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Manifestos are passé. Vision document is the in thing. We have a President with a 2020 Vision so why should the politicians be behind?
After the Bharatiya Janata Party released its Vision Document, the Congress has followed up with its own. Who cares whether the document has any vision or not? Who cares if it is just a rehash of the manifesto?
It's all in the name, a rose will not smell as sweet if called lotus, Mr Shakespeare. Ask Sitaram Yechuri that. This is India and things are different during election time.
And India is holding its breath for more such documents and all eyes are on Bihar leader Laloo Prasad Yadav, Mayawati, Mulayam Singh Yadav, Jayalalitha and Mrs CHAMMO CHHABRA. The guessing game is on, fingers crossed. Here's a set of guesswork.
LALOO PRASAD YADAV
India needs night vision. Till you have bright lights, halogen lamps beaming all around the place like in Delhi, how are you going to get vision? Tell me. So I will strive to control production of electricity at large scale. I'll encourage use of traditional lighting methods like lanterns. Show me one person who got electrocuted by a lantern. I will show you hundreds of people electrocuted to death. The more people I save, the more votes I get.
MAYAWATI
India needs a foreign policy, which works for the interest of Bahujan Samaj, the dalits. I will snap all ties with United Kingdom because they are Manuwadi. They ruled the dalits of India for two hundred years in connivance with the Manuwadi Brahmins and upper castes here. And now they are taunting dalits in football by ManU. Bahujan Samaj Party will give ticket to David Beckham for leaving ManU and preferring Spain. Manuwadi Murdabad.
MULAYAM SINGH YADAV
Housing, electricity and lack of entertainment are India's biggest problems. Only Samajwadi Party can solve these problems because only Samajwadi Party has the resources to do all that. Sahara would build City Homes so that people can move out of those tiny Indira and Vajpayee Awaas Yojana hutments. Reliance Energy would give power to the people and the Bachchan family with Jaya Prada would provide entertainment. If everything fails we have Amar Singh.
JAYALALITHAA
The All India Anna DMK understands the nations needs and will help the people fulfil their aspirations. So we'll jail Karunanidhi and his sons under POTA. If they get out on bail, we'll continue using POTA till we fulfil India's need. I am aware of the fears of the Central Government over the misuse of POTA but since I will fight the next elections with Congress, India need not worry.
CHAMMO CHHABRA
My vision is 36-24-36. I am going slimming classes. If I lose 80 pounds I will be close to that figure. Then I will document it all and Montypraji will publish my book: HOW TO LOOSE WAIT IN 80 DAYS by Miss Chammo Chhabra. Book now, pay letter.
Wednesday, April 14, 2004
Sunday, March 28, 2004
Appalling reactions
The External Affairs Ministry said India was ‘appalled’ by the assassination of Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin. An Israeli Air Force helicopter gunship fired three missiles and rid the Palestinian militant movement of its “spiritual leader” a few days ago.
Why? This killing would only accelerate the vicious cycle of violence in the Middle East. But shouldn’t we leave that to Israel, which would bear the brunt of Palestinian outrage and human bombs. Or should we object to killing of terrorist leaders by any country and call it appalling?
Yes you read right. Yassin was the leader of a terrorist organisation that turned teenage boys and young girls into live bombs. A woman would walk into a restaurant and blow herself to kill people. A boy would get on a bus and blow up himself to kill 20 other office-goers for the Palestinian cause.
While the world must offer unflinching support to the Palestinian people in their struggle for end of occupation and their right to live in peace, it has to distinguish between the struggle and mindless killing of innocent minds.
Sheikh Yassin is from the same extremist school of thought as Ayman al-Zawahiri, Ossama bin Laden’s right hand man. Al-Zawahiri went on to found the Islamic Jihad in Egypt, which has ended up killing hundreds of thousands of Egyptians, including Anwar al-Sadat. He and Osama bin Laden have founded the world’s biggest terrorist organisation —al-Qaeda.
Yassin began Hamas, which has been involved in an armed struggle with Israel. He was the modern-day mastermind of suicide bombings. He was no Yasser Arafat, who also is headstrong and has even led an armed struggle.
But Arafat accepts that negotiations do happen and that enemies do sit across the table and talk.
Yassin never believed in peace.
He was wrongly referred as a spiritual leader. He was the leader who did not recognise Israel’s right to exist. He wanted all of the land for Hamas. He wanted to send death to Jews. In the process, he ended up killing more Palestinians than Israeli Jews. Death caught up with him.
The world has been outraged over the use of children as soldiers in wars in Africa. Yassin was not just using them as soldiers but also as weapons. The world is better place without a terrorist mastermind like him. His death can’t be so appalling. His death saves the world the pain of hundred other deaths.
Why? This killing would only accelerate the vicious cycle of violence in the Middle East. But shouldn’t we leave that to Israel, which would bear the brunt of Palestinian outrage and human bombs. Or should we object to killing of terrorist leaders by any country and call it appalling?
Yes you read right. Yassin was the leader of a terrorist organisation that turned teenage boys and young girls into live bombs. A woman would walk into a restaurant and blow herself to kill people. A boy would get on a bus and blow up himself to kill 20 other office-goers for the Palestinian cause.
While the world must offer unflinching support to the Palestinian people in their struggle for end of occupation and their right to live in peace, it has to distinguish between the struggle and mindless killing of innocent minds.
Sheikh Yassin is from the same extremist school of thought as Ayman al-Zawahiri, Ossama bin Laden’s right hand man. Al-Zawahiri went on to found the Islamic Jihad in Egypt, which has ended up killing hundreds of thousands of Egyptians, including Anwar al-Sadat. He and Osama bin Laden have founded the world’s biggest terrorist organisation —al-Qaeda.
Yassin began Hamas, which has been involved in an armed struggle with Israel. He was the modern-day mastermind of suicide bombings. He was no Yasser Arafat, who also is headstrong and has even led an armed struggle.
But Arafat accepts that negotiations do happen and that enemies do sit across the table and talk.
Yassin never believed in peace.
He was wrongly referred as a spiritual leader. He was the leader who did not recognise Israel’s right to exist. He wanted all of the land for Hamas. He wanted to send death to Jews. In the process, he ended up killing more Palestinians than Israeli Jews. Death caught up with him.
The world has been outraged over the use of children as soldiers in wars in Africa. Yassin was not just using them as soldiers but also as weapons. The world is better place without a terrorist mastermind like him. His death can’t be so appalling. His death saves the world the pain of hundred other deaths.
Tuesday, March 23, 2004
Toffee is poisoned kid!
The US decision to designate Pakistan as a Major Non-NATO Ally evoked strong reactions in India, first in Opposition and then in the government. The latter didn’t question the US decision but objected to not being kept in the loop.
NATO is North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, a group of countries in Europe led by US who treat an attack on a member as one on all. Then there are countries which are not in NATO but get defence aid from the US on priority like Argentina, Australia, Bahrain, Egypt, Israel, Japan, Kuwait, New Zealand, South Korea, Thailand and the Philippines. Pakistan has just joined this club.
So should we behave like the child who didn’t get the toffee?
The answer is NO. We ain't no kid.
Immature reactions borne out of our Pakistan-hyphenated view of the world has led Uncle Sam to give India the same status. White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan, when asked at a press briefing on Monday about Washington's recent decision, said: “I think we made it clear that we’re willing to explore the same possibility of similar cooperation with India.”
Should we be happy that we too would get toffee? Answer is NO. We ain't no kid.
The US decision to make Pakistan a MNNA, as some newspapers abbreviated the status, should not worry New Delhi. It’s Islamabad that has to worry about this.
State Department spokesman Richard Boucher says: “This decision underscored the importance of Pakistan's role in the war against international terrorism, particularly in the continuing fight against Al-Qaeda and the Taliban.”
Well, and the timing too underscored a lot of things. The US-Pakistan Army joint action in the South Waziristan and parts of NWFP has led to unrest among the local population.
These areas have never known or recognised any Pakistani law or government, though they are part of Pakistan. Today they see Pakistani political agents, Pakistani military and US troops in overdrive in their villages and hillocks.
The US believes these tribals have protected and sheltered its enemy no. 1 Osama bin Laden. The unrest in these areas could have rippled on to other parts of the country. The MNNA was to turn the talking point while the gunbattle raged in Waziristan. To make Pakistanis be proud of something they have and India doesn’t. The toffee.
The treaty would just help calm the Pakistani Opposition, which had been accusing President General Pervez Musharraf of “sellout”. Now the general can claim he is getting good price. But he must not forget the status comes with a price tag. US troops are permanently stationed in most of the so-called MNNAs including Japan. The US already has considerable US military presence in Pakistan. This treaty would legitimise it.
If you have foreign forces based on your land, history has it, the perception of security may be high, but in reality sovereignty is compromised and so is defence.
The toffee is poisoned, kid.
NATO is North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, a group of countries in Europe led by US who treat an attack on a member as one on all. Then there are countries which are not in NATO but get defence aid from the US on priority like Argentina, Australia, Bahrain, Egypt, Israel, Japan, Kuwait, New Zealand, South Korea, Thailand and the Philippines. Pakistan has just joined this club.
So should we behave like the child who didn’t get the toffee?
The answer is NO. We ain't no kid.
Immature reactions borne out of our Pakistan-hyphenated view of the world has led Uncle Sam to give India the same status. White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan, when asked at a press briefing on Monday about Washington's recent decision, said: “I think we made it clear that we’re willing to explore the same possibility of similar cooperation with India.”
Should we be happy that we too would get toffee? Answer is NO. We ain't no kid.
The US decision to make Pakistan a MNNA, as some newspapers abbreviated the status, should not worry New Delhi. It’s Islamabad that has to worry about this.
State Department spokesman Richard Boucher says: “This decision underscored the importance of Pakistan's role in the war against international terrorism, particularly in the continuing fight against Al-Qaeda and the Taliban.”
Well, and the timing too underscored a lot of things. The US-Pakistan Army joint action in the South Waziristan and parts of NWFP has led to unrest among the local population.
These areas have never known or recognised any Pakistani law or government, though they are part of Pakistan. Today they see Pakistani political agents, Pakistani military and US troops in overdrive in their villages and hillocks.
The US believes these tribals have protected and sheltered its enemy no. 1 Osama bin Laden. The unrest in these areas could have rippled on to other parts of the country. The MNNA was to turn the talking point while the gunbattle raged in Waziristan. To make Pakistanis be proud of something they have and India doesn’t. The toffee.
The treaty would just help calm the Pakistani Opposition, which had been accusing President General Pervez Musharraf of “sellout”. Now the general can claim he is getting good price. But he must not forget the status comes with a price tag. US troops are permanently stationed in most of the so-called MNNAs including Japan. The US already has considerable US military presence in Pakistan. This treaty would legitimise it.
If you have foreign forces based on your land, history has it, the perception of security may be high, but in reality sovereignty is compromised and so is defence.
The toffee is poisoned, kid.
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