A step towards Democracy

When all eyes were on the Arab uprising in the Middle East, somewhere in the South East Asia, Myanmar showed the world there is a different path to establish Democracy. Once a nation run by military, freedom of speech was denied, the political leaders were arrested and democracy was once unheard of, and at last it is heartening to see the light in the darkness.

The recent by-elections in Myanmar where the Nobel laureate Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi won a parliamentary seat and her party National League for Democracy (NLD) won most of the seats contested, shows the much needed change that the country needed.

Having ruled by military for decades, the General Thein Sein announced last year that the transition to democracy would follow soon. Though most of the parliamentary seats are currently filled by military loyalists with the General being the President now, the results of by-elections show that opposition is raising itself to rule Myanmar soon.

There is enough credibility that the History won’t repeat itself this time. Two decades ago, when the NLD won the majority of parliamentary seats, military took over and Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi was put in house arrest. But the way, military leaders have reacted to the by elections so far show that there won’t be any such military take over this time.

Thanks to the international pressure and the various sanctions from US and European Union, this made no choice for the Junta army but to yield to the pressure of the international communities. Notable reason for the delay in the change could be attributed to the reluctance of the two neighboring countries China and India to impose sanctions against Myanmar as it was a strategic partner to both China and India.

Myanmar still has a long way to go and more reforms should be followed to make it a truly democratic way. Yet, one should appreciate the steps that have been taken so far. Those who had ruled with iron fist so far have realized the importance of democracy as a tool for bringing in political stability which is the key ingredient for economic growth and sustainability.

Myanmar could have its unique history, no more bloodshed, no more violence, no more coups, but just a smooth transition towards democracy. Contrary towards what is happening in Syria where both the Government and the opposition are showing no signs of truce. It is time the President of Syria realizes and follows the steps of Myanmar to stop the aggression and to relinquish the power on a step by step manner without any violence.

It would take time to see if democracy thrives better than dictatorship in this world, but it is very positive to see the countries inclining towards democracy for better freedom, for more stability and for economic prosperity. Hats off erst-while Burma, hoping other nations do follow your steps.

 

Political Come back

The much talked about the political power shift in Russia sprang no surprise to anyone. The mentee gives the way to his mentor to get the top post in the country. The man who was strong, popular and bold in expressing his views is back.

Dmitry Medvedev, the present President of Russia invited Vladimir Putin, the PM of Russia to contest the Presidential election early next year. Putin in turn invited Medvedev to head the United Russia party in the upcoming elections. Given that the opposition in Russia would be mere spectators, the elections are just an eye wash as the results are already known. Hence the drama which was planned and rehearsed well 3 years back would end well soon; there by effectively swapping their current roles.

As Putin was not eligible as candidate for the third term in 2008 as the President, his loyal friend Medvedev was appointed as the President and Putin took over as the Prime Minister. Changes were made in the constitution later to help Putin come back to power. He could now contest in election again and the terms are extended now to 6 years and Putin in all probability can rule from 2012 to 2024.

When elected to power, Medvedev was widely dumped by the media as a puppet. But he did silence his critics. Immediately taking over the post, he was matured enough in handling of war with Georgia when South Ossetia was attacked by Georgia. He faced the wrath of the West when Russia recognized South Ossetia and he proved that he was not just a mere puppet.

Medvedev tried to create a separate image by focusing on development, eradicating corruption, removing bureaucracy from Russia. He looked beyond the Oil and the natural resources. These were against the Old Russian system which is still full of corruption and bureaucracy.

Technology & innovation are his main focus on development and he tried to bring in investors from around the world for the same. Given the shifting technology world, Medvedev won the hearts of the educated middle class. Medvedev has the right pulse to act to this modern world. Putin known for his stronger national interest of Putting Russia as a world power in the world map and Putin has the will and the might to take Russia forward in the direction.

Media and the west kept criticizing Putin as the holder of real power; Nevertheless, Medvedev has established reputation for himself that Putin actually has to learn things from his mentee. They make the better combo provided Putin inculcates some of the liberal attributes from his mentee.

It would be the best time to rule Russia. Shedding away from the cold war trauma, with Europe battling for its Common identity, with middle east crisis worsening, with China’s tremendous growth brings Asia into the world picture, with USA struggling with its own slow growth; Russia can create a niche for itself in the larger economic and political system and act as a leader, leading to a stable, multi polar world. We need stronger Russia, a nation not strong just in its military prowess but also economically stronger and powerful for other countries to rely on it and I think it is at the right hands to rule.

 

Sovereign Defaults – not a joke

The world’s largest economy and the country which is the birth place for Olympic Games shares the common stage for a wrong reason – default of sovereign debts. Though both USA and Greece have very different economies and have very different problems, both are in a situation where they could probably default on their debt payments. It is contrasting with US having the highest credit rating and with Greece having lowest credit rating for sovereigns, but the world is worried about both the countries. Credit default swaps of the bonds issued by both of them were increasing, which indicates that the investors expect the possibility of default and are ready to pay the extra spread in order to insure against the default of debt by these countries.

USA is the largest borrower in the world and it is not the fear among the investors that US might fail to repay its debts. But it the technical default that might be caused because of its potential failure to pay the interest payments that is scheduled in mid August. US has the very first option of borrowing again to repay its debt and there is no issue in raising US government bonds as they are still preferred by investors and central banks of different countries. But with the borrowing limit of USA been capped, the bill has to be passed in the House to exceed the limit. Republicans are the majority in house of representatives and are refusing to increase the cap of borrowing. So if USA fails to borrow money, it could default on its interest payments.

Coming to Euro zone, Greece was hit with recession. Widening fiscal deficit demanded Greece to borrow more money. But borrowing increased its Government debt to GDP. This in turn made investors to demand more as bonds are risky with the government debt increasing. Now with the debts maturing sooner, Greece needed money to repay them. To pay money, it has to raise money again. Rating of Greece was lowered by S&P and it became junk status and this in turn makes the borrowing cost further higher.

With their dismal economic performance and with poor credit ratings, they cannot borrow from outside. Another problem is that Greece cannot even do the last step of printing the money to repay as well as it shares the common currency EURO.

So their dependency on other Euro nations and IMF has increased to get loan to repay their debts. With Ireland and Portugal already been bailed out, it is time for Euro nation to take one more step to preserve their integrity. This would be the second bailout package for Greece and the fear that Spain might also face similar problem and this causes more worry to the Euro zone.

Hence the panic that Greek may default is quite justified. IMF bailout package is needed to service the maturing debt. Private creditors might be asked to share the burden and this would mean that the debt would be rolled to a future date with the private creditors would be forced to extend their lending. Sovereign default would trigger the Investor confidence to decline and this would cause Euro and the stock market to fall as well as.

But Greece restored to political gimmicks when economic reforms were needed. Reshuffling the cabinet a week back to get the trust of people wouldn’t help them at this stage. The so called Austerity measures are needed to be taken in Greece in order to avail the loans from IMF and European countries. Spending cut and raising taxes would reduce the fiscal deficit and hence the amount of money to borrow will also get reduced.

The nation has no other choice but to carry out the burden together and the unrest and the protests are not going to help them. You do need to swallow bitter pills as there is no other way. Nothing comes free and countries are not that courteous to lend to a country which is not in a position to repay its own debts. It is time that Greek follow severe steps to reduce its fiscal deficit in spite of the opposition cries and people’s resistance. The government might be disliked by people of Greek, they might lose the next elections but the history will remember them for helping them to tide over the economic crisis. Else the government can pacify the people by not taking measures and IMF would fail to provide the loan. Greece would then default and then might be forced to leave European Union. This is something everyone would want to avoid and Greece should now look at the long term solution instead of trying to fulfill the short term objectives.

I am sure US would also avoid to technically defaulting because not only it would lose its credit rating and makes borrowing tougher, but it would also affect many financial institutions which holds US government bonds and their value gets depreciated. US bonds remained the safest bonds and I am sure USA would want it to continue to do so in the future as well. Greece default may be avoided with the help of IMF and other Euro countries but it is the right time for EU to reflect upon its membership criteria. This is the testing time for the Zone which took the bold step of having united currency though the member states were distinct in their economies. Tough time to go for the EU and there is no wonder why Europe wants desperately a European to lead the IMF at this point of time.

Democratizing through undemocratic ways

NATO forces strike Libya, US vociferously condemns Syria, Revolutions erupt in Arab nations one after the other, violent protests and standoff with the military continues and the reason for all these is one word, “Democracy”. Though these were not something unusual for the chaotic Arab world, but now the sheer magnitude of the protests and the chain reactions triggered by these protests had made the struggle for democracy into a true phenomenon with high intensity. It is growing popularity everyday and everyone is watching it, it is going to be yet another milestone for the Democracy.

It all began this year with Tunisia where the 23-year-old regime was overthrown by a protest for just a month. The small nation inspired the bigger ones to follow steps and the uprising in Egypt caught the attention of the world media. Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak was forced to resign after 30 years of ruling the strategic North African state. This in turn caused further revolutions in West Asia and North Africa including countries such as Bahrain, Yemen, Jordan, Libya and Syria. Injured leader of Yemen had gone out to Saudi Arabia for treatment and the fighting with powerful tribal forces continues there. The usual trigger factors in these protests were unemployment, inflation, lack of independence of free speech, poverty and corruption.

These Arab nations’ protests draw parallel to the Colored Revolutions of the erstwhile USSR breakout countries. The beginning of the 21st century saw the Rose revolutions, Orange Revolutions, Tulip revolutions in Georgia, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan respectively. The demise of USSR after the bloody cold war showed that the democracy prevailed over the other forms of governments. With US becoming the only major power after its long-term rival USSR disintegrated, the shout for Democracy have gained strength. All these events in the last 20 years have given a clear sign on democracy.

With the world moving towards establishing democratic states, China is an exception to everything; however strong be the uprising, it would be suppressed. No matter what international community says, no matter how much criticism it gets, China is too powerful that it could afford to ignore both the internal and external cries and lead its own way. Not to forget about Myanmar which in spite of strong sanctions from US, the army continues to enjoy its own power.

Iraq and Afghanistan have become democratic states after US war on terror but the success of these countries couldn’t be yet assessed as the insurgents are still striking attack on them and these countries are highly relying on the support of US. The only way of measuring the success of change in the ruling would be to measure the satisfaction and happiness index of the people and it is something too abstract to measure them. You will never know if the Iraqi people are happy under present rule or were happy under Saddam Hussein.

The role of other nations towards these protests in the non democratic nations would be interesting to watch for. US and other developed countries wanted to see accelerated dethroning of rulers in those states. This is a way for these developed nations to show that democracy prevailed and that it had been the survival of the fittest. Military intervention by the developed states in these countries would also prove ineffective as NATO strikes in Libya did allegedly resulted in death of civilians. Sanctions may help partly but economic extreme sanctions against these countries would in turn affect the civilians. Turning a blind eye towards these events also raise the human rights concerns as many protesters would be brutally assaulted.

Peaceful protests would be the best solution instead of fighting on the streets and media has its job to do and with internet and connectivity increasing, there are opportunities to protest against the government. But not sure how effective it would be and protests do always end up in violence.

Establishing of systems and institutions would be critical after these revolutions and these nations have a long way to go to justify that the protests and over throwing of the autocratic rule were really worth it. Democracy would obviously be the best solution as the people have the option to change the rulers. This in build option in the Democracy makes it more valuable than others. But the method of establishing democracy is a big question and yes we do try to democratize through undemocratic ways.

Its not about conservatives or liberals, communists or capitalists!!!

One group of economists, Adam smith’s protagonists, talk about Invisible hands, while the rest of the world talks of Karl Marx’s chains of workers. But here the Dravidian parties defy all economics schools of thoughts. There is no clue of communism or capitalism but an invisible source of money for the government to give everything as free to everybody.

After successful implementation of providing free colour TV to people which was promised 5 years back, political parties are coming out now with freebies to cater to all sorts of people. Free DTH facility seems to be the logical step in their illogical agenda. Others in the list are mixie, grinders, fan, laptops, free land and the list keeps on going.

Coalition dramas and often switching of parties between the two sides clearly indicate that the parties operate without any ideals. Cash and freebies for votes is yet another issue that is haunting the state. Leaving these aside, the quality of the manifesto issued by the political parties is highly questionable.

Tax payers are not fools to see their money getting away with such schemes that are easy to woo people to vote for them. There are so many other issues that government need to tackle and they must come out with agenda for it. I am looking for new infrastructural projects, new initiatives for public private partnership, tax reforms which are under jurisdiction of state government and how they will react to GST implementation in their state. New source of income to rural people, generation of employment opportunities, schemes similar to NREGA are missing. There is no clue of Law and order issues, electricity and water issues as well as. The state governments must have their principles and opinions in matters of concern in national and international issues as well as.

Increasing transparency in governance, improving agricultural productivity, providing irrigation facilities, providing quality education and setting up of educational institutes are concerns that state government need to address.  We need investments in science and technology, projects that would yield cash flows in the future instead of spending away money in this irrational way of giving everything free.

There are people who cannot afford to buy free TV’s or grinders. I am not denying it and such promises would make their dreams come true. But that is not a sustainable way of development in a country. We need employment of people and empowerment of people to take on responsibilities to take care of themselves. Freebies are not going to increase the purchasing power of the people that could trigger progression. It is just one time offer and would not improve their living in the long run. You cannot fight poverty by just giving free rice without providing proper employment opportunity to people. Capital expenditures by governments that would generate cash flows are needed and expensing the money of the tax payers by giving freebies cannot be tolerated. There would be huge pilferage of money and resources sideways in the implementation of these schemes as well and that forms a different story altogether.

I am wondering if there were a debate between political candidates as in western nations, then how it would it go as they don’t have policies to debate on, they don’t have agenda for issues faced. There are no conservatives or liberals, free market protagonists or socialists; I am wondering why cannot both the parties merge together and hold the chief ministerial posts alternatively between them. Both the parties have everything in common. From their irrational opposing to entrance exams to huge corruption charges faced by key members of both parties, there are no principles they both have, but for one being atheist and other being theist with superstitious beliefs. This is reminding me of Obama’s 2004 Democratic Convention Speech where he called for United America for uniting both the red states (Republicans) and blue states (Democrats). It needn’t be DMK or ADMK and it could be United Dravidar Munnetra Kazhakam who would give everything free to anyone.

Democracy cannot prevail as such, we need responsible political parties. I am indifferent whether I get a fan or a grinder, I am tired. Between devil and deep blue sea, I don’t have any regrets for not being registered in the voter’s list so far.

Story number 3

The siren in the car was alarming as the car was speeding down the highways. Annie was sitting in the back seat and was staring at her laptop. It was half past ten and her day had not been over. She was busy editing the power point presentation that needed to be presented to Prime minister at 12 in the midnight. She was doing it too quick and it always comes in handy to her, editing the sentences, checking for grammar, changing alignments and inserting pictures. Her proficiency in grammar and vocabulary makes these kinds of task very easy for her. Finally she finished her 10 slide presentation which explains the current situation in Iran and what course of actions that needs to be taken in the future to strengthen the relationship with the Persians. She was a cadre of Indian Foreign Service and she was recently transferred from ambassador of Iran to Libya. Before leaving to Libya next week, she had to brief about the happenings in Iran during her tenure.

She went through the entire presentation once and then packed the laptop in her bag and placed the bag between her and the front seat. She placed her laptop in a way to give her warmth in the cold weather. She closed her eyes and turned aside with her cheeks pushing the cushion of the seat and she was feeling too sleepy. She enjoys sleeping at any time of the day or night. She was in a half sleepy state and was thinking of her boy friend and she had planned to meet him before the meeting with the prime minister. She was gently smiling as she was getting deeper into her sleep and she had such an innocent and gentle look in her round face during her sleep. She woke up intermittently and was messaging her boyfriend from her blackberry.

10 miles to the south of her, a car was ready to begin its journey with 3 people in the car fully equipped for their assignment. Advanced communication devices, laptops, mobiles and guns and several rounds of ammunition were all packed and they received the green signal from their boss who was present away from them by miles apart. All three in the car gave a smile as their hunt began. They received the photo of their target and knew where their target was headed to. The task was not something new for them and so they were all at ease and were cracking jokes at each other.

The car stopped and Annie woke up from her sleep and was too lazy to get out of the car from her comfortable sleeping position in the car. Her security guard opened the door for her and she got down the car and gave a big smile at her sweetheart.

“Hello madam, how was the day? Guess it is going to be a long day for you” told her boy friend.

“Ya, I guess so. Meeting with PM in an hour”, She said and she stepped into the house. She took the hair cream and was gently massaging her head and said “hey. Let us go for a walk”.

They were walking together in a new moon night and she was keeping an eye on her watch as she had to leave for the meeting shortly. Walking was something that gave her happiness in her stressful professional life. They were a cute couple and they were having fun watching the stars in the moonless sky. She was short and was rare to be one of the most beautiful girls from the Indian Foreign Service. With an engineering degree from a reputed college, she is very smart and intelligent. They were heavily laughing and her unordered two teeth were making her laugh look even more beautiful.

Another car stopped nearly 30 metres beyond her car and two of the inmates stepped out. Their only intention was to finish their assignment in the most efficient manner as possible. It was meant to be a covert operation that no one involved could be known to the outside world. Both of them were tall and hefty and were dressed like senior executives in a company with overcoat and tie. Their eyes spotted a tall tower present at the corner of the road. They took their bag from the car and went towards the tower.

Annie was patting her boy friend on his head softly and was listening to his witty comments. They were walking back to the car after a long pleasant walk. Her personal security was waiting for them at the car. The aim was at Annie’s head from the piston from the tower, it was a clear view and he pulled the trigger. At the same time, Annie bent down to tighten her lace and she heard the loud voice of her boy friend falling on her with heavily bleeding hands. She was shocked and shouted aloud for help. Her personal security came near her and was shooting back at the tower. She was weeping and couldn’t lift her boyfriend and she dragged him to the car when the bullet hissed her ear and she had a narrow escape. He was saying “Run dear. Run now. Save yourself, leave me and run, please”. She never wanted to listen to any of this. Next ray of bullets ripped the body of her personal security. Another bullet hit her boy friend’s leg and he was crying with huge pains. She managed to reach the car and she and the car driver lifted her boyfriend and pushed him into the car. She climbed the car and locked the door and saw her driver collapsing at the doors. She was fighting tears with her boy friend at her arms and without any clue who was trying to kill them.

“Sweet heart, you will be fine” she jumped to the front seat and closed the doors and the bullets were getting bombarded at her bullet proof car. She hadn’t driven any car after her driving training classes ten years back. She was nervous but she doesn’t have any other choice. She accelerated fast and hit the gate and was rushing to the road.

Back in the tower, one of them was carrying the other person and was climbing down. One of them was shot and was bleeding heavily and both of them were afraid of the mess they had created in this place by unnecessarily shooting three uninvolved persons. “Damn it. We screwed it totally.” He took the injured person and put him inside the car. “Mission failed. Target Escaped. One retired” was the message sent by the person driving the car. Seeing this message by their boss, he replied back “Only minutes left, not hours. Finish the target. No more mistakes”

She was driving as fast as possible to the nearest hospital. She was trying to call for help and found that her mobile was out of service. Both her personal and her official cell phone were cut out of service and she realised that the hunt for her had begun with a large scale plan. She was trying to identify who these people could be and why they wanted to kill her.

The other car slowed down and dumped the injured person into a van and two other persons climbed the car. And it became a four member team and they started their hunt again, but they were all tensed now. One more mistake would cost them heavily and so they were very serious.

She drove to the nearest hospital and stepped out and yelled for help. The hospital assistants came out with a stretcher and lifted her boy friend and rushed him to the emergency ward. She ran all the way with the stretcher to the surgery theatre and kept saying “You will be fine. We will even go for a walk tomorrow. Everything will be fine”.

She wiped her tears and rushed downstairs to ask for protection and to explain about the shooting incident. She felt a very heavy hand around her shoulder and when she turned to look who was that she realised a knife with sharp edge was just under her neck. The tall person said “Keep the voice low and walk with me now”. She obeyed his words as she knew that that the knife would cut her throat if she didn’t obey. He took her out of the hospital through the back door and she couldn’t fight back as he was too strong to her. They were about to cross the road and she saw a car standing opposite to the road and understood that they were headed towards that car. Road was deserted but for the few vehicles that were moving at a very high speed. She was thinking if this would be her last minute of her life. Fear was gripping deep inside her, her eyes were looking for help and she couldn’t afford to shout and couldn’t resist the beast which was holding her too tightly. She could see the people in the car getting ready to shoot her and when she was in the middle of the road, she coughed as he was holding her tightly around her necks and she vomited over his hands, he took his hand and slapped her in the middle of the road. He took his gun and was about to pull the trigger. They heard a heavy blast and sparks from nearby electric transformer when they realised that a fast moving truck had hit against the transformer. The blast triggered fire and the current was cut off. It was too dark that hardly anything was visible. She was on her toes running too fast amidst the bullets from the guns of her assassins. Everyone got down from the car and was searching for her and the crowd gathered and shouted for help to save the driver of the truck which was burning against the transformer.

She reached her car and stepped into it and locked the doors and switched on her front light and there was a gun pointed directly at her behind the front glasses of the car. He didn’t trigger as he knows it was bullet proof but he was trying to puncture the tyres of the car by shooting at the tyres and she accelerated her car towards him and dashed against him without any mercy and he went flying and hit against the wall.

She turned right and was speeding at her maximum. She didn’t know where to go and she just wanted to rush to the Prime ministerial office or to police station. She didn’t have any communication tool to make contacts. She wanted to go back to hospital to be present near her boy friend, but she couldn’t do that. She looked at her rear mirror to see another car speeding towards her.

The assassins were heavily disappointed with their second failed attempt and they received a stern warning that one more failure would cost them their jobs. They accelerated towards her car and dashed against hers.

She didn’t flinch by the impact of the other car on hers and she looked back and her eye spotted against a symbol in the dress of an inmate of the car and she understood why they wanted to kill her. She had a sudden right turn and the car that followed her hit against the lamp post when they too tried to turn right. She accelerated and went a long distance away from them. The thought of symbol she saw in the other car turned her pink. She didn’t know whom to trust now and she knew she was fighting against one of the strongest force in the country. She was driving in the outskirts of the city and all she wanted now was some time. Her car hit against a large goat in the deserted highways and the blood spilled all over the front glass. She got an idea and she decided to fake her death. She took the goat flesh and spread it on the car, removed her overcoat and left in the car and then accelerated her car in the bridge and then hopped out of the car. The car hit against the bridge walls and fell down the river and then it burst looking like an accident.

She started running in the wild fields and she knew that she only had little time left before they realised that her death was a fake. She knew the only way for her survival was to destroy the entire organisation that was hunting for her. She was tired and was swaying her way while she was walking fast. The same organisation which was trying to kill her had approached her earlier this week for a favour, which she declined to do. The BSS (Bharat secret service) is an unknown undisclosed and it is a part of research analysis wing under defence ministry. They were secret service agents and were conducting covert missions for protection of national security. Their existence was not known to many top cabinet ministers and bureaucrats as well as. They had approached her earlier this month to fake an attack on her life. The intention was to blame the Iran government for the attack on her and that would act as an excuse to severe the ties with Iran. She was shocked by this and refused to take part in this drama. They compelled her and she threatened them that she would tell the senior officials and would make them all know about the existence of an undercover organisation and its activities.

She didn’t have any clue of who would be the head of the organisation and whom she could call to tell. She had the video clippings of the entire incident in her virtual space which would be a proof to their existence. She was feeling too cold and her lips were dry and she took the moisturiser cream and rubbed against her lips as she walked along. It was about 3 in the morning and she heard the howling of wolves. Her eyes spotted bunch of houses and she felt a little relieved and she ran towards them.

The three member team reached the spot and they sent a message to their boss “Target suspected to be killed. The search continues.” All three of them branched out in different directions to look for further clues.

She knocked a door and nobody answered her. She went to the next house and it was locked from outside. She took a hammer which was present nearby and hit the lock and it opened without producing much sound to wake the neighbours. She went inside and switched on the light and found that the room was nearly empty with nothing valuable inside the house that they had left the house with just one lock which broke even when a girl tried to open it. She couldn’t find any computers but was happy to see a phone in the room. She sat on the chair with her legs folded and was just thinking what should be her next move. She leaned her head behind the chair and was tensed and was feeling helpless.

She felt a cold object touching her head and one of the assassins was having his gun on her head. She couldn’t run and she had kept her eyes closed and was thinking of her boyfriend, the one person whom she wants to think about in her last breathe and she heard the voice “I am sorry Annie. I didn’t want to hurt you.  But I don’t have any other choice.”

The voice made her feel a chill wave across her, it was once a familiar voice to her and she stood up the chair and was stammering “Is it you?” The gunmen hesitated to pull the trigger. “Hey Sam, is it you?” she asked.

He burst into tears upon hearing her soft voice after ages and put down his weapon and collapsed on the chair. She was once his sweet heart in the college and he had tried to propose her and she had rejected as she already had a boy friend. They were close friends in their engineering college days. She had been a girl liked by many in her college and had received so many proposals from guys from her batch, junior and senior batches as well. She may not even remember their faces or names, but Sam was special to her as he was a good friend of her.

“I don’t have anything personal against you. I didn’t know it was you who we were chasing until an hour ago when I joined the team” he said.

Annie asked “How did you get into this team? Are you not ashamed of yourself?”

He explained his long story after his college and about how he became a trained helicopter pilot and how he got recruited into this secret BSS organisation after that. He said “I am employed for it. I feel proud to work for my country”.

“I am trapped now” said she.

“So am I”.

She smiled after a long time in the day and said “let us fight together”.

“Do you know who is in charge for this organisation?” she asked.

“I am not sure” he confessed.

He suddenly took a knife and cut near his shoulders very deeply and took a chip out of his body and flushed it in the toilet. Annie got terrified by seeing that and went to tie his bleeding shoulder “I am sorry. Sorry”. She understood it was a GPS detector chip that was implanted in every assassin to track their movements.

“We are safe now” he said, though he was bleeding heavily. She tore a bed spread present in the room and wrapped it around his shoulder and she said “Thanks a lot”.

“We need to dismantle them to save our lives” he told sternly.

“I have evidence about their existence. We just need to contact the relevant people quickly”

“Excellent” he claimed.

She took the phone and dialled the foreign secretary number whom she had direct contact with. The line was unattended.

“Can we call the media and make it known to everyone?” she asked.

“No” he retorted “It is a very sensitive issue and our national integrity in international arena would be in danger”.

“Let us contact our deputy PM”, he said.

“I am not sure if that would be the right move because he has defence portfolio as well, so he might be heading the organisation.”

“Yes, may be. Try contacting our Prime minister”

She then called to the prime ministerial office and asked “What is the PM’s schedule tomorrow?”

The person in the other end told “PM along with deputy PM is leaving to oversee the flooded regions of Maharastra early morning”

“We are screwed” she said. She saw his bleeding shoulder and said “I am sorry again for this”.

He just smiled at her.  “We would be shot death as soon as we are spotted”.

It was her turn to smile at him. She was too happy to meet her old friend.

“Kidnap the PM and take him to the helicopter and tell the truth” he said.

“What? Don’t be kidding”

“It is only the safest place to tell and show him the evidence. Else we may end up getting killed”

She felt giddy upon hearing these words.

“But how?” she retorted.

She listened to his entire plan and was dumbstruck with the plan. She knew that she was going to have a tough day next day too. She stood up to get ready for the game. She took a hot water bath. She felt cold and was searching for overcoat in the room. She found one jerkin which was too long for her height and the long over coat made her to look funny. Sam was staring at her and she was too beautiful for his eyes even now.

They left the room and it was around 5 30 AM and they reached the highways. He took his gun and pointed directly at a car which was passing on the highways. The person stopped the vehicle and got down. Both of them then got into the car and accelerated it towards their destination. She repeated in her mind the instructions that had been given by him. She was too nervous but was trying to calm herself and was wondering what would be the condition of her boy friend. She knew she had to do all these alone now. He dropped her near the PM office and bade her goodbye and wished her all the best. She was too thankful for him at her heart.

Sam accelerated his car and sent a message to his boss “Plan B on. Everything set. Target deceived”.

After 30 minutes, Annie was walking with the PM and deputy PM who was about to get into helicopter.

“Sir, it is very urgent that I need to talk with you and show you something”

“You can wait till I return”

She was waiting for the moment that Sam had explained her earlier. There were two personal security guards who were accompanying the PM and deputy PM apart from many security guards who were at a distance. As they were about to board the helicopter, one of the guards fainted and fell down. She quickly took the weapon and pointed it at PM and asked him to board the helicopter and she got into the helicopter and closed the doors. It was too quick for security guards to realise that the PM was kidnapped by an IFS officer. PM was stunned and she asked the helicopter pilot to start the helicopter. Deputy PM and other security personals were in panic and were surrounding the helicopter.

As the helicopter took off, she opened her laptop and entered the password to the virtual space where she had saved the documents and the video clippings about the XYZ organisation. By the time, the helicopter took off, she downloaded all the materials. She apologised the PM who was still in shock about the way he had been kidnapped. She showed the evidence and the relevant materials to him. This further shocked him and they were wondering who would be heading the organisation. The helicopter was in mid air and other helicopters were following it from a distance.

“It was a very serious issue; I didn’t have a choice but to kidnap you”

“It is fine, now I need to communicate that everything is fine so that media doesn’t hype about my kidnapping”

She felt a heavy hand over her which grappled the laptop from her. The pilot of the helicopter took the gun from her and pointed it to PM.

She looked at the pilot’s face “Sam, what are you doing here?”

“I am a helicopter pilot, of course” he gave a malicious smile.

She was confused to see him here and was wondering why he took the gun and laptop from her now.

“I would destroy the evidence and delete all these documents. And would shoot the PM” he said.

Things became very clear for her now. The plot was set. The evidence was about to get destroyed. She would be set for the murder. She understood she was completely tricked. She was highly disappointed. Everything was about to get over and now it seems to have a very different end now.

“But why do you shoot PM?” she asked.

“To give chance for our deputy PM”

Both PM and Annie understood that deputy PM was heading the BSS organisation and had made this entire plan. He pointed the gun directly and was about to pull the trigger. Annie crashed down between PM and the assassin. When both of them were watching her falling down, she took her slippers with sharp heals and suddenly pressed against his hand which was wounded some hours ago when he had cut his shoulder to remove the GPS detector from his body.

He cried with pain and the PM and she jointly bended his hand which had the rifle and took the weapon from the beast. She shot at his legs and he fell down and they pointed the gun towards him.

After 2 days….

Annie was solving crosswords in a leading newspaper, when her boyfriend read the news paper “Deputy PM arrested. Secret agent wing was decommissioned”.

“Got ready for the next assignment?” Her boy friend asked.

“Yes, to Libya. But with you now.” She gave a broad smile.

The Year 2010

High level visits from the 5 powerful nations (US, Russia, England, France & china) and the year 2010 couldn’t have been much better for India. Definitely GDP growth rate of 8.9% (approximately) is very high after the world-wide slowdown that got triggered couple of years ago. Yet, it is always a roller coaster ride as the growth was hurt by soaring inflation rate which the RBI is fighting by tightening monetary policy by hiking Repo rates several times this year.

If every year is like flipping a page, then it is impossible not to find Israeli aggression, controversial Iran’s Nuclear programme, suicide bombings in Pakistan and North Korea’s provocative actions in that page. Security issues and all party meeting failure in JK and escalating Naxalites’ menace also get added to the Indian pages of 2010.

Recovery of Citi Bank and GM showed the resurgence of the mighty US. Increase in H1B visa showed the Socialistic side of president Obama in the capitalist nation. Quantitative Easing mechanism by US invoked a mixed response from the governments with some countries fearing excess FII inflows into the emerging nations could cause instability. Oil spill by BP led to both financial loss and the worst environmental disaster of the year.  Greece failure and the near collapse of Spain and Portugal triggered tensions as the fear of defaults by sovereign countries could spread arose worldwide.

It was Copenhagen yesterday and today it is Cancun and nothing substantial was taken in the climate change summit and the agreement between the developed and developing nations remains elusive. Not to forget to mention about the coalition government in UK after decades. Natured showed it’s furry this year through the volcanic eruption in Ireland which led to closure of major airports in European nations.

Back home, much anticipated Babar masjid verdict resulted in upsetting every party involved and that led to subsequent appealing to the higher court.  Corruption has led to an indelible scar on the ruling congress. Fiasco in 2G Spectrum allocation, escalated costs in Common wealth games and Adarsh Housing Society scam in building a multi-storeyed building which were earlier allocated to widowed women of kargil fighters added embarrassment to the government. All these showed the vulnerable side of the man who was hailed as the Technocrat, honest, gentle, intellect and what not. But when the authority and leadership goes missing, these things couldn’t substitute for it.  The opposition’s loud voice of calling Dr. Singh as the weakest PM could be heard all over the country.

3G auction in India fetched the unimaginable sum of money to the government which reflects upon the potential telecom market in India as the telecos were willing to pay premium to get the 3G spectrum. The liquidity in the bank was affected and RBI was buying back bonds to inject cash into the system. Deregulation of petrol prices helped the oil companies to determine the market price and to recover from their losses. The record capital raised in IPO of Coal India marks the beginning of the privatisation of the public sector units. The tussle between the government departments and the MNC’s continued, Blackberry maker RIM was asked to find solution to reveal the data transferred in the phone and Vodafone was slammed with heavy tax for their capital expenditure incurred in acquisition of Hutch 3 years back.

Wiki leaks angered the Government and the Administration of the top nations including US and the telephone tapping and leaks in India raised privacy concerns and brought into light the total administrative failure to have the taped conversation in a secured manner. It was a strange year when Octopus predicted FIFA world cup matches and then IPL president allegedly predicted the IPL matches. Unbeatable new records were set in Cricket, when the Best batsman of all time scored 200 in ODI and scored his 50^th century in Test matches. Good or bad, in a few days, a new year is to begin and let us welcome it. Wish you all Happy New Year 2011.

 

 

Only way to correct the mistake

It is not about winning or losing, it is about peaceful and harmonious co existence that I am talking about. The verdict may get delayed with a hope that parties may reconcile among themselves which seems to be remotely possible. Whatever be the verdict, at least a 100 million population will get heartbroken either ways.

This is not a story that happened in a day or a year or a decade. It is a story that has its root from the 16^th century. Babar defeated the Hindu King of Chittorgarh and established his rule. It is alleged that the Babar Masjid was built by destroying or by modifying the Ram temple which was present in the Hindu sacred place which is known as Ram Janmabhoomi.

The modern day history began with Indian Government after independence didn’t allow Muslims to visit the site, but allowed the Hindus to enter through side doors. The new entries to the story, BJP and VHP, created the unwanted stir that ended 4 decades of peaceful lull period and the campaign for building a Hindu temple began in the first half of 1980’s. Writing on the wall was clear for the demolition of the mosque when the BJP government came to power in Uttar Pradesh in 1991. On December 6^th 1992, the Babar Masjid was demolished and that led to communal riots across the nation. Cases were registered in Allahabad High court and both Sunni Central Waqf Board and Ram Janambhoomi Punaruddhar Samiti claimed that the land belonged to them. In the mean while, The Archaeological Survey of India had claimed to have found evidence of a 10^th century temple in the Babri Mosque site. The verdict for the case was about to get announced tomorrow, the Supreme Court has deferred the verdict by a week and the tension among the people is at high levels.

I am not questioning whether Lord Rama was born in that place, I am not questioning whether Babar destroyed the temples, I am not questioning the authenticity of the ASI report, but clearly demolishing a mosque by a bunch of fanatics cannot be left without questioning. A mistake has been done already in the past and it is time that we don’t make it ever again. I am not sure if the Babar’s alleged building of mosque created a disharmony among the various religions, but I do know for sure how much the destruction of the same has affected the lives of many people.

Even after the verdict, we have a long way to go, the loser would appeal to the Supreme Court and the process would just be prolonged. It is not going to be a Win – Loss situation for any group, it will be a Loss – Loss situation only no matter whatever the verdict be, though this is the last chance to come to a concession and make it a Win – Win situation.

Just think for a moment, if the two sides agree to build a scientific research lab or a children park in that site, the history will remember them as the heroes who ended the unstoppable war that was fought in that century. It is the final chance we have to rectify the mistake we have done. It is not going to be an end of the journey but a marvellous new beginning to send the signal across the nations, across the continents that we stand by the principles of secularism and fraternity. With the situations in J&K getting worsened with every passing days, it is time to prove that we are a nation where a religion is never a discriminating factor and that we live the dream of “Unity in Diversity”.

PS: The above writing was first put on the “Bharath society” Discussion in FB and then the above writing is posted here with 2 days delay, so tomorrow in the article would have referred to 25th Sept 2010

Story Number 2

The clock stroke 12 and he was still awake and was preparing for his next day work. He checked his new video camera and was reading the manual to get himself familiar with the new equipment. The clarity in the video was too good and the camera per se was very smaller in size yet it was capable of focussing a large area. Happy with the quality of the camera, he put that in his large back bag. He opened the box which was delivered to him yesterday by people whom he had never met before. He lifted the huge rifle out of the box and was trying to study the gun and found a hand written instructions on a page kept inside the box. The hand writing was horrible, yet he could strain and read it. There was one more box unopened and he knew what it would be, the fuel to the weapon.

After mastering how to use the weapon for about 2 hours, he went upstairs. He knew what exactly he needed to do next day. He was not scared of anything. He sat down in the floor and leaned against wall. It was too cold that the woollen blanket around him couldn’t make him warm. He was staring at the stars and the pole star was shining bright and his eyes spotted the Ursa Major. In a half sleepy state, he recollected his 6^th standard science class.

“What is a constellation?” asked the science teacher.

“A group of stars” answered a student who was sitting in the first bench.

“Then how is it different from galaxy?”

Sayed stood up and answered “A constellation is a group of few stars which gives a shape such as a hunter or a bear. But a galaxy is a collection of millions of star and it doesn’t give any particular shape as such.”

The class clapped for his reply when an assistant ran into the room and whispered something and left. The teacher got a bit shaken and told that there was serious violence going across the streets in many of the nearby villages and towns.  So their schools got suspended for the day and the school buses will drop them early. The class erupted with joy as the school got over and the thought of violent fighting in nearby towns was giving them an extra pleasure as the class have not witnessed any other fight other than the fight between the two bullies in their class.

Sayed told a quick goodbye to all his friends. He boarded his school bus and went to his home in another 30 minutes. He was asking his mom, what was happening in nearby villages and why they were fighting. She told him a big story, but what he could understand from the story was that their sacred Mosque was destroyed. Hours passed and Sayed started worrying about his father as he has not yet returned back in spite of the chaos prevailing outside. By 6 in the evening, his dad returned home in a stern face and said that there was too much of tension prevailing outside and he locked the front door.

Feeling relieved by seeing his father, he ran to him and asked “Daddy, why are these people fighting? My principal will punish us if we fight with each other. Will my principal punish these people also? ”

His father replied “Son, there are people who wanted to create disturbances in the lives of others. Allah will punish those miscreants and will protect the innocents.”

There was a loud noise outside their home and there was a bunch of people throwing stones on the door and banged it. The three people were scared inside the home didn’t know what to do and they were staying very close to each other. The door got opened at last and the mob rushed inside the house and started beating his father and mother. They threw Sayed aside and his head got banged against the wall and was bleeding. He quickly went inside a water drum and hid himself there. He could hear the crying of his father and mother praying for their lives. “Praise Lord Rama” shouted one of the miscreants. Several beatings and crying from his mother and father was all he could hear. He came out of the drum after those people left his home. He came out and saw his mother bleeding all over her face and his father’s hand was cut badly. Sayed started to cry aloud “they are destroying our mosque as well as hitting us also” and he fell asleep to the ground.

The memories remained afresh even after 17 years and Sayed got up as the pole star disappeared as the sun rays fell on his face. It was 6 in the morning and he had not slept. He knew it was not an easy job and one wrong step would blow apart all the hard work done so far.

He went down and got himself ready for the day. He took his camera in a bag and walked in the streets. Posters and banners of the Prime Ministerial candidate of a leading party were standing tall across the road.  A big stage was set up for the evening election campaign address. There was a tight security check, bomb squads were actively rummaging the place and several officers were patrolling the street. Loud music and election songs were played loudly. He kept the powerful mini camera well outside the security circles. The video signals captured would be streamed to his laptop.

He went inside a building as instructed in the paper sent inside the box yesterday. He got the keys from the receptionist and took the lift to the 13^th floor to the room allocated to him. He took his rifle and set up the weapon. He opened his laptop. He logged into his company’s mail account checked his mails and applied for work at home. It struck him that it would be his last day in company officially. He saw his company logo in the screen and stared at it and it reminded him the first day in office where he joined after graduating from Ahmadabad University. After completing his training he was posted at Pune. He took his parents with him, his father was still handicapped with one hand after the riot incident in his school days. Their hard days of earning got over with their son getting a handful of salary after joining in this software firm. Those were his formative years, though not for his professional life, but for the hatred and the vengeance to build in his blood.

In the 13^th floor hotel he sat by window and the video signal from the mini camera was seen in his laptop screen. He could see clearly the stages and the camera was well hidden that no one can look at it back. As the camera was placed in a raised platform, it could capture a good view.

He saw various police men going here and there and few local politicians getting the stage ready and was ordering the workers. He took a chocolate Bar and was slowly biting it. He saw a girl in the scooty racing past the camera. The girl was looking similar to someone who was so special to him.

Looking at her she thought of his college sweet heart. She was her college mate in Ahmadabad University. She was short and was neither stout nor lean. She was a hot blonde and had a smile that enlightened the people around her. She was so sweet that the entire college liked her. Sayed was her senior in her college and they fell in love with each other in his 3^rd year in college. They were the perfect couples envied by many. It was all happiness till one day in March 2002. She left the college in the evening after a long walk with Sayed in the campus.  It was the last time he ever saw her. She was killed in the Gujarat riots by a bunch of fanatics who claimed to revenge for the death of their fellow fanatics in train. It took him years to recover from her loss. “Insecurity”, “Right to live is denied” “No protection of minorities” these feelings sounded repeatedly in his memory throughout day and night.  “Not that I hate my country, but that I hate the people who run it”. Violent incidents in Jammu and Kashmir added fuel to their hatred built. He was active in the social networking sites and he found people with similar hatred towards Indian politicians and the administration. They formed a big network. People from different professions flocked together. Advance technologies were employed in the weapons manufactured and they remained unknown to each other. Ideas were exchanged and no meeting was held in person. Sayed with the help of this network got the advanced guns and video camera delivered to his home.

Sayed was again staring at his screen and was carefully noticing the development that is happening in that place. He knew the weapon in possession is not for shooting a single person. Rather, it creates a blast in a 5 metres circle. So he can fire the bomb from this building to the stage where the PM candidate will address the audience. So line of sight is not needed to shoot the target, the mini camera placed will give him the information when he gets to the stage, he could trigger accordingly. And the trigger would create a blast upon 5 metres in the radius from where the bomb lands.

Everything was set up and the people thronged the place. It was announced that the party leader would arrive shortly. There were slogans raised “Our next PM”, those lines hurt Sayed as he believed that this man was one of the inciters for the violence which lead to the death of his girl friend.

All was set for the blast. “The wrong doers are not punished, so I do that job”, “Justice delayed is justice denied. Let me expedite it” were the various reasons he was giving himself to justify his action.

The girl he saw in the scooty was back now in a white saree and was standing in front of the stage. The PM candidate cum the party leader arrived in the midst of heavy security. The PM candidate stepped out of his car and his ten year old son was accompanying him to the stage. The girl moved to garner the guest with flowers. He was not able to pull the trigger. He was delaying the event to occur. The camera showed a person with no legs who had just crawled across streets to get a glimpse of the crowd. Suddenly his eyes landed on a pregnant woman who was crossing the crowd, old man and woman were waving the hands in the crowd, a school child who seems to have lost in the crowd. He didn’t know what to do, whether to pull the trigger and get settled for the revenge of killing his girl friend. Or just leave it and save the life of the girl in the scooty, the son of the PM candidate, and lives of general public by avoiding stampede. He had just few minutes left for the departure of the PM candidate, he was too confused what to do.

“I am a beast, I don’t care for others”

“why should that small kid die because of his father’s wrong doing?”

“He killed my girl friend.” “Oh no, the scooty girl may also have a boy friend”

He could hear the loud cheers in the camera and the PM candidate was about to get back his car. This was the last chance to kill him. He was sweating. He had his final choice in life.

“Kill kill kill”

“Let others live”

His heart and brain were dragging him on opposite sides. He cried loudly and it was his longest 30 seconds in his life. “Allah would punish the wrong doer”, he reflected upon his father’s words and took his hand off the weapon. He knelt to the ground and prayed.

He stood up and he started dismantling the weapon. He packed up the weapon, took his bag left the room and gave the key to the receptionist and walked out of the building with a heavy heart. He quickly disposed the dismantled weapon in nearby garbage. He went to his room and took his laptop and deleted all the mails, messages and contact in the phone book, all the materials in the laptop pertaining to this operation.

He slept heavily at night and in the morning he heard a loud knock in the doors. He went and opened it. There was a gun pointing towards him. “You are suspected to have links with some external terror network.” The other policeman shouted “You are under arrest”.

Happy Birthday My Blog…

The magical journey began exactly 2 years back. I was excited to begin with, had plenty of topics to discuss upon, yet with a sense of nervousness I began my blog writing. I began with a philosophical note and was too sure that I would be writing upon plenty of analysis of political developments which had been my favorite part of reading in any newspaper.

Series of bomb blasts triggered me to write my second post and neither the bomb blasts nor my writing stopped from then on. Incredible Olympics, unbelievable truth of Satyam, incessant terrorist menace were some of the subjects I touched upon in my posts. Kashmir to Palestine, election fever, happy feeling, love, heart and a very obvious secret code word added spice to my writings. A story and a random writing featured in my last few posts.

I have been stung by sharp criticism for writing more on negative side of any issue. Cribbing and venting anger forms the theme many of my topics were the feedback I have got so far. Grammatical mistakes are predominant in my posts. I am sure I am working on the suggestions made. This is my 37^th post and I know the number has not increased substantially as the writing in the first year accounts for two thirds of the number of entries.

I am not a person who can blend the humour in writing, not so good in writing an inspirational one, but can voice my opinion in a clear way and I would do so again and again. If I want to shout, if I want to appreciate, if I want to cry, if I want to laugh, I don’t care what the rest of the world thinks, I express it in my blog.

I want to analyse about the economic policies and comment on the developments pertaining to it. It will take months for me to write, yet I keep my focus on that while writing about others. I would include some stories in my blogs too.  I am sure I will come out with something big in the forthcoming days, so watch out for my further posts. I am reiterating my beginning lines of the blog again, “Miles to go before I sleep”.  The journey once began will not end, it will keep progressing as the time flies.

PS: My favourite among my writings include “The worst ever butterfly effect” ,  “It starts with S and ends with A”, “My True Love”. Do comment about your favourite posts and further comments that could help me to write something even better.