Monday 23 December 2013

KEJRIWAL’S FRENCH REVOLUTION AND HIS ‘LOKPAL’ GUILLOTINE

I have never supported the BJP but I have no hesitation in saying I would prefer their Govt. in Delhi rather than these bunch of AAP jokers. Not many people have bothered to see beyond the AAP rhetoric and study their political and economic agenda. These people are a dangerous fringe group of ultra-left, anarchist radicals who can only exist by pitting people against each other and destroying harmony. The raison de’ etre or the reason for existence of the AAP is to generate a state of perpetual conflict.
If the AAP were to be believed then they can only achieve their ‘water and electricity revolution’ by either bankrupting Delhi state coffers or pulling the con of the decade. We might hate the Reliance group for their no nonsense manner of electricity distribution in Delhi but tell me one entity including the erstwhile state electricity board DVB that will give you electricity without a profit motive. Fast running meters are a problem but assuming that all meters are fixed to generate inflated bills has to be a conspiracy that seems to be straight out of the Stalinist era. The modus operandi of Mr Kejriwal is a page taken again from that era - Play upon real or imagined fears of the vulnerable sections of society, champion yourself as a messiah who will deliver the impossible and then foist a law upon the people (Lokpal) that will help you to wipe out opposition and imprison real and imagined enemies to your cause. That’s right: the Lokpal (Kejriwal version) is one of the most dangerous pieces of legislation that will help these anarchists to use the Lokpal like the guillotine to decapitate any kind of opposition that these people face on the way.
A crusade against Lal battis of politicians, real and imagined corruption, the have and have nots, no FDI in retail are all popular rallying causes but we have to be pragmatic that governance is not about doling freebies but taking compassionate but equally pragmatic decisions for the general good of the people.
Sadly all this is least on the AAP agenda. Their single point agenda will be a search for real and imagined enemies and not governance. This will become clear sooner rather than later. A party like the AAP can only thrive if there is strife and chaos all around. The AAP now has Delhi by the scruff of its neck and ominously it will soon have the Lokpal ‘guillotine’ as it comes marching in. Let’s see whose head first rolls on the ground.


Sunday 22 December 2013

TIGER MOMS , TIGRESS DEVYANI AND THE STEALTHY, PUSSY FOOTED AMRIKI

Justice for Devyani is at best the hors’ de oeuvres before a meal. The real issue is a civilizational clash between Asian and western value systems in the Devyani case. We for instance bring up our children by encouraging then to study long hours, with the mum supervising the study routine by feeding in the child nutritious meals, the domestic pitching in by making tea, giving the child Bournvita with milk in the night and generally the entire house pitching in to help the child perform well in exams. There is no talk of 40 hours a week etc because everything is geared to make the child perform well, go to IIT etc and then move to the US for a high paying job. It wouldn’t be a stretch to say that significant credit of Wall Street’s domination over world economic matters can be given to the Tiger moms of China, India and South Korea. This is a reality of life and it might appear cruel, over the top and out of place in the new world but this is the Mandarin, Bharatiya , the Oriental or call it what you will way of doing things. At ground zero it works like this in Asia and not the way the Americans and others would have us believe.
Going by changes in US law then the Tiger Mom could be held culpable for cruelty to the child, the domestic etc and all them could be charged and thrown in jail. Can Preet Bharaa do this? I can eat with a fork and knife but in my private moments I like to eat my rajma chawal with my hands.

All those who support Preet Bhara and company fail to realize that the ‘ rights’ that America is so fond of talking about is a double edged weapon used by America in war of civilizations. Let me be bold enough to say that if we succumb to American pressure then we surrender what really is our strength and encourage this new form of American colonialism. 

Saturday 30 November 2013

MY NEW BOOK THE AVENGER

Now available as e book also.

Praise for my new book 'THE AVENGER' by the Indian Express

Fighting the good fight

Book: The Avenger: This Time It's War
Author: Juggi Bhasin
Publisher: Penguin
Pages: 495
Price: Rs 299
The Avenger by Juggi Bhasin takes up a year later after the events in The Terrorist, where Special Forces officer Suvir Suri faced his terrorist doppelganger, Murad, to a decidedly deadly climax. Now Suri has retreated to Himachal Pradesh to put a considerable distance between the world and his comatose lover and himself.
Meanwhile, in Delhi, a plane belonging to billionaire industrialist Suresh Jindal is hijacked while his daughter is on board and subsequently bombed, at the behest of the sociopathic Sikandar Khan, a Pakistani terrorist. Jindal prevails on Suri to avenge his daughter's death as well as foil Khan's machinations. The plot is a well-oiled, fast-paced machine, with Bhasin deftly providing backgrounds to his characters and situations without hindering the story arc.
The Avenger's characters are real and relatable — whether it's a sarkari babu's mistress, an inebriated pilot or a terrorist using homosexuality as a weapon — without coming under any moralist fire. The portrayal of contemporary India as a country besieged by financial scams, separatist violence, TRP-hungry news channels and politicians with agendas, is fairly accurate, making the book an engaging read, despite some over-the-top accounts of global terrorism. There's even an eerily au courant licentious episode between a senior and a cub reporter in an elevator.

THE OVERREACHER

Elevated minds in an elevator hurtling to ground zero
Burnt your fingers with fingered passion
Ashes to ashes, intellectual dust to ashen passion
Time stops in a jail cell
Braid and unbriad the ponytail of excess

With all the time in the world.

Thursday 28 November 2013

Arnab Goswami's daily comedy show

Someone in Lutyens Delhi please send a drinks and dinner invite to Arnab Goswami. The guy’s been cribbing on national television that ‘Lutyens cosy clubs’ ignore him, they have not been lynching Sex Bullet Raja – Tejpal, and in the manner he has been crucifying him. Listen if the guy brings you the most watched news and comedy show in television history day after day the least he deserves is a drinks invite? Treat him to a whisky and club soda and get him in the ‘cosy club mood’ and maybe, just maybe, he will spill out the secrets of his genetic makeup that makes him the enfant de terrible of Indian television? But till such time, ever day after Newshour, Arnab is heard singing – ‘Nobody likes me, everybody hates me, I gonna eat those worms, short, fat, juicy, fuzzy worms…!’

Wednesday 27 November 2013

DO SEXUAL PREDATORS DESERVE A FAIR TRIAL?

One way of exploring this question is that we don’t start frothing in the mouth discussing Tejpal but rather in the clear, cold, light of the day we discuss the new awareness of violence against women sweeping the country. The question to be asked is has the tide turned? Are women more secure from sexual predators like Tejpal? Are we witnessing a generational shift in relationships between Indian men and women? The short answer to these important and troubling questions is, no. Far from it. As a matter of fact the ground reality could be worse than any time before.
So then what about all the heated debates on television, the din and fury of Vishaka guidelines, the formation of committees in the corporate environment to tackle these issues head on. Ask the women who bear the brunt and then you will know the real truth. Yes in many corporates these committees are in place but let it be said that both the complainant and the presiding authorities are extremely nervous and unsure of the efficacy of the very system they only have set up. The biggest fear a woman complainant faces is that very often when she complains and seeks redressal, it signals the end of her corporate career. She becomes a pariah within her own organization (even though she might win the case) and if she steps out for a new job she might as well wear a placard around her neck saying ‘Stay away or be burned.’
Let’s step away from the corporate environment and take a look at what’s happening in aam admi India. Violence and sexual assaults against women in the comforts of their homes is at an all-time high. Women are subjected to verbal and physical assaults and rapes not only by their depraved husbands but very often by the father – in – law, the older brother of the husband and certainly the mother – in – law also joins in. Sometimes grown up sons are also not immune from this bestiality.
So keeping this background in mind how should we deal with Mr Tejpal? Should we give him a fair trial or like in the Arushi case we build up such tremendous, media pressure that no judge can afford to be lenient with this man. Friends, at this stage, I am going to propound a theory which might not be very popular but I think it needs to be told. Before I talk about that let me say that first we must identify who are all the people who have formed a lynch mob; people who are shouting themselves hoarse that Tejpal should be hanged from the nearest tree.
Certinaly there is a sizeable segment of people who are genuinely outraged and ashamed that such an alleged perversion was inflicted by Tejpal in an elevator on the unsuspecting girl. But I promise you friends that there are sizeable numbers of people also who in a day have become vigilantes – the rent a hire knights, who are waging battle of crime against women. Many of these people are the worst kind of perpetrators of sexual abuse and violence, in the privacy of their offices and homes; some perhaps a bit more subtle and the others blatant in what they do.
The Tehelka case is actually giving a fig leaf to these people to hide behind; say one thing in public and practise something else in private. Slowly but surely the lynch mob is gaining strength and we only have to see history the way a lynch mob acts and the brunt of the results we have to bear thereafter. In both 1984 and then in 1992, terrible crimes had been committed initially but what followed after that was nothing short of barbaric. It changed the political and social discourse of the country.
I suspect that something similar will happen if we go down the path of the lynch mob. Tejpal will be crucified but all the other perpetrators out there will smilingly appear on television proclaiming ‘we told you so’ and they will all go back and commit their crimes with more impunity. That is all that a lynch mob can do.
So then it is important that Tarun Tejpal is given a fair trial; he is given every possible chance to explain his side of the story. We have to keep this daily tamasha of lynch mob panels on television under check and not influencing debate. Let the judge decide his fate objectively, without rhetoric. If he is to be hanged then he is to be hanged in a cold, dispassionate way that sends a chilling message to each and every one that such crimes will not easily be forgotten or forgiven.


Sunday 8 September 2013

SYRIA - WESTERN U.P.

Really what is the difference between Obama planning to strike Syria to boost his popularity and the SP party and the BJP setting western U.P. on fire to gain electoral advantage?
The only difference is that Obama wears a tie and suit and shows gravitas on TV and the leaders from our desi parties fanning the fire resemble the goon squad.

Friday 6 September 2013

Discordant notes in Srinagar

Ever since my earlier days as a TV correspondent, when once in a while one went to Kashmir, I have been struck by a deep sense of racism, barely concealed, infecting the so called civil society movement and the separatist movement out there.
Most of these worthies have never identified with the problems of Muslim brethren in other parts of the country. In private conversations they have always looked upon themselves as a race and a community apart and most of them are extremely colour prejudiced.
The same disease has surfaced in the Zubin Mehta concert to be held today. The real reason why many of these groups are opposed to this concert is that Zubin has ostensibly been close to Israel and has conducted the Israeli philharmonic orchestra for a number of years.
Sadly one had thought music cuts across religion, caste and ethnic divide.

Vietnam - Syria

The United States has a history of repeating history not as a farce but as a comic strip. Sure Assad is a monster but he will get his just desserts from his own people. Why should the US start yielding the lathi?
The striking image of the Vietnam war was US B-52 bombers bombing from safety up above on a helpless Vietnamese people. The US will do the same in Syria when they launch cruise missiles in their so called limited strike. Wars are won by feet on the ground and not by remote controlled, computer driven missiles.
The US lost the plot in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan and they will do it again in Syria.
As we say ' rasi jal gayee par bal nahin gaya.'

Taliban terror

A moment's silence for author Sushmita Banerjee who was shot dead by the Taliban yesterday in Afghanistan. The enemies of a woman's right to free expression and aspirations are spread all around - the Taliban in Afghanistan, the Geelanis of the world in Kashmir, Mulayam Singh Yadav and his lieutenants for opposing all women related legislation in Parliament, the Khalistanis in the United States and other western countries who threaten women with being branded as 'tankhaiya' (outcast) if they were to marry outside the community.

And finally what about our great brown hope Narendra Modi? Does anyone know where he has dumped his wife?