And today they have converted the ‘Bandh’ to ‘Strike’ in view of the Supreme Court’s observation of why not implement President’s rule in TN?

And there in Karnataka, I guess people themselves will go on a Bandh in few days considering all the confusion in the coalition.

Sometimes, the pitfalls of a Democratic system become showstoppers. I guess we need some infusion of youngsters into our political system. Though the process has started I guess even we, the common people, need to get our brains in one place and infuse sensibility into our system.

During his road widening spree, there was one thing that he religiously followed. He would go around demolishing everything in the way of his proposed wide road except places of religious worship. It could be a temple, mosque, church or a gurudwara, he would just leave alone that area of the road that’s covered by the structure and convert it into a roundabout. He did that to respect the beliefs and sentiments of the religions involved. He did not want to arouse riots in the city because of relocating a structure of religous belief. He never thought about demolishing any of them.

I only wonder why our central Government cannot have an ounce of sense while deciding to go ahead in demolishing the Rama Sethu (Adam’s Bridge)! It is connected too deeply to the sentiments of the Hindu religion. It is considered to be the bridge built by the vanarasena for Rama to cross over the sea to Lanka to bring back his kidnapped wife Sita.

Now questions like: Whether the bridge was really built by man or not? (Technically, the question should be ‘whether the bridge was really built by monkeys or not?’) OR Whether Rama existed or not? OR any other such inane question is irrelevant. Rama is a Hindu God and he needs to be respected for it. If there is something in this world that can be connected to people’s faith about Rama then it needs to be respected. You cannot go and demolish it straightaway. Apart from the sentiments, faith and belief of the Hindus, you also need to consider various other points.

In my opinion, the Government would be committing political harakiri by going ahead with the demolition. Even the US wants to preserve the Rama Sethu. [Link] And TN CM Karunanidhi (He leads a party called DMK that’s a part of the coalition government at the centre) isn’t quite helping matters by releasing statements like these. “Who’s Ram?”, he asks. Hey Ram!

Torching the office of media killing 3 innocent people.

M. K. Azhagiri had a problem with Dinakaran‘s survey. In fact the survey was done with the help of AC Nielsen, a professional organization. If he was shown as having less than 1% chance of becoming the next DMK chief then that was the truth. And it was not as if the newspaper portrayed Dayanidhi Maran as the next chief, they still said 70% felt M. K. Stalin – Karunanidhi’s youngest son was the most able successor. If Azhagiri torches the office of the newspaper that just says the truth aloud then he should be torching M. K. Stalin in fact.

This incident has obviously exposed the rift between the Maran family (owners of the SUN Network) and the Karunanidhi family, but what could possibly be concluded on keener examination is a rift between the sons of Karunanidhi – Stalin and Azhagiri. At this stage of DMK, the last stint of Karunanidhi as CM, time is ripe for him to announce a successor and lead him into the next elections. With this survey maybe Dayanidhi Maran wanted to suggest to Karunanidhi that he is also interested in some important party post once he is gone. (It is kind of foolish to imagine that Maran would want to drop hints to Karunanidhi!) Anyway, looks like the move has backfired. Not only will he lose his ministerial berth to Raaja, he is also probably going to be left out of DMK in the future.

In the middle of all this brouhaha, nobody is bothered about what happens to the industry in Dayanidhi Maran’s absence. Not that there are no more talented persons to handle the ministry but then the post is apparently reserved for DMK! What is the PM doing? I thought he was the one who bothered about development and all that we identify him with, but alas, looks like politics ties everyone up.

We have many problems now to solve. Who will be an able replacement for Maran as the minister? Who will head DMK once Karunanidhi finishes with his reign? What is finally going to happen to the dynamic Maran? I like him.

Government declares Bandh public holiday 

CHENNAI: The Government has declared March 31 a public holiday under the Negotiable Instruments Act for all State Government offices, public undertakings including the State Transport Corporations and industrial establishments.

Buses and trains will not run from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. All buses departing on March 30 will be terminated at 5 a.m. on March 31 at convenient destinations. After the bandh hours, transport corporations will operate special buses.

“Airlines and Railways have been advised to reschedule their services on March 31 so that there is no movement between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. anywhere in the State,” a State government release said. The Railways said some trains were being cancelled while some long distance trains would be regulated at stations. Passengers thronged Chennai Central and Egmore stations and the Koyambedu bus terminus in a bid to reach their destinations.

While Indian announced cancellation of its flights, most international airlines would operate as scheduled. Passengers had been intimated about the bandh, spokesperson of an international airline said.

Essential services such as telephones and telecommunication, water supply, milk distribution, power supply, fire services, newspapers, hospitals, treasuries and scheduled banks have been exempted. Liquor shops, cinema halls and explosive godowns will remain closed.

The Madras High Court declined to interfere with the bandh call and held that it was premature to file a public interest litigation petitions seeking to declare the bandh illegal.

Initially, DMK called for a Bandh. Then they realised that they were actually in power and could do something more. So they called for a public holiday! This is ridiculously hillarious! A Government to me is a mechanism to run the state properly. Now this mechanism decides to stop the state for a day! Somebody stop this comical nonsense please.

A transformed Manmohan
Harish Khare

Controlled aggression, a game plan and application of technique At the outset he positioned himself in the Mahatma corner, quoting Gandhi’s abiding injunction to wipe every tear from every eye, and declared himself a legatee of the Jawaharlal Nehru vision

NEW DELHI: Manmohan Singh has been Member of Parliament since 1991 but he had never been applauded as an exciting parliamentarian. And perhaps never before did he display as emotionally combative a streak as he did on Thursday in the Rajya Sabha in the debate on the controversial nuclear deal.

Before dealing with the doubts and questions about the India-United
States Civilian Nuclear Agreement, the Prime Minister almost stumped the House with a kind of personal testimonial. Rather than conforming to his reputation as a shy and reticent person, and as a humdrum speaker, the Prime Minister spoke as a man who felt that his reputation and pride were being questioned.

It was a Virender Sehwag kind of performance — controlled aggression, a game plan and an application of sound technique. At the outset, he positioned himself in the Mahatma corner, quoting Gandhi’s abiding injunction to wipe every tear from every eye, and declared himself a legatee of the Jawaharlal Nehru vision.

To those who questioned his professional competence to deal with so
complicated an issue as the nuclear world, he asserted, “I have some experience” of dealing with economics and technology of nuclear business. He reminded the House that as member (finance) of the Atomic Energy Commission he has had worked with the distinguished nuclear professionals like H.N. Sethna and P.K. Iyengar.

And then, a bit of working philosophy. Status quo is always comfortable, but the challenge lies in breaking out of familiar terrain, and to cope
imaginatively and confidently with “uncertainty.” He talked of all the names and epithets that were hurled in his direction when he induced the post-1991 paradigm shift in the economy. He was no stranger to the name-calling game; he seemed to be telling his critics but told the House that he felt he stood vindicated by history of last 15 years.

Recalls TTK’s observation
Dr. Singh recalled the insightful observation of T.T. Krishnamachari of “tigers on the prowl” in New Delhi and added, somewhat challengingly, that he had nothing to fear from the new tigers, scenting blood.

In an unusual personal touch, the Prime Minister reminded everyone that he was born in a poor family and had the blood of freedom fighters in his veins. He conceded that while he was a latecomer to the world of politics, he belonged to a party that had a proud heritage of having brought freedom to the country.

As the Congress benches repeatedly applauded him, Dr. Singh promised that he would do his best to promote and protect “the vital interests of the country.” In an unusually emotional pitch, Dr. Singh told the parliamentarians that he was in the “service of India” and was committed to “the last ounce of my blood” to work for freeing millions of Indians who suffer “day in and day out.”

Unexpected
This sentimental preface was totally unexpected. It galvanised the Congress benches who were till that moment somewhat sceptical of the Prime Minister’s parliamentary skills to respond to the critics’ daylong assault.

In a way, Dr. Singh won the day even before he came down to the specifics of the nuclear deal. At the end of his 70-minute performance, the Congress MPs were left wondering the transformation that overtook the Prime Minister.

The PM played all the cards he had in this speech. He started off by thanking all the members for raising queries so that the issues would come up for debate and get clarified too. He elaborated on the types of queries and answered them brilliantly. To read meaningful exceprts of the speech please click here. What stood out for me are the following statements:

• I did not seek Prime Ministership, it came to me and I have carried out my duties faithfully and will continue to do so. Infact, if you ask me, choosing Dr. Manmohan Singh for PM was the most sensible decision made by Sonia Gandhi. And after this speech, my opinion only got strengthened.
• I am the son of a Freedom Fighter who left his job to fight for the independence of this country. So, there is the blood of a freedom fighter that runs in me. I got those goosebumps on hearing those words. Even the PM choked on saying these words and paused to have a glass of water.
• I made it clear to Mr. Bush that the intervention in Iraq was a mistake. This statement told me that Dr. Singh is not a weak and spineless man. He has it in him to speak on behalf of the country whatever be his political pressures.
• When I introduced reforms during 1972-73, I was labeled a pawn in the hands of the US. Looking back, I wonder how India would have handled the Great Asian crisis . He was now taking the entire issue on his head. His capabilities are well known and from here on the entire house just listened. They were sold already.
• I was the Finance Secretary for the Atomic Energy Commission and I know what are the costs involved in the deals that we are involved in. He understands the domain of Nuclear Energy.
• There are risks involved in such deals. And I am willing to take such risks for the sake of the development of the country. He knew what he was doing.
• I will serve the country to the last ounce of my blood and nobody can take that right away from me. I didn’t care about the speech anymore. I was deeply impressed by this man who is leading my country.

I am sold to the Nuclear Deal!

You can watch the video of the speech here.

And if you want to know more about our PM. Click here.

So, now you can expect Colour TV’s and Set-Top-Boxes into the houses of people in Tamil Nadu. With DMK taking over, rowdyism is expected to grow. But not at the cost of development I hope.

Media is slowly deteriorating to its worst-ever. Jaya TV (AIADMK’s mouthpiece, obvious from the name right?)continued to give wrong reports of the election even when it was established that AIADMK had lost it! Sun TV was going gaga over its victory; what with its owner’s brother Mr. Dayanidhi Maran occupying the space below the left-arm of 82-year old Mr. M. Karunanidhi – who becomes the chief minister for the fifth time. The CNN-IBN and The Hindu were quite satisfied with the fact that their exit poll was proved correct. Probably for the first time ever some opinion poll was proved correct on TN elections!

Sreenivasan Jain of NDTV, characteristically was pulling the mikes away from the speakers halfway at his post-elections show on TN. And his act of being spontaneous generally backfires. There are so many “aaa..”s and “mmm…”s in his speech that you will go to sleep. And he never does his homework for any programme. Sports a beard similar to Prannoy Roy and thinks he is better than Prannoy Roy! Something like Sehwag thinking he is Tendulkar!

SunTV, well, I don’t know when these fellows will improve their presentation. The winners list was displayed like it was an invitation for a funeral! Blue background (that Doordarshan blue) with white font. And it was being read out by the newsreader. You can’t get worse than this!