Deal or no deal… WB stands to lose anyways

Last updated on: September 9, 2008 at 4:19 am By Desh Kapoor

So Tata is definitely going out of bengal owing to the Singrur episode. Even the "peace deal" is not swaying Ratan Tata - because "it lacks in clarity". Mamata Bannerjee and Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee ostensibly never heard of "Risk Management". Currently it is not important that "a" deal is done and what it says - but what it does NOT say! And to overlook that gap is taking too much of a risk given how the Bengali leaders have behaved in the recent past. Close on its heels, even the IT giant Infosys has raised red flags (pun intended) over the investment climate in WB and decided to do a serious rethink of its maiden investment plan in the state given the unfriendly industrial and political climate. Infosys had planned to invest Rs 250 crore and set up a development centre on the outskirts of Kolkata and provide employment to around 5,000 people. The recent events in Singur have shown that the government is unable to implement its policies; any acquisition of land has the potential of facing protests, Pai said. Interesting! What seems to have irked the Infosys Director HR is that "non-enforcement of the High Court Order". For the politicians that may be a sign of "victory" but then their states may get to lose terribly! For that adds to the risk of the state. And now, for their information, Indian companies are no longer competing the Lala shop down the road.. but with the world giants! So, a Kolkatta site is evaluated against a site in, say, Kuala Lumpur. No guesses on who loses! Read more

Is Pakistan Prez Zardari mentally ill?

Last updated on: September 7, 2008 at 1:36 pm By Desh Kapoor

News has come out (leaked by PML-N of Nawaz Sharif) that the new Pakistani President has a history of mental illness. It is probably because he has spent 11 of his last 20 years in Pakistani prisons - where he may have been tortured. Doctors had diagnosed him with illness as late as last year, according to the disclosed medical reports. The problems included dementia, depression and post traumatic stress. Lawyers for Zardari argued in London's high court that he was too ill to testify in corruption-related cases, and they submitted recent mental-health evaluations as evidence. In March 2007, the Financial Times reported, New York psychologist Stephen Reich concluded that Zardari was "chronically anxious and apprehensive" and had thoughts of suicide, though he had not acted on them. The newspaper wrote that a New York psychiatrist, Philip Saltiel, found that Zardari's long imprisonment in Pakistan while facing corruption probes had left him with "emotional instability" as well as memory and concentration problems. Dr. Reich declined to comment; Dr. Saltiel could not be reached. This has raised concerns in the US since the President would have his hand on the button of Nuclear Arsenal. Read more

Happy Ganesh Chaturthi

Last updated on: September 6, 2008 at 7:20 pm By Desh Kapoor

McCain's double standards on Family values and treatment of minors

Last updated on: September 6, 2008 at 6:37 pm By Desh Kapoor

Today John McCain is so shocked at the way the media is talking about Sarah Palin's daughter and asking everyone in media to keep off limits. But does this guy ever follow his own "rules"?? In 1998, he went on to make such a derogatory and bad remark on Chelsea Clinton, that the media had to keep it out of the news papers. And at that time, she was a minor and McCain did not want to show her the same courtesy! And the fact was it wasn't even her doing or something that her parents had done! He used remarkably tasteless humor to get to her! The joke did appear in McCain's hometown paper, the Arizona Republic, and the Associated Press did report the joke in full, so everyone in the press had access to McCain's words. But by censoring themselves, the Post, the Times and others helped McCain deflect flak and preserved his status as a Republican presidential contender. Read more

India's Nuclear Journey

Last updated on: September 6, 2008 at 5:03 pm By Desh Kapoor

Here is the chronology of India's Nuclear journey: 1968: India refuses to sign the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) on the grounds that it is discriminatory. May 18, 1974: India conducts its first nuclear test. March 10, 1978: US President Jimmy Carter signs the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Act, following which US ceases exporting nuclear assistance to India. May 11-13, 1998: India tests five underground nuclear tests. July 18, 2005: US President George W Bush and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh first announce their intention to enter into a nuclear agreement in Washington. March 1, 2006: Bush visits India for the first time. March 3, 2006: Bush and Singh issue a joint statement on their growing strategic partnership, emphasising their agreement on civil nuclear cooperation. July 26, 2006: The US House of Representatives passes the 'Henry J Hyde United States-India Peaceful Atomic Energy Cooperation Act of 2006,' which stipulates that Washington will cooperate with New Delhi on nuclear issues and exempt it from signing the Nonproliferation Treaty. Read more

Pakistan, Taliban and the US and takeover of Islamabad

Last updated on: September 6, 2008 at 3:45 pm By Desh Kapoor

Pakistan's FATA region - the tribal belt between Afghanistan and Pakistan may be a zone that could threaten the very integrity of the country! This region, according to a report in New York Times, is under total control of Taliban now. On both sides of the formal border, the support for Talibs is very high and they have run into cross-hairs of US as well. Many American and Pakistani investigators now believe that it was Baitullah Mehsud - the strongest Taliban leader in FATA region who sent assassins to take care of Benazir Bhutto. The report in NY Times describes a battle that brings out the complexities of the fight and US-Pak relations in this region: Late in the afternoon of June 10, during a firefight with Taliban militants along the Afghan-Pakistani border, American soldiers called in airstrikes to beat back the attack. The firefight was taking place right on the border itself, known in military jargon as the “zero line.” Afghanistan was on one side, and the remote Pakistani region known as the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, or FATA, was on the other. The stretch of border was guarded by three Pakistani military posts. The American bombers did the job, and then some. By the time the fighting ended, the Taliban militants had slipped away, the American unit was safe and 11 Pakistani border guards lay dead. The airstrikes on the Pakistani positions sparked a diplomatic row between the two allies: Pakistan called the incident “unprovoked and cowardly”; American officials regretted what they called a tragic mistake. The question arose as to why did the Americans need to target the Pakistani guards? The reporter went to the region along with a local reporter and found out the reasons while talking to the locals who discussed on condition of anonymity. The mystery, at least part of it, was solved in July by four residents of Suran Dara, a Pakistani village a few hundred yards from the site of the fight. According to two of these villagers, whom I interviewed together with a local reporter, the Americans started calling in airstrikes on the Pakistanis after the latter started shooting at the Americans. “When the Americans started bombing the Taliban, the Frontier Corps started shooting at the Americans,” we were told by one of Suran Dara’s villagers, who, like the others, spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of being persecuted or killed by the Pakistani government or the Taliban. “They were trying to help the Taliban. And then the American planes bombed the Pakistani post.” Read more

India gets the NSG waiver as it joins the Nuclear club

Last updated on: September 6, 2008 at 3:11 pm By Desh Kapoor

Finally, after intense negotiations from US and India and despite India's point blank refusal to consider any strings to be attached regarding the ban on any future nuclear tests, the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) gave a complete and clean waiver to India. The unprecedented decision of the 45-nation nuclear cartel giving exemption to a country which has not signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) is a landmark step in the implementation of the Indo-US nuclear deal that will now go to the US Congress for approval. The discussions went on to third day - a day more than scheduled - as the US team took the negative members in separate rooms to discuss the importance of this deal. Indian External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee’s statement reiterating voluntary moratorium on nuclear testing, which India made even after the Nuclear tests helped clinch the deal. The deal now has to be passed by the US Congress. The State Department has been sending out contradictory signals in an attempt to bomb this deal, but hopefully the NSG waiver would help the US Congress go ahead with the affirmative reply as well. Read more

Pak uses US aid to prepare for war against India, says Obama

Last updated on: September 5, 2008 at 10:29 pm By Desh Kapoor

Obama has said something that people in the Bush administration were saying in hushed voice, if at all. And something that India has been saying for ages! That Pakistan has been using the aid provided to it to prepare for war against India. They used it in 1965 and 1971 and got punished, and they used stringer missiles in Kargil - by providing those missiles to the "jehadis" and now they are ostensibly using the aid worth billions to prepare for another war... while the country itself falls apart. "We are providing them military aid without having enough strings attached. So they're using the military aid that we use - they're not, to Pakistan, they're preparing for a war against India," Obama told O'Reilly, the conservative TV host. Obama has suggested that his administration may go into Pakistani territory to target the extremists. Obama has lived in Pakistan during Zia ul Haq's times with his mother. He was pretty firm while replying to O'Reilly... O'Reilly: "So you're going to pull it out and let the Islamic fundamentalists take them over?" Obama: "No, no, no, no. What we say is, look, we're going to provide them with additional military support, targeted at terrorists, and we're going to help build their democracy and provide ..." O'Reilly: "He's doing that now. Funds over there, and he's doing that." Read more

Childhood love…

Last updated on: September 5, 2008 at 5:29 am By Desh Kapoor

I was at a doctor's office today. A very old couple came trudging along. The wife looked exceptionally old - and was fragile. I got my check up done and was waiting for another round when they came and sat next to me. A lady was sitting in front of us with her mother. The couple and that lady started talking. During the converstaion, the lady abruptly asked "like how long have you been married?" with the expectation that they had been married for so many years... and were still together. "10 years", the old lady said. "Oh.. " the lady gulped. "My husband had died after a 36 year old marriage and his wife had also died". "So, how long had you known each other?" asked the lady in front of us. Read more

Jon Stewart on Sarah Palin

Last updated on: September 5, 2008 at 12:59 am By Desh Kapoor

Here is an interesting video on how Sarah Palin's "executive experience" is being touted around by the Republicans. She was a mayor of a town of 9000 people. And THAT also, it seems, gave her enough foreign policy experience! As many Americans will soon find out, that world has changed! As much as the US would have liked to have the Oil producing countries in its nest, it has virtually lost each one of them to either Russia or China! Iran? Nigeria? Venezuela? Russia themselves? The situation that the new government will face is going to be truly unique.. something that no US President would have ever faced. I wonder if managing the affairs of 9000 people qualifies as an adequate enough grooming for that? Read more