My thoughts on Bhopal Gas Tragedy

The TV channels have worked themselves into a lather about Warren Anderson, and I don't see why. The then Chairman of Union Carbide need never have stepped on Indian soil after the gas leak. He obviously came with some deal having been struck in advance. Even without such a deal, he'd have been bailed after a few days of custody.
It's always convenient to blame the foreigners. So what if the Bhopal plant was entirely under Indian management, as required by Indian law? So what if we don't yet know what triggered the leak? So what if we've put no measures in place to cope with another such accident?
We've never been too fussed about safety. What sense does it make to press charges of culpable homicide when what happened was clearly negligence? Criminal negligence, no doubt, but nonetheless negligence. Unless, of course, we accept the Union Carbide theory that it was sabotage.
Intention is central to culpability. Absent an intent to kill, it makes no sense to put people away for ten years, even if their negligence resulted in 10,000 deaths. The problem lies not with the sentence but the delay in getting to this point. It has made India an international laughing stock.
The other issue relates to the compensation of 470 million dollars. I don't believe it was such a trivial amount as is being made out. The government should've accepted the initial offer of 350 million dollars and used it to build health care centres, and disbursed it quickly to victims. Instead it demanded over 3 billion and finally had to accept the 350 million plus interest. And after it got the 470 million, it kept most of it in a bank account, like it would do any good there!!!!

Justice Delayed and Justice Denied

Its has been a long and agonising fight by the survivors of the Bhopal gas tragedy for justice. Just two years in jail for the men who committed the worst crime against the people of this country. And whats worse - they are immediately bailed out!!! This mockery of justice after such a long wait. Twenty six years after 40 tonnes of lethal gas seeped into the lungs of Bhopal, some 17,000 men and women are still waiting for the so-called compensation… In all these years, the poor victims have done everything they could to get justice and compensation… Today, they were denied justice. Today, they were told that they should be happy with the peanuts thrown at them by Union Carbide. Today, India proved once again that it doesn't care for its poor… Today, India proved that it doesn't really care for its people, particularly if they have been slaughtered by powerful people from the most powerful nation in the world. Instead of taking on America and fighting for justice for its poor, India is more than happy to sell its dead cheap. What a pity!!!!!

Frailty thy name is politics!

Its really appalling to see our Mr Clean Image PM Dr. Manmohan Singh defend his telecom minister who is in midst of one of the greatest scams of our time. Mr Raja is alleged to have allocated the 2G spectrum at throwaway prices of 2000-3000 cr, when the asking rate was around 55000 crores. Many of the Indian entities who purchased the licenses then sold their share to foreign investors at 1500% premium!!!. Recently the sale of 3G spectrum fetched the govt a whopping 60000 crores. When asked about the anomaly in the pricing of the spectrum, the telecom minister defended himself by saying that 2G is like a "ration rice" and 3G is like a basmati rice!!!
I would like to remind our esteemed minister that the "rationed rice" which is subsidised by the govt is for the poor people in the country - in the same context i would like to know the 2G spectrum was sold at subsidised rate for poor telecom operators? ( read Reliance - the Ambanis, Unitech, Airtel).

Its true that politics really brings the worst out of men. How else can one explain our PM defending the tainted minister. The compulsions of coalition politics really brings the issue of 2 party system to the forefront.

India - A colony of Britian??

WTF is this!!! the external affairs minister of our country backs down on the demand for extradition of the terrorists involved in Mumbai attack and gives in to the wishes of the visiting foreign secretary David Muiliband. Will somebody please remind Mr Singh and his team that India is sovereign country and no longer a colony of Great Britain. The British foreign sec says that there is no need for Pakistan to extradite the terrorists and it can try in its own court - i was shocked to hear that the Indian govt has agreed to the proposal. Tomorrow the foreign sec of US would come and say that LOC be converted into border and then all the problems would be solved once for all, I hope the govt would protest at least then!
It is India was has been attacked and it is India which has to respond!! the international community was watching then and it would be watching even now!!! We have to respond and respond in a hard way!

Narendra Modi - PM in waiting?

The top industrialists of the country have seem to have been overwhelmed by the persona of Narendra Modi. They say that Narendra Bhai is the "PM Substance". It is not a small achievement that in the times of recession Modi has got a commitment of $200 billion in 2 days flat.

The world is in recession China and India are slowing down, but it seems that Modi's Gujrat is firing on all the cylinders. No doubt that th Godra episode remains a stumbling block for the widespread acceptance of Modi, but the way he is transforming the state of Gujrat, many are prepared for look beyond that Godra.

Modi is clearly a man on a mission, a selfless mission to power his state to development and prosperity in a manner that has not been done in India by anyone anywhere, and at a scorching pace that even now seems impossible in any state except Gujarat. In a country where a hopelessly corrupt, unresponsive and inefficient bureaucracy has stalled India's progress with single-minded ruthlessness through the weapon of an all-pervasive red tape, in collusion with corrupt politicians, Modi has proved that impossible is nothing indeed.

Modi has become the beacon that has illuminated the truth that an honest, competent and visionary leader can single-handedly turn red tape into a 'red carpet' and get errant and arrogant babus to do their jobs as they are supposed to. No wonder Gujarat is by far the the best governed state in India and is motoring ahead of all other states. The most heartening thing is that despite so much of money being invested there, there is not even the whiff of a scandal anywhere. The absence of kickbacks to politicians and babus and a rare collective zeal inspired by Modi to get things done for the people is getting the world to rush to Gujarat.

Despite this near revolution that Modi has unleashed in a corrupt India that is being mirrored by Andhra Pradesh, our media, unfortunately, continues to treat him as a pariah, thanks to the shrill campaign of a few disconnected 'intellectuals' stuck in 2002. In a lively discussion on CNN-IBN on January 12, 2009, about the CNN-IBN Indian of the Year, Sagarika Ghose was blunt enough to voice the fact that, thanks to them, Modi will not be in any list where "a certain degree of the values of the awards are at stake". To them, politicians with suitcases full of looted money have been, and will continue to be, acceptable. But anyone who does not conform to their warped idea of 'inclusiveness', despite all evidence to the contrary, will have fight to earn his prize in the heat and dust of real India. They will not gift it to him in a five star hotel, no matter that he may actually be beyond all competition. That is saying a lot about the credibility of such awards, but who cares!

Fortunately, the people of India are far wiser than most of those who do the rounds of TV studios. They do not carry either fake ideological baggage or ulterior motivations to promote or pull down political leaders. They know well the difference between what is happening in Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh. They know that Narendra Modi personifies the symbol of his party perfectly as much as Reddy personifies the filth that is draining India. In this vast ocean of politico-bureaucratic muck, Modi stands out as the pristine lotus. Sure he is not the only one out there. There are a few, really few, others too, but he is clearly the tallest and strongest.

Narendra Modi is emerging as the transformational leader that India has been yearning for. With every passing day, that realisation is dawning on more and more of those who were violently opposed to him earlier. That is why Suhel Seth, once one of his greatest critics, is now one of his staunchest supporters. That is why the captains of India's industry have given him a 21-gun salute. That is why the people of India will pull him sooner rather than later to lead them and their country to long delayed glory.

The way the genie that unexpectedly emerged out of Satyam is growing despite best efforts to keep him covered, there is little doubt that, no matter how hard the government may try, the 'aam aadmi' will not be fooled. He knows exactly which face of India is represented by Modi and Reddy, now better than ever before. He is seeing the impossible being turned into a reality in Gujarat. He is also seeing in Andhra Pradesh the ugly underbelly of politicians from whom he had no escape earlier. He knows that he now has before him a clear choice to make. And he will make it wisely, no matter what efforts are made to confuse him with falsehoods yet again.

And entirely on a different note, had Modi been the current prime minister of our country i guess Pakistan would have already received the treatment it deserves for 26/11!!!