Friday, October 18, 2013

OF KINGS, SAINTS, GOLD, PRINCES AND SWISS BANK ACCOUNTS


A news item and an Editorial in a Telugu News Paper of repute, “Eeenadu” attracted my attention and I thought that there might be something beyond what met the eye. The news is about a Hindu “saint”
(Saadhu), whom Congress leaders deride as an agent of BJP.  This Saadhu is said to have dreamt
of a King. The king told him as follows as per the news item.

“Oh! Saadhu! (Like a story in Chandamma) About 150 years back, I hoarded a thousand tons of gold in my Dandiya Khera Fort in Unnav District of UP. Dig it and use it for the welfare of 67% of the poor.” I imagine he may have told him to get a GSB (A Gold Security Bill) passed and if somebody can not vote to let him/her cry and get tears.  The Saadhu promptly told the UP Government authorities and they laughed it off.  True! If anyone told that they hoarded onions, they would have believed. But “gold”? Who will hoard?

There was a twist in the tale here. As per the report the Saadhu met a very secular Congress leader, who had been his friend in need and deed and narrated  the dream story. This leader  happens to be a disciple of the“Prince in waiting”. So he informed him and the Prince did not call it nonsense but instead reportedly unofficially instructed the ASI officials to dig the ‘gold’ and as per the report ASI obliged and started digging. It is“digging” only and not “Diggying”. After digging they seem to have stumbled upon a ‘hard object”. So, it might be the hoarded gold. Nobody from media asked the question “Will you dig the whole of India if the 1.25 billion population dream about kings, queens,princes and sycophants hoarding gold? ”But I am asking. “Will they do?” They did not ask as the Saadhu was not an Asaram or it was not a BJP leader who ordered the digging. It was reportedly the “nonsense” Prince. If any BJP leader did this, he would have been branded communal and all the channel anchors would have asked questions waving their left hands to all rights activists. "Can you believe such things happen in secular India? Are they not polarising?" And all Ananthamurthys and Amartya Sens would have wryly smiled and said "yes". There would have been a “huge controversy”. Let us wait for further news.

Now, let us come to the editorial.  The headline reads. “Swiss Bank doors to be opened”. The editorial is about the recent decision of Switzerland Government to sign the multilateral agreement to co-operate in getting details of accounts held in banks there by all countries. The news paper editors strike a note of optimism about bringing back the black money from there. It is good if it is brought.

Now, it is not in my purview to speculate. It is election time. Exactly at a time when  the Swiss Bank bubble is about to burst a Hindu Saadhu dreams of huge gold hoarding. And the Prince who is the secularest of the secular orders ‘digging’ out the fact behind the dream. He does not brush it aside the Hindu as communal or the hoard as ‘nonsense’.

The news paper says the ‘digging’ on orders is ‘speculative’ but was from reliable sources. So, I also report in the same vein. If it were true you can draw an inference you like to draw. I have no objection. “The Swiss Bank Accounts and the hidden gold” are not important. What is important is the purported interest the“Prince” showed on the gold. To save the poor of the country or to wipe out tears of his mother? 

JAI HIND!

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Disclaimer: The news is taken "verbatim" from a news paper report. I can not vouch for the report's correctness. But, read in unison, the news and editorial tell us another "dream story".







Tuesday, October 15, 2013

ANCHORS WITH RANCOUR-FOURTH ESTATE DEGREE METHODS


The other day I tuned TV and turned on channel 606.  As usual a histrionic  anchor, the inimitable “talk show connoisseur”, was judging the BJP leaders from Gujarat from the CBI point of view. CBI Officers must be vying with the idea of inviting this “anchor with rancour” for a talk show on how to  use “fourth estate degree methods” to down and drown ‘witnesses’ and make them “accused.” It may not be surprising as we have the example of “Lalu on rail” (now in jail), having been invited by ‘secular’ management schools to talk on how it helps to be a rustic and how to survive on fodder. I saw it only a few minutes as further viewing would have been a nauseating experience. On one side was a BJP man or fan and on the other side, a self-styled lady rights activist or who so ever it was. He was seen saying this. “My question is ‘Why was it necessary for a leader in the position of State Home Minister to talk to the officer of the level of DIG? (As per him, DIG post is too low in the police hierarchy.)  BJP has a duty to answer this question. Yes, they should answer. There is no escape. I repeat that BJP should answer the question.”  He repeated this many times. The unfortunate BJP leader wanted to open his mouth to answer but was not allowed to do so by the repeated “BJP should answer” shouts from the anchor. All the time the purported rights activist or who so ever, was seen mockingly smiling at the discomfiture of the BJP leader not being allowed to answer. I switched the channel.

Issue here is whether the anchor possesses total knowledge of how CBI works. If so, there is something seriously wrong with CBI, whose modus is highly confidential. Still, the anchor wants to pluck hairs from a perennially bald head or feathers on an egg. There is nothing in the rule book to prevent a Home Minister talking to even a constable in the course of duty. So, the anchor does not know what he wants to prove and to hide this fact he shouts so the other person has no chance to express.

I will share my personal experience with the CBI.  Long back, I was summoned by the CBI, Hyderabad as a witness/possible accused in a case related to indiscriminate lending to unidentified beneficiaries under a government scheme called “DRI” Scheme. The rate of interest on this scheme was 4% p.a., in itself an incentive for misuse. Around 1500 loans granted under the scheme went bad and it came out that there was large scale misuse. I was the second in line in the branch in Hyderabad during a part of the period and was 30 years of age. Considering my high voltage reputation in the bank those days a lot of interest was generated and many rancorous anchors predicted I was called to be arrested for being a ‘conspirator-glove-in-hand’ with the perpetrators in the misuse.

The questioning went on for two days each spanning two/three hours. They placed before me a set of about hundred documents where I made remarks on the borrowers and recommended loans. The Inspector asked me, “Did you see the beneficiaries?” I said “No”. He asked me how I recommended so many loans when I did not see them. I replied that in a “target oriented approach in banking, where we were given unreasonable targets by the higher officials under advice from political bosses it was not possible to verify each borrower’s credentials for loans of Rs.500/- to Rs. 1000/-. I also told him that we were trained to be part of the social uplift of sections of society. He told me that they had information that I was in collusion with the beneficiaries. I replied that if it were proved so, I was ready to be punished. So went on the investigation. They asked me to name any one who might have been involved in the scam. As I did not know, I said I did not know. Later, the culprits received two years’ imprisonment.

By the time I returned from the questioning many stalwarts of running commentary started questioning me and most of those envious of me started speculating my doom. After two weeks two CBI officers came to my house, might be for further questioning. I was living in a two room tenement then with my wife, three children and mother. By the time they came, my wife was seen carrying buckets of water from the ground floor well. One officer asked me, “Is this where you live?” I said “yes”. In fact I was not having proper furniture in my house then to make them comfortable. We offered coffee. They said or did nothing. They started talking general issues to my wife, mother and showered affection on my children. They asked me about my financials. Finally, they thanked us and left.

Later, I did not hear from them. They obviously gave me a “clean chit”. Might be they made their own investigations. There were no anchors to question them then. I was informed by our higher officers that my name was dropped even as a witness.  All freaks in the bank were disappointed.  I narrated this to show that institutions work within a framework of rules. If they are misused there are courts to intervene. To brand all officers of CBI or any other institution bad and to brand each one that they talk to as a culprit is sacrilege.

Investigations are done by the officers of CBI. In the course of duty they talk to many people. It is not in the media houses that judgements are passed. There are set rules. These rules are not framed by talk show hosts or rights activists. If, by any chance, the institutions or officers exceed their mandate and harass innocent people or take political sides then question them in proper forums.  Sources do not do investigations. There are specialists for that. Let us leave it to them. If something is amiss, let us question them in courts or people’s courts. Let us not forget that media investigation turned the Arushi murder case take ugly turns.  First it was parents, then servants and again parents. Still, the investigations are on. CBI is looking into it. But media did not stop to stoop to further levels. Let CBI officers do their duty. Mr. Anchor! Investigative journalism does not mean demeaning people. It is a “pious” duty dedicated to national interest. Do not sabotage real investigations by your biased investigations. You can not be the investigator, witness, advocate and judge at the same time. Confine to journalism, the job you are best suited for!

Once, one SP in a district, called me to witness how difficult a police officers’ job was. He was addressing a Press Conference on an alleged encounter in the district. After the conference I told him that it was a horrible experience. The Press was asking all inconvenient questions and trying to get the answer they wanted. He smiled it away. He retired from service now at DGP level.  Once, I approached another SP of a district for protection as I was under threat and one of my family members went missing for a day (probably taken away by miscreants). As I entered his cabin, his finger was on the trigger. I asked him, “When I sent my card, why are you still paranoid?” He replied, “We can’t say. Making a visiting card is not that difficult”. So, anchors! Know police and investigating officers risk their lives for a better society. There are black sheep everywhere. For that, do not blacken the institutions. Live your job. Let them live theirs!  


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Disclaimer: With lot of criticism against CBI for being partial there is a possibility that I be misunderstood that I defended them from any wrong doing on their part. It is not so. I wanted to show that in our over enthusiasm to take political sides, we are slowly killing the ‘spirit’ of institutions and making out ‘villains’ out of everyone. There are politicians to play politics.  Let the media not do it. On our part let us vote for a change in the whole system.

Sunday, October 13, 2013




MOILY'S SAVING ON OIL-COST TO THE NATION

Poverty costs the nation. Poor need subsidies. Politicians need to keep them poor as they need votes. They do a cost-benefit analysis. It costs tax payers’ money. Benefits are accrued to them. There is another kind of poverty. It is called “token poverty”. They feign poverty to gain mileage in elections.
Once, Mrs. Sarojini Naidu was said to have commented about Gandhi Jee’s stay in the houses of poor and the elaborate arrangements Congress had to make for his night stay there.  “It is proving costly to the party to keep this man poor”. When Mahatma intended to travel by third class in a train, then a whole bogey had to be cleared so that he could be secure. The tokenism of third-class travel was an effective tool to please illiterate masses. The cost was rather more mind boggling than the Congress was willing to go on. Mrs. Sarojini Naidu took potshots on Gandhi on these issues.  Ways of Congress did not change. Tokenism multiplied in tens of hundreds. Nation is paying, not Congress. So, if Rahul Gandhi today travels by a Metro train, stays in a Dalit home or visits a Kalavathy, it costs nation/Congress a lot.

Veerappa Moily, the other day, reached office by a Metro train to which station he walked. Good to hear and read it in news papers. How many travelled by train after Gandhiji and Rahul Gandhi Jee? Moily’s sojourn was recorded and taped by hundreds of media men who used their cars, vans, scooters and all other vehicles o reach the spot consuming huge amount of oil, which we import at huge cost. One day they will release these tapes and name them “Moily’s train tapes”, what he saved and what they spent. So what? Moily travelled by train and saved a little oil to the nation.  Not only that all other officers working in the oil ministry travelled either by local train or cycled all the way to office. And they all vowed to do it every Wednesday. What happened on that Wednesday in the Oil Ministry office and what will happen every other Wednesday?

All the convoy of vehicles, except that of the Minister would have reached his office empty as all his Z+ category security men might have accompanied him in the train. His own car must have been driven empty by his chauffeur to his office. Mind you! He did not travel back in train and hence might have used the car in the evening along with the convoy. What did he save? Added to this, a thorough security drill might have been undertaken on the route he walked that might have cost huge. At least one compartment must have been reserved for him as a security measure. So, the railways might have lost revenue to that extent. Even if the minister and his coterie purchased tickets, it must have been government money. The travellers who could not make it by the train to reach offices by that train might have got delayed by an hour. Loss of man hours was an indirect cost on the nation.

Now, let us muse about what would have transpired in the ministry office on the first Wednesday. Half the officers that rode bicycles to office might have got cramps in muscles as it was a rare experience. Their man days were as good as lost. The others who accompanied the minister might have spent the day discussing about the greatness or stupidity of the experiment. So, their man days too were an indirect loss.
                                                                                 
So he saved a litre of oil and spent equivalent to 10000 litres of oil more of the nation. What did he achieve? Did anyone in India follow suit, left cars and travelled by trains? If that happened, what would have been the position of trains already overcrowded by travellers? Will there be tracks on which they can travel? Whom are they fooling?

“Over the years, I have learned that the best way to make sure your experience does not go waste is to invest in the people” Quote Politicians will do well to invest in the vast human resources in the country, improve infrastructure, build factories, invest in research, explore and use the natural resources for common good. Do not make the nation pay for your assumed ‘poverty’.

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Thursday, October 10, 2013


POLITICS OF DIVISION - TRUTH BEHIND


The truth behind the “purportedly” sixty years of struggle for formation Telangana State is at the best. “a sweet lie” or “ a sour truth”. We shall come to that later. Whatever the struggle, the stand of Congress in the whole episode was dubious. It can be compared to the stand of Kauravas in refusing Kingdom to Pandavas and playing all dirty tricks on them to keep themselves in power. Even today, their intentions are highly suspect.  Conflicting statements from various Congress leaders on the road map for creation of Telangana state amply prove that people of TG region again stand cheated. The onus now lies on the next government after 2014.

 On 8th October Mr. Digvijay Sngh, the man in the news always for wrong reasons released two letters written by TDP and YSRCP, accepting formation of Telangana state and sought to drive home the point that these letters formed the basis for Congress to bite the bullet on Telangana. Hence, it should be presumed that Congress, prima facie, is not interested in the formation of Telangana but their hands were forced by their bête noirs in the state. This simple fact was lost on the Congress stalwart who lost his honour in MP.  In the same breath, the High Command advised the leaders from Telangana to go round shopping Rahul and Sonia with the slogan, “We brought and they gave”. This is hypocrisy at the highest.

Coming to the letter of TDP, it was given to Pranab Committee, formed to study the nuances of state formation and arrive at consensus. The letter of TDP released by Singh was dated in the year 2008. Till December, 2009 no decision was taken on the letter nor did they accept that such a letter was ever received. The then Home Minister called an all party meeting in 2009 and announced on December, 9, 2009 “Process for formation of Telangana is initiated”. Even by then, Congress did not give any letter to their own Pranab Committee that they accepted in principle the formation of the state. There was a sinister game plan. If the tide turned against them in coastal Andhra they wanted to shoot over the shoulders of Naidu and say that he was responsible for division. They always had TRS Chief KCR, in their grip in his farm house. The double benefit scheme worked most of the times. See the case of minorities. They appease them with false promises, never fulfill them and whenever or for whatever reason communal riots happen, they blame BJP and try to woo Hindus too in the process. Now, they lost both.

But, in 2009 their game plan failed. Naidu, the astute politician he was, sent feelers that all his MLAs from Coastal AP would resign in protest. Congress sensed this and asked JC Diwakar Reddy from Anantapur to take the lead in resigning.  Lagadapati, the loyal contractor and major beneficiary in Government largesse was prompted to revolt against his own party. By the time Naidu recalled his wits, Congress leaders from Coastal AP were in the forefront of opposing Telangana. Naidu, almost facing revolt from both sides, had to follow suit and their MLAs from coastal side resigned en masse. This gave a handle to Congress in consort with TRS to put the blame on Naidu for coming in the way of Telangana. It should be noted that Congress never committed in writing that they were for separation. Their only aim then or now was to gain political points both sides. As elections were far away, all parties played their street shows for some days and put the entire blame on Naidu for the fiasco. Another committee was formed that toured the state, gave a report that said neither this nor that. The final chapter in the report did not see light of the day and all kinds of speculations flew in thin air.

As his letter never saw the light of the day, even though Naidu was consistently insisting that his letter to Pranab Committee was final, a systemic campaign was launched which ran on these lines. “Why is he speaking about Pranab letter? Let him issue an open statement that he favoured Telangana.” All the while Congress, as a political party, did not spell out its stand. Post 2009 Naidu never said he was against Telangana nor that he favoured it. He changed tack. He went around telling that he stood by his letter and it was final. (None knows about the letter till Digvijay released it after five years to score points)  It was for Congress to take a final call on the issue as he was not the one to give the state, was his stand. Even then, the letter did not see light of the day.

Come, 2013 what changed so fast? One is advent of Jagan on the scene in full swing and the sympathy he was gaining by being in jail. The second was the Panchayat elections where both TDP and YSRCP gave Congress a run for their money. Congress knew the impending Municipal elections would spell doom to them as their hold on urban areas was nil. Added to this some tutored opinion polls were giving a larger than life image to the jailed politician that he would sweep Seema-Andhra belt and TRS would sweep Telangana. This gave jitters to Congress that was looking for a wash out in the whole of India. They wanted to deal state by state. Hence, within a day a decision was taken to carve out Telangana. They already had an understanding with YSRCP that they would agitate for united Andhra and their 17 MLAs were asked to resign just before the announcement. TRS openly declared they would merge with Congress, though nobody relied on KCR and on his farm house politics. This way by killing their own party they wanted their Siamese twins on both sides to win the day for them. They would win seats for them and merge their parties in Congress to give them a remote chance of power again at the centre, was their plan.

Though posturing boldly opposing the division, all political parties resigned themselves to the division in 2013. But it boomeranged again on Congress. This time it was an angry revolt from people of Coastal Andhra. It was leaderless until APNGOs started hitting streets and almost all sections joined the revolt. Political parties realized what they lost and being in opposition Jagan and Naidu joined the chorus, one for united state and the latter for ‘justice to both sides”. Seeing the popular sentiment and purported agreement between Jagan and Congress, most Congress leaders saw their doom was not far off and one by one started revolting against the leadership, to the extent of some calling Sonia and Rahul names. This was unexpected.

Congress did the inevitable. For sixty four days they did nothing to move forward always saying “No going back on Telangana.” But, the tide changed when Sushma openly supported agitation if state was not carved out by December and Naidu and Modi shared stage where Naidu received a big applause. Sensing that some thing was amiss, in a knee jerk reaction they introduced a table note in the cabinet meeting and got it approved within hours. It was the same as the CWC resolution in toto. JP of Lok satta asked a relevant question, “If you adopted CWC resolution in toto why did it take 64 days to bring the note?” (Twitter)  The reason was that the Congress expected NGOs getting tired of their agitation as they were not getting salaries and that they would withdraw strike and the agitation would peter out. It only aggravated by the day and joining in the strike by power board employees aggravated it further.

Jagan changed tack and as days passed by more and more Congressmen became restless about their future. In the meantime a systemic campaign was launched by disgruntled Congress men that it was the agreement between Jagan and Sonia that helped in the division of state. Jagan sensed his losses by such a campaign as he would lose ground to Naidu and BJP both sides. He openly praised Modi. This distanced his traditional supporters, mostly Christian minorities to rethink. Their natural choice would be TDP, as Congress is reduced to ashes there. Now, Jagan’s dilemma is adding to the discomfiture of Congress. One senior Congress leader went to the extent of saying that BJP in partnership with TDP would sweep Coastal AP.

Congress changed tack again. They reduced number of ministers in GOM thus making it questionable in courts and removed the time frame for formation of the state. In a way it is an indication of keeping the issue in limbo till elections are announced for LS. They are now between the frying pan and fire and most likely will fall in the fire. Who will win the day is still hanging by a thin thread. It is high time people realize that it was a high stakes political game being played by Congress to retain hold on AP, the only state they hope to win a few seats.


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I started the blog stating, “The truth behind the “purportedly” sixty years of struggle for formation of Telangana State is at the best “a sweet lie” or “a sour truth”.” Though a few hardcore Telangana protagonists might feel aggravated, this is a fact of history as enunciated below. Most of the time, the struggle was confined to political maneuvering. They never made the ordinary man a partner in the struggle. He was used as an orange, peeled, the cover thrown out and politicians enjoyed the juice. The sequence of events since 1956 proves this point.

The state was ruled by CMS hailing from Congress from Rayalaseema for 5666 days, from TDP from Rayalaseema including NTR (who contested from Hidupur) for 5361 days. (Total 11027 days). CM s, all of whom are from Congress from Telangana ruled 3845 days and CM s from Coastal AP ruled 4098 days.  It is clear that the Congress CMs hailing from Telangana who ruled for considerable time never made any attempt to carve out Telangana, though the party was in power both in state and centre.

The 1st SRC recommended Telangana be kept as Hyderabad State and that after 1961 elections it could be merged if 2/3rd majority in Assembly favored it. What acted on the mind of the Government of the day is mired in mystery, but the recommendation was not considered and an integrated AP was formed with a Gentlemen agreement. In fact, Nehru in all wisdom expressed the view that it was a matrimonial agreement with a divorce clause if the parties cant live together. Even if the entire state speaks Telugu there is a lot of diversity between regions in culture and development. That settles the issue to a major extent. In 1969, at the end of the gentlemen agreement period, politicians in Telangana thought the provisions were not implemented in right spirit and what happened was history. In a book written by T.N.Kaul,ex- secretary of External Affairs and published in 1982 he mentioned that Indira Gandhi, in principle accepted formation of Telangana but was dissuaded  as the issue of Hyderabad was still in the UN and could not be taken up for consideration. In 1979 the Hyderabad case was closed by the UN. They could then have kept Hyderabad as a Union territory and divided the state. That did not happen as the demon of naxalism was purportedly hanging its sword there, more in Telangana.

In 1972 a “Jai Andhra Movement” was started in Coastal Andhra area against the upholding of the Mulki rules in Hyderabad area by SC. Surprisingly, Telangana leaders who spearheaded the separatist agitation in 1969 were silent on separation at that time. So, struggle for Telangana was confined to political leaders only and people of the region were exploited by the one party, Congress, to gain political mileage. This also proves the agitation was not raging for sixty years but spanned and panned out in two years only, in 1969 and 1973. It is a fact no politician either from Telangana or Coastal Andhra raised the issue even mildly from then onwards.

Moreover, during the 1969 agitation the properties belonging to NTR and Dr. C. Narayan Reddy were attacked by the agitators in view of a song in a Telugu film produced by the former and written by the latter. If the Telangana agitation was so seriously being waged continuously by people on ground, the groundswell of anger on NTR would never have died down. But TDP formed in 1983 received overwhelming support from Telangana so much so that even today Naidu boasts about cadre strength in Telangana and Rayalaseema. It is with open hands people of Telangana received NTR and continued supporting TDP. From this it is clear that people of Telangana were never involved in the clamour for a separate state after 1973and even politicians never bothered about the issue till KCR came on the scene.

And why did KCR, who remained silent all the years he was in TDP and never spoke about Telangana pride or injustice meted out to the region suddenly realize that all was going wrong by living together, with their own cousins? And did he take the agitation to its logical conclusion even when there were umpteen chances opened up to him during the past decade when he could have called the shots and got Telangana of his dreams? There are reasons. Hardcore TRS supporters might not accept this, but KCR even today would not allow formation of a separate state unless his family was given prime slots in future government formation including CM, FM and HM posts. With at least 20 Congress leaders throwing their towels on the CM chair it is not possible now for KCR to achieve his dream unless Congress gives it in writing. Congress does not want to do that as they know the long term consequences of the ‘bear hug’ of KCR. Hence, after Congress declared a state with Hyderabad remaining therein too, KCR continued fuelling the agitation on the other side of the state by calibrated venomous statements thus driving a wedge between people and keeping the pot boiling. Or else he would have merged his party in Congress now to make it easier for Congress to take a call finally.

With TDP the situation was no different. Naidu’s changing stance from “two eye” theory to “division acceptable” was playing with fire. He did not assess the ground level reality on both sides. On both sides people are happy living together or divided. Contentious issue was Hyderabad. Naidu should have taken a stand on Hyderabad saying he was acceptable to division. This should have been done soon after KCR broke ranks with him. He wanted to keep cadres on both sides and lost both. He came round to this point now, when it was too late. If he took a clear stand on Hyderabad, took BJP into confidence he could have resolved the issue long back. Now he developed the “congress syndrome” of dynasty politics by trying to project his son, Lokesh who is no better than Rahul in politics. At least when he boasted about vision 2020, as a statesman that he boasts himself now, he should have seen a capital like structure came up in coastal side too by diverting his energies and money spent on Hyderabad. That would have created opportunities that side too and migration would have reduced to a large extent. Today there would not have been a scramble for Hyderabad. Naidu’s lack of vision and his obsession of selling Hyderabad internationally killed vibrant cities like Vijayawada, Guntur, Rajhamundry, Nellore and Visakhapatnam so much so that they were turned into second class towns now. Between the years 1999-2004, Naidu could have used both his purported statesmanship and his proximity to Central leaders and could have ensured a smooth division, by bringing all parties across the table. He singularly failed. Now, he is paying the price.

On its part BJP too played a dubious role. With a statesman like AB. Vajpayee as the head of state and iron man L.K.Advani and the accepted leaders like Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitely, both of whom command high respect across the state, they could have convinced Naidu the need for division settling the Hyderabad issue once and for all. Now, they take a stand in favour of division with the issue of Hyderabad still burning.  One way, BJP as a party lost sympathy both sides, with no strong local leadership to back them Only Modi can salvage the party with his popularity on the rise on both sides despite all problems plaguing the state.

My earlier part dealt with the double game of Congress, by which they lost moorings in the state and they are deep in the seas. Even their top leadership lost the little love (they never commanded respect) of the masses despite all the pro-poor schemes and pseudo secular shouts.

In all, the state is on the edge. It lost heavily on revenue except excise revenue as people stopped everything and not liquor. The students lost a precious decade, youth lost jobs, seniors lost their loved ones and many migrated.

It is time all parties involved leave their egos, sit across a table and settle all issues amicably. It requires statesmanship. Our present leadership lacks it. Our PM is more interested in talking to Pakistan PM even when our soldiers are dying on the border, than talk to AP state leaders in a group. Sonia Gandhi is disinterested in India growing and living in peace for reasons best known to all. Rahul still has to take his thumb out of his mouth and depends on mom to deride ordinances. BJP seems to be lost totally on the issue. I am expecting Modi to speak out but surprisingly he is silent. If he takes a stand, talks to the concerned, tours both sides for a week even in the charged atmosphere assuaging troubled hearts, he would score cent per cent browny points politically. More so, he can solve a long standing problem with his statesmanship, as AP people now have lot of faith in him except those that do not want peace in state. These are few and far scattered. We hope for the best to come out soon from him.

                                 

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Wednesday, October 9, 2013


PRINCE'S POTIONS-THE JUPITER VELOCITY



“What is cooking today, Chef Prince? Is there any new recipe? Our TRPs are down. You should help with your laughing potions or portions“

“Yes! Today, ‘Velocity of Jupiter and not velocity of earth’ is cooking.

“Oh! Wonder fool! Is it? What are the ingredients? We knew you could’t keep quiet at this age. So you invent a new recipe each day. Your recent ‘state of mind’, ‘nonsense’ and ‘tear and throw away’ recipes received lots of publicity. Like "dalit homes" and "train journey" recipes in 2009.  Added to that we know you have no family responsibilities.”

“By the way poor and poverty must be the main ingredients. Am I right?”

“Yes! You are right.”

“We knew! In your state of mind you can’t brew any other potion. What are the other ingredients and what is the name of the new recipe?

“Yes! Without poor and poverty and added to that some other new ingredients, we could never have survived in the political restaurant business for almost seven decades what with so many other Chefs too using the same main ingredient.”

“But people are murmuring that it was decayed for the past decade.”

“Yes. We purposefully did it. Unless it is allowed to decay people do not realize the taste of our “dynasty” potion. So we allowed the old monk to decay it.”

“Oh! It is very good. That is why media gets higher TRPs whenever you read your recipes from a paper. But what will you do with your old monk now?”

“We will disgrace him. We will tell all that because of him the potion was decayed and our family had no role in it. Then we can assure all that our family stands alone and tall in making “poor recipes”.

“Oh! Wonder fool again. You did not name the new recipe still”

“I am coming to that point only.  It is called “Jupiter Bank”

“Is it like the vote bank potion you have been brewing since your great grand father’s time?”

“It is kind of that only, but with increased velocity. You may wonder ‘What is velocity to do with vote bank recipes?’  I will come to that later. First let me list out the other ingredients and the process.”

“OK, now. It requires a big cauldron. No fireplace is necessary as the country is already on fire. Just place the cauldron anywhere in India, it will heat up. As it heats up it goes hungry. It requires something to secure, sorry, appease the hunger. Then you add five kilogram ‘Food Security Bill” in that cauldron. An aroma will come out. Fan the aroma of the five kilogram food bill to the whole country”

“But do you have so much food to be used?”

“Why is food necessary? It is only the aroma that we spread. Once we cook the recipe and start enjoying the potion we leave the cauldron hungry for another five years. Then we will add one more new ingredient. Is it not what our ancestors have been doing?”

“Sure. I get the point. Is there any other ingredient?”

“Yes. It is called Land Acquisition Bill. This spreads aroma of non-existing compensations for land acquired. It may kill Industry. But it will make us good electoral potion, by drinking which we can live healthy for five more years.”

“But you have no family to continue the family tree. How do you ensure that?”

“I lived in Asaram Ashram for ten years. And I took guidance from our senior leader from UP. That solves it.”

“I get it. Great minds always are in great state of minds. None can beat you. You did not elaborate the point of velocity.”

“That is what I am wondering. I read it from the script. Now, I have to go back to the script writer for clarification. I will see you again. In the meantime, I wish you best of luck with TRPs.”

"Thank you, Chef Prince! We all enjoyed your show! 

                                      

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Sunday, October 6, 2013




FIST OF FURY- THE TALE OF TWO REGIONS 


There is a dialogue from a hit Telugu Picture "Bommarillu. In that a 25 old son says to his father," Dad! To keep you happy I suffered for 25 years. No more." It is time people from both regions in AP tell politicos, "To keep you happy, we suffered a decade. No more." Please, people, call their bluff and live happily. Or, there is no future for your children.

Now, start reading.

“Hey! You! You can not enter the park”, the Sikh Guard at the entrance of the park tells Bruce Lee and shows him a board. “Pets and dogs have no entry”. Ad when he allows a Japanese lady with a pet, Lee goes on a beating spree all around the park, because it is a Martial Art Film and he is Bruce Lee. These, translated-into-English-Hong -Kong films have a touch of fun in them and whenever I see these films I recall the political scene in India and have a hearty laugh.

 Not that fighting is fun but it is really, when these guys slug it out in English. You can also enjoy the fun. The Sikh guard in front of the park is expected to shout, “Hey, You!’  His face looks furious but in the translation he loses the steam and sounds like “Meow”.  Did you ever see the scrolling news items? “The PM talks tough. He takes on the Pakistan.” Or “Sonia Gandhi turns furious on the opposition in the Parliament” or such other scrolling news. If you observe the videos clippings of these news items, you will remember the above scene. PM looks as meek as he usually is. We can never follow what he is articulating; anger, frustration or humor as we can only see the lip movement as in the Hong Kong films. And Sonia Gandhi is seen furiously thumping desks and gesticulating. We remember the two characters in front of the park, the Sikh Guard whose words and action  do not match  and Bruce Lee who goes on thumping all those who suddenly spring from nowhere; from  walls, from earth and some suddenly dropping from skies.

And there is invariably one character of an old Martial Art School teacher with a long beard who teaches Martial arts. He also talks tough like our PM. You will only not guess that he is talking tough unless you see his face because always his speech very meek. His beard covers his lips. “Hey! You! Why are you beating our students?” And all the time he says this, purportedly furiously, the guys from the other school go on a beating spree non-stop. Best course is to mute the sound, see his face while simultaneously reading the captions, if you can do both.  Sometimes, I feel how good it will be if the news channels write captions of what our PM talks so that I can mute the sound and read it. (One advantage here is we need not see his face as he shows absolutely no emotion at any time like a saint).

Most of these films have two schools of thought like one Japanese, one Chinese or like one Kung Fu and the other some other Fu. They go on relentlessly fighting like the Semmaandhra and Telangana politicians. We can’t understand why they are fighting unless we see the films many times. “Hey! You! The Ching Chee School is the best in the world.” “No! Hey! You!  The Chung Chu is School is the best” And the fighting starts. For half an hour relentlessly, they fight and what you hear is the sound of “Hey! Hu” Ha!” and hundreds of them suddenly crop up from nowhere. They fight each other and you do not know who is beating who as they look alike, until the last scene, when suddenly the bearded man appears and says in an emotion you will never understand. “Hey! You! Cheng Chun! You saved the honour of our School”. And the inimitable Bruce Lee shows his muscles once again with a furious face as if he is going to beat the bearded old man. Never expect that as the film ends there.

Now you compare. “Hey! You! You politicians from Seemadhra! You have no right to stay in Hyderabad. If you want you can open a curry point here.” A leader from Telangana says from his safe turf. The Seemandhra politician reacts from his own safe turf’ “Hey! You! You have no right over our Hyderabad. It was developed by all the three regions equally”. “But who built Assembly hall, Charminar or Mecca Masjid? Not You, Hey!” the other TG (Telangana) leader says. “Who brought GVK, Reddy’s, Satyam and all other so on and so forth?” one other Andhra guy reacts. But unlike in the films they never meet face to face. May be, if they ever meet in large numbers in a public place like Public Gardens, there will be lots of “Hey, Hu, Ha”s. It would be fun to see even paying for the ticket. And like in Chun Chun films, all these guys look alike as they are cousins and unless they talk you can never identify which guy is from which region. But what we have here are some intemperate remarks and some un parliamentary words. Nobody knows why they are fighting for even if he is seeing its rewinding daily a number of times for almost a decade.  People from both sides are bewildered. It is they that are losing heavily in the turf war. Luckily they do not crop up from nowhere as in the Chin Chun Gun films. Or else the State would have become a big battle field by now.

The only hope is that one of these wins one day and he flexes his muscles furiously and the bearded old man comes and says with no emotion on his face, “Well done. Dhum Dhum” . You saved the day for us.” But as these people are mainly from Andhra Pradesh who rarely see a Hong Kong Movie, they expect it to end like a typical Telugu or Tamil Film where all quarrelling parties come together in the last scene (whether divided or united), form a circle and laugh heartily with the “Subham” card showing and all audiences leave the theater with tears of happiness in their eyes as it ended happily or tears of sadness for having emptied their pockets for such a shabby movie, for one decade.

I too hope (I hail from AP though I have nothing left there but some dried up dreams), that it will be a typical Telugu Film in the end and all will come together and part happily to their respective safe turfs to live happily either united or divided with no hard feelings. And I hope, by that time the bearded old teacher is sent to his retirement home. And all may live happily thereafter under a new young teacher.

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Since past two days, my lap top room was occupied by Vani, for some reason. That is the only room where the Wi Fi works. I was out of Twitter and saw many Hollywood Movies out of which “Fist of Fury” was one. I saw Telugu News Channels also and that led to the blog.




 

Tuesday, October 1, 2013


FROM RAIL TO JAIL- THE LOVE SAGA



It has a typical “Bollywood” touch to it. The stage is all set for the marriage of convenience upstaging the marriage of love. From the blue, a Mr. Nobody appears in the marriage pandal and cries loud, “Stop the marriage. This is nonsense. It can not go on”. The stunned guests look bewildered.  By the time they recover their aplomb, the Mr. Nobody disappears without explaining reasons for his objection. He says, “ I have come here to say only this. Tear the couple apart and throw them away” and goes back to his work or whatever it is, even the RTI can not bring out.

Now, it falls upon the father of the bride who has been painstakingly defending the marriage of convenience to tell the truth to the guests. He tells the guests present there that Mr. Nobody is still young and unmarried despite attaining marriageable age and hence does not know the nuances of love and convenience marriages. “If you look minutely, both are the same. You remove the veil on the face of the groom and you will find that it is in fact the same guy my daughter has been in love.” And he narrates the love story that appears in the book “Ordinances and Ordinary non senses” authored by Mr. Jailbirds alias Five Cents.

LOVE STORY THAT STARTED IN A PARK FULL OF GRASS

The love started in a park full of green grass in 1990 when the groom attained fame and name and earned a good job. It was fully paying. Though short the boy had been very bright in his reflexes. They were meeting in the park and exchanging pleasantries and occasional costly gifts. One fine morning, an observant gardener observed that green grass in the park where the couple was meeting was fast disappearing. And soon other gardeners complained that grass in other parts of the park was also disappearing by an act of mystery. The bride took special interest in the subject of “Grass and grasshoppers who eat the grass on which they hop” and did a thorough research on it and obtained a Doctorate. Ultimately she found that her fiancée was eating the grass while simultaneously making love to her.

She developed an instant aversion to the boy and complained to her father who asked her not to jump to conclusions and convinced her “I would order an inquiry”. Years passed by. The boy was suspected, humiliated, jailed, bailed out and all kinds of abuses were hurled on him. The bride did not still lose love on him.  “Look through my eye glasses. Even if he eats grass he is still cute.” She muttered to herself and when she hopped on a train for a five year long journey in the year 2004 she asked him to drive her train and guard it from behind too.

And what a driver he proved to be? And what kind of a guard he had been. He took the train on fast track, earned laurels from business schools for his talks on the subject,” How to run a train on profitable lines without doing anything worthwhile”. The girl was enthralled. The journey continued. In 2009 she had to change her track and started looking minutely at the real story of her train journey for five years. She found that he only painted the train in bright colours but inside it were stinking toilets and torn out seats and berths. Because of this, the boy too lost popularity and became a persona non grata for both of them. So, they dumped him though the love saga continued behind the many gates.

Another four years rolled on. The father aged. He lost confidence in himself. He looked around for saviours to marry his daughter. He found her lover. He called and asked her to fall in love with him again. “How can I, dad? You ordered an inquiry. It is in final stages. It is proved that he ate the whole grass not only in the park where we met but in other parks too. And added to that your own sons are also involved in it and by oversight I too ate a little of it” the girl wailed. “Don’t worry, kid. I will arrange a marriage of the boy with you. You can always say it is an arranged marriage. Let us cover him with a veil.” And he brought a veil from the ordinance market. So the father and daughter conspired and convinced the boy that he would not be left high and dry and they would protect his honour come what may. “Only marry my daughter and save our honour.” The father asked of him. He agreed as he knew his fate depended on the ageing father of his love.  So, the marriage was about to be solemnized by the high priest when suddenly some estranged relations started making noises outside the pandal.

Now, we go back to the top. After the bachelor Mr.Nobody left the pandal and the father of the bride painstakingly defended the marriage all other relations loyal to Mr. Nobody who gave their silent consent to the marriage and all estranged relations outside started shouting, “It is a sacrilege”.” We can’t marry outside our own caste principles and he belongs to the grass eating clan.” Some anti-nationals cried that the whole clan was chewing grass even while calling the groom names. But they were shouted down by some media friends who came to cover the marriage with cameras and loud mouths..

The father too had to backtrack. He said “Now, the marriage can not go on.” And he advised the high priest to withdraw from there. The story is never ending. Now, a discussion started whether the bride’s honour was put at stake by calling the marriage “nonsense”. Some said “yes” Some said “no” Some very intelligent editors of news papers and talk show freaks of visual media  said “nonsense” was not a bad word and was said in “good spirit” The bride, who was usually silent as she always lived in the glory of her own researches still remained so and withdrew into herself totally. All lived happily there after.

Mr. Nobody, in the meantime, was lost in ‘his own state of mind” and devised plans to save the honour of the bride’s father and thought little about the silent bride and left her to her fate.


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Disclaimer: This is satire intended to be smiled off. If you believe that there are 'humans' who eat grass I leave to your wisdom. By now, you know who the bride and the bride's father is. And you must be silently laughing about the bride. Mr. Nobody is known to all, though he remains Mr. Nobody forever hereafter,