The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
600 people reached the top of Mt. Everest in 2012. This blog got about 8,300 views in 2012. If every person who reached the top of Mt. Everest viewed this blog, it would have taken 14 years to get that many views.
Click here to see the complete report.
Government says it is compelled to reduce subsidies on essential commodities to meet its balance of payment crisis. They laments over the huge budget deficits.They say India can no longer afford to remain a welfare state and must adopt an entrepreneurial government approach.
On one hand Government is announcing free laptops and i-pads to voters and on the other hand they are reducing subsidies to finance their election promises. Is this entrepreneurial govt? Taxpayer’s money are used for paying MGNREGA workers but what assets have we generated in 7 yrs of its implementation. I still see no roads, water reservoirs, etc. developed out of MGNREGA. Is this entrepreneurial govt? Petroleum prices are being increased citing the huge los
ses made by petroleum companies and reduction of subsidies. But why no one is saying that USA pays 20% more subsidy than India on every essential products. They have money to pay the subsidies. Does Indian govt. is short of money? If yes, then why did they not try to generate money through allocation of natural resources. More than sixty lakh crores have been lost due to various political corruption in 2012 alone (Click Here to know more) and Govt ministers shamelessly says there is zero loss. The Special Economic Zones are being designed to cater the needs of capitalist classes, but what about aam aadmi. SEZ provides zero tax to companies and other benefits at subsidised rates. Mr Kamal Nath argues that this is being done to boost exports. But Mr Nath, please tell that exports through SEZs accounted for only 4% of total exports (2008-09 data) whereas exports through SMEs accounted for about 34.5%. Then who should be provided tax benefits. The capitalists setting up huge industries in SEZ or the common poor people involved in small and medium industries.
Manmohan Singh has suddenly become Manmohan Singham and is keen on implementing reforms. FDI in retail is on top of his cards. But tell me why does he become Singham only when it is the matter of providing benefits to foreign firms and countries (last time he became Singham during US nuclear deal). Why is he not becoming Singham on the so many rapes being committed in India? FDI in retail is supported by me as it will make the lives of many middle class families in India easy. A bania sells ten rupees cold drinks for twelve rupees citing refrigeration charges, a chemist sells duplicate medicines, an electronics 
shop sells televisions, refrigerators at high prices (esp. during festive and marriage seasons). Bringing MNCs in this sector will reduce the monopoly of banias and also generate revenues for government since banias never gives cash memos for the items they sell. But citing back end infrastructure development as the main reason of allowing FDI is not digestible. Mr Manmohan Singh is saying that foreign retails will develop storage houses and thus will save food grains from rotting. But tell me what were you doing for past 65 yrs. You have Food Corporation of India for this purpose and you have not been able to construct godowns. A lot of money is wasted every year for this particular purpose and on papers hundreds of godowns are constructed every year, but Mr Manmohan Singh says we need Walmart to construct storage houses for us. Take my advise Mr Singh; shut down FCI and with the money used for paying these idiots salary, build storage houses. Build thousands of them. Very recently Maharashtra farmers were destroying their potatoes produce citing very low prices. Had Indian govt. developed a good network of godowns, they could have bought it from farmers and stored it for future use. But no, govt is more interested in reducing subsidies on LPG cylinders. Fine, the people often going to CCDs. KFCs, McD, etc will not have much problem in paying the non subsidised LPG cylinders but why do you take the plea of lack of money with the govt as a reason for reducing the subsidies? You did not think of this before allotting coal mines at throw away prices to Naveen Jindal and the alike or providing lease of IGI Airport to GMR group (which caused a loss of 166,000 crores).
2014 Lok Sabha polls are coming and since Mr Manmohan Singh’s government policies are very myopic, they can bring Food Security Bill at that time to gather votes. But this bill will again prove to be a big burden on the exchequer and further aggravate the inflation scenario in the country. Mr Manmohan Singh may be having this Bill in mind while announcing reduction of subsidies. The money thus saved through reduction may be used for the Food Security Bill. Who cares for the burden of increase in prices of essential commodities? Certainly Mr Vadra and his high C2C paid friends in DLF do not.
Improving the micro-economic datas of the country is very important, especially when we have a trade deficit of around six lakh crores. But certainly not at the cost of aam aadmi. If govt seriously wanted to bring the economy back on track, it could have done easily by simply auctioning two natural resources of the country – 2G and coal. Six lakh trade deficit could have been reduced to two and half lakh crores.
Its time we should seriously introspect and find a political alternative. Here’s a look of the vision document of Kejriwal’s party:
1. Lokpal Bill will be brought in within 10 days of the party being voted to power.
2. People will decide the price of essential commodities.
3. Any person can lodge a complaint against any leader with the Lokpal.
4. No beacons on cars of any MPs or MLAs.
5. All expenditure and fund details to be posted on the party’s website.
6. All colonial laws on land acquisition to be abolished.
7. Right to Reject and Right to Recall.
8. A maximum of 2 years to act on any case of corruption.
9. Everyone will be provided with good education and good healthcare services.
10. Farmers will be given good price for their produce.
11. People will have the right to participate in the formulation of laws and government’s policies.
12. No government money will be used in any area without the will of the people.
Kejriwal does not promises any Aarakshan or Ram Mandir or Laptops or Berozgari bhatta….As simple as that.
Next time think before you vote. And please vote.
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THE FORGOTTEN SOLDIER
CLICK HERE to read an interesting article from THE HINDU, dated 04 Oct. 2012.
I do not know much of the incidents in and around Operation Blue Star but one thing I am sure that Jarnail Singh Brar/Bhindranwale was allotted 10 arms licenses at a stretch on the recommendations of PMO, which was then headed by Mrs Indira Gandhi. Jarnail had earlier campaigned a lot for the Congress party in assembly elections and even fielded his candidates for SGPC elections. After being unsuccessful in democratic methods, he was frustrated and wanted to try other means to get in power. It was this power-hunger of Jarnail which made him fall in the trap of the ex Chief Minister of Punjab Giani Zail Singh and Mrs Gandhi. Both of them used Jarnail to destabilise the Akali Dal government of Prakash Singh Badal in Punjab. And they were even successful to some extent. Jarnail carried out widespread killings of Nirankaris and Hindus including Lala Jagat Narain. But soon Mrs Gandhi’s pet turned against her and pointed the barrel at her own godmother. He called her bitch and all other sorts of name. But even then Mrs Gandhi was assured that Jarnail would return to her with swinging tails and so she even asked the then Haryana Chief Minister Bhajan Lal to go slow on Jarnail.
Jarnail never actually demanded Khalistan in the first place but warned his sikh brothers of insecurity they are facing in the ocean of Hindus. Although later he said on one occasion that if he is granted a separate country, he would not refuse. Obviously this statement came under the influence of ISI who provided him arms and money. Mrs Gandhi kept on ignoring Jarnail and considered him as a minor threat. She was more occupied with the Red Terrorists emerging in the eastern part of the country then. But when she actually thought of teaching Jarnail a lesson, he had went inside the temple with arms and ammunition and had strongly fortified it. He was infact warned by his ISI friends of a military crackdown, today or tomorrow.
Many top army brass refused to carry out the operation and had to face the wrath of Mrs Gandhi. Finally it was Gen Vaidya who took up the job of leading his men into the most controversial military operation of the world. He was supported by Mr Brar. It was Brar’s decision to call in the tanks to make a final assault. Within minutes of the involvement of the tanks, Bhagwan Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale a.k.a. Bhindru was dead.
But still some questions haunt the Sikh community people and the personnel of Indian Amry:
QUE 1) Was Indian Army and its personnel who carried out Operation Blue Star did anything wrong?
QUE 2.) Was Bhindranwale a freedom fighter and thus a martyr or simply a terrorist?
QUE 3.) Is the assassination of Gen Vaidya and attempted assassination on Lt. Gen Brar justified?
QUE 4.) Why was Bhindranwale allowed in the first place to have weapons and also allowed to fortify the Golden Temple premises?
Questions may be lot more, but the answer lies in an another incident which took place in Akshardham temple of Gujarat where around 200-250 devotees were taken hostage by two terrorists. NSG commandos were deputed to flush out the terrorists and they did the job as usual. However they even lost one of their companion in the gunfight. Around 40-50 civilians also died in the crossfire. But no hindu came up and said that the NSG operation was not justified or those who entered the Akshardham temple to kill the terrorists must be assassinated, etc etc. Even the muslims of India and most of the other nations of the world do not call those terrorists as martyrs as terrorists do not have any religion or ideology. They are simply psychopaths suffering from some sort of serious neuron disorder. So why are these sikhs making so much brouhaha. Bhindru was a terrorist and so was gunned down. Sikh should in fact be thankful to people like Mr Brar who freed the community of its stain.
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MF Hussain was praised…. Salman Rushdie was ridiculed….and now Aseem Trivedi is seditious.
Cannot we have a same set of laws for everyone? Netas looting lakhs of crores are not traitors, MF Hussain painting nude Hindu deities is not blasphemous, but Rushdie and Trivedi are. WHY? Unfortunately Freedom of Speech is always attacked by Fascist mentality, which unfortunately is present in India also.
I remember my days at college. We had our problems. Every college students have problem with their authorities. This is nothing new. But since we had Indian Army as our authority (arian) we were denied to speak. There were goons in our college, but Army authorities told us to bear with them and even threatened us with dire consequences if we speak. Their excuse was that Army discipline does not tolerate complaints. Army means “SHUT UP AND FOLLOW”. We once tried to meet the higher authorities and they came to our college also. But only to say “…Law is an ass ‘and Lawyers are _._._’”. Yes literally. The higher authorities of Indian Army told the college authorities to throw away any one who is speaking against the authority. (And I thought we are living in India not Afghanistan and the college we are studying is managed by Indian army, not Taliban. Oops!)
We had problem with the quality of mess food. SHUT UP. Girls wanted to wear their choice dress. SHUT UP. We wanted to have better sports equipments. SHUT UP. We wanted professors for our subjects. SHUT UP. We wanted to elect our Student Representative. HOW DARE YOU? (Our student representative was elected by college authorities. True Democracy).
Well that was our college. And it is going to remain same (for a long time at least). Things may get better in future. How funny is it that on one hand our college is managed by Indian army but if you go to a Professor (most of them, sic) and say “Bhagwan Bhindrawala Amar Rahe”, you will get full marks in internals as well as full attendance. But if you dare speak ‘Hail Operation Blue Star’, you will for sure get zero in internals as well as external. (Oh! you will not be even allowed to give externals because of your low attendance). But that is defence administration which is obviously an exception in democracy. But what about civil administration – The Democracy, yes democracy, where citizens are masters and government is servant, where administration must always be managed by civilian authorities, where horses are meant to be inside stable and army inside barracks – what is happening in that democracy – which is supposedly the biggest in the world. Where the political parties are making millions and the person (Comptroller and Auditor General) who is exposing them is questioned of his integrity. Where a member of ruling political party even alleges that CAG of India has links with major opposition party? Where he is called to Public Accounts Committee and interrogated as if he was a criminal and MPs were Judges? Was Kasab also interrogated so harshly? Oh, he spat on the judge. (I heard it through media reports, please don’t charge me with contempt).
And now this Aseem Trivedi episode. I thought we only have one dictator in India (and that too in the eastern part of our country), but ah! Great we have one more in the form of Maharashtra Government. The same Maharashtra Government which has many ministers and bureaucrats involved in Adarsh scam – the army officers too. But no, they are patriots. Aseem Trivedi is traitor. The same Maharashtra Government which has leased out its governance function to a self styled Marathi godman (who has Bihari ancestors) and threatens all Biharis to flee Mumbai. He is not seditious. Why will he be? He is a true patriot like our ex-Telecom minister (who has given so much to our exchequer).
What has Trivedi done? Painted parliament as national toilet. Do you really disagree? Or you only are scared of the government and its torture agencies. We heard the famous dialogue from the movie Paan Singh Tomar, and everyone clapped, yes of course the people sitting in Parliament are dacoits. They have made this sacred place a general class toilet of Indian railway. Throw them out and you will get a temple/mosque/church or any other thing you want (I want a madhushala; anyways). The people who dare to say these things are being put behind the bars (reminds me of my college days – ‘SHUT UP’). Were we clapping for democracy or military junta in India at the time Pt. Nehru was uttering “At the stroke of the midnight when the world sleeps, India will awake for rise and freedom…”. Even Pandit ji would have been highly disappointed seeing this state of the country he fought the independence for. Once Atal Bihari Vajpayee gave severe blows to the Pandit ji’s policies in the parliament through his spear edged words. Later at a dinner hosted at the President House, Vajpayee was trying to hide himself at the back be
nches. Pandit ji caught him by his hand and brought him in front of media. He thanked him for his enlightening comments and told media that one day this young man shall be this country’s Prime Minister. Such was the respect for Freedom of Speech in the eyes of Pt Nehru. But this same government, 50 yrs down the incident, at the same venue, on the same occasion, did not even put up chairs for the opposition at the dinner. The whole opposition was made to sit somewhere at back benches (still reminds me of college).
Or you are disappointed that Trivedi painted the National Emblem with Wolves. Now let me tell you the significance of Ashoka’s emblem that has been adopted as the National Emblem by the Government of India. It symbolizes Power, Courage and Confidence. But what if the power and courage is now being used by few peoples (representing the Government) against India and the Indians. The Lions, which signify that Rule of Law has to be enforced in all directions, have now become Wolves, who actually try to kill the rule of law and socio-economic justice. Is it not the right of us Indians to understand this and make efforts to destroy wolves and restore the Lions? Is it not our duty to eliminate the corrupt who are actually prevailing in India. On one hand we have all the corrupt and tainted ministers out of jail and no one is saying them anything. CBI is openly being used to save them. The investigating agencies are moving slow against them (apparently to delay the proceedings) – Bhrastameva Jayate, and on the other hand we have common man being sent to jail for telling the truth – Satyameva Jayate.
Whose Jayate do you want? Bhrast or Satya.
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The Hindu : Opinion / Lead : A growing intolerance.
Rinkle Kumari aka Faryal Shah
Recently I came through a very interesting article on The Hindu Opinion/Lead page: A GROWING INTOLERANCE. Click Here to read
A very interesting fact highlighted by Ms Anita Joshua was that Jinnah, although being a Shia muslim, his state funeral was conducted through Sunni traditions. The country which does not have respect for its “Father of the Nation” can never respect the minorities’ cultural and traditional beliefs. Its time Indian government must either start giving permanent visas to all the Hindus living in Pakistan (like Israel’s Law of Return which gives right to all the Jews anywhere in the world to return to Israel and gain citizenship) or take necessary measures for their safety through diplomatic process (which of course is not going to be successful).
Ms Joshua even highlighted the plight of not only the Hindus but also the Shia muslims and other minority sects of muslims in Pakistan. Even the Christians are not spared. Christians are so scared that they have started adopting Muslim names to hide their identities.Hindu girls are openly kidnapped, converted and then married off. Hindu community which are somewhat better than the Shia and Christians in terms of money and status (many of them are in civil services) are openly extorted of their cash and even shot dead.
However there is one problem in the implementation of Indian version of ‘Law of Return’ – India is a secular country and secularism does not favour any religion. If law is framed to bring back Hindus from Pakistan, the arguments will be put forward by many in the country citing it as anti-secular measure. On one hand we opened our borders for the Bangladeshis to come in during late 1960s, at the time when they were persecuted by the then Pakistan Government, but still we have locked doors for the Hindus of Pakistan who are meeting the same fate. And no one is even talking about it. On one hand thousands of families have managed to flee Pakistan and are staying in India amidst fear of being forcibly made to return to Pakistan by Indian authorities, if identified; and on the other hand we have one community destroying peace in various parts of the country and even damaging the Martyr’s memorial in Mumbai in support of their community members from Bay of Bengal. And guess they never have the fear of being sent back to their own country because most of them are recognised voters!
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It started from the second year of my college life. Everything was going fine, good friends, books, marks and teachers, until i fell in love with a cute, charming, sweet, and attractive deep eyed girl named “xyz”. It took me few weeks to finally drew up all the courage in the world to propose her. And guess what she accepted. Life had never been so beautiful. From cafe to class, from computer lab to library, from movies to dinners, from studies to bunks, from cell phones to chats, she was always there with me. But one black Wednesday i found out she was cheating on me, and not only me she was cheating one other guy also. I was broken, torn, cheated, humiliated and cast off. I decided to take revenge. I took a pistol and fired at her. She died instantaneously. My revenge didn’t end here. I vowed to kill each and every girl named “xyz”. Why only “xyz”, I swear to kill every women in this world. I became a NAXALITE. Yes this is what naxalism says and this is what in true sense is naxal ideology.
Nowadays from morning to evening, all I could see and think of is books. From history to geography, from Pratiyogita Darpan to Chronicle, from Economics to International Affairs, from Lokpal to Sri Lankan Human Rights sanction; my dad could very well sense my condition and so he planned a trip for my refreshment, and guess what next day I was in Saranda, the forest of 700 hills, that’s where it got its name from – a forest that is said to be the largest in Asia. Now this is the way to lessen the mental strain of your son – bring him to place with physical strains. What else can you expect from your policeman father – a trip to Mcleodganj. (I remember accompanying my dad to City Park for evening walks only to find him shouting at the love birds hiding themselves behind the bushes – policemen can never understand testosterones and estrogens ).
Saranda is perhaps the most beautiful forest I have ever seen, (however I have seen only couple of National Parks), but this one for sure is the place to remember. There are hills, hills and hills, with dense forest cover. Sometimes you are at the height to 13000 ft, other minute you are down hundred feet below the sea level (iron mines). There are several civilizations residing in these dense forests, some of them are educated and speak hindi too. Even tourism has started its wings here. A very good sign indeed. A year before one cannot even think of wandering around this place. There were no roads, no transport, no electricity, no schools and no hospital. Perhaps the blame can be put on the government of the state from 1947-1960. However after 1960’s the blame is only on the Mukherjees, Banerjees, Sanyals, Basus, Majumdars etc. These people with their so called revolutionary ideas never let the government do development works in these areas so that they can fool the local poor and uneducated people about the indifferent attitude of the government towards their welfare. Whenever a contractor took up a contract to build roads, they killed him, only to show the poor tribals that government is not interested in building roads in their village, whenever government tried to set up schools and hospitals, they blew up the building only to isolate the local inhabitants from the government’s welfare plans. From past 50 years these propagators of Mao Tse Tung have never let government develop railways and electricity in these areas. They haven’t even let these local inhabitants to study science, history and geography, instead at the age they should be studying mathematical tables, they were made to study Karl Marx, Communism, romances of bloody revolution, overthrow of democratic government and establishment of communist (so called people’s) government. At the time they should be taught to look forward to modern scientific era, they were taught of atrocities committed by security forces during British era. And guess they succeeded in making these tribals believe their side of story. They now believe that government is their enemy which does nothing for their benefit and these people wearing khaki kurtas, western educated, with huge bank balances, going for leave only during navratris are their true friends.
Saranda Forest shares the area with Odisha and Chhattisgarh, so one moment we were in Jharkhand and the other moment we were having our tea in an Odisha government guest house. In the evening we went to see the Sunset point just behind our guest house in Kiru Buru (Chaibasa, Jharkhand) and the next day in Odisha to see Sunrise point. However this was not the real reason (don’t tell my dad) why I was here. A year before this was the place feared most by the security forces. Conquering Saranda had remained a dream for British, a failed mission for Indira Gandhi’s army and unsuccessful operation for CRPF. But this time they have decided to not let it go. Somewhere in Ranchi, inside an air-conditioned hall, the honchos of Jharkhand, Odisha and Chhattisgarh Police were busy scratching their heads to make a fool proof plan. The BSF, CRPF and ITBP officers were busy appropriating the arsenal. Supporting them were some of the unnamed Indian army Infantry officers (expert in jungle warfare). So the plan ready – surround the Forest from Odisha and Jharkhand side and push the naxalites deep inside Chhattisgarh where thousands of security forces would be already waiting for them. The BSF brought its artillery, Indian Air Force its Dhruva. After ten days of continuous fighting, the security forces now claim to have broken the spine of the naxals. And indeed, visit saranda and you can see their claim to be justified. The roads say the half of story, we have a guest house deep inside the forest, and yo the electricity too. Nothing was there last year. The ideal villages have been developed for the inhabitants where no one is allowed to go without permission (tribals prefer to remain aloof). There they have continuous water supply through a nearby river, which has been made to flow in a reservoir by the security forces. The state transport buses can be seen running around and a first class metalled road.
But the question still remains in my mind, how have the security forces been able to complete the saranda operation and how effectively are they holding the regained territories? The Police and the paramilitary forces have no doubt done a commendable job and they are still having high morals. Speaking to Asst Sub Inspector, Kiru Buru, Mr Paswan, about the difficulties faced by the police and paramilitaries, he said laughingly, “chhup ke bomb laga ke bhaag jaate hain, aamne saamne lade to hum 20 bhi 200 ko sambhal lenge” (they secretly install the land mines and run away, if they dare to fight face to face, only 20 of us will be enough for their 200). According to a report published by Ministry of Home affairs, around 200 -250 Indian Army personnel are involved in training the naxals. Many of them are retired officers. They train the naxals in warfare, whereas we train our policemen in criminal laws and forensics. They train the naxals in planting IEDs whereas we train the policemen for bandobast duties. And then their arsenals. They have weapons from China procured through NISCM (Naga Group) and we have the famous .303 rifles of World War II left by British army. However it is good to see that our police top brass have of late realized the need to train and equip our forces to fight these red terrorists neck to neck. With police and CRPF camps being set up deep inside the jungles, the hold of the naxalites are getting lose day by day. The places where naxals used to roam freely are now dared by CRPF’s LRPs (Long Range Penetration Patrols). The CISF units have been placed in control of the mining areas where naxals used to supervise mining through their own trusted men. Now we have SAIL and TATAs doing the job. There is a TATA hospital and a Kendriya Vidyalaya (Government school) as deep as in Kiru Biru, and trust me you can see children with school bags – the tribal children. Government is also helping the tribal youths take up employment. Recently Indian Air Force released 5000 vacancies through open recruitment especially for the naxalites affected districts of Jharkhand and Odisha.
The success of police force and the fear that they have created in the hearts of naxalites is evident from the fact that almost all the naxal sympathizers and journalists are in single voice demanding the stoppage of Operation Green Hunt. No other single operation has created so much fear as this one. Under this operation, police forces use the technique of Long Range Penetration Patrols and Long Range Reconnaissance Patrols which is no doubt vulnerable to skirmishes. And this is exactly what they look for. LRP – Reconnaissance are a group of 3-4 men who function deep behind the enemy lines. They act as pathfinders and generally do not engage with the enemy. Next comes the LRP – Penetration which consists of 30-40 men including sniper, RPG, medic, etc. They are able to remain and determined to move as much inside the enemy lines as possible and willing enough to get into encounters. Now at this point the world becomes the chessboard where every move is preceded with a move to counter the opponent’s third move. The offices are loaded with contour maps and toposheets with experts splitting their midnight coffees over them. The open space inside the forest is located where an outpost can be established. And the outposts are never established before a network of few other outposts are set up to make up a spider web. There have been many instances where naxalites were fooled by the presence of single CRPF outpost with 4-6 men and they thought it as their Sunday. But as soon as they opened fire on the post, they received fire from various directions. Yes the WAR IS POLITICS WITH BLOOD.
The most important drawback of the anti-naxal operations is the lack of intelligence. However the District Superintendents have been provided with sufficient funds to maintain an effective espionage system, but no one is ready to volunteer to spy for police, even for a big price. The reason, if they are caught, their whole family is brutally given death sentence by Naxalites’ Kangaroo courts. On the other hand, Naxals have an effective spy system. Every tea-stall walla, every rickshaw wallah, every auto driver, and every dhaba walla (motel owner) are naxal’s spy. They keep an eye on every CRPF camp, every Police stations and report any movement of the forces. Whenever the forces move out in numbers, they sound an alarm to their masters. The police force has not only to develop an effective intelligence network but also a counter intelligence network. They have not only to collect the data about naxals next step but also about their intelligence agency’s payrolls. Speaking to 
Superintendent of Police, Chaibasa, Mr Srinivas Arun Kumar regarding spy network, said, “In recent months we have been able to develop a better spy network but the biggest problem is that many of them work for both the sides… now we have decided to camouflage our own men into their ranks. This is the riskiest job in the world but we do not have alternatives. We already have many state police jawans in their ranks. This is risky, very risky. But also it is a time tested historical idea tried by almost all the rulers of all the ages. THE NATURE OF POLITICS NEVER CHANGES”.
Gone are the days when you used to fight the wars with full principles and ideologies, when you used to put down your arms as soon as sun settles down. Here you have to play dirty. Now this is what the Special Forces of the State Police do. This is what “Greyhounds” did for the Andhra Police and this is what “Jaguars” are inclined to do for Jharkhand. Their training camps are not situated at any peace place but deep inside the maoists’ dens. They are trained inside the jungles in jungle warfare. You have to raise a force which is very much ANGRY, DETERMINED, MANIPULATIVE, AMORAL, INTELLIGENT, OBSESSED, PATRIOTIC AND RUTHLESS. ‘They kill one you kill four’ is the principle here. ‘Never look back you’re definitely being followed’ is the rule here. Remember ‘Anti Land Mine Vehicle is the most unsafe against the Land Mines’. ‘Do not drink water from fresh water sources, they are poisoned’. ‘Do not enjoy the singing birds, they are not birds’. And the most important ‘DO NOT USE THE SAME ROUTE TWICE’.
Not only the forces but even the officers have to be cunning, clever, calculating and crooked. Say bye to the days when rulers were known by their virtues and rule of laws. This is the day of arousing myth and mysteries in your favour. The myth – ‘Greyhounds are cannibals’, the mystery – ‘from where are these human bones coming from, what happened to their flesh’, the command – ‘gaurding an outpost deep inside the forest surrounded by naxals’, respect – ‘bringing back home your injured friend’ and fear – ‘policemen are bad people’. Yes Indeed they are. In these conditions you cannot expect them to be Gandhi.
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Note: Photos are original.
A COMPLETE INFORMATION ABOUT APPRECIATION AND DEPRECIATION OF CURRENCIES AND THEIR EFFECT ON DOMESTIC AND INTERNATIONAL ECONOMY
A lot of articles have been written on this topic, but in this article, I have tried to explain the basic fundas of currencies in International trade and economies. A lot number of times we come across the debates that rupee has appreciated or depreciated… oil prices will go up or down due to revaluation of rupee; etc., but have we really understood the meaning of appreciation and depreciation? How can simple currencies affect the world economy so much so that major political debates in most of the developed countries center around this commodity? Why is currency so important that in USA there is growing demand to brand China as a ‘currency manipulating country’ and thus impose sanction against it through WTO?
First of all let us understand the meaning of appreciation and depreciation. A currency is said to appreciate
against the dollar when its price as compared to dollar decreases. Suppose Indian currency is currently $1 = R50. This means that if the tourists coming to India pay $1 at the Airport currency exchange, he will get R50. If value of Indian currency against dollar appreciates, this means that new value of Indian currency is $1 = R48 or 47 or anything lesser. Rupee is said to get strengthened against dollar. Now if the foreign tourist pays $1 at Airport Currency exchange counter, he will get R48 or lesser. The vice versa is depreciation. If $1 in above example becomes equal to R52 or 53 or anything more, we say that rupee has fallen in comparison to dollar.
Now what affect will this appreciation and depreciation will have on the international economy? Any one by reading the above explanation could very well say that the tourism will be discouraged. But tourism is not the major source of income in most of the countries of the world. Then why so much of hue and cry? Let us take the issue in detail and understand the implications of appreciation and depreciation.
a) Effect on Imports
Let $1 = R50
This means that if a business man in India wants to import some product (say raw materials or finished products) from US worth $1 he will have to pay R50.
But suppose the rupee depreciates and now the new rate is
$1 = R100
In this case the importer has to pay R100 for importing the same product worth $1.
So the product is same and its price is same but the importer is paying more due to the depreciation effect. If his cost of production (import) has increased, he will have to raise the selling price in order to compensate the loss, but doing this will make his product expensive and will not be able to compete other locally manufactured low cost products.
Hence, in this case import will be discouraged.
b) Effect on Exports
Let $1 = R50
Suppose a business man manufactures a product. The cost of manufacture is R50. He launches the product in US market for $2. Here he will make a profit of R50. His product being also cheap, he will be able to compete easily with the home products there.
But suppose the rupee depreciates and now the new rate is
$1 = R100
In this case, suppose the exporter’s cost of production still remains the same (the raw materials being completely local); he will be manufacturing the product in R50 only. But now when he sells the product in US market for $2, he takes away R200 instead of R100 earlier. He can also lower down the selling price to $1.5 and throw away the home products out of competition. He will still be making more profits.
So the product is same, the cost of production is same but profits have increased due to the depreciation effect.
Hence, in this case the export will be encouraged.
a) Effect on Imports
Let $1 = R100
This means that if a business man wants to import a product in the Indian market worth $1, he will have to pay R100.
But suppose the rupee appreciates and the new rates are
$1 = R50
In this case, if the business man wants to import the same product he will pay only R50 instead of R100.
So imports will be encouraged.
b) Effect on Exports
Let $1 = R100
This means that if a business man manufactures a product for R100 and wants to sell it in US market; he will launch his product for at least $2, so that he can take back at least R200 (a profit of R100)
But suppose the rupee appreciates and the new rates are
$1 = R50
In this case, suppose the exporter’s cost of production still remains the same (the raw materials being completely local); he will be manufacturing the product in R100. But since he was earlier earning R100 on each product sold, he would like to retain the profits. For doing so he will have to launch the product in the US market for at least $4 (R200), i.e. double the earlier selling price. So earlier he was selling the product in the US market for $2 and still making a profit of R100. But now to continue making R100 profit he will have to raise the price of his product because if he continues selling the product for the same $2, he will only take back R100, which is only the cost of production, means zero profit. And if he raises the selling price of the product he will be unable to compete with the locally manufactured products.
Hence, exports will be discouraged.
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So it is necessary to maintain a balance between appreciation and depreciation of currency. This is undertaken by every nation’s central bank (RBI in our case). Central bank maintains the rate by buying and selling the dollars in exchange of their currencies in international money market. When the value of a currency depreciates beyond the preferable limit, Central bank starts buying the dollar through their currencies. By buying the dollar in large quantity, supply of dollar in the market decreases and due to the increase in demand, the value of dollar goes up or that of currency goes down (appreciates).
On the other hand if the value of currency appreciates beyond the limit considered safe by central bank, it starts buying heavily its own currency in the money market, thereby increasing the demand. As demand increases, supply remaining the same, prices tends to go up (depreciates). It also starts selling dollars to increase its supply and thus lower down the value.
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CURRENCY AS WEAPON
The governments of the different countries of the world did not take time in understanding that this foreign exchange rates is a potent weapon to put economic pressure on any country. The most important name that comes in this context is that of China. China did not allow Yuan to be traded on money market for over two decades. By not allowing Yuan to be valued against other currencies of the world, it was able to decide its own rates suiting its economic activities. Still China does not allow the Yuan to be very largely guided by market forces. China keeps its currency undervalued so as to promote exports. This is the reason why Chinese products have captured the world market. Even major companies of the world have set up their manufacturing units in China because of this main reason, and thus bringing employment and revenue for Chinese people and government. Since Yuan is undervalued against US dollar, the exporters can earn huge profits and take back huge quantity of Yuan, even if they sell their products at a very low cost. Experts argue that this has created job loss in USA to a large extent. China being a developing economy, the raw materials and labourers are cheap: and so the cost of manufacturing remains low. Supported by undervalued Yuan, they can easily enter the world market at low price. This is the main reason why the Chinese toys, mobiles, etc are cheap but still earning profits. This activity of China seriously affects the other country’s economy and their home products.
The value of the yuan is controlled by the government – The State Council (and not by China’s Central Bank). China’s economic growth has been helped by the low value of the yuan. With the yuan low, the price of Chinese products and labour remains low, spurring the purchase and export of Chinese-made products and attracting foreign investment to take advantage of cheap labor, stimulating growth. Beijing wants to keep the value of yuan low to keep the economy humming.
Now some of you would like to know how the undervalued Yuan can help China in maintaining low cost of labour and raw materials. Take an example, suppose Indian Central Bank maintains a very undervalued rupee, say $1 = R100. If the Minimum Wages Act of India says that each companies setting up its manufacturing plants in India will have to pay a minimum of R100 per day to each workers. Helped by the undervalued rupee, the companies will have to pay only $1 per day. But suppose, rupee gets over valued and the new rate is $1 = R50. The companies in this case, keeping in view the Minimum Wages Act will have to pay $2 per day to each worker.
Similarly undervalued rupee can also help keep the raw materials cheap. A company can procure more raw materials for $1 if the local currency is highly undervalued. Thus companies will be encouraged to set up manufacturing plants in these countries. This is a win-win situation for both the parties. Companies get low manufacturing costs, government gets revenue and employment.
To keep the yuan undervalued China has to buy dollars to prop up the dollar’s value. Buying dollars means exchanging them for Chinese currency and flooding China with yuan, which normally causes inflation (increase in money with people means increase in purchasing power, which means prices will go up) which the Chinese government avoids by issuing bonds to take yuan out of circulation, a process the Chinese call “sterilization” (banks and individuals purchase these bonds and thus Yuan goes back to the government which the government can again use to buy dollars – the cycle). Interest rates are kept artificially low to keep investors from buying Chinese currency. The artificially low interest rates make it impossible for Chinese to control monetary policy. This means that loans to companies does not reflect their real value, which could create a bubble situation. The United States and other want China to float the yuan.
According to the historian Francis Fukuyama, “China’s de facto export subsidy via its currency policy is theoretically no different from a direct subsidy to its manufacturing, export industries…In a certain sense; China has been in effect de-industrializing much of the rest of the world. I’ve been to the maquillas in Latin America…and seen firsthand how manufacturing capacity is being sucked out of these developing countries.”
However, China argues that if the value of the yuan were to rise 30 percent like some American politician want, it could cause deflation, cut economic growth, cutoff foreign direct investment. If these things happened prices would skyrocket at Wal-Mart and Best Buy, consumers would stop buying the stuff, and the Chinese and Asian economies would grind to a halt, but would have the money and reserves to buy America’s largest corporations.
If the value of the yuan were to rise significantly, the change probably wouldn’t affect the U.S. deficit or the trade deficit or bring jobs back to America. If Chinese imports become too expensive manufacturers will shift location in Asia to, say, Vietnam or Indonesia. With less cash China would not be able to buy U.S. treasury bonds and this could lead to a rise in interest rates in the United States. If the purchasing power of the Chinese grows with a stronger yuan they will buy more commodities such as oil and cause the price of these commodities to rise and snatch American companies and possibly buy up properties as the Japanese did in the 1970s and 80s.
Prodding China to appreciate the undervalued yuan was a hot political issue in the United States in 2010. Some
congressmen wanted the Obama administration to raise tariffs on Chinese-made imports and label China “currency manipulator.” In the end Obama decided not to attack China too aggressively on the issue so as not to stir up too much animosity. In one-on-one meetings with the Chinese leader Hu Jintao, Obama prodded him to allow the yuan to appreciate. Beijing responded that it would not bow to foreign pressure and called such pressure “political myopia.”
However, not everyone thinks raising the value of the yuan will help the world’s businesses and economies. William Pesek of Bloomberg described three ways a strong yuan could backfire:
1) it could accelerate inflation by raising prices in the “Wal-Mart economy” that the world has come to depend for a steady stream of cheap good;
2) it could produce a slowdown in the Chinese economy that could deprive the world of a much-needed growth engine; and
3) it could make China so rich and flush with cash that it could snap up major corporations and chunks of choice real estate.
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I didn’t like Prakash Jha’s movie “Aarakshan”. This movie has hurt my sentiments; please throw Mr Jha out of India. Yes this is what going on in India, if you do not like someone’s art or literature, you have all the right to throw him out of India. But now the government is saying that they have not banned Salman Rushdie from coming to India, rather Rajasthan Police has advised him to stay away from India because if he dares to enter in India, some assassins from Mumbai underworld would kill him. But then why his video conferencing was banned? Are the Mumbai underworld assassins so technologically advanced that they can kill Mr Rushdie through Television?
This is not the first time; Salman Rushdie is coming to India. He came to India in 2007 for the same purpose, but there was no hue and cry then. So why now?
Mr Manmohan Singh calls Mr Gilani a “Man of Peace” and his government says that Rushdie has hurt the sentiments of Indians. And what about Mr Gilani? Has he not hurt the sentiments of Indians? Ask the relatives of those killed in 26/11 attack. Ask them who is a greater evil – Rushdie or Gilani? What message Mr Manmohan Singh is trying to give to the whole world that the biggest democracy of the world is incapable of giving protection to life and liberty of a person; the biggest democracy of the world is not able to protect the fundamental right of a person. So why the hell we spend so much of our money on security agencies. I suggest it’s time now we should lease out the security department to some European country or USA or NATO. Even the Indian citizens should now start fleeing this country because if the Indian government and its huge (so called) security and law & order enforcement agencies are incapable of giving protection to just one person, god save the rest 1.2 billion people of this country. There are millions spent on the protection of politicians, even the most corrupted ones – A Raja, Kanimozhi and many others are escorted in and out of jail and courts under heavy bandobast, but one minute why do they take protection – the security agencies are incapable of giving protection, so why all this dramas of Z+ securities. Mr Manmohan Singh’s government is giving protection to Afzal Guru, Kasab and other like terrorists, but when it comes to common man, we see them die in front of Delhi High Court or in a Mumbai Local.
This is not the first time; government has banned any book in India. A book on Shivaji was banned because it hurt the sentiments of Marathis (supposedly Indians, however I doubt Thackerays); similarly one version of “Ramayana” was banned because it hurt the sentiments of Hindus and similarly books by Nathu Ram Godse. But how far it is justified to ban the authors? No doubt, books can be banned, but how can the authors be? Advocates of Islam are arguing that being an Indian their sentiments have been hurt by Rushdie, so he should not be allowed to come to India. Fine, they have a point to an extent. Government can obviously take the help of CrPC and IPC and say they are justified in disallowing a person to come to India on the pretext of threat to law and order situation. But who has posed this threat – the Muslims. Who has given them right to create law and order threat? And then they speak of democracy and fundamental rights. Why didn’t they pose this same threat when MF Hussain was taking masochistic pleasure in painting Hindu Goddesses in sexual reunion with their own sons? Why didn’t they put pressure on Government to throw MF Hussain out of India? India being a secular country every religion should be respected – be it Hindu or Muslim or Christians or any other. And moreover government is creating distinction between MF Hussain and Salman Rushdie which is again against the Right to Equality (remember right to equality is available to aliens also).
And now this new drama – to ban the video conferencing. Why? Now the other day you will also ban him from
speaking to his Indian friends over telephone. Okay the government can again take the benefit of laws, but the question still remains – threat from whom and why? MF Hussain, even after absconding from India (I use the word absconding because a non bailable arrest warrant was issued against him which he didn’t answer and fled) kept on giving interviews to Indian News channel and continuously kept on justifying his art and the Government still didn’t feel any threat to law and order. The Muslims were tight lipped. And then the height of shamelessness – Indian Ministry of External Affairs sent its delegates to request MF Hussain to return to India. On one hand the same government is disallowing Salman Rushdie to appear through video conferencing on the pretext of law and order disruption, on the other hand the same government’s external affairs Minister Mr SM Krishna is requesting MF Hussain to reconsider his plan of giving up Indian citizenship. The Hypocrites.
However, taking a liberal point of view and respecting the Muslim hardliners (this again does not mean I support Hindu hardliners like VHP, Rama Sene or Bajrang Dal), for a minute I can support the ban on Salman Rushdie’s India visit. The muslim hardliners constitute a big fraction of Indian population and it is the duty of the government to protect each and every citizens’ sentiments and religious feelings. So keeping in mind these duties of government, I can understand the justification on banning video conferencing too, but still one question remains – Why was he not banned from coming to India in 2007? He came to India then, he attended the literary fest, he spoke to his fans – why the Mumbai underworld assassins were not out to kill him that time? Why were their sentiments not hurt then? What is so special about 2012?
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Politicians are unanimously condemning this act. The winter session of parliament has not seen a single working day except those 4 hrs dedicated to Sharad Pawar getting slapped. Parliamentarians have no time to debate over important issues like Lokpal but want to debate on getting VIP lights over their vehicles. They passed their salary hike bill in a single day but it has been over 42 yrs since the debate of Ombudsman first came up. They were quick to condemn the attack on politicians but where do they hide themselves when politicians get charge sheeted for killing common man. Why are they not condemning the Rajasthan politician who murdered Bhanwari Devi. Why don’t they condemn criminal politicians like Sahabuddin or Raja bhaiya whose homes were found to contain tens of human skeletons when police teams raided their houses. Why no FIR is lodged against Digvijay Singh for publically beating the group of common men in Maharashtra whey they were protesting with black flags. They say India is a democratic country and so means employed by Anna Hazare is undemocratic, but why don’t they say that in democracy every one has right to show their disagreement by raising black flags, why were the common men beaten up by Digvijay Singh and followed by another cabinet ministers in Uttar Pradesh.
Politicians are saying that this is a dangerous trend coming up among the common men. They say that in a democratic country one cannot use force. But do they themselves follow these diktats. Common man can only throw a shoe or at most slap a politician but politician do more than these things. Whistle blower engineer gets murdered in Uttar Pradesh, yet politicians are not ready to strengthen Whistle blowers Protection Act, RTI activist get murdered in Bhopal, yet the politicians are thinking of diluting the RTI Act itself, forget about condemning or debating the murder in parliament. Ramdev’s rally is responded by police action at midnight, thousand gets beaten up including women and children, one of them even dies, and politicians speak of democratic means. Someone got to tell me under what democracy the government is justified to crackdown on silent protestors. Yes the silent, unarmed protestors get thrashed up in Indian democracy which the western countries christen as BANANA DEMOCRACY.
When politicians do; its correct, aur hum karen to saala character dheela.
According to Delhi police report, around 568 girls were molested or raped in Delhi in 2011 but Sheila Dixit is more worried about how to increase the real estate prices in Delhi, which were rece
ntly hiked 200% by her. There are thousands of people dying every day in India but govt says it cannot distribute rotting foods among poorest of the poor. It is more worried about appeasing the Pakistani Prime Minister, calling him a Peace Man. What peace Mr Gilani or his predecessors have brought to India, common man wants to know Mr Manmohan Singh. Its been three years and they have not hanged Kasab. He is the one who has killed 200 Indian people and now govt is feeding him through Indian people’s money. 8-10 yrs later he will demand to be let free as Rajiv Gandhi killers are demanding (However, I support the liberty for Rajiv Gandhi’s MURDERERS – its a debatable constitutional law issue).
Mr Manmohan Singh and his Planning Commission says 32 rupees (little over half a dollar) is sufficient to be called not-poor and cabinet ministers under him are looting millions. Caste and religion based politics have been witnessed in India since the time of British. After independence to 90’s these factors played prominent role but were always discussed behind the stage. Caste based-vote bank politics was widespread but politicians had little fear in their minds that if they discuss these things in open they will get a bad name. But now the scenario is who the hell care for name…Amar Singh did all type of kidney drama to get bail, but as soon as out, he started campaigning against Maya govt, not a bit of shame. Whenever a politician goes to jail, this itself is very rare, he gets seriously ill and bring medical proofs of all types of diabetes, kidney and heart ailments, but next day after he is let out on bail, he calls a press conference. However this is again a lesser evil to get bail by getting hospitalised in AIIMS, now the politicians have become so shameless that they openly discuss the caste based and religion based vote banks. Mayawati has no shame in calling brahmin rally just to convince them that their caste would get special treatment if they vote her and the other day she calls schedule caste and backward caste rally to convince them about benefits the would receive if they vote her. Congress politicians feels no shame in discussing muslim reservation and they openly say that these steps are meant to safeguard muslim vote bank for 2014 elections. One politicians from Samajwadi party says that congress is planning to provide quota to muslim within OBC quota which would seriously affect the seats of Yadavas and other backward castes, the other politician devises a way out – he says give muslim separate quota away from OBC… a true Congress sympathiser.
Muslim backwards have already been included under OBC category, so what is the need of giving quota within quota. If you simply want to appease them, give them a separate quota, why this mask. Openly say that you want to implement Sachar commission and Rangnathan committee report which favours religion based reservations. According to Rangnathan committee report, there are less than 0.1% muslims in Indian army’s higher ranks and according to report this is the main reason of Army’s widespread atrocities against Muslims in Kashmir. It even devises a plan out, says give muslims reservations at entry level and even in-service preference in promotion to higher ranks. It means if there is one higher rank and there are four suitable officers for the post – one brahmin, one rajput, one sikh and one muslim, give the post to muslim. True secularism. According to report, 17% of Indian population consists of muslims, so in order to make Indian army true secular army, 17% posts should be reserved for muslims at all ranks.
Now Congress govt’s blue eyed baby Mr Rahul Gandhi…he says UPites are Beggars and labourers. Well on this point I agree with Mr Gandhi. But tell me Mr Gandhi….your Great Grandfather Mr Jawahar Lal Nehru was from Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh….he fought and won all his elections from UP, Your grandmother fought and won all elections from Amethi, Uttar Pradesh, your father and mother both fought and won elections from Uttar Pradesh, you and your sister do the same….for over 40 yrs, Uttar Pradesh has seen Congress govt, and now you come and say UPites are beggars…yes they may be beggars but then can you say your family is not responsible for this.If Uttar Pradesh is a poor state, you are the rajkumar of this andher nagri. Every five year you come to Amethi to ask for votes, but have you ever seen the infrastructure of your constituency? Amethi does not have roads, electricity is rare commodity, no good school…yes literally no good school, no good hospital, not even for muslims who always dedicatively vote you every time and bring you back to parliament. Every year a politician get 5o million rupees for the development of his constitutency and your family had been getting this money for past 65 yrs, had you invested 1% of it in Amethi, it would have shamed Shanghai or New York.
Narendra Modi is somewhat a lesser evil, he knows he will not get muslim votes, but every 15 days you go to Ahmadabad you will see some changes – change for good – development for good – infrastructure and social service departments for good. And now congress party’s great brahmastra, remove AFSPA from Kashmir. Who the hell cares for the death of 13000 army personnel in Kashmir since 1988? Let them die? Security Forces are meant to die and they die silently. They are dying in Dantewada, they are dying in Manipur, they are dying in Kashmir. And there are no debates in parliament over their deaths. There are in fact victory parties organised at Jawahar Lal Nehru (JNU) university for celebrating the death of 76 crpf jawans in Dantewada. But when Kishenji die, there is huge cry every where in the country and guess what his FUNERAL WAS ATTENDED BY CONGRESS MINISTERS.
Now when Manipur has come up in discussion, let us throw some light over it. Manipur has been seen complete economic blockade for over three months now. Children are not going to schools and colleges because it has been forcibly shut down by rebels. LPG cylinder cost around 2000 rupees, petrol costs around 250 per litre, but Mamata ji says that she will not allow another hike in prices. Mamta ji – your state started crying when petrol prices reached 72 rupees but can’t you put pressure on your ally government at centre to listen to the cries of Manipuri people. No discussion has ever taken place in parliament over North Eastern states and no discussion shall ever take place for the relief of Manipuri kids.
In India we have Right to Education and Kapil Sibal is very much conscious of the fact that no dalit children be denied entry into private schools of Delhi. But tell me Mr Sibal are you the Minister of Delhi or India? Why don’t you say a word about the educational rights of thousands of Manipuri children. Oh I forgot you are so busy tackling Anna Hazare…..but why are you busy with Anna Hazare, its the Home Ministry’s, Law Ministry’s and Prime Minister’s problem. Why do you take so much interest in him. Why do you leave up your task and involve in other ministry’s task. You are distributing low cost ipad to children of Delhi, but what about those of Manipur. They do not want ipads, they just want their schools to be re-opened.
And then you say common man should not use violence during protest. They should come up with their folded hands to Ram Leela Maidan to protest and get beaten up by police.
PARTH SARTHI 
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