Sep

30

Real gems from India’s parliament - 7

September 30, 2007 posted by indiatime | 1 Comment

Folks, these are real question/answer sessions from the Rajya Sabha. No kidding! The bold text are my comments, though.

On Dec 23, 1999, Rahasbihari Barik asks:

Will the Minister of SPACE be pleased to state:-

(a) whether Government have a proposal to develop livestock population in the country…

Well, I knew India is planning to send an unmanned mission to the moon next year. I just didn’t know there were plans to include livestock. No other country..yeah..not even the mighty United States has ever planned to put livestock on the moon!

On Aug 2, 2002, Rajnath Singh Surya asks:

Will the Minister of YOUTH AFFAIRS AND SPORTS be pleased to state:-

(a) whether Government have identified some games, which can be promoted and developed for popularizing amongst the youths

Syed Shanawaz Hussain, The Minister for Civil Aviation, answers

(a) No particular game has as such been identified by the Government which can be promoted and developed for popularizing amongst the youth.

Actually, I could have answered that as well. I don’t think the Civil Aviation ministry should be entrusted with the task of identifying popular games for India’s youth! Now I know why sports is not a popular activity in India! Because the wrong ministry is controlling it!

On March 24, 2005, Abu Asim Azmi asks:

Will the Minister of YOUTH AFFAIRS AND SPORTS be pleased to state:-

(a) whether Government are considering to constitute a board like in Board of Control for Cricket in India for games like Hockey, Football, Swimming, Tennis, etc…?

Jagdish Tytler, the minister of state for Overseas Indian Affairs answers:

(a) No, Sir. The Government does not constitute Boards/ Federations for individual sports/ games.

So, somewhere between 2002 and 2005 the sports and youth activity went from the ministry of civil aviation to the Ministry for Overseas Indian Affairs. Man, this whole sports business is all messed up. I think the sports should be handled by some other ministry. Any suggestions?

Sep

30

India’s V. Anand is new undisputed world chess champion

September 30, 2007 posted by indiatime | 1 Comment

viswanathan anandIndia’s Viswanathan Anand won the world chess championship in Mexico city a few hours ago, when he tied with Hungarian Peter Leko. Anand succeeds Russian Vladimir Kramnik who is fighting with Boris Gelfand for a second place.

Previously Anand was the world champion for FIDE (International Chess organisaiton) from 2000-2002. But that contest did not include chess players who had broken away from FIDE during the period from 1993-2006. But since last year, it has been a unified and undisputed world championship, and Viswanathan Anand is now the undisputed king of the chess board.

The current championship, held in Sheraton Centro Histórico Hotel in Mexico City, brought together the top 8 players of the game - an Indian, a Russian-born Israeli, a Hungarian, an Armenian, and the rest four Russians. The 8 played a double-round round-robin format for 14 days, and Anand emerged a winner after some exciting matches, especially one 5-hour thriller with Gritchuk.

So chess, which is supposed to have originated in India, finally has an undisputed homegrown champion - a ‘shatranj ka khiladi‘ whose F-1 style rapid-speed brilliant mind has him at the top of the game. A unique moment for Anand. A glorious moment for India. And it is the first time in Indian history that an Indian has become a true undisputed champion of a game that is played in literally every corner of the world.

Sep

29

A comment about the new Indian Idol, by Nitin, a radio disc jockey from Delhi’s Red FM, has shut down Siliguri and most of Darjeeling for last couple of days. A few days ago, while speaking about the latest Indian Idol Prashant Tamang on his Khurafati Nitin show, RJ Nitin said, “…shopkeepers will now have to make their own security arrangements as Gorkhas have taken to singing….”. That reference to Prashant’s Nepalese ancestry and their traditional association with the security profession has led to strikes, riots, and outrage in and around Darjeeling, the place where Prashant comes from.

The radio jockey has since apologised to the new Indian Idol. The radio station, in clarifying its position, have called the radio jockey’s comments innocuous, saying that his show often uses satire and humor to comment on social issues. The gorkha community, in the meanwhile is upset, and have complained that such humor ‘perpetuates the stereotypes of their community - the stereotype that every Gorkha is a chowkidaar or someone selling momos on the streets of Delhi’.

On one hand the Gorkha community’s indignation about the negative stereotyping is quite understandable. It is equally true that just as many Gorkhas serve this nation admirably on the borders, and liteally thousands of them have given their lives in defending this country over the last many years.

On the other hand, Gorkhas are not the only community that is stereotyped. Look at the Sikh community. They have been the staple of the business of humor in this country, bearing the brunt of Indian jokes, much more so than Gorkhas, Gujaratis, or Madrasis. Sikhs, too, serve in the army and airforce in very large numbers, but they are stereotyped more as ’sardars’ than as army jawans. Most of India’s southern population, too, has been stereotyped and joked about for its speech and accents and idlis and dosas. Bollywood movies are repelete with comedians imitating Madrasi accents.

The Gorkha community and the overall Nepalese-Indian population has long ago turned that stereotype around and have been a proud part of mainstream India. They have made tremendous contributions at individual levels to arts, sports, and several other fields. So what has suddenly made the peace-loving Gorkhas so angry and upset about a silly comment by one individual RJ? There are more important causes for this community to be worried about than a radio disc jockey’s rant.

For too long, the issue of human trafficking across the northeast border has been a major issue affecting the young underage girls of Nepalese origin. Across India’s metros, all over in India’s red light districts, on the floors of modern dance bars, there is a disproportinately large population of Nepalese girls, most of them brought to this country by local and international racketeers who indulge in the illegal flesh trade.

Indian Idol is over. It is done. And the sad fact (and I’ve been saying this for last 6 months) is Prashant will be forgotten soon just as his predecessors have been. Our Gorkhas must channel their indignation to causes that have plagued their own young and indefensible ones for decades. There are thousands of 12 and 13-year olds who need their community’s legendary courage and loyalty more than ever.

Sep

28

The government’s reservation quota arguments in the Supreme Court yesterday, are indicative of how flawed, how ridiculous, and how idiotic the whole reservation issue has become. Let me give you several examples from the arguments that were made by India’s solicitor-general pleading the government’s case:

1. I quote the solicitor general - “Though the estimated OBC population was 52 per cent, we have restricted the quota to 27 per cent in view of the 50 per cent cap [on reservation] fixed by this court.”

Haha! I wonder how this gentleman passed his mathematics examinations. Fifty percent of 52 is 26. So who added an extra percent to the OBC reservations?

2. I quote the solicitor general - “In the quota law, Parliament has made provisions to ensure that reservation does not affect seats in the general category.”

If you subtract 27 from 100, that leaves 73. In fact, take away several more percents for various other quotas, and that leaves the general or open category with almost nothing!

3. I quote the solicitor general - “The policy of reservation flows from the mandate of equality and till the time the constitutional objective of ‘real equality’ is achieved“.

He is getting funnier now. How does one measure that real equality is achieved? Do we compare the number of doctors in the OBS category to the number in the BC or open categories? Do we examine people’s bank accounts or credit scores to check for economic equality? Do we conduct an across-the-board IQ test to check if all the castes and all the religions have made it to an acceptable level? So until such a measurement could be devised, the policy of reservation would just go on and on and on…

4. I quote the solicitor general “It (reservation) is the beginning of a long overdue process of social engineering“.

Nice try, Mr. solicitor general. But please don’t take us for fools. The government is not supposed to waste the taxpayer money conducting experiments in social engineering. What you call social engineering is really government-authorised descrimination disguised as reforms.

The real tragedy with the reservation issue is the legal and official sanctioning of India’s caste system, and the solicitor general is basically arguing that the caste system needs to continue indefinitely. It is going to take incredible courage on some politician’s part to root this issue out, and I don’t see it happening for another 500 years. Someday, we will have a politician who will argue that there is no incontrovertible evidence that Dr. Ambedkar ever existed. There onwards, politicians would no longer be able to hide behind the genius of Dr. Ambedkar and will have face the real issues before the republic.

Sep

28

Why did Kolkata police murder Rizwanur Rahman?

September 28, 2007 posted by indiatime | 328 Comments

Rizwanur Rahman was a 30-year old computer graphics teacher from Kolkata. He was also a muslim who fell in love with and married a Hindu girl Priyanka Todi, who happened to be the daughter of Ashok Todi, a member of the Todi multimillion dollar Lux hosiery brand (from the banned Lux Cozy underwears ads).

Priyanka eloped and married Rizwanur on August 18, but her family lodged a missing persons report and eventually an abduction complaint against Rizwanur. The Kolkata police started harassing him to return his wife back to her family. Priyanka did not want to go back to her family, but was told by the cops that her father was seriously ill. On september 8th, Rizwanur and Priyanka relented and she went back to live with her family for a week. The family however did not allow Priyanka to return back to Rizwanur.

On September 16, Rizwanur, realising that his wife would not be returned to him, sought help from APDR
(Association for Protection of Democratic Rights) - a human rights organisation (since he wasn’t getting any help from the cops - in fact they were the ones pressuring him).

On September 21, Rizwanur Rahman was found dead, lying on the reilway tracks between Dum Dum and Bidhannagar stations. Within literally minutes, the Kolkata police chief had declared that Rizwanur Rahman had committed suicide. Biman Bose, chairman of the Left Front and a member of the communist polit bureau, told the press that the police had no way of knowing that Rizwanur Rahman and Priyanka were a married couple (in fact the police had negotiated Priyanka’s 1-week stay fully knowing about the marriage - if there were no marriage documents, the police would have arrested Rizwanur for abduction in the first place). After a week-long silence on the issue, the state chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee finally ordered an investigation in the police involvement of Rizwanur Rahman’s death.

The perpetrators of this ghastly murder must face the brunt of the law with its full force. And the corrupt political establishment that encourages and backs up such inhuman crimes needs to be rooted out and thrown out into the Bay of Bengal. Any police or government that not only doesn’t protect its citizens, but may turn out to be a perpetrating party or an abetting accomplice has no right to police or govern. Their only place in India is behind bars with their necks inside the gallows of justice.

Sep

27

Doing Business in India gets a shade better

September 27, 2007 posted by indiatime | 2 Comments

It has actually become harder to start a new business in India, thought once you own a busines, you may find it just a little easier to do business here. The World Bank’s recent study on the overall ease of doing business, now puts India 12 places up since last year, But India is currently 120th ourt of a total of 178 countries when it comes to ease of doing business.

Several other countries outperformed India and rose several ranks, and that included China which was one of the top performers lastyear, due to its new bankruptcy laws, new property rights laws, and electronic processing of construction permits.

India moved up partically because of reforms in two categories - getting credit is now easier than last year, and paying the custm fees has become a lot simpler. Indian businesses can now submit custom declarations online and pay their custom fees even before the cargo lands on the ports. It’s a simple ecommerce tweak that has cut the time to compelete admisnistrative requirements to two-thirds from last year.

But India showed a citi-wide and state-wide difference when it came to ease of doing business. It takes an average of 159 days (5 months) to register a new business in Bhubaneshwar, Orissa but 522 days (an year and a half) in Ranchi, Bihar. It takes about a month to register a property in Hyderabad, but more than 5 months if you are in Kolkata. If one would think of a city that has the ease of registering new business like Bhubaneshwar, ease of registering propoerty like Hyderabad, etc, such a city would outperform India’s business capital Mumbai by a whopping 55 places.

Although India still needs to make a lot of headway with starting of new businesses, things look much better and hopeful than countries like UAE, Kuwait, Yemen, and Zimbabwe which forbid their women to conduct business at night, or to conduct any business without husbands’ consents!

Sep

27

Real gems from India’s parliament - 6

September 27, 2007 posted by indiatime | Leave a Comment

Kirip Chaliha asks (Sept 6, 2007)

Will the Minister of CIVIL AVIATION be pleased to state:-

a) whether a number of cases of ‘Bird Hit’ and `Nilgai on runway` in the country have been reported during the last three years;

Praful Patel, The honorable minister of state for Civil Aviation answers:

a) No `Nilgai` cases were reported on runways at civil airports during the last three years. However, a total of 536 bird hit cases were reported from 01.01.2004 to 31.12.2006, including Mumbai (86), Ahmedabad (44), Bangalore (42), Chennai (33), Kolkata (25), (and several other airports mentioned..)

Hiten Barman asks (Sept 10, 2007)

Will the Minister of LABOUR AND EMPLOYMENT be pleased to state:-

(a) the number of rickshaw pullers still pulling hand rickshaws to carry people, State-wise

Oscar Fernandes, The honorable minister of state for Labour and Employment answers:

(a) The number of rickshaw pullers still pulling hand rickshaws to carry people, State-wise, is not maintained at Central level.

Will the Minister of CIVIL AVIATION be pleased to state:-

a) whether a number of cases of ‘Bird Hit’ and `Nilgai on runway` in the country have been reported during the last three years;

Praful Patel, The honorable minister of state for Civil Aviation answers:

a) No `Nilgai` cases were reported on runways at civil airports during the last three years. However, a total of 536 bird hit cases were reported from 01.01.2004 to 31.12.2006, including Mumbai (86), Ahmedabad (44), Bangalore (42), Chennai (33), Kolkata (25), (and several other airports mentioned..)

Subhash Maharia asks (Sept 6, 2007)

Will the Minister of PETROLEUM AND NATURAL GAS be pleased to state:-

(a) the names of the countries visited by the then Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas from August, 2005 to August, 2007

Dinsha Patel, The honorable minister of state for Petroleum and Natural Gas answers:

Aug - Sept 2005: Norway, Iceland and Bangladesh
Sept 2005: Russia, Kazakhstan, Japan and Republic of Korea
Nov 2005: Saudi Arabia & Qatar
Jan 2006 China
Mar -Apr 2006 U.K. (London) USA (Houston, Washington)
Apr 2006 Qatar (Doha)
Jun 2006 China (Shanghai), Kazakhstan
Sept 2006 Austria (Vienna) and U.K. (London)
Oct 2006 Russia (Moscow)
Dec 2006 China (Beijing)
Jan - Feb 2007 Libya and Yemen
Apr 2007 Syria, Algeria, Egypt and Iran
May 2007 Saudi Arabia
May - June 2007 France, Paris
Aug 2007 Bishkek (Kyrgyzstan)

Sep

26

Two Thumbs down for Eklavya - India’s Oscar bet

September 26, 2007 posted by indiatime | Leave a Comment

India has chosen to send ‘Eklavya - the Royal Guard‘, an Amitabh Bachchan-starrer, to the Oscars. Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s epic directorial venture won the selectors’ nod by beating several other entries such as ‘Black Friday’, ‘Chak De India’, ‘Dharam’, and ‘Gandhi My Father’.

Let me say at the outset that the chances of this movie making to even the next round (to be one of the nominees) are very, very low. Vidhu Vinod Chopra is a decent director, and the movie makes a fairly alright visual impression as well. The problem with Bollywood movies competing in the oscars is that Bollywood seldom gets it right where it matters - cinema as an art of storytelling. People often complain that Bollywood is never fairly judged at the Oscars because the Oscar judges don’t get the Indian cinema. That sounds like a company saying that the customers don’t understand its products. And such arguments are already nullified when Bollywood movies compete in the foreign film category - where all the films are foreign.

Part of Bollywood’s problem is the misunderstanding that directors and actors make the movies. That’s hardly true. A Bollywood movie isn’t a director’s creation. It is a music director’s creation with some story elements interspersed. Almost all (with less than a handful of exceptions) Bollywood movies run only if they have good songs that can be remembered over the years. Indian moviegoers will remember the movies more for their songs than their stories. Historically, Bollywood is replete with mediocre actors celebrating year-long runs of their movies with golden and silver jubilees solely on the basis of memorable songs. So these movies that are hugely popular in India, when shown to the movie critics abroad, fail to evoke much appreciation, because they are duds to begin with.

Another big flaw with Bollywood movies is that almost 90% of the movies made here are third-rate imitations of some foreign originals. And Bollywood has a nasty habit of never ever acknowledging the originals. Imagine what must happen when Bollywod’s so-called classics are shown to the foreign critics, who many a time, having seen the original, can immediately catch the theft. The last time an Indian movie made it to the final five, it happened to belong to this ’stolen’ genre where the seed for the movie came from ‘Escape to Victory’ a movie that even did well in India in the early and the mid-80s.

India’s latest entrant to the Oscars is blessed with famous names, colorful visuals, superior technique, and an ethnic feel. Beyond that, it is a wasted effort, and even the local audiences rejected it soundly. There are some good regional filmakers all around India, making good cinema on miniscule budgets, but the selectors for Oscars are probably a select lot that feel allegiance to the big financiers, and have cast their votes in favor of Eklavya this time. I won’t say it will be ridiculed, because it won’t be. But I can promise you it won’t get any backers either.

Sep

25

Poaching the poachers

September 25, 2007 posted by indiatime | 1 Comment

Peter Foster writes in the The Telegraph about the confessions of the tiger poachers of Sariska reserve. A couple of years ago, poachers had literally cleaned up the reserve of its entire tiger population . Their confessions reveal some of the undersides of the poaching business.

One of the poachers got Rs 25000 for selling the tiger skin, the other one got about Rs 50,000. Both also managed to sell the tiger bones for some additional sum. The bones, they said were eventually used in Chinese medicinal practices. The ease with which the poachers were able to complete their illegal tiger skin transaction is just beyond amazing, and reading their stories makes one believe that such transactions seem to be pretty commonplace open-air affairs.

The overall business of poaching is probably an organised criminal enterprise, but the actual poaching activity may sometimes be an act of individuals who are in it for a mere few thousand Rupees, paying off gambling or addiction or household debts. Their small selfish acts fuel a trade that has now become an unstoppable scourge which drains millions of dollars of government funds that and are still unable to stop it. Moreover, it is emptying out India’s rich wildlife at a wild pace.

The only way to deter the poachers and the criminal enterprises behind poaching is to make poaching a capital crime. Since the human law seems to be unable to cope with the emotional toll of punishing these bastards, these poachers need to be thrown in front of wild and hungry animals, the silent plaintiffs. Then let the tigers and lions poach and skin these murderers and make medicines out of their dirty bones.

Today is the last day of Ganesh festival in many parts of India. While we worship the elephant-headed God and spend more than several million dollars offering gold and diamonds and flowers to the elephant-headed deity, this country does not have money to put enough guards to insure the safety of its elephant population. In a few weeks, India will celebrate Durga pooja. Durga, who rides a ferocious tiger, will be offered crores of rupees in gold, diamonds and flowers. Her ride, the tiger, will remain neglected because India does not have enough money to guard our officially national animal. We double the rewards for the cricketing tigers (mostly paper ones anyways), but we skimp on protecting the real ones.

In a few years, India’s next generations will have to search wikipedia and google images to find elephants and tigers. And in another hundred years, there won’t even be any trace of the existence of these majestic animals in India. And then some idiot from the archeological survey, or some moron politician will tell us that there is no incontrovertible proof that elephants or tigers ever existed in India!

Sep

25

India defeated Pakistan in the first ever 20 overs world cup Cricket tournament. Here are 10 things that I have noticed after India’s exciting win.

1. India doesn’t need Tendulkar, Dravid or Ganguly to pull of a world cup victory. Though these 3 are the big guns of the Indian Cricket team, the world cup needs fresh, young, hungry blood and fire in the belly that these old stalwarts don’t have any more.

2. Indian team can do well without a formal coach’s position. India, most likely would not have won the cup had Greg Chappell been coaching the team, still.

3. Indians love Cricket so much, that they will watch any variations and versions of the game, whether it is a ODI (one-day international), 20/20 (a 20 overs game), 10/10, 5/5, 1/1 or one ball-one ball.

4. Now that India has won 20/20, the alternate Cricketing league gets a shot in the arm as everyone knows that there is huge public support for a short 3-hour version of the game.

5. It has taken him much less effort and much less leadership than the 1983 world cup winner great Kapil Dev, but Indian captain Mahendra Dhoni is now an even bigger hero than he was a few weeks ago.

6. Cricket, field hockey, music, and war are the only 4 things India and Pakistan do together. I wonder which one would be picked as the odd one out. I think music is the odd one out. Feel free to disagree, though.

7. India has recently won the Asia cup hockey, the Nehru cup football, and now the 20/20 cricket championship. I don’t know what to conclude when a nation that has repeatedly shown inability to win big, is suddenly winning big.

8. Both India and Pakistan would have chosen a president in 2007. India chose an inspiring and a charming and a multitalented personality (come on, admit it) who used to be a sportswoman. Pakistan is about to (Musharraf’s fixed ballot initiative) choose an uninspiring dictator whose only game is trap shooting democracy.

9. Amidst all the Cricketing hoopla, Hindu God Rama got a breather for a few hours, as nobody criticised, doubted, attacked or blasphemed Him.

10. Prashant, the new Indian Idol, got to see the magic of his 15-minute fame. India’s media has grown too big for just one news cycle per day, and before he knew it, the blanketing cricket coverage mercilessly pushed the new singing Idol’s image aside.

Sep

24

India-Pakistan cricket finals : The day of the bookies

September 24, 2007 posted by indiatime | 1 Comment

India and Pakistan are slated to go against each other in the finals of the 20-20 world cup later today. As big as this event is on account of this being an Indo-Pak finals, the financial stakes associated with the final game have multiplied several-fold with the involvement of the satodias - the traditional bookies of Cricket.

It is believed that almost Rs 1500-2000 crores (about $300-500 million) are at stake with the final bets. India is favored a little bit more at this time, but betting on Pakistan can net people a higher amount if that country manages to pull off a win. So according to one of the bookie sites, if one bets on India, one can make Rs 155 on a Rs 100 bet. Bet on Pakistan, and one can make Rs 180 on a Rs 100 bet. The overall internet betting spectrum is pretty even with India having a slight advantage.

The huge amounts at stake in the bets typically create huge incentives to tilt the game to one side or the other. In the past, Indian cricketers, including Indian captain Mohammad Azharuddin have admitted to tweaking their game to favor the event one way or the other. Indian and Pakistani bookies, most of them sitting in their safehouses in Mumbai and Karachi have created an underground betting network that has spread into major subcontinental metros. Some of the bookies are known to have strong ties with India’s most wanted terrorist Dawood Ibrahim and may actually be his employees rather than partners.

But the suddenly changing fortunes in a 20-20 game have made it rather unwelcome with a lot of the bookies. SInce there is no time for negotiations on the betting price, a lot of small-time bookies have ended up losing money in a game with fast-paced changes in fortunes.

This eye-opening clip (6 minute-long) on the betting practice in Cricket will give the readers a fair idea of the deep-rooted and rampant practice that is eating away at the game of Cricket. It also point to where some of the glorious uncertanities of the game come from.

Sep

23

My Indian Idol prediction - Prashant Tamang

September 23, 2007 posted by indiatime | 1 Comment

Weeks of Indian Idol frenzy winds down to a grand finale tonight. Prashant Tamng and Amit Paul, both finalists from the northeast, will find out in a matter of a few hours which one of them will wear the Indian Idol crown this year. Like a Ms Universe contest, the winner will eventually become a statistic, just as the previous Idol winners, but still, tonight’s the night.

I hate to make predictions when the contest is as tight as it is with this year’s Idol show. Both Amit Paul and Prashant Tamang are good singers, who deserve to be in the finals. Their consistency, dedication, and sincerity has finally paid off as they each get to honors to compete for the Rs 1-crore prize.

Amit Paul is probably a shade better of the two, has performed better, and has given great renditions of some old classics. Prashant Tamang, with a voice just as melodious, has a wider following and probably a more intersesting story to tell with his police background.

Either these can slip ahead with a narrow margin. Either of these could be your front-page story in tomorrow’s newspapers. They have fought well, they have both been down the danger zone rollercoaster, and they both are huge idols for a multitude of regional, national and global fans.

OK. I have decided to go out on a limb and predict that Prashant Tamang will become the next Indian Idol. The singing sensation from the West Bengal police academy will have the crown in a few hours. It is a few minutes before 8 pm Indiatime, and seems to me Tamang fans will be celebrating long past tonight.

Sep

23

The dowry gazette - September 23

September 23, 2007 posted by indiatime | Leave a Comment

On September 19th, in Hoshiarpur, Punjab, a bride and her family chased a groom away from the marriage ceremony and beat him up when the increasing dowry demands from the groom and his family finally ended to their patience.

On September 14th, Rekha Lodh (28) of Lucknow, was burnt to death by her husband Chhatrapal and his brother. Rekha was being harassed by her husband and his family for last 5 years. Initially the murder was made to loook like an accidental fire, but subsequent investigation revealed the murder plot.

On September 8, Dinanath, a central police force jawan from Kolkata was arrested for strangling his wife Jayashri (28) to death and later dumping her body on the street. Dinanath had a history of torturing his wife for dowry and had tried to murder her before as well.

In what can be called a reverse dowry, a new website has been advertising young brides for sale asking for money from willing and would-be grooms. Marry our daughter has posts of young brides on sale. (The US laws legally allow girls younger than 18 (most states except Nebraska and Mississippi) to marry with parental consent). Within its first few days on the net, the site has evoked tremendous anger and outrage everywhere. India’s grooms would know how it feels to be advertised for sale, as year after year, educated eligible bachelors put themselves up for sale for new cars, TVs, two-wheelers, and gold.

Sep

22

The high court in New Delhi, yesterday, sentenced journalists from the Mid-Day daily, to 4 months jail term, for apparent ‘contempt of court’. At issue is a May 19 article in Mid-day that brought up a conflict of interest discussion about the Chief Justice of India passing judgements in a land sealing case, the judgements that might have benefitted his sons.

The court ruled that the journalists had overstepped their boundaries, and had attacked the highest institution in the country. Chief justice Sabharwal had actually retired when the article was published, so the journalists had argued that writing against a retired justice was not the same as writing against a sitting justice. But the high court threw that argument out, and cited the journalists for contempt of court.

What does this mean?

1. The relatives of sitting or retired judges can expect and rest in peace knowing that their fathers and uncles can pass judgements that will benefit the family business and not be questioned about it ever.

2. The honorable members of India’s judicial system can pretty much rule on any judgements, no matter any conflicts of interest, can rule in favor of their kith and kin and still invoke the ‘contempt of court’ magic wand if anyone ever questions them about it.

3. The sitting and retired judges can rest assured that their judgements, past and present, are above criticism. They, as a group of very specially privileged Indians, are above the law. Who says so? They themselves! They are the final interpreters of the law and they will rule as they wish. They will defend, protect, and back up their peers, no matter what the truth.

4. India’s judicial system has now decided the press is not the watchdog for the Indian democracy. The judges and the courts cannot be watched over and hounded by the press any more. The judges are so smart, so honest, so full of integrity, and so full of it, that they do not need anyone else to monitor them.

I think this is probably one of the darkest days in the history of Indian judiciary. Today it’s the members of the press. Tomorrow it’s bloggers like me. Day after, its readers like you. None of us on this side of the law are above it. All of them on the other side are. So next time you read someone say ‘nobody is above the law’, you need to understand that the judges are talking about people on this side of the democracy.

The day any country starts putting its cartoonists in jail, the citizens need to know that there are darker clouds on the horizon. As important as the judiciary is in the democratic equation, it certainly isn’t there to police and gag the seekers of the truth. India’s judiciary crossed that big line yesterday. What a shame! And what a dark day for freedom!

Sep

21

Punjab state government stealing people’s kidneys

September 21, 2007 posted by indiatime | 1 Comment

The Government medical college in Amritsar, the oldest medical college in the state of Punjab, is back in the news with yet another kidney racket. The principal of the college, Dr. Jaswinder Paul Kaur has been arrested for allegedly removing a 3-year old girl’s kidney in an unrelated surgery. Five years ago, another principal of the same college Dr. Mahajan was arrested, for his involvement in over 2000 illegal kidney transplants during a five year period.

One would think that now that the current principal Dr. Kaur has been arrested, it would be ok to get your surgery done at this Medical College. But wait! The new Principal who would be officiating in place of the arrested principal is himself one of the accused in yet another kidney racket. Punjab’s minister of medical education has now named Dr. Jagdish Gargi as the new principal of this medical college. Dr. Gargi himself has been arrested before in connection with thousands of illegal kidney transplants in Punjab.

So what’s going on here? For a period of last ten years, Punjab’s topmost government-run medical college has been involved in thousands of illegal kidney transplants where surgical patients have been duped and tricked into unnecessary operations and stripped of their kidneys without even becoming aware of the issue (as their bodies were apparently opened for some other surgical procedure).

And why is the minister of medical education putting one of the accused and scandalous figures back at the helm? Because it is obvious that the minister himself and probably the entire governmental apparatus of the government of Punjab may be deeply involved in Punjab’s scam of the century. And this is not the first health minister in Punjab who has knowingly sided with the kidney thieves. His predecessor R. C. Dogra had actually criticised the police for harassing the noble kidney surgeons involved in the murderous racket.

Why would a state government machinery be involved in such a criminal enterprise? The money, of course. Each of the kidney transplant surgery nets a profit of several lakh rupees for the surgeons and the governmental participants involved. If you calculate the profits for the officially recorded 2400 surgeries during last ten years, that profit margin jumps up to about 100 crore rupees. And that’s only the officially authorised surgeries.

When the medical profession smells blood money, its practitioners are sometimes prone to quickly turn into the devilish Dr. Hydes. The kidney transplant industry in India is an un and under-regulated mess that has become a murderous enterprise with a multi-headed hydra that enjoys political patronage. The judiciary has been far too silent, and far too lenient with these monsters.

How do you stop such doctors and such politicians? Folks, please suggest some harsh punishments that can deter such medical malpractice corporations.

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