Category — Buffoonery

Media hounding me since I am OBC: Ramadoss

Embroiled in a controversy over the removal of Dr P Venugopal, AIIMS Director, Dr Ramadoss said, “Especially, journalists in New Delhi are concentrating on issues relating to the All India Institute of Medical Sceinces as I am from MBC.“

Appalling!

Sacha Baron Cohen (now famous as Borat), in an earlier avatar as the irrepressible Brit gangsta, Ali G, appeared in a movie called “Ali G indaHouse“. In this crude, rude and crazily satirical slapstick movie, Ali G got a chance to play the MP from Staines. As an MP, one of the outrageous suggestions that Ali G gave in the parliament was to rework UK’s immigration policy to grant citizenship only to “fit” women.

In a case that sounds right out of Ali G’s backyard… a couple of Swedish immigration officers have been maintaining a photo collection of “exceptionally beautiful” women who have passed through the immigration checkpoint that they were manning!

The officers, who were working at a ferry terminal near Stockholm, made photocopies of the women’s passport photos and placed them in a binder. They also noted the date of birth next to each entry, the Stockholm police department said. [Source: MSNBC via an almost month-old entry on Metafilter]

While I am amazed at the diligence shown by these officers in keeping a meticulous record of the influx of beauty, I wonder what good is a photo, with a date of birth recorded alongside, going to do?!

Any ideas?!

I know that The Daily Show isn’t the place for serious talk, but the way Pervez Musharraf has been going on a “yes-I-said-this-no-I-didn’t” trip regularly these past few days, this was worth a chuckle for me.

Everyone and their dog knows that Musharraf appeared on the The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, Tuesday night. Jon Stewart blasted him with a poker-faced question out of the blue to start off the interview…

As a gesture mirroring Pakistani hospitality, Stewart welcomed Musharraf with a cup of jasmine green tea, and offered the more American delicacy of a Twinkie. Musharraf chuckled and thanked the host, though Stewart promptly changed the subject.

“Where’s Osama bin Laden?” he asked suddenly.

“I don’t know,” replied Musharraf. “You know where he is? You lead on, we’ll follow you.”
[Source: The Norman Transcript. Emphasis mine.]

And this is what Musharraf had to say in an interview. And it was on the same day as the appearance on The Daily Show!

Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has said he believes fugitive Osama bin Laden to be hiding in Kunar province in eastern Afghanistan, and has rebuffed French intelligence reports that Laden died of typhoid in Pakistan.

‘It is not a hunch,’ Musharraf told The Times, London’s correspondent in New York
[Source: Rediff.com. Emphasis mine.]

As the saying goes, all in a day’s work for the back-stabbing General!!

Well ok… there’s no such saying. But there could be! ;)

Pakistan president Pervez Musharraf’s memoirs seem to be little more than an election campaign filled with fabrications, insinuations and self-serving tripe. This view is based on the opinions expressed by ‘experts’ on both sides of the border.

Also in the book is Musharraf’s apparent disillusionment with Indian PM Dr. Manmohan Singh’s leadership and imagination. And he has some advice for the good doctor…

He has this advice for Singh: “I feel if a leader is to break away from hackneyed ideas and frozen positions, he has to be bold. He has to dominate the establishment, rather than letting it dictate to him”.
[source: IBNLive]

Isn’t that precious!? Perhaps someone should remind Mush that we have something called democracy in India. And it functions slightly differently from the dictatorship he is used to, in Pakistan.

And in any case, Musharraf’s four-point “out-of-the-box” solution is anything but “out-of-the-box” or imaginative! It’s just a rehashed proposal that Pakistan has been trying to push for ages, and one that has been consistently found unacceptable by India since it involves partitioning J&K along religious or sectarian lines.

At first, Mulayam Singh Yadav said the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) was not active in Uttar Pradesh and gave it a clean chit.

Mr. Yadav said the Ayodhya and Varanasi incidents were purely terrorist acts and the Special Task Force of the U.P. police had found no evidence of SIMI’s involvement in them. On the suspected involvement of SIMI in the Mumbai blasts, he said it was a matter for investigation.

The Chief Minister’s brother and PWD Minister Shivpal Singh Yadav said SIMI was not a terrorist organisation. Only those organisations and outfits that were found to be involved in terrorist activities should be banned.

Yeah right!!

As expected, Mulayam’s comments resulted in a huge uproar throughout the country, coming as they did right after the Mumbai blasts. So what does Mulayam do?

He feigned innocence and denied making any remarks about SIMI.

Now, with UP state assembly elections due early next year, Mulayam Singh Yadav seems to have felt the need to appease his Muslim vote-bank. So disregarding his own denial of his claims of SIMI’s innocence, Mulayam has once again started making claims of SIMI’s innocence.

Ruling out the involvement of the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) in recent terrorist attacks in the state, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mulayam Singh on Wednesday alleged that the BJP was responsible for the advent of the menace in the country.

SIMI’s role has not been detected in blasts in Varanasi and the Shramjevi Express and in the Ayodhya terrorist attacks, Mulayam said at a discussion in the legislative assembly…

I can’t seem to decide whether I should laugh or cry at this atrocious flip-flopping attitude! … not to mention the blatant vote-bank politics!!

And he adds…

Terming the BJP as the “mother of terrorism,” the Chief Minister said there was no terrorism in the country before the demolition of the Babri Masjid at Ayodhya and held the saffron party responsible for its advent.
[emphasis mine]

Whoa!! … beat that!! I want to respond to that, but words just fail me!!

Oh by the way, Mulayam also hopes to go on a saree distribution spree to rake in female votes in the assembly polls.