Thursday, May 14, 2009
Congress’ infidelity By Kuldip Nayar - Deccan Chronicle
| Congress’ infidelity | |
| By Kuldip Nayar | |
| Friday, May 08, 2009, 12:00 [IST] | |
Backwardness of Muslims is a sad commentary on the Congress which has been in power at the Centre for over 50 years. | |
Political parties in India have proved beyond doubt in this Lok Sabha election that their primary objective has been to attain power. They have adopted the most unbecoming methods to try to increase their number without any sense of guilt. They pushed out issues and replaced them with personal attacks and whatever else suited. The polity has remained fragmented as the idea of India has become more distant. The ruling Congress has been the biggest sinner. It has stopped at nothing to try to be victorious. It has had no compunction in using criminals, communalists and casteists for garnering votes. Money and liquor was no taboo for them. The Congress has seen to it that Ottavio Quattrocchi, an Italian and known to be close to Congress president Sonia Gandhi, is off the list of those who received payoffs for buying Bofors guns from Sweden. The CBI, a department under the prime minister’s office, has withdrawn the “wanted” notice from Interpol. This move has besmirched the face of the Congress. Secular claims The party’s claim to be secular does not wash because it has not implemented even one recommendation of the government-appointed Sachar committee report which pointed out last year that the plight of Muslims was worse than that of Dalits. Indeed, the party brings secularism to the fore only during the polls and forgets it after coming to power. Backwardness of Muslims is a sad commentary on the Congress which has been in power at the Centre and in most states for more than 50 years since independence. Yet the Muslims do not seem to have many options. They cannot vote for the BJP which is out and out Hindu. The community may vote for two or three main regional parties which are said to be emerging as the king makers. The regional parties become important because they would provide the numbers to enable any party or a combination to reach the magic figure of 272. If the Congress and the BJP fail to cross the 300 mark together, the regional parties may bid for power — which means roping in either the Congress or the BJP. Where will UP Chief Minister Mayawati fit in this scheme of things is difficult to say. Muslims constitute 15 per cent of some 700 million voters and can make a difference in at least 200 seats. But its earlier tendency to vote for a winnable candidate against the BJP has got dissipated. There are several secular parties claiming the community’s vote. Mulayam Singh’s Samajwadi Party in UP and Lalu Prasad’s RJD in Bihar have been getting most of the Muslim votes. But of late Muslims seems to be moving towards the Congress which was their first choice till 15 years ago. Sensing this, the party has gone it alone in UP and Bihar even though it has destroyed the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) which gave it a majority. The party has jettisoned Mulayam Singh who helped the Manmohan Singh government survive the vote of confidence some six months ago. Similarly, Lalu Prasad who has stood by the Congress has been told that he may not be included in the cabinet if the Congress returns to power. One thing the party has proved: Infidelity thy name is Congress. Again, it is the Congress which made it difficult for the communists to continue in the UPA. The nuclear treaty with the US was crucial for both — for one, it meant nearly the membership of the nuclear club and, for the other, it indicated New Delhi’s strategic alliance with Washington. The communists have founded the Third Front. But it is tragic that their present strength of 62 may go down to 45 when they need the numbers the most. The communists have shown their anger against the Congress by declaring that they would not mind the BJP coming to power. BJP nurtured its allies In comparison, the BJP has nurtured its allies well. Except Orissa’s Biju Janta Dal which left the National Democratic Alliance on its own, the rest of the constituents have stayed with it. Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is a difficult customer. He can join hands with the Congress if it means tasting power at the Centre. The NDA has added one more ally, the Asom Gana Parishad, which is not large, but it shows how keen the BJP is to have outside support to the maximum possibility since every member will count in what looks like the closest contest since independence. The BJP is conscious that the 80-year old L K Advani does not appeal to the youth since as many as 23 million are such voters. Rahul Gandhi, 38, sells better. But his stock has not yet risen so high that he can be chosen prime minister despite the efforts of his mother. His press conference can spell out the party’s strategy but not bring votes. If the Congress wins, Manmohan Singh would be the prime minister and could withdraw in favour of Rahul Gandhi later. Yet the main challenge which Indian political parties will face after elections is how to accommodate the nation’s diversities in the political structure. Problems have been left unsolved for years. The National Integration Council cannot bring about emotional unity. The issue continues to be how to string together the local and regional forces for the central idea of India. A federal structure can only tie up loose threads. New Delhi has to decentralise power and cannot stay smug or suppress aspirations that different regions represent. It has to make them feel that their entity means a lot. | |
Labels: Congress's infidelity, Indian Muslims, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Sonia Gandhi
Thursday, May 07, 2009
INDIA SHOULD STAY AWAY FROM US/PAK’S TALIBAN TRAP - By Ghulam Muhammed
It is no secret that Taliban is the creation of the
Ghulam Muhammed, Mumbai
www.ghulammuhammed.wordpress.com
Labels: Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai, India, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Pakistan, Pakistani President Zardari, Senator John Kerry, Senator Richard Lugar, Taliban, US-Pak AFPAK war on Taliban
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
DON'T LET SIMI GO by Ghulam Muhammed
Thursday, August 21, 2008
DON'T LET SIMI GO
According to a front page report in Mumbai's Inquilab Urdu daily, there is a definite connection between the Supreme Court case hearing and UPA Government's counter affidavit against SIMI's exoneration by the Unlawful Activities tribunal. People were bewildered less by the sweep of the arrests of so-called SIMI activists on the suspicions of being involved in the recent Ahmedabad and Surat explosions, but more by the timing of the depth and sweep of media coverage of the mass arrests, giving out so many details on each and every person supposedly involved in the crime. Pages on pages in The Times of India were blackened on the details written out by their own staff. The whole media preparation that has gone into the project is mind-boggling.
As in the case of the now infamous Arushi murder case, the jugalbandi between Police authorities, this time of various states remarkably cooperating with each other for the 'national cause' of demonizing Muslims and the very obliging media lapping up the extensive material supplied by the investigating agencies. None of the media editors bothered to check if the media sentencing of innocents and character assassination of whole community on the basis of a few ‘usual suspects’ arbitrarily picked up by police with big hoopla, without any proof and without any authority to denigrate them, is entirely legal. In fact, in strict judicial terms, with such an organised adverse publicity by the media, the whole case against SIMI in court can be thrown out as mistrial.
The time has come when trial by media should stop.
The other strange fact is that with so much information with the investigating agencies on the supposed culprits, how the alleged criminals were able, or allowed to go through with their nefarious plans, if any.
Now, the cat is out of the bag.
A strong feeling among the dissenting people, whose majorities are getting greater and greater by the hour, is that UPA government, under pressure from their own internal extremist Muslim-haters and for consolidation of their own Hindu Vote Bank, have organised this farce of a grand drama of using summary arrests of so-called SIMI terrorist, so that their case with the Supreme Court, could be successfully processed.
The simpletons are under the impression that the august Supreme Court will be as gullible as the Media, to accept all summary charges made by the investigating agencies and stay the lifting of the ban of SIMI as a student organisation working within Muslim community.
If Supreme Court has the recent Arushi case under observation, where both police and media had gone on a frenzy of spreading concocted stories about the whole murder scenarios, the recent hoopla organised through the medium of pliant media by the UPA government, will fall on its face.
The most glaring aspect of the whole UPA imbroglio is that their own coalition partners, all non-Brahmins, like Lalu Yadav, Mulayam Singh Yadav, and Ram Vilas Paswan are openly questioning the unjustified arrests and demonisation of SIMI. The stark division between Brahmins and non-Brahmins in the political circles over the subject has never been so public.
It is time Prime Minister should gather courage and stand by the truth.
You can fool some of the people some of the time. Not all of the people all of the time.
Ghulam Muhammed, Mumbai
ghulammuhammed3@gmail.com
www.ghulammuhammed.wordpress.com
Labels: India's English press, India's Supreme Court, Indian Muslims, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, SIMI
Monday, July 14, 2008
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
IS PRIME MINISTER MANMOHAN SINGH AMERICA’S ECONOMIC HIT MAN IN INDIA?
In the run up to a confidence vote on the survival of UPA coalition government in India, the whole record of Prime Minister’s a decade old performance seem to be reaching a point of climax, when he gets to sign the final deal of civilian nuclear deal with the US administration, headed by the lame duck US President, George W. Bush.
At this stage, it will be proper, nay incumbent on all who care for India, its freedom, integrity, its future prosperity, be they the politicians, media people or common well-wisher to read and absorb, the contents of the New York Times bestseller book: Confessions of an economic hit man, written by John Perkins and published in 2004. It is not a fiction novel. In fact, it is the true story of a flesh and blood individual who had a live conscience to expose the most heinous criminal policies widely practiced by his own country, the USA.
Like our Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, John Perkins, too was an economic expert, though the career and mission of both seem to be overlapping, at least at first look. The standard pattern of US strategies to control and exploit victimized nation, may differ from country to country and given different parameters of American interest involved.
But the fact that India is a target nation and with due respect to our Prime Minister’s commitment to his nation and its people and the future of the whole subcontinent, he is probably unaware that he is a prime candidate for the epitaph of an American Hit Man in India, once the role of assessing his career goes to the current or future historians.
An account in WIKIPEDIA writes:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confessions_of_an_Economic_Hit_Man
Confessions of an Economic Hit Man
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Confessions of an Economic Hit Man (ISBN 0-452-28708-1) is a book written by John Perkins and published in 2004. It tells the story of his career with consulting firm Chas. T. Main. Before employment with the firm, he interviewed for a job with the National Security Agency (NSA). Perkins claims that this interview effectively constituted an independent screening which led to his subsequent hiring by Einar Greve, a member of the firm (and alleged NSA liaison) to become a self-described "Economic Hit Man."
According to his book, Perkins' function was to convince the political and financial leadership of underdeveloped countries to accept enormous development loans from institutions like the World Bank and USAID. Saddled with huge debts they could not hope to pay, these countries were forced to acquiesce to political pressure from the United States on a variety of issues. Perkins argues in his book that developing nations were effectively neutralized politically, had their wealth gaps driven wider and economies crippled in the long run. In this capacity Perkins recounts his meetings with some prominent individuals, including Graham Greene and Omar Torrijos. Perkins describes the role of an EHM as follows:
Economic hit men (EHMs) are highly paid professionals who cheat countries around the globe out of trillions of dollars. They funnel money from the World Bank, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and other foreign "aid" organizations into the coffers of huge corporations and the pockets of a few wealthy families who control the planet's natural resources. Their tools included fraudulent financial reports, rigged elections, payoffs, extortion, sex, and murder. They play a game as old as empire, but one that has taken on new and terrifying dimensions during this time of globalization.
The epilogue to the 2006 edition provides a rebuttal to the current move by the G8 nations to forgive Third World debt. Perkins charges that the proposed conditions for this debt forgiveness require countries to sell their health, education, electric, water and other public services to corporations. Those countries would also have to discontinue subsidies and trade restrictions that support local business, but accept the continued subsidization of certain G8 businesses by the US and other G8 countries, and the erection of trade barriers on imports that threaten G8 industries.
Controversy and criticism
Perkins's first boss at Chas. T. Main, Einar Greve, initially declared to journalists that "basically [Perkins's] story is true" and that "what John's book says is, there was a conspiracy to put all these countries on the hook, and that happened." [1] Subsequently, he denied Perkins's allegation that he ever worked as a liaison with the NSA and contradicted other claims made in Perkins's book, stating that Perkins "has convinced himself that a lot of this stuff is true."[1] Perkins comments on Greve's change of heart in the "Epilogue" of "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man." He points out that Greve initially supported the truth of the book, only to switch his opinion several months later. Perkins suggests that Greve was pressured by outside forces to denounce the book as false.
Some of the book's critics have questioned whether Perkins makes a significant contribution to the debate on global finance and the development of the Third World. For instance, columnist Mark Engler of In These Times, has written that "the actual content of Perkins' admissions proves distressingly thin."[2] According to the New York Times, "the book's popularity seems driven more by the mix of cloak-and-dagger atmospherics and Mr. Perkins's Damascene conversion" than by insight into "the larger issue of America's role in emerging economies."[3]
Columnist Sebastian Mallaby of the Washington Post reacted sharply to Perkins' book [4]: "This man is a frothing conspiracy theorist, a vainglorious peddler of nonsense, and yet his book, Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, is a runaway bestseller." Mallaby, who spent 13 years writing for the London Economist and wrote a critically well-received biography of World Bank chief James Wolfensohn,[2] holds that Perkins' conception of international finance is "largely a dream" and that his "basic contentions are flat wrong."[4] For instance he points out that Indonesia reduced its infant mortality and illiteracy rates by two-thirds after economists persuaded its leaders to borrow money in 1970. He also disputes Perkins' claim that 51 of the top 100 world economies belong to companies. A value-added comparison done by the UN, he says, shows the number to be 29.
Other sources, including articles in the New York Times and Boston Magazine, as well as a press release issued by the United States Department of State, have referred to a lack of documentary or testimonial evidence to corroborate the claim that the NSA was involved in his hiring to Chas T. Main. In addition, the author of the State Department release states that the NSA "is a cryptological (codemaking and codebreaking) organization, not an economic organization" and that its missions do not involve "anything remotely resembling placing economists at private companies in order to increase the debt of foreign countries."[5]
Critics, including Sebastian Mallaby and the State Department, have also referred to public remarks Perkins has made, as well as previously published books. His published works include books about South American tribal culture that deal with shamanistic techniques for creating self-empowerment, techniques to enhance health and longevity, as well as first hand accounts of metaphysical "travelling" through visions & dream wanderings.[3] Mark Engler questions Perkins's "New Age leanings," and accuses him of "delving into a type of essentialism that, thankfully, has been long banished from university anthropology departments."
The State Department release refers to a presentation at a bookstore, where Perkins allegedly asserted that the US Government was involved in the assassinations of John and Robert F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr., John Lennon and several US senators who died in plane crashes, and expressed concern regarding alleged inconsistencies in the US investigation of the events surrounding the September 11 attacks of 2001. The State Department release therefore identifies Perkins as a conspiracy theorist. In the book, however, Perkins repeatedly emphasizes that the dynamics he describes are systemic and specifically not the result of conspiracy:
"Although unconscious, deceived, and—in many cases—self-deluded, these players were not members of any clandestine conspiracy; rather, they were the product of a system that promotes the most subtle and effective form of imperialism the world has ever witnessed."
[edit] References
1. ^ Tkacik, Maureen, "The True Confessions of an Economic Hit Man," Boston Magazine, July 2005.
2. ^ Engler, Mark, "Failures of a Hit Man," In These Times, April 18, 2005.
3. ^ Confessing to the Converted, by Thomas Jr., Landon, New York Times, Sec. 3, Col, 1, p. 1, 2006-02-19.
4. ^ a b The Facts Behind the 'Confessions' by Sebastian Mallaby, Washington Post Op-Ed, 2006-02-26
5. ^ Confessions – or Fantasies – of an Economic Hit Man?, US Department of State, 2006-05-10
[edit] Additional reading
• New Confessions and Revelations from the World of Economic Hit Men, John Perkins, 2007-03-15.
• John Perkins talks about his book with NOW's David Brancaccio (video), 2005-03-04.
• Confessions of an Economic Hit Man: How the U.S. Uses Globalization to Cheat Poor Countries Out of Trillions, Interview with Amy Goodman, Democracy Now!, 2004-11-09.
• In hock to Uncle Sam, The Guardian, Nick Lezard, 2006-02-10.
• Recipe for empire, New Statesman, March 6, 2006, Paul Kingsnorth
• The sinister side of U.S. biz; Confessions of an Economic Hit Man by John Perkins, The Capital Times (Madison, Wisconsin), July 29, 2005, By Judie Kleinmaier
• Incapable catharsis, The Weekend Australian, February 18, 2006, Matthew Bright
• Hit and Miss; There are good reasons "the mainstream media" has ignored John Perkins' Confessions of an Economic Hit Man., East Bay Express (California), February 1, 2006.
• Undermining poor nations in the name of profit, The Boston Globe, February 08, 2006, by Michael Langan
• A miss not a hit, Sunday Times (London), March 5, 2006, David Charters
• Confessions--or Fantasies-- of an Economic Hitman, US Department of State
• Conscience, confession from an agent of greed, The Seattle Times, January 22, 2006, Steve Weinberg
• A hit man repents, The Guardian, 2006-01-28.
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confessions_of_an_Economic_Hit_Man"
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The game plan for the Economic Hit Man, is clear. He/She has to work for the US with an agenda, which can never be a win-win situation for both, the US and the victim country; in our case: India. India has to lose for the US to win. The whole façade of helping out India has to be looked into seriously by neutral observers in India, who do not hold brief for special interests.
The time is of essence and now that the signing of the strategic partnership agreement with the US has become the benchmark for the very survival of the ruling coalition government, the priority of saving of the government has become an automatic approval of the controversial deal with the US.
Such railroading of complicated issues must be stopped and politicians who are now more concerned about the sharing of power, should be made aware of the sinister nature of US economic hegemony over India, as a client state. And this is nothing to do with ideology, religion, region, ethnicity, caste and class. If the nation suffers, everybody suffers.
Ghulam Muhammed, Mumbai
ghulammuhammed3@gmail.com
www.ghulammuhammed.wordpress.com
Labels: Economic Hit Man, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Indo-US civilian nuclear deal, Indo-US strategic partnership agreement
