In a desperate effort to reduce inflation the government is considering opening up the retail sector to foreign companies such as Walmart. Till today foreign companies are allowed to open stores which sell just one brand of product to retail customers. Companies such as Carrefour, which operates hypermarkets in other countries, is allowed to run, what is known as, cash and carry stores where they can sell only in bulk. Politicians fear that local grocers stores will be unable to compete with these giants who make profit on volumes by cutting margins. These companies bring down costs by sourcing directly from farmers and eliminating middle men thus bringing higher profits to farmers. Finally, one huge incentive for the government, which it does not want to advertise, is that local stores do not pay any tax so the government loses hundreds of billions of rupees every year. To pacify opponents ministers proposed that foreign companies will have to commit to buying at least 30% of goods locally but the commerce department thinks that this will be incompatible with WTO rules. TOI, August 29. India joined the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, GATT in 1948 which sought to lay down rules governing global trade. The Uruguay round was held in 1986 and in 1994 the WTO was agreed in Marrakesh. This treaty sought to liberalise trade and reduce non tariff barriers. India has been a member since the beginning on January 1, 1995. The General Agreement on Trade a Services came into force in 1994 which liberalised telecom. The World Famous Economist is credited with India's growth story by liberlising the economy. But was he? Or was he just following rules already laid down as a civil servant does? Perhaps a genuine scholar will enlighten us with a neutral review.

A little news item today says that household savings has dropped from 12.1% last year to 9.7% this year which will impact growth. The last time it it dropped below 10% was in 1997-98 when the economy grew just 4.3%. One reason why people are saving less is because of the scorching rate of inflation which shows no sign of coming down in spite of rising interest rates. The Food Corporation will need Rs 853.6 billion to buy stocks of which Rs 677.4 billion will be for subsidised sale. To pay for the rising subsidy bill the government will need to borrow more and will not be able to contain its deficit to 4.6% that it hoped to achieve. The government is desperately seeking new ways to raise taxes which, in turn, raise inflation and cut consumption. The RBI needs to increase interest rates until property prices drop by around 70% which will remove black money from the system and registration tax and stamp duty on sale of properties need to be lowered to 1% as in other countries. This the politicians are unwilling to do because state governments are bankrupt and property taxes are a huge source of income. Also companies complain that high interest rates will increase borrowing costs and impact investment. No it will not. If the RBI brings down inflation to 2-3% and then maintains rates high enough so that property prices increase by just the same rate it will increase consumption by eliminating inflation. A stable borrowing cost will enable businesses to plan long time without the worry of yo-yo rates. Savings will jump as returns will be positive. The other imperative is to reduce population so as to reduce the subsidy burden. Else remain poor.

There is great celebration in India in, what is seen as, a victory for Anna Hazare. The parliament has accepted the 3 points, stressed by Hazare, for inclusion into the draft Lok Pal bill. But does this mean that these 3 points will be part of the final bill or a strong bill will be passed? Not if the criminal politicians or the thieving civil servants can help it. The politicians at least are known to the people and may be vulnerable to pressure but the civil service is a shadowy web of corruption spreading through every branch of government, its immense power lying in its intimate knowledge of the obscure rules and a strong support system bred from a strong sense of brotherhood. It is an evil shadow stretching from coast to coast and influencing every aspect of our lives. Over the years they have built up an extremely lucrative system of insurmountable harassment to force the people to pay extra money for any service, be it a driving licence or a building permit, which generates unknown billions of rupees for these scoundrels and they will fight to the last to protect their earnings. There are millions of civil servants and no ombudsman, however strong, can possibly keep them under check. There are not enough prisons in the whole world to imprison these criminals. The only way is to hamstring the villains in a way that they will find it hard to harass us. Pass a law which prescribes a strict time limit for every service. Every application must be answered by a named officer within, say, one month and reason will be given in writing for acceptance or rejection. Any discrepancy to be immediately punished by cut in salary. Excise the cancer.

To ask the parliament to enact strict laws against corruption is like asking the Cosa Nostra to pass laws against racketeering, smuggling and killing. At least 70 members of the current lot have cases of murder, violent crime and rape against them. They were able to stand for elections because the party leaders gave them tickets for elections precisely because they have money and goons to beat up opponents. Instead of being ostracised they are friends with other politicians which makes every party a political gang. Which is also why they are unable to pass a bill for a strong Lok Pal because the great majority of politicians and civil servants will end up in prison. To see the politicians squirming, lying and snarling is education indeed. Suddenly they are stuck in parliamentary procedures and constitutional niceties yet when it comes to increasing the salaries and expenses of the MPs there is no debate and the bill is passed on a nod. The first bill this government passed on coming into office in 2009 was one to allow ministers to travel free with family, friends and anyone they wanted at taxpayer expense. No delay for procedures or constitution there. Now they are playing a game of dare with the Anna Hazare team piling on the pressure to see if they will allow the old man to die or buckle at the end. That is why they are using every delaying tactic while they bribe and coerce old and new colleagues of Hazare to request him to end his fast. But Hazare should not break off now. To give up without anything concrete would be to lose credibility and he will never be trusted again. Even if a bill is passed the scoundrels may not notify it. That will be another fight.

So, Gaddafi has scarpered through an elaborate system of beautifully built tunnels under Tripoli. How long he will evade capture is for the future. However, till now he has been surprisingly wily in keeping himself and his family alive in spite of deliberate attempts by NATO planes to assassinate him and his sons by bombing civilian targets while lying about hidden military installations. Ceausescu was caught, tried and executed by firing squad. Saddam, stupid till the end, was captured living in and underground hole in filthy conditions, spent time in prison being humiliated by red neck American soldiers and was subsequently hanged. Gbagbo barricaded himself in one of his palaces but was ultimately captured, was slapped by an opposition soldier and is now under house arrest awaiting trial. Samuel Doe was tortured by Prince Johnson for an entire night till he died. Pinochet died of old age. Mubarak is on trial for the killing of protesters while Ben Ali is hiding in Saudi Arabia as is Ali Abdullah Saleh after he received treatment for burns received when rebels fired into a mosque he was in. Mugabe is still very much the president as is Bashar al Assad who is facing increasing protests all across the country. Ahmadinejad managed to suppress peaceful protests by the sheer brutality of his response but could still come to a sticky end if the Supreme Leader decides to pull his plug. Lukashenko seems safe for the near future. Charles Taylor managed to flee to Nigeria but is now facing trial at the Hague. Abacha was apparently poisoned by 6 teenage prostitutes who were Indian. Dictators have colorful ends. We hope Gaddafi can entertain us for longer.

Since this hill state was carved out of UP property prices have rocketed by more than 100 times. Land, which could be bought for Rs 100,000 ten years ago now sell for more than Rs 30 million. Rents for apartments have also increased but by nowhere near as much. A 3 bedroom flat will cost Rs 5 million to buy but may be rented for less than Rs 25000 a month. If the Rent Control Act came into force number properties for rent would increase by another 30% bringing rents down even further. With banks paying interest at 10%, Rs 5 million kept in fixed deposit would fetch Rs 40,000 a month. So why are rents so much lower? The reason is that half the price of the flat is paid in cash or black money so the official price is Rs 2.5 million. When the new state came into being it created a new government with a new assembly and supporting bureaucracy. Thus hundreds of new criminals were suddenly created, able to cream off the exchequer and collect millions in black money leading to the surge in property prices. This is happening all over the country and feeding the crippling inflation which the Reserve Bank cannot control. As if high on Ecstasy the Planning Commission is predicting 9% growth in the next plan. This brings us to Bihar where the government has decided to confiscate properties belonging to thieving civil servants and turn them into schools. The Patna High Court has upheld the confiscation of a multistory house of one SS Verma, an IAS officer. One shameful reason why girls drop out of schools is the lack of clean toilets. At least this house, described as palatial, will have wonderful bathrooms to tempt girls to come to school. Three cheers!

A man's honor depends on his word. The Congress promised a strong ombudsman but went back on its word and has introduced a bill, which is not just weak, but dangerous to citizens because it will help scoundrels to escape justice by threatening greater punishment to whistleblowers than to criminals. Now the Congress wants Anna Hazare to end his fast promising to put his version before the parliament. They must think that everyone is stupid because the Congress and its allies are in power precisely because they control parliament and we know whose version is going to be passed. Hazare has asked for written guarantees before ending his fast. This is such an insult for the Honest Man that anyone with the slightest sense of honor would have resigned his post. So called liberals have been scathing in their attacks on Hazare saying that his methods are extra parliamentary and that he has built up expectations so high that he is bound to disappoint people. Firstly, our parliament consists of criminals who are thriving in the present system and have no intention of seeing their privileges reduced. They have told lie after lie, tried to malign civil society members with false allegations and have even produced false evidence of wrongdoing. Evil has to be fought by any means possible. Secondly, even if Hazare fails does that mean he should not try to rid the country of corruption? The politicians and civil servants are such criminals that they will surely find a way to loot but if a strong Lok Pal bill manages to reduce corruption by a mere 50% that will help the poor more than all the social schemes put together. No wonder liberals are despised as woolly headed.

In September 2009, Andhra Chief Minister, Mr YSR Reddy of the Congress died in a helicopter accident. His son, Jaganmohan Reddy immediately demanded to be made Chief Minister in his father's place. When denied, he resigned from Congress and his seat in Parliament, formed his own party and won the subsequent bye election with overwhelming majority. He is now being investigated for criminally amassing a fortune, rumored at Rs 400 billion, up from Rs 7 million just 6 years ago. Now 26 Congress MLAs and 2 MPs have resigned their seats in his support. This is our great democracy where the Chief Minister post is seen as family property to be passed down from father to son, where a politician can collect any amount of money with complete impunity until he falls out with party bosses and where other politicians resign in anger at investigation of corruption. In the UK Lord Hanningfield and members of the Commons, Jim Devine and Eric Illsley have served prison terms for fiddling their expenses. IN the US, Rod R. Blagojevich, governor of Illinois is facing prison for conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud and solicitation of bribery. He has been banned from holding public office in Illinois for life. Former Presidential contender, John Edwards is facing a $ 1.5 million fine and 30 years in prison on felony charges. In India the Chief Minister of Bihar installed his illiterate wife in his place when charged with looting Rs 9.5 billion in the fodder scam and is even now a member of parliament. He is safe because he is a coalition partner of the ruling Congress. Is it any wonder that the scum are fighting dirty to scuttle a strong ombudsman.

The middle east is fueled by hatred. They hate Jews, Christians, Hindus, the US, Israel, other tribes, Sunnis hate Shias and vice versa and so on. To meddle in this poison pot is to invite trouble. Cameron will no doubt enjoy his Thatcher moment when Gaddafi is captured and the rebel hold on Libya is complete but does he have any idea as to who the rebels are or whether they will remain united or fight a civil war? The US meddled in Vietnam resulting in slaughter of millions and the ultimate rout with tails between their legs. They meddled during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the myopic belief that defeat for the Soviets would be victory for the US but that resulted in 9/11 and US soldiers are still dying there. George Bush, father and son, meddled in Iraq leaving the country divided among sectarian groups with Iran holding maximum influence. Now NATO has " liberated " Libya from the hated Gaddafi but for whom. There are rumors that a rebel general was assassinated by the Muslim Brotherhood. Pipes through the Sinai supplying gas to Israel have been repeatedly blown up. Recent attacks on Israeli buses by gunmen resulted in the death of 5 Egyptian police by Israeli soldiers in hot pursuit resulting in recall of the Egyptian ambassador to Israel and protests outside the Israeli embassy in Cairo. Under pressure of protests the Syrians sent Palestinians across the Israeli border on the day of Naqba so the present attacks could be to generate tension with Israel to divert people's attention. Or it could be Iran trying to support the Shia regime in Damascus. Western politicians cannot stop from meddling. They can only make it worse.

In their desperate effort to protect the Congress, the footlicking press has dismissed the anti corruption stir as English speaking, middle class and elitist. Anna is no Gandhi they say. Quite. Gandhi was from a well to do, upper caste Hindu family who trained to be a barrister in London and spoke better English than the Angrez governor. The press has not understood the reason for the complete lack of communication between civil society and the government. Accustomed to complete immunity for the most heinous crimes our politicians have forgotten the meaning of the word " honesty ". And therein lies the nub. Our most revered Prime Minister thinks that having clean hands makes him honest while condoning and protecting the Rajas, Kalmadis and Dikshits. He does not know what " accessory " means. The PM is unaware that allowing coalition partners to plunder in order to hang on to kursi is gross Adharma. To promise a strong Lok Pal bill including the PM to tempt Anna to break off his fast and then retracting is deception. To circulate a fake CD trying to malign activists is an act of fraud. To say that Anna is corrupt from head to toe based on disproved allegations, is acting with the support of the US or the RSS or saying that he wants to usurp the powers of parliament are outright lies. To say that Parliament is supreme is to be suffering from an acute delusion of grandeur. We, the people, are supreme and these fellows are our servants and to pass laws which make them immune from prosecution is an act of sedition. Corruption in India comes in myriad guises and our politicians and civil servants are masters. Hang the lot?

The US economy is studied in great detail by many different organisations and individuals. There are official studies, think tanks, famous fund managers and brilliant economists, all contributing to an informed debate about the state of the economy, dangers facing it and what solutions to adopt. The US being the largest economy in the world such close scrutiny is desirable even if political fanatics choose to ignore realities as we saw in the most shameful brinkmanship during the debt ceiling crisis. In India, all we get is a stupid repetition of how strong the fundamentals are and a moronic debate about whether the growth rate will be 8.2% or 8.5%. Politicians like to dish out bromides to avoid a panic in the market, fund managers are dependent on rising share values for their bonuses and brokers earn higher margins from high prices. It is not that India does not have brilliant economists capable of analysing all the statistics, predicting the rate of inflation to expect in the medium term, calculating the amount of black money in the economy and how to tackle it and reading the global economy and chances of a global recession. Sadly everyone seems to be in employment and unwilling to write independent opinion for fear of being sacked. The only negative we hear is that growth has to be inclusive and poverty needs to be eliminated but how this can be done without eliminating black money, which is fueling inflation, and reducing absolute numbers of people is never discussed. This makes us like sheep. Buy shares, buy land, buy gold because their prices will increase infinitely. Is there a huge bubble liable to burst any moment? Sadly we do not know.

Stock markets all over the world fell yesterday and are falling again today. Banks such as Morgan Stanley are predicting a 1 in 3 chance of a global recession. US manufacturing and house sales have fallen sharply but retail spending is still good and oil prices are dropping. In Europe countries like Finland and Austria are demanding collateral from Greece before contributing to its bail out fund. Greek economy is predicted to contract because of the severe austerity imposed on it which will reduce employment and tax revenue thus making it impossible for Greece to repay its loans making default inevitable. European banks exposed to debts of Greece, Spain and Italy are seeing their shares fall precipitously. US authorities have been holding meetings with European banks operating in the US to find out if they have enough liquidity in the US so that US customers do not lose even if loans in Europe turn sour. The European Central Bank has said that an unnamed bank has been borrowing $ 500 million everyday for 7 days which maybe a hint at tightening of inter bank lending. This is what happened in 2008 after the collapse of Lehman Brothers. But would it be such a disaster if the global economy goes into recession or even deflation. Unbridled growth over the last few decades has seen the rich getting richer while incomes of middle classes shrank in real terms in the US and the UK. A similar event has been taking place in India. The rich want more money, politicians want money for campaign finance while we suffer. That is why campaign finance reform has been blocked by the rich in every country. A recession may make us more equal.

The Congress failed to appreciate the differences between Baba Ramdev and Anna Hazare. Ramdev is young, Hazare is 74 years old. Ramdev is very rich, with Rs 10-20 billion in assets, Hazare does not have anything to his name. Ramdev is a yoga guru, Hazare projects himself as a follower of Gandhi. In arresting Hazare the Congress was responding with arrogance and aggression as it has been doing for 60 years whenever it has seen any danger to its power and expected no reaction from the masses. After all Delhi Police used extreme violence against Ramdev's sleeping followers at 2 in the morning and got away with it. They thought that by arresting Hazare they would be removing the focal point of the country wide anger against corruption but only managed to infuriate people. The whole country united in protest. Seeing their move had backfired the police released Hazare and asked him to leave Tihar jail but he refused unless the police removed all restrictions against his fast. It was a comical situation wherein the police were begging a man to leave jail and the man refusing. Eventually the police and the Congress capitulated and the Municipal Corporation of Delhi is cleaning up Ramlila ground for Hazare's fast. Speaking of Hazare our most revered Prime Minister said," However, the path that he has chosen to impose his draft bill upon Parliament is totally misconceived and fraught with grave consequences for our Parliamentary democracy." Strange that the Prime Minister does not think larceny, lying to the people, clinging on to kursi by serious foot licking and family dictatorships as " fraught with grave consequences ". They are all scoundrels.

The quality of politicians all over the world is so poor that they would not be able to run a grocers shop between them. President Obama is on a bus tour of mid western states after opinion polls show an approval rating of 39%, the lowest rating for him so far. The ratings for Congress is a dismal 13% approval with a massive 84% disapproval rating. Republicans are disapproved by 72% of the people with 60% disapproving of Democrats. This is because the Republicans held the country to ransom over raising the debt ceiling and Obama capitulated without a fight, both sides looking to next year's elections rather than the welfare of the nation. Across the pond, in Britain, David Cameron was heckled by teenagers in Witney in Oxfordshire which is his own constituency. Cameron has been talking tough on fixing the " sick society " in Britain with harsh punishments for the rioters but young people were unimpressed. There were whistles when he entered and " chicken " noises when he left. TOI, Wednesday, August 17. " He is blaming everyone but himself," said Jake Parkinson, an unemployed 17 year old. " The rich get richer, the poor get poorer. I'd love to go to university, but it is the money that is putting me off." Indian politicians have always been unsavory characters but lately power seems to be concentrated in a group of completely useless people who want to hang on to power at any cost because that gives them an opportunity to loot the exchequer and satisfy their egos by going around surrounded by armed police. The whole mess is presided over by the Honest Man who is completely without honor, principles or a spine. Of all the dangers facing the country the politicians are the most dangerous.

The Capo is out of town with Companion and Indian Zardari attending. Sonubaba is in charge of the country ably assisted by the Honest Man who has presided over the most corrupt government ever. Also in attendance the Bengali Biscuit Babu and the Southern Twister who was down by thousands of votes but managed to twist it around and win by some 300 votes. This is the coterie which decided to authorise the arrest of Anna Hazare, a 72 year old man who wanted to fast against corruption. This was done in the name of democracy which, according to the Congress, means " cast your ballot at the time of asking and then shut up and let us do whatever we like ". Hazare is a sworn follower of Gandhi who used to fast frequently for political reasons. The Congress pretends to follow Gandhi's principles to suit its ends but if anyone is seen as a threat to its noose around the country it reacts violently, as at present, and when it sent its dogs to beat up sleeping people at 2 in the morning. The whole confrontation is about whether to have an ombudsman with powers strong enough to investigate and prosecute corrupt politicians, judges and civil servants. Hazare and the people want a strong ombudsman but the Congress has introduced a bill which gives no powers and proposes to punish any whistle blower far more severely than criminals. Italy produced fascism, the mafia and prime ministers like Craxi, Andreotti and now Berlusconi. We seem to have learnt from them. Pictures of Mubarak inside a cage inside an Egyptian courtroom is inspiring. Will we ever see our scoundrels inside similar cage or, better still, at the end of a rope?

Catching a train leaving New Delhi station at 6.50 am this morning nearly turned into a nightmare. Delhi police had blocked off the front of the station to prevent any terrorist attack. That was a correct. Usually the roads in front of the station are jammed with hundreds of vehicles of all description with thousands of passengers milling around. Any bomb, however small, in that congested area would result in unimaginable carnage. All cars, taxis and autos were stopped at least 100 yards away and people told to walk the rest of the way. However, Delhi Police being the callous, anti people force that it is there had been no prior warnings in newspapers. There was no effort at streamlining traffic and keep it flowing in one direction. Cars tried to approach the station from different directions to be turned away at every approach by a policeman. Not surprisingly there was traffic chaos. People stood helpless in driving rain with their luggage getting wet on the pavement. A few porters that were available were charging 3 to 4 times the normal rates. This was celebration of Independence Day in India's capital city where criminals drive around in official cars with red beacons and sirens protected by heavily armed police while the people are treated worse than cattle. Hemmed on every side by hostile countries, inflation out of control, the economy showing signs of collapsing we had to listen to the usual lies about getting rid of corruption, fight against terrorists, controlling inflation, improving infrastructure and all the usual garbage we have heard many times before. An Indian boot on our necks is no different from a British one. We are still prisoners.

A massive lie being perpetrated on the Indian people by the criminal Congress and the footlicking press is that " parliament is supreme ". IT IS NOT. We, the people, are supreme and these criminal scum that desecrate the halls of parliament are our servants. Black money billionaires they may be but servants they are nonetheless. The Congress glibly uses Mahatma Gandhi for persecuting Hindus, pretending to protect " minorities ", conveniently forgetting Gandhi's habit of going on fasts to get his point. Anna Hazare, a 72 year old Gandhi follower, went on an indefinite fast at the Jantar Mantar in Delhi to protest against corruption. Seeing the whole country supporting him the Congress became terrified that they may be forced to stop their criminal ways and may even have to face justice so they accepted all his demands to get him to stop his fast. As soon Hazare stopped his fast the Congress retracted all its promises and started threatening Hazare and his supporters with dire consequences. Undeterred Hazare has decided to start another fast on the August 16, a day after Independence day, to make the country truly independent by getting rid of criminals. The Congress controlled Delhi Police has put so many conditions on allowing the fast to go ahead that previous police chief Kiran Badi has said," The Delhi Police ( had ) been politicised. These ( restrictions ) are not the work of a thinking police force." On another front the Congress is using its usual slimy tactics to subvert the Parliament's Public Accounts Committee from publishing its report into the 2G scam. The Ndrangheta is nothing, the Congress is the most successful criminal syndicate in the world.

Nothing more entertaining than a nice conspiracy theory. Recently Standard and Poor's lowered US credit rating from AAA to AA+ inviting hostile comments from President Obama and Treasury Secretary, Geithner. But are they really as angry as they show or has S&P acted thus as a favor to the Obama administration? The Dow, which had fallen initially, rose more than 4% at Friday closing. This act maybe the stick Obama needs. He is planning to go on a bus tour and no doubt will blame Republicans for lowering America's prestige, increasing payment on US debt and lack of patriotism for potentially swingeing defence cuts. Not a bad start for his reelection campaign. Meanwhile over in Britain the Prime Minister, Cameron is busy trying to show how tough he is by launching a campaign of persecution against the poor while he hopes to erase public memory of his lovey kissy relations with Rebekah Brooks and News International crooks. He was oh so keen to give a second chance to Andy Coulson, now under arrest, but is promising extreme violence against recent rioters, mostly made poor and unemployed due to his severe austerity program. He has promised to bring out the army, which he is in the process of emasculating, interrupting social media such as Blackberry, much as Ahmadinejad did, and has started to eject families of looters from council housing, a tactic used by Israel on Palestinian bombers and relentlessly criticised by Britain. If the law is to be applied fairly then Cameron should be tried for being an ideological fanatic, wasting money on bombing Libya and sucking up to crooks. It is difficult to be tough as Thatcher. You need balls.

Despite Nobel prize winning economists, highly educated treasury and central bank officials boom-bust cycles continue to affect the economies of the world. Following enormous growth after the dotcom collapse of 2001 the world is facing a severe recession, maybe even a depression. Nobody seems to have any idea as to why this happens so no one can suggest a cure. The main reason is the complete lack of synchronicity between planning by citizens of a country, its politicians and its business heads. Individuals think and plan for a lifetime and for the lives of their children after them. Their financial planning, therefore, spans decades as they buy into mortgage for homes stretching over at least 20 years, buy life insurance and pension plans lasting for their entire working lives. Politicians, on the other hand, focus on winning the next elections in 4 or 5 years time. They will often lower taxes or increase social security payments just before an election even if the measures are inflationary and add to national deficit. Elections are expensive forcing politicians to seek donations from friends in business who benefit from government contracts and loose regulatory supervision. This is why bankers were able to play with sub prime mortgages almost resulting in bankruptcy and then take huge bonuses nonchalantly. Business heads think of increasing profits in extreme short term periods of quarterly reporting. They are then paid millions in so called bonuses which are really glorified tips. They will lobby politicians for lax laws, pay for fraudulent research vilifying climate science or sack thousands of workers for no fault of theirs. Tips are same as begging. Ban them.

The propaganda channels BBC and CNN try to present American and NATO soldiers as heroes trying to bring civilisation to ungrateful Afghan barbarians who respond by trying to kill them. Few days ago 30 American Seals were killed when a Taliban fighter brought down a Chinook helicopter they were travelling in. Today we learnt that the fighter has been killed by US bombing. To justify the killing by portraying the Taliban as cruel murderers one of the widows of the dead Seals was shown with tears running down her cheeks saying,'... he was a wonderful husband and a fabulous father to two wonderful children. He was a warrior for Christ and he was a warrior for our country...." While this video will play well in white skinned ex colonial countries it will only infuriate all Afghans and muslims. Firstly, the US is an invader of Afghanistan and, as such, every US man woman and child in that country is a part of an occupying force and thus fair game. Just as Americans felt violated by the attacks on the twin towers so the Afghans have every right to feel violated by US boots on their soil. It was the presence of US soldiers in Saudi Arabia which so infuriated Osama bin Laden that he formed Al Qaeda. Bin Laden is dead but, by causing the US to attack Iraq resulting its deficit to go out of control and bring it close to economic chaos, he has succeeded in his vow of hurting the US. Secondly, just as the Americans see themselves as warriors " for Christ " so the muslims see them as infidels and Crusaders waging a war against Islam. Muslims are significant populations in every country in the world and breeding like bacteria. Warriors " for Christ " should not underestimate the warriors for Islam. It will be a fight to the finish.

The riots in London are the result of many factors which have been building up over years. British police are known for their brutality, incompetence and racist attitudes. The inhuman practice of kettling as adopted during the recent peaceful protests by students led to some losing patience and attacking the Conservative party offices. The recent riots started from the fatal shooting of Mark Duggan as he was travelling by minicab. The police instantly lied that he had shot first but it appears that a bullet lodged in a police radio came from a police gun. The cold blooded execution of Jean Charles Menezes, an unarmed Brazilian electrician, in an Underground train, at Stockwell station is still fresh. At least 333 people have died in police custody since 1998 but not one police officer has been punished. The murder of Stephen Lawrence has still not been solved. Cameron has blamed the riots on criminals and has promised to punish them severely. That is exactly what Assad of Syria and Gaddafi of Libya are saying. The public was already sickened by the claims scandal. Then came the financial crisis of 2008 when banks were rescued with millions of taxpayer pounds only to see Fred Goodwin of Royal Bank of Scotland walk off with a pension of 1 million pounds/year. Bank executives are again receiving huge bonuses while the Cameron government has embarked on savage cuts in benefits and services leading to increasing unemployment. It is hard to understand how Cameron can find money to bomb Libya while increasing college fees by 300%. Blair had Iraq while Thatcher had Falklands. Cameron wants to make his mark as well. Or maybe he just likes to kill.

Following the 315.69 points or 1.82% fall in the Sensex on Monday today's Hindustan Times has gone all out to reassure investors that India is safe even if the rest of the world suffers a financial meltdown. An article," Ignore financial flatulence, work the real economy ", angrily denounces the sell off in the east because of the financial problems of rich countries. Our most revered Finance Minister is quoted as saying," As India's growth story is intact and its fundamentals strong, we are in a better position than many other nations to manage the challenge." The Chief Economic advisor, Kaushik Basu said,".....in the medium-to-long run, there will be global capital in search of safe haven, we can become the safe haven that a lot of global capital will be seeking." Of course, the great sage, Montek Singh Ahluwalia has shared his wisdom," I don't expect to see a big negative impact but we have to watch the situation", which, like the sayings of all great sages, is beyond us ordinary folks. However, we never hear from the man the Congress-footlicking press has constantly told us is the greatest economist since Adam Smith. In his 7 years in the post our most revered Prime Minister has always talked down to us in general terms saying that everything will be alright if we trusted him. Sadly everything is not alright and we want him to analyse for us in great detail what the economic situation is at present, what dangers could hurt us in the future and what solutions he recommends. We want charts, graphs, maths, the whole enchilada. We may not understand the details but economists will and we will read what they say. So, what say. Speak as a man or cling on to kursi.

It is hard to determine who are the biggest enemies of the India people, criminal politicians, thieving, parasitic civil servants or the freeloading, Congress stooge English press. The first page in today's Times of India,TOI has the picture of spineless Congress creepy crawlies prostrate in front of temple praying for the recovery of Ms Sonia Gandhi. While everyone wishes her speedy recovery the abject adulation of one family is nauseating and cringe making. On page 6, we have complete distortion of news trying to protect the Congress government in Delhi. According to the Comptroller and Accountant General approvals for the game were given in 2003 when BJP was in power, apparently without proper budgeting. However the Congress has been in power since 2004 when all the arrangements were made, infrastructure constructed and payments made. The Congress in Delhi was solely in charge when the organising committee was registered in 2005 and billions were stolen thereafter. The headline - " NDA can't wash hands of games mess: Auditor " is an absolute lie seeking to protect the Delhi Chief Minister. On page 8, under the headline " Compromising positions ", the writer pretends to analyse politicians who have become an embarrassment for their parties but focuses on BJP in Karnataka and Gujarat. There is no mention of petrol pump scam, the massacre of Sikhs, loan melas, telecom Sukhram and the thousands of cases of crime. betrayal and treachery by the Congress. This constant spread of lies by the press has protected the Congress for 63 years and helped one family dictatorship. One Caligula destroyed Rome. We have so many.

Panic all over the world. Markets fell across the world on fears of a double dip recession in the US and Europe sliding into a debt crisis. Yesterday the Nikkei was down 3.72%, Sensex 2.19%, FTSE 2.71% and the Dax 2.78%. The DOW was up 0.54% but was down 700 points for the week. Politicians are unable to fix the problems, not because they cannot but because they are motivated by self interest. Like company CEOs who concentrate on the next bonus politicians do not look beyond the next elections. With presidential elections next year Obama chose to give in to the Tea Party jihadis because he is confident of winning against the current lot of Republican pretenders. Berlusconi has to hang on as Prime Minister to protect himself against the many corruption charges that hang over him. He wanted to increase spending to stimulate growth. Someone must have beaten sense into him pointing to the rising spreads on the bond markets. For a few centuries western countries became fabulously rich with slave labor and looted commodities from colonies. The GATT trade talks conned developing countries into opening up their markets while rich countries kept theirs closed. Raw materials had little tax on them while manufactured products were taxed out of the market. Poor countries exported commodities cheap and imported finished goods at high prices. That is why the WTO talks are deadlocked because poor countries are refusing to be suckers once again. It is impossible to have infinite growth with infinitely growing populations. Perhaps a complete collapse of world trade will focus minds. Decrease consumption in rich countries and babies in poor.

When India earns millions of dollars every year from medical tourism why should anyone go to the US for a simple operation? It is indeed ironic that someone has to spend 3 weeks in the US when Americans are coming here for surgery. Who will pay the millions of rupees it will cost, the taxpayer or the patient? Will the Italian government pay for a foreigner to be treated in the US? How generous we Indians are! The Delhi High Court has opined that Ms Mayawati, Chief Minister of UP, does not have to pay any tax on the millions she received as gift from her supporters because the gifts were a sign of their " love and affection ". Under Indian tax laws husband and wife are not allowed to file joint tax returns and only gifts from first degree relatives are free of tax. We are not aware that judges have been provided meters to measure " love ". Delhi Police have not found any evidence of any politician being bribed to vote for the Indo-US nuclear deal in 2008. When politicians are receiving so many billions for " love " a few thousand rupees are bound to get lost. Delhi Police were forced to start investigating after being forced by the Supreme Court but, of course, the Court cannot force them to do a proper job. Not surprising that these are the same thugs who brutally beat up sleeping women, children and old men at 2 am not so long ago. So vicious was their attack that one woman has ended up with spinal injuries leading to paralysis. The picture of former president Mubarak of Egypt lying inside a cage was inspirational. Will we ever see our rotten lot inside a similar cage? Or, better still, at the end of a rope? What a wonderful dream.

Ever since the crisis of 2008 politicians and economists have been frantic for growth. Asian economies are said to have resisted the recession and quickly resumed high rates of growth while the US and Europe lag behind. So, who have benefited from this " growth". Number of millionaires, those who have $ 1 million of free cash, has increased to 11 million who possess a total of $ 42.7 trillion. There are 103000 super rich with $ 30 million to spend. There wealth is now $ 15 trillion. In China Ferrari sales were up by 50% and Mercedes by 112%. Gold keeps hitting record levels everyday. In India one tycoon has been given a salary of Rs 70 million even though company profits fell 20%. Sales of expensive cars such as BMW, Mercedes and Audi have jumped in the first 6 months of 2011. BMW president Andreas Schaff said," ..... everywhere we keep reading and hearing about a slowdown but when we look at our sales or enquiries at our dealerships, it has never been better. If the first half of the year is so good, the second half would only be better." Anyone hearing that would think that India is already one of the richest countries in the world until you read that Maruti, which makes cars for the middle classes, sold 25% less cars in June compared to last year because of rising interest rates in a desperate effort to control inflation and increased fuel prices. Rich people love growth because they make more money, a lot of which is black. Politicians love growth because increased tax collections mean more money to loot. All this black money leads to uncontrolled inflation killing the middle class. So what is the future? Greece or Somalia?

I have been calling him a gasbag since the beginning but I did not know that he was going to prove me right so spectacularly. In a complete capitulation President Obama accepted everything that Tea Party Republicans demanded so as to be able to increase the debt ceiling and avert a default on US debt. Now, even the New York Times, that used to eulogise him, is calling this " surrender ". One writer said that Hillary Clinton would have made a better president and another said that Obama is just one notch above Jimmy Carter because he got Bin Laden. In one way the Americans are fortunate to have ideological fanatics like the Tea Party loonies. At least there are some people who object to high taxes and demand reduction in the size and spending of the government. Sadly we have no such protection in India. Criminal politicians are unanimous in increasing their pay and perks. The government was able to buy not one but 5 luxury aircraft for useless ministers at a cost of Rs 9.5 billion with not one question from opposition MPs as to why this was necessary. Salaries of MPs was increased by 80% and their discretionary spending increased from Rs 10 to 50 million. Vast hordes of useless, thieving civil servants are paid huge salaries to harass taxpayers and police are employed to guard criminal politicians and beat up sleeping innocent citizens. Meanwhile China is blaming muslim Uighurs trained in Pakistan for riots in Xinjiang province forcing ISI chief Pasha to rush to Beijing to kowtow most humbly. Jihadis have always avoided China because these cowards know that the Chinese will react savagely. Let us see if they have the guts to protect Uighurs or retreat with their tails between their legs.

Politicians are ecstatic that private companies have promised to pay Rs 320 billion to build highways. In a kind of auction construction companies bid for the privilege of building roads for the government. This must be an Indian miracle seen nowhere else on the planet where the government not only does not spend a paisa for road building but rakes in billions of rupees. This has 2 effects. One, since these companies have already spent huge amounts of cash to be awarded a project they resort to substandard construction so that roads develop potholes after one rain shower. The murder of a government engineer in Bihar, who reported such work, is an example. Second, constructors will be allowed to charge toll every 50 kms making windfall profits. That is why they are paying this official bribe. This is an insidious tax on car owners. About half the price of every car sold in India is tax. On top of that we have to pay a lifetime road tax at the time of purchase and petrol is highly taxed. The reason why motorists have to pay extortionate taxes is because the government is bankrupt. Government controlled Air India is being kept alive by a steady drip of taxpayer money because criminal politicians and thieving, parasitic civil servants travel free with family and friends. Air India's losses are to reach Rs 1 trillion but the politicians will not allow restructuring or get professional managers to run the company because that will expose all the corruption in the airline. More sinister, politicians deliberately price cars out of the reach of the poor. They are determined to keep the aam aadmi naked and hungry. That way they can buy votes with alms.

In today's TOI we learn that the world's largest drinks company Diageo paid $1.7 million in bribes to government officials in India who were responsible for purchasing or authorising sale of its brands and thus made a profit of $11 million. The company also paid bribes in Thailand and Korea. It has agreed to pay $ 13.3 million of its profits along with a penalty of $ 3 million to settle the charges out of court. It is great to read of a multi national being penalised for corrupt practices but the sad thing is that its punishment is not in India where it committed its acts but in the US where the SEC discovered the bribes and determined the punishment. In India civil servants can only be prosecuted if politicians grant permission which, since they are partners in crime, is seldom granted. Our most revered Prime Minister has revealed why criminals are never punished in India. In response to the threat of opposition MPs accusing the Congress of corruption in the just started monsoon session of Parliament the Prime Minister said," We are not afraid of discussing the issue of corruption. The Opposition also has too many skeletons in its cupboard." Very interesting comments. By saying " also " the Prime Minister admits that Congress is corrupt but seeks to justify it by throwing mud at the Opposition. Recently some politicians belonging to another party in UP have been charged with rape. Would the Prime Minister condone acts of rape by Congress fellows because some other politicians had done it? This is the man that our freeloading press is always praising as the most honest and the greatest economist in history. The economy is collapsing and crime exploding. We know why.

If we thought that Indian politicians are totally lacking in sharam and izzat, which they are, the Republicans are not far behind. As President Obama explained, raising the debt ceiling is nothing to do with fresh spending but to pay old bills already accepted by the Congress. Apparently the debt ceiling has been raised over 70 times in the past 50 years so there is no reason to block it now. Especially since around 70% of the total debt of $ 14 trillion dollars was racked up by Republican presidents. Before Ronald Reagan total debt was just $ 1 trillion. Reagan increased defence spending on stupid projects like Star Wars systems, which were never going to work, and gave away permanent tax cuts adding $ 1.9 trillion to the debt. George Bush Sr added $ 1.4 trillion on the first Gulf war and due to recession but his son George Bush Jr added a humongous $ 6.1 trillion on unnecessary tax cuts and war in Afghanistan and an illegal one in Iraq. Considering that he inherited a collapsing economy Obama has only added $ 2.4 trillion, a quarter of the total added by the Republican presidents. Yet the House Republicans, led by Tea Party jehadists, want to cut the deficit without any increase in taxes and continue to filibuster in the Senate. Obama is also to blame. He was elected on a promise of increasing taxes on people earning more than $ 250000/year and that should have been his first act as president when he had majorities in both the chambers of the Congress. Clearly the Republicans are sold out to various interest groups who pay for their campaign expenses and are willing to sell the country for their sponsors. Politicians everywhere are dishonorable knaves.

New Delhi police have warned Anna Hazare that he will not be allowed to fast at the Jantar Mantar against corruption in government. Naturally! The government is the enemy of the people and the police are its Praetorian Guards ready to carry out any act of extreme violence on command. There are many Rathores after all, ready to show their gratitude for undeserved promotions and lucrative postings. Ombudsman Hegde is being congratulated for a thorough investigation into the corruption in the BJP government of Karnataka involving a few million rupees but the freeloading press chooses to overlook the Shunglu committee report into Delhi government's role in the Commonwealth Games scam worth tens of billions. The Delhi government being Congress the report has been hidden by the Center which is also Congress. Narandra Modi of Gujarat is under constant attack for a few hundred killed in Godhra but not one Congress fellow has been convicted for over 10000 Sikhs killed after India Gandhi's murder. Sukhram is still free to enjoy life while ND Tiwari shows 2 fingers to the Supreme Court and High Court at will. Only a woman has the guts to tell the Congress where to get off. The Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, Ms Jayalalithaa has described the Prevention of Communal Violence bill as ".... nothing but an undemocratic and fascist bill which is against and totally repugnant to the basic principles of the constitution". Not if you are brought up in a fascist state where the Ndrangheta and the Camorra are examples to follow. Any party which wins the next elections must go after the Congress. That is the only way to save India.

According to a study sponsored by the World Health Organisation Indians are the most depressed people in the world. At least 9% of Indians suffer an extended period of depression in their lifetimes while 36% suffer a Major Depressive Episode. Comparable figures for China are just 6.5% and 12%. The reason for depression is that most people feel powerless and helpless which leads to stress. We do not feel in control of our lives and have no hope of changing anything for the better. Indians are cheated by the private sector, bullied by thieving civil servants, lied to by criminal politicians, unable to put any faith in the police or justice system and have to struggle and pay bribes for basic services. China is an oligarchy where the Party is supreme and brooks no defiance or criticism. So the Party is relying on high speed growth so that the people are so occupied in collecting more and more material material wealth that they will be contented with what they have. In their ever expanding aspirations for wealth people will willingly sacrifice political freedom. That has worked up till now but the Chinese economy is so huge that its demands are pushing up global prices of commodities and is bound to cause inflation. At some point the insatiable demands of the Chinese economy will make things so expensive that it will be unable to feed itself. For India there seems little hope of any change for the better. The political scum have come out with a Lok Pal bill which is an insult to the people. They want the Lok Pal to be accountable so that they can remain completely unaccountable. The only cure for our depression is to hang all politicians and civil servants. Will that day come?

The ongoing National Rural Health Mission investigation has uncovered that the UP government opened 1000 bank accounts where less than 100 would have been adequate. This allowed misuse of funds by the thieving civil servants as shown by the spending of Rs 368000/ month for air conditioned taxis. Rs 30 billion are missing. Also in UP, unwitting students are admitted by illegal schools who tell the students of their status just before board exams. The students are then forced to pay large sums of money to transfer to recognised schools so as to be eligible to sit for exams. A group of teachers have alleged that officers of the education department are behind the crime. The Karnataka ombudsman, Santosh Hegde has accused the Chief Minister, Yeddyurappa of receiving Rs 100 million from illegal mining companies into a trust run by his family. The trust also sold a piece of land to a mining company for Rs 200 million when the real cost was just Rs 14 million. The report says " We have come to an incontrovertible conclusion that this donation and sale consideration has been made for reasons other than genuine reasons." The report accuses the former Chief Minister, Kumaraswamy of " misconduct " in issuing 2 mining leases. Congress MP, Anil Lad's wife and 600 officials have been accused of involvement in illegal mining costing the state Rs 160.85 billion. Meanwhile our most esteemed Home Minister has said that BJP is accusing the Congress of corruption because the Congress is going after Hindu terrorists. Which means that Hindus will be persecuted if Congress is in trouble. Straight out of the handbook of the Ndrangheta. Our criminals are tops.

In an act of courage the Reserve Bank raised interest rates by 0.5% or 50 basis points yesterday taking the Repurchase rate to 8% from 7.5% and the Reverse Repurchase Rate to 7% from 6.5%. The RBI is playing catch up having been very shy so far and allowing inflation to remain at double digits. The latest Wholesale Price Index came in at 9.4% which means that the Consumer Price Index will be way higher. Already business leaders are complaining bitterly about how this will curtail growth. Sure, some sectors such as housing and automobiles will experience a slow down but that will not be such a bad thing. With a decrepit infrastructure India will collapse with more cars and houses. Building new roads and widening of existing ones will take many years as the government has no coherent policy to acquire land. Roads develop huge potholes after one rain shower because municipal officials and contractors conspire to use substandard materials for repair.Electricity, water, sewerage and municipal services are inadequate or, in some areas, non existent. All the rivers are heavily polluted due to discharge of raw sewage into them. With land prices at fairy tale levels farmers are selling out to builders reducing land for cultivation. A rising population with shrinking arable land points to a famine in the future which will make the present famine in Somalia look like a practice run. High growth benefits a few business owners and their politician friends but high inflation is killing the whole country. Anyway high inflation reduces buying power and will reduce growth by reducing consumption. So, what are these idiots complaining about?

Yesterday former telecom minister A Raja, who is awaiting trial in the 2G scam, said in the Supreme Court, " Telenor buying a stake in Unitech Wireless and Etisalat buying a stake in Swan Telecom - the then Finance Minister ( Mr Chidambaram ) approved it in the presence of the Prime Minister " thereby implicating both in the scam. As is usual he has retracted it today blaming the media. We do not know whether it was a threat of further revelations unless charges against him are dropped or whether he had a visit from men with cauliflower ears. Couple of days ago we were told that Mr Suresh Kalmadi, in custody for his role in the CWG scam, is suffering from early dementia. The CWG scam is a purely Congress crime and we were hoping he would afford us a glimpse into the can full of worms since the Congress has hidden the Shunglu committee report. Now it seems that the ground is being prepared to protect him with dubious medical conditions. This is the man who organised the Commonwealth Games last October and opened the Games with a speech sucking up to the Congress Deity and wants to attend Parliament. It is impossible for a Congress person to suffer from dementia because everyone in the Congress suffers from amentia or absence of a mind. When one joins the Congress his spine is removed which prevents him from standing upright. Once reduced to a creepy crawly state the person then starts to lick his way up the ladder. He starts at the gates of the residence of the Deity and with diligence crawls his way inside licking all the while. He knows he has arrived when he is allowed to lick the Deity's feet. We are world leaders in crime.

The Congress seems determined to push the country into complete bankruptcy. In order to win the general elections in 2009 they increased salaries of useless, thieving civil servants by 80%, forgave loans of farmers and started the MNREGA scheme which guarantees 100 days of employment to every rural adult every year, in short a handout for free. This was bribery on a colossal scale dressed up as social help for the poor. The result has been rising deficit, lack of farm labor as the rural poor relax at home on handouts giving them plenty of time to breed some more and rising bad loans for banks as farmers wait for the next elections in 2014 to be forgiven once again. However, all that is nothing compared to the bribes that the Congress has lined up now. They want to pass a food security bill which will guarantee food for 75% of the rural and 50% of the urban population regardless of how poor they are. The cost is predicted to be around Rs 1 trillion but knowing how filthy politicians and civil servants are we can safely conclude that at least 75% will be stolen increasing the circulating black money which will be plowed into property further inflating the asset price bubble, which is already huge, and fueling inflation already out of control. Meanwhile our ministry of Home Affairs responsible for the country's security has no idea as to how many illegal Bangladeshis and Pakistanis are hiding in the country. As the news of free food spreads to these countries we can expect an inflow of " minorities " who will eat our food and plant more bombs. Clearly the Congress is determined to wipe out all Hindus from India. Can the Capo be called a minority even if a dictator?

It is bad enough to place a bomb in a public area killing innocent civilians, including children, as happened in Mumbai recently, but to deliberately shoot 85 young people attending a summer camp in Norway is an act of cold savagery that numbs your mind. A 32 year old man, Anders Behring Breivik has confessed to carrying out the attack saying that it was " gruesome but necessary ". He is also the person who set off a car bomb near the Prime Minister's office in central Oslo so powerful that it blew out all the windows of the 7 storey building. Yet though the bomb was exploded deliberately in the center of the city with government offices all around it killed only 7 people, injuring many more. Then he went to the tiny island of Utoya armed with an automatic rifle and a Glock pistol and slaughtered 85 youngsters, some probably as young as 14 years of age, by targeting them even as some tried to swim to safety. It was not a random act of an insane person but was planned over many months as shown by his purchase of 6 tonnes of fertiliser in January. This morning we hear that 6 people were shot dead at a skating rink in Texas due to a domestic dispute during a birthday party. The gunman killed himself. This brings us to the question why are guns so freely available all over the world. Why are private citizens allowed to possess such lethal weapons? If all guns were removed from the world there could never be such massacres. Guns kill many more people than bombs yet they are legal. The gun companies cite these atrocities as evidence that guns are needed for self defence. Sell the same thing as poison and antidote. Fantastic logic and we buy it.

Seems that builders in Mumbai are having to borrow money at 2-3%/month, that is 24-36%/year, from private investors and Non Banking Financial Companies to stay afloat as banks have stopped lending to builders. Banks have been instructed by the Reserve Bank not to over expose themselves to the property sector as prices have risen to unbelievable levels. The black money in the real estate sector is fueling inflation and the RBI has already been forced to raise rates 10 times, the last time by 0.5%. Rising rates of home loans is deterring buyers but builders are refusing or unable to reduce prices of properties because they paid unrealistic prices to acquire land and the high prices of commodities raised building costs. To show that they want to control black money state governments are raising " circle rates " which is the presumed official rate of property according to its location. This means that no matter what the actual price of sale the government decides the minimum price and charges stamp duty and registration charges accordingly. Since these charges are anywhere up to 12% of the price people are reluctant to pay such taxes to enable criminal politicians and thieving, parasitic civil servants to lead their lives of debauch. The only way to make all property transactions transparent is to raise rates till prices come down by 70% and reduce stamp duty to 1% as in other countries. This the criminals are unwilling to do because this will reduce the quantum of loot. The result is that the property market is seizing up and it will take one distress sale to start a panic fall in prices. We wait with eager anticipation for the fun and games to begin.

Normally I love a nice conspiracy, even if only in theory but the recent tit for tat between the US and Pakistan is rapidly becoming farcical as a Punch and Judy show. The CIA bribed a Pakistani doctor called Shakil Afridi to stage a fake vaccination camp for children in Abbottabad so as to be able to obtain DNA samples from children living in the walled compound of Bin Laden. Firstly, it is completely unethical and immoral to arrange fake immunisation of children. Parents would be led to believe that their children are immunised against certain diseases while the children remain vulnerable. Secondly, children are innocent and incapable of giving informed consent and to take DNA samples by stealth is abhorrent. This doctor deserves to be in jail and should have his licence cancelled forever. In retaliation the Americans have arrested fellow called Ghulam Nabi Fai for working as an agent of the ISI to spread disinformation on Kashmir in the US. Apparently this fellow was paid millions of dollars to lobby politicians, contribute to their election funds and use the Kashmir issue against India to benefit the Pakistan military rather than Kashmiris themselves. Does the US think that anyone is going to believe that they were ignorant about Fai's activities for decades? India is an open country and Kashmir has always been a tourist destination frequented by foreigners. Is the US claiming that they did not know what was going on in Kashmir? It is the same as saying that Pakistan is suffering from terrorist attacks because 30000 Pakis have been killed by terrorists in the last 5 years. Pakistan is a terrorist state exporting death to the world. So let them die.

Watching UK Prime Minister, David Cameron's performance in the House of Commons clearly revealed the stark difference with our lot. Firstly, he is legitimate as he has been elected by the people to the House of Commons and has not sneaked in through the backdoor of the House of Lords. He also leads a coalition with the LibDems but did not claim coalition adharma as an excuse for inaction against corruption. He admitted his mistake in appointing Andy Coulson as his PR officer in spite of advice to the contrary and did not bleat " I am honest, I am honest " like a demented old goat. He did not try to protect the guilty but announced an open ended judicial enquiry and police and press reforms. Sir Paul Stephenson, Commissioner of the Metropolitan police, the highest ranking police officer in Uk and Assistant Commissioner, John Yates resigned, not for any personal involvement in the phone hacking scandal but for not taking the initial reports seriously and investigating the charges with sufficient vigor. Compare that to our corrupt police and chiefs like Rathore who were promoted to the highest rank of Director General despite molesting and later hounding a teenage girl to death. The Metropolitan police have increased the number of officers from 45 to 60 so as to investigate the entire scandal thoroughly and with speed. Compare that to our politicians who try every trick to delay and impede investigation into any serious crime whether in UP or in Karnataka. The filthy Indian politicians think that amassing huge amounts of black money and bullying people with Z+ security earns them respect. Fact is foreigners spit on them just we do.

Inflation in India remains completely out of control. Considering that our Prime Minister is forever being praised as the greatest economist since John Keynes by the footlicking press it is weird to see that ministers are actually expressing delight that inflation remains just below 10%. Published figures on inflation are always year-on-year which means rise of prices compared to the previous year which hides the higher base effect but if one sees prices over the last 2 or 3 years then the multiplier effect becomes clear. Milk, for example, has nearly tripled in price in 2 years which, in a country with a significant vegetarian population dependent on milk products for nutrition, is calamitous. Whether it is a calculated policy decision by the anti Hindu Congress or just pure incompetence is not known but the effect is brutal none the less. The RBI is raising interest rates on tip toes so that property prices are not affected because that is where the criminal politicians and thieving, parasitic civil servants have hidden there extremely black money but it has no hope of arresting the ever rising prices unless property prices actually decline by 70%. So, uncontrolled inflation on one hand or risking the fury of the criminals on the other. What a joke! Meanwhile a Free Trade Agreement that India is hoping to sign with Europe is held up because Europe is demanding lower tariffs on auto parts and wine. We do not know whether it is just wine or " wine " includes Scotch and beer as well. Alcohol is taxed highly because it is considered " bad " which merely pushes poor people to drink unsafe hooch. It will be great if Europe forces beer prices to fall. At least we can die happy.

A trial court in Delhi has asked the anti corruption branch of police to register a criminal case against Delhi Jal Board, DJB, officials and " get the matter investigated expeditiously ". This was in response to a complaint filed by one Vijay Kataria who alleged DJB officials made extra payments to a contractor involved in laying clear water transmission mains from Sonia Vihar plant to different areas of the city. ( TOI, July 17 ). Work which should have cost Rs 475 million was paid Rs 1.11 billion while Rs 1.7 billion was paid for work which should have cost Rs 500 million. " The money was pocketed by the officials ". If the allegations are proved to be correct, which is not certain given the competence of Delhi police, no Indian will be slightest bit surprised. We know that all civil servants are parasitic thieves sucking the life blood out of the country. What is depressing is that the police refused to heed Mr Kataria's complaints even though he went as high as Deputy and Assistant Commissioners of the anti corruption branch and it has taken a court order even to register the complaint. Meanwhile the daughter of a senior government minister from Maharashtra ( as yet not named ) is being investigated for trying to avoid customs duty on 3 expensive cars imported from UK with fake invoices. These are an Audi, a Porsche and a BMW. In India you could buy a flat for the price of one of these cars, so if this woman could afford 3 such cars surely she can afford to pay all taxes. Her father has been in politics for decades which means that she would be worth hundreds of billions of rupees. How lucky we Indians are. We are always being entertained by the criminals.

Severe drought is affecting Somalia putting around 10 million people in danger. Hundreds of thousands have crossed into neighboring countries for food and water. Drought is not something that happens overnight. It must have taken months, even years to get to such a state of crisis. Yet even among these starving people you see little babies and pregnant women. Animals regulate their fertility according the availability of food but humans go on breeding regardless. Why? After the jubilation of Mubarak's departure protesters are back in Tahrir square as they are in Tunisia. They thought that " democracy " was some magical state which will suddenly shower greater food, jobs and homes like manna from heaven. The reality is that new governments will have the same problems because of exploding population growth. No system can provide food and jobs for infinite numbers of people. In Yemen not only is the population booming but it is in danger of running out of drinking water because of the cultivation of Qat, a mild stimulant, and democracy is not going to solve that. Ben Ali and Mubarak are seen as villains because they were dictators but not one politician from so called democracies is talking about control of population. While they are distributing food to Somali refugees should they not be distributing condoms at the same time? The total area of arable land in the world is fixed, around 15% of the total land area and nothing is going to change that. Politicians of poor countries see poor people easy to control for votes. Rich countries want to force others to use GM seeds and thus control food supply. A huge army of slaves paid with food.

Seems that the world is balanced on a knife edge. The middle east is in turmoil. Inflation remains stubbornly high in China and India with no hope cooling down in the near future. Europe is in a huge mess with speculation that Greece and Ireland will be forced to default on their debt and that Italy will have to leave the Euro. The US is unable to reach any compromise on raising its debt ceiling without which parts of the government will have to shut down, further damaging its economy. Politicians are terrified of a collapse of global economy but,like a stag caught in headlights, are unable to do anything about it. But is deflation such a bad thing? Or is runaway growth unsustainable and dangerous like a runaway train? Economic growth as we see it has produced increased jobs and increase in the numbers of people who are classified as middle class. It has also increased the numbers of billionaires, increased prices of commodities, caused property prices to increase 8 times, thus multiplying the black money to astronomical levels leading to uncontrolled inflation. The so called middle class is being pushed down to poverty. The Wholesale price increased by 9.44% in June, the Consumer Price Index will be in double digits. Gross government debt is 69.2% of the GDP as opposed to China where it is only 17.7%. Whether this is just central government debt or inclusive of the states is not given. Tamil Nadu has a debt of Rs 1 trillion while Bengal has Rs 2 trillion. With deflation prices will come down. Farmers will earn less but will pay less for other things. Property prices will crash wiping out black money. Rich people and the criminals will lose. What joy!

Our most revered Home Minister has said that there was no intelligence failure in the Mumbai bombings because there was no intelligence at all. It is like a student claiming that failure in an examination was not failure because he knew nothing about the subject. In any other country he would have been laughed out of office but in India such is the lack of any dignity or self respect of the politicians that Mr Chidambaram would not even dream of resigning , let alone take any responsibility. Already Americans have rubbed in the insult by congratulating India on showing " admirable restraint ". There is no need for intelligence because we know who the culprits behind the carnage are. They are our politicians, especially the Congress, who have been rewarding Pakistan repeatedly for over 60 years for killing Indians. Even after the last attacks where we have conclusive evidence of Pakistani involvement our Prime Minister insists on going on " bended knees " to talk peace. Pakistani Prime Minister was specially invited over to watch the World Cup semi final at Mohali. Pakistani actors and singers are earning millions working in Hindi movies. There is even talk of resuming cricket matches with Pakistan. It is impossible to contain our anger at the betrayal by these traitors. As I have said many times before you do not talk with mad dogs. You shoot the bastards. India does not need Pakistan far anything. Build a fence along the entire border. Lay landmines along the entire length so that no even a rat can get through and shoot at anyone trying to get across. Then forget the bastards and let us get along with life. Sadly the traitors within will not allow that. Why?

Seems that the Planning Commission has been appointing consultants without approval of the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet and giving each of them Rs 10 million to spend. ( HT, July 11 ). The article does not say what they have been spending on ( foreign trips, shopping for luxury goods, dancing girls? ). There are 51 such consultants on the panel in May 2011, that is Rs 510 million of taxpayer money. Apparently rules were changed to " accommodate those whose appointment was in violation of the existing parameters " ( uncles, paramours, cousins? ). Of course, the country desperately needs such geniuses to cogitate on all the problems facing us. Double digit inflation, uncontrolled terrorism, exploding population, neighboring countries trying to destroy us etc etc. What better time to be enjoying a gift of Rs 10 million. We have not forgotten the delegation of 123 led by the Deputy Chairman, that attended the mother of all junkets, the World Economic Forum at Davos costing around Rs 1 billion. Meanwhile the Supreme Court has rejected an application for a CBI probe against Union Cabinet Minister, Kapil Sibal for allegedly lowering a penalty on Reliance Communication from Rs 500 million to Rs 50 million. Instead of relying on the Solicitor General, Subramaniam to defend him he appointed Rohington Nariman, a senior corporate lawyer. Mr Subramaniam resigned his post to " protect the dignity of this office ". Mr Sibal is obviously not confident of the competence of Mr Subramaniam, in which case how was he appointed the Solicitor General in the first place. We hope Mr Sibal is paying for his own defence and not us. Some hope!

Three doctors murdered and one under arrest in UP. Dr Arya, Chief Medical Officer ( family welfare ) was shot dead by 2 shooters on October 27, 2010 in Vikasnagar in UP. Dr Sachan was appointed acting CMO for 4 months to be succeeded by Dr BP Singh. Dr Singh discovered huge financial irregularities and threatened to expose Dr Sachan whereupon Dr Sachan arranged 2 men to murder Dr Singh on April 2, 2011 in Gomtinagar. Apparently Dr Sachan needed a lot of money to fulfill his ambition to enter politics and stand for elections. Police arrested 2 shooters and found a gun which was used in both the killings of Drs Arya and Singh. However, the police are unable to find a motive for the murder of Dr Arya who was killed before Dr Sachan became acting CMO and did his stealing. Therefore, there has to be a mastermind. Dr Sachan was arrested but was found hanging in a first floor toilet of the district jail hospital on June, 22 with incised wounds on his body made to look like a suicide. It has now been confirmed that Dr Sachan was murdered to silence him. After a special court judge expressed his displeasure at the police handling of the case the Chief Medical Officer ( health ), Dr AK Shukla was arrested yesterday. He was appointed CMO in 2007 and removed after the death of Dr Singh for his part in a Rs 30 billion scam at National Rural Health Mission in UP. As is usual with every high profile criminal in India Dr Shukla promptly became ill and had to be taken to hospital. Dr Shukla has told the police that he reported regularly to the Principal Secretary, health and family welfare. All politicians and civil servants are criminals. Fact.

A court martial has found Lt Gen PK Rath guilty on 3 counts of issuing a No Objection Certificate to a private real estate developer to construct an educational institution on a 70 acre site next to Sukna military station in Darjeeling district. ( HT, July 12 ). The court found the general not guilty of " intent to defraud the army " but is going to meet again to reconsider the decision because " it failed to properly appreciate the evidence on record and accord due weightage to the evidence ". It is shocking that an officer who is second in rank to the Commander in Chief could stoop so low and jeopardise his entire career for money. However, it is not so surprising when one considers that at least 2 chiefs of armed forces have benefited from cheap apartments in the Adarsh building scam in Mumbai. Recently around 2 dozen Lt Colonels have been charged with selling off their personal weapons to unauthorised people. They may face court martial. Not so long ago officers in the armed forces were seen as gentlemen, gallant and honest, ready to protect the country with their lives. Not so now. Everyday there is some story about corruption in the armed forces. Army officers constantly compare their salaries to civilians in private companies and burn with greed and jealousy. They completely ignore their very high salaries for doing very little in peace time. They are given fantastic accommodation at nominal rents, automatic membership of army clubs where food and drinks are subsidised, handsome pensions on retirement, can buy cheap housing built by AWHO and the best health care for life. Politicians have managed to pollute the whole country.

More democracies in action. In Malaysia a coalition of civic groups called Bersih organised a peaceful protest demanding free and fair elections. The government responded with the familiar mixture of violence and brutality that we are accustomed to. The administration of the Prime Minister, Najib Razak declared the rally illegal and allowed the police to use water canons and tear gas and arrested 1667 protesters. One would think that in a so called democracy the government would enthusiastically support a call for free and fair elections. In Delhi, police beat up sleeping people at 2 am, who were protesting against corruption in government, and then accused them of intending to riot. Criminal politicians and police thugs have become mind readers. One woman is still in hospital with serious spine injuries. Meanwhile in Thailand, another bastion of democracy, the Election Commission is investigating he newly elected Prime Minister, Yingluck Shinawatra, for buying votes because she allegedly cooked and distributed noodles free of charge. That anyone with the slightest intelligence or dignity can make such weird allegations is beyond belief. It was the Constitutional Court of Thailand which dismissed 2 elected governments allowing Abhisit Vejjajiva to sneak in as Prime Minister and kill 90 Red Shirt protesters. Clearly feeding noodles to people is a much more serious crime in Thailand than killing unarmed citizens. In India, the Congress spent trillions or rupees giving huge pay rises to useless, thieving civil servants, forgiving loans of farmers and distributing cash through MNREGA scheme to win. Now we are bankrupt. No noodles.

Congratulations to South Sudan, the newest country in the world. At last they are free of the brutal dictator in Khartoum, Omar Bashir. Millions have died to get to this day and they are entitled to enjoy their freedom. Sadly the history of Africa is a history of brutal suppression of democracy as personified by Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe. Nelson Mandela is an example of how a leader should step down with dignity but recent elections in Uganda where Museveni is clinging on to power by force reminds us how easy it is for things to go wrong. South Sudan should seek help from the UN on developing strong institutions so that democracy can be nurtured, adopt a strict term limit for the president and use its oil revenue for developing infrastructure which will enrich its people. Above all they must institute a strong maternal and child health program with emphasis on limiting population. If population keeps on growing like in India they will remain perpetually poor and politicians will become totally corrupt as they seek to get elected by promising bribes to the people which will bankrupt the country as is happening to India. Meanwhile Thailand has elected its first woman Prime Minster, Yingluck Shinawatra, sister of Thaksin who is in exile in Dubai after being deposed by an army coup. She should move cautiously to curtail the power of the generals as Erdogan has done in Turkey. Once that is achieved she should then start investigating the previous Prime Minister, Abhisit Vejjajiva for mass murder of over 90 Red Shirt protesters. Only then will Thailand become a united country. Good luck to her.

In recent days newspapers have been full of stories about athletes who tested positive for banned substances. The athletics coach, Yuri Ogorodnik from Ukraine, has been sacked because 6 female athletes being trained by him tested positive for methandienone. Mr Ogorodnik says that he gave only nutritional supplements to his charges because the quality of food provided to our athletes is abysmal. " We don't have a doctor. We do not have our food or good supplements. We don't have good places ( to stay or train ). The temperature soars to 40-45 degrees," said Mr Ogorodnik. ( TOI, July 9 ). " When we request they ( SAI ) give us only vitamins and proteins because they don't have any money. But for Olympics you need modern food supplements which are very costly. Here you get only rice and spicy food which is not good for the athletes. The supplements come from China etc which are not good quality supplements," he said. One athlete bought supplements from shops right outside Patiala's National Institute of Sports. So why are Indian athletes treated with such callous neglect? As the Commonwealth Games showed all sports organisations in India are controlled by politicians who, as we all know, are filthy criminal beggars. So much was looted from the CW Games that taxes in Delhi have had to be almost doubled to pay for the deficit. Yet the Wide Receiver is still in power. All the money allocated to sports is used by these criminals for foreign travel with families and friends. At any competition the scoundrels appropriate accommodation for athletes while our athletes sleep on the floor. These are a cancer in our society.

The great moral crusader David Cameron, British Prime Minister, who is wasting millions of pounds of British taxpayer money in bombing Libya while increasing college fees and threatening to shut down the NHS, is now wriggling to explain why he employed Andy Coulson as private assistant even though he had been warned of his involvement in a telephone hacking crime by Alan Rusbridger, the editor of The Guardian. Andy Coulson was editor of the News of the World, a sunday tabloid owned by Rupert Murdoch, when the phone hackings took place. In 2007 Clive Goodman, the royal editor, and a private investigator named Glenn Mulcare were sent to prison for hacking into phones of members of the royal family. Later it emerged that phones of celebrities were also hacked into. Now it has emerged that News of the World had hacked into the phone of a missing teenager, Milly Dowler, and erased some messages so that they could monitor new messages coming in. Dowler was later found murdered. Allegations of hacking into phones of relatives of soldiers killed in Afghanistan are being investigated. Why were the Metropolitan Police inactive for so long? Seems that police officers were regularly paid for information. British police are known to be brutal and inefficient. Now they are exposed as taking bribes. Mr Murdoch has closed down News of the World to distance himself from the scandal because he wants to buy up to 61% of BSkyB which is a much more profitable business. He cares nothing for employees as long as he can make money. I am betting that he will get permission to by BSkyB because the British government is terrified of him.

Under Supreme Court orders, sealed vaults inside cellars at the Sree Padmanabha Swamy temple situated in Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala have been broken into and treasures valued at Rs 1 trillion have come to light. These treasures were donated to Lord Vishnu, who presides at the temple in 1750, by King Marthanda Varma of the Travancore Royal family and have been untouched since although the family have known about it all along. The royal family runs its affairs from its pepper business and has never taken anything from the temple. So why was it necessary to desecrate a Hindu temple? This treasure belongs to Lord Vishnu at the temple and not to any human or government and should have been left untouched. Would they do the same to any " minority " place of worship? Already there is talk of using the wealth for children's education. Would that include children of minorities? Ironically the treasure was hidden to keep it safe from marauding minorities. How can they be called minorities when one minority has ruled the country for 400 years and the other for 200 years and slaughtered tens of millions of Hindus, abducted Hindu women and looted our holy shrines. Seems that there is an ongoing program to eradicate Hinduism from India. There are concerted attacks against our temples, an unending stream of articles in the freeloading press on how good minorities are while heaping abuse on Hindus and laws that persecute Hindus while protecting minorities. All political gangs are constantly circling around like hunting sharks attacking us. This is led by the Congress, we know why. After surviving for 10000 years we seem doomed.

The whole world has watched in deep admiration at how the Japanese coped with the devastating tsunami that struck the country 4 months back. People showed great stoicism and dignity amid all the death and destruction. There was no pushing and fighting at shelters, no begging and no screaming show of sorrow. Engineers have kept on working at the stricken nuclear power plant at great personal risk and people have made every effort at conserving electricity to help business. Yet, even in Japan, politicians have been fighting among each other to bring down the Prime Minister, Naoto Kan. The opposition refuses to cooperate in passing a budget or increasing taxes to reduce deficit. Just as in the US, Republicans refuse to cooperate with anything that President Obama does. One would think that with the country facing a deficit in excess of $ 14 trillion politicians would unite to find the best solution to the economic problems but instead they are just motivated by personal greed and ideological fanaticism. While the soldiers sacrifice their lives for the country the politicians sacrifice the country to personal gain. India is no exception. The opposition just opposes everything that the government does, be it the Goods and Services Tax or the Nuclear deal. The impression is one of sore losers snarling at ministers because they are losing out on the loot. The function of the opposition is to keep an eye on what ministers are doing and give specific proposals to protect the people against bad law. Instead the mindless howling allows the government to lie, steal and beat up citizens to hide their crimes. Seems that politics is a home for scum.

Our most esteemed Finance Minister said in the US recently that India can live with an inflation rate of 6-6.5%. Really? Easy for a politician to say because they buy everything on taxpayer money but slow death for us consumers. Inflation in India is calculated on the wholesale price index or WPI while in other countries it is based of the consumer price index or CPI which adds all the taxes and is a true reflection of daily life. However there is another big lie hidden in these figures. We are always told the year-on-year, y-o-y, inflation rate which means the rate compared to last year's prices when, in fact, inflation compounds annually and we should be told the 5 and 10 year average as well as the y-o-y figure. Let us take something that costs Rs 100. Add tax at 20% and the cost to the customer is Rs 120. If inflation stays at 6% then the same thing will cost Rs 133.82 after 5 years and not Rs 130. Now add tax at 20% and the buying cost has jumped to Rs 160.58 which is an increase of Rs 40.58. This means the average rate of inflation for the customer over 5 years was 8.11%, much higher than the comfort level of our esteemed Finance Minister. If the rate of inflation remains at 10%, as at present, then the average over 5 years will be a punishing 14.85%. This is why developed countries strive to keep inflation rates at between 2-3% and act aggressively to bring it down at the earliest sign of it going above 3%. That is also why China has been so concerned about inflation above 5%. Inflation in India can be controlled only by reducing property prices by 70%. But that is where the black money is. Hence 6% is good. Protects the thieves.

A few months back Mr Bhushan, a lawyer testified to the Supreme Court that 8 of the previous 16 Chief Justices of the court were corrupt. He also claimed that 2 Chief Justices had personally told him that the justices before and after them were corrupt, that is 4 justices. He has been charged with contempt of court. Now a former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, JS Verma has said in an interview that he wanted to file a police complaint or FIR against his successor Justice MM Punchhi but was refused by the then Prime Minister, IK Gujral. ( TOI, June 28). Justice Verma also said that he had withdrawn his recommendation for a high court judge to be promoted to Chief Justice of the High Court when the Prime Minister rang him and said that there were disturbing reports about his integrity. These are extremely serious charges. Criminal politicians interfering with investigation of corruption and allowing allegedly corrupt individuals to be promoted. Who knows how many criminal politicians and thieving, parasitic civil servants have escaped punishment when the judge himself was a crook. Rathore was promoted to the post of Director General of Police in Haryana even though he was guilty of having molested a teenage girl and then using the police force under him to hound the family so ruthlessly that the girl committed suicide. Meanwhile the previous Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, KG Balakrishnan has been appointed chairman of the National Human Rights Commission even though there are serious allegations of land grabbing by his immediate family. He refuses to resign. Creatures of the cesspool are strutting about. How to cleanse?

So many grants enriching so many people. Members of Zilla Parishads in Telengana are fighting to get their hands on Backward Regions Grant Fund worth Rs 3 billion. ( HT, June 28 ). In Khammam district last year's BRGF works have not been completed but, according to records, all the money was spent. The 5 year tenure of the Parishads is coming to an end so the members are fighting to have this year's funds shared between all the members in one go. " It was as open as ' neekentha ' ( your share ) and ' naakentha ' ( my share ). They were so shameless that they had no hesitation in openly shouting for their share at the ZP meeting," a senior official said. Why should they not be shameless when they see ministers at the center stealing tens of billions and the government lying shamelessly about passing an effective Lok Pal bill to check corruption? Telengana has been fighting to break off from Andhra and form a separate state. A few months earlier MPs from the Telengana region were apparently in tears and literally falling at Mr Pranab Mukherjee's feet to get his support for a separate state. A separate state would mean a separate Assembly which will allow lower ranking politicians to have their own bungalows, body guards and cars with sirens. It will also mean a new Chief Minister with a cabinet and money from the center. That is what criminals politicians dream of. Meanwhile the UK has passed a tough new anti bribery law wherein any businessman who pays bribes anywhere in the world to get business could go to prison for 7-10 years. What about Indian businesses with offices in the UK who pay bribes to politicians in India? Interesting.

" Iran to seal Pak border in 3 years " is the heading of a tiny news report. ( HT, July 1 ). Seems that Iran has decided to block its eastern border with Pakistan entirely within the next 3 years. " The Eastern borders of Iran have already been closed to the passage of animals and motor vehicles, yet there are certain areas in Saravan which should be blocked," said Police Chief Ahmadi Moghaddam. " Generally speaking the Eastern borders of the country will be blocked even for passers-by by the next 3 years," he said. Iran is an Islamic country but is sealing itself off from Pakistan because thousands of its police have died fighting drug traffickers and terrorists. But does such fencing work? Absolutely. The most dangerous border in the world is between North and South Korea which are separated by a demilitarised zone consisting of fencing and landmines. For over 50 years this has kept the peace between the 2 countries. North Korea sank a South Korean warship, the Cheonan and fired 90 shells into Yeonpyeong Island from its ships killin 2 marines and 2 civilians last year but the land border has remained secure. Israel's fence separating it from Gaza and the West Bank has drastically reduced the number of suicide attacks. If Iran, a Muslim country, is separating itself from Pakistan why are we talking to this country of terrorists on " bended knees " even though Pakistan has promised to use nuclear weapons against India if attacked by anyone? Probably because our foreign policy is written in Washington and Brussels. When all the politicians are criminals and all the civil servants are thieves they are open to blackmail. Iran is safe, Indians will die.

In and article " Up the garden path " Union Cabinet Minster, Kapil Sibal demolishes the concept of any Lok Pal. ( HT, June 30 ). He makes the following points against civil society demands - 1. In any court case one side has to lose. Being bitter the loser will then accuse the judge of corruption. Judges will not be able to work for fear of the Lok Pal, hence judges should be outside the ambit of the Lok Pal. 2. Civil servants are protected by Articles 311 and 320 (3)(c). If they are in constant fear of punished for corruption then government will be paralysed. So leave out civil servants. 3. Several previous Prime Ministers have been decidedly dodgy but Lok Pal members will not be angels either. Never mind that the Prime Minister is an accessory to so many scams but " weakening the institution of the PM would be monumental folly ". 4. Members of Parliament are protected by Article 105(2) for speeches and votes inside Parliament. If they are to be prosecuted for buying votes or fighting inside Parliament then every action will become suspect. So leave them to the ethics committee and the Speaker, who are of the same ilk, so nothing. 5. To transfer the Chief Vigilance Commissioner and the anti corruption wing of the CBI will allow the Lok Pal to monitor phone, internet and other media which cannot be allowed. Finally Mr Sibal pours scorn on Anna Hazare calling him a Pied Piper fooling the people with soothing music. Only someone with monumental arrogance will claim that we, the people, are stupid. For 63 years the politicians and civil servants have been looting us so they want status quo to continue. We want the bastards hanged. All of them.