The mystic mystery!

Of late, the number of God men originating from one state has increased dramatically, from almost none to a count that is getting larger by the day. The number of remarkable discoveries of 'god men' living in the state of Kerala has increased ever since an expose of sorts was carried out against one of the alleged 'god men', who was then found to be guilty of both fraud and criminal acts against minors.

These god men have been in the news, albeit for the wrong reasons, with most of them being guilty of crimes ranging from fraud, embezzlement, rape and even murder. It is sad to see that there are many gullible people who get taken in by such misfits, time and time again.

It seems that 'god man' is indeed a lucrative career for many aspirants, for nearly most of them get away with their crimes as the people are too scared to report them. These god men use the religious beliefs of such people to their own advantage, take for example the latest god man to hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons. Madhavan, a self declared ascetic, or that is what one thought of him, was proven to be anything but that. For besides indulging in all that a god man should not indulge in, from the pleasures of the flesh to that of alcohol, Madhavan saw it fit to defraud some honest people of their hard earned cash as well.

Madhavan's case should serve as a wake up case for the people all over the world, for such heinous crimes continues to be committed, not just in India but at almost all the places in the world. It is a much better thing to believe in god than in a god man, for man is not perfection!

The Indian angle!

With the recent Tibet crisis spilling over, the Indo-Chinese ties have come under a huge strain and are tested as they never have been before. Of course, the Americans would like nothing better than to have India and China at opposing ends as the end game for world domination would become a whole lot easier. But with the Chinese realising this better than anybody else, have instead decided to make up and patch things up!

Pakistan - an election that never was!

It is that time of the year when all the crazies come out of the closet and one of them just happens to be called Musharraf. The recent events has left no one in doubts as to the veracity of the current election, that said, It does make one wonder why on earth is Musharraf conducting an election that is bound to be derided from all corners of the world.

Pakistani politics does always leave one to wonder 'when is the other shoe going to drop'. Well, it is the very query that is bound to go through Musharraf's head more now than later. His position in the country as one of the most hated person’s right after General Zia is not something to be proud of, but then again, that is the bitter truth, one that Musharraf may well have to come to terms with.

With the United States all eager to prove to the rest of the world that Pakistan is a democratic country, one that no one in his or her right mind would accept, has sent in three senators to act as observers. Yeah, right! They are probably observing all that is taking place right from their hotel rooms since it is not safe for them to walk in the streets.

With one of Musharraf's chief allay lagging behind in the polls; Musharraf seems to be at a loss of words as to what is happening. I think that Musharraf must have harbored a secret desire to be crowned as king at the end of the election. I think that we can all say that is not going to happen anytime soon and even if it did, it would probably be as a result of all the rigging.

This is one election that is turning out to be something else altogether. After all the times that Musharraf had commented on the Kashmir polls, as to how unfair they were, the current situation must indeed be galling for him to say the least. India has since its independence, proved to the rest of the world that the spirit of democracy is vibrant at all corners of the nation. And, today just as Pakistan has finished with the election business, maybe Musharaff may take a page from the India book and make sure that at least the next time around, true democracy takes the place of Musharraf's autocracy. In the end, that is what this is all about, power and who acquires it.

The day that Musharraf got rid off the Supreme Court under false charges, the spirit of democracy fled Pakistan. Just hosting an election that is all in name only will not bring it back. It is high time that Musharraf went into exile; maybe he could ask the Indian leaders for refuge status as they have been accepting refugees since time immemorial. Either way, with Musharraf out of the way, may be we can hold a real election!

Pakistani polls, a futile exercise?

Will the music of democracy ever play in Pakistan ever again? With the Human rights indicating that it is standing by its stand that one of the top officials in Pakistan had indicated that there is going to be an 'all out' rigging so that Musharraf's party wins the polls, more and more doubts are being cast on an election which no one believes will ever take place.
And even if it did take place, no one in Pakistan is willing to lay any bets on it being fair and square. With the United States willing to rubber stamp the 'elections' by sending three U.S senators to over see it. What are they here to oversee, the rigging?
They may as well announce the winners as Musharraf's party right now and get done with it. Why bother going to the extent of holding an election when we all know that it is an exercise in imagination and one that does not exercise the people's mandate?

Will it or won't it - The Nuke deal!

With the window for the final approval of the Nuke deal getting smaller by the second, Atomic Energy Commission Chairman Anil Kakodkar seems to be quite optimistic about getting the deal through.

As the deal window keeps getting smaller and smaller and with each day the Left parties insisting that the deal will be approved by them only after the current U.S presidential elections, everyone seem to be all on an edge where the deal is concerned.

Most of the educated hoi-polloi does not seem to care either way as far as the deal goes but the major chunk of the Indian electorate want this deal to be passed through as soon as possible.

The Rising Rupee!

These days as the U.S dollar seems to be plummeting to new depths, it seems that nothing can hold the rupee back. The exporters cries are getting shriller by the day as the rupee marches head on, becoming stronger by the day.
Almost every day seems to be bringing about the further rise of the rupee, and it is not only the exporters who are being hit, but also the countless number of companies who had moved their operations to India as it was profitable for them to do so. But now, that may no longer be the case, we all want a strong rupee, but not this quickly as it would only deplete our forex reserves and bring about inflation.

technorati tags: indian,rupee,dollar,exim,currency,

The World calls to us and what do we do?

With all the news from the rest of the world with assassinations and misery here and there, I think that it is high time that we all took a firm resolve to help the others out. These days the paper seems to be filled with nothing but bad news on both the news articles and the economical section as well. With the recent nandigrqam fiasco where the ruling government tried to take over the villagers land by force and that led to this huge hullabaloo, It is high time that we all stood up and did the right thing. Thank god that everything did work out for those villagers but that is not the case with a whole lot of other people. We should stop thinking of ourselves and try and do something to help the others and we should do this because we want to help and not for some ulterior motive. That is exactly what Boat Angel is doing with its Boat Donations.

The difference that Boat angel is making in other people lives is tremendous to say the least. We can do the same and all we have to do is to make the very first step and take part in these Charity Boat Donations. If we do not take care of each other, then who will be there to take care of us when we need it the most? I understand that most of us are very busy with our lives as such, but I am sure that we all can do a little bit more, not for us but for the sake of others.

Here at Boat angel that is what they do, they try and make the other people's lives a little better and one of the ways that they do it is by way of these donations. They have already had such a huge impact on the lives of so many troubled people and now it is time for us to something of the same. We get to donate a boat and these donations are for the production and the distribution of the Children's Christian Animations on Free DVDs with shipping totally free and now anyone and everyone can order them!

The end of days for the Indian government!

It seems that the current Indian government may face elections sooner than ever, it is caught between a rock and a very immovable hard Left. Whichever decision it undertakes vis-a-vis the Nuclear deal, it has to alienate some of its so called allies.
Lets all take a breather and take a look at this deal, first of all, is this deal good for India - although most of the educated populace may say no at the first time as I was of the same opinion the ground reality is that India is not going to get any deal better than this. That is the nub of the matter, no one is going to step forward and say that India is a nuclear power and we are okay with India building up its nuclear arsenal. So in the long run of things, this deal is the best thing that has happened to India seeing that we do not have that many deals knocking on our front door.

The Russians had offered a similar deal but without the 'yea' of the NSG group so even if the prime minister had gone ahead and signed that deal with the Russians, the NSG group would have blocked it. The Russians would not have lost anything much by that deal getting blocked but our credibility would have hit rock bottom and we may as well forget getting that clearance in the near future.
The Left parties, the allies of the current government seem to be only good at one thing and that is sowing destruction wherever they go to. Take the case of Nandigram, we all know that they were behind the whole dastardly affair, but did the CPI[m] leader have the courtesy to even offer a simple apology, NO, he did not. All he said was that the nandigram villagers were paid with the same coin and this comment came from the chief minister ruling that state. This should tell you about the mentality of the Left parties. Currently they are busy blackmailing the current Congress government and they have warned the Congress party publicly that if they do not toe the Left's line regarding the Americans and the Indo - U.S nuclear deal, then they, the Left parties will withdraw support to the current government and that they would have to face general elections sooner than later.

The Left parties seem to think that they can get away with anything, and now they are trying to impress their ideology of hating anything to do with the west on the entire nation. The Congress party is under pressure to put up with the Left but there is a limit and it has been reached a long time ago. No one with backbone would put up with the antics of the Left parties and the time has come to show the Left parties to take the road. Of course, it would mean that we all would have to face general elections again but that is okay if it means that the left will have no more say in the running of this country.
The Congress party has to realise that the longer they put up with the left parties, they are only tarnishing their own image and it is high time that they stood up for what they believe in.

kremlin,manmohan singh,congress party,sonia gandhi,george bush,nandigram,Buddhadeb,nuclear deal,

Emergency to be lifted on Dec 16th?

Musharraf seems to be intent on throwing everyone off balance and that is what he did with the latest announcement that the emergency is to be lifted on December the 16th. Of course the rest of the world will rather wait and see what Musharraf does and truth be told, one cannot blame them for wanting to take whatever Musharraf says with a rather heavy dose of salt. As for the rivals for power in Pakistan, Nawaz sharif and Benazir bhutto, it seems that one of them has decided to boycott the elections where as the other one is under undue pressure from the Americans to contest the elections.

What am I talking about? Well the game for power in Pakistan has began and the Americans as well as Musharraf realise that the Pakistan that accepted military rule in the past will not do so in the current atmosphere, therefore some semblance of democracy should be restored to Pakistan. The Americans would very much prefer that Pakistan be jointly ruled by both the 'Dictatorial' Musharraf and the versatile Bhutto. Even Musharraf realises that Bhutto is the key to his survival in this game for the ultimate power since both he and Sharif detest each other, therefore they would not support one other. Bhutto is fast becoming the most wanted person in Pakistan, one one hand, the entire opposition would like for her to boycott the elections altogether and since the integrity of the current election commission is not all that great, any current elections held under them can be easily overturned by the Supreme court. That said, on the other hand I am sure that Benazir Bhutto realises that the current election could very well see to her becoming the Prime minister again.l Things are very turbulent at the very least in Pakistani politics and I am sure that a few years from now, someone would make a very good soap opera about the whole thing!

Pakistan,politics,Musharraf,emergency,Martial law,

The Left does not mean change!

We have all been here since the beginning of this saga of the Indo - U.S nuclear deal and I have to say that after reading yesterday's paper where it had mentioned that the Left parties were now okay with the government of India approaching the IAEA for a safeguards agreement, that they have come to their senses. But that relief was short lived as the Left parties clarified their stand today by saying to the media that they are still very much opposed to the Nuclear deal and that if the Prime Minister was to go ahead that they would in all probability pull down this government.
The left parties are still living in ancient times and as far as the Left parties go, no development is good news to them. Is it any surprise that Calcutta, the bastion of the Left parties is so underdeveloped when compared to the other metros, forget the all famous tram system that they have. That has been there since the days of the Raj and so one cannot take it as a mark of development. But other than that, there have not been much movement on the development issues. The left parties would like nothing better than to totally cut off all diplomatic relations with the United states as they consider anything capitalistic in nature to be against their ideologies. Like I said, the Left parties are indeed living in very ancient times and Capitalism is the path of the the future and the Congress party, has to make up its mind soon as to whether it still wants to continue with this ally who seems to be intent of blackballing any development issue that India has especially if the Untied states or the west or involved in it in some way or the other.
The Congress party has to realise that if it does not go ahead with the Nuclear deal, then it stands to lose all credibility before the nation and as a result the damage to its electoral performances the nest time around will be incalculable and no amount of damage control will change that. So it has to make up its mind and tell the Left parties to either ' like it or lump it'.

Tags: India,Congress,Nuclear deal,Foreign policy,Elections,

A nuclear 'time off'.

It seems that the Left parties who were so vehemently opposing the Nuclear deal may have told the goernment to go ahead with negotiations with the IAEA. This turnaround has certainly come as a surprise to many in the political circles, but irrespective of whether the Left parties hae agreed to gie the nod or not, the government may soon find itself back in the situation with its main ally, the left parties holding the knife at its throat. The time has come to give the Left parties and their blackmail the boot and in my opinion they should do this sooner than later!

Burns increasing the pressure on India!

Burns, the US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, is increasing the pressure on India as the ruling Congress party is mulling its options. I for one would not fancy being in the Prime Minister's shoes at the moment, not with the pressure that he is currently facing. Nicholas Burns, is slowly but surely turning the screws on India so as to ensure that the Nuclear deal does go through. George Bush needs at least one successful policy decision in his kitty and this is it.

If the Nuke deal falls flat, then Georgie boy will have nothing top show for this presidency except war,loss,debt and death. That's quite an achievement even for George Bush anyway he wants this deal to go through and he has indicated that he is not going to hold back as far as this deal goes.

Politically the Americans understand that if this deal does fall flat then the Russians who are waiting in the wings will just swoop in and then the U.S will be out of the picture as far as Asia goes. So for all the right reasons and the wrong reasons, both the democrats and the republicans in the United states want this deal to go through at all cost . The deal will happen, it is just a matter of timing but for George Bush, it is fast running out as the presidential elections are fast approaching the United states!

politics,manmohan singh,george bush,Nicholas Burns,

The U.S - India nuke runaround!

It has come a full circle, with the United states now on the back foot. All said and done, both India and the United states wanted this deal to go through at any cost, at least that was the case with the Congress government, until their coalition partners, the Left parties threw in the spanner. Now, with the threat to his government, Manmohan singh had no choice but to tell George Bush that the 'Nuclear deal' has to be put on the back burner at least for the time being. This should placate his coalition partners there by assuring that this government will run its full term. One can almost hear the breath of relief all across the Indian parliament.

Today,saw the Indian prime minister call up President Bush, to tell him that due to political opposition from his coalition partners,the Deal has to be put on the back burner for the time being. To say that the Americans were 'shell shocked' would be an understatement of sorts. Let's face facts, the left parties will oppose anything, even if it is for the benefit of the country, as long as it is American. It is that stupid ideology of the Left parties that has caused so much havoc and confusion. It is high time that the Left parties understood that such 'Communist' principles belong only in the past and that the future holds no place for such antiquated ideals.

The Russians are busy preparing a Nuclear deal with India along the lines of the American deal and this news alone, by itself must be irking the Americans a great deal. They did all the hard spade work with India, the NSG group as well as the other member nations of the U.N security council. And now at the time that the American deal is being consigned to the back burner, along come the Russians with their version of a deal and may well end up doing the job and walking away with the credit. The Americans cannot, in all fairness oppose any such deal and they know it and so do the Russians. What is more, the Left parties whose ideological stand makes them oppose any deal with the Americans will very gladly welcome any deal with the Russians. Russia knows that it can get a nuclear deal signed with India and that it can walk away with all the credit after all the hard work put in by the Americans and Nicholas burns. Considering the fact that a deep chill has descended of late on the relations between the two super powers, they, the Russians may well do that.India will have a nuclear deal signed within 2 years, that is not in doubt, but the real question is with whom?

indian,nuclear deal,Nicholas Burns,george bush,

Shame,shame,shame on you!

The left parties should be ashamed that it is holding the government hostage.many believe that the Left parties are actually the agents of China.whether that is true or not,the left's position on so many issues correspond to the position of China itself.this is indeed very worrying that the government of India could be held hostage and stopped from carrying out its duties because of certain foreign Powers.
what is more,most of the educated citizens of India are of the opinion that the Nuclear deal between India and the United stats is in the national interest and that it is essential.and with the Left's threat of withdrawing support if the government goes ahead with the Nuclear deal is only being seen as many as the left is against any development for India as large and that they are interested in foisting another national election on the people!
What is really galling is that these people are doing it under the guise of 'national interest'.it is more likely a case of self interest.the left have shown their true colors and the people of India will never forgive them if they try to foist another general election on such grounds and under the guise of 'national interest'.it is the tax payers money that is being spent every election and we the tax payers most certainly do not want another election right away.the left parties can be assured that come next election they will most definitely not get our votes and that is the truth!

India on the Hit list of Al-quaida!

A new video showing an American Al-quaida convert has threatened that both U.S and Indian projects and diplomatic missions are now legitimate targets for Al-Quaida.they have also threatened Russia as well.this is really nuts speaking about more nuts.anyone with any common sense would know that once you are a banned terrorist organisation that it is better to not draw any more unwanted attention.but with Al-Quaida,it seems that they want to take on all the world powers at one go.
This would only make the world powers all the more determined to wipe out the Al-quaida once and for all.be that as it may,it is high time that people in general realise that anything acquired by force rarely lasts for long,case in example,saddam hussein!anyway the Indian government is taking the threat seriously and have already beefed up security.with Al-quaida going the way it has,it is only a question of time before it becomes extinct once and for all!

UK visa problems for all?!?

With the probe now extending to India,there are rumors floating around that there may be problems in obtaining a UK visa from the near future onwards.it is totally unfair to tarnish all asians just because an asian participated in a terror attack but people should realise that if that is the case should not the germans be made as pariahs forever,especially when one considers what they did to all those poor jewish people?
One cannot label an entire race just by the actions of a few mad fanatics.but this debate is endless and i have to say that as Interpol has implied recently in its recent press statement that the blame for the latest attacks in Glasgow rests solely on the current labor government in the United Kingdom.
With a database of terrorists and those who show terrorist sympathies available with Interpol,the british government should have done more by way of sharing with other member countries as well as Interpol what ever information it had with itself.what is more the recent comments alleging that MI5 knew about the attacks beforehand really only casts a deep shadow on the efficiency of the Labor government.will Gordon Brown be able to handle this nasty business without losing out all his hair???

Radical muslim cleric killed by pakistani troopers!

Today saw the pakistani troopers raid the Red mosque in the heart of Islamabad where the radical cleric was holed up with his supporters which mainly consisted of women.President Musharaff was indeed caught between a rock and a hard place.the radical cleric and his brother and followers were getting out of hand with their demand to have the shariat law imposed all over pakistan.with things coming to a head,Musharaff gave them an ultimatum,surrender or face the consequences.please remember that the Musharaff government is supported in the center by a radical muslim group who are not going to be all too happy with the current turn of events.what is more,this political group is now going to come under enormous pressure which may force them to reconsider their support to the Musharaff government.
Either way with a dammed if he does or dammed if he does not,Musharaff finally had enough and gave the orders to the troopers to raid the mosque.fighting is currently going on with hand to hand battles in almost every room.the rebels are giving as good as they get and the story is yet to fully play out.either way President Musharaff is heading into some really troubled times.will he survive this,probably but his political career is almost over with this faux paus.after all if one were to attack the very hand that one is fed by,what support can one count on come elections which by the way are not that far away!

pakistan,
musharaff,elections,china,united states,

NAM matters a lot!

NAM,the non aligned movement co founded by India,got a rude jolt as the U.S condoleeza rice decided to come out and say that the NAM movement has lost all relevance in the modern world.but the entire world knows that the U.S has always been hostile to the very idea of NAM.NAM was started as a counter balance to the power polarities in the world at the time,the U.S and that of the U.S.S.R.the russians very adroitly managed to get friendly with India and thereby had assured that the NAM policies were always friendly to them,much to the chagrin of the U.S.
Today although the power scenario may have altered with the demise of the U.S.S.R a new power struggle happens to be taking place,between that of the U.S and the asian giants with Europe sitting on the sidelines and cheering the asians on.the asian giants,China and India believe in a multi polar world and as such the trilateral conferences between the current Russia,the NAM and the ASEAN just suits their purposes fine for this.the U.S knows that it could never totally dominate the world and make itself the sole reigning power.what is more most of the world central banks have started changing their reserver currency as the U.S dollar gets weaker and weaker.this worrying trend could also9 be as a result of the U.S policies and their aggressive attitude towards other world powers.as far as China,Russia and India are concerned,they seem to think that a multi polar world is much needed and they are making steady progress towards that end.as far as the U.S is concerned,they see themselves losing all relevance in this modern world as they and their economy gets more and more outdated.their aggressive polices may have well suited the time of kennedy's and nixon's.but today economy speaks volumes and services matter more than just mere muscle.gone are the days of muscle power and say hello to the power of money and hi tech wizardry!

United States,India,nam,kennedy,nixon,china,