is normal in India there is no outcry, no campaign by the freeloading press about waste of public money and no call to account of the Delhi government by the opposition. As for the people they are so busy just trying to survive with erratic power supply, disruptions in water supply, broken roads, rising prices, water logging after a short shower, a brutal unhelpful police, sky rocketing school fees and absence of afordable health services that they are unable to muster up the strength to protest. Taxes on everything including patrol have been increased to pay for this meaningless show. Beer prices have gone up by Rs. 10 which is a 25% rise. Schools have been asked to stay closed during the period of the games which will put working parents under enormous strain. Office goers will find it impossible to cross over from east to west Delhi. There is no guarantee that leading athletes of Commonwealth countries will attend due to the security situation and no one pays any attention to records earned in these games anyway. This is a grand opportunity for politicians, civil servants and contractors to make billions in black and for ugly politicians to have their pictures on tv. No one asked Delhi citizens if they wanted this colossal inconvenience and expense. A referendum must be held before any such event is contemplated in the future.

If the prime minister of a country lets loose terror on the citizens of his own country can he be called a terrorist? This is not merely a rhetorical question because this is what Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva appears to have done. He sneaked in to the post of prime minister after Thaksin Sinawatra was deposed in a military coup at the behest of the elite. He has gone into exile. His wealth has been confiscated and his wife sentenced to prison in absentia. Subsequent elections brought in his party but they were prevented from holding power by the Constitutional court. Last year yellow shirted opponents of Thaksin staged huge demonstrations but were treated with great consideration by the government. Now red shirted supporters of Thaksin are occupying the center of Bangkok demanding fresh elections. About a month ago the army killed more than 20 protesters following which Mr. Abhisit promised elections in November and fresh talks. A few days ago he withdrew his offer and ordered the army to clear the area. Yesterday army sniper shot renegade general Sawasdipol in the head and two protesters were killed. It is obvious that Mr. Abhisit is a deceitful liar who is prepared to kill any number of fellow Thais to hang on to his seat. It is also obvious that he knows Thaksin's party will win any elections held now and maybe wants more time to try and fix things in his favor. What of the king? Respected as divine he has been strangely silent while Abhisit is on his killing spree. Said to be unwell is it possible that the conspirators are preventing him from speaking? Is their any difference in being killed by terrorists or by your own politicians?

In a speech to the Confederation of Indian Industries our most revered Home Minister has said that there is a lack of effective government in areas infested by Naxals. He said,'...People have virtually distanced the government. There is huge trust deficit between elected government and people of these areas. They tend to rely upon structures of power which oppose the country.' A devastating confession after 63 years of independence but not really complete. It is not just the Naxal areas but the entire country that mistrusts politicians, civil servants, the police, the CBI, industrialists, lawyers and, dare I say it, even judges especially of the lower courts. Politicians in Delhi allowed Manu Sharma out on bail for a month to enjoy himself in night clubs. Rathore was protected by senior police officers and politicians for decades. Some 15 years after he was caught redhanded Mr. Sukhram is still free to enjoy life. Judges in the provident fund case have escaped and Justice Dinakaran has been merely transferred. Politicians of all parties are accused of accumulating disproportionate amounts of wealth but no one has been sentenced to prison so far. The BJP has openly accused the Congress of using the CBI as an enforcing agency to win the recent ' cut motion ' in parliament. The list is endless. Sadly the freeloading press muddies the waters by talking about ' criminalisation of politics ' instead of telling the truth which is that most of politicians and civil servants are criminals. The danger is that ordinary people see that justice is selective and want to dispense it themselves. That is why they support the Naxals.

So, Gordon Brown has resigned as Prime Minister of Britain. He waited while negotiations were going on between the Conservatives and the LibDems and when it became clear that a deal was in the offing he resigned thus retaining his dignity and respect. He could have tried to retain his post by trying to form a coalition with the LibDems, the Scottish Nationalists, Plaid Cymru of Wales and some of the Northern Ireland parties by offering everyone a ministerial post so that Britain ended up with 83 ministers. But he did not in the interest of the country. On the other side although David Cameron was desperate to become prime minister he was not going to give in to LibDem demands just to get there. That is why it took five days of negotiations to get a working coalition. The negotiations were as much about policies as about posts. The economy, education, immigration, defence, tax changes, electoral reform, banking reform and european union have all been discussed and compromise positions reached. Whether the deal will work in the long term is anybody's guess but at least it was not all about grabbing as many cabinet posts as possible with a view to looting the country. Sitting in India it is strange to see that they were not fighting to get a post where one could get bribes of Rs. 50 billion from two companies in exchange for getting licenses at throw away prices. Journalists played their part by asking tough questions about moral right to form a government. Perhaps that in the end is the difference. Indian journalists are free loading beggars always protecting criminals masquerading as politicians.

Recent elections in Britain have thrown up a hung parliament wherein no party has absolute majority. Although they have lost seats the LibDems are playing kingmaker. Their primary demand is that the voting system must be changed from the present ' first past the post system ' to proportional representation which would reflect voter preference more accurately. The Conservatives who are the largest party oppose this because this would result in permanent hung parliaments and future prime ministers will be chosen by negotiations rather than directly by the people. The present Prime Minister Gordon Brown muddied waters yesterday by saying that he was going to step down as leader of the Labour Party by september which left the door open for a coalition between LibDems and Labour. How refreshing and shocking for Indians to see a politician offering to step aside for a different leader. Here in India that would be unthinkable. No politician will resign even if old, decrepit and incontinent or if suffering from terminal illness. Each filthy stinking old man has brought in his criminal children to take over from him. The country is divided into areas controlled by one family which extorts, rapes and loots that area for generations rather like the mafia has been doing in Sicily. The British complain that their politicians are too elite in that most are highly educated having been to public schools such as Eton and then to Oxford or Cambridge. This, they complain, makes their politicians out of touch with the commoners. How different to India. Here we have the filthiest scum who have won elections with guns and black money and there is no way to get rid of them unless entire families are wiped out.

US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton has warned Pakistan that ' ....heaven forbid, an attack like this that we can trace back to Pakistan were to have been successful, there would be very severe consequences.' How very cute. Does she not know that 9/11 was planned in Pakistan, possibly by the ISI, and all the financing went through that country. If she does not know that then she should not be in the post that she holds. And what has her boss done about it? Obama, the gasbag, has rewarded Pakistan with F 16 jets, advanced weapons and lots of cash. However it is not just the US that rewards the Pakis for killing its citizens. Our Congress led government is falling over to offer the hand of friendship to this murderous failed state. At every stage the Pakis sneer at, mock and threaten us but it is met by the milk of human kindness. As I keep saying, we do not need this cesspit of murderers and terrorists. We should cut off all diplomatic, trade and cultural contacts and heavily mine our borders so that not even a rat can get across. If our army does not know how to make and lay mines then we can pay Naxals to do the job. Seems that the Naxals have heavily mined the forests of Chattisgarh. They did this years ago. Apparently when new roads were being laid they planted large mines over which the roads were laid. Now they can detonate these mines whenever unsuspecting troops are passing over them causing deaths and injuries. This shows a level of anticipation and planning completely lacking in our generals who strut around in starched uniforms decorated with lots of shining brass. The government of India, all show and no substance.

The BJP or Bharatiya Janta Party, which is the largest opposition party to the Congress led government in India, is vociferously complaining about the misuse of the Central Bureau of Investigation or CBI by the government to coerce politicians to support whatever it does. According to the BJP politicians the Congress is holding the CBI as a ' Damocles sword ' over politicians who have been implicated in cases of having ' disproportionate assets ' or assets disproportionate to their declared sources of income. The BJP is angry because it was promised support in a recent vote in Parliament by some politicians who then broke their word and supported the government. Surely BJP politicians have been around long enough to know that Indian politicians have no sense of decency, honor or integrity. Also when a party cobbles together a coalition by creating more than 80 ministerial posts it is going to use any means, however unethical and disgusting, to cling on to power. While it is protesting about Congress tactics the BJP is shamelessly putting together a coalition government in the state of Jharkhand with the support of one of the men it accuses of betrayal, namely Shibu Soren. Just goes to show how Indian politicians will do anything to get into power because power brings a chance to loot. Perhaps the BJP thinks that Indian people are stupid but we have not forgotten the sordid story of Tehelka and how the then BJP led government used the CBI to destroy the paper. Indian politicians should stop talking about principles or the rule of law. Just keep quiet and carry on looting.

The most Hon'ble Supreme Court has ruled that the Member of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme or MPLADS is kosher. The Court said that fears of misuse is not does not make it illegal and it was for parliamentary committees to oversee how the money is spent. Under this scheme MPs get Rs. 20 million to spend on improving their constituencies or a total of Rs. 100 million over the life of a parliament. That is an enormous fortune in India especially in rural areas where one could improve roads, sewers, water supply, education, primary health care and a host of other services thus improving living conditions and the local economy. That none of the money is reaching the public is shown by the presence of another scheme called NREGA which guarantees 100 days of employment to villagers in need. In UP the government is considering partnership with private healthcare providers to provide primary healthcare to villagers. Ample evidence that the money is not going where it should. A lady politician, now in opposition, visited the south Delhi colony of Munirka, a typical middle class area where people live on top of each other in ill constructed flats. The residents had myriad complaints and asked why they should vote for her if she could not provide basic services. To which the lady brusquely replied that she did not care about their votes because her votes would come from slums. Yet slums are controlled by gangs and no one has seen any improvement, ever. Perhaps what the Hon'ble Court meant was that the money was going to be looted anyway so it is better to distribute the loot. Everyone enjoy.

Three people died in Greece yesterday when a bank in which they were working caught fire. This was during protests by workers against the IMF inspired austerity measures. Had the politicians and officials of the previous government been charged with falsifying accounts and sentenced to long terms in prison public fury would have been less but there is no attempt at holding anyone culpable for the present mess. Meanwhile in Thailand Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva is determined to hang on to power as long as he can in the face of protests by Red Shirts who are supporters Thaksin who was deposed by an army coup. Mr. Abhisit sneaked in to the Prime Minister's post because the Constitutional Court would not allow Thaksin's party to hold power even though they had majority in parliament. Prime Minister Abhisit has proposed general elections in November which has been accepted by the Red Shirts but such is their mistrust of the government that they have vowed to continue occupying central Bangkok. In Kyrgyzstan the previous president Bekayev is on the run after protesters were killed on his orders. He was elected in a landslide when his predecessor escaped to Russia on being overthrown by street protests. Bekayev won elections promising clean up of corruption but turned out just as corrupt. In Venezuela the family of President Hugo Chavez has occupied large areas of land, own a bank and his mother goes round in expensive jewellery. All this in the name of ' democracy ' which infuriates people. Governments should be like China - just shoot anyone who protests. No hypocrisy, no lies, just a bullet.

George Bush had shoes thrown at him and Obama has just been rewarded with a crude bomb in Times Square in New York. However Obama has an advantage over Bush. He is a lawyer and that means his skin has to be at least 1000 times thicker than Bush's ever was. Since he has come to power this Paki lover has been showering gifts on Pakistan. F 16s? Sure. Smart bomb kits? Take one thousand. Night vision equipment? Take as many as you like. Money? How much you want? $ 10 billion? Take fifteen, even though the US treasury is skint. So what is Pakistan going to do with all this sophisticated killing instruments. Hopefully they will fight and finish the Taliban, bring peace to Afghanistan and the US army will come home to tearful embraces while the band plays on. The public will be oh so grateful that they will vote for Obama for a second time and there he will be on stage with his family spouting hot air, which he does best, while the Pakistan army is using all the newly acquired hardware to kill innocent Indians. Now he has been given a poke in the eye. The man arrested and charged with placing the bomb in Times Square is called Faisal Shahzad who is a naturalised US citizen. He is of Pakistani origin and son of a retired Vice Air Marshal. This not only shows that, regardless of what Obama says, Pakistan is not a friend of the US but also the intimate connection between terrorists and the Paki armed forces. Will Obama learn anything from this incident? Alas, no. He will just spout his customary garbage about how this is an aberration and that Pakis are mainly good chaps. A gasbag in charge of 5000 nukes. Scary.

Some railway workers called motormen are on strike in Mumbai. They must be important because their absence has resulted in cancellation of local trains with severe disruption of city life. Life in Mumbai is dependent on local trains because the streets are so congested that the vast majority of people are unable to get to work without this service. Twenty motormen have been sacked and around 150 arrested. Local political strongman has threatened them with unknown consequences ( read violence ) if they do not get back to work immediately. The Railway Minister is invoking the Essential Services Maintenance Act, ESMA to force them back to work under duress. All they want is a raise in their pay to survive the continuous rise in prices of essential items, especially food. No surprises here. The people have elected criminal politicians to beat them up if they want a living wage. Yet the Minister of Chemicals ( phenyl? ) has been travelling every three days from Delhi to Chennai or Madurai costing the taxpayer Rs. 1.5 millions already. Seems that he is never in the parliament to answer questions which is essential in a functioning democracy. He went abroad on vacation without informing the Speaker of the Lok Sabha who seemed most displeased. Surely she should use the ESMA on him and sack him as a member if he refuses. However if his services are not essential and he is a waste of taxpayer money the Prime Minster should sack him immediately and save us a lot of money. However that will not happen. It is all snouts at the trough or everyone misses out. Get beaten up for being useful but enjoy if totally useless.

Is a government allowed to flout the laws of the country and thus reduce the constitution to waste paper. First you get the Central Bureau of Investigation or CBI to drop the investigation into a clear case of murder to win the vote on a nuclear deal with the US. Then you bribe the useless parasitic uncivil servants by doubling their salaries at the expense of the taxpayer. Then you bribe farmers by forgiving all their loans again with taxpayer money and start a useless scheme to provide 100 days of employment every year to the rural population. Needless to say a lot of this money is siphoned off to pay for election expenses. Having squandered countless billions of taxpayer money you win the elections which provides you with five years of unlimited opportunity. The first act of the new parliament is to pass a bill allowing ministers to take family and friends with them when they embark on ' official ' travel at taxpayer expense. Since customs officers dare not sear a minister or his entourage there is unlimited scope to smuggle contraband into the country. The jealous opposition who feel deprived of so much debauch want to introduce a ' cut ' motion on the budget which if passed will precipitate new elections. After winning the elections with such depravity you are not going to lose after just one year so you threaten the murderer and the shameless woman with jail time and the ' cut ' motion is easily defeated. We the people watch helplessly as the constitution is trampled into the ground.

One time president of Panama, Noriega was extradited to France from the US yesterday. Noriega was kidnapped from Panama after the US attacked the country completely without provocation on the excuse that it was exporting drugs to the US. Then against international law Noriega, a sitting head of state, was tried and imprisoned for twenty years. Yesterday he was extradited to France on some allegation of money laundering more than two decades ago. France is the country where Baby Doc Duvallier of Haiti took refuge with his stolen millions and from where Ayatollah Khomeni launched his victorious campaign against the Shah of Iran. Thus the US gives the impression of not having any respect for any rule or statute. Outsiders get the same impression at the behavior of the Republicans who show mindless opposition to anything proposed by President Obama. First they opposed healthcare reforms and yesterday they stopped the debate on the financial reform bill. It was a Republican President, Ronald Reagan whose decontrol of financial institutions, helped by another Republican President, George Bush's tax refund that created the financial crisis. Before the elections of 2008 Republicans controlled both houses of Congress and were responsible for the oversight of the financial institutions in which they failed miserably. Apparently this is because of heavy lobbying by the shameless banks who are spending a lot of money. This seems to show that US lawmakers are up for sale to the highest bidder. Yet this is the country that stridently preaches democracy and exports regime change.

Greece has had to call in the International Monetary Fund or IMF for help with its financial crisis to prevent a default on its loans. Loans are being underwritten by countries like Germany who are laying down very strict conditions for any money advanced to Greece. Already the Greek government has announced severe fiscal tightening by cutting public sector pay and pensions but this will not satisfy the IMF. German Chancellor Angela Merkel is demanding severe cuts in public spending at a time when the economy is contracting and these cuts will create further unemployment. What is unacceptable is that all these sacrifices are being demanded from ordinary people who had no hand in creating the crisis. No one is demanding punishment for the politicians of the previous government who falsified public accounts with the help of Goldman Sachs. If a financial officer of any company was caught cooking account books he would surely end up in prison but not so politicians and others seem to protect the crooks making all of them accessory to the original crime. Just as no one is asking for former Prime Minister of Britain, Tony Blair to stand trial for war crimes at the International Criminal Court. Maybe it is a white thing because Charles Taylor is presently being tried and Omar Bashir has been indicted. If politicians get away with crime then the system is certain to collapse. The question now is after Greece who? Will it be Ireland, Portugal or Spain and will it have have knock on effect on the members of the euro zone? We will know soon enough.

Dr. Ketan Desai, the chief of the Medical Council of India or MCI, the body which regulates the standards of medical education in the country, has been caught taking Rs. 20 million in bribes from the vice president of Gyan Sagar medical college and hospital in Patiala, Punjab. This college was denied permission to admit students for this academic year because of inadequate infrastructure. MCI was once described by the Supreme Court as a den of corruption and yet is allowed to lay down new rules regarding doctors. Delhi branch of MCI forces all to register with it and to renew registration every five years for Rs. 1000. There is no reason why this penalty has been imposed other than as a sly tax on doctors. Recently a law was passed forbidding pharmaceutical firms from giving gifts or sponsoring conferences for doctors. All these rules are for qualified medical practitioners and do not apply to quacks who practice freely all over India and freely prescribe any drug without having any knowledge as to its side effects. Recently the government has decided to give diplomas in medicine to people who will practice in villages after a short training. In other words poor villagers are to be given third rate medical care by criminal politicians whose hearts are always bleeding for the aam aadmi. Mr Desai being a doctor should in a position of influence should have fought for better medical care for patients, better facilities, better education and better working condition for doctors. Instead he chose to suck up to criminal politicians and agreed to every abomination for personal gain. His arrest is a cause for great celebration.

Air Asia, a low cost airline is offering a return ticket to Kuala Lumpur from Bangalore, inclusive of all airport charges, for just Rs. 8000. Compare that to a return ticket from Bangalore to Delhi which costs Rs. 10350 in low cost domestic airlines. Why is air travel so expensive in India? It is because of extortionate taxes. Taxes on airline fuel may be upto 20%, tickets are taxed on the original price rather than the price offered by the airline and airport charges are scandalous for the quality of service offered. One would think that when criminal politicians constantly rabbit on about the poor they would bring down all taxes so that the poor can also avail of this ' luxury'. Actually politicians want the poor to remain in their place and not get too uppity so that they are adequately grateful for a few paise thrown at them. Of course, ministers and members of parliament get to travel first class with family and friends at our expense. Kleptocrats are also entitled to first class travel for free. State chief ministers have bought luxury jets for official use even though the state budget is deeply in the red. Taxes have to pay for this depraved beggary. Then there is the government airline Air India which is staffed by lazy crooks and is hundreds of billions of rupees in the red. There is talk of throwing Rs. 50 billion to keep it going. So why waste precious tax payer money in a poor country on an airline which is bound to fail. On April 20 Air India flight no. IC 7603 from Delhi to Coimbatore was cancelled and the aircraft was chartered to fly Poorna Patel, daughter of Praful Patel, the Civil Aviation minister and her party from Chandigarh to Chennai instead. Criminal beggars!

Tiny news item in the papers today. Seems that the Central Bureau of Investigations or CBI has registered 2439 cases against uncivil servants under the Prevention of Corruption Act. This includes 78 cases against senior officers such as IAS, IPS, IRS and other services. We can be sure that this is the very tip of the proverbial iceberg. The vast majority of the uncivil servants in India are thieves but they do not get caught. This is because they protect each other as in Rathore's case, people who pay money to get their work done are afraid to complain because others will take revenge by holding up their work for years and the CBI needs permission from seniors to register a case which may not be forthcoming. It is surprising how the CBI was able to register any case against these few. It may be because these crooks got greedy and did not pass enough loot up the food chain. This all pervading corruption has a knock on effect throughout society. Contractors pay bribes to get work and hence cut corners. Roads in India develop huge craters after just one rain shower. People with money can get anything done , however illegal. The recent deaths due to fire in a building in Kolkata was because the owner had added two extra floors on top of an old building without permission and without regard for safety. If you want to build a house you have to pay bribes to have the land registered in your name, then to get building plans passed, then to get electricity and water connections, then to get completion certificate and so on. The result is that the people now think that corruption is the norm. When the entire population is corrupted the country is in grave danger.

Whatever he may have done Lalit Modi is a business genius. He set up the T20 cricket competition called the IPL and it has been a wild success from the very first year. A combination of slam bang cricket with Bollywood stars, cheerleaders from the US and teams containing domestic and foreign players made it irresistible for the public. However, from its inception it was hated by criminal politicians and thieving uncivil servants. First they complained about cheerleaders so the girls were covered up. Last year they denied security to match venues because of general elections so Modi took the entire show to South Africa and made it a success. Finally the controversy with the Kochi franchise this year has given them the excuse to fatally wound the IPL. So why do these criminals and thieves hate the IPL so much? Probably because - 1. They could see the billions the IPL was generating and could not get their filthy hands on the money. India has no world class athlete because these thieves are stealing all the money. Thieving officials outnumber athletes at any international event. The IPL is completely private. 2. After lying to the people for years politicians have deluded themselves as their own importance when they are a cancer that should be exterminated if India is to survive. 3. Plain jealousy. They see film stars, cricket stars, rich business people, cheerleaders all enjoying the atmosphere and they burn. At night they lie beside their fat ugly wives snoring beside them with layers of blubber rising and falling and bile rises to their throats. So they will kill the IPL, the only extravaganza completely Indian. It was fun while it lasted.

Goldman Sachs, the largest finance company, has been charged by the regulators of fraud. At the same time the bank has reported increased profits from trading operation and increase in pay and bonuses of upto 17%. Seems that Goldman Sachs set up a subsidiary to hedge against financial instruments they were selling before the subprime loans crisis. The implication is that they were deliberately selling financial instruments which, they knew, were going to fail. Something like selling fake medicines and quietly setting up a company selling nice coffins. The financial crisis set off by the banks nearly caused a collapse of the entire financial system but bank chiefs have not shown any remorse. In fact, they have been brazen in their shamelessness and even now are lobbying vigorously to stop any reform of the financial sector. In this they are being helped by Republican lawmakers whose visceral hatred of President Obama makes them blind the kind of crooks these bankers are and the suffering of ordinary people who lost their jobs and homes. Goldman Sachs has angrily vowed to defend itself. Will charges against other banks follow? If the regulators have the courage to take on Goldman Sachs they will surely not hesitate too charge other banks. Thus the bank chiefs will be engaged in protecting their own skins and have less time for lobbying. The people are incensed at the behavior of the bankers and are anyway convinced that they are crooks. If they see Republicans trying to protect bankers they may go against them. With midterm elections just over six months away the result could be interesting. Nice timing.

The Reserve Bank of India, RBI has tightened monetary policy across the board in an effort to control inflation running out of control. the Repo rate, at which banks borrow from the RBI, has been increased from 5 to 5.25% while the Cash Reserve Ratio, CRR, which is the amount of capital banks must hold in reserve, has been increased from 5.75 to 6%. The increase in CRR is meant to suck liquidity out of the system and in turn will increase cost of borrowing for personal as well as commercial reasons. The RBI is predicting a growth rate of 8% and an annual inflation rate of 5.5% at the end of current fiscal that is March 2011. Whether the RBI is successful in achieving such a high rate of growth while taming inflation remains to be seen but it will need an awful lot of ingenuity. More than 50% of the Indian economy is in black wherein transactions take place in cash and no tax is paid. The biggest sector of the black economy is in property where more than half the price of any property is paid in cash. The reason is the extortionate taxes levied on property, from registration charges to stamp paper. Property dealers charge 2% in cash from both buyers and sellers and thus have an interest in elevating property prices. Naturally property is very attractive to criminals, politicians and uncivil servants to hide money from criminal activities. Thus politicians absolutely do not want property prices to fall because this will wipe out their stolen wealth. At the same time inflation makes people angry, especially the great unwashed, who will vote them out and thus take away the chance to loot. The much derided ' Hindu ' rate of growth of 2.5% may be the only option.

Seems that the Supreme Court has upheld the guilty verdict on Manu Sharma for the murder of Jessica Lall as also his life imprisonment. He is the son of a politician and was acquitted by the trial court because all witnesses had been threatened into withdrawing their testimony in court and the police had deliberately messed up the investigation. It was the untiring effort by Jessica's sister and a huge public outcry following the acquittals that the Delhi police appealed to the High Court which found Sharma guilty and sentenced him to life in prison. Naturally he appealed and now th Supreme Court has upheld the judgement of the High Court. However the Delhi government has tried its best to make his life comfortable by allowing him to attend his sick mother who was seen partying and his grandmother who was already dead. Sharma was seen drinking at a night club while out on parole. Politicians and uncivil servants in India are all criminals, whether directly committing theft, rape or murder or covering up for each other if caught. For every Manu Sharma convicted hundreds maybe thousands are getting away. The fellow who killed his secretary is Chief Minister even now, the sons of the stinking old man is a minister although he got his thugs to murder three journalists and Biti Mohanty, the son of Orissa's Chief of Police is still free although guilty of rape. Mohanty was initially suspended for not helping in the capture of his son but has been reinstated and is drawing full salary with full pensions to come. The politicians are very glib with talk about democracy but if the people do not have the basic right to life then what rubbish democracy is it.

A volcano in the south of Iceland has been spewing clouds of ash into the atmosphere. Prevailing winds are blowing the ash southwards over the UK, Scandinavian countries and over northern Europe. Over 16000 thousand flights have already been cancelled and airlines are losing $ 130 million a day. Thousands of passengers are stuck in airports all over the world. Curiously flights to Iceland from the US are operating because the northern part of Iceland, where the majority of people live, is clear. No one knows how long this will continue because if mother earth has gas she may continue to belch for a year. What happens to trade in Europe especially in the UK is anybody's guess. The UK is just recovering weakly from a severe recession but still has a huge fiscal deficit hanging over any economic recovery. If trade is upset for any length of time it could slide back into recession. Airlines such as British Airways could go bankrupt. Already airline shares are down sharply. In 2008 when the subprime crisis exploded Icelandic banks were heavily exposed and were unable to survive resulting in the government going bankrupt. At that time the British government under the leadership of Prime Minister Gordon Brown used anti terrorist laws to force Iceland to pay British citizens who had put money into Icelandic banks. What is the British government going to do now? Perhaps a little punishment for bullying a country in trouble instead of sympathising.

To file a case at the Supreme Court you need to go through a lawyer unless you do it in person. The Supreme Court has appointed such lawyers after a test and they are called Advocates-on-record. Since every case has to go through these lawyers they must be earning phenomenal amounts of money. Yet it appears that they just lend their names to the case and do not do anything to earn their fees. Two benches called this ' rampant unethical practice '.The Court said that ' The advocates-on-record do not appear when matters are listed before the court, nor do they take any interest or responsibility for processing or conducting the case '. Every Indian knows that lawyers in India are completely unethical and untrustworthy. They charge enormous amounts of money for doing very little, they have been caught trying to bribe witnesses, they riot in courtrooms often beating up prisoners or clients and you regularly read of some lawyer involved in rape or murder. Since laws are written by lawyers they are made deliberately vague and meaningless so that one is forced to pay a lawyer to make any sense. They have Bar Councils in every court which seem to be above the law in that they seem to be able to block any attempt to reform the legal profession and make it more transparent and people friendly because the more opaque it is the more they earn. Thus the legal profession is a disease and unless it is changed completely their will be no justice. Recently doctors have been invited to a conference on medical ethics to be held in Delhi. One of the speakers is, you guessed it, a lawyer.

Among all the hot air which countries are really likely to use nuclear weapons? India? Never. Our politicians and top civil servants are interested only in personal gain and if the nation faces real danger they will run to some other country to be safe. Most have children working in western countries and money stashed abroad to guarantee a luxurious life. China? Unlikely. China is too powerful to face any external danger. Its danger will come from its own people. Russia, France, UK? Unlikely. Will probably never face any existential threat to warrant the use of nuclear retaliation. Israel? Possible if existence is under threat. However the strength of its conventional forces makes it highly unlikely that its enemies will get that much success. Iran? Iran will probably never be allowed to get to that stage. As a last resort the US and the Arabs will combine to bomb its facilities. Like in the first Gulf war Israel will be told to keep its head down. North Korea? Unpredictable may be but not suicidal. The regime will collapse due to economic reasons and will hide in China. United States? Definitely. The only country to have used two atom bombs on innocent people. Americans are convinced that they alone have the God given absolute right to live. The rest of the world is disposable. Pakistan? Very, very possible. The Pakis are comfortable in the knowledge that they have attacked India since 1947 and every time the Congress has gifted them all we gained. If attacked US and China will urge restraint on India, Congress leaders will rush to various capitals with wives and children for ' consultation ' and some shopping. The US will table a resolution in the UN Security Council calling Pakistan a naughty boy. China will veto it. Indians will continue to die.

Campaigning for next month's general elections Tory leader David Cameron has promised to end the feeling among MPs that ' they are entitled '. That is the cancer eating at the heart of India today. Criminal politicians feel they are entitled to do whatever they like for as long as they can lie, bribe and kill their way to election victory. We desperately need a charter for citizens such as 1. Number of ministers must never be more than a fixed number. 2. Numbers of uncivil servants must be 20% of what they are now. 3. There must be term limits which may never be extended. 4. Family members of any politicians will be barred from standing. We cannot afford a filthy stinking old man hanging on at state level while his criminal sons and nephews are occupying various posts and looting billions. 5. No politician or government official will be allowed in the Rajya Sabha. 6. Eliminate all state governments and municipalities which will instantly reduce the looting by 95%. Divide the country into roughly equal districts and distribute tax earnings equally. That will be equitable, eliminate jealousy and by allowing local people to spend money on their own development will immediately destroy the support base of the Naxals. 7. The government's main function will be external and internal security and politicians or uncivil servants will not be allowed to interfere in sports, education, business and other aspects of life. Parliament will lay down basic laws and the government will strictly monitor performance and punish wrongdoers. 8. Strict time limits on uncivil servants to do what a citizen asks for or heavy fines. 9. Citizens corporations to monitor performance. A few needs if the country is to survive.

It is hard to fathom what the Nuclear conference in Washington is designed to achieve other than a photo op. There is not need to gather so many world leaders to discuss Iran as the UN Security Council will decide on whether to extend sanctions. Anyway Iran may become a threat to Israel but is not likely to be a threat to the US for a long long time. As for terrorist groups , it is laughable to think that any of these bunch of fanatics will have the knowledge or the materials to build a nuclear bomb and then be able to smuggle it into the US. Plutonium and enriched uranium are extremely radioactive and careless handling will result in severe burns and even death. There is no way anyone will be able to smuggle in enough plutonium and the various parts required to build a bomb into the US without being caught in seconds. As for a dirty bomb there is enough medical waste inside the US to make one but its range will be very restricted. Only a national agency can build a nuclear weapon small enough to be transported by, say, a boat and then be able to put together a team to carry out an attack. The 9/11 attacks were organised inside Pakistan and a nuclear attack is most likely to originate there. The civilian government has no control over the army, the ISI, the Taliban and other terrorist groups. Indeed the parliament is busy reducing the powers of the President and trying to bring Sharif back to power which may precipitate a power struggle. There are enough fanatic, lunatic elements within the ISI to want to attack the US again. Look out for a fast motor boat which drops from an ordinary cargo ship a makes at full speed towards a small town along the coast.

In January 2009 I bought a Lenovo laptop which I duly registered with Lenovo. I was told that it had a warranty of one year. In December I got a call from a company called Aforeserve.com ltd. in Noida reminding me that my warranty was due to expire and offering to renew it for two years. On the first of January a man collected my check for Rs. 4900. All companies in and around Delhi are liars and cheats and I thought that I had been had when I heard nothing once the check was cashed. However after many emails they sent me a registration form and told me to register the extension of warranty with Lenovo in Bangalore. Accordingly I sent an email to spac@lenovowarranty.co.in requesting them to extend my warranty but they wanted a scan copy of the registration form. Not having a scanner I sent them a photocopy by post but they refused to accept it and,like brainless robots, insisted on a scan copy which I sent from an internet cafe. I received no reply from Lenovo. After many mails they eventually acknowledged receipt of the scan copy and said that this would show on my account. However till today they have not extended my warranty inspite of repeated reminders. I do not know if emails can be blocked but the last few mails have bounced back. I know that Chinese companies are good at producing low cost low grade goods and services but never expected Lenovo to be so poor seeing that it hopes to become a global company. Bangalore has been touted as the Silicon Valley of India but the employees at Lenovo are worse than third rate government clerks. Perhaps Lenovo is saving money by employing the rejects.

George Bush squandered a budget surplus by giving out unnecessary tax refunds and created a fiscal mess. The UK and the US created the subprime crisis by deregulating banks to the extent that no one knew the amount of leveraging going on including the bank chiefs. The previous government in Greece actively falsified accounts with the help of Goldman Sachs. Politicians everywhere think that winning an election is a blank check to do whatever they like and will cling on to power no matter how much damage they do to the country. Even by such low standards Abhisit Vejjajiva of Thailand has gone beyond limit. Brought into power by collusion between the elite, the army and the courts he refuses to call fresh elections and ordered the army to use live rounds killing at least 18 protesters yesterday thus pushing the country towards civil war. In India the central and state governments are frantically raising taxes to finance the luxuries enjoyed by criminal politicians and useless parasitic uncivil servants. They have absolutely no hesitation in wasting our hard earned money to buy luxury planes, going abroad with their criminal drug addict children and bribing useless parasitic uncivil servants with undeserved salary hikes in the Sixth Pay Commission just to win the elections. This has to stop. Somehow the people of the world have to unite and demand a written code of conduct for politicians which may not be broken under any condition and overseen by corporations of citizens. Politicians have too much power which attracts all kinds of criminals and megalomaniacs. Their power must be reduced if the world is to survive.

The ministry of sports has sent an angry letter to the organisers of the IPL objecting to bowlers stepping on the word ' India ' contained in the sponsor's logo as they run in to bowl. Apparently this ' hurts public sentiment and is tantamount to showing disrespect to the name of the country'. I would like to remind these hypocrites that millions of Indians walk on India everyday and, because 70% of the people do not have toilets, 700 million crap on her everyday as well. Untreated sewage pours into the Ganga, the only holy river in the world. Indian athletes win nothing because the kleptocrats in charge pocket most of the money. Surely that is the greatest disrespect to India. The only reason that the IPL is such a wonderful showcase for India is because it is private hands and the kleptocrats are dying to get their thieving hands on the billions it generates. So please, please cut the bullshit and crawl back to whatever slimy hole you emerged from. Meanwhile in great political drama our most revered Home Minister, in his ' Harry Truman ' avatar, sent in his resignation for the massacre of 76 CRPF personnel by the Naxals because ' the buck stops at my desk'. As one billion Indians knew well beforehand the resignation was rejected by the Prime Minister. Last month Indian cities were asked to switch off all electrical appliances for one hour to reduce greenhouse gases. In a country where sudden power cuts cause such hardship and millions still use candles surely this is a joke too far even for our criminal thick skinned politicians. I suppose we should consider ourselves lucky not be born in Somalia.

Mudslides in Rio in Brazil where favellas or shanties built on the hill side have slid down claiming hundreds of lives. Of course, the survivors will blame the government for not giving them land and money to build proper houses even though they voted for President Lula who is a socialist. Massacre of 76 men belonging to the CRPF in the jungles of Chattisgarh by Naxals who are helped by the local people. The locals are extremely poor and are angry that the government does not provide for them. Drug gangs have killed thousands in the border areas of Mexico including US consular staff. Apparently it is because of poverty that young men are attracted to the money that drug smuggling brings. Violence and slaughter rage all across the world in developing countries. The reason given is always the same. Poverty. But what causes such poverty in every poor country? Loony liberals and politicians eager to get votes give various reasons such as lack of money for developmental work, corruption at the local level, lack of education, corporates not doing enough social work, lack of rain and everything except the truth which is uncontrolled breeding by the poor. Every time you see a news report about some catastrophe you see masses of pot bellied naked children running around and the mothers complaining about lack of food and money. Whether it is India, Africa or Latin America it is always the same. If the numbers of poor people keep on ballooning at this rate the wealth of the entire world will be insufficient to feed them all. It is time for politicians, perhaps the United Nations, to say in one voice ' Stop breeding.'

So Britain is to have elections next month to elect a new ' mother of parliaments.' They may be white skinned, wearing suits and ties and speaking with public school accents but British politicians are no different when it comes to deceiving the people to get votes. Prime Minister Gordon Brown is claiming to be the best man for the job because he has brought the country out of the worst recession forgetting to mention that, as Chancellor for ten years, he was responsible for deregulating banks which precipitated the recession in the first place. David Cameron is promising change by which he means tax cuts forgetting to mention that it was Bush's tax cuts that led to the crisis in the US. The LibDems ( who they? ) are praying for a hung parliament so that they can experience an official car instead of having to take the tube everyday. However, they need not fear. The collective intelligence of the British people is very low proven by the fact that The Sun is the highest selling newspaper. On any given day The Sun has news about how Posh Beckham had sex 5 times to get pregnant again, Rosie in bras, Pam dancing without wearing a bra, Danii looking pregnant and other such matters of national importance. The Sun has been anti Labour for the last few years and has headlines such as ' Brown the Clown ' about the Prime Minister. If Labour loses the elections because of Sun readers then a foreigner, an Australian turned US citizen, will have decided who rules Britain. Seems to me that we have just token democracy. Time to have citizens corporations to speak for the people.

In one of the worst bloodbaths in India, Maoist rebels known as Naxals killed 75 soldiers belonging to the Central Reserve Police Force or the CRPF. These men were returning to camp when they were ambushed. First their ' anti mine ' vehicle was blown up by landmines and then survivors were gunned down. This shows a shocking lack of intelligence, training and lack of proper equipment for the force. Even a schoolboy would tell you not to travel in one vehicle, to have advance scouts, heat sensing equipment which would have picked up the signature of massed terrorists and armour plated vehicles. Yet criminal politicians are given Z security and third grade useless, parasitic civil servants ride around in individual vehicles with policemen, flashing lights and sirens. We have seen news reports and television programs showing how India commandos are extensively trained in jungle warfare. Surely the same kind of training can be given to select CRPF personnel before sending them out to fight heavily armed Naxals who show no hesitation in killing any number of people. Indian police personnel are trained to beat up ordinary people to protect criminal politicians and useless kleptocrats and do not have the discipline, knowledge and fitness to take on a terrorist group such as the Naxals. Is any politician going to resign over this and the news about our defence computers being hacked by the Chinese? Hell, no. Indian politicians have long ago rid themselves of any sense of honor, shame or patriotism. They will cling on to power so as to go on looting as long as possible. No sharam, no izzat.

The Indian government has embarked on an expensive project to provide smart cards for every citizen of the country. The cards will be based on photographs and prints of all ten fingers and contain much personal information such as education, job, earning and so on. We are told that this is to target the poor for financial help and prevent ineligible people from benefiting from such schemes. This will cut out corruption such as inflating employee numbers in government offices. What is not mentioned is how the information will be secured. There is nothing to stop civil servants from selling such information to enemies like Pakistan and terrorists will be able to travel across India with fake smart cards. If the cards fall into police hands the innocent person whose identity was stolen will be brutalised by the police. Is there going to be constant matching of prints against names for all the billion people of India? If not there is nothing to stop a migrant family getting one set of cards in, say, Delhi or Mumbai and then travelling to their village in UP to get another set. In a report called the Shadow in the Clouds researchers from the University of Toronto have shown that Chinese hackers called the Shadow Network have hacked into secret Indian government data including missile systems, Indian embassies abroad and information about government policies. If the Chinese can do it what is to prevent Pakis or anyone else from stealing vital information about identities. Finally, corruption in India is top down and this is not going to stop criminal politicians or uncivil servants from looting the exchequer. This will greatly increase the power of the government and maybe the first step towards dictatorship.

Forget the mafia, democracy is today the home of all the biggest scoundrels in the world. Winning the first election is the key. Once you are in appoint all your thugs to lucrative posts and they will commit any crime to keep you in power. Steal the subsequent elections by beating up the opposition, intimidating people to vote for you and get your thugs to stuff ballot boxes making sure that you win. Mugabe is an extreme case but variations can be seen across the world. Afghanistan's Karzai admitted that there was false voting in his favor but curiously blamed it on foreign election observers. Thailand's Abhisit Vejjajiva got his chair due to the blessings of the Constitutional Court which, in its wisdom, overturned the election victory of Thaksin Sinawatra's party. Thaksin, though elected with large majority of popular votes, was ousted by the army at the behest of the elite. Sometimes it can become embarrassing when the supporters go over the top in showing their support as in Iran where Ahmadinejad won opposition strongholds with margins more than the total number of voters. In India such things happen on a minor scale but on the whole elections pass off peacefully. However, as in other countries most politicians are elected with a minority of votes. If 40% of the people vote and you win with 40% of that because the opposition vote is divided then you won your seat with only 16% of the eligible voters. To avoid such problems the Congress has decided to do away with the people altogether and we have an unelected Prime Minister obeying madam faithfully and keeping the seat warm for sonubaba.

Papers are full of how Sania Mirza is going to marry a Paki who, it seems, has already married another woman in Hyderabad. With the country facing so many problems journalists should not be wasting time on this non event. Sania was a third rate tennis player, never rising above 30 in world rankings. The enormous coverage she gets may be because she is pretty and insisted on wearing little shorts and skirts thus getting up the noses of the beards. To marry a Paki is to betray India but it is her choice. If she wants to spend her life in a failed state she is welcome to do so. The question is how a Paki is allowed to come into India at his will. This morning's headlines say that he has rushed over to sort out claims about his previous marriage. How could he get a visa at such short notice? Will I be allowed to rush into Pakistan and marry any girl I fancy at any time? The government never tires of accusing Pakistan of breeding terrorists at every international forum and yet allows a Paki the freedom of the country. There are Paki singers and actors making money from Bollywood films. Who knows whether they donate a part of their earnings to terrorists such as Indian Mujahiddin or not. Is it any wonder that the Indian government is treated as a joke by countries such as the US and UK. In the recent conference on Afghanistan Indian views were completely ignored and the US is refusing to allow our security agencies to interview Headley. Do the politicians think that they will gain popularity abroad by touching the feet of foreigners. They should understand that they will be, and probably are, despised. As they are at home.

The US is asking India not to participate in the gas pipeline from Iran through Pakistan because it wants to isolate Iran over its nuclear ambition. This is the same country that is supplying Pakistan with F 16s, kits to make smart bombs and other military hardware to use against India. It is not asking Pakistan which survives by begging but has the gall to instruct India. India should respond by asking Paki loving Obama to go jump into the Potomac. However India should never spend any money on building the pipeline. Pakistan is a lying treacherous nation and cannot be trusted to keep its end of the bargain. If India becomes dependent on Iranian gas we will be at the mercy of the ISI who will turn off the gas at any excuse. Also Pakistan being full of terrorists the pipeline will be an easy and tempting target for sabotage. Instead India should ask the Pakistanis and Iranians to build the pipeline upto the Indian border with their money and offer to pay market price for any gas that we buy. That way we would have the option of not buying any gas if they try to charge too much. Also after investing billions of dollars on the pipeline the Pakis will think long and hard before interfering with the flow of gas. If they interfere with supply they will displease the Iranians who will have invested precious dollars into the pipeline. We have two very hostile neighbors, China and Pakistan, with nuclear weapons and have little to lose if Iran goes nuclear. If the US wants our cooperation we should drive a very hard bargain. Unfortunately the Congress has been selling us out for 60 years and forms the government at the center.

Sixty two years after independence the Congress led government has suddenly woken upto the value of universal education and has passed a Right to Education bill making it a right for every child to get an education. Is it really for the benefit of the people or just another gimmick to win elections? Poor people do not send children to school because they want children to work so as to augment family income, so will continue as they are doing at present. Millions of government school teachers are very highly paid but are poorly educated and most never turn up for work. They cannot be touched because of very strong unions. Thus children going to government schools learn nothing and are only fit for menial jobs. The bill makes it mandatory for private schools to take 25% of students from poor families. To cater to these children private schools will have to charge more fees from other children or increase class sizes which will mean that fee paying children will get poorer education. Thus this is just a sly, underhand tax on the middle class. The Congress believes in dictatorship of the North Korean kind where power is retained in the same family and like all dictatorships hates the middle class. Its power is derived from doling handouts to the poor from taxpayer money and the glorification of one family to near God like status. Thus it needs the aam aadmi to remain poor and uneducated so that the khas can continue there vice like grip on the jugular of the nation. This is the Indian version of ' democracy.'

To keep the people happy the government of India comes out with jokes from time to time. Yesterday's was a cracker. Seems that the government has decided to set up a committee of senior uncivil servants to examine complaints against senior uncivil servants to root out frivolous complaints. Definition of frivolous is not given. Today when a modest house in Delhi can cost in excess of Rs. 100 million a bribe of Rs. 1 million might be construed as frivolous. Everyone knows that the vast majority of civil servants ( 99.99%? ) are corrupt. The reasons are many. Money is usually collected by the lower ranks who deal directly with the public and is then divided up a chain right upto the politician in charge. If anyone is honest it breaks the chain and reduces income for everybody. Such a person is harassed, threatened or killed. Jobs of civil servants are permanent and they are never sacked, merely transferred to another department but their ingenuity is such that they can make over Rs. 9 billion from even the humble cattle fodder. Promotion is not based on merit but on length of service and such factors as sucking up to politicians, protecting fellow officers from the police and not making mistakes which means not doing anything significant thus reducing the chances of making mistakes. Laws are designed to obstruct people in anything they want to do, whether it is setting up a business, building a house or getting a passport. People have come to accept that they have to pay bribes to get anything done. It follows, therefore, that anyone with money can do anything however illegal. Thus kleptocrats have corrupted the entire population of India.