The Turmoil

Our India has changed significantly over the past few months. Every other day a new scam surfaces and each one seems to have originated at the highest levels of the government. Then we have a hyper active media who has become the accuser the prosecutor and the judge. Then we have our so called representatives from civil society trying to hold the government at ransom at every opportunity. We have a judiciary which wants to take over the executive powers from the Executive and legislature and then we have the government which seems to be in shell shock. Ministers are in limbo and because of the turmoil the governance seems to have come to a standstill. On top of all these problems we have the common man’s woes like rising fuel, gas and food prices.

When you sit back and try to analyse each of these events, one is not sure if to derive good or bad from these developments. In the past umpteen scandals have taken place, corruption has been rampant, yet one has not seen any action taken against the offenders. We would hear of a CBI raid or an income tax raid or a Lok Ayukta raid only to later find the concerned official back in business, after a few months once the public memory had faded. However, this time some of the guys (ministers and businessmen) at the top who until recently seemed untouchable and above law are now cooling their heels in jail. Some say they are unfairly detained without bail whereas others insist that they are detained correctly, so that they do not influence the investigations. Once they are prosecuted we will know the truth and the depth of their involvement or innocence in the many scams. It is due to the media which has played a major role in exposing these scams that these individuals are today behind bars. The media did a good job by keeping up the pressure on the government, law enforcement agencies and the judiciary to act and also in keeping public memory alive. Many praise the media, yet others are very critical. Some say that the media has overstepped and gone too far.

Coming back to our judiciary, they seem to have taken over the administrative powers from the government. There seems to be a gross interference in administration and they pass everyday orders to the government on what it should do, how it should function and what it should not do. Is this really the role of the judiciary as per the constitution? I would like to believe it is not. Yet sometimes one feels that the government has willingly let the judiciary take up its role for fear of censure from the public and the media. I do not think this is good for our democracy where each institution has its own role cut out and for our democracy to function we need all pillars to work in cohesion, smoothly, independently without encroaching on each others’ powers and responsibilities.

Agitations and fasts by the so called representatives of the civil society seem to be the latest fashion in India. These self appointed representatives take great pleasure in holding the government at ransom. They claim to be representing the whole of civil society, whereas I would like to state categorically that they do not represent me and I do not support many of their demands. There are millions of silent citizens like me who are watching these unfolding events with great disgust. The motto of these leaders is MY WAY IS THE HIGHWAY and anyone who differs from their point of view is looked upon as a lackey of the corrupt government or a person with vested interests. If you look at the background of these leaders, we will find that all of them have an axe to grind with the government. There are bringing forth these prejudices from the past and using the weapon of the common gullible citizen to get even with the government. Their latest demand is for a Lok Pal with extra constitutional authority. They say that the government is corrupt, the Prime Minster is corrupt, the judiciary is corrupt, law enforcement agencies are corrupt and so they want a Lok Pal to sit on top of all these institutions. I would like to ask who this Lop Pal is ?. Is he going to be a super natural being sent from the heavens? I guess not unless these guys have made a deal with God. The Lok Pal will be another person from amongst us and so what guarantee do we have that he will be clean and neutral. What guarantee do we have that he will not come with his private agenda and go about doing a witch hunt?. WHO WILL THEN LOK PAL THE LOK PAL?. What kind of checks and balances will be put in place on this extra constitutional authority. Do our self appointed representatives have an answer?.

We also saw many celebrities jumping the bandwagon and dancing on stage extending their support for this anti corruption drive. Since this is the latest fashion and everyone wants free exposure, so why not?. Unfortunately many of our stars have been raided or sent notices for tax evasion or income tax default in the not so recent past. Is it not easy to preach to others when you do not follow what you preach. You don’t mind paying a bribe to the tax official to reduce your house tax, your land tax, your income tax as long as it benefits you, but then you go out and slam the government, the public officials for practising corruption. Little do you understand that prevention of corruption is a responsibility of each and every citizen and it begins with you and from your home.

Unfortunately due of all these unfolding events governance has taken a back seat. The ministers do not want to take any action as they are scared to act because of the scrutiny from the media and civil society. It is believed that hundreds of files are lying unattended as no official seems to be interested in taking any action as each and every action when taken is deemed suspect and motives are attached to every action. Just look at the PIL filed against the Telcom minister last week. It reeks of vendetta. The litigant is one of the self appointed representatives of civil society and has brought forth his private grudge against the minister in this PIL. That the Supreme court has set it aside is another matter.

The ministry has been reshuffled now and the Prime Minister seems more purposeful now and hopefully governance will once again take predominance. With time I hope that this love for agitations and confrontations will end and both the civil society and the opposition parties will understand their responsibilities. As of the now the opposition has ceded its role to the self appointed civil society leaders. The media too has to be irresponsible sometimes. However, there are several instances of good being done by the media in waking up the dormant public conscience. It has made both the government and judiciary act decisively on many issues. It now needs to step back a bit and restrict itself to its assigned role of creating awareness and not passing judgements and ordering the established institutions on what they should do and what they should not. Each has a role to play and if that is understood then there is nothing to worry about the future.

Bury the scoundrels !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have a very nice suggestion, in case the CWG games are called off, and that is to fill up the J.N stadium to its capacity and in full view of a packed stadium bury both these scoundrels Kalmadi and Bhanot up to their necks in concrete, and let them rot there. By this noble act the full shame that these two corrupt crooks have brought on our nation will never go away, but at least those of us who are seething inside will find some peace with the sense that at least some justice is being done.

By his stupid remarks on television watched by the whole world, Bhanot has confirmed that he pisses in his own living room and sleeps on beds soiled by dogs. That is his standard and personal life style and he is very smug and happy about it. We the nation of India do not have any objections to his life style and his standard of living, but saying that his standard of hygine is the same as the rest of India is disgusting. He should be hanged for this. He has announced to the world that we proud Indians are filthy and live the way that he does.I don't think anyone of us can ever forget him for this.

The rest of the world has already written of the Commonwealth games and for all of us Indians it is the tragedy of this century, when all of us helplessly watched a small group of men swindling crores and crores of rupees, enhancing their personal wealth and putting all of us to shame.

When Judas' rule the day

Once upon a time in ancient times
Lived a man named Judas
Seemed Humble but was wily,
Was always there ready to please
Joined the Lord and played his wiles
And became one of the chosen twelve.

As one of the chosen twelve
He lived and shared life with the Lord
Always professing love and eternal devotion
He followed him wherever he went
And, to all around there was no one
As devoted and as humble as he.

But, all the while his heart was cold
Scheming and making plans to betray,
His master and Lord, in the most heinous way
For a few pieces of silver
He did it in the end
With just a HUG and a KISS.

Just a hug and a kiss mean so much
To so many in this world today
True love and feelings of loved ones
Who mean and care so much
Are swept aside and forgotten when the Judas’
Encircle you with hugs and kisses.

Oh ! these sweet hugs and kisses of betrayal
Seem to blind so many around us
While true love and feelings from their loved ones
That are so profound and true are ignored.
But true love sustains in the end
From all these assaults of hugs and kisses.

Why do bonds of love and relationships
Have to go through such pain and sufferings?
Why not the victims who are our loved ones ever realise
The existence of so many Judas’
Who lure and blind them today, will tomorrow
Will only betray with a hugs and a kisses.

As he once did our Lord.

Conspiracy theories

The Pakistani match fixing scandal story is running on expected lines. Their High Commissioner based in London is on a fast track mode to destroy whatever little credibility is left. The disease of cover ups, be it in politics, on terrorism and now in sport seems to only spread rather than subside. Every utterance coming out of the mouths of the Pakistani officials only makes the world laugh. Unfortunately sane voices of people like Imran Khan and others who played the game with passion and pride are quashed. I do not think any international side would like to play cricket with Pakistan any longer because the cheats seem to have taken over the game there. With each passing day the number of suspects in the team is rising and the officials instead of addressing the issue are burning the midnight oil to come out with innovative theories of international conspiracies against Pakistan. They don’t realise that these silly cover up stories have gone stale and nobody believes in them any longer. The High Commissioner would have been better off writing suspense thrillers instead of being the country’s diplomat.

As usual the first finger is always pointed at India and in this case also at the ICC, and the rats which had all drowned in the recent floods have re surfaced in the High Commissoner’s closet, as he has stated that he is smelling a rat.........hahahahaha.. He is yet to understand how deep this crisis is for Pakistan cricket is and therefore should be immediately removed from any position involved in conducting enquiries and investigations related to this scandal. Each minute of his continuing will take Pakistan another step downhill. People like Imran Khan, Sarfraz Nawaz, Abdul Khadir should be immediately brought in with instructions to come down on all those guilty with a iron hand. Never mind if the entire team is sacked. It is no longer a situation of being innocent until proven guilty, but guilty until proven innocent. That is the one and only hope for Pakistan cricket or else it is goodbye. And this would also destroy all sport in Pakistan.

Conspiracy theories

The Pakistani match fixing scandal story is running on expected lines. Their High Commissioner based in London is on a fast track mode to destroy whatever little credibility is left. The disease of cover ups, be it in politics, on terrorism and now in sport seems to only spread rather than subside. Every utterance coming out of the mouths of the Pakistani officials only makes the world laugh. Unfortunately sane voices of people like Imran Khan and others who played the game with passion and pride are quashed. I do not think any international side would like to play cricket with Pakistan any longer because the cheats seem to have taken over the game there. With each passing day the number of suspects in the team is rising and the officials instead of addressing the issue are burning the midnight oil to come out with innovative theories of international conspiracies against Pakistan. They don’t realise that these silly cover ups have gone stale and nobody believes in them any longer. The High Commissioner would have been better off writing suspense thrillers instead of being the country’s diplomat.

As usual the first finger is always pointed at India and in this case also at the ICC, and the rats which had all drowned in the recent floods have re surfaced in the High Commissoner’s closet, as he has stated that he is smelling a rat.........hahahahaha.. He is yet to understand how deep this crisis is for Pakistan cricket is and therefore should be immediately removed from any position involved in conducting enquiries and investigations related to this scandal. Each minute of his continuing will take Pakistan another step downhill. People like Imran Khan, Sarfraz Nawaz, Abdul Khadir should be immediately brought in with instructions to come down on all those guilty with a iron hand. Never mind if the entire team is sacked. It is no longer a situation of being innocent until proven guilty, but guilty until proven innocent. That is the one and only hope for Pakistan cricket or else it is goodbye. And this would also destroy all sport in Pakistan.

Match fixing and cricket

Over a decade ago the match fixing scandal in cricket almost destroyed the game. A lot of prominent cricketers like Azharuddin, Jadeja, Manoj prabhakar, Salim malik, Hansie Cronje to name a few saw an abrupt end to their careers. Since then slowly the scar seemed to have faded and the game of cricket seemed to have come out of its worst ever crisis. The ICC formed an anti corruption unit and these retired law enforcement officials appointed by the ICC seemed to keep a close watch on all matches and players, and have things under control.

Yet every now and again murmurs were being heard and fingers were being pointed mostly at the Pakistan players and at times others like the West Indians. Various investigations have being held now and then, the most serious being the one after the death of Bob woolmer, when a section of the world press said that he was done away with since he knew too much. The Pakistani board more than once conducted investigations of their own, suspended many a player , only to bring them back a few months later citing lack of evidence or misunderstanding or language problems.

But over the past week the scandal seems to have returned with a vengeance like the plague of ancient times. Nobody now knows where all this will lead to. To cricket lovers like me the whole thing brings a very bad taste in the mouth. I don’t know which one of the matches that I have passionately watched over the years sometime losing sleep, sometimes missing work, sometimes missing holidays are real and which ones are fixed. If all the matches that I have watched have been fixed then I would be better off switching to watching WWF wrestling on TV from now on. It also builds a rage within that me and I am sure with all the other cricket lovers across the world that we have been taken for a royal ride by these fake stars, who in my opinion will not hesitate to sell their own mothers for a few additional pennies.

Look at the wages and the endorsements that each one of them are getting these days, look at the life style of these cricketers in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and West indies where the majority of the population lives below poverty line.They live in lavish bungalows, drive about in the latest cars and yet they have to sell their own souls for a few additional bucks. In my rage sometimes, I seem to blame the whole lot of players, but deep within I would still like to believe that the Gavaskars, Tendulakars and Dravids whom I have worshipped all these years are beyond this. But again if there are one or two worms in a team of 11, it will reflect on the entire team and taint the country.

The Aussies today are sympathizing with some of these crooks and passing statements like their culture has driven them to do it. Is it not shameful to come upon such comments? A country that came into existence just around 200 years ago, pointing at our culture which began with the Indus valley civilization. We who first civilized the world now have to listen to lectures on culture and upbringing from these upstarts and descendants of re settled convicts.

I fully endorse the summons issued by the Lahore High court and filing cases of treason against these tainted players. Their act is nothing less than treason and should be dealt with severely. However, going by previous instances one does not see anything positive coming out of it. Some of the ministers in Pakistan have already begun working on conspiracy theories to ward of public opinion and anger. This as always is the most convenient excuse. Whenever there is an internal problem, blame it on external conspiracies and hide the dirt under the carpet. Unfortunately for Pakistan the dirt has become a mound and may soon grow into a mountain. Don’t be surprised if you see these players suspended for a few months and then brought back next year for the world cup to play more havoc in the cricketing world. In a land of adjustments and percentages anything can happen. Not so long ago the current president himself had a nickname of Mr. 10 percent.

The story goes on

Back in January 2010 about 8 months ago, I had written on the pathetic state of Indian sport. Looking at the situation with the CWG today my posting came in 8 months too early.
Since January things have not improved one bit, instead have deteriorated further. We have an 80 plus lady heading Hockey India, simply because the controlling mafia does not want to see change and bring in a new person who could expose the skeletons in the cupboard. The Hockey coach has put up his hands in surrender saying that he has lost and our corrupt system has won. Suresh Kalmadi the chief destroyer of Indian sport shamelessly continues in his post and also keep interfering in every other sport. The country has been put to shame by the actions of Kalmadi and his chelas and internationally we have become laughing stocks. He will never quit his post until he physically dragged and thrown out.
Anyway why should he?. As a businessman he combines his personal foreign business trips along with those of the Olympic association and puts to use the money supposed to be spent on the welfare of sport for his personal needs. Expensive wine flows at the sports annual meets in five star hotels while at the same time the athletes do not get paid their wages and allowances. They do not get proper diet in camps. Millions of dollars have been siphoned off during the past few years which were meant for infrastructure development for the CWG. Everybody in Kalamdi’s group has made money and are sitting cosy.
Last year our minister of sports proposed limited tenures for heads of sports bodies. This was a right proposal and everyone should have supported it. Kalmadi started screaming and crying then, but no other MP came forward in support of the sports minister, because lots of politicians cutting across party lines are heading various sports bodies and they too did not want to lose their positions. Even though I am not a great fan of Mani Shankar Aiyar, I must agree that what he says about the CWG and Indian sport is true. Be very clear that these games will in no way help improve Indian sport. They will only succeed in making Kalmadi and his chamchas richer. In the end we will be left with sub standard infrastructure which will eventually rot and wither. Kalmadi and his chelas will continue ruling Indian sport and taking it further and further down.................what a waste.