IMHO, for McCain – Its Game Over.

Last updated on: October 8, 2008 at 5:41 am By Desh Kapoor

I saw the Obama-McCain debate tonight. IMHO - Its GAME OVER ... for McCain. Unless something totally untowards happens, McCain is History as far as his Presidential ambitions are concerned. He might as well quit rather than go into attacks that he will regret when he looking back at his life after retirement. Last two week and - if he continues like this - the next two as well, will be the four weeks that he will MOST regret! Another thing, it is becoming pretty clear to me that at a time when Pakistan is unstable and elements of its Army may try to hit at India, and while it intensifies the selling of the Nuclear weapons - winning of Obama is AN IMPERATIVE FOR INDIA! If what is known to many who have had evidence of Pakistani Nukes - the Chinese help, North Korea's help in missiles.. proliferation to Iran and Saudi Arabia... and if what is going on in the minds of the Pakistani establishment* right now is to be perceived, then instability of Pakistan will come at a terrible cost for India! *I was listening to a debate of Indian and Pakistani who's who compered by Geo and NDTV in Dubai and it was interesting as to what General Aslam Beg suggested that he thinks (and he seemed pretty charitable) that after the Iraq War, the foreign fighters will troop right into Kashmir just like it happened after the Afghan War after throwing Soviets out! He SHOULD know! He was one of the Architect of the entire "infrastructure" for terrorism in India and specifically Kashmir. Read more

Financial meltdown takes away a family

Last updated on: October 7, 2008 at 4:14 pm By Desh Kapoor

That the current financial meltdown and mess around the world is pretty bad, but it takes anecdotal examples to really bring home the sorrow and the pain at the individual and family level. In a rather sad turn of events, an Indian-American MBA, Karthik Rajaram, who once made more than $1.2 million in a London based venture fund died in his house in a gated LA community. But he did not die alone. He also killed: - his wife (Subasri) - three sons [Krishna (19), Ganesha (12) and Arjuna (7)] - PS: Krishna was a Fullbright scholar who was visiting home when his father shot him. And even the two younger ones were extremely bright kids! - mother-in-law before he shot himself. He had purchased the gun from a local store on September 16. The reason? The stock market fall recently completely wiped out his savings. All his investments had come to almost nothing! He left three documents: - One letter addressed to Police where he blamed his actions on economic hardships - Second address to his family and friends labeled Personal and COnfidential - third contained his last will and testament. Read more

Tata Nano dumps Communist Bengal for Modi's Gujarat

Last updated on: October 7, 2008 at 3:30 pm By Desh Kapoor

The long drama of Tata Nano may be getting over. Tata Nano will move to Gujarat. Narender Modi and Tata officials have signed the agreement and they were shown exchanging documents. Fortunately for both, the farmers in Gujarat are in more than a welcoming mood for Tata to come to their hinterland. Farmer-turned-industrialist Ravubha Vaghela was a very happy man on Monday after selling his entire 30 acres of land at Khoda and Naranpura villages to Gujarat government. Despite the fact that he had earmarked it for expanding his own company Raviraj Foils Ltd, he gave it off to the State Government at less than half the going price!! Read more

Pak "clarifies" Zardari statement

Last updated on: October 6, 2008 at 10:44 pm By Desh Kapoor

As expected, Pakistan backtracked on the remarks made by Zardari to Wall Street Journal recently. But what I found interesting was the language and words used by the Information & Broadcasting minister Sherry Rehman. "There has been no change in this policy," Rehman said. "The President has never called the legitimate struggle of Kashmiris an expression of terrorism, nor has he downplayed the sufferings of the Kashmiris. All his statements on India should be viewed in the context of Pakistan's current bilateral relations with that country," she added. The government "is firmly committed to extending moral and diplomatic support to the just cause of Kashmiris for their right of self-determination", Rehman said. So the struggle of Kashmiris is NOT an expression of terrorism. But the militants amongst them are terrorists? If one looks at it dispassionately, the militants are either those who were trained by Pakistani agencies or are outsiders who are in Kashmir just for a Jihadi fight. Read more

Assam burns as Bangladeshi Muslim migrants clash with locals

Last updated on: October 6, 2008 at 1:54 am By Desh Kapoor

Bangladeshi illegal immigration into India is a strategic harakiri for India. It has to stop and be nipped at the border. India cannot be anymore infested with people who are coming in with an agenda. An agenda to destabilize India primarily! One of the examples of terrible results of such an infestation is the current mess in Assam. Over 50 people are dead in the clashes between the local Bodos and Bangladeshi Muslims! And not only these two communities have suffered but the Assamese and Bengali Hindus have been equally affected in the cross-fire. In that far flung North East corridor, the access has been affected and almost closed! It is - to put it mildly - a NATIONAL DISASTER staring in our face! A major part of our country is suddenly not accessible. God Forbid if someone wants to attack and annex that area.. the chances of us sending back up and make a fight of it are reduced terribly! Traffic on National Highway 52 - it runs through north Assam and provides access to Arunachal Pradesh - has been totally stopped between Mangaldoi and Dhekiajuli. Read more

Kashmiri militants are terrorists: says Zardari

Last updated on: October 5, 2008 at 11:46 pm By Desh Kapoor

This has got to be a first! From the inception of Pakistan, when in 1948 Army regulars were used with tribals to try and annex Kashmir from Raja Hari Singh, which drove him to come to India, using people from outside Kashmir as a strategy has been the central piece of the "Kashmir policy". India on its side has messed up the rule there trying to bolster the sycophants like Farooq Abdullah etc but it is a fact that Pakistani Army has used terrorism as a strategy. Zia-ul-Haq called it "Strategic Depth". Asif Ali Zardari has, in an interview with Wall Street Journal, finally called the militants in Kashmir as what they are - "Terrorists"! Not only that, he expressly differed from the word that Musharraf has used all the while - "Freedom Fighters". Zardari also did not seem to have any fear of the Indo-US Nuke deal. Read more

Killing Christians would not make Hinduism great!

Last updated on: October 5, 2008 at 2:56 am By Desh Kapoor

While atrocities by VHP and Bajrang Dal continue in Orissa (nun raped . raped and burnt alive), the situation may be coming close to a President's rule in that state. It is unarguable that there is an inherent anger and dissatisfaction at the conversion activities of Christian missionaries in India and the way Popes - specially Pope John Paul II - have behaved when it came to this issue with respect to India and Asia, but somewhere a line has to be drawn! These missionaries use foreign money to open schools and orphanages where none exist. In some cases they change the culture and beliefs while in others they remain fairly secular. I believe it depends which denomination is at work. So, if "revenge" is what VHP and Bajrang Dal wants against these missionaries, then the work is clear cut - open bigger and better orphanages and swankier and more up-to-date and modern schools to sway the population to their side! After all there is a precedent in Arya Samaj movement. Even Swami Dayanand Saraswati realized this issue of conversion and he and his friends emphasized on creating great modern institutions of learning - like DAV schools and colleges. Hansraj College in Delhi - a top Delhi Univ college is an example of that! Killing someone is no answer - however you may disagree with him or her. I think BJP needs to dissociate itself from the agenda of VHP/Bajrang Dal and again re-emphasize and bring out the dream of higher learning through really high quality institutions that Swami Dayanand once dreamt of. If BJP wants to invest in - time and money - let them invest in reviving the dwindling and dilapidated schools and colleges under the DAV management or even start new ones. Read more

Drishtikone launches site for Indian Elections 2009: 7RCR.com

Last updated on: October 4, 2008 at 2:23 pm By Desh Kapoor

7, Race Course Road is the official residence of the Prime Minister of India. It is the address of the Prime Minister's house. The name of PM House is Panchavati. It is often referred to as 7, RCR. Unlike the White House, it does not house the Prime Minister's Office (PMO), which is located at the South Block in New Delhi. Drishtikone.com is launching a new initiative to cover the coming Indian Elections - 7RCR.com - that is short for 7 Race Course Road - (the official residence of the Indian Prime Minister). This site will include information on different parties, candidates, and constituencies as well as blogs on everything related to Indian politics. It also contains political news from premier news sources on Indian politics. Even though a lot of work has gone into it, it is still under construction and more content and features are being added everyday. The goal is to make it the premier site for all the election/politics related information for India. We will need your help and support! If you would like to blog (blogging will be for serious people on this site) [we welcome CROSS-POSTING from your personal blogs], or send pictures or videos that discuss different areas of politics, then please contact me. If you would like to share your thoughts/suggestions/critique please do email me. Criticism and discussing how we can improve will be very welcome as that will help us improve! Lastly, if you think it is something useful, then please do share it with your friends and known. Read more

Sarah Palin and the "Cow" essay

Last updated on: October 3, 2008 at 12:02 am By Desh Kapoor

Since I have been picking on the VP-babe Sarah Palin, lets see how she did when she was questioned on laws of the land - specifically the Supreme Court decision - which is incidently the favorite fodder of the conservatives of the land. I would have expected a very passionate answer from her on that.. blasting the Supreme Court for all the anti-Christian decisions that the court took. But her answer to Katie Couric followed the same trajectory that the other, now famous, answers followed... Asked which decisions, other that Roe, she disagreed with, her responses went as follows: PALIN: Well, let's see. There's --of course --in the great history of America rulings there have been rulings, there's never going to be absolute consensus by every American. And there are -- those issues, again, like Roe v Wade where I believe are best held on a state level and addressed there. So you know -- going through the history of America, there would be others but--" COURIC: Can you think of any? Read more

Gandhi – the non-violent terrorist

Last updated on: October 2, 2008 at 6:12 pm By Desh Kapoor

Today is MK Gandhi's birth anniversary. He was easily a political genius and one of the greatest communicator of his times! In my view, his legacy is mixed and a lot of what he started has ended up messing a lot of Indian value system and society. His methods of non-violent agitation, while worthy of praise at that time, has spawned a culture of compulsive inaction that is accompanied by pride in bringing loss to the economy that feeds one's very family! Gandhi's lack of leadership to stop the most insane act of humanity - the Partition - has put the entire world in unthought peril! He chose Partition over Civil War. And in my view, that was the most crucial mistake in mankind's history. Yes, I am choosing my words with utmost care. Pakistan and the mindset that accompanied those who wanted to create a country based on religion, has created a monster of extremist mind-set that will surely devour itself but it will also hurt the world. The manner in which Pakistan went about getting the Nukes and how the leadership took the strategic decision to replace the lack of revenue from US withdrawal by selling the Nuke technology or Nukes itself to North Korea, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Libya etc will one day result in a war that will be the worst that humanity has seen. Sometimes, it is important to hurt ones own self to pave way for peace. And Gandhi was presented with that option. He chose short term "Peace" and non-violence that accompanied long term mindless and terrorist violence and War over long term peace but short term violence. Read more