The unstoppable VIRUS..

Walking in the streets of my hometown, I could hear the loud words of the people. Everywhere I go, they seem to be speaking about the same topic. At my home, my friend’s home, shops and hotels people have got involved in the similar lines of discussion. “In my home, we received 1000 rupees.” “Oops they gave us only 500 rupees.” Women too were having their own talk. “The saree colour is too bright. I didn’t like the design too”.

The by-election to my hometown constituency is to happen and the bribes they were receiving have become the talk of the town. Both the ruling party and the opposition started wooing the people through cash. Not to mention that dhotis and sarees were also offered. Times have gone when people debated on their ideological differences before elections. People who were scared to accept bribes or who hesitated to tell outside about getting free gifts from unknown person started boasting about the things they have received.

It has become an accepted norm to get what is being offered before the elections. And the money that is being offered plays really an important role in their decisions to cast their vote. “Let me vote for this party as it has offered me and my family a lump sum amount”. Every party has started following this strategy of ‘cash for vote’. Let us try to think from the point of a genuine voter who wanted a government for the welfare of people. When every party comes out with cash to buy his vote, will that genuine voter ever tries to vote for these parties. The voting is happening on elimination basis, rather than on preference basis. “This guy is the worst guy; let me vote for another person who is not that bad as him”.

I turned down the bribe they offered to us. Wow.. I am learning to negotiate with people and learning how to tell a “No” to people. Practical experience which is needed for a manager!! On a serious note, this is actually spreading like a virus. This is not for the first time I am seeing this kind of wooing people. Early in the year General Elections, I saw it in my eyes in one of the important constituency of south Tamil Nadu, where an influential kingmaker was contesting for the first time. With a landslide victory to the person who offered them unprecedented offerings, the formula seems to work out with our people. The trend is continuing and everyone seems to have realised that it is the best strategy to follow to get the votes of people.

When the democracy in our country crumbles like this, I have no regret of not casting my vote though it is about nearly 5 years have passed since I crossed the so called eligible criteria of 18 years. Perhaps even my name is not in the electoral list and I have no intention to get enrolled in the electoral list. May be I am not exercising my duty, but between the devil and deep blue sea I need not choose one for my nation.

Live a lion's life, no matter if you are born like a lamb

Never regret for being born like a lamb among the lion, never feel intimidated by the strength of the mighty beasts around you, never feel hurt for the unreturned feelings of love, never feel sad for the unhappy incidents, never feel exhausted by the tiring journey you have undertaken, never lose hope for the hope you are living for, never feel hurt over the painful past, never get vexed by the unclear future, never lose your focus by the distracting environment..

Neither abandon your dreams, nor the close to heart desires but fight against all odds, live for what you wanted in life. One day you will roar like a lion though you are a lamb by birth.

A cool breeze awakened me from the random thoughts that were flashing in my brain while I walked through the corridors in my campus towards the mess. It struck me suddenly that it’s been a long time since I posted something in my blog and that I have hardly followed any news to analyse about it in my next post. With pani puri in my plates and a friend nearby, I started wondering why some person in our life appear so special to me. How is that they appear like an angel in my life and what differentiates them with other people that I have met so far? Is it that some particular qualities or some particular character of them that has enticed me? Or that is it a first of a kind like first crush or a first broad enchanting smile that made me to get lost for a moment. Having done with my pani puri, I headed towards my room after telling a goodbye to my friend.

The thoughts once again engulfed me in and left me with a heavy heart. Why is that the person I feel so special doesn’t find me special? The worse is that why do they even feel bad when we express the feeling that they are so special in our life. Of course, everybody have their own preferences and more likings and the economics that I learnt for my morning exam helped me to find the reason for this. The utility for the same quantity of good varies from one person to person. The utility that I derived would me much more than what they derive. Economics apart, the kind actions, caring words, personal helps from the special person linger in your thoughts forever and ever. No matter what happens, no matter if I will be even remembered by them their special status to me will remain intact. The days and nights pass like anything, yet there is no change in the heart, not even a sign of change could be noticed. With these emotional feelings, I started writing this post with an intention to write something in the blog.

My midterms have got over and I could get a picture of my college exams and stuff. New friends, new challenges are ahead and I need a kind of restructuring of myself. I will be back with my usual analysis soon. The controversial Iran president is back, BCCI rejection of WADA code, master mind of Mumbai terror attack is free to roam in our neighboring country and much interesting events happening around the world and I have missed following all these.

The Worst Ever Butterfly Effect

Imagine how cricket fans would have felt if Sachin Tendulkar and Wasim Akram had played for a single nation-India. This is just a post about how a single incident have had its impact in the entire world.

Never Ever in the history would there been kargil war, three other wars with Pakistan, mumbai 26/11 attacks, attack on parliament, infiltration,Indus water dispute wit Pak, construction of barbed wires in bangladesh borders, Farakha barage issue or mores island dispute with Bangladesh. With Jinnah as PM and Nehru as deputy PM or the other way round, we could have saved the lives of 2 million deaths in the communal riots that followed partition. Of course, our Father of Nation wouldnt have died in the manner he died.

I swear we would have overtaken China not only in its Population but also in terms of GDP and hence would have become the fastest developing nation in the world. The money and the time spent in wars, fighting terrorists, developing weapons could have been channeled for development purpose of our nation. Swat valley and Siachen would have become tourist spots instead of taliban hold or highest battle field. Abdul kalam would have joined hands with AQ khan to make India a nuclear nation. We would have got atleast a couple of more world cups and Olympic medals in cricket and hockey respectively. well, we would have been the nation with highest Muslim and highest Hindu population in the world and would have established our credentials of being truly secular.

There wouldn't have been better beneficiary than Pakistan. Lahore and Karachi would have become IT and finance hub. Girls in Pakistan would be thronging IITs and IIMs instead of going to schools with fear of getting killed by irrational fundamentalist. There would have news that girls are topping in the board exams rather than news about girls suffering acid attacks from hardliners. Life would have been so beautiful for the people of Pakistan.

Trust me, the whole world would have been different from what they are now. Lets not forget taliban's main recriuts were from madrashas from PAk. But for Pak, Taliban wouldn't have grown to the level it had grown. There wouldn't have been Al-qaeda, no 9/11 or 7/7, no Afghan war. If afghanistan would have been our neighbouring state and there is possibility that Russia dint invade Afghan and hence there was no reason for the raise of Taliban. The world political geography would have changed. Muslim nations wouldn't have been branded as terrorists and India would have played an important role in its neighbors Iran and Afghanistan and the situation in the middle east would have been stable.

The seeds of partition were sowed by 1905 Partition of Bengal. If Curzon had not brought out this nasty idea, India wouldn't have been parted and everything would have been good for the nation and for the world. This is an ideal example of butterfly effect. An irreversible mistake done in the past had brought havocs all around the world..

Election fever..

The IPL and Elections fever have spread well among the people of India. With the second edition of DLF IPL glowing bright across the continents, the atmosphere back home is full of election mantras and one could see tall banners and paintings and writings on the walls everywhere.

Change is constant, no one can deny it. But what is happening in the election campaigns and the realignment among the parties make us wonder how political parties can talk exactly the other way round of what they spoke earlier. Other than the saffron front, other three fronts seem to have formed without any ideology though the ideologies of the former is very detrimental for our secular integrity.

Samajwathi party coming to support the rebel from BJP, Kalyan Singh and the later declaring himself as an innocent guy who had no role in demolishing of Babar Masjid makes me to laugh out loudly. No one is going to believe this story and nothing is SP going to gain from this man.

One gets fed up with the cheap tricks the parties are playing to woo voters. It was really shocking from the Tamil Nadu's ruling party’s chief declaring the man behind the Rajiv Gandhi’s murder as his friend. Just because one is a good orator doesn’t mean the he could talk whatever he wants and justify it by his flamboyant oratorical skills. A few months ago, the Tamil nadu CM came out with a statement saying the parties which support the Tamil terrorist orgainisation will face severe repercussions and NSA would be used if needed. Gone all those days and now he himself embraces the organization banned in India and in several other countries including US and European Union. The other Dravidian party too played similar innings. Some months ago, the AIADMK reprimanded DMK and its allies saying the war with LTTE issue is Srilanka’s internal conflict and that we can’t interfere in that. But when she realized that the ball is in the other court, she is playing the same spoil sport. Is this called adaptability to different situations? May be, B school Grads are expected to learn these from the beloved politicians!!! :) :)

Global warming, climate change, recession, ways to sustain our GDP growth, FDI, health care, ways to bolster our agriculture sector, foreign policies etc.. Why the hell none of these issues get addressed by any of the political parties. We are growing at a pace next only to china and we have the fourth largest GDP measured in PPP. A couple of people in the top ten in the list of wealthiest people in the world, growing high in the space exploration and the list where we top in the world goes on. We should be indeed proud of our nation and we deserve much more good politicians and parties with better ideologies which will enhance the momentum we have gained over the past 60 years. Let us not forget we have had great leaders like Mahatma Gandhi and Kamarajar who were so selfless in serving our country.

The Battle Begins!!

Three fronts are getting ready to battle against each other for the magic number of 272 as the world largest democratic nation goes for the General elections. There is nothing right in any of the three camps and that none of their so called manifesto and promises seems to be in the intention of good of the nation but are vote bank focused. The fight for seats in India is no way near to a competitive fight with any new economic policies but a fight based on caste, religion and petty issues to woo the voters.

The United Progressive Alliance received snub from both RJD and Samajwati party over the seat sharing agreement and both were going to election without any pre electoral agreement with congress though they have promised their post poll alliance commitment for a non BJP government. And congress can’t rely on Tamil nadu for repeat of its magical run in 2004 where UPA allies won all 39 seats as PMK, MDMK have defected to AIADMK camp. The announcement of Manmohan singh being the prime ministerial candidate and projection of Rahul Gandhi as the future leader may add a little advantage to their camp. The good news is the seat sharing agreement with NCP in Maharashtra, which ended the speculation that Sharad Pawar is intending to become the first Marathi PM.

With the controversial statements from Varun Gandhi the saffron front have proved themselves that their intention to form government is to spread Hindutva and to build Ram temple rather than to work for the development of our Secular India. Adding salt to the wound is the scuffle between the Party president Rajnath singh and general secretary Arun Jaitley over the appointment of Mittal for north eastern affairs of BJP and not to mention about the breakup of alliance with BJD in Orissa.

Unlike the last election, the Left front have managed to forge an alliance with some regional parties. But its members - AIADMK, JD(S), TDP, TRS and BJD have proved in the past that they could switch parties easily. And it is evident that the BSP supremo Mayawati is eyeing to become the PM with third front support. But for the Left front, there is no common ideology prevailing in the third front and the “non congress and non BJP” mantra is not going to work out for them. There would be possible realignment of many regional parties after poll and the national parties will be wooing the regional parties with promising ministerial posts. And we could see the parties in third front switching to either NDA or UPA front.

Though the odds are high for a hung assembly, let us hope that there is no repeat of 1996 poll scenario where the consecutive governments failed to produce the majority. Hope we get a government which solves the problems faced by common people, pursues an independent foreign policy, remains secular, drives our country to sustain our GDP growth rate, initiates a second green revolution and works for riding out corruption. Though it may appear as distanct dream, atleast few of the above said should be realized for the betterment of our country.

Save Pak and save the world!!!!!!!!

The attack on Sri Lankan cricket team is proving that there is something fundamentally wrong in Pakistan. It is adding further mystery to know what is actually happening in Pakistan. Though the possibility of LTTE being responsible for the attack was ruled out, there seems to be no idea of who is behind this attack. When every country refused to play in Pakistan because of security concerns, Sri Lanka made a bold decision which has turned out to be a bad decision. This incident draws comparison to the kidnapping and brutal murder of Israeli sports person in Munich Olympics in 1972.

The first victim of the attack is Pakistan cricket board, as the possibility of any cricket match in Pakistan remains so low and the effects have a chain reaction and the prospect of IPL looks bleak. With home minister P Chidambaram raising concern about the security issues as General elections are to be held in the same duration, the IPL has come out with revised schedule such that there is no match one day before or after the general election in that place. But the large scale participation of foreign players still remains a big question. This has also raised eye brows of people about the future of 2011 cricket world cup scheduled to be held in the subcontinent.

It has been hardly three weeks since the government had a peace agreement with Sufi Mohammed, spiritual leader, thereby allowing the imposition of sharia law in SWAT valley and the Taliban forces under the command of his son in law announced a cease fire. The so called reason that peace will be restored through this agreement remains illogical. There had been many peace agreements made with the Taliban earlier too, though everything ultimately failed. When we look a step further, the condition of Pakistan appears so pathetic. The democratically elected government is not able to establish control in their own territory. Instead of a long term solutions, the government is seeking short term and narrow ranged solutions and virtually surrendering to the demands of the terrorist organization operating in their own country. It remains a million dollar question about the future of girls in SWAT region as these terror groups have openly voiced against women’s education.

The US has not stopped its aerial bombing in north western part of Pakistan, which clearly indicates how Pakistan is acting as a safe haven for Taliban. The so called “war on terror” is incomplete without wiping off the terror organizations from Pakistan soil. Pakistan also looks pitiable as the government itself not able to do anything and they themselves are victims of terror. The killing of Benazir Bhutto, the bombing in Marriott hotel and frequent suicide bombings in Pakistan have shown the week administration of the government. And they have never brought the actual perpetrators of these attacks behind the bars. The situation in Pakistan will not change unless some serious changes are brought in.

If Pakistan is not stable, the world most populous democratic nation is alone not going to be the lone sufferer; the militants may regroup inside Pakistan and can strike back and shatter the world peace with another 7/11 or 7/7 or 26/11.

Oops..... Where are we now!!

When given a moment to think about what is actually happening in our country, I really feel shocked that the world’s most populous democratic nation is in the grip of some communal sections that is trying to control the rest of the people. With the pub incident in Mangalore, Ram sene organization has given an open statement that they would thwart the celebration of Valentine’s Day. The Karnataka state government, though it claims itself to be protecting its people from these sorts of people, has not done anything substantial in cracking down the organization and the people accused in the pub incidents have been released out in bail. In the name of preserving the culture, one has no right to deprive other people’s right to celebrate some special days.

Another interesting fact is the statement issued by BJP that they would built temple in the place of Babri Masjid. Having done a major offence against a particular community by destroying a holy place of their worship, a loud statement like this will hurt the sentiments of the people who have been already hurt repeatedly. When the case before the court has not been resolved, it was an irresponsible statement given by a leading political party with the aim of getting votes and to woo organizations like RSS, VHP etc. The so called fundamental right to worship and right to freedom of expression will soon be out of reach for the minority people if we are headed in this direction.

Where will this lead to?

Half of Europe is finding hard to fight the bitter cold without heat as the energy supplies to major part of Europe got disrupted since jan 1 because of the feud between the erstwhile Soviet Union and its member state. Gazprom, Russia’s largest and state owned Energy Company stopped its fuel supplies to Ukraine citing the nonpayment of the bills as the reason for its cut. As Ukraine is the major transit route of fuel supply from Russia to other parts of Europe, Ukraine started siphoning off the fuel supplied across the pipes through the country. This made the Russian authorities to take the stringent action to cut the supply entirely through the Orange revolution state, though promising the increase of fuel supplies through its other networks, but neither could it deny the fact that 80% of the fuel supplied to Europe goes through Ukraine not could it mitigate the sufferings of the people who are living without the fuel supply.

With the Russia’s credibility of being a reliable supplier of fuel dipping into deep low, Czech Republic holding the current EU presidency is trying hard to reach out a solution between the two bitter rivals, who have fought on the same lines in 2006 over the price of the fuel. Russia, with the veteran Putin as the PM is standing very hard in its position to increase the price of the fuel supplied to Ukraine and their counter part is also equally standing on their firm resolution not to budge that easily as they have the support of USA and EU. With the attempts made by EU to bring forth an agreement getting failed, the two nations have not stopped accusing each other for the disruption of fuel services.

Well there is no doubt that Russia is trying to play a spoiled sport, but it was left with no other option but to go in this hard line and earning the wrath of the nations in Europe. Russia is not going to settle down for anything lesser than what it demands this time. Well let us watch out for further developments this week.

Where lies the truth!!

In an attempt to safeguard one’s firm from hostile bid takeover and to increase the brand value of one’s firm, it is not uncommon to claim higher growth rate of the company than the actual rate, inflate the profit earned, understate the liabilities and the debts owed. This makes the investors to believe that firm will be a safe bet and the demand for the company’s stock increases which increases the share prices of the company, thereby increasing the company’s net value (market capitalization) and the clients rely more on such a company that leads to increase in the number of projects the firm gets. And hence the company grows in real terms and with already inflated growth rate and profits, the company tends to further inflate the same in the next fiscal year too. Here gets formed the vicious circle with the company’s growth and the inflated profits forming a complete cycle.

Nothing seems to be wrong with Satyam until the company’s surprise move to take over Maytas properties and Maytas infra. With a major shareholder rebellion, the share prices slide down to a great extent that Ramalinga Raju, then chairman of Satyam computer services limited reversed the decision. With doubts raised about the evaluation of asset values of Maytas when all the leading auditing firms deny their role in evaluating the assets, the question of corporate governance came into picture. Then begin the resignation sagas of independent directors from the Board and the percentage of holdings by the promoters came down from 8.3 % to around 3 % as the shares pledged by the promoters were sold out. Left with no other choice but to reveal the truth, former Nasscom chairman and the chairman of the company which had received the Corporate Governance Award accepted the big hole in the account books creating shockwaves across the investors’ community.

This issue is hailed in the media as India’s Enron case. The energy company filed its bankruptcy in 2001 and accepted the understated liabilities and the exaggerated profits and the company also said to have roots in Republic party.
The plot involved here is no way superficial and is getting deeper as suspicions raised about the political connection of Raju with the AP government. The Hyderabad metro project, irrigational project and other government projects undertaken by Maytas are put under lens to check the credibility, with which the projects were allotted.

A tough road lies ahead for the firm and the employees and the top level managers have to take the hardest steps to march ahead. With the government having announced three persons as Board members, an in-depth inquiry into the deep rooted fraud is to be probed. Finally Power waterhouse cooper(Pwc), Satyam’s auditor has accepted that there could have been error in its auditing report. With the future appearing too bleak for the company, a takeover bid from a well established firm, efficient board members and an energetic CEO and a good cooperation to further investigate into the Rs 7000 crore fraud are the only hopes to steer the company ahead.

Israel - Palestine!!!!!!!!!!!

With rockets pouring at the Israeli soil, the retaliatory attack against the Hamas is incomparable in its magnitude. The Islamic university is torn apart, a strongman in Hamas is assassinated and when the aerial raid is gaining momentum, the Israel government is mulling about ground attacks too. The international journalists and other international organizations have been denied entry into Gaza, well a place in our world which is facing total black out is going unnoticed with leading international players including US and UK justifying the Israel’s right to protect its area from the militants.

This is not an issue that has been created some years back but dates from 1947 when UN passed a resolution for the creation of Jewish state-Israel which led to the conflict between the Arab states and Israel, in which Israel gained a lot. Then again Israel started its aggression in the 1967, known as the SIX DAY WAR, snatching Gaza strip, West Bank, Golan heights from Egypt,Jordan and Syria respectively. Many decades have passed, yet the peace eludes the Middle East.

Let Hamas be branded as terrorist as they ruthlessly attack the innocent citizens of Israel. But one can never justify the killing of several innocent civilians in Palestine because of the aerial shelling from Israel. More than 100 deaths of civilians, including a majority of women and children, have been reported so far since Israel’s attack last week.

There won’t be any improvement in the situation unless both the sides budge. People in Palestine must realize that waging war against Israel will only worsen their situation further. Winning a war over a state which is developed than theirs by over several folds and which has the strong backing from the most developed countries of the world is an impossible event. Hamas militants can utmost kill some hundreds of Israeli people and neither their guerilla warfare nor their suicide attacks is going to daunt the country which earns its most income from its arms export. What Israel did to Palestine is an unjustifiable act, but hatred and revenge against Israeli is not going to bring peace to the Islamic nation. Though it can’t be forgiven or forgotten, war can’t provide solution to Palestinians but it just adds further woes to them. It is high time that Hamas realize this and that Israel stops their inhuman attacks on the region, which is experiencing severe humanitarian crisis for several decades.

It is really hard to forget the painful past that Palestine has experienced over the years. But if the people of Japan had the hatred and the attitude to revenge US for their dropping of atomic bomb, Japan wouldn’t have become the world second largest economy. And not to forget that half the Jammu and Kashmir has been occupied by Pakistan and China, though there is an option to attack back those foreign forces to withdraw from the region which is recognized to be a part of our country, we refuse to do so.

If we chose to take this bitter pill today to forget what had happened in the past over the decades, the next generation of people in the Middle East can lead a peaceful life forever and ever; else never in the future can peace be restored in this region which has remained as battle zone for years. I could still recollect the photo showing a Palestinian woman weeping when the Israeli troops forced their own Israeli people to evacuate from Gaza strip in 2005 when Aerial Sharon, then Israeli PM ordered forced evacuation from Gaza strip. It shows the courtesy in the heart of the People to feel sad even for those people from their bitter archrival nation. Let the International community realize that the value of life of a common man in Palestine is as much higher as that of a person from any other part of the world and help both the warring state to settle out their differences and to bring an everlasting peace to the region.