Rahul Gandhi: “I feel ashamed to call myself an INDIAN after seeing what has happened here in UP”.
PLEASE DON’T BE ASHAMED OF U.P. YET

Please don’t be ashamed of Uttar Pradesh yet. Congress ruled the State for the Majority of the duration Pre Independence to Post Independence.. from 1939 to 1989 ( barring the Periods of Emergency.. Thanks to your Grand Mom Indira G. and a couple of transitional Governments)

8 out of the total 14 Prime Ministers of India have been from UP, 6 out of those 8 have been from Congress…

I think your party had more than half a century and half a Dozen PM’s to build a State…

The Reason Mulayam Singh, subsequently came to Power is because your party wasn’t exactly Gandhian in their dealings in the State.. So May be If you look at in totality the present chaos in UP is the outcome of the glorious leadership displayed by Congress in UP for about 50 years!

So Please don’t feel ashamed as yet Dear Rahul.. For Mayawati is only using the Land Acquisition Bill which your party had itself used to LOOT the Farmers many times in the Past!

WHY DIDN’T YOUR PARTY CHANGE THE BILL WHEN IT WAS IN POWER FOR SO LONG?

Not that I Endorse what Mayawati is doing.. What Mayawati is doing is Unacceptable..

But the past actions of your party and your recent comments, puts a question mark on your INTENT and CONSISTENCY.

YOU REALLY WANT TO FEEL ASHAMED

But don’t be disappointed, I would give you ample reasons to feel ashamed…

You really want to feel Ashamed..?

First Ask Pranav Mukherjee, Why isn’t he giving the details of the account holders in the Swiss Banks.

Ask your Mother, Who is impeding the Investigation against Hasan Ali in the 74,000 Crore tax evasion case ?

Rajiv Gandhi had a total of Swiss Franc 2.5 billion ($2.2 billion) in secret account In November 1991 [SEE ANNEXURE 10]

After his death, SoniaG was the sole beneficiary of that amount. And that was 1991, Only She knows her account balance now.. Could that be the reason the Govt. of India is not releasing the list of account holders in the Swiss Banks ?

Ask her, Who got 60% Kickbacks in the 2G Scam ?

Kalamdi is accused of a Few hundred Crores, Who Pocketed the Rest in the Common Wealth Games?

Ask Praful Patel who made Indian Airlines so Sick? Why did Air India let go of the Profitable Routes ?

Why should the Tax Payer pay for the Air India losses?

Also, You People can’t run an Airline Properly. How can we expect you to run the Nation?

Ask Manmohan Singh. Why/What kept him quiet all this while?

People say He is Honest. Honest to the Nation, or Honest to a PERSON?

THE CBI raided the vault of the Reserve Bank of India and found a huge cache of COUNTERFEIT INDIAN currency lying in the denomination of 500 and 1000. IN
THE RESERVE BANK OF INDIA???

Why is the Govt. of India quiet on that ?

So, Could the reasons for sustained INFLATION be MORE related to POLITICS than ECONOMICS?

Who let the BHOPAL GAS TRAGEDY Accused go Scot Free? (20,000 People died in
that Tragedy)

Who ordered the State Sponsored Massacre of SIKHS in 84?

Please read more about, How Indira Gandhi pushed the Nation Under Emergency
in 76-77, after the HC declared her election to Lok Sabha Void!

(I bet She had utmost respect for DEMOCRACY and JUDICIARY and FREE PRESS)

I guess you know the answers already. So My question is, Why the Double Standards in Judging Mayawati and members of your Family and Party?

I condemn Mayawati. But Is She the only one you feel Ashamed for?

What about the ones close to you? For their contribution to the Nation’s Misery is beyond comparison.

You talk about the Land being taken away from the Farmers. How many Suicides
have happened under your Parties Rule in Vidarbha ? Does that Not Ashame You ?
THE 72,000 CRORE LOAN WAIVER

Your Party gave those Farmers a 72,000 Crore Loan Waiver. Which didn’t even
reach the Farmers by the way.

So, Why don’t you focus on implementing the policies which your govt. has undertaken, instead of earning brownie points by trying to manufacture consent by bombarding us with pictures of having food with Poor Villagers….

You want to feel ashamed. You can feel ashamed for your Party taking CREDIT
for DEBITING the Public Money (72,000 crores) from the Government Coffers and literally Wasting it…

You want to feel ashamed.. Feel ashamed for that…

WHY ONLY HIGHLIGHT THIS ARREST?

Dear Rahul, to refresh your memory, you were arrested/detained by the FBI the BOSTON Airport in September 2001.

You were carrying with you $ 1,60,000 in Cash. You couldn’t explain why you
were carrying so much Cash. Incidentally He was with his Columbian girlfriend Veronique Cartelli, ALLEGEDLY, the Daughter of Drug Mafia.

9 HOURS he was kept at the Airport.

Later then freed on the intervention of the then Prime Minister Mr. Vajpayee.. FBI filed an equivalent of an FIR in US and released him.

When FBI was asked to divulge the information, by Right/Freedom to Information Activists about the reasons Rahul was arrested … FBI asked for a NO OBJECTION CERTIFICATE from Rahul Gandhi.

So Subramaniyam Swami wrote a Letter to Rahul Gandhi, ” If you have NOTHING
to HIDE, Give us the Permission”

HE NEVER REPLIED!

Why did that arrest not make Headlines Rahul? You could have gone to the Media and told, “I am ashamed to call myself an INDIAN?”.

Or is it that, you only do like to highlight Symbolic Arrests (like in UP) and not Actual Arrests ( In BOSTON)

Kindly Clarify…..

In any case, you want to feel ashamed, Read Along…

YOUR MOTHER’S SO CALLED SACRIFICE OF GIVING UP PRIME MINISTER SHIP in 2004.

According to a Provision in the Citizenship Act a Foreign National who becomes a Citizen of India, is bounded by the same restrictions, which an Indian would face, If he/she were to become a Citizen of Italy.

(Condition based on principle of reciprocity)

[READ ANNEXURE- 1&2]

Now Since you can’t become a PM in Italy, Unless you are born there.

Likewise an Italian Citizen can’t become Indian PM, unless He/She is not born here!

Dr. SUBRAMANIYAM SWAMI (The Man who Exposed the 2G Scam) sent a letter to
the PRESIDENT OF INDIA bringing the same to his Notice. [READ LETTER TO THE PRESIDENT IN ANNEXURE -3]

PRESIDENT OF INDIA sent a letter to Sonia Gandhi to this effect, 3:30 PM, May 17th, 2004.

Swearing Ceremony was scheduled for 5 PM the same Day.

Manmohan Singh was brought in the Picture at the last moment to Save Face!!

Rest of the SACRIFICE DRAMA which she choreographed was an EYE WASH!!!

Infact Sonia Gandhi had sent, 340 letters, each signed by different MP to the PRESIDENT KALAM, supporting her candidacy for PM.

One of those letters read, I Sonia Gandhi, elected Member from Rai Bareli, hereby propose Sonia Gandhi as Prime Minister.

So SHE was Pretty INTERESTED! Until She came to know the Facts!

So She didn’t make any Sacrifice, It so happens that SONIA GANDHI couldn’t
have become the PM of INDIA that time.

You could be Ashamed about that Dear Rahul!! One Credential Sonia G had,
Even that was a HOAX!

THINK ABOUT YOURSELF.

You go to Harvard on Donation Quota. ( Hindujas Gave HARVARD 11 million
dollars the same year, when Rajiv Gandhi was in Power)

Then you are expelled in 3 Months/ You Dropped out in 3 Months…. ( Sadly Manmohan Singh wasn’t the Dean of Harvard that time, else you might have had
a chance… Too Bad, there is only one Manmohan Singh!)

Some Accounts say, You had to Drop out because of Rajiv Gandhi’s Assassination.
May be, But Then Why did you go about lying about being Masters in Economics
from Harvard .. before finally taking it off your Resume upon questioning by
Dr. SUBRAMANIYAM SWAMI (The Gentlemen who exposed the 2G Scam)

At St. Stephens.. You Fail the Hindi Exam.

Hindi Exam!!!

And you are representing the Biggest Hindi Speaking State of the Country?

SONIA GANDHI’s EDUCATIONAL QUALIFICATIONS

Sonia G gave a sworn affidavit as a Candidate that She Studied English at University of Cambridge

[SEE ANNEXURE-6, 7_37a]

According to Cambridge University, there is no such Student EVER! [ SEE ANNEXURE -7_39]

Upon a Case by Dr. Subramaniyam Swami filed against her, She subsequently dropped the CAMBRIDGE CREDENTIAL from her Affidavit.

Sonia Gandhi didn’t even pass High School. She is just 5th class Pass!

In this sense, She shares a common Educational Background with her 2G Partner in Crime, Karunanidhi.

You Fake your Educational Degree, Your Mother Fakes her Educational Degree.

And then you go out saying, ” We want Educated Youth into Politics!”

Letters sent by Dr. Swami to EC and then Speaker of Lok Sabha are in
ANNEXURE 7_36 &7_35 RESPECTIVELY

Contrast that with Gandhi Ji , who went to South Africa, Became a Barrister, on Merit, Left all that to work for South Africa, then for the Country….

WHY LIE ABOUT EDUCATIONAL CREDENTIALS?

Not that Education is a Prerequisite for being a great Leader, but then you shouldn’t have lied about your qualifications!

You could feel a little ashamed about Lying about your Educational Qualifications. You had your reasons I know, Because in India, WE RESPECT EDUCATION!

But who cares about Education, When you are a Youth Icon!!

YOUTH ICON

You traveled in the Local Train for the first time at the Age of 38.

You went to some Villages as a part of Election Campaign.

And You won a Youth Icon!! … That’s why You are my Youth Icon.

For 25 Million People travel by Train Everyday. You are the First Person to win a Youth Icon for boarding a Train.

Thousands of Postmen go to remotest of Villages. None of them have yet gotten a youth Icon.

You were neither YOUNG Nor ICONIC!

Still You became a Youth Icon beating Iconic and Younger Contenders like RAHUL DRAVID.

Shakespeare said, What’s in a Name?

Little did he knew, It’s all in the Name, Especially the Surname!

Speaking of Surname, Sir

DO YOU REALLY RESPECT GANDHI, OR IS IT JUST TO CASH IN ON THE GOODWILL OF MAHATMA ?

Because the Name on your Passport(ITALIAN) is RAUL VINCI.
Not RAHUL GANDHI..

May be if you wrote your Surname as Gandhi, you would have experienced,
what Gandhi feels like, LITERALLY ( Pun Intended)

You People don’t seem to use Gandhi much, except when you are fighting
Elections. ( There it makes complete sense).

Imagine fighting elections by the Name Raul Vinci…

It feels sadly Ironic, Gandhi Ji, who inspired Icons like Nelson Mandela ,Martin Luther King Jr. and John Lennon, across the world, Couldn’t inspire members of his party/ Nehru’s Family, who only seem to use his Surname for the purposes of FIGHTING ELECTIONS and conveniently use a different name on their PASSPORT.

You could feel ashamed for your Double Standards.

YOUTH INTO POLITICS.

Now You want Youth to Join Politics.

I say First you Join Politics.

Because you haven’t Joined Politics. You have Joined a Family Business.

First you Join Politics. Win an Election fighting as RAUL VINCI and Not Rahul Gandhi, then come and ask the youth and the Educated Brass for more involvement in Politics.

Also till then, Please don’t give me examples of Sachin Pilot and Milind Deora and Naveen Jindal as youth who have joined Politics..

They are not Politicians. They Just happen to be Politicians.

Much Like Abhishek Bachchan and other Star Sons are not Actors. They just happen to be Actors (For Obvious Reasons)

So, We would appreciate if you stop requesting the Youth to Join Politics till you establish your credentials…

WHY WE CAN’T JOIN POLITICS!

Rahul Baba, Please understand, Your Father had a lot of money in your Family account ( in Swiss Bank) when he died.

Ordinary Youth has to WORK FOR A LIVING.

YOUR FAMILY just needs to NETWORK FOR A LIVING

If our Father had left thousands of Crores with us, We might consider doing the same..

But we have to Work. Not just for ourselves. But also for you. So that we can pay 30% of our Income to the Govt. which can then be channelized to the Swiss Banks and your Personal Accounts under some Pseudo Names.

So Rahul, Please don’t mind If the Youth doesn’t Join Politics. We are doing our best to fund your Election Campaigns and your Chopper Trips to the Villages.

Somebody has to Earn the Money that Politicians Feed On.

NO WONDER YOU ARE NOT GANDHI’S. YOU ARE SO CALLED GANDHI’S!!

Air India, KG Gas Division, 2G, CWG, SWISS BANK Account Details… Hasan
Ali, KGB.

Then Sonia Gandhi proclaimed ‘zero tolerance’ to corruption at a party rally in Allahabad in November 2010. WHAT A HYPOCRITE!

You want to feel ashamed..

Feel Ashamed for what the First Family of Politics has been reduced to…

A Money Laundering Enterprise.

NO WONDER YOU ARE NOT GANDHI’S BY BLOOD. GANDHI is an adopted Name. For Indira didn’t marry Mahatma Gandhi’s Son.

For even if you had one GENE OF GANDHI JI in your DNA. YOU WOULDN’T HAVE BEEN PLAGUED BY SUCH ‘POVERTY OF AMBITION’ ( Ambition of only EARNING MONEY)

You really want to feel Ashamed.

Feel Ashamed for what you ‘ SO CALLED GANDHI’S’ have done to MAHATMA’S
Legacy..

I so wish GANDHI JI had Copyrighted his Name!

Meanwhile, I would request Sonia Gandhi to change her name to $ONIA GANDHI, and you could replace the ‘R’ in RAHUL/RAUL by the New Rupee Symbol!!!

RAUL VINCI : I am ashamed to call myself an Indian.

Even we are ashamed to call you so!

P.S: Popular Media is either bought or blackmailed, controlled to Manufacture Consent!

My Guess is Social Media is still a Democratic Platform. (Now they are trying to put legislations to censor that too!!)
Meanwhile, Let’s ask these questions, for we deserve some Answers. For we are all Gandhi’s. For Bapu is the Father of the Nation!

To know more, Try looking for Dr. SUBRAMANIYAM SWAMI. He is the reason today 2G SCAM is being Investigated!!! He also happens to be a FORMER UNION LAW MINISTER.

Corruption in India is a cultural aspect.

Indians seem to think nothing peculiar about corruption .

It is everywhere.

Indians tolerate corrupt individuals rather than correct them.

No race can be congenitally corrupt.

But can a race be corrupted by its culture?

To know why Indians are corrupt ,

look at their patterns and practices .

First:

Religion is transactional in India . Indians give God cash and anticipate an out-of-turn reward.

Such a plea acknowledges that favours are needed for the undeserving.

In the world outside the temple walls,

such a transaction is named- “bribe”.

A wealthy Indian gives not cash to temples,

but gold crowns and such baubles.

His gifts can not feed the poor. His pay-off is for God. He thinks it will be wasted if it goes to a needy man.

In June 2009, The Hindu published a report of Karnataka minister G. Janardhan Reddy gifting a crown of gold and diamonds worth

Rs 45 crore to Tirupati.

India’s temples collect so much that

they don’t know what to do with it.

Billions are gathering dust in temple vaults.

When Europeans came to India they built schools. When Indians go to Europe & USA, they build temples.

Indians believe that if God accepts money for their favours, then nothing is wrong in doing the same thing. This is why Indians are so easily corruptible.

Indian culture accommodates such transactions morally.

There is no real stigma. An utterly corrupt Jaya Lalita can make a comeback, just unthinkable in the West.

Second -

Indian moral ambiguity towards corruption is visible in its history.

Indian history tells of the capture of cities and kingdoms after guards were paid off to open the gates, and commanders paid off to surrender.

This is unique to India .

Indians’ corrupt nature has meant limited warfare on the subcontinent. It is striking how little Indians have actually fought compared to ancient Greece and modern Europe .

The Turks’ battles with Nadir Shah were vicious and fought to the finish.

In India fighting wasn’t needed, bribing was enough to see off armies.

Any invader willing to spend cash could brush aside India ’s kings, no matter how many tens of thousands soldiers were in their infantry.

Little resistance was given by the Indians at the “ Battle ” of Plassey.

Clive paid off Mir Jaffar and all of Bengal folded to an army of 3,000.

There was always a financial exchange to taking Indian forts. Golconda was captured in 1687 after the secret back door was left open.

Mughals vanquished Marathas and Rajputs with nothing but bribes.

The Raja of Srinagar gave up Dara Shikoh’s son Sulaiman to Aurangzeb after receiving a bribe.

There are many cases where Indians participated

on a large scale in treason due to bribery.

Question is: Why Indians have a transactional culture while

other ‘civilized’ nations don’t?

Third -

Indians do not believe in the theory that they all can rise if each of them behaves morally, because that is not the message of their faith.

Their caste system separates them.

They don’t believe that all men are equal.

This resulted in their division and migration to other religions .

Many Hindus started their own faith like Sikh, Jain, Buddha and many converted to Christianity and Islam.

The result is that Indians don’t trust one another .

There are no Indians in India ,there are

Hindus ,Christians, Muslims and what not.

Indians forget that 400 years ago they all belonged to one faith.

This division evolved an unhealthy culture.

The inequality has resulted in a corrupt society,

In India every one is thus against everyone else, except God ­ and even he must be bribed.

An IAS couple here owns 25 flats and 400 acres of land. A middle-ranking engineer’s wife owns three houses and has more than 10 kg gold in her bank locker. And wherever the income tax department conducts a raid, so much cash is unearthed that counting machines have to be brought in.

This week, the I-T department submitted two appraisal reports to the Lokayukta and the state government on earlier raids.

One report claimed that a search of official residence of an IAS couple Arvind and Tinoo Joshi on Feb 4, 2010 revealed unaccounted wealth of Rs 360 crore. Cash and foreign currency found was too much to be counted manually — machines counted Rs 3 crore in cash and Rs 7 lakh in foreign currency. Gold worth Rs 67 lakh kept in a suitcase was also seized.

Documents recovered from their possession revealed that the 1979 Madhya Pradesh cadre IAS couple had purchased 25 flats. The family paid a life insurance premium of Rs 3.5 crore, speculative trading for 274 crore and bought stock specific shares for Rs 3 crore. Following the raids the couple was suspended.

Last Monday, the I-T department opened two lockers belonging to the wife of a PWD executive engineer Ashok Kumar Jain and found 7.8 kg of gold mostly in bars and Rs 1.6 crore in cash. One year ago, Jain, posted in Narsinghpur district, drew a salary of less than Rs 20,000 per month. Ashok Jain has been booked for amassing wealth disproportionate to his income.

The health scam raids conducted three-and-half years ago were more shocking. At the residence of former health director, Yogiraj Sharma, notes were falling out of washing machines, wardrobes, quilts, pillows, bed-sheets and ‘masala’ dabbas. The former health director’s family slept on mattresses stuffed with notes. That day in September 2007, machines counted 1.75 crore in Indian and Rs 6 lakh in foreign currency there.

Read more: In MP, babus sleep on bed of cash – The Times of India http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/In-MP-babus-sleep-on-bed-of-cash/articleshow/7323240.cms#ixzz1Bdfl2FJ6

Exposed, untreated excrement can kill by the million. One of the hardest-won UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) is a 2015 target of halving the proportion of those without sustainable access to safe drinking water and adequate sanitation. Even if achieved, the target would still leave some 500 million on the planet without this basic requirement for survival and dignity. As many as 79 per cent of rural and 46 per cent of urban Indians have no access to improved sanitation. Of the 40 per cent of global population (some 2.6 billion people) forced to defecate in the open, some 665 million are Indians.

Diarrhoea claims 5,000 children every day worldwide, most of them on this subcontinent. The loss in lives, work days and school attendance (particularly by girls) is estimated at $38 billion per year.

Water and sanitation are inextricably linked: without sanitation, safe water cannot remain safe. “Access” is a key word with a variety of interpretations. In planning circles, targets are set in terms of coverage. “Coverage” is normally measured by the number of latrines, hand-pumps, water pipes and sewerage systems installed. Whether these are functioning, properly used and well-maintained is quite another matter.

100,000 tons of human excrement that Indians leave each day in fields of potatoes, carrots and spinach, on banks that line rivers used for drinking and bathing and along roads jammed with scooters, trucks and pedestrians. 75 percent of the country’s surface water is contaminated by human and agricultural waste and industrial effluent.

My recent train trip in India was the six AM Shatabdi Express to Jaipur. The sun rose late on that December morning, illuminating hundreds of men squatting in the fields next to the tracks, mile after mile, their asses towards the train, pooping on the same ground hundreds of men had pooped on every single day before.

Men only. Modesty forces women to poop in the fields before sunrise, or to hold it until after the sun sets.

This is the practice across India and the sanitary ramifications are staggering. Poop is a vector for bacteria and viruses, and it attracts insects and rodents that are equally unhealthy. People poop faster than Mother Nature can degrade it, which means people who poop in the same place day after day will inevitably come into contact with festering feces. A speck of poop on a shoe gets touched by a hand that passes a glass of water to a two-year-old: that’s how disease spreads.

Why do people poop in the fields? For some, it’s because they’re ignorant of hygiene and bacteriology; for others, it’s because they’re too poor to have any other choice.

75 percent of the country’s surface water is contaminated by human and agricultural waste and industrial effluent. Everyone in Indian cities is at risk of consuming human feces, if they’re not already, the Ministry of Urban Development concluded in September. The toll on human health is grim. Every day, 1,000 children younger than 5 years old die in India from diarrhea, hepatitis- causing pathogens and other sanitation-related diseases, according to the United Nations Children’s Fund.

Too bad that there isn’t a Nobel prize in the Dirt and Filth category. India would have added one more to its pitifully small collection of Nobel prizes. Minister of the Gandhi realm, Jairam Ramesh, said at a recent public event,“Our cities are the dirtiest cities of the world. If there is a Nobel prize for dirt and filth, India will win it, no doubt.”

One would be hard-pressed to disagree with the claim since India is indeed dirty and filthy beyond reason. It says something about the culture of the people.

For now, here’s another statistic that would not surprise anyone who has seen the real India. Any day of the week, any time of the day, you can see men urinating with their backs turned to the street.(What women do is beyond my imagination.) Look out of a train any morning and you have to avert your eyes from the hundreds of people defecating along the train tracks.

 A recent AFP news item reports that 665 million people lack toilets in India. That’s more than twice the size of the entire population of the US. In slum areas, where more than half of Mumbai lives, an average 81 people share a single toilet. In some places it rises to an eye-watering 273. Even the lowest average is still 58, according to local municipal authority figures. Unsurprisingly, it is still common to see people squatting by roads and railway tracks or along the coast, openly defecating in the city that drives India’s economy and where some of the world’s richest people live. 

Commuters from Mumbai’s suburbs, and in other parts of the country, routinely see hundreds of people squatting besides the train tracks to relieve themselves. Many of them are women, who often cover their heads with their saris, thus making themselves ‘invisible’ to onlookers through the inverse logic that if I can’t see you (because my head and eyes are covered) you can’t see me. Such ‘invisible’ women are India’s open and only too visible shame.  The humiliation and degradation does not – and ought not to – attach to  those who perforce must do what they have to do without the dignity of privacy. The shame is ours that over 60 years after independence from foreign rule we continue to be a society in which more than half the total population has no recourse but to relieve themselves in the open, like animals.

Till we can draw a veil of privacy and dignity across the sight of Bharat Mata squatting to do her business, India will continue to broadcast a literally crap image of itself to the world and to ourselves, despite all the credit we lay claim to for our social and economic progress.

In the end it adds up, precisely, to a load of shit.

Reflections on India By Sean Paul Kelley

Sean Paul Kelley is a travel writer, former radio host, and before that an asset manager for a Wall Street investment bank that is still (barely) alive. He recently left a fantastic job in Singapore working for Solar Winds, a software company based out of Austin to travel around the world for a year (or two). He founded The Agonist, in 2002, which is still considered the top international affairs, culture and news destination for progressives. He is also the Global Correspondent for The Young Turks, on satellite radio and Air America .

The government is notoriously uninterested in the problems of the commoners, too busy fleecing the rich, or trying to get rich themselves in some way shape or form. Take the trash for example, civil rubbish collection authorities are too busy taking kickbacks from the wealthy to keep their areas clean that they don’t have the time, manpower, money or interest in doing their job.

Rural hospitals are perennially understaffed as doctors pocket the fees the government pays them, never show up at the rural hospitals and practice in the cities instead.
I could go on for quite some time about my perception of India and its problems, but in all seriousness, I don’t think anyone in India really cares. And that, to me, is the biggest problem. India is too conservative a society to want to change in any way.

Mumbai, India ’s financial capital is about as filthy, polluted and poor as the worst city imaginable in Vietnam , or Indonesia –and being more polluted than Medan , in Sumatra is no easy task. The biggest rats I have ever seen were in Medan !

One would expect a certain amount of, yes, I am going to use this word, backwardness, in a country that hasn’t produced so many Nobel Laureates, nuclear physicists, eminent economists and entrepreneurs. But India has all these things and what have they brought back to India with them? Nothing.

The rich still have their servants, the lower castes are still there to do the dirty work and so the country remains in stasis. It’s a shame. Indians and India have many wonderful things to offer the world, but I’m far from sanguine that India will amount to much in my lifetime.

Now, have at it, call me a cultural imperialist, a spoiled child of the West and all that.  But remember, I’ve been there. I’ve done it. And I’ve seen 50 other countries on this planet and none, not even Ethiopia , have as long and gargantuan a laundry list of problems as India does.

And the bottom line is, I don’t think India really cares. Too complacent and too conservative.

Read for whatever its worth, cos as the writer says, I dont think we care (enough to change it). The collapse of our civil society has been the biggest loss. I’m sure that the Prime Minister sees all this filth all over the country, while being drived around in his motorcade.

Puja Mehta

‘Much of the funds flowing out are generated at home within India and then sent illegally abroad,’ said an upcoming report from Global Financial Integrity (GFI).

‘So the growth of corruption and India’s underground economy contributes significantly to illicit financial flows from the country,’ said the research arm of the Centre for International Policy (CIP).

‘Corruption is rampant in India as it is in almost all developing countries. Both corrupt political and corporate officers manage to siphon off funds – intended to aid the people of India – off to political and private sector elite,’ it said.

‘Recent efforts in India to challenge this corrupt affront on humanity have been met with severe violence,’ junior GFI economist Karly Curcio said in a blog on the report on illicit financial flows from India and explaining its linkages with poverty, corruption, and crime.

‘As India develops economically and builds better infrastructure, one would think all Indian citizens would see an increased standard of living and that the income inequality levels would fall,’ says the blog post following a news report about recent violent crimes in India against whistleblowers.

‘However, the gini coefficient, which measures income inequality, has actually increased over the time period measured, 2000-2005, from 0.32 to 0.37 on a scale of 0 to 1, with 1 being the highest income inequality,’ Curcio wrote.

‘In India, as in other currently developing countries, as the economy grows, so do illicit flows,’ she wrote. ‘This positive correlation exhibits the increased incentives to conduct illicit flows, mostly because more money is flowing within the system to steal away and constant greed is tapping into that pool.’

India ranked 84 out of 180 countries in Transparency International’s 2009 Corruptions Perceptions Index ranking.

‘As corruption continues to plague both the country and its ability to develop free and fair institutions to monitor and charge corrupt officials, the majority of India’s economic growth will never make it to the people of India who desperately need it the most,’ Curcio warned.

India’s legislative efforts to protect whistleblowers and those who work to fight corruption is a step in the right direction, however more must be done, she says calling for global efforts to make it harder to move illicit funds around the world.

These efforts include increasing financial transparency, as well as stronger work by developed-country governments to crack down on their home banks accepting these laundered, illicit funds, Curcio said.

Today, out of 543 MPs in Lok Sabha, 315 are crorepatis. That’s 60%. 43 out of the 54 newly elected Rajya Sabha MPs are also millionaires. Their average declared assets are over Rs 25 crore each. That’s an awfully wealthy lot of people in whose hands we have vested out destiny. The assets of your average Lok Sabha MP have grown from Rs 1.86 crore in the last house to Rs 5.33 crore. That’s 200% more. And, as we all know, not all our MPs are known to always declare all their assets. Much of these exist in a colour not recognised by our tax laws. That’s fine, I guess. Being a MP gives you certain immunities, not all of them meant to be discussed in a public forum.

If you think it pays to be in the ruling party, you are dead right: 7 out of 10 MPs from the Congress are crorepatis. The BJP have 5. MPs from some of the smaller parties like SAD, TRS and JD (Secular) are all crorepatis while the NCP, DMK, RLD, BSP, Shiv Sena, National Conference and Samajwadi Party have more crorepatis than the 60% average. Only the CPM and the Trinamool, the two Bengal based parties, don’t field crorepatis. The CPM has 1crorepati out of 16 MPs; the Trinamool has 7 out of 19. This shows in the state-wise average. West Bengal and Kerala have few crorepati MPs while Punjab and Delhi have only crorepati MPs and Haryana narrowly misses out on this distinction with one MP, poor guy, who’s not a crorepati.

Do MPs become richer in office? Sure they do. Statistics show that the average assets of 304 MPs who contested in 2004 and then re-contested last year grew 300%. And, yes, we’re only talking about declared assets here. But then, we can’t complain. We are the ones who vote for the rich. Over 33% of those with assets above Rs 5 crore won the last elections while 99.5% of those with assets below Rs 10 lakhs lost! Apart from West Bengal and the North East, every other state voted for crorepati MPs. Haryana grabbed first place with its average MP worth Rs 18 crore. Andhra is not far behind at 16.

But no, this is not enough for our MPs. It’s not enough that they are rich, infinitely richer than those who they represent, and every term makes them even richer. It’s not enough that they openly perpetuate their families in power. It’s not enough that all their vulgar indulgences and more are paid for by you and me through back breaking taxes. It’s not enough that the number of days they actually work in Parliament are barely 60 in a year. The rest of the time goes in squabbling and ranting. Now they want a 500% pay hike and perquisites quadrupled. The Government, to buy peace, has already agreed to a 300% raise but that’s not good enough for our MPs. They want more, much more.

And no, I’m not even mentioning that 150 MPs elected last year have criminal cases against them, with 73 serious, very serious cases ranging from rape to murder. Do you really think these people deserve to earn 104 times what the average Indian earns? – Pritish Nandy, 22 August 2010, 10:01 AM IST

My main source: http://www.fake-guru.com/recently-exposed/20-kalki-bhagavan-amma-bhagavan-%96-1000-dollar-meeting.html

Inaugurated two months ago by Sports Minister MS Gill, the range even hosted a test event for the Games but has now self-destructed after the rains in the first week of July

On July 8, CRPF DIG and Manager (sports), MC Panwar (the Range is built on CRPF land) wrote a desperate letter to top Sports Ministry officials. Hindustan Times has a copy.

“Due to the incessant rains on the night of July 4 and 7,” reads the letter, “the various embankments on the range (which will host two medal events during the Games), have collapsed and extensive damages (sic) have been caused. The grassy expanse of lawn overhead the first box culvert has been washed away along with the side foot-tracks.”

The bad news doesn’t end here. The “all-weather road” (as the letter puts it) obviously wasn’t fit for all kinds of weather. The letter continues: “…the all-weather road near culvert No. 2 is about to collapse as all the underlying sand fillings have been washed away. There are visible landslides on either side of the remaining box culverts.”

“The chain-linked fences have come down at various places and its footings (sic) are hanging free in the air. The windowpanes of the facility block are leaking badly. The CPWD (Elect) has made numerous holes on the rooftop for split ACs resulting in seepage inside and damage to the false ceiling,” the letter adds.

Former CRPF DIG and sports manager, TS Dhillon, on whose recommendation the range was built inside the CRPF complex, was unavailable for comment. He designed the range.

Rahul Bhatnagar, one of the two joint secretaries in charge of the Games, told HT that they had “referred the issue to the Central Public Works Department”. “There is no structural damage to the big culverts built underground, for rainwater to pass through without damaging the range. The mud has settled on the range,” said Bhatnagar.

What makes the situation even more embarrassing is that this is just one more in a long list of shortcomings of the proposed Games venues.

The “new” Dr SP Mukherjee Swimming Complex was inaugurated on Sunday despite the fact that parts of the complex are far from complete. Even as the inauguration was on, a water pipe malfunction sprayed water all around. Crucial aspects of the competing/non-competing areas like lap timers, wall plaster etc were either missing or already in dilapidated condition.

Or take the Talkatora Boxing Stadium. The holding and warm-up boxing areas, located in the basement, have major seepage problems — no one obviously factored the rains into any construction design. There was some flooding inside because of leakage while outside, there was more than a foot of water all around.

This all comes soon after the Yamuna Sports Complex episode, where the false ceiling collapsed and the wooden flooring got damaged because of waterlogging. Both will now have to be replaced.

The state-owned airlines said it also has offline offices at Brussels, Copenhagen and Beirut which are in the process of being closed.

The aviation company said it had “never” operated any flight from six destinations including Milan, Vienna, Zurich, Copenhagen, Brussels and Chittagong but was maintaining its offices there. In the rest of the destinations, there are no flight operations currently but it had operated in the past.

In a question seeking reasons for maintaining these offices, Air India said it has “code sharing agreement with other Airlines in Los Angles, Vienna, Zurich and Moscow. Hence it is essential to be represented in these cities to sell and service the passengers who travel on code-shared flights.”

The aviation company, however, did not give any reasons for maintaining rest of the offices.

The RTI reply shows that in 2008-09, the highest amount was spent in Los Angles — nearly Rs 16 crore. The least expenditure was incurred on the office in Chittagong where nearly Rs two lakh were spent. The total expenditure in 2008-09 came to Rs 41.89 crore.

“A comprehensive review is carried out regarding continuation of offices. In general, the commercial viability of offices is reviewed and appropriate action is taken to close offices in cities where alternative arrangement can be made to ensure revenue generation,” the reply given to RTI applicant S C Agrawal said.