Category — Politics

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!

Mamata Banerjee ended her 25 day long fast at the stroke of midnight on Thursday. After that, she was promptly admitted into the ICU of a private hospital in Kolkata, where she is on respiratory support and is being administered intravenous fluids to treat her dehydration, hypoglycaeamia and other nutritional disorders.

Now I do not mean to imply, like CPI-M leader Nilotpal Basu did, that Mamata Banerjee’s fast was just an “outlandish drama” or that Mamata had no ideological basis in going on a fast. These issues are up for debate.

But I wonder if a person on a prolonged fast, who is all but unconscious and on life support systems, takes a decision to end the fast based on his/her political or moral ideals or is it just the primal instinct to survive that prompts him/her to end the fast!!

Any ideas?

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.

True to its style, Maharashtra government is trying to address issues it has no business interfering in! Vilasrao Deshmukh has apparently decided to frame a code of conduct and set restrictions on the height of the dahi handis. This was after a few hundred injuries, including broken bones, were reported in Mumbai hospitals during dahi handi celebrations.

“There is a need to have a height restriction for the dahi handis,” Deshmukh said at a media briefing after a meeting with other Cabinet members.

“There is absolutely no restriction at all right now,” he admitted, adding: “The competition is intense as festival organisers are increasing the height of dahi handis and matching it with larger cash prizes.”

The state government would convene a meeting with all the Govinda groups of the city to formulate a code of conduct before next year’s festival, Deshmukh said on Wednesday.
[Source: ToI ]

They actually had a cabinet meeting about this. Is this an issue that warrants a cabinet meeting? Is this an issue that warrants state intervention at all?!

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After the 7/11 Mumbai train blasts, the national mood was simmering. People were enraged and wanted decisive action by the Government… perhaps strikes inside Pakistan to bomb the terrorist camps proliferating there. Sensing the national mood, the Government of India decided to put the peace talks with Pakistan on hold. The reasoning offered was that unless Pakistan president Pervez Musharraf abides by his promises to end cross-border terrorism, talks were futile.

“India will ask Pakistan to fully adhere to President Pervez Musharraf’s announcement in 2004 that his country would extend all support to end cross-border terrorism as the terror strikes in Mumbai not only shook the country but invited sharp reactions from the world community,” Ahamed said.

And yet, less than 20 days later, India opted to resume the dialogue with Pakistan. One wonders what change in Pakistani attitude in the intervening fornight prompted the resumption of dialogue! On the contrary, Pakistan only strindently denied any involvement in the 7/11 blast and also brazenly asked for proofs of the existence of terrorist camps within Pakistan. The reason for resumtion of peace talks was the same old worn-out line that the MEA is so fond of!

”We are engaged in a peace process which is important to both countries and it is very important that in order to allow this process to move forward there must be a commitment to abandon cross-border terrorism in whatever form it occurs,” he said.

So why did the Indian government choose to resume the dialogue?! Armchair peaceniks will claim that sane heads within the government prevailed. Congress will put forth the argument that the Congress party is committed to peace. But of course, those are silly reasons. There are no more saner heads in this government than the preceeding one! And if at all, the Congress party is committed (and addicted) to power, not peace.

Surely the NDA government gave a marvellous example of a tough response when it ordered Operation Parakram after Vajpayee’s ‘aar paar ki ladai‘ claims in the aftermath of the Pakistan-sponsored Parliament attack in 2001. After all, Operation Parakram was the biggest and longest deployment of Indian military might on the border.

Hardly!

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