The pressure seems to be really on Robert Mugabe. With hyperinflation and increasingly brutal suppression of the opposition he is rapidly becoming another Idi Amin or Samuel Doe. No one said anything when he massacred the Ndebeles in Matabeleland almost two decades ago and has been killing opponents ever since. Only since he took over white owned farms has the attention suddenly focussed on him. Who cares for a bunch of blacks getting killed anyway. After all we were so kind to them when we had them as slaves. All across Africa thousands of men are getting murdered, women are being raped and children forced into armed conflicts but apart from pious words and well intentioned hand wringing we get nothing. Why no regime change in Sudan inspite of the genocide in Darfur? Is it because the oil there is being controlled by the Chinese who are masters of genocide anyway. From Mao's Great Leap to ethnic cleansing in Tibet today the Chinese have perfected the art of killing and coercing entire populations. Their expertise is not limited to humans only but extends to the animal world. They consume every living thing including tigers, bears, civets even human foetuses. Many species face extinction because of their all consuming appetite. Sadly for us they are our neighbours.

So India is out of the cricket World Cup. Sony which is televising the matches stands to lose a lot of money as rates of commercials come sharply down. Criminals based in Pakistan and the Middle East will also lose a lot of money as few bets will be placed on the remaining matches from the subcontinent. Thankfully DoorDarshan will not be able to make money by robbing Sony and broadcasting Indian matches live without having paid for the rights. This was made possible by a court decision saying that this was in public interest. How a cricket match can be in public interest is hard to imagine but with India losing out such a crime has been averted. Public sector companies such as Door Darshan, BSNL ( telephone ) and MTNL ( telephone in Delhi and Bombay ) have looted the public for years. Until 15 years ago these were monopolies and charged huge amounts for rude and rubbishy service. Door Darshan had only two channels and showed how to use manure in farming during prime time. After Star started transmission it has more than a dozen channels but mostly still showing rubbish. There used to be a waiting list of at least four years to get a phone but now we can get one in a day because of competition by private players. Government companies should have given us the best service but they looted us for years. It is time that Indians booted these fellows out.

India and Pakistan lose to 'lesser' opposition and all hell breaks lose. Mobs go on the rampage and Woolmer is murdered. Walk into any ground during a test match and you will find empty seats all around but one day cricket is a different matter. The grounds are full of yobs who understand little of the finer points of the game and are out to make a nuisance of themselves. They are the same sort of people who go to a football match to fight. Huge bets are placed on matches involving India which means that any loss is not to be tolerated. Because of these idiots sports channels in India show cricket all day long. Star Sports used to show live rugby and other proper sports but since it has been taken over by ESPN we get cricket interspersed with rubbishy American games such as basketball where 9 feet tall freaks try to put a ball into a basket 10 feet off the ground. Most likely India will lose today to Sri Lanka and return home thereby depriving Door Darshan of millions in stolen income. I will not mourn.

Naxals slaughtered over 50 policemen in Chattisgarh while CPM cadres and police shot dead 12 villagers ( villagers claim the actual figure killed runs into scores ) protesting against land acquisition in Bengal. Two sides of the same coin. The reason behind both these events is the deep mistrust and total contempt that people harbour for the state. Common people feel totally powerless in today's India. Politicians, civil servants, the police do whatever they want without consultation or regard for the opinion or feelings of the people. Judges cannot be arrested or charged with any crime, they have to be impeached by Parliament which means they literally are above the law. Civil servants cannot be charged without permission of their superior officers which will never be given because the same superiors are also part of the chain of bribery. Politicians control the police so transfer any officer who starts taking interest in their criminal activities. Only the most abject foot licker will get to be the chief of police. The police are poorly paid and abused by politicians and their thuggish children that they have become totally demoralised and criminalised. Meanwhile we the people pay huge taxes for no returns. Even the dirt poor have to pay taxes. They may not pay any direct taxes but have to pay vast amounts in indirect taxes. Every time they buy anything they have to pay VAT, excise duty, import duty, education cess and God knows what else. Everytime they phone or switch on a light they pay service charge with cess. Everytime they watch a movie they pay entertainment tax. People are most dangerous when they have nothing more to lose. Are we getting there?

Thank you Moonlight. This is the tyranny of democracy. In the past we had kings who thought they were divine and could do anything they liked. However their power meant many others coveted their crowns and they could lose their lives at any time. Louis XVI and Charles I come to mind but there would be countless other examples. Then we had dictators who were just as nuts but without the crown. A lot of them also met premature ends such as Saddam and Ceausescu. With democracy we have no such recourse. Fellows get elected by foul means and claim to have the mandate of the people. It may be a couple of hundred hanging chads out of some 40% of the people who voted but it entitles you to start a war with hundreds of thousands of deaths. Mandate of the people. It allows Blair to support the same war against the opposition of 80% of the people but keep on lying that bombs in the London Underground were unconnected to the Iraq war. In India criminals stand for election because once in government they are in control of the police and can interfere with any investigation. People vote for one set of thugs not because they prefer this lot but because they have no choice and think the other lot may be worse. Politicians can vote any perk for themselves plunder the exchequer and hide behind national security. Tyranny of democracy. What is the solution?

I have said before that money raised by increasing taxes is being put into property and also being transferred abroad by hawala and then brought back through Mauritius and invested in the share market. This accounts for the phenomenal rise in both property and share prices in the last two years. On Friday, the 9th, the news broke that a Mr. Khan of Pune has three and a half billion rupees in Swiss banks which he transferred out through hawala route for the purpose of investing in shares. Some politicians are naturally mixed in it. By sunday the police were backtracking showing that the rot goes very high up indeed. Then we heard that the former Defence Minister in the BJP government Mr. Fernandes has said that he had been instructed by the then Prime Minister, Mr. Vajpai not to touch the Quatrocchi file. By the very next day he was claiming that he had been misunderstood and that Mr. Vajpai had been joking anyway. Soon as the Congress came to power the Central Bureau of Investigation defroze Q's assets held in London. Now that the Congress is in power they have not touched the Tehelka file or investigated the claims of buying coffins from an American company at exorbitant prices during the Kargil war. So it goes on. You scratchee my backee and I will scratchee your most honoured filthy backee. The putrid stink makes me sick but what can you do against people with no sharam or izzat. Last month an American diplomat claimed that India had been 'coerced' into voting against Iran at the IAEA meeting prompting Iran into cutting off gas supplies to India. So easy to blackmail these filthy criminals. This is not just a question of commissions or bribes, this is treason. Hang them I say.

Yesterday was World Women's Day and there were the usual people with usual laments about the condition of women in India. On the one hand there were interviews with powerful and successful women who were asked how they had become successful in a man's world on the other we were reminded about the pathetic condition of women married off at an early age, tortured for dowry by the in laws and made to bear children in poor health. There were constant discussions about the millions of girl children being aborted and how men are responsible for all the ills that befall women. Strangely no one talks about the responsibility of women themselves in improving their lot. A woman may be illiterate and helpless but she can talk. Very few men in India involve themselves in raising their children. This gives the mother total and uninterrupted control over how she raises her children. Surely she has unlimited opportunity to teach her children about the value of women and how women should be respected. She should be able to show them educated women around where she lives and on television as examples. Educated women should teach their unfortunate sisters what to whisper in their children's ears as they are growing up. Every time I read about dowry deaths in the newspaper I invariably find women in the torture and killing of an innocent young woman in the most gruesome way imaginable. These mothers and sisters in law are not mere helpless bystanders. They make no attempt to help the unfortunate victim. Instead they actively torture and very often are the ones to pour kerosene on the woman and light the final match. Until women admit their role in the condition of their sex there is no hope.

Yesterday was World Women's Day and there were the usual people with usual laments about the condition of women in India. On the one hand there were interviews with powerful and successful women who were asked how they had become successful in a man's world on the other we were reminded about the pathetic condition of women married off at an early age, tortured for dowry by the in laws and made to bear children in poor health. There were constant discussions about the millions of girl children being aborted and how men are responsible for all the ills that befall women. Strangely no one talks about the responsibility of women themselves in improving their lot. A woman may be illiterate and helpless but she can talk. Very few men in India involve themselves in raising their children. This gives the mother total and uninterrupted control over how she raises her children. Surely she has unlimited opportunity to teach her children about the value of women and how women should be respected. She should be able to show them educated women around where she lives and on television as examples. Educated women should teach their unfortunate sisters what to whisper in their children's ears as they are growing up. Every time I read about dowry deaths in the newspaper I invariably find women in the torture and killing of an innocent young woman in the most gruesome way imaginable. These mothers and sisters in law are not mere helpless bystanders. They make no attempt to help the unfortunate victim. Instead they actively torture and very often are the ones to pour kerosene on the woman and light the final match. Until women admit their role in the condition of their sex there is no hope.

The annual circus called the budget has come and gone. As usual the tax and loot party has been true to form.
Many more services will now come under tax and the Education Cess has been increased to 3%. This will naturally increase cost of services to consumers and industry. All utilities will go up adding to our bills. Already there is heavy taxation on air travel, now there is going to be a cess on air tickets to fund upgrading of small regional airports. Needless to say most of the money will be plundered and people will end up poorer. The joke is that the government is very worried about inflation and the effect it will have on the upcoming election in the biggest state, U.P. In an attempt to reduce inflation it has cut duties on patrol, edible oil and a host of other goods including pet food. Having reduced excise on certain commodities it has increased service tax as though this will have no effect on the economy. The stupidity is mind boggling. When will these people understand that taxes increase prices and inflation. To control inflation the Reserve Bank has increased interest rates and will increase them further in the future. With increasing cement prices, service tax on builders and increasing interest rates the housing market is in for some interesting times. A similar asset price bubble happened around 1995 when speculation in the market reached fever pitch. In 2000- 2001 house prices dropped by around 60% and a lot of people were wiped out. People have such short memories. The Sensex is dropping. Will the housing market follow suit?

Continuing on. Sitting in Tel Aviv and Washington it makes eminent sense in neutralising Iran. It will accomplished by long range bombing without any troops on the ground thus making the entire operation temptingly safe. Once the Iranian air force and retaliatory capacity are taken out the government will be forced to negotiate/surrender or risk severe damage to infrastructure and hardship to its people. The resulting loss of face will cause the hardline govt. to fall or become severely weakened and thus susceptible to regime change in the future. With Iran out of the way Syria will become isolated and forced to accede to demands of ceasing its help to Iraqi militants, Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Hamas in Palestine. Without Iran and Syrian support Hezbollah may be dismantled and its 20000 rockets destroyed thus making Israel safer and protecting the present pro western govt of Lebanon. Hamas is already in a corner because of sanctions and its inabilty to pay salaries and keep govt. functioning. Without its backers it will have no option but to give up terrorism and accept Israel's right to exist if it is to play any part in govt. Sure Iran will try to target oil installations in the Gulf and today's newspapers say that Arab governments are installing Patriot missiles to protect their assets. Oil prices will jump to over $100 dollars a barrel and the world economy will crash but if the action is shortlived, as the presumption is, then there will be a quick rebound. What a spectacular fall of dominoes with everyone a winner. Only problem is that no one can see the future and surprises have a habit of kicking you in the backside. Wonder if Sunita Williams will be able to see the fireworks from space.

Legally Iran has every right to enrich uranium. There is no obligation under any treaty it has signed under the NPT or CTBT, may be even DDT, that forbids it the right to enrich uranium. Indeed under NPT the nuclear weapon states were supposed to move towards a nuclear weapon free world which they have steadfastedly refused to do. This is like saying that we are a superior race entitled to kill you but you have no right to retaliate. Seem to think I have heard that one before, from our old friend Adolf. The Security Council is a totally unrepresentative, unjust and perverted creation lording over the world. It has four white countries and a fifth which is the biggest hegemon today ruled by a criminal government not averse to slaughtering its own citizens to stay in power as in Tiananmen Sq. Each member may do as it wishes and avoid censure by using the veto. The most powerful member can totally ignore the council and attack any country it wishes, Grenada, Panama, Iraq. Now this illegal Council is trying to take away Iran's legal right to enrich uranium for peaceful purposes. I love it. Of course the English news channels are part of the propaganda assault using the old tactics of inspiring fear with outright lies. Iran, of course, is controlled by a coterie of fanatical beards who do not have the intelligence of President Musharraf, swearing eternal allegiance while protecting Al Qaeda. Surprising since Persians are supposed to be very clever. Maybe the really clever ones are in India eg Tata, Godreg and such. How does an illegal body enforce an illegal demand. Bomb the hell out of Iran of course. Suggest we give them 00 prefixes eg 00US and 00UK, licenced to kill. Music please.

Yesterday while Blair was announcing British troop withdrawal from Iraq a bronze statue of Margaret Thatcher was being unveiled in the lobby of the same House of Commons. The big mystery to me is why Blair behaved like Bush's poodle all these years. People who get to be Prime Ministers must have a tremendous hunger for power to sit through years of boring speeches, shake sweaty hands and confer with people with halitosis. Why would Britain be a catamite in a one way sado-masochistic special relationship? Could it be because of the Falklands? Twenty years ago Thatcher was deeply unpopular and would surely have lost the next election. Then the Argentinians attacked Falklands. British trroops were loaded into ferries and cruise ships, sitting ducks in the water, and sent to fight. The Argentine navy dared not leave the port because the Americans were monitoring their movement by satelite and might hve quietly threatened them. Britain won and in the succeeding jingoism Thatcher called and early election and went on to become the Iron Lady. Why did America help Britain against a country in their own backyard? This inspite of Secretary of State, Al Haig calling the British Foreign Secretary, Lord Carrington a 'duplicitous bastard'. What did Thatcher promise in return? After all America did not help the British during the Suez crisis when the prize was huge and it was an impoverished Arab country ruled by Nasser, an avowed Soviet ally. Did Ronald Reagan, everybody's favouite uncle make her sign away the sovereignty of Britain? What a delicious irony.

Good comment. Krishna says do your karma and I will give you result. Since independence the polity has become progressively more corrupt. Although during Nehru's time every politician was a scholar and had been abroad they did not make education free and compulsory choosing instead to keep more than 60% of people illiterate. It is only because people sacrificed to send their children to private schools that the number of illiterates was no higher. Huge sums were allocated to family planning and systematically looted. Socialism allowed politicians to control state assets which gave them huge power over people and the opportunity to make vast illicit fortunes. I remember my parents suffering insults and abuse when trying to get a permit to buy cement to build our house in Calcutta. We applied for telephones in 1986 and got connection in 1990. Politicians charged huge bribes to give out of turn phone or gas connections or permits for petrol pumps. Changing laws meant that no politician or civil servant can be prosecuted. The excuse of poverty has been constantly used for sky high taxes to finance foreign tours for the bastards, their fat ugly wives and drug addled criminal children. High taxes also keep people poor and easy to exploit with lies. People constantly fighting to survive without electricity, water and roads have no energy left to challenge the bastards. The good thing is that India is one of very few countries coming out of colonial tyrrany which has regularly held elections to allow the people to change one set of thugs for another. Countries such as Pakistan, Kenya, Zimbabwi and others have collapsed into dictatorships. This mixture of crime and virtue has meant that India suffers whatever happens in the world but can somehow weather it.

To get its soldiers out of Iraq, to protect Sunni Arab regimes against Shia Persians and protect Gulf oil supplies America will have to bomb Iran. To calm Democrat anger and to appear to have been dragged in unwillingly the US will ask Israel to start proceedings and then take over the main action. Many reports suggest that the targets have been selected and preparations are almost complete. Rumour has it that an Israeli general has said that planes are ready and the selected pilots have been told that they will, in all probability, not be coming back. I think the perfect window will be in spring when heating requirements will be low and the summer driving season still a few months away. Though far away the effect on India will be catastrophic. As the first bomb lands the price of oil will shoot up to $100 a barrel and the Indian economy will go into freefall. With inflation already in double digits prices of everything will go shooting up. Interest rates will have to increase. House prices will crash as increasingly people will be unable to afford loan repayments. Banks will see huge defaults on loans and will be unable to recoup their money because of falling asset values. Already Iran has cut off gas supplies to India because of our vote against its nuclear programme. Factories in Noida are having to generate electricity by using diesel instead of gas and are making losses. Finding itself in deep s*** the govt is buying Russian Sukhois instead of US planes hoping to get a few drops from Sakhalin. Putin will surely want his pound of flesh. Where that leaves the nuclear deal with the US who knows. What karma has cursed us with such politicians?

I read in today's newspaper that Richard Branson is offering $ 25 millions for ideas to reduce greenhouse gases from the earth's atmosphere. Hereby I stake first claim for the prize money with a simple but very effective idea. My idea depends on the fact that carbon dioxide freezes directly to solid dry ice at around minus 40 degrees celsius while oxygen and nitrogen stay as gases till about minus 180 degrees celsius. I propose that a geostationary capsule be sent up to a spot at the margin of earth's gravity. It will dangle two pipes into the earth's atmosphere and a pump will suck air up one pipe and pump down the other back into the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide will freeze to dry ice and stay in the capsule while essential oxygen and nitrogen will be returned clean. This dry ice can then be thrown out into space where it will just dissipate. Solar power will keep the pumps working 24 hours a day and hundreds of such capsule may be deployed to reduce greenhouse gases to low levels. Countries will pay according to the amounts of pollution they generate but cost should not be a problem. This is not to replace measures to reduce greenhouse gas production such as using clean fuels and switching to renewable sources of energy such as wind power. There are two dangers to this idea. One, people will become complacent and stop spending on reducing greenhouse gas emissions and two, we might overdo the reduction of carbon dioxide and tip the world into an ice age which would not be very clever. Now my problem will be how to spend so much money.

So the inflation rate is 6.5% when everyone knows that it is above 10%. Food and vegetable prices have increased at least 30% in the last one year. Then there is tax inflation which is not taken into account. For instance tax on patrol is on an ad valorem basis which means that everytime the oil price rises the tax also increases but the tax on air tickets is a fixed which means that when a low cost airline offers tickets for Rs. 10 the customer pays about Rs. 2000 because tax is not calculated on percentage of the price. This blood sucking is because in a coalition government the partners have to be paid astronomical sums for their support. And if you are not in power you cannot plunder. This money paid in cash is 'black' so cannot be deposited in a bank account or invested in any conventional instrument. Part of this money is being invested in property where 60% of the price is paid in cash which means black. This accounts for the phenomenal rise in property prices, upto 300% in some areas. Part of the black money is used for round tripping where the money is transferred abroad through hawala operators and then comes back as Foreign Institutional Investor (FII) or Non Resident Indian (NRI) through Mauritius. This is now white money and can be invested in the share market whcih accounts for the Sensex rising from 3000 to near 15000 today. No other market has given such returns. The Reserve Bank is trying suck the liquidity out of the market but the Finance Ministry is doing the opposite probably because they are terrified of a collapse in both the Sensex and house prices. Question is: can a boom driven by black money continue its growth by morphing into a virtuous cycle?

For us Indians to feel human the first requirement is law and order. At the moment police are controlled by politicians who can murder, rape or plunder the exchequer without any fear. Cases go on for years and many an aggrieved person has died before getting justice. We must have strict laws to ensure that the weakest is protected and the strong are punished severely. All guns must be banned. There is no need for guns in a civilised democracy and India does not have any stupid amendment to encourage this. All cases must finish within two years except those involving complicated international laws. No one will be allowed more than two postponements for any reason. At the moment crooked lawyers keep on asking for further dates for stupid reasons and judges go along. I have been approached many times for false medical certificates so as to postpone a hearing. I always refuse. Anyone who is not ready after two postponements loses automatically. 90% of cases are regarding property and these can be easily resolved without lawyers. The judge will see all the papers ask experts about their authenticity and decide in favour of one. No need for lawyers. However we need a district attorney system where good lawyers will oversee police investigation so that criminal cases are presented perfectly and the guilty cannot escape. We must have fool proof witness and whistle blower protection. Finally what the hell is a First Class Jail? Why should a criminal politician have air conditioned, luxury apartment with food from expensive restaurants for having plundered tax payer's money?

To survive the first change we need is proper law and order. At present politicians, civil servants, judges and relatives therof cannot be arrested or charged. A politician should have immunity for anything he says inside the parliament but definitely not for rape or murder. If a politician were to shoot another of his ilk inside the Houses of Parliament he should still face prosecution as anybody else. Police must be made independent of political interference but answerable to the people. Police salaries, accommodation and medical benefits must be equivalent to those enjoyed by the army. However a special force much like Internal Affairs would investigate the police for every complaint and rogue officers severely punished. State of the art forensic labs must be set up for every police force. Traffic police, criminal division and armed police must be separated. Experts, if necessary, from foreign forces must be brought in to train them. Most importantly they must be trained in manners and to treat everyone with respect and not with abuse and violence as they do now. Civil servants probably cause more damage to us than any other part of the government. They have enormous powers, there are vast numbers of them making it impossible to pinpoint the crooks and their jobs are permanent. They have to be made accountable. They must answer every application or letter within a finite period, say a week. They must approve every application promptly or give valid reasons for refusal. This will reduce opportunities for harassment and bribes. Only one or two persons must handle each file so that crooks will be easily identified and punished. Punishment must be severe including sacking and withdrawal of pensions. Retired officers must be equally punished and guilty officers must be made to pay heavy compensation. We desperately need freedom from the everyday torture from civil servants.

To stop the conservatives from foaming at the mouth let us call them Citizens Management Companies or CMCs instead of trade unions. There should be at least five of these to encourage competition. They should have millions of members across the whole country. Members will pay fees according to salary. Company tax to be reduced to 10% or less and 30% of dividend declared would be paid to the relevant CMC. This would make all pay disputes unnecessary and workers would have an incentive in increasing profitability. Government schools do not work anyway so all these schools to be handed over to private institutions. A certain minimum of the GDP would be handed over to the CMCs who will pay schools for all children thereby ensuring all children regardless of caste or class get the same top class education. If a school fails to deliver the quality required children would be shifted to another one. The same with healthcare. The govt will hand over money to the CMCs who will buy comprehensive health insurance for all. The CMCs will have lawyers who will fight for justice and against all forms of extortion. Since they will be all over the country they will be best suited to match the best candidates to vacancies in jobs. They can facilitate easy movement of people across the country by arranging mortgages, sales and purchase of properties. Since they will have investigated and registered each property as legal people will not be at the mercy of crooked property dealers. Of course all these services will generate revenues which the CMCs will be able to use for other services such as old age care. I feel this is the only way to give genuine power to the people and get corrupt government off our backs.

Thank you Moonlight. Lot of people are pushing for the option of 'none of the above' on all ballot papers in elections. I do not think that it is going to solve the problem. Fewer and fewer people are bothering to cast their votes the world over. In India too educated and middle class people, especially under 30 years of age, have decided that elections are irrelevant because the choice is between different criminals who will continue with the same stupid policies. In India I do not think there is any minimum number that is required to get an MP elected. Theoretically there could be a situation where ninety out of only hundred people vote for a particular politician while five hundred thousand exercise the option of 'none of the others' but the politician will claim a landslide with ninety percent of the vote. No sharam or izzat. In our party system the party which controls the legislature forms the executive. The judiciary though independent is swamped with over 30 million cases still waiting to be heard. Moreover lawyers in India are completely without any ethics, know very little law and routinely take money to lose a cases. Only those students who cannot get into any good course take up law which means that the vast majority are rubbish and will do anything to survive. Besides this Westminster style of government was set up some four hundred years ago and needs to be updated. I think we need a fourth organ whose only assets will be its members and will be independent of politicians. Call them trade unions, citizens councils, whatever. There will be four or five such unions structured like companies with a CEO and a board elected from its members. Run out of space.