Bhabhiji of Chennai

Last night a name that I heard,
Prompted me to turn back pages,
Of my memoir, written in Chennai,
Short, compact, yet eloquently vivid,
And still in my minds eye, I recollect,
That lady, I reverently called Bhabhi,
For, on her face she wore a grace,
So subtly pure, so gracefully benign.

But she, as the great Irish poet said -
“Loved long and long and grew to be out of fashion,
Like an old song" - pale and thin,
And fell victim to her tumultuous life,
For, her beloved, the destiny’s hapless child,
Had unappeasable kin – impervious and rude,
And scarcely had courage to subdue,
Venomous, hostile thoughts of his kin.

He bade her adieu, with sombre mind,
And put her ruefully to bitter oblivion,
Alas ! Now she is on a long meander,
Through strange paths, to strange destinations,
But as I behold her tread to reclusion,
My conscience inspires me to tell her -
'I trust you as I trust my mother,
Albeit, this whole world might denounce.'

I Support Barrack Obama - But Alas ! My Vote Won't Count

Caucuses and Primaries at Iowa and New Hampshire are over and we have some more of them at places like South Carolina, Florida, Maine and at some other places. Even after spending some time to understand the intricacies of caucuses and primaries, I must confess that I am still all at sea about knowing the facts about them. Again that is none of my business, but what certainly my business is and should be the business of a lot of people around the world is to closely watch and follow the candidates for the American Presidential election as it holds a lot of ramifications for the world that we are living in. There is a common perception around the world that there is going to be change in the US government with the incumbent Republican party being replaced by a Democratic government and therefore it is very important for us to know who the democratic candidate is going to be for the Presidential election to be held on 4 November 2008. For me, the ideal candidate would be the Illinois senator,Barrack Obama and not the 'Comeback Kid II', Hillary Rodham Clinton, the New York Senator.

Mr.Obama, if elected, would become the nation's first African-American President. The 46 year old civil rights lawyer is perhaps the most unassuming US Presidential candidate that I have ever seen and he hardly looks in the mould that we Asian would imagine an American President to be. The tall Democrat, with less aesthetic grandeur but great vocal magnificence, appears to be a man of integrity and the policies that he claims he'll pursue, if selected the most powerful man on earth, are certainly quite impressive. Obama's election slogan is "Change, we can believe in" and that is what we all want and hope, a change from the long treaded path of the American Government - of imperialism, world policing and international hegemony. But as John Kerry had said on Thursday, it is sometimes the hardest thing to make a clean break with the past, to readily embrace new thinking and new beginning and therefore it is going to be a real challenge for Mr.Obama to break the status quo and stride to a new path which would restore America's lost credibility and moral authority. A close perusal of his policy plans bring out a real paradigm shift that he intends to bring from the way American decision makers are behaving and governing in the present day under the Presidency of the Republican George Bush.

Foreign Policy
His major foreign policy decisions would be to bring back the US troops from Iraq as soon as possible, press Iraq's leaders to reconcile, aggressive diplomacy to bring back normalcy in Iraq and the Middle East, direct Presidential diplomacy with Iran without preconditions and the humanitarian initiative to confront the grave humanitarian crisis in Iraq, as he believes that America has the moral and security responsibility to do so. Mr.Obama has always been a strong believer that the US troops are fighting a lost battle at Iraq and hence he always wanted to bring back the troops without any more casualties. His plan to have a diplomatic effort towards defusing tensions with Iran, without any preconditions is a real gutsy decision and have to be appreciated and this certainly shows how young minds, which Mr.Obama truly represent, can overcome absurd and preposterous decisions taken by the experienced lot at times.

Civil Rights
Mr.Obama, a civil rights lawyers himself, has been at the forefront in his country's pursuance of promoting civil rights and criminal justice system. He plans to make laws to bring a condition where women will get equal pay for equal work and will also work to overturn Supreme Court's ruling that curtails racial minorities' and women's ability to challenge pay discrimination .

Economy
One of the most serious issues of present day America is the wrong economic position that they are finding themselves in. There are a lot of disparities in the tax regime and Mr.Obama plans to provide tax relief to middle class Americans. He will also try to strengthen the trade position with other countries and will try to create more jobs for the Americans. He will also increase minimum wages and will index it to inflation to ensure it rises every year.

Energy and Environment
Obama supports implementation of market-based cap-and-trade system to reduce the carbon emissions by the amount scientists say is necessary. he will invest in clean energy future, support next generation biofuels, will set America to path of oil independence and will restore US leadership on climate change.

Health care
Health care issues and the opposition against incompetent health insurance system in America are quite vociferous this time around as well. Mr.Obama is having a comprehensive plan for the bringing the health care sector back on track. Obama will bring new national health insurance plan to all Americans, including self employed and small businesses, help individuals to purchase private insurance plan, provide mandatory coverage for children, lower cost by modernising the US health care system, bring in new initiatives and will fight AIDS world wide.

When the lanky Illinois Senator stands for the election, with unique vision, uncompromised ethics and unchallenged integrity, for becoming the first African-American President of the United States, I support him unconditionally and with much hope that he would bring a sea change in the way in which the Americans would look upon the rest of the world and vice versa. But obviously, my support and vote for Mr.Obama won't get counted, sadly.

(With inputs from Barrack Obama's official website for 2008 Presidential Campaign)

Umpiring, Refereeing and the Aussie Behaviour, an Absolute 'Bullshit'

Though it is obvious that using the word 'Bullshit' in any Public space, leave alone a public blog, is not fair and is absolutely ridiculous, it seems that it is the only word that suits to describe what happened at the SCG last Sunday. Here there was a test match which was farcical, satirical and nonsensical and above all, grossly biased. There were 11 Aussie players, all garbed in gentlemen dress playing a gentleman's game with utmost disregard for honesty, purity, virtue, decency, morality and integrity. They say that a team always takes the personality of the captain and this is very much evident in the current Australian team where the whole team takes on the boorish personality of their captain, the boorish and vulgar Ponting. Mr.Ponting on a cricket field looks less like a captain leading a cricket team and more like a thug heading a group of ruffians constantly abusing the opposition, bullying the opponents and intimidating the umpires.

The team of liars and their cheat captain, Ponting were interested only in winning the match by hook or by crook to equal the most consecutive test match wins by a team and therefore for that, they blatantly told lies, did on-field cheating and virtually bullied the incompetent umpires to give decisions in favour of them and thereby manoeuver a pretty much unlikely test match win for them. It is a shame that a champion team like Australia has to resort to such disgraceful deeds to overcome a team while playing a hard game of test match cricket. We all are pretty sure that Harbhajan's "bunny", Mr.Ponting is using Symonds' allegation of racial slur on Harbhajan to see the back of him as Bhajji has started taking Ponting's wicket at his will. The Aussie captain is afraid of the canny off spinner and is using this issue to demoralize him or to 'mentally disintegrate' him, to use Steve Waugh's terminology. Mr.Ponting is not having the slightest of integrity left in him as was evident on Sunday when he was making some of the most ludicrous claims of taking a catch. In one instance he was very vociferous in his appeal against MS Dhoni when he had actually grassed the catch.

One of the most obvious truths about the Australian team, which is not often referred about, is that they are not at all suited to play the gentlemen game and the Australian cricket board would do good if they would take some steps to put these Aussie "kids" back to school so that they can learn some manners and then come back to play cricket. The Australians are so arrogant about their cricket acumen that they have long forgotten that more than winning, what is important is to play a game in the right spirit of the game. It was so shocking to see Adam Gilchrist, the Aussie who walks, and Michael Clark, the captain-to-be, also involved in such ridiculous attempts of bad sportsmanship.

To say that the umpiring in the Sydney test was farcical would be an understatement. The incompetent umpires - Steve Bucknor and Mark Benson had ruined a much awaited test match. Mr.Bucknor, already under the scanner for giving a lot of decisions against the Indians were at the forefront to knit sinister designs to undermine Indian players' efforts on the field. His decision to give not out to Symonds when he was caught behind while he was just 30 runs had turned out to be a series deciding decision. He also failed to refer the third umpire in one such shocking incidence when Symonds was out of the crease and Dhoni stumped him on the bowling of Harbhajan Singh. The third and most atrocious decision came when he adjudged Rahul Dravid caught behind in the second innings when his bat was way away from the ball and this decision was fatal for the Indians as they were looking forward to that wonderful partnership between Dravid and Ganguly to save the game. But the liars, Ponting and Co., connived with Mr.Bucknor in successfully sabotaging India's efforts with their malicious "play-ground" like appealing demeanor. The other on field umpire, Mark Benson was equally inept and incompetent where he was not able to hear the knick that Ponting made while he was leg glancing Ganguly in the first innings and was stupid and outrageously funny when he asked Mr.Ponting and not the third umpire, whether Michael Clark had taken Ganguly's catch cleanly or had he grassed it in the final day. Even a mere thought of the third umpire, Mr.Bruce Oxenford brings disgust, loathe and nauseation as that dumb buffoon, who is infact the Director of a furniture showroom at Brisbane, had made a mockery of the usage of technology in umpiring decisions. His atrocious act of giving Symonds not out, when he was stumped by Dhoni off Kumble while the television replays made it clear that his foot was not grounded, was awful and appalling and made it clear that he would be good enough only to sell wood and should be considered an absolute outcast in a cricket field. Cricket Australia would do a big service to the game of cricket if they would fire this abominable clown from taking part in any aspect of the game.

Refereeing by Mike Proctor in the Sydney test match was biased to say the least. Only Mr.Proctor knows what hell on this earth has prompted him to declare that Harbhajan has committed racial abuse when he himself had said on record that the evidences against Harbhajan are inconclusive. There were no audio or video evidences against him and the umpires had testified that they haven't heard anything either. So he was making his judgment only on hearing what the knave Clarke and Hayden had said and turned a Nelson's eye to what Tendulkar had testified. This was taking the word of one person over another and this is tantamount to saying that he doubts the integrity of the Indians while he has absolute trust on the words of the Australians. This is an insult to India and all Indians and is a scathing remark by a Whiteman against the Indians and hence is a racist outpouring. Let Mr.Procter make the evidences public on which he has convicted Harbhajan, let him come clean and if you have any guts Mr.Procter, come up with your damn evidences and then we'll decide who is guilty and who is not, but not before that.

Some quarters of the Australian press and majority of Australians are furious that the Indians are speaking against the three test ban on Harbhajan. They themselves presume that Harbhajan is guilty of racial slur and need no hard evidences to accuse Harbhajan and interestingly find that India has no moral right to appeal against the verdict. Hey you Aussies, is this the way legal matters work in your country ? Do your legal system hear only the evidences provided by the accuser and his friends and make judgments against the accused ? If this is how it works there, then I am sorry to say that the legal system in your country is as sick as your cricket players are and is bound to be damned.

There is absolutely no point in continuing playing like this at a place where we Indians are sure that we wont get justice.The biased umpires, the opinionated match referee and an opposition that would go to any ludicrous extend to win a match are not the people from whom we can expect good demeanor.So stand up guys, because here our national pride is at stake and we are a proud country with a great history and a great civilization. The BCCI should jettison its pusillanimity and should flex its political and economic muscle to make the ICC bow down and bring justice to all Indians in general and Harbhajan Singh in particular. We want order and natural justice to prevail and should not back off until absolute justice is attained.

Benazir Bhutto and Pakistan After Her Demise

It has been one week since one of the greatest tragedies of our era has happened - The martyrdom of Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto. The repercussions and implications of the event are yet to get completely unfolded. The immediate results are the postponement of the election date at Pakistan from 8th January to 18th February, and more importantly the anointment of the young Bilawal Bhutto Sardari, son of Benazir Bhutto, as the Chairman of the Pakistan People's Party (PPP), the most popular political party in Pakistan.

The life of Benazir Bhutto is in itself the tale of the troubled history of Pakistan, a country mired with Islamic extremism, xenophobia towards Indians and India, high handedness of the military, military coups, and clumsy economic development. Benazir, which means without comparison/unique in Urdu, was born in a very affluent landowning family in the Sindh province of Pakistan in 1953 and her father Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto had served as the President and Prime Minister of Pakistan. She had a privileged childhood with her school education from the Jesus and Mary Convent School in the Punjab province and her college education from the Harvard University and the Oxford University. During her days at Oxford she was known for her oratory skills and was a regular participant in the debating competitions and was also the first Asian woman President of the Oxford union. After her studies she returned to Pakistan in 1977 to pursue a career in the foreign services, but fate had something else in store for her. In 1979, Zulfiqer Ali Bhutto was executed by Gen.Zia-ul-Hag who had usurped the power from Mr.Bhutto through a military coup. Benazir was also arrested and was put into house arrest and then into jail. She was released in 1984 but she went to exile in Britain and later came back in 1986 after the martial law was lifted in Pakistan. She organized civil disobedience movements against the General and came to power in the general elections of 1988 after the death of General Zia-ul-Haq. After that she had been the Prime Minster of Pakistan for two times and both times her ministry had been dismissed by the President using the controversial powers vested on him by the article 58-2 B of the Pakistan constitution. Again she went into self imposed exile in 1999 and came back to Pakistan in October 2007 and was killed in December 2007.

There are conflicting and contrasting opinions on the attitude Ms.Bhutto had on India and how she handled the Islamic extremists and the ISI which were always against India. And there were always criticism against her on corruption and her husband Mr.Asif Ali Zardari was notoriously called Mr.10 percent for his alleged skimming off commissions for all Government projects. And it was always these allegations of corruption which had resulted in her downfall from the post of Prime Minister both times when she held that position. But what should interest us is not what her flaws were, but what legacy she had left behind for Muslim women, political leaders, human rights activists and the general public at large.

One can only get amazed on the bravery this woman politician had shown to come back to Pakistan under such a chaotic situation, particularly so when we compare her with other of her contemporary politicians. There are some odd views that she had risked her life and came back to Pakistan for the love of power, for the confidence that she can make it big this time in the elections and thus regain her political power back from the General (Retd) Pervez Musharraf. But the bravery and audacity that she showed to risk her life for uplifting the values of democracy, has to be appreciated. Whatever may be the political situation in Pakistan, one cant help but say that Ms.Bhutto would have been the best bet for Pakistan and the international community, as the Prime Minister. This is strictly because of her undoubted belief in the tenets of democracy, irrefutable hostility towards extremism, her unusual political will and her strong conviction on economic justice as the sole factor behind the socio-economic development of a nation.

She had always been the target of the extremists and the military backed ISI and they always took umbrage at her deeds because she had the political will to make moves against them and the courage to challenge the very fanatic idealogy which represented them. Ms.Bhutto would have been an ideal person to counter the terrorism pronounced by the extremists and the covert attempts of the ISI to scuttle the peace and tranquility of India and other nations facing the military backed religious extremism emerging out of Pakistan. No wonder why the United States was so much interested in manipulating a deal between Musharraf, their long time non-NATO ally on the war on terror and Ms.Bhutto, whom they consider the only populist liberal leader of the second largest Muslim country in the world.

Ms.Benazir Bhutto was a pretty much a complex human being with enormous bravery born out of her intriguingly complex life which witnessed unusual deaths of her father and two younger brothers. Her political background, made strong by her all powerful second name 'Bhutto', her oratory skills, which she cultivated during her stay at Harvard and Oxford and her striking appearance gave her a larger than life image and a mass appeal among the people of Pakistan. She was the only person who would have given the Pakistan the right path towards democracy, where there is less intervention of the military, where there is social justice and economic development and above all a peaceful co-existence with the international community jettisoning the tag of being the "most dangerous place on earth." But now, with her demise Pakistan's worst fears are here to stay and it would be still in political turmoil, economic backwardness, human rights desertion and be the devil's own land of Islamic extremism and lunatic terrorism endangered by the senseless military and the rogue intelligence services.

It is the greatness of the gallant, though flawed Ms.Bhutto that the fate and fortune of her country is very much in association with her own fate and fortune and now it is up to the Pakistanis to work towards upholding Mohtarma's vision of a democratic Pakistan by participating in the election en masse and putting Pervez Musharaff and his autocratic, outrageous rule into distant oblivion and dumping his King's Party, the PML(Q) into the debris of forgettable history . One can only hope with good heart that her country would not face the tragic end that she had faced in the hands of the enemies of mankind who are the merchants of death, destruction, carnage and utter chaos. (Here, I sincerely thank Ms.Sonia Gandhi for providing us with the expression "merchant of death" which I've used here with her unconditional generosity and largesse.)

Long Live Mohtarma Benazir's aspirations of true democracy.

India Down Under 2007-08

Yet another Indian cricket series has started and this time it is the much awaited series India Down Under (Down Under is a colloquialism referring to things Australia, because in a world map the country Australia is situated down south under all other countries and hence the expression.) A cricket tour by the Indian team to Australia has always evoked great expectation and interest among the masses for various reasons. There is always a great pleasure in finding out how the great Indian batting line up face the all powerful Australian attack. Most often than not a test match between India and Australia is considered as rendezvous where there will be a great competition between the Indian batsmen and the Aussie bowlers. Even the players consider this as a perfect venue to test their playing skills and mental abilities. Also, of late, there has been a common perception that India is perhaps the only team in the world who holds the strength to challenge the Aussie domination in cricket. Two of the recent Twenty20 wins by India over Australia has strengthened such a view as well.

This series is undoubtedly a historic one because of one most prominent reason and it is that this is going to be the last series down under for not only one of the greatest batsmen of all times - Sachin Tendulkar, but also for the other greats of the game like Anil Kumble, Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly and the Very Very Special (VVS) Laxman. So the series is watched closely by the cricket lovers all over the world. It had always been a great feeling to watch all these great players fighting it out at the MCGs and the SCGs and the WACAs. But as all good things have to come to an end at some point of time, this has also reached the final phase. It is quite disheartening to understand that we wont be able to see these great men at work again there in Australia.

This is also a golden opportunity to the cricket fraternity in India to gauge the efficiency of some of the young members of the Indian Cricket team like Yuvraj Singh and MS Dhoni. These young men are going to be the torch bearers of Indian cricket for the years to come. Australia is a place where the technique and skill of a player is tested to its fullest and it is more so when we consider the case of a batsman. It has to be seen whether the technique and batting skills of these young guns match with that of their elder team mates.

When this article is being written, the first test at MCG has already begun. It is the customary Boxing Day test match at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Victoria, which is incidentally the home ground of the legendary leg spinner Shane Warne. We are certainly missing this genius Victorian this time around and this series can certainly be called the beginning of the post-Warne India-Australia clash down under. Decades and centuries are often named after legendary human beings who had written their names in the annals of the history and Shane Warne is undoubtedly one of the legends of the game and therefore it is only appropriate to to term this as post-Warne era.

The second and third tests will be played at Sydney and Adelaide respectively and Adelaide is certainly the ground where the Indians are having good memories of the win in the last series played during 2003-04. The wonderful innings played by Rahul Dravid gave us a great victory to cherish and the Indians would do good to reiterate that memorable performance. Also, one could scarcely forget the Sydney match of that series which incidentally was the last match of another great player Steve Waugh. Sachin Tendulkar's very hard fought double century is still quite alive in the minds of all cricket lovers.

So altogether this series is expected to be yet another cracker of a series with a lot of things at stake for the Indians especially the senior pros of the team as this is going to be their last tour down under. Let us all keep our fingers crossed and wait for a great series with a lot of fair fight, flair and fire.

I Mourn the Death of Benazir Bhutto - The Daughter of the East

Benazir Bhutto
21 June 1953 - 27 December 2007

I mourn the untimely death of former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. 'The Daughter of the East' bravely fought a battle to restore democracy in her country and to bring back lost human rights for her fellow citizens and has attained martyrdom. My heartfelt condolences for the bereaved family and the democracy loving people of Pakistan and the world.

An Excellent Product Idea

Train travel is quite a beneficial form of travel especially for a person like me who has got a personal blog and therefore is always on to the look out for new subjects to write about so that the blog is always up to date and running. For the past month or so I have been a frequent traveler plying through the railway lines of the state twice in a week and this journey is certainly not in search of a subject for my blog, but often gives me some food for thought and sometimes some really good subjects to right about as well. One such recent travel had given me an occasion to get acquainted with a person with a rather smart new product idea. He was a train vendor and he has got a very unique and sensible product with him. While writing this piece, I hope he will pardon me if I borrow some of the words that he himself has used while marketing his product.

We all, at some point of time or the other, would have been a participant in a long queue to obtain some application form from some Government offices. And we all pretty much know the agony we have to face to get that simple piece of paper and, as if the long queue alone is not enough, there are also different issues raised by the officials there, as if their sole intention is to deny us the easy access of that application form. More than that most of us are absolutely oblivious about the places from where we would get a particular form. So to sum up, to obtain a form we have to first know the place from where we could get the form and for that you have to ask a multitude of people who would certainly give you multitude of answers, get to the place by traveling some distance since some forms will be produced only from one center throughout the state, then stand at the queue, then have a verbal scuffle with the officials there and of course wait for the officialdom to take pity on you and finally give you the required form. This is a real ordeal which most of us have faced sometime or the other. This is where the product that we are going to discuss about comes into play.

The vendor in the train claims that he or his family members no longer go to Government offices for getting any of the forms, instead he is carrying about 150 different types of forms with him always so that he can use it whenever he requires it. If you are thinking at the frivolousness of carrying about 150 forms with you always, then wait a minute. He is not carrying it in the physical form instead he is having a CD in which the soft copies of all these forms are there. And that seems to be a pretty good product idea, isn't it ? So anyone needing any form can readily get it form the CD and print it out and use it. If you don't have a printing facility, then just get into a DTP center find the form and take the print out. To further strengthen his case the vendor also states that many government departments accepts forms taken as print outs by the user himself and gives the example of many departments having online forms . He further claims that he had spent about a year and about one lakh rupees for traveling and collecting this much forms from different places and put them all into a CD. Checking the veracity of this statement by him is not at all something that would interest us, but the product is certainly something that would arose anyone's curiosity. Now, the vendor says that his product can be used not only by individual users but also by DTP centers by providing the service of getting lay users the form he needs and charging a price for that. The price of the product is Rs.50 but the vendor says that as an introductory price he is charging only Rs.30.

Two things have to be given utmost credit here - first is the new product idea and the second the new entrepreneur. Here is a product idea that no one had thought about before, for which there is going to be good demand as the product is worthy enough and the price is quite reasonable. Here is an entrepreneur who dared to think big, think about a new idea and not only did he thought about it, but he also transformed his thought into action and that too transformed it successfully. Now it is up to us to decide whether to buy his product and stay away from the long queues that we are so much used to, or continue squandering our time waiting in the queue believing with (waning) hope that we would reach the destination counter sooner rather than later.

You Got it Wrong Mr.Mush

Mr.Musharraf, as we are learning to call him after he jettisoned, rather, mournfully relinquished, his army uniform, had got things absolutely wrong. He introduced Emergency, proposed the Provisional Constitution Order (PCO), expelled the Supreme Court Chief Justice Ifthikar Choudhary, curtailed the human rights of the population and proclaimed himself as the sole ruler of the Muslim country. All these factors have only resulted in reducing his popularity among the masses and his credibility in the eyes of the international community. Again, speaking about his popularity, it was never quite high for him to get worried about any diminution of it, but it had got still worse and reached a level where there had been wide spread mass protest against his autocratic rule with the emergency in place.

If one would contemplate the places where Mr.Mush had gone wrong - for that matter a very close perusal of the facts is not needed, instead anyone with a little of common sense can hardly miss his failure points - it all started with his declaration of Emergency on November. This was certainly a move to counter any decision the Supreme Court might had taken against his re-election on October. With the declaration of emergency he has defeated every possible move of his critics to rule him out of his incumbent position as the Head of the State. One of the most unpopular decision he had taken is the introduction of Provisional Constitution where by curtailing the legal human rights of the people and this came under a lot of criticism from inside and outside the country. He banned protests against him, banned all private television channels, arrested people who were protesting against him, put lawyers under house arrest, anointed hand picked people as judges in the Supreme Court and so on.

Now Mr.Musharraf is speaking about lifting the Emergency and conducting "free and fair" elections. With the absence of an autonomous election commission and with the judiciary playing to the tunes of Mr.Musharraf, one could hardly expect a fair and transparent election. There are scepticism that President Musharraf would dare to do pre-election and post-election rigging to manipulate the election result to suit him and would baptize the political party that supports him , the PML(Q) to reign at the Parliament. But the pro-Musharraf administration is saying that they have done everything possible to conduct a free and fair election with election observers from different countries already present there at Pakistan.

The most significant issue about the present situation there at Pakistan is the absence of human rights. There is no law and order, there is no proper judicial system to take care of the legal rights of the people and there is no environment for the freedom of speech and expression. The international community is not doing enough to change this situation. The human rights groups in Pakistan are fighting hard to reclaim their lost right, they should be given moral support by all countries who believe in freedom and democracy, international human rights agencies should pressurize the international community to act in favor of bringing normalcy back in Pakistan, there should be enough mechanism in place to showcase the human rights activism happening in Pakistan to the international community where by this struggle can increase the confidence of all human rights activists across the world and the international agencies working on human rights viz. Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, OHCHR etc. should come forward to take up this issue to the world stage.

There are a lot of things to be done to bring down the arrogant dictator Mr.Mush from his position as the President of Pakistan and also a lot of things to be done to bring back democracy in that country. Pakistanis should see this as an golden opportunity to wipe off Pakistan military's age old demeanor of usurping power from the democratically elected government. Of course one can't help but think that the end is near for Mr.Musharraf's dream run as the Chief Executive of his country and he has himself to blame for that because he always got everything absolutely wrong.

LDF Government’s Governing Woes

Some people have got the idea that bad governance is tantamount to no governance. But this writer feels that it is a very wrong presumption and believes that it is always good to have a government running a bad government rather than a government without any governance at all. This argument can be proved effectively by using the example of the present government headed by the Left Democratic Front (LDF) in Kerala.

The government that came into existence after getting a big majority in the legislative assembly, has failed miserably in generating any hope in the minds of the people about any good governance. More importantly the government is now mired in a lot of controversies, corruption charges, factionalism, contempt of court charges and so on. But the most important factor that had affected the common man was the dreadful condition of the roads in Kerala. It is often being said in Kerala that the condition of the roads had never been so terrible in the history of the State. Still worse was the Government’s reaction to such a shoddier state of affair. That the government is incapable of taking even a tactical decision like maintenance of roads, leave alone strategic ones, shows the inept and clumsy nature of the LDF government.

The CPI(M), which is heading the coalition government is itself now mired in factionalism that they can hardly find enough time to give proper consideration to their governing duties. The condition of other parties of the LDF front is not any different either. Moreover there are conflicts and hostilities between the parties of the front as well. The recent spat between the minister Sudhakaran of CPI(M) and the CPI Secretary Veliyam Bhargavan is a good example for the same. Day by day the woes of the government are increasing and the internal feud is not making things any better for the them. The recent controversy of the Sabarimala aravana is a shocking example of the internal fight within the LDF front. The Devasom committee members, of course from different parties, are fighting among themselves thereby forgetting the need for a better governance of the temple affairs. This has become an indelible stigma on the government about which, disgustingly enough, they are not worried about.

The latest trend of this government is to blame everything on the civil servants to hide its incapability of doing things and lack of political will. It even got to the extend of the resignation of the former Chief Secretary Lizzie Jacob. There are also political pressure on the government to remove capable officials from their present positions when they are doing something against the whims and fancies of the ruling parties. Removal of Suresh Kumar IAS from the Munnar Mission and MGA Raman from the jail DGP posts are examples of the same. These deeds of the Government haven't done any good to their credibility, if they had some. The pig-headed stubbornness of the Government is all the more evident in it's callous denial of any enquiry into any possible foul play on the same issue.

The life and property of the common man has no security in the present day Kerala. We all are aware about what happened at Changanassery, where there was a clash between the SFI and ABVP students and people from outside and a dutiful Police Officer attained martyrdom while doing his duty. There was no real probe into the issue and before the Police could arrest any perpetrators the Home Minister, Kodiyeri Balakrishnan from Trivandrum has declared that the ABVP is behind the attack. Any sensible person would know that both SFI and ABVP people were involved in the attack and the Minister had declared as he did there was just to save activists of his party from getting arrested. Worse, the Police had arrested some very innocent people on charges of instigating violence and killing the Police Officer. The sad plight of those innocent people are really worrisome and creates a big question mark in the minds of the common men about the safety he or she has in the present scenario with the LDF, headed by CPI(M), in the Government. Though the Home Minister is not interested in doing anything to maintain peace and tranquility in the state, one could only wonder what drives his inner self to bring a lot of so-called "reforms" in the different jails in the state. One cant be blamed if he/she thinks that it is only better to be at some jails rather than being in the outside world in the present day Kerala state because this ministry has done a lot of things for the betterment of jails than anything else. Kudos Home Minster, Kudos.

One single Minister who stands out from the rest, even if more often for wrong reasons, is Mr.Sudhakaran. Within a short span of time as Minister he has become notorious with his childish remarks and joker-like expressions. He is certainly the buffoon of the cabinet and always makes some issues or the other for the lay people to laugh at. Though there are less number of people who doubts the person's integrity, there is a feeling among the masses that he is not eligible for the post of a Minister because he often makes the mockery of his position in the eyes of the public and to the outside world. A state like Kerala can hardly afford such a frivolously silly Minister. He often conceals his inefficiency through his loud stupid remarks on the officers and all his critics. Such a person is not at all fit to be a minister and its a ill-fate of the Malayalees that we have to endure such a ludicrously sick person as our Minister. It would be better for Mr.Sudhakaran to resign his position as Minister and take some position in his party - CPI(M) where he might find some people who can bear with his stupidity and might even have the great heart to hail him as the greatest candid leader ever and also anoint him as the savior of the downtrodden and the voice of the voice-less common man.

This Government has stretched the limit of the endurance of the common people - there is no governance, there is no order, there is no peace, there is no development, there is no security for the life and property of the common man, and of course there is no aravana at Sabarimala. This writer, with the hope of being the "voice of the voice less", though for a very small time period, just wants to tell this government one thing - if you don't know how to govern, then just GET LOST.

Hey Selectors, Where is the Wall

If there is, at any point of time, a national debate on the subject of selecting the best batsman Indian cricket has ever produced, I don't think there would be a great debate. Because statistics and memories of people together will tell that it is Sachin Tendulkar. The Master himself, is one of the greatest cricketers of all times and is also considered as the greatest One Day cricketer ever. Now the question comes on who will succeed Tendulkar on that list of India's greatest batsmen. Arguably, it would be Rahul Dravid, surpassing the great Sunil Gavaskar, for Dravid is the Great Wall of India, widely considered as the greatest Number 3 batsman India ever had. But this fact creates a major doubt in this writer, which he guess can be answered only by the Selectors of the BCCI - Where is the Wall ?

It can only be considered ridiculous that such a great batsman has been overlooked for selection in the ODIs against such a strong opponent like Pakistan. Of course its true that India has won the series against Pakistan and we all are happy about it as well, but still the omission of the great Rahul Dravid from the team is a sad fact. But of course the other side is that this omission has given Rahul the great opportunity to fight back and slam a ton and a double ton in the domestic circuit. He again gave evidence on why he is called the Wall. He was not taken aback by his omission from the national team, instead he fought back with valor and proved a point or two.

There is no doubt this great cricketer, one of the greatest sons of the country, will bounce back and make his impact felt on the international arena once again, for he is a man of class, temperament and enormous abilities. It is only a right decision by the selectors to include Rahul Dravid in national team for the test series against Pakistan and I am sure that he will also figure in the test team against Australia down under. The bouncier tracks of Australia demands batsmen of right technique and right temperament which Rahul Dravid has in plenty. His overseas record is also something that is worth mentioning - he is one batsman whose overseas record in test matches is better than the record in the home matches.

Some times the BCCI selectors make such bizarre decisions that we feel that they are rather insane and inane than being sensible and prudent. Otherwise what reason on this earth do these people have to drop the great Rahul Dravid from the National side. Yet, now they have made the right decision by selecting him for the test matches against Pakistan and thus sense has prevailed again. Lets hope that Rahul Dravid can once again show his mettle as a great Test Batsman and there by prove his real worth to the selectors in the micro level and to the world in a macro level.