On A Loose End

Once again it is proved that behind every nice, compassionate, intellectual and famous face lies a monster which understands only one language; Money. Irrespective of the wealth one has amassed, what one says to the media and what one projects himself or herself to be, the lure of money has stood the test of circumstances. All of us know that many celebrities were being paid obscene sums by various city hotels for performing at their New Year celebrations. The hotels subsequently had cancelled the functions citing the Mumbai Terror attacks. The news now, from a very reliable source is that the celebrities who had taken hefty advances for making an appearance in the functions are refusing to refund the advance amount to the hotels. So much for solidarity. The hotels are in a bind. In a way the celebrities are right, they did not back out of the deal, it is the hotels which cancelled the Program, so ideally the celebrities should get to keep the money. But if the reason for cancellation ...

On Dec 24 2008, a PWD Engineer by the name of Manoj K Gupta was lynched by a BSP MLA One Mr Tiwari and two other goons for refusing to pay Rs 50 Lakhs towards the Birthday celebration of Mayawati. The story of the Gupta Murder goes like this, the MLA along with two other men went to Gupta's house in the night, locked up his wife and thrashed him continuously for a couple of hours. Then they left the unconscious man at the police station where the MLA told the police to register a case of hooliganism against Gupta and then he walked out, You read that right, the Police did not ask him the how's and why's, they let him go. Two hours later after the Police was sure that Gupta was dead, they took him to the hospital. The autopsy report says that Gupta was given electric shocks and chunks of hair pulled out of his head, there were 32 injury marks and one arm was fractured. Mayawati straightaway denied any involvement, she went on to say that the murder was a result of profession...

Opportunity knocks, but once. Opportunities are not lost, but are taken away by others. These are some phrases we grew up with. I remember them, so do many others, then why have the Indian politicians forgotten them. After having faced the brutal terror attack on Mumbai and with the irrefutable proof that Pakistan was behind the attacks, the Indian governing class and the bureaucracy have taken actions straight out of a rule book or maybe a "How to handle the aftermath of a terror attack" article. Or, maybe the Britishers left some guide book with the Indian leaders when they left the country. Someone needs to tell these politicians that all their books are dated and they need to get some innovation and fresh ideas to handle the issue. They have made the right noises to get the world opinion to side with the country, they have also got some of the world leaders to render advice to Pakistan, one which Pak does not care two hoots about and there has been some rhetoric on the In...

Few months back there was a huge cry about the multiplexes and malls in Mumbai charging much more than the listed MRP ( maximum Retail Price ) for products. It was brought out by a few concerned citizens, picked up by the media taken to consumer courts and the writing was clear on the wall. No one can charge more than the MRP printed on the product. The writing was clear on the wall, Selling a product over and above the MRP amounts to deficiency in service and exploitation of the consumer. There was the Weights and Measures department, the Packaged Commodities Act, 1977 (PCA) and the consumer courts to support the matter. I thought that was the end of the matter and was feeling good about something being corrected in the country, till today that is. Today I realized how the Great Indian Corporate political bureaucrat Mafia "killed"the issue. I had gone to the airport and since the person I had gone to pick up was late, i asked the vendor near the Departure terminal at 1B for ...

Kasab, the lone terrorist of Mumbai terror attacks caught alive has apparently said that the terror attacks were initially planned for 27 Sep this year, but were postponed for some reason. What was the reason? On 24 Sep the Mumbai Police busted an Indian Mujahiddin cell and arrested five people, amogst them notably Mohammad Sadiq Sheikh, the founder member of the Indian Mujahideen. The Mumbai Police also claimed to have pre-empted a possible terror attack on the city. Mumbai police also stated that the arrested people had confessed to their roles in the blasts in Ahmedabad and in the local trains in Mumbai on Jul 11 2006. It was also stated that the terror module took instructions from Pak based LeT operative Roshan Khan alias Bhatkal, who in turn took orders from Amir Reza, a senior LeT man. The Times of India, on 26 Sep had reported Police officials stating that "Officials said a dozen-odd members of the module were still at large and could wreak mayhem if Mumbai dropped its gua...

Yesterday i was moved to tears listening to Javed Akhtar and Sonali Bendre, both judges on the unreal reality show, Indian Idol. Both of them gave some (made up) emotional diatribe on air to the public exhorting them to vote. Javed Akhtar even went to the extent of comparing the voting on Indian Idol to the national elections saying we don't vote and then complain what kind of person has been selected. Then he continued again talking about being an Indian, he said he wondered when we will be non partisan, when we will cross the boundaries of caste, region, language, religion etc. His hidden message please vote, if you like a singer don't vote only once, keep voting till the deadline ends. Sonali Bendre on the other hand picked out the oft-repeated line of conspiracy against the girl-child and even shed a few tears, Please vote for the girls, she begged the TV audience. Coming back to my tears. It was not because I believed in these two stalwarts of our country, it was because I...

Under severe pressure from the Government the Public sector banks announced a rate cut for the home loans upto 20 Lakhs. From now on Home loans upto Rs 5 Lakhs will carry an interest rate of 8.0 % and those between Rs 5 - 20 Lakhs will carry an interest rate on only 9.25%. Hold on! Don't rush to the bank yet. Read the fine print. The rates will be valid only for new home loans and the existing borrowers will continue to bear the burden of the older interest rates. To top it all the new interest rates will not even be passed on to to the floating rate customers. The SBI chief announced that there won't be any PLR cut soon. PLR is the factor dictating the rate of interest for the new loans as well as the floating interest loans. Last option.... that too is taken care of by the financial wizards of this country. The new rates will not be effective if you swap your loan account with some other bank. Last nail in the coffin, The rates are effective only for first five years and will...

The good or the bad news, as you like it, is that the Shiv Sainiks after a long hiatus have found the courage to come out in the open again. Painfully missing for such a long time after the Mumbai attacks, I had begun to wonder if they had been terrorised for life and will stop their own terror tactics for good. Unfortunately that was not to be. After the decision of the Mumbai Lawyers Association not to defend Kasab, the courts had nominated Lawyer Dinesh Mota to defend Ajmal Kasab, the lone terrorist captured alive. Mota refused, apparently because of his conscience and moral values, though I suspect it had more to do with the internal extremists. Lawyer Ashok Sarogi then came forward and volunteered to defend Kasab, his logic being, if Indira Gandhi's assassins could get advocates, why not Kasab? Bravo Mr Ashok Sarogi. That is what woke the Shiv Sainiks from their post 26/11 deep slumber and they came out in large numbers to protest the good man's decision. The Chief Justice...

I am not saying that the terror attacks in either India or elsewhere in the world are not a big issue. It definitely is. But a terror attack or a terrorist is something you have to be prepared against, not something you can necessarily control before it takes form. It is like putting a lock on your house. Compared to terror attacks, a theft in someone's house is a minor thing. But people do keep themselves prepared against theft. I can bet my last buck, that today if the police declares that all theft and thieves are under control, people will still put locks and CCTV cameras in their houses. They are being prepared. So what went wrong here? We were not prepared. Not prepared for the terror attacks, just like we were not prepared for the Tsunami, for the earthquakes, for the plane hijacking incidents, for the stampedes, for the train accidents, for the riots and millions of other incidents that have time and again shaken the very idea of a nation state capable of looking after itse...

After the attack on Mumbai, like it always is, the public outcry was loud and pretty clear. People started shouting Enough is Enough. Campaigns, petitions and blogs were started on public's lack of trust in the office bearers across barriers and departments. The noise is steadily and surely dying down. The media house which put the words "Enough is Enough" in the mouths of the public is now vehemently exhorting people to go shopping to India's biggest shopping festival. One small ray of hope which came out of the Mayhem, and which in my opinion is the key to wresting back the power from the politicians and the political parties was the viral-e-mail about section 49(O) of the THE CONDUCT OF ELECTIONS RULES, 1961 ( http://lawmin.nic.in/ld/subord/cer1.htm ) The e-mail said that if the number of voters opting for not voting in accordance with rule 49(O) was bigger than votes secured by any of the candidates, it would result in a re-poll. Alas, this very bit of informatio...