Ramdev’s Babagiri : Mahabharat at Ramlila Maidan

The pubs and bars in Delhi have added a new cocktail in their menu, its called the Midnight Swoop or Late-night Swoop. As the name suggests, its for people who love to party out late in the night, maybe to see a new dawn the next morning. The drink is pretty effective and as you gulp it down the kick you get out of it is just like being ‘lathi charged‘. If thats not enough, after downing 2-3 of these drinks, you may be left crying as tears roll down your eyes and everything seems hazy; as if you have been tear-gassed. The effect of the drink stays with your for long and the hangover can be damaging. You maybe found in women’s garment the next morning; so be very careful before you binge on this Midnight Swoop. The best person to review the above new cocktail would be Baba Ramdev.

Jokes aside, what happened at wee hours of 5th June should not be happening in a mature democracy as ours. If we claim to be the largest democracy but the state police behaves in an autocratic fashion then how are we different from Egypt and Yemen! Is this the kind of image that we would like to send out to other countries who are fighting for democracy!

Having said the above, let me quickly add that Ramdev is at as much fault as the Govt is. He was playing hardball with the Govt and he paid for that. He stayed in a star hotel, then tried to strike a deal with the Govt, then backed out and tried to arm-twist the Govt. What the Govt did was even more juvenile. They threw 8 tear-gas bombs to disperse the crowd and then took away Ramdev to an undisclosed location; dropped him at Haridwar. I am not sure about the veracity of the statements like people were beaten up and other instances of brute force being used on civilians. But yet, the very nature of the act puts the Govt in the dock.

We have many burning issues in the country, but that does not mean we hold the Govt to ransom. Naxalism is a big problem, but where was Ramdev’s babagiri when 78 crpf men were blown away in Dantewada? Did he go on a fast and urge the Govt to take action. No! Were was he when Mumbai attacks took place? Did he request the PM and Home Ministry to take action.

Corruption has just become a propaganda to launch himself into the political arena. Its a tool that he is leveraging for political gains. In the heat of all this, Baba has forgotten that the main issue is corruption and not Ramdev. Being a TV celebrity does not give anyone the license to run amok holding a black flag. The credibility of the flag bearer decides the criticality of the issue. If NRN or Hazare speak out against corruption then it makes sense and drives civil society to join the movement. But if ‘dhongi’ babas like Ramdev or Reddy brothers or Kalmadi/Raja take up the issue of corruption, then its farcical. Laughable at best, detestable at worst. Ramdev must first clear the skeletons in his cupboard, before taking up the issue of corruption. He should account for the private choppers that he possesses, the ownership of the lands where he has his ashrams, the island that was gifted to him and all the wealth that be gets by way of charity.

On the other hand, Govt must explain their action against Ramdev. I am sure the issue could have been handled in a better way and a more humane manner. If at all the Govt had any proofs about Ramdev’s illegal activities, they should have brought that out and embarrassed him. Instead, they took direct action and made a hero out of Ramdev. It has galvanised the opposition and the Ramdev followers.

Ramdev maybe forgotten in the long run, but Govt’s actions will neither be forgiven nor forgotten. A political ‘mahabharat’ is inevitable at this point. But there are learnings for all of us: Govt, Baba and us. The learning for Govt is not to act in a hostile manner; swift action is not always the correct thing to do. Ramdev’s learning must be to try and understand that bringing black money back to India and eradicating corruption is not a 7 day task and cannot be done by the Govt alone. And the lesson for us is that corruption breeds because some of us are ready to pay a price for getting things done on priority. But the bigger lesson is, when we stand up for a cause we should know behind whom we are standing.

This post was also published on Yahoo Network

 

Tweets From Suhel Seth In Last 48 hours

Suhel Seth has been on fire for the last 48 hours. He has spoken/tweeted his heart out on the CWG, spot-fixing, A.Raja etc. Here’s a compilation of his wonderful tweets:

Salman Butt is offered an honorary berth at the CWG because they are looking at like-minded thieves who then get caught!!!

Zardari confirms the Pakistan team has done great national service! They now have more foreign exchange reserves thanks to the match-chors!

Mayawati is the only woman in the world who gets statues of hers erected with open handbags..she is hoping for money in that too!

I went to the temple to pray to GOD to stop the rains. The priest tells me that the Temple is now the official wrestling stadium…so then??

Indian Met Dept has been given a gag order on rainy predictions. Any water from the skies is to be treated as a faulty Jet Airways toilet!

Mayawati announces a grant of Rs 20 crs for herself on the show. As a statue. Last heard, also asked for a make-up man…for the statue!!

INDIA’S GOT KALMADI premieres on October 3. In lieu of the Opening Ceremony since it may rain and we may miss a chance to see Kalmadi…

Rakhee Sawant refuses to be on the judging panel saying she speaks better English than all the other judges on the show! Racist woman!!!

The judges for Sony’s new show: Lalu ‘Chara’ Yadav, Shibu ‘Khooni Soren and A ‘Spectrum’ Raja. Mayawati is instead sending her statue!!!

SONY announces a new reality tv show! INDIA’S GOT KALMADI. Rahul Mahajan is the only contender! With bikini-star Dimpy in tow…:)

A Raja is busy dialling Zardari now, given that Kalmadi has made his first official havala appointment!!!

Zardari announces interest rate hikes in Pakistan effective October 15 and bans all manufacture of toilet paper and flushes…

Kalmadi accepts appointment as Chief Pakistan Cricket Board from October 15 and says he will do to Pakistan what the Indian Army couldn’t!

Zardari offers Kalmadi the Nishaan-e-Pakistan, since in India, Kalmadi will be a nishana of a different kind..:)

Kalmadi offers the services of the Organising Committee of the CWG to the Pak Cricket Board to get out of charges of financial hera-phiri

Aman Ki Cash..the new initiative for improving Indo-Pak relations. We’ll give you Kalmadi. You give us Kashmir (the one you have)!! K for K!

Zardari has also announced as a step towards improving Indo-pak relations, he has bought some Padma Shris @ a discount for the Pak Team!!

Actually, unless proven guilty, the following are beacons of honesty: Pak cricketers, Mayawati, Raja, Kalmadi, Zardari, Shibu Soren…

Zardari has just announced the 10% Award for the Pakistan cricketers as a tribute to their counting-money capabilities! They will be drowned

There is a new dance form launched by CWG! Its called Kalakcashtra!!!

Pakistan players were idiots. They should have asked Kalmadi. Forget the match, he would have fixed the weather! Like he’s done with rain!!

Punishment for Pakistan players: work on clearing the CWG mess and rubble and then go on meditation with Kalmadi!!!

Random House is publishing Kalmadi’s autobiography. In the form of a cheque book!!!!

The Bharat Ratna is only meant for the dead. Kalmadi doesn’t qualify unless ofcourse the roof falls on him at the Opening Ceremony!!

A Raja is not the SCAM-DEITY. He alone is the SCAM-PANTHEON!!!

Knock, knock, who’s there? Kalmadi..but where’s the door? Still being built..will be done by October 3..if not 15!!!

Ramalinga Raju has just erected Kalmadi’s statue whilst out on bail! He says, Kalmadi is the SCAM-DEITY of India..coming soon some KalHymns

Manmohan Singh was busy on nuclear deals and Sonia with A Raja! They had no time!!! Which is why Kalmadi was rolling..in the cash!

Kalmadi Ki Karamat!!! The new Karan Johar film releasing on October 3!!! In all incomplete stadia!!!

Shakti Kapoor and Shiney Ahuja have refused to act in KKK! They say that the rape scenes have already happened! Look at the stadia???

The unique feature of a Kalmadi is they can extract water from stone and sell it as single malt and bill for an aeroplane..made of paper!

Kalmadis are a tribe found in the upper reaches of Tibet..like Goji berries! They are always hungry and love receving any donations!!!!

India bula raha hai! Aayo khelo hamari sadkon pe..stadium to har jaghan milte hain…hamari sadken bhi kamal ki hain! Obstacle race!

So A R Rahman says he finished the song, the night before..what’s with the damn CWG..is everything going to be the night before????

 

Why MNIK Should Not Be Watched By Mumbaikars!

Let me say in the very beginning that I am not a follower or a sympathiser of Shiv-Sena. I hate their brand of divisive politics and this post has nothing to do with Shiv-Sena’s tirade against SRK.

While the entire media and section of Bollywood rallied behind the star, SRK, in support of his statements; he was amiss. When all fans and film fraternity is trying to get the movie to release in Mumbai, SRK is busy with its premiere in Abu Dhabi. That’s one of the biggest reasons why Mumbaikars should not watch the movie. While the fans are standing by the star, he is not to be seen. I expected SRK to be in Mumbai and urge the crowd to come, watch the movie with him and thumb-down Shiv-Sena etc. But instead, he has chosen the easy path of twittering and making statements. This is general apathy shown towards his genuine fan and I would hate to watch the movie for this very reason.

Another fact is the kind of publicity stunts he is pulling to get maximum eyeballs. Since most of us know the theme of the movie, he is swaying towards Dubai, Pak and Mid-East so his movie is well received in those places; thereby taking Indian audience for granted, WTF!

His chest-thumping statements after IPL auction was ridiculous, to say the least. He said that he would have picked up Pak cricketers in the auction, had he been there. What??? In this day and age of communication, and with SRK being brand ambassador of Airtel and Nokia, could he not have been in-touch with his co-owners during the bidding! Could he not have sent a word to the KKR representatives that so-and-so Pak player is worth his salt and should be picked. But NO. He chooses the easy path of crying foul after the entire event is over. Thereby keeping his fan-base in Dubai and Pak happy and satisfied. He does not want to lose the fan-base there, for obvious reasons. How else is he gonna dance in lavish weddings in Dubai? The irony is that, these very guys will be circulating pirated cd/dvd of the movie.

Coming to the part of his false claims and statements, another publicity for his movie. He recently made a mention of full-body scan in an airport in Uk and autographing the print-out of the scans! The airport authorities came out strongly against this vicious lie stating that they ‘only scan’ and ‘do not have printers’ in the scan area. Hence, his scans could not have been printed at all.

A few months back, he cried hoarse about security measures in US, when he was detained for questioning. The Prez of India did not make an issue when he was cross-checked, Kamal Hasan and Mammooty did not cry foul; then why was our King Khan pissed. Simply becasue he saw an opportunity of bringing his movie into limelight and drawing maximum mileage and cheap publicity; to keep the movie alive in people’s minds and of course to drive home the theme of the movie.

This movie is very important to SRK. Firstly because he has co-produced it and so a lot is at stake. He knows that by angering the Shiv-Sena he can gather maximum publicity from it. Secondly because his numero-uno position is being challenged, Akshay’s and Aamir’s movie have earned more than his movies in the last 5 years. And lastly, his IPL venture and his tv-show have been a mega-flop and he needs to prove himself again.

Anyways, I just wish that his blind-fans can see through this facade and trash his movie. So, Indians in general, and Mumbaikars in particular, please don’t watch the movie for SRK.

 

usa : united states of andhra

the telengana issue has thrown up a new challenge in administration and law & order maintenance. will a new state really solve the problem? someone should try to base their argument on the current status of newly created states like jharkhand, uttarkhand, chhatisgarh etc. did the state creation solve the issues of poverty and unemployment? are the people living a much better life after partition? i dont think so.

before we hastily create telengana, we should ponder over the above questions. one of my concerns in this scenario is the location of hyderabad. which state would not want to get a piece of it? all of them want to grab the IT hub because thats the hand that feeds andhra, and not many have realized that. apart from the historical significance, hyderabad also provides a part of the ancient myth and old world charm of an ancient city dipped in history and architecture.

if hyderabad is split, it will lose the soul. if its wholly given to one state then that would be unfair. what about other jewels of andhra? who is claiming to keep sania mirza, saina nehwal, vvs laxman, pullela gopichand, chiranjeevi etc. the conceited politicians are only thinking of the land, but not the people.

this is the right time for NRI’s to jump in and save andhra. we all know that andhraites form a big chunk of the population in USA and they have the clout. they need to step-in and say that they want ‘united states of andhra’. they should come together on a forum and appeal to the people before its too late. wake up guys, don’t let this happen.

 

bharatiya ‘jinnah’ party

first it was lk advani and now jaswant singh. and while lk advani was saved, jaswant was forcibly partitioned from bjp. what an irony!

lk advani was spared when he eulogised jinnah and called him secular, only because he was the raison d’etre of bjp. but jaswant singh has neither strong ties with any senior party leaders, nor the backing and background; he was unceremoniously dumped.

its not the expulsion that has to be questioned, but the manner in which it was done. a senior party member like jaswant singh was informed over a phone call of his removalfrom party posts. how embarassing is that! for a man who served the part for 30 yrs and was one of the founding members of the party, this was totally uncalled for. he deserved a personal visit and needed to be personally told about the gravity of the situation.

what’s more surprising is that, congress should have been the party which should trash the book and denounce the research. the book is more a criticism of cong and its handling of partition than jinnah. but bjp has the habit of axing its own feet. so, not only did they dislodge jaswant singh, the book has been banned in gujarat.

 

Hillary Clinton Should Be Frisked By Air-India Staff

While Hillary Clinton is visiting India to strengthen ties of the two countries, someone is playing spoilsport. Very unintentionally though.

In the wake of Continental Airlines frisking our ex-President APJ Kalam, I guess even the security of Air-India should frisk her on her way back. Alas, this shall not happen as she does not travel by AI, but yet.

Continental Airlines’ staff were totally ignorant about the protocol and inspite of repeated telling that APJ Kalam was a dignitary and ex-Prez of India, he was frisked. What’s worse, they are unapologetic about it.

I hope the Govt Of India takes up this issue with USA and make sure that the entire country apologises for this faux-pas. This arrogant and bullying attitude of USA is not doing anybody any good. Hope they realise it soon. Anyways, all I wish is for an apology from the country, not just the damn airlines.

Update on 22/7/2009: Continental Airlines apologised after GOI offically lodged a complaint against them.

 

Hillary Clinton Lands In Mumbai

Late last night Hillary Clinton landed in Mumbai amidst heavy downpour. She is on a 5-day visit to India to strengthen the Indo-US relationship.

She would be staying in Hotel Taj to show her solidarity with the people of Mumbai and do her bit to reduce the pain of the 26/11 attacks. She will be in the city till Sunday, and her next stop would be Delhi.

The agenda for today is a corporate event hosted by Ratan Tata. And later in the day she will be taking part in an event in Xavier’s College along with Aamir Khan.

 

if mayawati were to be raped …

if a dalit woman is raped, she gets a compensation of 25000 rupees; if mayawati were to be raped, should she be given one crore rupeees as compensation … this may not have been the exact sentence what ritu bahuguna joshi, the cong chief of UP said, but it was to the same effect. and this led to the rampage of BSP members who burnt down her house, hounded her and she was finally arrested in a late night drama.

what joshi said is appalling, but nevertheless its a correct call. she could have put it more astutely and her choice of words could have been better, but the logic still holds good. the statement is not anti-dalit, its anti-women for sure.

the psychosis that mayawati has created about herself, giving more importance to herself than the social sector who has brought her to power. instead of working for the dalits, she has been going about with a halo around her head. someone needs to tell her that elephants and statues are not going to bring prosperity to UP, her programs and actions can, if she were to implement them.

and whenever anyone criticizes her, she shields herself with the proverbial ‘dalit ki beti being harassed’ remark. its high time people of UP woke up from their slumber and vote those people to power who can alleviate their living conditions.

 

Inidan Military Parade In France’s Bastille Day Celebrations

July 14th, 2009 is a historical day for India. As France celebrated the Bastille Day, Indian Navy, Army and Airforce troops, 400 in all, marched proudly. The Maratha regiment lead the march as the 90 member band played on with much pride and glee.

Not just that, Indian PM Manmohan Singh was the guest-of-honor. This was France’s way of telling how close India is to them. A memorandum issued from French office read: India has a primary role on the international scene and we support India’s candidacy to become a UN Security Council permanent member.

This is one of the most celebrated days of France and India’s presence here will send out a great signal to the larger world community of India’s growing dominance in all respect – education, military and warfare, entertainment etc.

This is a step in the right direction and one of the achievements for the Cong led UPA government. Lets raise a toast for this date with history.

 

Delhi Metro Bridge Collapses, 5 Killed; Sreedharan Resigns

Around 5am this morning, Delhi woke up to the news of a part of the Delhi Metro Bridge collapsing, in which 1 engineer and 4 other laborers were killed and 15 others injured.

This happened very close to Lady Sriram College where a pillar was being erected and it gave way under immense weight. This is the second such incident in last 8 months.

Taking moral responsibility for the mishap, the Managing Director of Delhi Metro Corporation, Sreedharan, sent his resignation to CM Sheila Dixit.

While his intentions are honest, I sincerely feel that the resignation should not be accepted. First of all, he was not directly involved with this incident. Secondly, he has been doing a good job. A project of such proportions require honest people like Sreedharan. While we see what’s been happening with Mayawati and her statue-fixation in UP, this moral responsibility claimant deserves an applause.

He should be re-instated and be given full support for the wonderful work that he has been doing. An investigation should be launched to find out where the problem lies. Was it with the pillar strength or the material used or some other technical snag? That needs to be found out and corrected. Let’s hope the injured ones recover soon and the project continues to a successful completion.