Sunday, May 30, 2010

That's all, your honour!: May 23-29

1. Thirteen coaches of the Howrah-Kurla Jnaneswari Express were derailed in the early hours of friday (~1:30am) in West Bengal. A Goods train later rammed into these coaches, resulting in the deaths of more than 140 people so far. Railway minister Mamta Banerjee has said that the derailment was because of a bomb blast! Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram said this is because of a sabotage! Ohh, but both of them blamed the Maoists for this act only. Either way, what is sure is the fact that Maoists have carried out this deadly crime and are solely responsible for the killing of these 141 people. While the government and the ruling party still mull over and debate how to handle this issue, Maoists are on a roll carrying out attacks at will, killing civilians and police officers as and when they wish to, and are openly declaring a war on the country saying their main aim is to overthrow the state. Yet here we are, still not sure about how to counter their mindless violence. The mindless debates that happen on TV these days reek so much of bogusness that it makes one puke (or maybe just go mad!).

2. After playing a very nice game of Table Tennis with Shibhu Soren in Jharkhand, the BJP has finally withdrawn support to his government last week. First they said they will withdraw support; then they said Shibhu will support a BJP led govt.; then they said Shibhu was talking to Congress too; then they said Shibu will support a BJP led govt.; then they said no no, BJP and Shibhu will share power for 28 months each (they even announced who their CM was going to be); then they said no no, Shibhu now is not willing to give up the post of the CM! Tired right? Just when we were all wondering when BJP will be tired enough of all this, was when the call to withdraw support was made. Like senior leader Murli Manohar Joshi said - this was a theater of the absurd! BJP must make accountable the leaders who were responsible for this fiasco, else it will send a wrong signal.

3. Remember that Police Officer Rathore? The guy who molested a 14 year old girl Ruchika, 19 years back, and later harassed her family to no extent that she was driven to commit suicide? He then even went on to become the DGP of Haryana, and was finally convicted of the crime post his retirement. The bugger was given only 6 months of jail time, and there was mass outrage in the urban population of the country. To top it, Rathore walked out of the jail smiling! And last week, the court sentenced
him to a 18 month sentence as against the maximum 2 years. Nevertheless, the bugger still gets to spend so much time in jail which is hell enough for a retired DGP. Also, a special mention has to be made of Ruchika's close friend Aaradhana who waged this relentless battle for 19 years to see that justice has been done to her friend. Next I think this Rathore guy has to be booked under abettment of suicide too - guy deserves the harshest punishment for all the crimes he committed.

4. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh addressed a press conference after 4 years! Yes, that's right, for 4 years, he hasn't spoken to the press in India (only while on foreign tours, he spoke to the press on his plane). So as always a hype was generated around this event, and given that there are so many contentious issues on which we wanted to hear the Prime Minister's views, the event was looked forward to. It turned out to be a drab, because the Prime Minister ducked answers to many important questions (like that of Naxalism, Corruption by A. Raja, Ministers accountability) or gave some rhetorical answers. The questions were good, as in they covered most of the issues we wanted to hear his views on. The answers were .... well, let's leave it at that! By the way, guess which channel asked the question on Rahul Gandhi?... NDTV :D (of all the burning issues, this channel picked this question to ask!)

5. Canada rejected the visa of an former Intelligence Bureau officer who was to accompany the Prime Minister on his tour there. It was then bought to light that a former officer of the army and another officer of the para military force were also denied visa. Now, are you ready to fall off your chair? The reason given is: the organisations they have worked "has engaged in systematic attacks on civilians and has been responsible for systematically torturing suspected criminals". Yes - the intelligence bureau and the army have been classified this way by a Visa officer, who purpotedly has done a google search before issuing the Visa!!! It really can't get naive than this - what was the officer thinking? She will get feted in her country for this act? hahaha, still can't stop laughing, your honour!

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