New India is nothing but a banana republic

[SinoIndusFriendship]

New India is nothing but a banana republic


Posted on April 27, 2010 by The Editors



While you were glued to your flat screen, with your eyeballs popping out every time the ball was hit for a six, in a dark corner of India – in a Haryana village very close to the national capital – a dog was barking. Since it was a Dalit dog (in India, even dogs have caste), the upper caste Jaats were getting all riled up. So they decided to teach the dog a lesson. A bunch of them surrounded a Dalit house and set it on fire. Inside the house were trapped an 18-year-old girl and her old father. Since the girl was physically challenged and could not move out of the burning house, she and her father were engulfed and consumed by the fire. This is how people teach a lesson to dogs in New India: by making the poor, lower castes die like dogs.

Even as you were glued to TV, watching the IPL drama – on the field as well as off it – a few more things happened. Highly dangerous radioactive material affected several people in a scrap market of Delhi; more than 100 people died in the cow-belt areas as mercury touched 43 degree mark; more people died of hunger and starvation across the country; new figures revealed that the number of poor in India stands at 800 million and not 327 million as claimed by the government; and it was reported that the government was tapping the phones of important political leaders. It may also be tapping the phones of ordinary citizens.

Now, a look at the IPL muck. Though nothing has been proved so far, the whole IPL drama now looks like one big farce. In general perception, IPL is now all about money (black and white), sex, drugs, corruption, betting and match fixing. It’s only in a country like India that a minister’s daughter can pull out a scheduled flight of the national carrier and turn it into a chartered flight for an IPL team. It’s only in India that a money-minting machine like IPL can enjoy tax exemption for years. It’s only in India that a collective effort of politicians, babus, Bollywood stars, businessmen, players and match-fixers can reduce the game to a drama whose script never changes. Yet people watch it. It’s the new opium of New India.

Before he was kicked out of office, the disgraced minister Shashi Tharoor thanked the “New India” for its support to him. “We will bring the change but it will not be without pain,” tweeted the minister to his 7,00,000 plus followers, who have begun to behave like a nation within a nation. People like Tharoor and his twitter army are more concerned about Brand India and Brand IPL than propriety in public life or for the millions of issues crying for attention.

New India is nothing but a banana republic. Here the reality looks like a mythical drama and a fake drama called IPL looks like real. So when a Dalit girl is burnt to death by a gang of upper caste loonies, nothing happens, not a soul is stirred, no one comes out on streets to protest. But when Dhoni lifts a ball into the stands, thousands of people go berserk as if this is the only reality that matters, as if this the only reality that will make India stand on its feet. No one knows, how many bets are won or lost on each IPL six, how much money rides on every wide ball.

Free market is not a free license to loot, Barack Obama reminded the Wall Street honchos this week. Every dollar carries hopes and aspirations of millions of people, the US president said. Obama will look like a silly fool in India, where free market has become a synonym for crony capitalism of the worst kind. In fact, it is turning into predatory capitalism where the rich and powerful hunt the poor and weak without any fear, with the full backing of the state.

The dalit girl’s death is only one of the millions of stories of injustice and cruelty unfolding in front of us. We can’t see them because we are busy watching IPL. Or, maybe, we are watching IPL because the reality is too much to bear.

At 800 million, India is the world’s poorest nation. It’s the poorest nation ever in human history. The number of people trapped in poverty and bondage in this country is double the population of Africa. It’s more than the combined population of North and South Americas. But who cares. New India needs its daily fix of IPL. New India or New Banana Republic, Shobhan Saxena, 24 April 2010, 03:27 PM IST

 

[SinoIndusFriendship]

The perfect storm gathering over India

Posted on April 27, 2010 by The Editors


So, Shashi Tharoor has gone. Lalit Modi may follow. Or not.

Cricket’s great jamboree may be cleaned up. Or not.

Does it matter so much?

The Indian Premier League (IPL) brouhaha could not have come at a worse time. India was, finally, if reluctantly, starting to focus on long-festering-but-urgent issues that prevent this country from being a just, equitable democracy.

As Tharoor and Modi self-destructed, the circus around them diverted all attention from the perfect storm gathering over India. The tempest is a mélange of enduring destitution, growing violence and environmental disaster. The ominous acceleration in these issues, interlinked more than ever, requires urgent national discussions, broad consensus and a grand vision.

If you were not following the poverty debate unfolding between the top echelons of government and a small band of powerful civil-society activists last week, you might wonder how India agreed, almost overnight, to add 100 million to the 300 million people who live below the official poverty line (the ability of a person to spend Rs 17 per day in urban areas and Rs 12 in rural areas).

With pressure growing from UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi to recognise hunger and poverty as national issues, the government and its Planning Commission — the body that sets the poverty line — set about reviewing the absurd figure of less than 300 million poor Indians, eligible for benefits from a slew of social-security programmes, which, theoretically, run from cradle to grave.

The new figure of 400 million poor may sound like a lot in a country of 1.1 billion, but every expert will tell you this is a gross underestimation. If you were to raise the poverty line to $2 a day — or Rs 90, inadequate for a coffee at a five-star hotel — the number of poor would cross 800 million.

That’s how poor India really is.

These figures are contentious because they determine what the government will spend on social-security programmes.

So, there’s a split in the Planning Commission.

Those opposed to increasing the number of poor say the money needed for them will ruin the government’s effort to rein in India’s already huge fiscal deficit, which soared by 24 per cent to Rs 414,000 crore in 2009-10. (Largely because of the Rs 248,000 crore fiscal stimulus). Their argument: the poor will benefit eventually when the benefits of progress trickle down.

Those in favour of recognising more poor people say India’s hunger and poverty are a national shame, and it is imperative to spend more money on social-security programmes, including food subsidies. Their argument: if you give sops to industry and other pressure groups why can’t you do the same for the millions who can influence nothing? Consider what the IPL gets: entertainment-tax concessions (in Maharashtra); public security forces at a discount; and its income-tax dues haven’t even been assessed in three years.

With Supreme Court commissioners Harsh Mander and N.C. Saxena — both former bureaucrats in the action-now camp advising the highest court on hunger issues — tipped to be on Gandhi’s newly-revived National Advisory Council, the government is, for once, listening.

That’s how Kavita Srivastava of the dogged Right-to-Food campaign got a call from the Prime Minister’s Office on Monday asking what she opposed about the new poverty line. In another age, people like Srivastava would be ignored and reviled, much like Medha Patkar, the big-dam objector, once was.

As this newspaper’s ‘Tracking Hunger’ campaign shows, deprivation is endemic, exacerbated by a looming collapse of India’s social-security network. Since March 24, when the series began, my colleagues found: children eating mud to quell hunger in Jawaharlal Nehru’s old constituency in Uttar Pradesh, mass migrations and slow-malnutrition deaths of men and women in their 30s and 40s in Bolangir, Orissa, children eating wild berries and red ants in Jharkhand’s East Singhbhum district, children with distended bellies caused by disease and malnutrition lanced through their stomachs with red-hot rods — a tribal superstition meant to make them well. You can read these horror stories and the complex issues facing India at FullCoverage - Tracking Hunger.

Linked to this widening collapse of governance is the inexorable rise of the Maoists, who will again exploit our short attention span as they spur the rebellion with greater confidence and cunning.

On Tuesday, emboldened by the slaughter of 76 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) soldiers in an April 6 ambush in central India, the rebels launched heavy frontal attacks on CRPF camps in Chhattisgarh. In Bengal, the Maoists have successfully taken over the administration of a State school, ensuring it does not fall into decay.

The government considered drones and new approaches to confronting the Maoists only after the April 6 ambush. If the IPL or the next empty scandal grabs our eyeballs, the public pressure needed to keep India focussed will rapidly evaporate.

Hunger and Maoist violence are not unique to — but are largely centred on — India’s tribal lands, once home to the nation’s densest forests, systematically exploited by local governments, officials and private interests.

With the State in retreat, it’s no surprise that the national animal is fading from sight. The tiger’s decimation — 1,000 or less may be left — is so acute that the prime minister this week appealed to states for an extraordinary effort to save the predator that serves as a barometer for not just the health of the nation’s natural wealth but also of grassroots governance.

When was the last time you discussed how saving the tiger can save India?

Let’s talk — when we tear ourselves away from the IPL.

---------- Post added at 03:06 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:05 PM ----------

‘Disgruntled’ ‘Low class’ Indian Matahari causes panic in RAW

Posted on April 27, 2010 by The Editors


Information is hard to get, but it seems that the Bharati (aka Indian) RAW agent that has been working in the Bharati High Commission in Islamabad since 2007 was what the Bharatis classified as “low caste”. Madhuri Gupta apparently is not considered of high caste by the Bharatis.

Media reports seem to indicate that she was “disgruntled staff” and may have done it for money.

Bharatis have faces similar issues in China and other countries–however this is the first time they have been able to catch a Bharati double-agent in Pakistan.

RAW is an exclusive Hindu domain. RAW has no Muslim agents in it. Now RAW will continue its segregation and keep only high caste agents on its rolls.

* In the 1980s, Pakistani intelligence allegedly recruited a senior Indian military attache using a “honey trap” involving an attractive woman in Karachi who reportedly seduced and blackmailed him.
* When India found out, it returned him to India and fired him but never prosecuted him. “It’s sometimes very difficult to prove,” said Raman. “You need evidence from people in Pakistan, which is difficult to get.”
* she still could have caused significant damage if she had planted electronic listening devices, he added.
* In the 1970s, he said, India caught and fired a British telephone operator in its Paris Embassy taping conversations and feeding them to British intelligence services.
* Red flags reportedly went up after Gupta, who is unmarried, started asking questions outside her area of responsibility and was found with funds in a Pakistani account, according to the Times Now news network. She has since confessed to being lured by the money and unhappiness over not being promoted, the network added.
* Analysts said cellphone intercepts also may have played a role along with suspicions raised by embassy colleagues. Los Angeles Times

Government sources say Gupta, who was liaising officer between Indian and other embassies in Islamabad, has risen through the ranks and was engaged in espionage for the Pakistanis for about two years. She has been produced in a local court in East Delhi where she stays, and remanded to 10 days police custody.”I am not trying to discriminate on the basis of class, but a person who has not been properly trained and brought up in the values of the services can perhaps be more susceptible to foreign inducements easily. Nevertheless, given the fact that all those working in Islamabad know that they are under watch and being targeted by Pakistani intelligence which is on the lookout for chinks – that they were able to penetrate the embassy is shocking,” said Union minister Kapil Sibal. He said it was imperative to ascertain what information had been leaked.Speaking in the development, Times Now strategic affairs expert Mahroof Raza said, “The Indian government would have found it extremely difficult to hold an Indian officer in the High Commission if she was working for the Pakistani government. She would be having patrons in the Pakistani system who would make it extremely difficult to get her back and put her through legal and administrative proceedings. This is perhaps the first time an Indian diplomat has been caught spying overseas and working against Indian interests. This gives a completely different dimension to Pakistan’s desire to know what India is up to on foreign policy.” Time of India

According to Bharati press reports, the Bharati Matahari as a person who was very keep to goto Pakistan. The entire RAW section in Islamabad is under suspicion. The head of the RAW is also a person of interests in Delhi.

53-year-old IFS Group B officer Madhuri Gupta was working in the press wing of the Indian High Commission, according to intelligence sources. It is unlikely that she was a lone spy operating on her own. But there is so far no confirmation of any others arrested or interrogated. According to sources, simultaneously, the station head of Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) in Islamabad R K Sharma has also come under the scanner, according to sources.Home secretary G K Pillai said Gupta had been passing information to Pakistani agencies. “She has been arrested,” he said.According to sources, Gupta, a spinster, is alleged to have been taking information from the RAW station head in Islamabad, which was passed to the Pakistani spy agencies.

The sources said that the role of Sharma had also come under scanner for allegedly abusing his position and passing information to Gupta. However, it was not clear whether he knew the woman officer’s real designs, the sources said.

The internal security establishment is extremely cagey about the role of Indian diplomats abroad. The four independent anonymous sources, who confirmed this information to TV channel Times Now, were reluctant to reveal exactly what kind of information the alleged mole was privy to. However suffice to say for now that the officer may have been on the pay-role of the Pakistani establishment, and was allegedly passing on crucial strategic information belonging to Pakistan.

The Ministry of External Affairs sources said an official statement will be given out the complete facts in the case. However sources did mention that Gupta, who is also believed to be an Urdu interpreter and a staffer for 30 years who has served in Delhi, Kuala Lumpur and Islamabad, has confessed to the crime. Time of India

Considering recent reversals of Bharati foreign policy in Afghanistan, it can clearly be surmised that a lot of sensitive information was passed on to the Pakistan. Islamabad know each and every move that Bharat was making. Islamabad was one step ahead in Tehran, in Istanbul, and in London. This could simply not be a coincidence. Mr. Gupta was possibly a crucial link in what the Bharati call “penetration” on the Bharati Civil Service and intelligence agencies.

Spying is a double edged sword. It is not very important what Bharati documents were stolen from the High Commission–what is more important is the fact that false or misleading information was fed into the Bharti system.

The most damaging part of the Gupta affairs is that Bharatis now suspect their entire spy network and are not sure who is a spy and how deep the tentacles of the ISI are into RAW. The speed and manner in which successive TTP heads were chopped off is an indication that sensitive RAW information was in the hands of the Pakistani government.

It will take years for RAW to purge itself from the ramifications of this infiltration by the best spy agency on the planet. The ISI has all the Bharati documents it wants–Chinese and Pakistani hackers not only retrieved the documents from poorly secured Bharati PC networks–however confirmation of paper documents is a huge coup for Pakistan.

 

[AVADI]

What is it today so much trolls is it Troll day.

 

[third eye]

What has this to do with India's defence ? In the haste to post anti India garbage one should at least check the forum garbage needs to be stacked.

A Rag pickers choice.

 

[sudhir007]

We are come here to talk and debate about Indian defence. It is not anti Indian forum. make sure before posting. Mod can you plz see this .............

 

[lhuang]

rupeenews.com =/

 

[LCA Tejas]

Obviously we are, If anyone tries to come near us, they would trip and fall, hahahaha, man , Nice Joke though, Whats it doing in India defense thread? it should be In Joke....

 

[Abasin Turi]

this term was introduced by our great (cough cough) leader pervaz ala mushraff baby to us pakistanis..
i still wonder what it means??

 

[EyelessInGaza]

New India is nothing but a banana republic
....................
Posted on April 27, 2010 by The Editors

I found your source for you, which you have omitted to mention:

New India is nothing but a banana republic Rupee News

You really must get better at propaganda. I thought the Chinese comrades in government were past masters at it?

Oh I forgot, they're past masters at fooling their own people.

 

[lhuang]

I found your source for you, which you have omitted to mention:

New India is nothing but a banana republic Rupee News

You really must get better at propaganda. I thought the Chinese comrades in government were past masters at it?

Oh I forgot, they're past masters at fooling their own people.

It seems to me, Indians living overseas are more anti-China than Indians living in India.

Why is this, care to explain?

 

[EyelessInGaza]

It seems to me, Indians living overseas are more anti-China than Indians living in India.

Why is this, care to explain?

A straight answer.

I have the utmost respect for the Chinese. I have worked with them, studied with them, and have made friends with them.

They have many faults - so do the Indians - but this is not the thread to discuss that.

What is pertinent is that, in my opinion and my opinion alone, having seen the Chinese at close range, I know that China will be a superpower one day. The Chinese are hard working, intelligent and reasonable people. They can do business. They will get to true superpower status fifty years before India - if India gets there at all. But China will.

Having said that what I do not like is the Chinese government's clumsy propaganda, nor the stupid attempts to throw up weaknesses in India, when the same weaknesses exist in China.

Just because we're a more open society and news is easily available comparatively, does not mean that India is in the pits and China is presently the land of milk and honey.

That's all.

 

[Marxist]

New India is nothing but a banana republic Rupee News

Rupeenews thats why he smartly didn't the link.but indian members found this BS can only written by moin ansari ,gudwork

 

[chinapakistan]

Having said that what I do not like is the Chinese government's clumsy propaganda, nor the stupid attempts to throw up weaknesses in India, when the same weaknesses exist in China.

What kind of chinese propaganda are you reading? Chinese propaganda pay very little attention to india, it is hardlly to find chinese propaganda mention india, how you made you conclusion about "the stupid attempts to throw up weaknesses in India." And the fact is indian media are talking about china everyday, they brag china in everything. Are your eyes closed when you were typing this crap?

 

[LCA Tejas]

@StealthQL-707PK, Despite having so many problems, We are on the Path of growth, and You having all the luxury life, Are in the list of top 10 failed nations, care to explain why??

 

[thebrownguy]

@StealthQL-707PK
Mods please take note.. Guys, just ignore this thread.