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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Police in Dantewada have arrested Mr Verma, General Manager of Essar Steel ltd, on charges of waging war against the state and sedition. TOI, September 28. His crime was paying protection money to Maoist criminals called Naxals. When the state is completely impotent in protecting its citizens against criminals why is it a crime to try and protect your workers? A few months earlier the Naxals killed more than 70 policemen in an ambush in the same area and still there has been no planned effort to hunt down the killers and eliminate them. Police are untrained in jungle warfare, housed in makeshift camps without proper food and with no advanced arms to defend themselves. So who are the police protecting? Criminal politicians and thieving civil servants, of course. The Supreme Court has admitted a Public Interest Litigation challenging the use of red beacons on official cars and unnecessary police security for two penny officials and politicians for whom it is a status symbol. You have not arrived unless you have Z plus security. Seems that 750 MPs and self styled VIPs bought confiscated weapons in the last 25 years. Shows how keen politicians are to protect their filthy hides while denying us the same rights. When Islamic terrorists hijacked an Air India plane and flew it to Kandahar in Afghanistan the then government just caved in to their demands and released convicted terrorists from Indian prisons who then went on to commit more carnage. Why are these ministers not in the same cell as Mr Verma. Shipping companies regularly pay millions to Somali pirates but then in India a ship is more valuable than citizens. Bastards.

In his testimony before a Congressional committee Adm Mike Mullen said that Pakistan's ISI is supporting the Haqqani network actively. This has prompted angry denials by Paki Ministers and Gen Kayani and warning of withdrawal of support by the Foreign Minister. This is the same tactic Pakistan has adopted successfully for years when accused of ISI support for the LeT. In 2007 after a meeting at Teri Mangal in Pakistan, which had seemed to end amicably, Pakistani military and intelligence opened fire without provocation killing one US major and wounding 3 US officers and their Afghan interpreter. Pakistanis denied that their officers had been responsible blaming the incident on a rogue soldier or islamic militants. The Americans hushed up the shooting as they have deluded themselves over the years that they cannot live without Paki help. On Sept 13, a Taliban attack on the US embassy in Kabul plus the NATO HQ resulted in the deaths of 25 people. Three days earlier a truck of a NATO outpost injured 77. The Americans apparently have apparently shown evidence of ISI involvement to the Pakis as India has done many times before. Still Pakistan continues to deny and threaten as before. Seems that the US has been convinced of ISI duplicity after the killing of Bin Laden in Abbottabad. Why totally blind? Why do the Americans refuse to recognise that the ISI planned and executed the 9/11 attacks. It would have been impossible for Bin Laden hiding in a cave in Tora Bora without telephone or cell phone to have organised such a complicated operation. Pakistan will brazen it out as long as the world remains deliberately stupid. Face the truth.

The world is beset with problems. The global economy is in grave danger with a real possibility of another recession, climate change is causing drought in one region with floods in another, countries in the middle east are changing with no way of knowing which way they will go, China is threatening its neighbors and Pakistan's economy could collapse if the US cuts its aid resulting in chaos and a possibility of rabid fanatics running around with nuclear weapons in the trunks of their cars. Unfortunately when the world needs statesmen and women to take charge of affairs we are landed with pretenders, gasbags and geriatric old goats clinging on to kursi by means of frantic foot licking. There is Obama who has suddenly woken up to the fact that unpatriotic Republican jihadists are never going to agree with him on anything even at the risk of damaging the country. Obama knows that his main strength is hot air and with elections in November next year and, a bunch of jokers as Republican contenders, must be feeling pretty confident of himself. There is David Cameron who has already wasted 500 million pounds in bombing Libya while raising education fees, cutting social security and emasculating defence forces. His ultimate ambition is to be like Margaret Thatcher but he does not have the balls. There is little Sarkozy who wants to prove his manhood by becoming a father. There is Berlusconi who really knows how it is done with prostitutes. He claims that he has never paid for sex which would imply that he is cheating these poor women. The low down crook. As for India we cannot blame anyone because there is no one in charge. How lucky.

Seems that credit agencies could lower India's credit rating from BBB- which implies stable. They think that growth will fall to 7.2% and deficit could rise to 5.7% of GDP. Inflation continues to be at 10% and a cut in credit rating will push up borrowing cost impacting growth and leading to a further fall in the value of the rupee which would then worsen inflation. This scenario is not scare mongering but the best outcome that can happen. If, however, Greece were to exit the Euro then the world economy will crash. There will be a huge sellout in developing markets as traders in the west look for the safe haven of the dollar and the rupee could suddenly plummet. All the above figures would be magnified many times over and the economy could collapse. So where are our esteemed leaders. Seven of them are in the US including our most revered Prime and Finance ministers and including, naturally, secretaries of their various ministries. One minister is in Japan, another is doing the rounds of Baltic countries starting in Finland and a third is in China. It is so encouraging that union ministers are enjoying so hard on our behalf. They are doing this to give the impression that there is nothing to worry about, that they know things that we don't and they are rushing around the world scattering wisdom to the leaders of all other countries. We are never told about the total level of government debt including sovereign debt, debt of all the states and the cumulative debt of useless companies such as Air India, BSNL and Prasar Bharti. Maybe no one knows. Which is good because that will fool foreigners. No wonder the World Famous Economist is famous.

In an article " The lakshman rekha between 2G and Modi " one Manoj Mitta complains that the Supreme Court did not cross the rekha in case of Modi but had no hesitation in the 2G scam. Lakshman Rekha is the line that you never cross so why is it inviolate in Modi's case but not in the 2G scam? Oh so innocent! The writer is probably the only person in India who does not realise that these are all games played by politicians to dupe the gullible masses. When BJP was in power they did nothing to find the culprits in the Bofors case so when the Congress came to power they returned the favor by doing nothing in the Tehelka or the Kargil coffins scam. When the flurry of scams broke last year one would have expected BJP to concentrate on the Commonwealth Games scam, which was a purely Congress affair, and go after the Wide Receiver and, in turn, try to catch the Capo but instead they focused purely on the 2G scam. This tarnished the image of the Congress because the DMK is an ally of the Congress but they gained immensely from it because the DMK, having been defanged, cannot afford to withdraw support from the government. So the Congress is sure to remain in power till 2014. Thus it is with Modi. Even if he was guilty of interfering with the police and allowing rioting to proceed the Congress dare not push too hard because the riots of 1984 have still not been resolved. Congress, supported by their english press dogs, will keep on abusing Modi to prevent him being a serious challenge against Rahul Gandhi. This is why the all politicians will cooperate to make absolutely sure that the Lok Pal bill never becomes law. They will kill to make sure.

Can a country progress if the entire system is perverted? When the constitution was written at independence it was recognised that people of lower caste needed positive discrimination to climb out of poverty and menial jobs. This was called " Reservation " in that seats in higher educational institutions and government jobs were reserved for people who were categorised as Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe or Other Backward Classes. This discrimination against higher castes was meant to be for a short period of 10 years but politicians have kept it going and even increased the number of places under the reserved category. Now with elections due next year the UP Chief Minister is calling for reservation for Muslims, Jats and even upper caste poor. Naturally this perverted policy has led to great anger among those left out and we saw several deaths when Gujjars agitated to be classed as ST but were opposed by the Meenas, who are the sole beneficiaries now, because their share of undeserved benefits will be reduced. Politicians treat taxpayer money as personal property and promise blatant bribes to win elections such as color TVs, free electricity, cheap grains or cash handouts. The Prime Minister has not been elected by the people but appointed by the Empress of the spineless Congress. Poor people keep on breeding without check and instead of a long term program to reduce their numbers the debate is about whether Rs 35 per day income is the poverty line. This enables money to be spent on social schemes which are then looted by the criminal scum. Economic collapse will expose the liars but by then it will be too late.

It began in 2008. To win the general elections in 2009 the Congress resorted to open bribery by awarding useless civil servants massive pay rises, forgiving loans to farmers and starting a scheme to pay rural people for 100 days a year for doing nothing. This injection of liquidity resulted in increased consumer spending so that the Indian economy grew while western countries were gripped by the sub-prime crisis. Increased liquidity added to huge rises in black money led to unreal property prices and a doubling of the Sensex. Foreign money flooded into these sectors leading to a strengthening of the rupee even as inflation was rising. With rising inflation and rising deficit one would expect the rupee to weaken but hot money from foreign investors kept it strong thus keeping inflation somewhat in check. In 2010 the rupee was 44 to the dollar even as inflation was near 10%. The RBI suddenly woke up to the danger and started to raise interest rates but inadequately so that inflation has stayed at 10%. The combination of high rates and inflation is hitting consumer spending which, in turn, will lower tax collections. Builders are sitting on large inventories but cannot reduce prices because they bought land at exorbitant rates. Banks have stopped lending to builders but may still be looking at huge non performing assets. The government had hoped to raise Rs 400 billion from disinvestment to keep within its deficit target but it seems that it will be able to raise only Rs 10 billion. Foreign investors are selling out. The rupee is down to 49.42 to the dollar adding to inflation. In a global economy looting the taxpayer will be punished. We will suffer.

Speechifying is what President Obama does best. Yesterday speaking at the UN General Assembly he spoke on the importance of the UN, peace, Arab spring, Palestine, global economy, famine in the Horn of Africa, and climate change. However, it was what he did not say that is more important than what he did. He quoted President Truman's words," The United Nations is essentially an expression of the moral nature of man's aspirations." The Security Council is a white man's club and a rogue country, China supporting every act of dubious morality by western countries such as the attack on Libya. The global economy is about to collapse because of Europe and the US. WTO negotiations on the Doha round have stalled permanently because of the obduracy of western countries who want poor countries to open their markets without opening theirs. Per head of population western countries produce many times the levels of green house gases than developing countries. The US is the largest polluter by far, yet refuses any target of reduction because it will increase costs on its industries. The Arab spring resulted from increasing food prices, lack of jobs and affordable housing and youthful populations able to access information on the internet. Thus it is related to the famine in Somalia in that both are caused by exploding population growths in middle east and African countries. Increasing numbers of people will need more land for agriculture leading destruction of forests leading in turn to more global warming. Numbers of humans must decrease if we want prosperity and peace. If the UN concentrates on this one effort everything else will come.

Growing up in Nehru's India we were brainwashed into believing that Palestinians are victims of evil Israeli conquerors. For decades India supported the Palestinian cause at every international forum including the UN. Nasser of Egypt was Nehru's buddy in the Nonaligned Nations body so Arabs were considered friends of India. Well into the 1970s all Indian passports were rubber stamped with the words " Not valid for travel to Israel, Albania and ? South Africa". Indians wishing to travel to Israel had to first travel to a third country where they would obtain an Israeli visa on a separate piece of paper which they would throw away upon exiting Israel so that they were not prosecuted on returning to India. In spite of such uncritical support all Arab barbarian fanatics have always supported Pakistan against India which they see as a Hindu country. Every war has been declared a Jihad or holy war by filthy Arabs who have openly supplied aid to Pakistan. Till today terrorists are being financed by middle eastern countries to kill Indians as we continue to see on a regular basis. The truth is that Arabs hate Palestinians and want them out of their countries. King Hussein of Jordan used his army to get rid of large numbers of Palestinian refugees who then relocated to Lebanon and caused 14 years of civil war. When Saddam invaded Kuwait Iraqi soldiers behaved impeccably. Palestinians who had been living for years in Kuwait in comfort immediately used the opportunity to loot and rape. As our most revered Prime Minister travels to the UN today he should be aware of who his enemies are. India should never support Palestinians.

A front page news item in yesterday's TOI reports that India has the most expensive petrol in the world. The official thinking is that petrol is used by car owners who can afford to pay more and the taxes thus collected can then be used for subsidising diesel, kerosene, and domestic gas because these are used by poorer people. A Rs 3 rise in petrol price adds only 0.07 points to inflation so it does not matter. What these idiots ignore is that high petrol price instantly depresses car sales, decreases the purchasing power of the middle class by increasing transport costs and encourages people to buy diesel cars increasing subsidy costs and wiping out any gains. Criminal politicians and thieving civil servants are not affected as they use official cars at taxpayer expense so they justify high costs of petrol by comparing with European countries. What the liars conveniently forget are the returns Europeans drivers get from the taxes they pay while all the money is stolen in India. In Europe roads are wide, smooth and clean with no undulations let alone potholes. Rain, snow and freezing temperatures have no effect while our roads develop huge potholes after one shower. Here there is deliberately no coordination between various government agencies so that roads are dug and covered every few weeks to provide money for contractors and bribes for civil servants. Most countries do not have any toll. You can drive from Land's End in the south to John O'Groats in the north of Britain without having to stop even once. Germany built 1 mile of autobahn during World War II but here we have piles of rubble for years. We pay, the criminals enjoy.

Emboldened by events in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya the Palestinians have decided that the time is right to put Israel under pressure. Palestinians are going to ask the UN General Assembly to pass a resolution according it full member status. If passed the resolution will go before the Security Council where the US has already promised to veto it. However, the US would rather not have to do that because it will inflame anti US feelings in Arab countries. The Palestinians now have " Permanent Observer Entity " status at the UN and if denied membership, as they want, will ask for " Enhanced Observer Member " status which can be passed by a simple majority by the UN General Assembly. In diplomatic mumbo jumbo it will be a promotion and Israel is vehemently opposed to such enhancement of Palestinian position. Israel says that it supports an independent Palestinian state while at the same time continuing to build settlements on the West Bank. On the ground nothing will change as the Israeli army will continue to control access to the West Bank and Gaza but it will open the floodgates to further mischief by neighboring countries like Turkey when it tried to force an aid convoy to Gaza resulting in the deaths of 9 activists. With the US weakened by a recession and Republican jihadists, islamists becoming stronger in Egypt and Libya, Iran racing ahead with building nuclear weapons and Turkey just muddying waters an all out war is a real possibility. Will this remain localised in the middle east or will rogue countries like China take advantage and attack Taiwan or other countries we do not know. The Arab spring is in danger of turning into an Arab nightmare.

Such confusion! The Reserve Bank has again raised interest rates by 0.25% so that the Repurchase Rate is 8.25% ad the Reverse Repurchase Rate is 7.25%. The Bank has been raising rates in mincing, apprehensive steps for about a year now in an effort to bring down inflation which is around 10%. The reason for the Bank's hesitation is probably a sudden collapse in property prices where the criminal politicians and thieving civil servants have parked their black money. The Bank should not be afraid. Our most revered Prime Minister has valued his flat in Vasant Kunj in Delhi at Rs 8.6 million whereas brokers say that the present market rate is in excess of Rs 20 million. Surely the World Famous Economist is right and that is the fair value of properties in Vasant Kunj. So the Bank should boldly increase rates so that property prices drop to that sort of level thus eliminating black money from the system. Meanwhile oil companies have added to inflation by increasing petrol prices by Rs 3.50 so that a liter of petrol now costs Rs 66.84 in Delhi. Petrol price in the US, which includes tax at 15%, is around Rs 38 a lit. However the price of diesel is slightly higher in the US at Rs 40 almost the same as in India where it is Rs 41.29 per lit. In Congress minds, still set in the 1950s, cars are for luxury and hence must be taxed out of the reach of the people while diesel is for trucks and hence should be cross subsidised. This is the aam aadmi philosophy which seeks to keep people permanently poor by taxing the hell out of " luxury " while doling out cheap rice, free electricity and goats at taxpayer expense to win elections. How long before the entire economy collapses?

What game is the Turkish Prime Minister, Erdogan playing. On the one hand he has been making some harsh comments about Assad of Syria in relation to the killing of protesters and on the other he is savagely attacking Israel for the killing of 9 Turkish activists who were trying to break the naval blockade of Gaza. He is an islamist who has been slowly weakening the army, the main guarantor of secularism. Allowing a ship to sail from a Turkish port, ostensibly carrying aid for Palestinians in Gaza, was an attempted Trojan horse. Israel wanted to inspect the cargo before allowing its transport into Gaza but the activists were intent on a showdown with the Israeli armed forces and tried to force their way through. Would Turkey allow any country to send a shipment to Kurds without inspecting it first? Cancelling all defence cooperation with Israel and closing down its embassy in Ankara is surely designed to whip up Arab sentiment against the Jewish state and divert attention away from Syria's killing of its own citizen. Turkey is mainly Sunni so its cozy relations with Iran and its sly attempts to support the Alawite Syrian regime is puzzling. The killing of 6 Egyptian police by the Israelis following terrorist attack on a bus has enraged Egyptians. This is a golden opportunity for the Muslim Brotherhood to gain power by harnessing the anger on the streets. There is great confusion in Libya about who will gain ultimate control of the country after the fall of Gadhafi. So what is Erdogan's motive for whipping up anti Israeli passion at this time of confusion? Is he trying for a global Islamic caliphate with Turkey at its center? Maybe he is trying to be too clever.

In response to the media coverage of Anna Hazare's fast our most revered Prime Minister is to set up a group to study media accountability. TOI, Friday, September 2. One minister bitterly complained," Was Anna Hazare's agitation the only thing happening in the country. Certainly not. There were the 2G, Commonwealth Games and Adarsh Society scams, terrorist attack on the High Court, uncontrolled inflation and other ills plaguing the country because of a clueless Congress led government. A few days ago Anna Hazare was being interviewed on 3 different news channels in english. The questions were virtually the same. Is your agitation not against the democracy? Is the parliament not supreme? Are you being supported by the BJP? Where is your money coming from? What if the Lok Pal bill is not to your liking and so on. Not only were the questions the same but they were in almost the same sequence and the anchors kept glancing off camera as if to read the next question from a prompter. Two men and one woman asking the same questions. Anyone else would have been incensed in having to answer the same slanted questions time after time but not Anna Hazare. He repeated his answers calmly, with good humor and with enormous patience. That surely makes him a saint. No democratic country in the world has such a footlicking media protecting the Congress by constantly attacking the BJP, presenting one sided stories and with outright lies. Still the Congress is not satisfied. It wants complete control over the media so that it can continue to rape the country as it has been doing for the last 60 years. That is why the people are very angry.

A woman, who considers herself to be an authority on every subject, starts her column in today's TOI with the words, " Saffron chaddies ( meaning Hindus ) have been flashing self-righteously..." showing utter contempt and hatred of Hindus. Yet when she writes about Parsis she gushes with fulsome praise full of superlatives. Parsis consider themselves to be whites and refer to us Hindus as " ghatis " meaning some prehistoric neanderthals uncivilised and without culture originating from the ghats. Most of the media in India sucks up to the Congress which is totally anti Hindu. Hence the constant attacks on BJP and Narendra Modi for anti Muslim riots in Gujarat conveniently forgetting that 50 Hindus had been burnt in the Sabarmati Express in a carefully coordinated attack. " Minorities " used to rule India and have slaughtered millions of Hindus which continues to this day but Hindus are denied the right of self defence. This is passed off as Gandhi's wish. India is thus the only country in the world where the majority is always abused, vilified and persecuted as a deliberate policy supported by the Congress. Would we be able to abuse the Catholic church in Italy? Victims of child sex abuse in the US have filed a complaint with the International Criminal Court against the Pope and 3 Vatican officials for protecting predatory priests as crime against humanity. This is the same Pope who said that yoga is " evil ", probably because it is associated with Hinduism. Sadly for the abused children he did not think child rape to be evil. But surely he is a minority and, therefore, must be right. Kill all Hindus. Why not?

Pakistan has been so used to fooling Americans for decades that they took out half page ads in the Wall Street Journal on the tenth anniversary of 9/11 asking," Which country can do more for your peace?' As usual they claimed to be victims of terrorism pointing out that 30000 Pakistanis had died in the last 5 years from terrorist attacks forgetting to mention that they are breeding, training and providing safe havens to these scum. If you breed snakes you will get bitten, that is the rule of the game. Americans being stupid they swallowed this rubbish and kept pouring $ 3 billion in aid to the Pakistani army and supplying them with sophisticated hardware which they then passed on to terrorists or used against India. The finding of Bin Laden in a secure house in Abbottabad has suddenly woken the US public to their own stupidity in swallowing Pakistani propaganda for so many years and they have reacted with fury. Some have called the ad a " joke " while others have pointed to the protection offered to LeT and the Haqqani group by the ISI. The US government should realise that it cannot go on devising policies based on falsehood. 1. Recognise that Pakistan is the incubator of terrorists and cut off all aid to this murderous country. Treat it like North Korea. 2. Stop trying to win hearts and minds of " moderate Muslims ". They do not exist. Their holy book promises paradise for killing kafirs and infidels. The only way a Muslim can become moderate is by saying that the book is wrong which will make him an apostate and get him killed. 3. Do not be stupid. It is stupid to kill half a million in Iraq for 3000 killed on 9/11. Sadly stupidity is incurable.

Growth in industrial production is down to 3.3% in July when expectation was for a growth of 6.2%. ET, August 13. However, experts are not perturbed. The figures have been affected by a fall of 15.2% in the production of capital goods such as power turbines and heavy machinery. Excluding this industrial production grew by better than expected 6.8%. Experts are very encouraged by massive increases in indirect tax collections. Excise rose 19.7%, customs duty by 13.4% and service tax collection by 57.3%. These rises, they reckon, indicate that the economy is growing and we should rejoice. But could the figures be connected? Indirect taxes increase the cost of goods and services and add to inflation which is around 10% and threatening to get out of hand. The RBI has raised interest rates more then 10 times, the last 2 times by 0.5%, without any effect on inflation. The combination of uncontrolled inflation and increasing rates have eroded the purchasing power of the people who are forced to cut purchases. The large fall in capital goods production reflects the lack of confidence that industrialists have in the future of the economy. Even as the real economy is slowing down there is no reduction in property prices. In fact property prices in non metro cities are rising by 15 - 20% reflecting the rise in black money but the government is in denial. The World Famous Economist has declared a flat owned by him in Vasant Kunj in Delhi as costing Rs 8.6 million while every broker said that the market rate of the flat is in excess of Rs 20 million. Unless black money is eliminated inflation cannot be controlled. Sadly no one has a clue. So so dumb.

The bombing of the High Court in Delhi has again shown that the government has absolutely no intentions of improving our intelligence and police. The CBI is busily finding nothing against Mr Raja just as it found nothing in the Bofors case. Its main business seems to be arresting present and past members of the BJP even in purely Congress scams such as the Commonwealth Games and cash for votes scams. Improving the investigating and intelligence gathering efficiency of the police against terrorism could also be used to investigate crimes and, since politicians are criminals, would result in the arrest and prison for the majority of politicians. So CCTV cameras are not installed, no effort is made to gather intelligence on various terrorist groups in the country and police lack event the most basic training and equipment. However, the main reason politicians do nothing after repeated terrorist attacks is because it is in their interest not to do anything. Terrorism gives them the excuse for Z plus security. They are able to impose more restrictions on the people such as having to provide photographs and address proofs for opening bank accounts or obtaining a phone. A Unique Identity Card is being made mandatory for every citizen. Blackberry is being asked to provide source codes for its messaging service so that snoops can violate our privacy at will. A person is responsible for any " objectionable " posting or comment on his internet site. Terrorists provide the excuses for more and more draconian laws restricting basic freedoms for ordinary citizens. This increases the powers of the politicians and liberates them to commit any crime. Traitors.

News reports say that a Chinese frigate confronted INS Airavat in international waters as it left the territorial limits of Vietnam after a friendly visit but our government denies that the incident ever took place. Villainous Chinese are constructing a dam on the Brahmaputra in Tibet which will cut off water for the entire north east but officials say it does not matter. Pakistan forces killed one Indian army officer by firing across the Line Of Control to cover the infiltration by terrorists trained in Pakistan but we will go on " bended knees " to talk to them. Sri Lankan navy routinely kills Indian fishermen in international waters but we keep on investigating. There are many articles criticising Indian foreign policy. Analysts complain that while countries like China and the US have think tanks advising on long term policy we are perpetually unprepared because our foreign policy is " reactive " rather than " proactive ". Perhaps they are being harsh. The fearsome T Rex died out as did the sabre toothed tiger but the ostrich is doing very well due to its unique survival technique. When threatened the ostrich buries its head in sand and stands still. Predators, confronted with this headless phenomenon, retreat hastily. May be our headless government will confuse the hell out of our enemies who will not know where to attack. The Indian Air Force has lost 46 fighter aircraft in 7 years, 26 of them since 2008. HT, August 25. The accidents are being " thoroughly investigated ". Perhaps all this is extremely clever strategy to confuse our enemies. Why attack when we are destroying our own air force? Just proves our fellows are definitely not " anpadh " or " ganwaar ".

News reports these days are full of pictures of famine in Somalia. Especially harrowing are pictures of scrawny, apathetic children too weak to cry. These pictures are meant to stir pity in people so that they contribute more money to charity. But will that help? Firstly, food prices are already high all over the world and aid money will never be able to buy enough food to feed all the starving people in the world. Secondly, if governments start to donate some of their domestic food stocks to aid that will push up food prices in their own countries. With inflation being a concern in most countries in Asia and Africa few governments will want to exacerbate their own problems. Meanwhile in the US 58% of corn produced will be used to produce 53 billion liters of ethanol for biofuel. A Swiss pesticide firm has produced a genetically modified corn capable of producing the enzyme, amylase which will speed up production of ethanol from starch requiring less water and energy. Guardian Weekly, August 19. The result of diverting corn to the production of fuel is that the price of tortillas, a staple food in Mexico, has doubled in recent months. The only remedy to food shortage turning into global famine is to reduce the global population. Yet no one talks about reducing population. Instead the discussion is always about increasing food production by growing GM food. The " terminator " technology was developed by US defence department and handed over to Monsanto. Luckily European consumers dubbed it Frankenstein food and refused to eat it. If foreign companies control our food we will become slaves. Stop babies before it is too late.

In an appeal against penalising late filing of tax returns, a tribunal in Britain has criticised HM Revenue and Customs saying," It is no function of the State to use the penalty system as a cash generating scheme." Private Eye, August 19. In Delhi car owners, even those with new cars, have to get a pollution certificate every 3 months, an underhand tax, failing which you pay heavy police fines. The tribunal then said," It has long been part of the common law of this country that manifestations of the State must act fairly and in good conscience with its citizens." Former Karnataka Chief Minister, Yedyurappa has been charged with taking bribes and in Gujarat, the Governor has bypassed the state government by appointing an ombudsman, Lokyukta in the state. Both are BJP governments. Not one person has been imprisoned or charged in Mumbai for the Adarsh Housing scam and in Delhi for the Commonwealth Games scam which are both Congress. The CBI has found no money trail linking the former telecom minister, Raja with the companies Reliance and Unitech thus clearing the way for charges against Raja being dropped. The DMK is an ally of Congress and has been taught a severe lesson for being impertinent. The Supreme Court has appointed a Special Investigation Team to investigate the riots in Godhra, Gujarat where a few hundred died but not one person has been hanged or even imprisoned for the Congress inspired slaughter of 10000 Sikhs. So powerful is the Congress that the BJP did not dare to investigate the Bofors scam when in power. Like a black widow the Congress sits inside a vast web of crime and corruption. India is helpless.

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.