Posts from — November 2003

An excellent example of mutual butt-scratching (i’ll scratch yours, so you better scratch mine) is the case of RS Sharma, the beleagured ex-police commissioner who’s now spending his last few days in service as chief vigilance officer of the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (sic).

After it was clear that Sharma had to go, Maharashtra Chief Minister Sushilkumar Shinde could have taken strong punitive action against him. But instead, he chose to take the innocuous approach of sending Sharma on a leave. And then Shinde proudly proclaimed in front of the media that he had taken “action” on the SIT report by asking Sharma to go on leave.

Since this was a much lesser punishment for Sharma than what was actually warranted, Sharma chose to keep his mouth shut since he had but a few days to go before retirement.

But the cries for Sharma’s head were growing by the day. And they could no longer be ignored by Shinde. So, in the end, the state government led by Shinde had to initiate a departmental inquiry against Sharma.

As soon as the decision to initiate a departmental inquiry was made by Shinde, RS Sharma claimed that some ministers’ (Maharashtra State Government) names had figured in investigations revealing links with the prime accused. It should be noted that Sharma could have divulged this information when he was quizzed by the SIT on November 8. But he did not do so!

And as soon as Sharma made this allegation, Sushilkumar Shinde had to whip out a mandatory denial today.

As soon as A stops scratching B’s butt, B will stop scratching A’s butt… and both A and B will suffer from itchy butts.

The topic of ‘marriage’ seems to be quite a hot one these days. Just this morning, I happened to notice a Metafilter post on the sanctity of marriage. Shortly after that, I came across Jivha’s post on ‘
Does Arranged Marriage matter?‘.

‘Love Marriage’ versus ‘Arranged Marriage’ is a topic that has been debated, ad nauseam, in the blogging world. With fierce and eloquent proponents on either side, no side has had the last word in the debate and no one ever will!

I have my views and I shall reserve them for a rainy day! ;-)

And then… continuing with the theme of marriages, they’re having 12,000 marriages in Delhi alone, today!!

Holy Matrimony!! (I felt this was much more apt as compared to the usual cry of “Holy Cow!!”) The mind boggles seeing this figure!!

I don’t think these days are so boring and devoid of any exciting news that news sites need to repeat the headlines to fill up space! ;-) :-P

After the early reports that Dell would be shifting jobs from Bangalore to US, the “I-told-you-so” brigade wore smug expressions on their face as if their predictions had ultimately come true… predictions that Americans would never take to the American accents forced out of Indian mouths.

But unfortunately for them, Dell immediately issued denials stating that there were no plans to shut shop in India and take jobs back to the US. The media, hungry for some news to quell the ever-growing unrest among the unemployed masses back home had reported the news, about customer complaints to Dell, without checking it out thoroughly.

So in the end… Metafilter posts like this one end up looking foolish!

The Abu Hafz al-Masri Brigade, the offshoot of Al Qaeda, which claimed responsibility for the dastardly bombings in Istanbul, Turkey, have referred to Kashmir in their statement that appeared on an Islamist website, Al Mujahidoun.

The text of that statement enumerates four demands that the terrorists have made from the US and its allies. Numbered three on that list of demands is the following…

3 - To purify all Islamic land from the filth of the Jews and Americans, including Jerusalem and Kashmir.

Hamid Mir, the Pakistani journalist who has interviewed Bin Laden, once said in an interview with Rediff that “Even Osama bin Laden told me in an interview that he is careful about India. He is not ready to comment a word on India. He is not ready to speak on the jihad in Kashmir. He says that if he speaks it will affect the Muslims of India. He says India is not his enemy, his fight is against America.“

Obviously, now that position no longer holds as far as Al Qaeda is concerned. Kashmir is undoubtedly creeping up the scale of importance within the Al Qaeda. And that does not really come as a surprise. After the purging of Al Qaeda operatives from Afghanistan in the wake of the 9/11 bombings, these fighters arrived in large numbers into Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (PoK) where they felt safe with tacit support of Pakistani intelligence agencies. So it was obvious that the Al Qaeda fighters would be drawn into the “holy” fight against the “oppressive Indian occupation” of Kashmir, in exchange for their safe sanctuary in PoK.

But in mentioning Kashmir, I think Al Qaeda has weakened Pakistan’s position on Kashmir further in the eyes of the international community.

On the other hand, India had better pull up its socks and be prepared as fast as possible, or else it’ll have to bear the impact of “Operation Islamic Iron Hammer”.