News meeows - 10

PM briefs Bush on how Left blocked nuke deal

Confirming to the United States that its civil nuclear deal with India has hit a wall, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday explained to US President George W. Bush the circumstances compelling his government to put the deal on hold.

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Oh dear, so he had to tell the US how those Commies really spoiled it all. This is perhaps the first time the Left parties in India have shown they can act; I have already stated they make for a great Opposition. Our PM all but seemed embarrassed about the deal going phus…

So he went on to another subject:

Stressing that the key to the success of the round was agriculture, the Prime Minister said it was important to take care of the vulnerability of two-thirds of the population, namely 650 million people, dependent on agriculture for sustenance. "That meant that India needed some degree of protection through special products and safeguards, on which we need greater clarity," said the Prime Minister, pointing out that there was no clarity yet and "this issue is critical for India."

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Ho-ho-ho, Santa Claus Manmohanji is so concerned about agriculture that he did not notice all those farmers committing suicide? And what the hell is India doing importing wheat? What happened to the great Green Revolution? Let us not forget that Sonia Gandhi in a speech a while ago went on the “bijli” track, trying to justify how India needed this nuclear deal for it. Darn, 60 years after independence we wake up and then go with a begging bowl.

And now we have news that US legislator, Mr Gary Ackerman, has launched a frontal attack on the Left parties

Urging in what was a clear message to the government not to "cave in" and allow a "minority" to "bully" it into giving up the nuclear energy deal. "Do not let the radical view hijack what is in your nation’s best interest ... in order for progress to be made, courage needs to be shown," he said.

Mr Ackerman said, "The ball is back in your (India’s) court). To those who would try to bully from a minority position, to tell the majority of people what is in their national interests and that if they don’t do as that group says, that they are being bullied, are themselves the bullies."

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Woo-hoo…applies to you and your country’s position all over the world. Mr. Ackerman has no business to tell us what constitutes a minority. This is not an election where votes in favour or opposing the deal have been cast. Don’t tell us who is bullying whom.

An Indian, whatever be her/his political views is in a better position to decide what is in our best interest. We don’t need the Americans to preach. It is the caucus of industrialists that will support the deal, not the ordinary citizen or the villager who is supposed to benefit. Mr Ackerman can go take a walk because it is the radical view that saves nations.

I was always so proud that India would never have to cower before America. The Left is keeping that spirit alive.

Privileges panels summon Ronen

The Privileges Committee of the Rajya Sabha has decided to summon Indian ambassador to the US Ronen Sen, who made the controversial "headless chickens" remark to describe those opposing the Indo-US nuclear deal. The Lok Sabha’s Privileges Committee, expected to meet in the coming days, will take a decision on his remark.

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Yes, what else can we do? Call a committee, sit and pontificate when we should be calling for his head.

Why did Ronenda do it, anyway? Our diplomats are known to be nice little boys. Simple. The NRI community is rather strong in the US, especially in political terms. They are spending a lot of money filling up the coffers of the fundraising for the forthcoming elections. Our ambassador knows that it is not the American establishment he has to keep happy but our Sant Chatwals and the Silicon Valley wallahs.

Hey, think about it, had he not called our MPs “headless chickens”, his head would have been in the tandoor. Ki bolchi, Babu Moshai?

EC shifts top Gujarat officials

Taking a serious note of representations followed by its own fact-finding, the Election Commission on Monday ordered the transfer of eight top Gujarat police and civil officers, including director-general of police P.C. Pande. These officers reportedly played a covert political role in the 2002 Assembly elections. The commission has stressed that these officers should not be assigned any poll-related duty.

Besides carrying a tag of being Narendra Modi loyalists, most of these officers played a dubious role during the 2002 Gujarat riots and had invited public ire for biased policing. The Gujarat government had transferred 41 IPS officers a fortnight before the code of conduct was announced. Gujarat is scheduled to hold crucial Assembly elections on December 11 and 16 and these transfers were viewed as "purely politically motivated."

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Even though the reason for this is the coming Assembly elections, it will send out the right signals. Now if only the Gujarat junta throws the Modi government out of power…but that is unlikely to happen. In any society it is the rich that have their say and the rich in Gujarat, irrespective of which community they belong to, will keep this man in power.

Yet, the EC move shows a glimmer of hope.

Aamir kin to undergo mental test

The ninth additional chief metropolitan magistrate in Mumbai on Monday ordered that Bollywood actor Aamir Khan’s brother Faisal Khan be sent to J.J. Hospital for five days for a re-examination of his mental condition.

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What should be strictly a family matter is being dragged into the public arena and made into a soap opera – unsuccessful sibling, bad marriage, schizophrenia, parental differences. Can we not be a bit more sensitive?

There are several reasons why people do not succeed; there are cases also of two or more siblings being successful. Let us not make it into a public farce when it is a private tragedy and an intensely personal problem that Faisal has to go through if he is indeed suffering from the ailment.

World chess champion Vishwanathan Anand gets a rapturous welcome from fans after his arrival at New Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport in the early hours of Monday.

He said he was "touched" at seeing the boisterous crowd. "It felt very special that everyone came to the airport for me at 1 am."

FIDE confirmed his status as the world's leading player when he topped the latest rating list at 2801, ahead of Vassily Ivanchuk (no.2, 2787) and Vladimir Kramnik (no.3, 2785). It was Anand's third consecutive appearance at the top of the quarterly list.

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I am shocked. Imagine, we have gone beyond cricket. But, is it all merely a Chak De moment? Chess is not a game for the common wo/man. Therefore, a frenzy has a lot to do with how we run after winners without knowing anything. Get home the moolah/trophy and we see India shining.

Who better than the irrepressible R. K. Laxman to put it in this cartoon?