Bye bye Obama, welcome Sarah Palin. Beautiful mother of five. A huntin', fishin', shootin' gal who believes in Creationism, is Prolife and supports gun ownership is an automatic poster girl for the grassroots Republican rednecks. She started gently introducing her family. Older son going to Iraq, younger son with Down's syndrome. She talked about her experience as mayor and governor of Alaska. Putting the luxury jet on EBay was a nice touch. Having sharpened her claws she moved into attack. She made Barack Obama into a windbag and tore into him. Her quip about the 'styrofoam pillars' must have felt like a stiletto in Demacratic hearts. She questioned his record in the senate and was oh so sarcastic about his community service. If she continues like this and there is no big banana skin on the way no one stop the Republicans waltzing into the White House. In four years McCain will be too old and Palin could be the candidate. Hillary Clinton vs Sarah Palin, now that really would be thrilling. All of us men can relax in our armchairs with pints of cool beer in our hands and watch the biggest catfight in history. Cannot wait.

The government has accepted the recomendations of the Sixth Pay Commission which gives massive pay rises to corrupt and lazy government employees. This will cost 2.8 billion dollars and add to the inflationary pressures on the economy. The perennial complaint of the kleptocrats is that they are paid less than the private sector. The IAS officers are especially clever in getting higher pay rises than any other branch of government causing jealousy and resentment. the IPS and IFS fellows have already protested and now it is the turn of the army. They want pay rises comparable to the IAS and the private sector. This constant comparison with the private sector is so false that it takes your breath away. They only look at the the salaries of CEOs of large companies but not to the fact that every private sector employee is answerable to the management and to the shareholders. Kleptocrats, on the other hand, are not accountable to anyone. The most incompetent and dishonest is able to continue in his post and gets time bound promotions automatically. They are permanent and cannot be sacked. Surely this security of employment without having to do anything productive must be worth at least 10 million rupees a year. If a sarkari fellow dies of any cause his wife is given employment in the same office. Often that means a semi literate woman signing on everyday, sitting on her backside doing nothing and taking home a good salary at taxpayer's expense. Kleptocrats get to travel abroad at our expense without anyone ever asking for the reason. They are paid handsome pensions on retirement and many take jobs in the private sector. Solution is simple. Reduce the number of government employees by 75%. New employees will only be recruited if they agree to hire and fire. Triple the salaries but no perks or pensions. With higher salaries they will contribute to health and pension insurance. Promotion only on merit. Will any kleptocrat agree to an honest job description? Perish the thought.

Following heavy rains large areas of Bihar, the poorest and arguably the most lawless state in India, have been inundated. Over a million people have been or will be displaced by the floods. Little aid has reached the affected and what little is getting through is apparently being controlled by criminals. Even during this 'national calamity' politicians cannot help being nasty to each other. Apparently the Prime Minister inspected the area from the air but did not take along the Chief Minister of Bihar, Nitish Kumar. Lalu Prasad, who was trounced by Nitish Kumar in the last state elections is the Railway Minister in the present Union Cabinet. No doubt the government will declare a few millions of rupees in aid of Bihar and, if the past is any guide, most of the money will go into the pockets of the kleptocrats with nothing if any reaching the needy. Yet the solution is simple. Set up a rescue and support unit within the army. With one million people the army has enough personnel and will have the logistical expertise to reach even the most difficult of terrain. The unit will store food, tents, clothing, blankets, fresh water in different locations all over India and will be authorised to deliver aid and mount rescue missions at very short notice at any part of the country. The experience will help personnel of the unit to rescue soldiers and victims in the event of war. There is no way politicians and kleptocrats will agree to allow the army to control such a lucrative source of extra cash. Disasters and calamities are God send, sad for the victims happy for the kletptocrats.

As a propaganda channel for the US, the BBC has been giving wall to wall coverage of the National Convention of the Democratic party which chose Barack Obama as its candidate for President of the US. I watched Obama's speech this morning and it was wonderfully stage managed. Obama is a consummate actor and a great speaker taking the audience with him. He promised a lot of goodies for everyone. He is going to lower taxes for 95% of Americans, he will provide cheap education for children, he will provide better equipment for the Armed Forces, he will provide health care for all, he will ensure that the US is not dependent on Middle East oil within ten years ( is he angling for a second term even before being elected for the first? ) by giving tax incentives to altenate sources of energy and to car companies to produce fuel efficient cars, he will give tax benefits for small companies to prevent outsourcing of jobs and he will provide college education for soldiers under a sort of GI bill. Father Christmas could not have put it better. And how is he going to pay for all the goodies he is going to dish out? He had the answer. He is going to read every line of the budget to cut out waste from the government. Wow. Anyone to nominate him for next year's Nobel Prize in economics? I would still give him the benefit of doubt if he were not a lawyer and we all know that lawyers are liars who would say anything to suit the circumstaces. Would he really slash pork barrel projects if Democrats were in trouble in two years time? With the US running up trillions of dollars in debt he made no mention of balancing the budget which was, perhaps, the greatest achievement of the last Democratic Presidency under Bill Clinton so wantonly squandered by George Bush. A lot of hot air certainly, unfortunately not much information.

A few days ago a local Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) leader in Orissa was killed while protesting against conversion of Hindus by Christian priests in Orissa. VHP activists in the area have been attacking churches in the area blaming christian priests for the killing of their leader. This morning I read that the Vatican has condemned attacks on churches as bullying and has called for peace. The Vatican should perhaps remember how many times they have had to appologise for actions of its clergy before issuing stupid statements. Starting with the Crusades to the Inquisition Catholics have been resposible for the deaths of millions. In the middle ages the pope actually waged war and produced bastards from a succession of mistresses. Gallilleo was imprisoned for saying that the earth went round the sun. Joan of Arc was burnt at the stake as were thousands of 'witches'. The Church did nothing to help Jews during the Holocaust and even supported the military dictatorship in Argentina which was responsible for many extra judicial killings. The Church did nothing against slavery nor did it condemn apartheid in the strongest possible terms. Recently it has had to appologise for sexual exploitation of children. Jesus was a carpenter's son. He wore homespun, thongs or sandals on his feet and walked. His disciples were lowly fishermen and he moved among the poor, the sick and the fallen. At a time when leprosy meant a painful disgusting death he chose to embrace them. The Pope on the other hand, lives in sumptuous apartments in the Vatican, controls billions of dollars, wears silk and travels in an airconditioned Pope Mobile. Jesus NEVER converted anybody. If he has time in between lucturing us Hindus maybe he should read Jesus' words 'he who is without sin let him cast the first stone'.

It is tragic that a country of one billion people can be so happy with one gold and two bronze medals at the Olympics. Newspapers are running half page photographs of the medal winners with nauseating outpourings of praise. These men are indeed heroes not for the success they have achieved but because their achievement comes inspite of the disgusting way they are treated. Bindra's father is hugely rich and was able to create an air conditioned shooting range with imported gear for his son to practice with and he won gold showing that Indians can mix with the best if given the right training conditions. We have a Ministry for Sport costing billions of rupees in salaries for the Minister, the obligatory kleptocrats who follow him and their security and perks. These thieves and beggars use all the budget for personal enrichment and trips abroad. I have no doubt that the Indian contingent at the Olympics had as many administrators as competitors if not more. Whether these filthy parasites slept in beds while the athletes slept on the floor, as in the past, I do not know but I read that the wrestlers did not have a physio and massaged their own aching muscles in between bouts. The only way forward will be to get rid of all politicians and kleptocrats from all sports bodies. Instead these bodies should be run by ex athletes, sports journalists and reputed individuals who will be elected for fixed terms and not be allowed for re election. Problem is thieves and beggars have no sharam or izzat and will not want to be dumped in the garbage pile where they belong.

As a mark of my hatred for China I am not watching the Olympic Games going on at present. China is the most virulent enemy that India has. It is occupying about 50000 square miles of Indian territory and claims Arunachal as part of itself. Its soldiers frequently infiltrate across the border. As a mark of its hostile intentions it has supplied nuclear weapons to Pakistan. The Chinese eat anything from dogs, cats to sea horses and human foetus. To augment their inadequate manhood they eat tiger parts and rhino horns thus pushing these animals to brink of extiction. They were the source of the outbreak of SARS or Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome. The outbreak was traced to wild civets being sold in Chinese markets. Scientists say that the next flu epidemic will originate from China and kill millions. These human rodents are using the Olympic Games for political propaganda despite promising not to do so. They invited more than hundred heads of state for the opening ceremony including Musharraf but not anyone from India, a clear diplomatic slap. They invited Mrs. Sonia Gandhi privately and she went with her extended family not caring for the humiliation India suffered. All her energy is concentrated in making her son the future Prime Minister of the country no matter what the cost. Now I believe that she is truly a foreigner. Since this was a private visit I wonder how much it cost and who paid for it. Does anyone have the courage to ask?

There is no doubt that the US and its european allies are trying to encircle Russia with satellite states with membership of NATO. The US financed the Orange Revolution in the Ukraine and, most probably, the ousting of Shevardnadze in Georgia to bring in its stooge, Mikhail Sakashvili who, most probably, stole the elections last year. One can understand the desire of states to become members of the EU which cause rapid economic advance but membership of the NATO, a military organisation, shows a hostile intent and is provocative. If the US is entitled to show enmity to Cuba surely Russia has every right to be suspicious of NATO and if the US supports Israeli blockade of legitimately elected Hamas surely Russia can question illegitimately elected Sakashvili. The origin of the present conflict lies in the indiscriminate bombardment by Georgian forces on South Ossetia. Sakashvili claims that South Ossetia is an integral part of Georgia. Why then did he launch an all out bombardment of his own people? Though much smaller how is it any different from Bashir's attacks in Darfour and Mugabe's attacks on opponents? Bush must remember the hundreds of thousands of civilians killed by US forces in Iraq before he starts shooting off his mouth. The BBC, as usual, is totally one sided in its reporting of the conflict. It is not showing any of the South Ossetian civilians killed or wounded by Georgians, only concentrating on showing outrage at Russian actions. The hypocrites should remember that what is sauce for the goose is surely ketchup for the gander.

When this government came to power some four years ago it increased rates of Value Added Taxes, added taxes on a wide range of services and added various types of cess increasing Consumer Price Inflation. Luck was on its side. Low interest rates worldwide with huge liquidity prompted growth rates of over 8% with ministers taking undue credit. Then came the explosion in commodity prices this year and inflation has gone to over 12%. The Reserve Bank has raised rates to 9% and increased the Cash Reserve Ratio of banks to reduce money supply. The double whammy of increased prices and mortgage repayments has people gasping. The government has done its bit too. It is taking delivery of three wide bodied Boeing planes customised for ultimate comfort at the cost of 9.37 billion rupees. One for the President, one for the Prime Minister and one, probably, for the little boys to go and play anywhere in the world. While they keep screaming how their hearts bleed for the aam aadmi they could hardly show greater disdain for the people. So what if the people cannot afford roti and urad dal, let them eat cake. At least Marie was beautiful. This lot make you cringe.

Seems that it is certain that the Nuclear Deal offered by the US will be clean but may not be unconditional. I fail to understand why the US expects us Indians to be grateful to be offered a clean deal. I would have thought that all international deals must be clean without exception. Does this mean that the US has been making dirty deals before now and our government has spent years and millions of dollars in diplomacy just to get a clean deal? So what were the dirty deals the US made in the past? Perhaps the deal that locked Native Americans into Reservations to die prematurely of boredom, alcoholism and life style diseases. Or the deal that supplied chemical weapons to Saddam Hussein of Iraq to use on Kurds and Iranians. Or the deal with Iran that supplied illegal arms to Contra terrorists in Nicaragua to try and bring down Daniel Ortega's government which has been reelected to power. Or the deal that gave billions of dollars in aid to Zia Ul Haq of Pakistan to set up an army of students called the Taliban to fight the Soviets in Afghanistan, the same Taliban which is taking a heavy toll of Coalition Forces in Afghanistan today. The Indian government must go through every word, comma and semicolon to see that the deal we make is indeed squeaky clean and does not come back to haunt us in the future. After all Saddam was a great friend of the US and look what happened to him. Even now they speak with forked tongue.

In Saudi Arabia I was told that on Judgement Day all muslims will be resurrected from their graves and stand naked in a queue before God. Each person will have the same body as on earth and will be exactly the same as on earth. Thus a professor will remain erudite while an illiterate will remain such as he was. A Bihari will continue to speak Bhojpuri while a Bangladeshi will speak Bangladeshi. As each person comes upto God his good and bad deeds will be read out and points tallied to see if the person deserves hell or heaven. Questions will then be asked of him. All this will happen in Arabic, not the Arabic of today but that of the Holy Book. If the person is unable to answer the questions put to him he will be put on a wall, on one side is Paradise with its 72 virgins and on the other side is Hell with vats of boiling oil. The questions will be repeated three times and if still unable to answer he will go straight to hell where he will be dipped in boiling oil. His skin will be burnt off, he will be lifted up whereupon his skin will instantly regrow and he will then be dipped again. This continues eternally. 99.99% of muslims in India, Bangladesh and Pakistan know nothing of Arabic and will thus be unable to answer any question put to them. They are all destined for Hell and boiling oil. Killing Hindus will not save them from the vats. Arabs know this and refer to muslims from South Asia in derogatory terms. 'Kullu al buraz'.

I feel sympathy for Ms. Susan Schwab, the US Representative at the WTO talks which collapsed yesterday. Her predecessor at the GATT round of talks at Uruguay got whatever he or she demanded. He was able to maintain agricultural subsidies at current levels and was able to open up developing world markets without giving anything in return. Africa was really screwed. They were made to open up their services including utilities such as water supplies with disastrous results. Western firms took control, increased prices so people could not afford supplies and made profits on the backs of poor people including children. High tariffs on finished products decimated African industries while Western companies got raw materials such cocoa, coffee and minerals at rock bottom rates and were then able to sell finished products back to the same people at hugely inflated prices. Massive corruption at every level of government made it easier for them to do whatever they pleased. The US reneged on whatever promises they had made of opening up its markets by the clever use of the ' green box ', a magical device which makes commitments vanish into outer space. Now developing countries are refusing to believe what they are told, are reading every fine print and refusing to kowtow to the white ' massa '. Ms Schwab is hugely frustrated. How is the world to function if third world people want to progress so that they are equal to Americans? Peter Mandelson of the EU expressed deep sympathy for the poor of the world who, he feels, will suffer because of Indian and Chinese intransigence. The tears of the crocodile have never flowed so freely as now.

First in Bangalore and then yesterday in Ahmedabad, multiple bombs have killed at least 40 people in two days. Our freeloading press is quick to pour scorn on Narendra Modi, Chief Minister of Gujarat and calls the BJP, a Hindu Nationalist Party as though being a Hindu is a crime deserving of death at the hands of the filthy muslims. There will be much hand wringing and pontificating on how the muslims should be embraced with love and given more money because they have been excluded from the main stream since independence. However, their hatred is not borne out of some recent injustice but is hundreds of years old and part of the religion. A succession of Muslim invaders, Nader Shah, Taimur Lang, Tuglak and others murdered Hindu men, raped women and desecrated our temples only because we are Hindus. The Quran says that ' if you meet a kafir woman try to convert her and if she resists marry her' which means rape. Then it says ' if you meet a kafir man try to convert him and if he refuses kill him'. Everyday we are told that Islam is a religion of peace on the principle that a lie repeated a million times will be believed. Is there one place on earth where there are more than a hundred muslims and there is peace? We Hindus are helpless. Our only hope is the ongoing war between the Judaeo Christian alliance and the Muslims. Will they be able to wipe out billions of these murderers? At some point the Alliance will realise that they cannot win by conventional means and drop nuclear weapons on the holy sites making them radioactive for ever. Only then will the world experience true peace.

At last after thirteen years of hiding Radovan Karadzic has been arrested in Serbia and will, in all probability, be transferred to the Hague for trial at the War Crimes Tribunal. Watching the coverage on BBC and CNN one cannot help feeling nauseated at the hypocrisy of these white Anglo Saxon channels. Reporters are recounting all his alleged crimes at length and emphasing what a monster he is. And so he is. He is probably responsible for the death of at least 10000 civilians, including children, in Bosnia and that makes him a mass murderer deserving the severest punishment on offer. However, for us sitting thousands of miles away, justice would really have been served if Bush and Blair were standing alongside this man in the dock. If Karadzic is responsible for 10000 deaths, Bush and Blair are surely responsible for hundreds of thousands of civilian deaths in Iraq where they have been fighting an illegal war based on lies about WMDs. At least Bush has an excuse. He attacked Iraq because Saddam was a bad man who had insulted his daddy and he had discussed everything with God beforehand anyway. Since he had taken permission from the Big Guy up there he can be forgiven. There is no excuse for Blair. He is a lawyer by profession so must have known that the war is illegal. He lied to the Commons about weapons ready to be fired within 45 minutes and has repeatedly lied to the nation. His support provided the fig leaf that Bush needed and he is therefore guilty of the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians killed. But he is not facing any prosecution. Instead he has a highly paid job as peacemaker between the Israelis and the Palestinians. The lesson seems to be that if you kill 10000 then you will be punished but if you kill ten times that number you will be rewarded. No wonder people are predicting apocalypse any time soon.

The politicians in Delhi are a sleepless lot these days. The Commies have withdrawn support from the government of Mrs. Sonia Gandhi and a vote of confidence is to take place shortly. One politician has suggested that Congress is promising 250 million rupees to each member of smaller parties to vote in support of the government. If the government loses then a general election should be held to give the public a voice in who forms the next government but the politicians are terrified of elections. If booted out all opportunities of looting the exchequer disappears instantly. Already various slimy creatures are crawling out of dark places to claim leadership of the next government of convenience and others are promising support in a desperate attempt to shed some light on their obscurity. As usual we, the people, will probably have no say in the matter even though our money will be used to buy support of the political whores. Newspapers featured the photographs of seven men serving sentences for various heinous crimes, from assault with deadly weapons to murder, but astonishingly these men are still members of parliament and so will be realeased to vote on the motion. Surely convicted criminals should be disbarred from any elected office forever but these are the same people who would have to pass the law to disqualify themselves and they would never do that. With the government in suspended animation, inflation out of control and the possibility of economic disaster looming the future looks bleak. But if people get really fed up they may summon up the courage and energy to bury the present rotten lot. Who knows, good may yet come out of this mess.

Recently news on television has been dominated by the happy smiling face of Ingrid Bettancort who was being held as hostage by the FARC terrorists in Columbia for the last six years. France had never given up on efforts to get her released and President Sarkozy seemed to make it a personal mission. Before that Sarkozy got Chad to release over hundred members of an NGO who were accused of trying to kidnap local children and smuggle them into Europe. Although convicted by a Chadian court of a grievous offence the government was forced to release them. This shows that western governments place enormous value on each of their citizens, a lesson lost on third world leaders. Leaders of third world countries build palaces for themselves, travel in huge cars and like to show themselves as Gods dispensing alms to their naked and hungry populace. They think that by showing how people bow and scrape in front of them their prestige is somehow increased. They do not realise that they are seen as cheap thugs and held in the deepest contempt by the western leaders. The indictment of Omar Bashir of Sudan at the International Court of Justice is an example. Regardless of all the slogan shouting by his supporters he has been badly humiliated. Similarly the Indian government has been slapped in the face by dirty Chinese chappals. Not a single member of the government has been invited to the Beijing Olympics, only Mrs. Sonia Gandhi. When will they ever learn.

Seems that tax collections, both direct and indirect, were sharply up last fiscal. The Finance Minister shows a great deal of satisfaction in announcing this fact to the suffering people of India. So what is happening to all this money extorted out of the tax payer? For a start an astronomical amount is being thrown away in forgiving bank loans of farmers. This is pure loot and bribe, a shameless cynical ploy to try and win the coming general election by swindling the tax payer. Of course, this does not help the urban poor and the majority of farmers, who have borrowed money from money lenders rather than banks, so farmer suicides have not been reduced. The second use of this money was revealed in yesterday's newpapers. Seems that bllions of rupees are being spent in buying posh, centrally air conditioned properties with tasty restaurants to house tax offices and airconditioned buses to ferry tax officers to work. Got to keep the leaches satisfied to suck more blood. Meanwhile a tax officer in Bangalore has been found to possess one hundred and twenty cars which is officially described as disproportionate assets while millions cannot afford proportionate food. Result of all this profligacy is deteriorating fiscal deficit which in turn has resulted in Standard and Poors threatening to reduce India's sovereign rating fromm BBB to junk. With oil prices threatening to go above $150 it may be prudent to lose the next election.

Two reporters wrote an article alleging that the former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Mr Sabharwal, miused his authority as a judge by ordering closure of hundreds of high street shops so as to direct shoppers to newly built malls to the profit of both his sons. The law says that a judge may not be prosecuted for any judgement he delivers from the bench however pernicious or immoral it may be. Citing this law the government refuses even to investigate the truth of the allegations in case they turn out to be true and the judge is shamed. Meanwhile a judge of the Delhi High Court jailed the two journalists on a farcical charge of contempt of court and this judge also cannot be challenged for flagrant suppression of the right to free speech. A judge in UP has confessed to embezzling millions of rupees from the PF ( ? Provident Fund ) and has named 23 other judges involved in the scam. However the Supreme Court will only allow the police to send questionaires to the named judges and not allow direct questioning to keep the affair out of media glare so as to guard the reputation of the judiciary. Almost the same number of elite policemen died off the coast of Orissa when the boat they were in was fired at by Naxal, Maoist terrorists. More than 160 districts of the total of 600 in India are infested by Naxals and they are spreading. When people see that corruption in the rich and the powerful goes unpunished they resort to the gun. The hand that wrote on the wall in ancient Babylon may be about to make a return.

The G8 summit in Hokkaido, Japan concluded yesterday with little progress on global warming. The biggest polluter, the US refuses to sign any treaty unless India and China also pledge to reduce pollution which they are loath to do. When Bush says that India is a producer of green house gases he has a point but not what he thinks it is. Every person in India confesses to suffering from 'gas' and every ailment from headache to pain in the knees and anything in between is blamed on gas. It is very difficult to convince a patient that he is having a heart attack. Inspite of an ECG showing massive changes his relatives will insist that it is gas and that a noisy exit from either end will cure the problem. However, even after so long, it is still mystifying to me that when a patient is unconscious with an obvious paralysis on one side of the body pointing to a stroke, the relatives still insist that it is gas putting pressure on the brain. So much gas in a population of more than a billion people is surely contributing to global warming. The solution is simple - clean water. Every Indian tries to have some water purifying mechanism at home. People use various filtering devices or boil water if they have the time. But these methods do not get rid of dissolved salts of calcium, magnesium and even heavy metals. The rich have started using Reverse Osmosis systems. If the government ensures clean water at the taps we can reduce our emissions of green house gases and feel better physically. However politicians continue to exploit the people by producing copious amounts of noxious gases and they will not stop. If only Bush offered us a 'gas' deal instead of a nuclear one how nice that would be.

Congress is the largest party of the Central government in India and the economy is again under great stress. It is a familiar story. Of course, they blame the OPEC countries for the record high oil prices, the US for the record high food prices and steel companies for the sky high inflation. Anyone but themselves, secure in their knowledge that public memory is short, the free loading press is not going to expose their lies and with half the population uneducated they will get away with it. It was the same in the late nineties. House prices were rocketing and inflation was out of control. The interest rates were so high that banks were giving 14.5% on fixed deposits and triple A rated companies such as Tata Steel were raising money from the market at 18%. The Sensex was high and then it all fell apart. In the initial years of this government growth was high because interest rates were low all over the world, money was cheap and the effects of the previous BJP government were still working through the system. Four years of Congress and stagflation stares us in the face. How do we get rid of them?