CAG nails the lies in UPAs "aam aadmi" claim

http://news.in.msn.com/national/article.aspx?cp-documentid=1827250&page=1

But it looks like Congress is losing its grip on ‘aam admi’, at least.According to reports, UPA government has fallen short of expectations and many of its schemes like NREGS (national rural employment generation schemes) are reported to be anything but dismal in all senses.

Even in key areas like ‘bijli-sadak-paani’ achievements has been nothing but poor, if one goes by the governments replies to the queries put forward by the MPs in the ongoing parliament session.With hardly any time left for the announcement of the general election dates, Prime Minister Manmohan Sing was reportedly upset with the report card at a recent meeting to review UPA flagship schemes.

According to a leading newspaper report, the funds to the tunes of Rs3000 crores in those two years were diverted from infrastructure development into the kitties of some NGOs, cultural organizations and spend for celebrations. When CAG asked for clarification, the government washed its hands off saying that it was not really aware of the actual expenditure of the things done with the money transferred to the bank accounts of NGOs, autonomous bodies and district authorities.


And does the government have any money of its own, NO
The government spends the money of the tax payer, of the small salaried person who struggles to keep his home, struggles to send his kids to school, struggles to take care of his aged parents. Only in India can we see tax payer money being handled so carelessly and spent with so much audacity. Refuse to pay taxes? The government will send the IT goons after you.

Congress object to a muscular foreign policy

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/Congress-objects-to-Advanis-promise-of-muscular-foreign-policy/articleshow/4185008.cms

Congress says that a muscular foreign policy is bad for India. Well, they(Congress) have tried the grovelling and submissive style of foreign policy and it has worked, for the hostile countries surrounding us that is. So why spoil a good thing, eh?

Advani Pledges muscular foreign policy

http://www.expressbuzz.com/edition/story.aspx?Title=Advani+pledges+%E2%80%98muscular%E2%80%99+foreign+policy&artid=eXN8Uftb/C8=&SectionID=b7ziAYMenjw=&MainSectionID=b7ziAYMenjw=&SectionName=pWehHe7IsSU=&SEO=Former+External+Affairs+Minister+Yashwant+Sinha

At a brainstorming session on foreign policy, Advani said, “The NDA will pursue a muscular foreign policy, aimed at preserving India’s autonomy, securing our national interests in the neighbourhood and promoting its strategic interests in the emerging new world.” Advani said during the upcoming parliamentary elections, the BJP will highlight the Congress
-led UPA Government’s failures in foreign policy, as well.

S&P Cuts India Outlook to Negative

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123547596235358561.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

The government has implemented various policies that increase stress on its fiscal position ahead of the general election, which is expected to be held in May 2009," S&P Sovereign Analyst Takahira Ogawa said in a statement.
"With high government debt burden and deficits, its weak fiscal profile has been the single largest negative factor for the sovereign ratings on India," the statement said.
The federal government has ratcheted up its borrowing program four times during the current fiscal year to 3.06 trillion rupees ($62 billion) from 1.45 trillion rupees budgeted initially as it spends more to arrest a slowing economy. It plans to borrow 3.62 trillion rupees in the next fiscal year.

So the government plans on solving this problem by more debt and more borrowing and more spending. This is analogical to a person who is broke who borrows money not to start a business or pay off debts but instead to buy a new 42 inch plasma TV. This is exactly what the government is doing. Sad but true. What we need is not more stimulus but less.

In reality its a British film - Boyle

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/In-reality-it-is-a-British-film-Boyle/articleshow/4180078.cms

Talking to Times of India from Los Angeles an hour after he picked up his Oscar, a slightly out of breath, Boyle said, “I’m truly happy that every Indian I meet is beaming, and it is the ultimate compliment for me that people in India see Slumdog Millionaire as an Indian film. However, in reality it is a British film. It is a very gritty in the beginning and very realistic because our film culture is based on that kind of realism which in Hollywood and Bollywood isn’t quite there.’’

I wonder why Bollywood does not have the reality Boyle talks about, oh wait, maybe its because indians already live the reality and want to be in fantasy land for a brief 3 hours. Sounds fair? Besides i am glad Boyle clarified things, bringing all the gushing, clapping bufoons back to the ground.

Do you dare hate Slumdog hoopla?

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/Do-you-dare-hate-Slumdog-hoopla/articleshow/4179984.cms#write

Excellent article -

“It cannot be emphasised enough that this is not an Indian film, it’s a British-American film
about India with some Indian collaboration. There was a time when they were taking raw cotton from here and processing it in Manchester and we were really proud. This may just be an extension of that sort of imperialism rather than the donning of a post-colonial, post-racial utopia.’’ She feels the hype and ecstacy is absolutely crazy, and it comes from a Western recognition hangover

Birds of the same feather flock together - Azharuddin joins the congress

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/Azhar_willing_to_fight_polls_if_Cong_offers_ticket/articleshow/4153419.cms

Convicted Match fixer Mohammed Azharuddin joins the Congress party. If cheats and liars are the kind of leaders who get Congress party tickets, then one wonders what is the quality of people we have in our country.

Ulta Chor Kotwal ko Daante!!

http://www.ptinews.com/pti%5Cptisite.nsf/0/497F8123EDD343DA65257561005A4459?OpenDocument

New Delhi, Feb 18 (PTI) Congress today accused senior BJP leader L K Advani of "politicising and communalising" the war against terror by referring to a "local hand" in the Mumbai terror strikes.Reacting to Leader of Opposition Advani's statement in the Lok Sabha yesterday in which he endorsed Gujarat Chief Minister's views on the issue, Tewari said, "by endorsing Modi's statement (role of local hand), the Leader of Opposition is politicising and communalising the war against terror".Tewari said, "it seems his old love for Pakistan has arose again...He is acting like an apologist for Pakistan." The Congress leader said that when Pakistan itself has accepted its role in 26/11, what is he (Advani) asking for by referring to local hand."The situation in south Asia is very sensitive. Pakistan has handed large portion of its land to the Taliban. When the entire world is thinking of ways to dismantle the terror structures, BJP is behaving like Fifth columnists in the fight against terror," Tewari said.The spokesman said if he (Advani) and Modi have some solid evidence, they should make it available to the investigating authorities in Mumbai. PTI

Swamy attacked by lawyers in Madras HC

http://www.timesnow.tv/NewsDtls.aspx?NewsID=29738

Pandemonium prevailed in the court of Justice P K Mishra and Justice K Chandru when the advocates shut the doors from inside and hurled rotten eggs at Swamy, who was there to implead himself in a petition on Chidambaram temple issue. Order was restored after the shocked judges took exception to the behaviour of the lawyers, who also shouted pro-LTTE and anti-Brahmin slogans. The court proceedings came to a standstill for about 15 minutes because of the incident.

So the protestors protest the evil caste system by abusing another caste. There is such an appeal to that logic....hmmm...

Pranab Mukherjee's stimulus package will cost India dearly

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Coming-Rs-6000-crore-poll-stimulus/articleshow/4146208.cms

Around Rs 6,000 crore would be pumped into the system as political parties and candidates splurge on their campaign and the Election Commission pays a huge bill for conducting the election. And the main beneficiary would be the services sector that often spurs growth.

Watch our for inflation to go right through the roof.

Need for ‘Hindu vote bank’: Swamy

http://www.hindu.com/2009/02/17/stories/2009021759811100.htm

TIRUPATI: Janata Party leader Subramanian Swamy on Monday said the only way to counter vote-bank policies blindly pursued by governments and political parties was to develop a strong and formidable “Hindu vote bank.” It was the only way to check the “continued neglect and subjugation of Hindus and Hindu temples,” he said.
Dr. Swamy criticised the United Progressive Alliance government for its attempt to “bend over backwards” to protect mosques and churches while showing “utter indifference” to protect the Hindu shrines and sentiments.
He was addressing a convention organised by the Andhra Pradesh Hindu Temples Protection Committee.
Dr. Swamy said that though there were 42 mosques in Ayodhya where no prayers were offered, Muslims were laying claim to the disputed Ram Janmabhoomi alone.

People will recognise 'hand' behind price rise: Advani

http://dailypioneer.com/157069/People-will-recognise-hand-behind-price-rise-Advani.html

"The time is coming when people will recognise the hand that made price rise possible, the hand that made farmers commit suicides, the hand that made the economy as bad as it is now, the hand that made the Satyam-Maytas scandal possible," the BJP's prime ministerial candidate said.

Renuka Chowdhury on backfoot after court notice.

http://sify.com/news/politics/fullstory.php?id=14857560
"I do not intend to give notice to the Mayor of Mangalore. They say that they have sent me a notice but I have not received any notice so far. It seems it (sending of legal notice) is politically motivated and to divert attention," she said.

Does she mean, she will ignore the court notice?

A loud and raucous Renuka Chowdhury asked for imposition of presidents rule and proclaimed a complete breakdown of law and order in Karnataka. As a resident of Karnataka, I see this as northern aggression on a southern state. The BJP government is democratically elected by the people of Karnataka. Any attempts at divesting the people of Karnataka of their chosen leaders can be done only after changing the federal character of Bharat.
Please read the reader comments under the article. People are aware that Renuka Chowdhury makes up with volume what she lacks in content.

Only one family has ruined everything: Modi

http://deccanherald.com/Content/Feb82009/national20090208117315.asp?section=updatenews

Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi today made a scathing attack on the Gandhi-Nehru family alleging that a "conspiracy" has been hatched to promote the family posing a danger to the future of the country.
"Ek parivar ke ateet ko age badane ke liye jo shadayantra chal raha hai usse Hindustan ke bhavishya ko khatra hai (Conspiracy to promote one family's past is posing danger for the future of the country)," Modi said without directly naming the Gandhi-Nehru family but the indication was obvious.
Noting that members of the family have ruled the country for as many as 37 years, he said that if the past five years were also taken into account, then it would be a 42-year rule.

Swadeshi the answer to India’s challenges: Advani

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/swadeshi-the-answer-to-indias-challenge.../423288/

Championing the “Swadeshi model” to meet India’s developmental challenges, BJP’s prime ministerial candidate L K Advani on Thursday stated that the party’s “third way” was the only viable alternative to “free-for-all capitalism or freedom-killing communism”. “What India needs is a robust, self-confident Swadeshi model of development, which is rooted in the ideals of democracy, equality, justice and integral human progress,” Advani said at the 81st annual general meeting of the FICCI in Delhi.

Liberty is not libertinism

http://dailypioneer.com/155693/Liberty-is-not-libertinism.html


How blithely we abuse the Right for anything and everything that offends those who promote and practice unrestrained libertinism and are appalled that morals and scruples are still valued by the vast majority of the people of India. It is of little or no consequence to the critics of the Right that most of them lack the intellectual wherewithal to define and qualify the object of their hate. Despite the absence of any real understanding of what the Right stands for, in contrast to the Left, it is fashionable to mock at the former even for those whom the latter holds in utter contempt.Hence the outpouring of abuse and worse against the Right following the attack on a pub in Mangalore, evocatively named Amnesia, by a bunch of goons masquerading as soldiers of Sri Ram Sena on January 24. Strangely, most of the scathing criticism of the Right has been voiced by those whose dissolute lifestyle sets them firmly apart from conservatives as well as liberals. It is doubtful whether the Left, leave alone the Right, would endorse the enterprise undertaken by The Consortium of Pubgoing, Loose and Forward Women to collect pink underwear, sneeringly referred to as ‘chaddis’, which will be sent to Pramod Muthalik and his hoodlums on Valentine’s Day this Thursday. There is nothing amusing about either this ‘creative’ protest or Union Minister of State for Women and Child Development Renuka Choudhury’s call for a ‘pub bharo andolan’; both merely highlight the moral bankruptcy of a certain segment of our urban society which seeks to impose on India the trailer park ‘culture’ that permeates every aspect of their lives.The issue really isn’t one of culture and tradition, which are far too complex for those who look askance at responsible behaviour to comprehend, but the manner in which they view others who may refuse to embrace or applaud their lifestyle. It is also to do with perverse notions of ‘modernism’ and assertion of perverted ‘modernity’. For instance, The Consortium of Pubgoing, Loose and Forward Women — this Facebook group also has men as its members — would consider women who don’t consume alcoholic beverages or smoke cigarettes, wear saris and are not necessarily long-suffering wives who spend their lives as home-makers but in building successful careers, as ‘backward’.They would view working women who travel in over-crowded buses and commuter trains and return home in the evening too tired to contemplate a night out on the tiles, or those who contribute to the family kitty to keep the home fire burning and, therefore, cannot afford the luxury of scoffing exotic cocktails at pubs, as losers deserving of their pity. The women who scrub floors, wash clothes and clean dishes to eke out subsistence wages from which they save money to pay for their children’s school fees and books, and are regularly beaten black and blue by their husbands after they have had their fill of liquor at ‘pubs’ which cater to the underclass, simply do not matter and, hence, are not worthy of The Consortium of Pubgoing, Loose and Forward Women’s attention.There is also the aspect of duplicity, the double standards which are practiced by those who equate ‘pub culture’ and its attendant libertine self-indulgence with being ‘forward’ or ‘modern’. For example, a woman with the pallu of her sari firmly placed over her head will be sneered at as not only ‘backward’ but also a ‘conservative’ who is preventing society from moving ‘forward’. But a woman forced to clad herself in an all-enveloping burqa will be seen as being true to her ‘faith’ and ‘culture’, which only underscores the amazing ignorance of those who do the tagging.Who is to tell The Consortium of Pubgoing, Loose and Forward Women, and their guardian angel Renuka Choudhury, that a vegetarian and a teetotaller, whether a man or a woman, who finds ‘pub culture’ abhorrent and distasteful, or those who reject conspicuous consumption since it clashes with their middle class values, can also be ‘forward’ and ‘modern’ in their personal lives?Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar did not give up his sacred thread nor did he get rid of the tuft of hair that denoted his caste; he wore a short Bengali peasant’s dhuti and used a coarse cotton chaador to cover his torso. He was a scholar of Sanskrit who was barely able to make ends meet, leave alone indulge in the smallest of luxuries. Such a person would be an object of ridicule and worse for The Consortium of Pubgoing, Loose and Forward Women, especially the male members of the group who would burst into derisive laughter. That’s understandable. For those busy collecting pink chaddis would be blissfully ignorant of Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar’s pioneering role in championing women’s emancipation and promoting widow remarriage. Nor would they know about Raja Ram Mohun Roy who led a remarkable campaign for social reform without abandoning culture and tradition: The Brahmo Samaj was — and remains — grounded in India’s civilisational identity and cultural ethos while repudiating aberrations and excesses of faith.A last point that merits elaboration is the disdain which the pink chaddi brigade and charlatans who pose as emancipators of women and ostensibly believe that emancipation lies in sipping Bacardi or chasing whiskey while blowing smoke rings have for local community sensitivities, which are often casually referred to as local culture and tradition. Just because lip-locking or similar public display of carnal attraction (which is not to be confused with love) raises no eyebrows in the West does not mean the East must ape the mating game. It is immaterial whether individuals are comfortable with licentious behaviour in front of others. What is material and important is whether those around the individuals — in a street, a park, a café or a restaurant — are comfortable with it; if they feel discomfited or outraged, then their sensitivities must over-ride the presumed right to make a spectacle of yourself in public.None of this is in defence of Pramod Muthalik’s hooliganism. But to oppose misplaced and vulgar vigilantism is not to support the obnoxious celebration of ‘pub culture’. Liberty, after all, is not about libertinism nor is modernism to be confused with libertarianism. By idolising deracinated men and women who have scant regard for moral values and even less respect for ethical rectitude, we are promoting everything that is antithetical to our culture, our tradition. There really is no need to fashion our lifestyle after Sex and the City. But if informed — or should it be ill-informed? — adults elect to do so, it is their choice and they are welcome to it. Of course, provided they do not seek to impose it on others or demand approval, acceptance and applause.

Why CEC's Recommendations Must Be Accepted

http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20090201&fname=advani&sid=1

Sad that the neutrality of the EC is being corrupted by the ever corruptible Congress. Of course they have gone on to attack the CEC Gopalaswami slyly indicating that "there is a convergence of views" between him and BJP. Huh, so what? The next step in this drama is for the congress to vilify CEC with the choice epithets of being communal and a hinduvadi.

More on how EC Chawla passed on information to the Congress - http://www.rediff.com/news/2009/feb/02chawlas-loo-breaks-led-to-congress-phone-calls-cec.htm

More on the EC Navin Chawlas background - http://www.rediff.com/news/2009/feb/02bsraghavan-its-unfair-to-impute-motives-to-cec.htm

Excesses during the Emergency
Direct orders from Sanjay Gandhi
Corruption
The list seems fairly long. one wonders how a person like Navin Chawla got into a body as the Election Commission.

Advani is indisputable choice for PM: Jaswant

http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/001200902011742.htm

"Jaisalmer (PTI): Notwithstanding some industrialists favouring Gujarat Chief Narendra Modi as BJP's prime ministerial candidate, a senior party leader on Sunday said L K Advani was the indisputable choice for the top post as "industrialists do not select PM". "

A firm statement by Jaswant Singh.

I smell a stink in the way the pro- Amar Singh Reliance group supported Narendraji Modi for PM out of the blue. The timing is important since it is close to the elections and essentially it is a matter where they have no say in. This is not to take away from Modiji the fantastic achievements in all areas in Gujarat. Ostensiably, this is to confuse the electorate prior to the elections.

Paswan, Bardhan support reservation for Muslims

http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/002200902011742.htm

Secularism is the word that seems to define out country. It certainly has replaced nationalism and patriotism.

Confused congress continues its bungling

http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/mumbaiterrorstrike/Story.aspx?ID=NEWEN20090082081&type=News

Has Pakistan's replied to the dossier given by the Indian government on 26/11 attacks?Well, National Security Advisor M K Narayanan has told NDTV that Pakistan has sent some queries on the dossier given by India on the 26/11 investigations.He has also said that the government will be responding to Pakistan's questions in due course.But on Saturday, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee denied that the Indian government has received any response from Pakistan officially on their probe into Mumbai attacks.

Congress manipulates the Eletion commission

http://www.hindu.com/2009/02/02/stories/2009020260101000.htm
The congress says that the BJP is manipulating the EC, while at the same time the Assam EC quits and immediately joins the Congress with high chances of being offered a ticket! Here is the article - http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/Assam_Election_Commissioner_resigns/articleshow/4060543.cms

Assets of ministers, kin exempt from RTI: PMO

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Assets_of_ministers_kin_out_of_RTI_ambit_PMO/articleshow/4060646.cms

In a decision that could have a far-reaching impact on administrative accountability, the PMO, widely seen as leading the government towards transparency has decided to withhold information related to assets of ministers and their relatives. Responding to a query by applicant Subhash Chandra Agrawal, the PMO termed the information as exempt under clauses 8(1)(e) and 8(1)(j) which relate to immunity granted to "documents fiduciary relationship" and "Cabinet documents" under the RTI Act.