Please feel free to suggest topics that are close to your hearts and minds. Rather than harping over the current news cycles and getting stuck with stale news, we may be able to create some timelessness in our discussions here.

See you all this coming week.

Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose - freedom fighter, (1945) - airplane crash over Taiwan

Homi J. Bhabha - nuclear scientist, (1966) - airplane crash on Mount Blanc, France

S. Mohan Kumaramangalam - politician, (1972) - airplane crash near Delhi

Sanjay Gandhi - politician, (1980) - helicopter crash in Delhi

Ashok Birla - industrialist, (1990) - airplane crash near Bangalore

Surendra Nath - Governor of Punjab (1994) - airplane crash in Himachal Pradesh

Madhav Rao Scindia, (2001) - airplane crash in Uttar Pradesh

G.M.C. Balayogi - parliament speaker, (2002) - airplane crash in Andhra Pradesh

Kalpana Chawla - astronaut (2003) - space shuttle crash over Texas

Soundarya, actress (2004) - airplane crash near Bangalore

O. P. Jindal - Industrialist (2005) - helicopter crash in Uttar Pradesh

YSR Reddy - chief minister, (2009) - helicopter crash near Kurnool

The chief executive officer of one of the largest states in the nation has now gone missing for well over 24 hours. And so far, the police, the army, the airforce, the border security force, the greyhound commandos, unmanned drones, private search missions, satellites, bhuvan, have all been unsuccessful at finding YSR Reddy, the missing chief minister. The search that had originally focused on a a few thousand square kilometer area, has now been narrowed down to about 60-70 square kilometers.

What is astounding is that there hasn’t been any communication with the missing group. It’s obvious that the radio signals from the helicopter is the best pointer to the last known location, and the cellphones carried by the missing could only help in pinpointing the last location where the phones were still able to communicate with the nearby towers.

But an altogether lack of any type of communication raises some serious concerns and potentially very ominous possibilities:

1. the missing party of people might have met with a serious accident, their helicopter going down into a thick wooded area, with some fatalities or serious casualties whereby the members of the party are either unconscious if at all still living or are all dead.

2. The missing helicopter might have crashed into a lake or a water reservoir, drowning the occupants. Such a scenario has already been speculated on account of some eyewitness accounts from near the Shri Shailam project. It is considered less likelier than a crash landing or an emergency landing into the woods.

3. The missing helicopter might have crashed or force-landed into a forest, but the survivors may be in danger of attack by tigers from around the area. The area is host to the famous ‘operation tiger’ sanctuary.

4. the missing helicopter might have gone down into a wooded area, but the survivors might have been captured by local Maoist/naxalite terrorists and may have been whisked away outside the search perimeter and taken to an unknown location. Such a scenario can play out and evolve into a ransom situation where release of some prisoners would be bargained for, or the captured party may be exchanged with another group of captors - perhaps a more radical group like lashkar-e-toiba. This scenario, if true, will not play out soon, because the kidnappers will need some time to get the captured to a secret location.

Who might the terrorists ask in return for safely exchanging a missing chief minister and his officers? Well, there is no shortage of high-value exchange prisoners with Mohammad Ajmal Kasab (26/11 Mumbai attacks surviving gunman), Afzal Guru (convicted parliament terror attack mastermind), Safdar Nagori (imprisoned chief of SIMI - Students Islamic Movement of India), etc.

4. the missing party may all be okay, just minimally injured but unconscious and unable to move because of minor injuries and fractures, etc.

The picture will be a lot clearer as will be the weather by the end of today. Until then, YSR’s supporters, opponents, fans, and his bosses in Delhi will all be praying for his safety.

9 am India time update:
The helicopter wreckage has been found near Rollapenta, about 40 nautical miles east of Kurnool. Two helicopters of the Indian military are said to be hovering over the scene.

11am India time update:
Five bodies have been found at the wreckage site and YSR Reddy, the popular chief minister of the state of Andhra Pradesh, has been confirmed killed in the crash.

Recent updates are confirming however, that the helicopter has landed safely in the Kurnool district, somewhere on an open playground in Bhanucharla village Atmakur area.

YSR was on a 3-district tour, traveling from Hyderabad towards Tirupati. His chopper began its journey at about 8:30 this morning, but went off the radar screens in a few minutes, about 79 nautical miles from Hyderabad’s Begumpet airport.

What is still worrying the authorities is that the helicopter and the CM were near the Nallamalla hill range, a known naxalite area, and even if the reports about the helicopter’s safe landing are to be believed, the CM still needs to be safely extricated from the area that may be a hotbed of terrorist/naxalite activity. The police are trying their best to keep the extrication part of their operation a secret, hoping to whisk YSR out of the dangerous area immediately.

Just yesterday, Tim Holding, an Australian politician traveling in his helicopter, had also gone missing somewhere close to one of Victoria’s highest mountains. Poor weather was blamed in that story, just as it is being said to be a huge factor in YSR’s helicopter story as well. But Tim Holding’s adventure had a good ending. Looks like YSR’s adventure too, may be over soon.

Update:
Earlier reports of the CM’s helicopter landing safely, have been left in doubt as there still is said to be no communication between the authorities and the missing CM. The search operations were called off a little earlier on account of severe weather ]]> http://www.indiatime.com/2009/09/02/andhra-chief-ministers-chopper-goes-missing/feed/ http://www.indiatime.com/2009/09/01/indian-designer-anand-jon-gets-a-lifer/ http://www.indiatime.com/2009/09/01/indian-designer-anand-jon-gets-a-lifer/#comments Tue, 01 Sep 2009 04:04:49 +0000 indiatime http://www.indiatime.com/?p=1984 It was more 2 years ago that, Anand Jon, famous NY-based Indian fashion designer, went from page 3 to page 1, when the state of California charged and arrested him of sexually molesting more than dozen a young girls, between the ages 14 to 21. He was convicted of those crimes late last year. Yesterday, Jon received a minimum of 59 years to life for the crimes committed against young girls.

Earlier yesterday, Jon argued for a mistrial, contending misconduct on part of jurors and the prosecutors. His supporters and family have long claimed that Alvin Dymally, one of the 12 jurors, had expressed sexual interest in Anand Jon’s sister Sanjana, had communicated with her, and had lied on oath. Those arguments failed to sway the judge, taking the last defense weapon away, and clearing the way for Jon’s life sentence. Jon’s family also tried to politicize the issue, hoping that the Indian government would intervene. The Indian government did in fact go beyond what it would for any other criminal. The Indian consul general in San Francisco personally wrote to the California state authorities on Jon’s behalf, asking to release an exculpatory evidence that would help set the Indian designer free.

Hearing of Shah Rukh Khan’s detention and the Indian consulate’s role in getting him out of the immigration checkpoint, Anand Jon’s angry sister tried playing racism card by asking if it would helped to have the last name ‘Khan’ instead of ‘Jon’. Nice try, but comparing Jon’s case with Bollywood actor Khan’s recent detention at the immigration checkpoint, is just way too desperate, I think. Plus it is quite unfair to Shah Rukh, who to his credit, probably does have women throwing themselves at him every day, but has never gotten into such kind of trouble as Anand Jon has.

At the end of the day, the weight of the evidence and the testimonies was too strong, the charges just too serious and the crimes just too many. Jon, supposedly one of the most up and coming Indians on the planet, fell victim to his success and arrogance and uncontrollable lust. For the judge and the victims in the case, and for those able to see beyond Jon’s celebrity and success, the case was not about a famous fashion designer, but about a serial criminal, a rapist and a manipulator, who destroyed the lives of many young women, and ultimately his own as well.

Incidentally, Jon faces many more charges in 3 more states, which can add a couple more life sentences on top of his already received one.

Actually, we should be celebrating that 44% Indians have clean hands. That’s almost half a billion clean hands, probably the largest population of clean hands on the planet. I was discussing this amazing piece of good news with a friend, when he enlightened me that the 44% clean hands literally meant clean hands, free of biological germs. That revelation, instead of tempering my joy, further heightened it, because that 44% clean hands figure started looking even more impressive.

But ‘clean hands’ wasn’t the only metaphor happening this morning.

In New Delhi, a top bureaucrat. who once served with a prime minister, died yesterday, when he fell into a 6-foot roadside ditch. Speak of good people’s lives driven to ditches because of the government’s callousness. 78-year old Trilok Nath Makan was a private secretary to former PM Atal Bihari Bajpayee. Walking close to a sidewalk which hadn’t remained much of a sidewalk because of roadside digging by the local municipal government, Makan fell into an open ditch. He couldn’t see the 6-foot ditch because the roadside lamps had been turned off. He lay in the ditch overnight, his family and his old wife worrying to death about his whereabouts. They found his body in the ditch in the morning, one of the topmost bureaucrats who served this country, literally disappearing into a ditch because someone failed to cover it.

Now let’s have those survey people go and talk to the officials in the Delhi municipality and the corrupt contractors. How many clean hands, you think?

Only days ago, police in California cracked open an old kidnapping case where a 10-year old girl, kidnapped back in 1991, was found alive, impregnated by her kidnapper and now a mother of two. In that particular case, the ball was dropped at several levels. Three years ago, the neighbors had tried to alert the authorities about something amiss in the next door house. The kidnapper was a known child rapist who was once sentenced to 50 years in prison but had gotten off for ‘good behavior’. He was supposed to be monitored by parole officers who failed to really monitor him, never checked his house, and never followed up on him when an area child was kidnapped and went missing for years.

Back in 1965, a horrific abuse case in the US state of Indiana, claimed the life of a 15-year old girl named Sylvia Lykens. Several literary works (The Girl Next Door, An American Crime) including a few films have now immortalized the story of little Sylvia, who was branded with hot iron pins, punched, pinched, kicked and burnt with cigarette butts by a woman who was supposed to be caring for her.

Sylvia’s case has many similarities to 10-year old Rameshwari Jadhav. Both the girls were apparently being cared for by their host families. The host families in both the cases had promised the girls’ families that they would be put in school and provided for. Even the ages of the perpetrators are quite similar, both about 40. Both the girls were forced to stay in the house and warned not to leave the house. The biggest difference is that Rameshwari was lucky to get out alive because of the alertness of the neighbors, and Sylvia died in the basement of the Mrs. Gertrude Baniszewski.

I’m not speaking about child abuse where a parent or a teacher whacks a kid for being a brat. I’m speaking about real criminal behavior by people where little children are burnt, branded, punished inhumanly and almost killed. Those are things first noticed by people around those families - the neighbors, teachers, friends. Rameshwari Jadhav’s case proves that timely intervention and simple alertness by neighbors can save little lives that would almost have been lost.

But then again, just as art imitates life, so does politics. Tushar Waghmare, a 40-year old airline engineer in Maharashtra, was recently arrested after police found about that he had married 14 women in twice the number of months. Waghmare used matrimonial sites on the internet and his charms to get into the good books of 14 families. Posing as a divorcee, using false documents, and utilizing fake relatives, he pulled off what now seems like an easy internet scam.

Here’s the statistics of Waghmare’s marital venture. Out of the 14 wives, 5 have filed charges so far, 9 have remained silent or hadn’t yet figured out that they’ve been duped. Most of the 14 are housewives, but one is an engineer and another is an architect. All 14 lives in Mumbai except one who lived a few hundred kilometers away. None of the wives had met any of the others until the last one he married. The wife number 14 visited his second apartment and was greeted by wife number 13. They immediately went to the police and managed to stop Waghmare’s marital streak to 14.

In his short but successful stint as a serial husband and polygamist, Waghmare proved himself to be a man of many talents - an incredible manager (managing 14 families in one salary), a savvy netizen (using new media to fullest avantage), a slick charmer (charming 14 different families), a careful forgerer (faked documents to create a few identities). But above all that, Waghmare is a politician, whose ease and expertise in making alliances, may eventually open up a new career for him, once he is out of jail.

On second thoughts, let me take that last sentence back. Waghmare doesn’t need to be out of jail to be successful in Indian politics. He can not only contest a parliamentary election, he can most certainly become a parliament member and probably a lot more. And trust me, he will only be a petty criminal at best if you go ahead and compare his crimes to many other Indian politicians who contested their elections, won and now have bigger & better criminal enterprises in their official capacities.

The then national security advisor Brajesh Mishra is disputing Santhanam’s argument, contending that Santhanam himself had earlier verified the higher yield figures. “Was Santhanam speaking the truth then or is he lying now?”, asks Mishra. Santhanam’s then boss Dr. Kalam himself is disputing his test director’s assertions as well. Kalam is basing his own assertions on the post-explosion seismic and drilling measurements.

If India’s nuclear tests weren’t successful back in 1998, it would mean a boatload of trouble for India’s national security. Only 2 weeks after India’s tests, Pakistan had conducted similar tests, claiming an almost equivalent yield from its own results. Assuming for a moment that Santhanam’s claims are true, and assuming for a moment that Pakistan’s claims are true as well, puts India in a position it just doesn’t want to be in. First of all, it negates the assurances from India’s politicians and defense chiefs about India being ready to take on its enemies. Secondly, India’s signing of the comprehensive nuclear test ban will halt any further testing, arresting India’s nuclear program to a level much below Pakistan’s program. If that proves to be true, that would be a gigaton yield explosion for some political parties, forever eroding the credibility of some big name individuals who have so far been considered above the fray.

One one hand, Santhanam’s whistleblowing on this issue, can appear immature, untimely and unnecessary. So what if the nuclear tests weren’t as huge as we made them out to be? After all, as long as the idea is to use the tests as a deterrent, does it really matter what the real yield was? Because in such a deterrence scenario, a claim is as good as a yield and perception as good as reality. Right? And isn’t Santhanam doing a disservice to the nation by bolstering the spirits of the enemy across the border?

But then again, hiding an untruth if that is what it really is, may actually be a much bigger disservice to the nation. No matter what the yield of that 1998 test, it certainly didn’t prevent 10 terrorist murderers from trespassing into India in 2008, and it certainly didn’t deter the then ruling regime of Pakistan from illegally claiming Indian land back in 1999. False pride is just as big a sin as false humility, after all.

Personally, I wish there were a time-bound moratorium on declassifying truths of such nature. Many other countries follow that simple rule of thumb and allow to declassify their secret documents several decades later. Santhanam could have done that on his own accord, but then again, every participant of such major operations is burdened with some balance of personal ego and a duty to the covert cause. It’s hard to say which of the participants have allowed that balance to be skewed.

More often than not, truth has a tendency to lie somewhere in the middle of the two ends of such disputes. “…Hold fast to Truth as a lamp; hold fast to the truth as a refuge…”, said Buddha once. But he too, is said to have smiled mysteriously when the sands of Pokhran exploded first in 1974 and then in 1998.

The JPSK sports, floated by a private venture and officially and secretly backed by the Indian Olympic Association, had been closing in on the issue with their partnership with the UP chief minister Mayawati. So Mayawati, last year, created a special economic zone (SEZ) for her business partners in F1 racing, slating 2500 acres of prime land for the venture. But the differences between the ruling Congress and Mayawati’s BSP party, turned into a red flag for the F1 project. The Indian Olympic Association, has been controlled and ruled for years, by Congress party loyalist Suresh Kalmadi, whose connections to the party headquarters seem to have come up short for now.

Cricket, India’s biggest business (ahead of outsourcing), biggest religion (ahead of Hinduism) and biggest entertainment (ahead of Bollywood) and biggest sports (ahead of itself) is already beyond neck deep in politics, with the state and central bodies completely dominated and under the whim of powerful politicians. It wasn’t so all the time, however. It took Indian politicians a while to figure out the money equations involved in the sports entertainment industry. But now that they have wisened up, their eyes are on the other big prize in sports - the business of racing. The real reason Formula 1 racing isn’t getting a jump start is not about whether it is sports or entertainment. It is purely about which political players stand to make the most money out of it. So until that decision is made, the bureaucratic wordsmiths in the government will keep coming up with ways to rain on F1’s starting lineup in India.

When does a sport stop being a sport? When does it become ‘entertainment’? And at what point does the entertaining sport become a business? Looks like those questions will best be answered once all the business interests involved have been assured of their take in the matter.