Secularism will do what the invaders could not.

A visit to the holy city of Haridwar is pleasing and peaceful on the one hand while being infuriating and frustrating on the other. 'Hari' is another name for Vishnu while 'dwar' means door. The holy river Ganga flows through the city and Hindus believe that a dip in the river washes away all sins. It is the only holy river in the world where millions come to pray and cleanse themselves and it is the only river whose water does not spoil if kept for months. India suffered repeated invasions from abroad and the invaders built their own prayer buildings everywhere. They believed that Hindus are heathens or kafirs and will suffer eternal damnation in hell, so Hindus should be converted, by force if necessary, for their own good. But, while suffering extreme brutality and repeated slaughters Hindus quietly continued with their own religion. Some converted under pressure, or for bribes, but since we do not convert others there was no need to fight. But a greater threat was waiting for us. After independence the new constitution declared India to be a secular state and our new masters set about trying to wipe out Hinduism. Hindus have been vilified for following a system of castes. The secularists did not ban castes, as they should have done, but decided to use castes to castigate Hindus while doling out taxpayer money to various segments, to get votes. By officially labeling people into different castes, apparently to help them, they strengthened the system, divided Hindus and tried to create violence, which would allow them to shoot to kill. But the biggest violence against us was by looting our temples. Hindu temples are some of the richest places of worship in the world because our gods are our family and friends, so we pay money so that our gods maybe properly fed, clothed and looked after. We do not know how much money is donated to temples, who controls the money and how it is spent. Temple treasures are being looted in the name of preservation. No other religion is attacked so relentlessly. Everyday pilgrims come to the Ganga in Haridwar to pray and each person pays whatever she can afford. Millions of rupees are being collected daily but the city is filthy, the car parks become muddy swamps after one shower and the stairs leading to the main temple at Har ki paidi are filthy and broken in places. Beggars, hustlers and con men try to milk pilgrims for whatever they can. The Prime Minister has started a program of cleaning India and another program to clean the river Ganga. He should stop the loot of temple funds and use the money to clean Haridwar, improve its roads, cement the car park, clean and improve the surroundings of the temple. Above all reduce the population by targeting subsidies to only those that have just one child and no more. Secularism is designed not to keep religion out of politics but to destroy Hindus. It may well succeed.

Are we the most duplicitous nation on earth?

Are we Indians more gullible than any other people on earth? While foreign news is usually quoted from organisations, such as Reuters or Bloomberg, or from the foreign media, domestic news is a mishmash of sentimental drivel, half truths or complete falsehood. Since most of our so called news providers are controlled by sympathisers of political parties most of the political and economic headlines are biased. But even day to day events are reported in an illogical manner to make them sensational. For instance, one news item says that there is no law in Delhi to force owners of dogs to pick up the feces of their pets, as there is in the US. Very true. But there are no feral dogs roaming around freely in the US or indeed in any western country. Dogs are rounded up, taken to pounds and then put down, whereas here street dogs roam around at will and defecate wherever they like. Who is to pick up their poop? Totally illogical. Various state governments want to ban the sale of meat during Jain festivals because Jains are vegetarians. About 31% of Indians are vegetarians who do not eat meat, fish or eggs but they drink milk, which contains cow proteins, but shun alcohol which is totally vegetarian. Vegetarianism has been made out to be morally superior. Killing an animal for food is cruel because we are inflicting suffering. Is dying of old age without suffering? If dying of disease or old age is so kind why is there a clamor for the legalising of euthanasia in India? The Jains went to the Supreme Court to demand the right to fast to death because it is in their religion. True, a human being fasting to death is doing so under free will and an animal being killed for food has no choice, but pets are routinely put down if they develop a painful illness, like cancer, without being asked. Even the Supreme Court agreed with a meat ban in 2008, saying that surely people can survive without meat for a few days. The point is that it is totally illogical. Even more illogical is the threat of the Delhi government to pass a law to force hospitals to admit cases of dengue fever. How will a private hospital admit a patient if there is no bed? If patients are kept on the floor there will be bold headlines screaming how brutal hospitals are for charging people for treating patients on the floor. But the question no one is asking is why is there a dengue epidemic in Delhi? Dengue is transmitted by mosquitoes and every child knows that mosquitoes breed in stagnant water. The reason there are so many mosquitoes is because drains are never cleaned and water accumulates after a slight shower. The Chief Minister has been running around fighting with the Prime Minister instead of carrying out his duties so he is directly responsible for the deaths and should be sued. Apparently fumigation does not work. Why not spray soap solution on water to drown mosquito larvae. Cheap, clean and non toxic. Logic instead of sensation. May well save lives.

Isn't it important to have economic secularism?

Doctors often moan about how every person, even the most ignorant, considers himself to be an expert on medicine, often with half-baked knowledge from the internet. At least such people are restrained by strict laws on prescribing and operating, even if enforcement of laws is very weak in India. There are no such restraints in economics. National economies are controlled by politicians whose only interest is in grabbing and hanging on to power. That has just been illustrated in Australia where Prime Minister Tony Abbott, of the Liberal Party, has been unseated by his party colleague and one time friend, Malcolm Turnbull. He will be the fourth prime minister in over 2 years. During the previous Labor government Kevin Rudd unseated Julia Gillard and then went on to lose the elections. He resigned from parliament following his defeat and was appointed Senior Fellow at Harvard University. In India no politician will dream of resigning. Whereas politicians in the west are highly educated and can go on to lucrative careers outside of politics Indian politicians have no such avenues. Their wealth comes from corruption, which can only be protected by the power of office so they will debase themselves to any extent to be noticed by their party leaders. The Congress, which has ruled us for 56 years out of 67 years since independence, is desperately hanging on to the Gandhi family. In its last 10 years of power the Congress brought the country to near bankruptcy and was soundly thrashed in last year's elections. Now it will not allow the parliament to function so that vital economic bills, such as GST, Amendment to the Land Acquisition Act and changes to labor laws, cannot be passed. China's politicians have no such restrictions. The President is in office for 10 years and has absolute powers, so he should be able to institute reforms as he pleases. Trouble is that reforms may cause the growth rate to fall, leading to a rise in unemployment which may cause protests against the Party, and that is a terrifying thought. Although the economy is still growing the effect of weak global demand and rising wages in China is causing factories to close. The government wants to move away from investment led growth to one of domestic consumption but was unnerved by the fall in stock prices and the flight of money overseas as the yuan fell. It stopped sale of stocks of certain companies, lowered interest rate, devalued the currency and has now started currency controls, prompting some to predict a debt deflationary collapse of the economy. The reason why people in the west save so little is because they have a social security safety net for everybody. Perhaps instead of wasting money on useless infrastructure projects the Chinese government could start large central insurance schemes to offer healthcare, pensions, unemployment and poverty benefits instead of the fragmented system they have now. China and India are secular for religion, they have to be secular for the economy too.

Fighting needs guts, cowards cause greater deaths.

Completely inexplicable! The US has warned Russia not to supply arms to the Syrian regime of Bashar Al-Assad because it may escalate the fighting in Syria. The fighting would have been over long ago if the US had not supported the rebels initially. The rebels are getting arms from Arab governments and Turkey with the help of the CIA. Where are the Arab states getting arms which they are supplying to the rebels and with which they are bombing Yemen into rubble? From the US, of course. Millions of people in Yemen, the poorest country in the middle east, are staring at famine. Perhaps it would be cheaper to pay people smugglers to transfer the entire population of Yemen into Europe, as is happening from Syria and Libya. The long brutal war in Syria has resulted in the rise of the Islamic State which has taken savagery to an art form. Whereas terrorists operate in small groups and try to minimise their own loss by using car bombs or suicide bombers the IS has been highly successful against conventional armies, as shown by its rout of Ramadi. However, it is one thing to be a religious fanatic, willing to embrace death for a paradise filled with 72 virgins, it is quite another matter to devise complex battle tactics to defeat a trained army. Clearly, the IS has very sophisticated advisers. Where have these come from? They are former officers of Saddam Hussein's army. But surely Iraq's army was destroyed by the famous US 'shock and awe' tactics and the terrific fighting prowess of its marines? Turns out that the great battle for the capture of Baghdad was all theater because there was absolutely no resistance. Instead the highly trained US marines slaughtered a bunch of unarmed civilians, including women and children. So, where was the Iraqi army? The US had bribed senior officers of the elite Republican Guards to betray Saddam so they ordered their soldiers to desert en masse. Some of these officers are now devising tactics for the IS. Saddam was a Sunni, who are about 20% of the population, the majority 70% being Shia. It is exactly the opposite in Syria. Al-Assad is an Alawi, which is 11% of the population, the majority 70% being Sunni. The hatred between Sunni and Shia go back one thousand years so to meddle in this quicksand is to invite disaster. Apparently the US and Britain are encouraged by the 'success' of bombing in ending the Bosnian war so they think that bombing is the perfect way to get rid of baddies without risking their own soldiers. Bombing Serbs resulted in the 'independence' of Abkhazia and South Ossetia from Georgia and may lead to the division of Ukraine where the west organised an armed revolt against an elected president. Put in Iran and Israel and we have a nuclear explosion waiting to happen. War is savage. It needs guts. Cowards only increase deaths.

The world should learn from us: black money is the solution.

Although very different in nature dollar economies are much more successful than others, writes a Nobel Laureate in economics. By that he must mean Anglo-Saxon ones because there are many dollar economies in the world and, some like Zimbabwe, have had to get rid of their currency after it became junk. These countries have independent currencies, which move up and down according to the state of the economy, unlike in Europe where 19 countries have adopted the Euro, without fiscal or political union, resulting in severe stress. The Aussie dollar has dropped to 70 US cents from parity while the Canadian dollar is 75 US cents. This makes exports cheaper but surely makes people poorer by reducing their buying power as imports and travel become expensive. Even with a 30% fall in the value of the currency Australia is having to shut mines, with consequent loss of jobs. Surely, the same logic should apply to other countries with independent currencies, even if they are not called dollars. Brazil's currency, the real, has fallen to its lowest level in 10 years and its credit rating has been cut to junk status. A cheap currency raises the cost of goods so inflation is at 9.57%, forcing the central bank to push interest rate up to 14.25%. This is typical stagflation. Brazil's economy depends on exports of commodities so the slowdown in China has hit it very hard. But what about Japan. It is a manufacturing and high tech economy so the collapse in commodity prices should have sent its economy soaring. But its economy actually contracted in the second quarter by 0.3%. This is apparently because Japan, like the US, was buying up bonds to increase the money supply into the banking sector in the hope that banks will be forced to lend because a very low interest rate meant that the money would not earn anything. However, the inflation rate was also very low which meant that there was no loss in keeping cash lying idle, which is what banks did. China did precisely that when its government poured money into infrastructure and real estate after the crisis of 2008. China's debt has risen to 282% of GDP, most of it being household and corporate. China wants to shift its economy to a consumption led growth, like in the west, but that will cause boom-bust cycles as high consumption leads to high inflation, which is controlled with high interest rate, which leads to a fall in investment and slowing of the economy. The US has suffered 12 such cycles since 1940. Will its rigid political system withstand a bust? Meanwhile Heibei Financing is close to collapse because of $5 billion of bad debts. Some countries have gone into negative interest rates to force people to spend and banks to invest. Global confusion! In India we are not concerned. There is only one remedy for every ill: reduce interest rate and increase black money in real estate. We are so clever.

A country of rights, what about duties?

Unknown to us the Delhi High Court has passed an order upholding children's right to play and asking municipalities to provide playing grounds for children, but the Resident Welfare Associations are against such playgrounds. In order to stop children from playing most RWAs have planted shrubs or trees in the middle of lawns, making it impossible for children to play. One RWA has barred children above 10 years of age from playing in its park because a football hit an old person on the head, apparently causing a serious injury. As with everything in India the controversy arises because arguments are based on sentiment and not on logic. The problem is not with the children but with their parents. Land being extremely expensive apartments have been built with very little space in between. If children break a windowpane or the windscreen of a car their parents refuse to pay so residents stop children from playing. The easy solution is for parents to pay for large nets to enclose playing areas so that children can play without damaging people or property. But will they? No. They will claim that children have a right to play so someone else should pay. So then the question arises whose children are they? Most of these colonies are gated and the middle class has few children. It is possible that the children concerned are coming from slums outside. With crime rising in Delhi the real fear is that adults accompanying these children will use the opportunity to identify old people living alone and attack them later. No one will discuss the genuine fears of the residents, just use force to beat them into submission. Rights are distributed by politicians just like handouts. There is a right to food, right to education, right to free hospital care, right to housing, right to playgrounds, but no duties to earn those rights. Politicians dish out rights because the hapless taxpayer pays for it, because they have to justify their own rights to live like kings and because it is a cheap way of buying votes. But there is a heavy price to pay. All these rights are causing an explosion in population with increasing poverty and increasing crime. Unfortunately the same poor are demanding more than rights. They want jobs which will allow them to get out of poverty. In an article the Chief Minister of Rajasthan writes on how she is trying to reduce the cost of subsidies by targeting them to those who need them, so as to improve services. It is not going to be easy because the State Electricity Board alone has a debt of Rs 800 billion. To pay for handouts politicians are forever looking on how to increase taxes. Gambling is frowned on, so increase tax on betting at horse races. Easy money, right? People are betting of-course so that income of race clubs have fallen. Less income less taxes. When will these jackbooted commissars learn to respect us, the people? Stop rights, do your duties.

The economy is like Jurassic Park: completely unpredictable.

Young Americans have started a movement called 'Fed Up ' because they are fed up with lack of employment among the young, writes Joseph Stiglitz, Nobel Laureate in Economics. Unemployment rate among 17-20 year old African-Americans is 50%. There is no sign of wage inflation because of the competition for jobs. " Low wages means high profits for jobs, and low interest rates mean high stock prices," he writes. Hence ".......the bulk of the increase in incomes since the US 'recovery' began going to the top 1% of earners, it is not true for most communities." The interest rate in the US has been 0.25% since 2008 but the inflation rate in one year to July 2015 was just 0.2%, well below the Federal Reserve target rate of 2%. African-Americans are 13% of the population and of the 17-20 year old will a small number so is Stiglitz recommending that the Fed should tailor its monetary policy for a tiny minority of the population, like the OBCs in India? He strongly recommends that interest rate must not be raised." The worry is that in a low-interest-rate environment, investors irrational 'search for yield' fuels financial-sector distortions. In a well functioning economy, one would have expected the low cost of capital to be the basis of healthy growth," he writes." Now is not the time to tighten credit and slow down the economy." But if near zero interest rate for 7 years and 3 rounds of quantitative easing have not increased investment or inflation why does the professor think that it is going to work now? Companies cannot be forced to start new businesses in a free economy. The dollar being a reserve currency it is easy to borrow in the US to invest abroad where labor is cheap, which is what they have been doing. Others say that unemployment rate is 5.1% and benefits claims are dropping, showing a tight labor market. A rise in rate has already been discounted, markets hate uncertainty and the interest rate has to go up sometime, so let it be done. The biggest danger of very low interest rate is that it encourages companies and individuals to borrow excessively which leads to dangerous bubbles. The dot-com bubble did not cause an economic crisis because debt was limited to technology companies. Studies show that the most dangerous bubbles are not due financial speculation but due to asset bubbles, based on excessive borrowing, and these take a long time to resolve. Central banks can only do little because policy is not in their hands. Even as the economy is uncertain the Republicans want to hold up the budget because they want to stop abortions. How stupid! That is why Donald Trump is thrashing all comers in opinion polls. In India there is an outcry for the RBI to reduce rates. NRIs sent $70 billion into India last year. That could fall if interest rate falls and that, coupled with FII sell off, could cause the rupee to plummet. The economy is like Jurassic Park. It does not follow rules.

We are not afraid of failure, because we have failed already.

A correspondent based in the US has some advice for our Prime Minister for his visit to Silicon Valley later this month. In an article titled,' Om NaMo SiVa ' he asserts that the success of Silicon Valley is based on the acceptance of failure. " Much of Silicon Valley is built on a culture of risk-taking. Central to its lore is not stigmatising honest failure. Young geeks who have burnt through millions in failed ventures move on to second and third start-ups with the understanding among investors and venture capitalists that for every Google and Facebook, there are hundreds of ideas that die face down and end in zilch," he writes. He feels that in Asia there is a fear of failure. " In countries such as India, where farmers commit suicide because they owe Rs 2 lakh with no recourse to bankruptcy and rebuilding credit, or Korea, where pride and principle is hewn into every enterprise, failure on borrowed capital is tantamount to dishonour." Such differences are put down to culture but may even be genetic. While the history of western people is one of wars, conquest and slavery Asian peoples are completely different in their approach. Harmony and refraining from strife seems central to the Confucian principle while Indians are altogether supine, meekly accepting dominance of others, whether foreign invaders or local satraps. After a catastrophic explosion that cost over 100 lives the Chinese Premier visited the site in Tianjin. What is remarkable is that every official, including the Premier, is wearing a crisp white shirt and black trousers with identical black belts. Such is the uniformity in China that every delegate at the People's Congress has jet black hair, regardless of age. That is why China spent in excess of $200 billion to stop the falls in its stock markets and currency because otherwise the leaders would lose face. As for us Indians a story shows the type of people we are. A king wanted more money so he decided to levy service tax on restaurants. There was no protest. So he levied service tax on electricity, an essential service. No protest. Then he levied toll tax on a bridge that people had to cross to go to work. No protest. So he passed an order that every person crossing the bridge will be hit with a shoe while paying toll tax. Still no protest. But after one month one man wrote a petition to the king. Please increase the number of men to hit us with shoes because we are being delayed for work. Our esteemed leaders strut around like kings, levy huge taxes on us and if you dare protest you will be arrested for sedition. So, while Pakistan continues to threaten to use nuclear weapons against us we are paying huge amounts of money to Pakistani actors to act in our films. Wonder how much of that money is donated to LeT. Can you imagine any other nation being so servile? We are not afraid of failure, because we have failed as a nation.

What will they do when the fighting shifts to Europe?

Tens of thousands of refugees are pouring into Europe from Syria and Libya but not from Egypt. Why? There have always been economic migrants looking for better opportunities. After all, there are over 3 million Indians in the US and more are trying to migrate every year. But the scale of migration from Syria and Libya is far greater than seen so far. There are many poor countries in Asia and Africa and many have internal conflicts but we do not see significant population migration. Congo has had civil war almost forever,  you will need 35 quadrillion Zimbabwe dollars to buy one US dollar, such is the level of inflation, and Egypt has reverted back to army rule after a brief interlude. But we do not see such levels of desperation as we see in Syria, Iraq and Libya. Why? These are all countries where the west, including NATO, has interfered, although Rwanda has been known to support Congolese rebels. In 2009 Mahmoud Ahmadinejad stole the elections and the regime used its armed militia, the Basij to beat up protesters. Pictures of Neda Agha-Soltan shot by one of these thugs were on front pages for days but peace quickly returned because no one dared to interfere in Iran's affairs. Whereas, in Syria the west supported the rebels with arms while Gulf states provided money so the protests quickly turned into an armed revolution, drawing in all kinds of psychos from all over the world for a killing jamboree. The comic book leaders of the US, UK and Europe want to stop ISIS but not completely because that will hand victory to Bashar al-Assad, who is a baddie. Archie and Jughead would have done better. Syrians are crossing the border into Turkey, which is struggling with around 2 million refugees already and maybe helping people smugglers to take them across the Aegean Sea into Greece. From there through Serbia, Hungary, Austria into Germany. Greece cannot cope because its economy has collapsed and has to borrow money to repay its creditors. Germany has been especially harsh with Greece so it has announced that it will take 500,000 refugees every year. Some are converting to Christianity in the hope of gaining asylum in Germany but how long before culture clashes break out as Muslims demand halal meat in schools, as happened in Britain. Although low in Germany unemployment levels in parts of Europe are very high and if migrants are seen to be taking jobs or bringing down wages clashes will break out. Britain has been using drones to kill its own citizens fighting for the ISIS in Syria. Some are realising the stupidity of their own governments but still refuse to blame them. At some point some of the strife will shift into Europe. What will they do then?

Who should we trust?

If a person is shivering and one doctor tells him it is because he is developing fever while another tells him that he is in danger of hypothermia, or below normal temperature, what will he make of it? While that almost never happens in medicine it seems to be a regular event in economics, especially in India. Here, the Finance Minister, and his stooges, firmly believe that India is in danger of deflation, or falling prices, whereas the Governor of the Reserve Bank, a highly respected economist, thinks that inflation could spike once the base effect has worn off. The raging argument around inflation and deflation is centered on only one point: should interest rate remain where it is at 7.25% or whether it should be cut and by how much. The IMF recommends a retail inflation rate of 4% and has recommended that the RBI should remain ready to raise rates while at the same time advising the US Federal Reserve not to raise rates.Not fair, say some. True, but the inflation rate in the US in one year to July was 0.2% while the CPI in India was 3.78% in July, despite falling commodity prices. Others disagree. They maintain that inflation is due to supply side constraints and a stable low inflation rate is essential for growth. The monsoon has been deficient, which will put pressure on prices, the population continues to grow unchecked and the increase in pensions for the armed forces under OROP principle, the increased spending on infrastructure and the impending Seventh Pay Commission, which will increase salaries for a vast army of civil servants, will all increase demand. Critics say that our retail inflation is based mainly on food and oil prices which are supply dependent, so a high interest rate has no effect on inflation and only hampers growth of the economy, which is essential for job creation. That was precisely the argument used by the Congress to pressure the RBI to keep interest rate at low level but every time the RBI lowered rates prematurely inflation spiked, rising to 14.97% in 2009. Retail inflation rate at 3.78% today is exactly the same as 2004, when the Congress grabbed power. Atsi Sheth of Moody's Investors Services thinks that inflation rate will determine our credit rating which is one notch above junk at present, lower than Colombia, Panama and Philippines. Not aiming for the summit, are we? So, what do professors recommend? No emerging economy will ever achieve the 10% growth rate of China so we must reform our economy. Education, institutions and governance, which means an end to corruption, are essential for growth. Economics must be practical, based on history, and not based on theoretical models taught in universities. Above all the population must be reduced to one tenth of what it is or else we will be fighting poverty forever, instead of becoming wealthy.

Maha criminals in Maharashtra.

Since the Right To Information Act came into being in 2005 at least 10 activists, the highest number, have been killed in Maharashtra, followed by 6 each in Gujarat and UP. This out of 60 who have been attacked. Most of the attacks have been to do with land grabbing. Land prices in Mumbai are in fairy tale territory. Last year Homi Bhabha's bungalow, with a plot size of 1,593 sq meters, in Mumbai sold for Rs 3.72 billion, which works out around $3,600 per sq foot. That compares to rates in Manhattan in New York. The glib answer usually given is that India has more people than the US so the pressure on land is greater. True, but we are not talking about the MNREGA scheme here. We are talking about how many private individuals can afford such rates. There are just 14,800 dollar millionaires in India, of whom 2,700 live in Mumbai. Compare that to New York, which has 389,000 millionaires, 27 times that of the whole of India. The US has over 10 million millionaires. Strangely, India has a very high proportion of billionaires at 90, compared to 536 in the US, which probably shows that a lot of wealth is from very dubious sources. About 50% of the wealth of the super rich is in real estate so it is in their interest to keep prices at astronomical levels. Naturally, such abnormal levels of prices attracts all kinds of low life, just as flies are attracted to rotting flesh, and land grabbing is probably the most lucrative enterprise in Mumbai and anyone wanting to shed light on this dark underworld will be attacked. But surely, police and officials are beavering away diligently to expose crimes which are being punished severely by the courts according to strict laws elected by our most revered politicians? Er, no. Out of 288 members of the present assembly in Maharashtra 165 have criminal charges against them, with 115 having charges of murder, kidnapping and crimes against women against them. Of the BJP, which forms the government, 48 or 61% have criminal charges against them and of the Shiv Sena, which controls the municipality, 48 or 76% have criminal charges against them. The Campa Cola case shows exactly how criminals make money out of real estate. While the residents have lost their homes not a single official or the builders have been punished. But criminals are sensitive souls and are deeply hurt by being exposed. So the Maharashtra government has issued a circular to the police to arrest anyone criticising politicians on a charge of sedition. Before we hiss in outrage we have to admit that they have a point. All politicians are innocent unless proven guilty and they can never be proven guilty because cases go on forever. Heads we win tails you lose.

Will the migrants be a source of cheap labor?

Trying to get a visa for any of the countries in the Schengen list is fraught with difficulties and you maybe refused without being told why. Why then are European countries opening their arms to refugees from the middle east, especially Syria and Libya? Apparently, it is because of the picture of a little boy who drowned, along with his mother and brother. The hysterical reporting by western news channels of the plight of refugees seems a little hypocritical considering their thundering silence on scores of children being killed every day by US bombing. Of course, the US denies any civilian casualties and labels them as terrorists, which is faithfully followed by the western media, but the dead children have names, even though they are dismissed as 'collateral damage'. Already 350,000 have reached Europe and more are expected. Countries which are easy to reach by boat, such as Greece and Italy, are finding it difficult to cope. Trouble is that, in these days of the internet, giving refuge to migrants will encourage more to make the perilous journey. Hundreds have already perished, as the little boy did. Hungary has built a razor wire fence to keep the migrants out but it is not working prompting a furious Prime Minister, Viktor Orban to say that Europe was mad to take so many migrants and that it will have " explosive consequences for the whole of Europe ". " Most of them are not Christians, but Muslims," he said." Is it not worrying in itself that European Christianity is now barely able to keep Europe Christian? There is no alternative and we have no option but to defend our borders." But how? Turkey has arrested 4 people smugglers who were responsible for the death of the little boy but a hugely lucrative business like this is bound to attract hundreds more. It is completely different to stopping Somali pirates by attacking them with the combined naval forces of many countries. You cannot shoot at a boat full of women and children with cameras lurking everywhere. The smugglers just escape if they see naval vessels, which then have to rescue the refugees. They could bomb the boats while in harbor, which would destroy the means without causing civilian casualties. If some do get killed then they can always justify it by claiming to have killed baddies just as 30,000 Libyans died to kill Gaddafi and 200,000 Iraqis died to kill Saddam Hussein. All this was deemed necessary to save Iraqis and Libyans from baddies. So why aren't they doing it? Almost all the migrants are young, prepared to walk 110 miles to get from Budapest to Austria. They will provide cheap labor for countries with falling birth rates which are finding it difficult to look after ageing populations. Perhaps we will see different reactions when they have sufficient numbers.

Gobbledygook leads to flimflam, isn't that so?

Our Chief Economic Adviser thinks that India is facing deflation according to a metric, called Gross Value Added deflator. The CEA has been banging on for the Reserve Bank to reduce interest rate so this is another stone to cast at the RBI. Apparently, in the first quarter of this financial year only agriculture showed an inflation of 4.5% while industry and services showed a fall in prices and the GVA was 0.1%. The GVA data discounts taxes and subsidies so this is supposed to be a better gauge of which way prices are heading. However, prices of goods and services determine what quality of life we can afford with our limited salaries while the interest rate determines what we are paid for term deposits in banks and what interest we pay on loans. So this discussion is of intense interest to us and juggling around with different methods of judging economic figures seems like an attempt to fool us ordinary folks with economic jargon. It is like selling dubious insurance products to gullible folks for the benefit of the government. What does 'value added' mean. To us it means how much value is added to a raw product after manufacture. For example, what is the difference in price of an iron rod compared to the iron ore from which it was made or the price of a salad at a restaurant compared to the raw vegetables. The wholesale prices of commodities have been falling for 8 months. It fell by 4.05% in July but the consumer price index increased by 3.78% in the same month. Granted that the compositions of WPI and CPI are not the same, still it shows an added value of about 7%. GDP grew by 7% while GVA grew by 7.1% in the first quarter but if we leave out agriculture and government employees then it grew by 8.8%. That is a hell of a lot of value addition and definitely not in deflation territory. Using GDP deflator inflation is up at 1.7%. The IMF has warned of falling commodity prices due to the slowdown in the Chinese economy and advised emerging economies to devalue their currencies and institute reforms. Deflation is supposed to be bad because people postpone purchases in expectation of further fall in prices but India is not a developed economy. Here 95% of people spend only on essential goods and services so they are very price sensitive. If prices are to fall demand will certainly rise. Low interest rate helps only in buying real estate and cars so it mainly helps the well off but if prices of essential goods and services fall it will increase spending power, thus increasing demand. The real obstruction to growth are high taxes which reduce demand. Yesterday Mr Suzuki asked auto parts manufacturers to concentrate on their own business instead of building hotels. And therein lies the nub. There is huge black money in construction and that needs low interest rate to sell. Hence all the gobbledygook.

A racist Mahatma, an agent of the British?

Since independence we Indians have been led to believe that the British left India because of one Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi who was therefore a 'Mahatma', which means 'a great soul'. Gandhi has been used by our politicians for their own ends. The Congress has used Gandhi for a brand of 'secularism' which grants extra rights to so called 'minorities' and seeks to eradicate Hinduism. Alcohol is prohibited in Gujarat because Gandhi abstained. Socialism was written into our constitution by Indira Gandhi, who won the general election in 1971 with the slogan 'garibi hatao', and led to the economic crisis of 1991 when the IMF and the World Bank forced the Narasimha Rao government to reform. Poverty was extolled in Hindi movies while wealth was always criminal. Why? Because Gandhi lived in an ashram, ate vegetarian food, and wore khadi, causing Churchill to call him a " half naked fakir ". So Indians were exhorted to adopt poverty and sacrifice for the nation which did not stop the Gandhis from accumulating a fortune, living in houses worth billions of rupees and passing down the leadership of the Congress from one generation to the next like a family heirloom. Sadly it seems possible that the divine Gandhi had feet of clay after all. A book titled, ' The South African Gandhi: Stretcher-Bearer of Empire ' by professors Ashwin Desai and Goolam Vahed of South Africa, portray a very different image of Gandhi when he was in South Africa from 1893-1914. He campaigned for separate entrances at the post office for Indians and Africans, calling them 'raw Kaffir' and 'Natives'. The British called us natives in India. In 1893 Gandhi wrote," I venture to point out that both English and the Indians spring from a common stock, called Indo-Aryan...... A general belief seems to prevail in the Colony that the Indians are little better, if at all, than savages or the Natives of Africa. Even children are taught to believe in that manner, with the result that the Indian is being dragged down to the positions of a raw Kaffir." And again," We believe also that the white race in South Africa should be the predominating race." A racist and a believer in white supremacy. So did Gandhi reform later or, as some believe, was an agent of the British who did everything to prolong British occupation of India. Maybe, his love for minorities was an attempt to wipe out Hindus because Churchill believed that Indians were " A beastly people with a beastly religion." Does it explain why the present government is refusing to disclose files of Subash Chandra Bose? Their excuse is that it will spoil relation with foreign countries, which is pure dung because all the actors are dead and Wikileaks has been disclosing US files about the Gandhi family without any problems. Did Gandhi have something to do with the disappearance of Bose because he did not like him? Truth will out someday, we hope.

Why do they want to make us naked?

Last month hackers released stolen customer data from Ashley Madison, a Canadian company promoting adultery. Its slogan was," Life is short. Have an affair." In addition to Ashley Madison India also has another 5 sites for adult dating. Whether it is a criminal offence to hack into a company's data bank is not the point. This hack will destroy lives, lead to breakups and maybe even suicide. Three months back another dating site, called AdultFriendFinder was hacked and personal information, including sexual preferences, leaked online. We may shrug about hacking of a company's data bank, blaming it on cost saving, we cannot ignore Chinese hackers stealing personal information of US government officials, including Pentagon officials. The Peoples Liberation Army of China has a special unit, with a code number - 61398, in a building on Datong Road, in Shanghai's Pudong District, dedicated to stealing security and commercial secrets from the US. It has reached such levels that the US is thinking of imposing sanctions on Chinese hackers. Will it work? No. Because China's wealth, hence the power of the Communist Party, is based on stolen information. What has adultery and Chinese criminal behavior got to do with us in India? Everything. We, the citizens of India, are in danger of losing our basic freedoms, our privacy and our human dignity to 2 government programs. One is the Unique Identification Authority, also known as Aadhar, which provides a unique number to every individual, including children, based on photograph, prints of all 10 fingers and iris scans. This is supposed to help in targeting benefits to the deserving poor so why the middle class, which gets nothing from the government, has to go through this gestapo procedure is not explained. The second is a database of the DNA of every individual in India. Trust us, says the government. They must think we are absolute imbeciles, when one third of MPs have serious criminal charges against them and 82% are multi-millionaires, which is very dubious indeed. If the US, with Silicon Valley, cannot protect its sensitive information what hope is there for our information remaining protected? Pakistani hackers have been hacking into government servers and will continue to do so. Lashkar e Taiba fellows must be rubbing their hands in glee. The government mint in Pakistan prints fake Indian currency notes so if they have details of Aadhar they can make biometric cards matching with terrorists. Our thuggish police will beat up innocent Indians. Fortunately, deceiving politicians give rise to cunning citizens who get multiple cards for multiplying benefits. Vested interests may continue to lie about the benefits of these gestapo policies but people will always find a way. Thank God.

Safety of the nation is worth fighting for.

In a speech to the Institute of Chinese Studies our Chief Economic Adviser said that India should help China to be part of the International Monetary Fund's Special Drawing Rights which are composed of 4 currencies at present - the dollar, pound sterling, the euro and the Japanese yen. Mr Subramanian obtained his DPhil from Oxford, exactly as our former Prime Minister did, who left our economy in absolute shambles. As a reward our former Prime Minister has been provided with a house which was previously occupied by the former Delhi Chief Minister, Sheila Dixit and has 31 air-conditioners, 16 air purifiers and 12 geysers. He also went on 'bended knees' to Sharm el-Sheikh just 6 months after the Mumbai attacks in November 2008. China is probably the most dangerous enemy India has, not only because it is occupying vast tracts of our land, not only because it is damming our rivers in Tibet and diverting the water to its own land, not only because it is systematically replacing Tibetans with Han Chinese but also because it is helping Pakistan to continue its terrorist attacks against India. Yet time and again we help this uncivilised nation of cockroach-eaters. We should never have recognised Tibet as a part of China just as China claims Arunachal Pradesh as its territory. We should have accepted the seat in the UN Security Council, which would have kept China out, and now China will never allow India to be a permanent member of the UNSC. As one of the founding members we should have blocked China's entry into the WTO which would have prevented it becoming economically so strong, but we did not. Now is our chance and we must not miss it this time. China desperately wants its currency, the yuan to become part of the IMF's SDRs because that will compel all central banks in the world to keep some yuan in reserve. That will keep the yuan strong and stop flight of capital from China. China has $3.6 trillion in reserve but it needs large reserves to defend its currency and the stock market, which have been falling. If the yuan becomes a reserve currency like the dollar China will be free to print yuan just as the US is free to print dollars. Morgan Stanley has done India a favor by refusing to include Chinese A shares in its MSCI index, which would have forced funds to include these shares in their portfolio. Hence our stock market will continue to attract foreign investors. India should oppose China's entry into SDR at any cost. If the Chinese economy becomes weaker and unemployment rises there will be widespread protests. If civil war breaks with the country becoming divided it will be fantastic for us. Our economy is not linked to that of China so we have nothing to lose. At least we will feel safer.

A rap president will be definitely better than a crap president.

At an award ceremony Mr Kanye West announced that he will be running for president in 2020. Who he? He is a rapper, song writer and record producer and very, very rich, at around $90 million. He is married to Kim Kardashian who is famous for her big bottom. She is reportedly worth $85 million. She has made all that money without any real talent, other than somehow being photographed, which makes her a genius." It's not about me. It's about ideas. New ideas. People with ideas. People who believe in truth," said Mr West. We have to wait to see if he is serious because he also said," Yes, I rolled up a little something. I knocked the edge off." Marijuana has been legalized in some states of the US so by 2020 it will probably be available everywhere. A State of the Union speech in rap will certainly be more entertaining than at present. However, he will not have the advantage of being the first black to run for president. The present incumbent, Barack Obama had that advantage. He won because 95% of blacks voted for him in 2008 and 93% of blacks voted for him in 2012 with a higher voter turnout. Mr Obama had a white mother, was brought up by white grandparents in Hawaii and converted to Christianity (his father was a Muslim from Kenya), which makes him a whitewashed black. Whites, especially the young, could be politically correct by voting for him. He is a super gasbag, very good at making grand speeches, without taking any responsibility. Women make up 50.8% of the population of the US and yet, with all the talk about feminism, not one woman has been a candidate for presidential election in the US. Two have been running mates for men and lost both times. Hillary Clinton lost in the primaries to Obama in 2008 and then made the fatal mistake of working as Secretary of State during Obama's first term. Since then she has been hounded by the Republicans about the killing of Ambassador Chris Stevens in Benghazi in September, 2012. Obama has maintained a craven silence about the incident and the attempted cover up. Now she is being investigated by the FBI for using a private server for emails during her term as Secretary of State. There is not need for political correctness in her case. She is white, was a successful lawyer, a former first lady and is seen as the ultimate insider. Her husband, Bill Clinton delivered a rollicking speech at the Democratic convention in 2012 which helped Obama to win a second term but Obama will do nothing to help Hillary. There is a good chance that Hillary Clinton will have to drop out. After Obama even Donald Trump will be an improvement. So why not Mr West as president and Kim Kardashian as first lady. At least the White House reporters will enjoy.

What is worse, agriculture or bombing?

We have written many times that human beings are the worst predators and have even compared humans to the malaria parasite, which invades a body, multiplies relentlessly by evading the immune system, develops resistance to drugs and finally causes fever, which is global warming for mother earth. Research by a professor in Canada shows that humans are indeed 'wickedly efficient super predators ', being responsible for the extinction of 322 species in the last 500 years, the majority in the last 2 decades. We hunt fish 14 times more aggressively than sharks or killer whales. While other carnivores hunt the young and the sick humans hunt adult animals and thus destroy breeding populations. The hunting of Cecil the lion in Zimbabwe by a dentist from the US is an example. He was head of his pride and his death resulted in the killing of one of his cubs. But killing animals for food or pleasure may not be the greatest killer. It is agriculture. We grow food to eat, which requires vast tracts of land. So people resort to slash and burn technique to clear large areas of forest every year, not only killing all the species living in the forest, but also destroying habitat. But that is not enough. Unlike animals, we have to cook our food to be able to digest what we eat which requires more land to produce cooking oil, so more forests are cut down. Being top of the food chain the Darwinian theory of survival of the fittest does not apply to us so our numbers keep multiplying, requiring more food, in a relentless cycle of destruction. There is research and debate about our effect on other animals but no one talks about the real reason, which is unrestrained population growth, because it is politically incorrect. Perhaps, the only reason that some other animals still survive is because, being killers, we kill each other with even more ferocity. For instance, a 3 year old boy was murdered by the mafia in Italy because his grandfather could not repay a loan while a teenage girl was shot by a homeowner in the US, who recorded her dying gasps. The former head of the British army holds the Prime Minister, David Cameron responsible for the chaos in Libya. He tried to prove his manhood by killing Gaddafi, resulting in the death of 30,000 Libyans. That he did not learn from the violence in Iraq due to the removal of Saddam Hussein shows that either he is as big a moron as George Bush is or that he likes killing, or both. The US is of course a leader in slaughter. First bomb Iraq to kill Saddam, which gives rise to Al Qaeda, so bomb Al Qaeda, to create ISIS and now bombing ISIS to kill more civilians. Or use drones for so called ' targeted killings ' and dismiss the death of children as ' collateral damage '. All that bombing has resulted in a mass of migration from Libya and Syria into Europe. Soon they maybe forced to bomb Berlin and London. 

How can we fly without horse sense?

Seems that the Prime Minister is concerned about very high fares charged by airlines during peak travel hours, especially if someone has to travel at short notice, like in an emergency. Indian politicians and civil servants think of themselves as masters so they like to use force at every opportunity. They would like to force airlines to charge less but cannot. Why? We are not told but it maybe because the government charges double for tatkal passports and high fares, with no refund on cancellation, on railways for tatkal tickets. If it is alright for the government to screw Indians then surely it applies to businesses as well. But here is where it becomes a farce: the same government is contemplating a tax surcharge, called a 'cess', of 2% on airfares to subsidise low cost travel to remote areas. That will add another 2% to the already expensive tickets. Across India at least 50 airports are lying unused because of a lack of passengers. Not just in towns but the so called international airport in Kolkata, a teeming city of 14 million people, looks half empty. The International Air Transport Association recommends lower taxes on tickets, lower taxes on fuel and lower airport charges because, for business to flourish, people must be able to reach their destinations quickly. Will that happen? No chance. The government is keen to pass the Goods and Services Tax bill which will unify taxes across India, creating a common market but Service Tax maybe increased to 18%, which is considered to be 'revenue neutral'. It has already been increased from 12.5% to 14%. Oil prices have fallen by over 50% but airlines are still levying a fuel surcharge. From 2007-2015 airlines have lost Rs 730 billion and have a combined debt of Rs 750 billion so they would like to clean up their balance sheets. We do not know if they have a tax advantage in reducing base fares but not the fuel surcharge. Of the top 5 airlines offering international flights to and from India 3 are from the middle east. Jet Airways tops the list only because it is able to use the Etihad hub in Abu Dhabi while Air India came in at a lowly number 4. These airlines will have the advantage of cheap fuel and lower taxes in the middle east. Why do our politicians and civil servants not understand this most elementary fact? Because they get to fly free on taxpayer money, with a 'companion'. Politicians are hungry to raise taxes to fund all the social schemes for the poor and they need the poor to be bribed with social schemes, to win elections. The obvious answer is to make us rich. Only 3% of Indians are middle class while 76.9% are in the low income group. Reducing taxes will lower costs so that we can afford to buy more. Which means we will be richer even if our earnings stay the same. If Indians cannot afford to eat out on the ground how can they think of flying? A crocodile can never have horse sense, can it?

The mysteries of India.

She has to be the Cleopatra of modern India who could charm men at will so that years after a bitter divorce a former husband helped her to murder her daughter who may also have been her sister. The amazing thing is that, from her newspaper photos, Indrani Mukerjea is no beauty worth dying for, let alone worth killing for. Yet she has a share in a Rs 8 billion fortune with her present husband. She must have thought that she had got away with it as she apparently got away with siphoning large sums of money from INX Media, a company she founded with her latest husband, Peter. Why they returned from England, which is a safe haven for an assortment of the worst criminals of the world, is a mystery. Will this be the 'rarest of the rare' case where the murder is proved in a court of law and the guilty sent to prison before most actors die of old age? We shall see. Another mystery is how little we know about the woman who ruled India for 10 years from 2004 to 2014, which resulted in a near collapse of the economy, a destruction of education and a loss of an entire generation from the employment market. Some believe that Ms Sonia Gandhi is worth $6 billion and the reason why she refused to be prime minister was because a prime minister never travels alone so it is difficult to transport riches. Even her visits to the US for apparent surgery are top secret like in North Korea where Kim Jong-Il's death was kept a secret for 51 hours. Her son, Rahul is the Vice President of the Congress and is expected to wear the crown should he be able to lead the party to victory at the next election. He is supposed to have studied in England, which harbors some of the worst rogues of the world, and apparently worked at the Monitor Group which went bankrupt and was taken over by Deloitte. Mr Rahul established Backops Services Private Limited but it is not clear whether it has ever done any business. At present it is located at a Delhi address and has 2 directors, one Manoj Muttu and Ms Priyanka Gandhi, sister of Rahul. Never heard of Mr Muttu? Neither have we. He is apparently a distant relative of the Gandhis and is very media shy. Apart from Backops he manages, not shyly we hope, several trusts belonging to The Family. We do not know how much money is managed by those trusts. Mr Gandhi has claimed to be a Brahmin. We Hindus do not convert so it is not possible for someone to become a Brahmin. His grandfather was Feroz Khan, a Muslim, who apparently changed his name to Gandhi, a Parsi, to marry Ms Indira Nehru. So either he is a Muslim or a Zoroastrian but a Hindu he is not. But if Congress is so secular as it claims to be why proclaim your religion? No wonder India is known as a land of mystery.

If Patels why not Ambanis?

Isn't it a shame that 68 years after independence Hindus are still divided by caste. Violence in Gujarat has resulted in  the death of 9 people, with buses being burnt by mobs, curfew in places and the army being deployed to keep calm. This is because Patels are demanding Other Backward Class status for reservation in higher education and government jobs. The irony is that Patels are relatively wealthy compared to other sections of society, have relatives sending money from abroad and are known as 'Patidars', which means land owners. The agitation for reservation is being led by 22 year old, Hardik Patel, who passed his BCom exam with 49.6% marks and required grace marks to pass certain subjects. Why should an OBC candidate get admission with 44% when a Patel misses out with 90%, he asks. Good question, but it would have more strength if he had passed with 90%. He is promising a 'dabang', meaning violent, agitation unless there is reservation for everybody or an end to reservations. We support that. Gujjars have been promised 5% reservation in government jobs in Rajasthan where Meenas have had a monopoly with Scheduled Tribe status. The Supreme Court denied reservation to Jats. Naturally, there is a deep sense of injustice leading to anger. In Delhi 225 out of 550 seats for MBBS, that is 50%, are in the general category, which means for everyone, while in BDS only 17 out 40 seats, that is 42.5%, are in the general category. To restore calm there is talk of excluding the 'creamy layer', which means those whose annual income is greater than Rs 600,000, from OBC but not from SC or ST. That just further subdivides an already divided people. It is infuriating that our government is following the same divide-and-rule policy of the British instead of uniting us. Having gained power through reservation OBCs are now persecuting dalits in Bihar and the police have been deployed to protect them, leading up to assembly elections in October. The answer is to ban all castes and treat every citizen equally. Will it work? Will all Hindus suddenly embrace each other as brothers? No. It will take time. Already most educated young people in cities do not know or care about caste. That is because they are more bothered about getting good jobs and enjoying a good life. With rising prosperity, good infrastructure and education villages will also be transformed. But there will be extreme opposition to banning caste. Lower castes will object the most because they are gaining from reservations and politicians will instigate them because they win elections by dividing people. Good can never come out of bad policies. It takes guts to get rid of them.

Why can't they see the obvious?

Governments are supposedly run by very intelligent people. Politicians spend years as underlings, learning their trade, top civil servants have been around for decades and there are highly trained experts to advise on matters of policy. Yet every few years we have a financial crisis that no one had foreseen. High oil prices have been blamed for recessions since 1970. But is oil to blame? When countries are in recession central banks cut interest rates and governments increase spending to stimulate growth. Economic growth leads to higher employment, higher wages and higher spending, leading to higher energy use which causes oil prices to rise. That leads to inflation, forcing central banks to increase interest rates which cuts spending on credit and leads to slower growth. Oil prices drop and the cycle starts again. Years of socialist policies led to the crisis of 1991 when we had to pledge 67 tonnes of our gold to the Bank of England to survive. Yet we repeated the same socialist policies of handouts from 2004, resulting in another crisis in 2013, prompting the then RBI Governor to quote from a book,"....in matters of economics and finance, history repeats itself, not because it is an inherent trait of history, but because we don't learn from history and let the repeat happen." Why don't they learn, not just from our history but from the world? In 2012 the Chief Economist was predicting 9% growth and that multi-brand retail will be a game changer. If you see pictures of Walmart stores in the US it is instantly obvious that the stores are huge, occupying tens of thousands of square feet, not one store is multi storied and they have huge free car parks. Where is the land in India to build such stores? Do these people have their eyes closed when they visit the US, with ' companion ', on taxpayer money? Just as our fellows keep repeating the same failed policies so do governments in other countries. Years of spending, based on debt, has resulted in a crisis in China. One man saw it coming in 2009 but others did not.  Why not? For years we have been told that the Chinese government wants to move away from investment led growth to one of consumption. For people to spend they need reassurance for the future so instead of wasting money on building roads to nowhere the government could have spent the same money on a pension plan for everyone and a universal health insurance scheme, like Obamacare. Chinese leaders have spent time in the west but have learnt nothing so they are repeating the same policies which created the problems in the first place. They might devalue the yuan again which will lead to tit-for-tat devaluation and global recession. Britain's construction led growth will come under stress and even the US is getting jitters. If China self-destructs it might start wars for the party to stay in power. We hope that our agencies are concentrating on the north.

Truth and honesty, with Indian characteristics.

We have written many times that laws passed in bad faith, only to win elections, can only harm the nation and its citizens. We, in the middle class, have been reduced to morons who queue up at election time to get our fingers marked with indelible ink, just to replace one set of feudal thugs with another. The rich buy politicians and civil servants to live outside the system while the poor have the numbers to vote for whichever bunch offers the quickest way to financial suicide, with the greatest handouts. The government is thinking of passing a bill to make it compulsory for all maids to be registered with agencies and employers to pay for pensions, healthcare and vacations. The government maybe reacting to our hysterical media which slavishly repeats what the International Labor Organization has said, without researching the truth. The ILO is also against any modification of our labor laws, which have resulted in fragmentation of industry, to stay outside the laws. Small scale companies are inefficient and highly polluting as they cannot afford the latest technologies because they cannot get loans from banks or raise money from the markets by selling shares. Hence, 94% of labor work in the unorganised sector. Any law to register maids will be a disaster because the cost will rise so high that few will be able to afford maids. At the moment, at least in bigger cities, demand for maids is so huge that they can demand high salaries but if they are priced out of the market most will become unemployed. Instead of being free to negotiate their own wages they will be at the mercy of agencies who will charge them high fees in cash, to find work, just as they do for Indians going to work abroad. The agencies charge them so much that they have to borrow to pay, which means that even when their lives are in danger they refuse to return to India, as 64 nurses have done in Yemen. Without work either the maids will be forced to work part time surreptitiously, which will erode their bargaining power, or be forced into prostitution as happened when the famous ' Chandni bars ' were shut down. Most of these women migrate from villages because they have no income there and being illiterate they work as maids, which does not need any training, to feed their children. When you have 75,000 applicants, some with engineering and post graduate degrees, for 30 posts of peons what hope is their for these illiterate women? Why no jobs? Because the Congress passed the Right to Education Act for its ' vote bank ', thus producing a mass of duffers, who cannot be employed. But there is a glimmer of hope as there is a new party of truth and honesty, called the Indian Business Party which is demanding the right to possess black money. After all, if the rulers have it why shouldn't the subjects?