Reserve : To serve endlessly..?

hey..! so.. ever wondered what happens to all the tax that you pay..
listen 2 this..
there is dis guy.. les call him vasu here.. he belongs 2 d scheduled caste.. v r preparin gingerly for d mid sems, n dis conversation breaks..
vasu : machi, my bro got a coll finally da.. dad is taking a loan for him.. around 2 lacs.. guess i ll pester him to take a loan for me too.. same amount.. :)
us : dei, but u don need dat much.. our 4 years fees ll come 2 much less dan dat..
vasu : dei, govt is giving.. y refuse.?
us : govt is giving dat 2 real sc guys who ve an annual income as less as Rs. 10,000..
u fall under neither category.. ur a christian, so u cant b an SC.. ur dad works in a psu.. so he ll b earning around 5 times dat amount in a month..
vasu : ya ya.. and he earns an equal amount as a money lender in our village n all.. i kno i kno..
big deal!.. i m a sworn christian, don like hinduism too much either.. it doesnt matter man.. d govt jus needs a certificate, which i have.. dey r not gonna check..
and ya.. the income.. i got a certi for dat 2.. declaring that dad's annual income is Rs. 10,000 a year.. and saying that he s a farmer.. :)
us : (we dont say anything, just a sad reminiscence of our academic and sports certis collected over the years)
vasu : dei, govt is giving.. y refuse.?
us : ok da still.. wat is d point.. u ll only end up repaying dat big amount, which u don even need, wid interest..
vasu : dei.. i ve poorna nambikkai on our govt system da.. next year elections will come.. govt will change in our state.. d new chief minister cant bring any new PDS measures coz the present govt has done everything possible.. d only thing left for the new chief minister to do, which she will, is reimburse all category loans.. academic and farmer.. how is that..! :)
us : (v look at each other)
vasu : dei, govt is giving.. y refuse.?
us : @#$%.. whose money is it giving to whom da.!
vasu : (silence for sometime..) ok da, ok da.. lets resume refrigeration.. still lots left 2 study..

dis is a true piece of conversation we guys had in my room a few months back.. an audacious category guy has complete trust on the system that gives him a free seat in an NIT(and i think of all those guys who slogged for nothing.. God am i lucky..!), refunds his annual college fees, assures a PSU job as well (one which iit and iim guys are vying for).. he knows the disadvantage his forward caste counterparts are at, despite being the sponsors of his education.. he s got no guilt, gratitude neither to the nation nor the tax paying citizen to whom he owes a fortune.. he knows he can milk the govt some more.. vasu's real ambition is to become a registrar(apparently the guys who get the most lanjam n benami) or a doctor(jus 4 d money.. nothing else).. unfortunately his dad forced him into engineering(what a waste of an engg seat.. i know guys in bihar who would kill for one..)

he s made of stuff dat makes our entire babudom.. chief reason for the lethargic pace of our nation.. if those guys were subdued once upon a time its only coz they let themselves be.. sloths! how could we even think of funding them so much that they now make up a major chunk of what rules us.. this is the kind of hands we ve entrusted our nation into..

i dont intend to insult anyone.. all i have is a fervent plea.. u ve drained us of everything.. v ve fed you for atleast a full generation.. its time you show results.. its time you learnt something dogs are popular for.. we ve sacrificed our own prospects in the process of raising you to prosperity.. you already have enough to feed your kids.. its time you had the good sense of refusing any more incentives and endeavoured to bring up the rest of your brethren, the ones we missed to help in the last 60 years.. if not, leave them to us and dont snatch the opportunities we intend them to have.. you wouldnt snatch from a beggars plate would you..

i cant single out vasu jus coz v had this conversation with him.. such fellows are everywhere.. in every institution or work place you can see them flocking together. i jus wanna throw light on these people's attitude.. the exact same you find in a spoilt kid.. no matter how much you give him, he wants more..

I just heard a shocking piece of information.A girl studying in M.O.P college for women met with an accident yesterday on her way to college to attend their cultutrals.She later died.The maximum college did for that girl was observe 5 minutes silence and went ahead with their functions which continued today.There cant be a more inhuman act than this.

When one of your friend has died and the family is mourning a bunch of inhuman girls are singing,dancing,parading by adoring themselves in the latest fashion things to glory.And even more they dont have any remorse for their stupid inhuman act and are proud of their achievements when the culturals should have been cancelled the very next moment.

Women in our society are considered to be more compassionate loving caring.Every time you see a debate on television you can see women vociferously staking claim to the above qualities.Gandhi said that "god cant be everywhere so he created women".I have always maintained highest regard for women.But this inhuman act is so disgusting and difficult to digest.

The management should be ashamed of their act.I will also blame the students of this college.I heard only the department of the victim had withdrawn from the culturals.Its so dis heartning to know that the other departments did not follow the same thing.Had every student from each department told we cant be pariticipating and enjoying when one of my friend has died and her family is mourning, the college authority could have not told any thing or no action would have been taken on the students.This is not strike called by politicians with vested interest.

If the college is going to justify their act by telling they have already informed the judges or chief guests then god save this world where there is no compassion and humanity.

If it was for monetary reasons then.....i guess i dont have anything to say on this.

 These girls are so conscious about the latest fashion trends and want to have the same hairstyle as sonam kappor in delhi 6.But no one seems to emulate what was shown in rang de basanti. There was not even a single candle that was lit either yesterday or today for that girl. Cant anyone spare few minutes to light a candle in front of her photo and then get on with their culturals if it was so important than a human life?

I also want to add one thing to all those girls who participated and won today.They dont need to be proud of their achievements.If at all they just have to be ashamed of their inhuman act. This is not fair means of winning.A department had also withdrawn.So the competition to them was less by a few notch. 

Where are the so called protectors of indian culture?I guess they can stop their moral policing activities in pub and discos.This height of immorality.

And the honorable minister for women and child welfare please stop naming incidents like talibanisation and others and take action.

I would want the human rights commission to look into this matter.

I dont know the girl or for that matter even her name, but i hope her soul rests in peace.

 

Lessons from Lanka: In war, fight to the finish:

Hey folks,this post is an officious one, straight from the op-ed section of Deccan Chronicle. Here's another piece from Vice -Admiral Arun Kumar Singh. His articles are a treat to read as it is written in simple and lucid language and he conceives his points only after an in-depth analysis of the situation. My salutations to you sir! The excerpt is as follows:

“ Over the last four decades, I have had some exposure to Sri Lanka, though I cannot call myself as an “expert”. As a young officer I first went to Colombo in 1971 on a war ship when some Indian Navy units were deployed, at the request of the Sri Lankan government, to tackle a Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) uprising. In 1989, I spent a few months in Trincomalee as part of the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF).
In 2000, as the Eastern Fleet Commander, I wondered whether the LTTE had won a decisive victory when some 60,000 Sri Lankan Army personnel were trapped in northern Sri Lanka. I subsequently visited Colombo in 2004 when the LTTE was still on the upswing. Finally,in my last job in 2007, I studied Sri Lanka closely and came to the conclusion that this conflict would continue forever. I may hastily add here that this might still be the case today unless the LTTE surrenders or it is totally destroyed and the Lankan Tamils are visibly rehabilitated into Sri Lanka's mainstream at the earliest.
Something had happened in the last 18 months which has made me revise my earlier assessment. Media reports coming in since June 2007 indicated a new resolve in the attitude of the Sri Lankan political and military leadership. Many fierce battles were fought on sea and on land and it slowly became clear that the LTTE, despite its past record of victories, was now facing a more determined and professional Sri Lankan military. How did this come about? The answer lies in new-found political will, along with adequate funding and reorganization of their military and intelligence network, to fight the war to the finish. In addition, the LTTE made a cardinal mistake of shifting from guerrilla warfare to a more conventional war-fighting against a larger military force.
The LTTE, which since from 1983 had gradually evolved into the world's first terrorist force to boast of an Army, Navy, Air Force and even a fledgling submarine force, is slowly but surely facing defeat. The various factors which have resulted in the LTTE being limited to a small 250sq km pocket, with just the sea behind it, are as follows:

post 9/11, the world accepted that there are no “good terrorists” or “freedom fighters”. Global crackdown on terror networks and funding (37 countries banned the LTTE) had a decisive impact on the LTTE's ability to bring in supplies into Sri Lanka.
I 2005, the Sri Lankan military increased its strength by 40% and its Navy completely cut off ingress of seaborne LTTE supplies of arms and ammunition, in addition to evolving new tactics to defeat the LTTE sea Tigers. The Sri Lankan Army received fresh supplies of artillery and rockets from Pakistan and China, while its Air Force was gifted a few fighter jets by China. India's contribution was understandably severely limited due to the strong emotional sentiments emanating from Tamil Nadu.
The Sri Lankans revamped their intelligence and took decisive measures to drastically reduce the capability of LTTE to strike targets in major cities. Once forced to fight a conventional war in the jungles, the numerically inferior LTTE became vulnerable to the superior Sri Lankan firepower and manpower.
Unlike India, which has been debating on the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) issue for decades, Sri Lanka decided to introduce a four-star CDS in 2005,(the three service chiefs are three-star). This ensured that the government received direct, single point professional military advice and there was greater synergy between the three services.
There has been a qualitative change in the leadership of the Sri Lankan military with deserving young officers being promoted and given demanding combat roles.
On the diplomatic front too Sri Lanka has displayed strong political will and reacted with flexibility to the international outcry (including from India) against collateral damage and loss of civilian life, while continuing the fight against the LTTE to its logical conclusion.
The lessons for India are self-evident. I will only add that the long-overdue police reforms need to be introduced, and the 1.5 lakh existing police vacancies filled up at the earliest.

India has boundary disputes with two nuclear-armed neighbors who are openly colluding to dismember us after having initially grabbed some territory in Kashmir and Aksai Chin. It would be extremely foolish to expect Pakistan to dismantle its terror network or to give up its nefarious designs to destabilize India. Adding to this complexity is the possibility that the new Obama administration may attempt to link the Kashmir issue to the war in Afghanistan and also enforce the implementation of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) followed by the Fissile Material Cut-Off Treaty (FMCT)- these two treaties will ensure that our strategic deterrent, already handicapped due to insufficient testing, will never provide even “credible minimum deterrence”.

The possibility of nuclear-armed Pakistan either disintegrating and becoming another lawless Somalia or another Afghanistan is fast becoming a reality with the Taliban imposing its writ in NWFP, Fata and Swat, while parts of Baluchistan are in flames. In either scenario, India will be flooded with millions of refugees along with thousands of jihadi terrorists. These will add to the security and economic problems caused by about 25 million illegal Bangladeshis already in India. The expected influx of Tamil refugees along with the LTTE, from Sri Lanka to Tamil Nadu will have its own security implications.
Post 26/11, India is internationally perceived as a weak, indecisive nation, unable to defend its own citizens, leave alone provide any regional leadership. Indeed, a few think tanks which earlier clubbed India with China, have begun to delete any reference to India as a superpower- that position is now being reserved only for China.

What will be the political implications in case LTTE supremo Prabhakaran is captured and extradited to India? What steps is India taking to counter or preempt the latest LTTE threat that “the war will now be fought in Sri Lanka and Tamil Nadu?” why has the DRDO consistently failed in various high-profile projects costing thousands of crores when even the LTTE appears to have built midget submarines in jungles?

In response to these questions, I can only quote, a line from a popular anti-war song by Bob Dylan..”How many deaths will it take , till he knows that too many people have died.. the answer my friend is blowing in the wind” “

SUPERPOWER INDIA: Don't just talk, ACT LIKE ONE!

This is an excerpt from the op-ed section of the daily Deccan Chronicle newspaper dated 9th January, 2009, written by Vice-Admiral Arun Kumar Singh (retired as Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief of the Eastern Naval Command, Vishakapatnam)

THE SERIES of events after 26/11(including the January 1 Guwahati bomb blasts) have left no one in any doubt about a few facts. Any naval specialist will agree that the manner in which the 10 terrorists attacked Mumbai, including the transit in the Indian fishing boat Kuber, could only be possible with the involvement of the ISI, the Pakistani Army and Navy. There is an urgent need for certain regulations to be implemented in full force, since the roller coaster-initial "vehement denial" followed by "Yes, Kasav is Pakistani", ISI leaflets given to Pakistani Army about dismembering India by 2020 - indicate that Pakistan does not have peace on its mind. Poonch firefighting indicates the shape of things to come from the "epicentre of terrorism" aka Pakistan.
The manner in which the Pakistan military, hell-bent on destabilizing and dismembering India, took over the decision making process from the President Asif Ali Zardari and his nascent government to win public support for the discredited military and from the terrorists to "defend Pakistan" in case of war, has left no one in doubt that the Pakistani Army Chief, General Ashraf Parvez Kayani, is the decision-maker in that troubled land with the Pakistani government acting as his spokesperson. Indeed, temperatures went up last month when Gen. Kayani said "Pakistan will act in minutes", and things cooled down only when, on Dec 29th, he said "There is a need to de-escalate" Why did Gen Kayani raise the war hysteria pitch to such levels, and why did the media report that the Pakistani Army has withdrawn troops from the Afghan border? The answer may not be too difficult. Unlike India, where the Indian military has been denied hardware viz the Comptroller and Audit General(CAG) report of Oct 24, 208 showing gaping holes in air defence, submarine force levels etc. The Pakistan military machine on the other hand, has been kept well-oiled with the $10 billion in aid received in the last seven years. It is, indeed, amazing that Pakistan despite being totally bankrupt has managed a $8 BILLION IMF loan, asked for a $60 billion "grant" to boost its economy, is acquiring three German-type 214 submarines, co-producing 150 Chinese FC-17 light fighter jets, inducting 36 Chinese FC-20(J-10) heavy fighter jets, three Chinese frigates, Swedish and Chinese AWACs, F-16 fighter jets, artillery and Brazilian SAMs.Buoyed by the "success" of the 10-man terrorist strike on 26/11, and emboldened by the "civilized and diplomatic" response of the Indian government and international community (the US is planning to give Pakistan another $15 billion, God knows how could that be possible!!), the Pakistan military, ISI and various terrorist outfits would be planning more devastating attacks in the near future. These attacks could be form the sea, air or land, or a combination which would aim to saturate India's response mechanism, cause maximum damage and pull us into the "failed state quagmire" of Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

So how does India prepare for this "doomsday" scenario? The answers are equally complex. The government has taken a few punitive steps by introducing the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and making the 1967 Act stiffer. A few other highly publicized steps are on the anvil. However, preventing future attacks will require a series if urgent and transparent steps. In addition to deporting the estimated 25 million Bangladeshis, and introducing a proposed single accountable window, a homeland security adviser, electronic data link and bank, it is essential to introduce accountability in the bureaucracy. The same needs to be done with so many non-performing DRDO projects which have consumed thousands of crores of rupees and still left the nation with no option but to import hardware - even the DRDO electronic transponders for fishing boats have been "on the anvil" for over three years. It is hoped that past bureaucratic delays are not repeated and the nation gets the hardware and the man-power needed to deal with terrorism.

The government needs to promulgate by Jan 31 a list of organisational changes (including single window accountability), along with manpower and hardware which have received financial approval for a time-bound completion, particularly with regard to intelligence, police, industrial and nuclear plants' security, maritime security(port, coastal and blue water), artillery, night vision devices, radar cover, air defence and strategic deterrent. The dragon entered our "porous blue water backyard" when the Chinese Navy dispatched two destroyers and a logistics ship on December 29, 2008 for a prolonged anti-piracy deployment in the Gulf of Aden. No doubt these Chinese warships will now use the Gwadar port(which China built and gifted it to Pakistan) for 'operational turnaround" of its warships and submarines.The Chinese naval presence will further embolden Pakistan and the security implications of this "blue water" capability, augmenting the current asymmetric "brown water" coastal threat to India, need to be understood by the Indian Government. While coastal security measures are finally on the front burner, the only antidote to Chinese blue water capability would be Indian nuclear hunter killer submarines (SSNs) and Long-Range Maritime Patrol Aircraft(LRMP of the recently contracted Boeing P8i type). Four SSNs would need to be inducted on priority.

The next few weeks will be critical as India gears up for national elections and the political leadership may need to remind itself that the security of the nation is paramount. In addition to raising the military's morale, India must prepare contingency plans for the "almost inevitable" terror strikes in future. Our options are, perhaps, limited to initiating prolonged covert strikes(by "non-state actors") against "official and unofficial" terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Bangladesh(i.e reversing Pakistan's policy of "death by a thousand cuts"). Diplomatic pressure alone is not expected to provide early results given Pakistan's geo-strategic location and multiple power centres. The option of withdrawing the Indus Water Treaty is a non starter since China will then have a precedent to divert its rivers from flowing into Assam and Himachal Pradesh. Similarly, the talk of a "naval blockade" shows ignorance of the fact that such a blockade(like a surgical strikes) is a declaration of war.

The time will soon come for India to "stop talking" and start acting like an emerging superpower of one billion people, "exercise the covert option" and not expect other nations to provide security to our citizens. And if a combination of diplomatic and covert operations fail to eliminate terror networks in Pakistan and Bangladesh, THEN INDIA SHOULD BE PREPARED FOR WAR....

JAI HIND!!