ISSUES AND CONCERNS

Friends We are into the budget month of the year. However with election due in April, the government in Delhi may not be able to present the customary union budget in Feb. Election fever is heating up with main protagonists Congress and BJP are already with daggers drawn at each other. Last assembly election, if can be considered indicative, then BJP is the clear winner compared to Congress. Of course having the adequate number to rule is a different ball game. According to all prophesies, its going to be BJP as the party with largest number of seats, but still well short of majority. It is true that with their star campaigner Narendra Modi, they are hoping to inch towards a comfortable number. If that happens, there may be more parties joining the winner, although many of these regional parties are still not cosying upto BJP. So it’s a big waiting game. But there could be a dark horse, in the name of AAP. Although they have done spectacularly well in Delhi assembly election, w...

MAHRARASHTRA: There was this news item some weeks ago in the English daily of Mumbai “Old captain, oldest debutant”. They were about guys unsung and hence probably 24x7 electronic media didn’t pick up the news since there was no sensation quotient. A 35 old Wassim Jaffar was captaining the Mumbai Ranji Trophy team. And another, believe it or not, a 42 year old was to make his debut. Was this because, there were no players in Mumbai to be part of the team? No. For Mumbai, there is no dearth of players ‘Q’ ing up. But quite frankly, selectors for Mumbai, ‘realized’ for the first time that there is a guy who really bowls well and a decent bat too. So he becomes an all rounder. Surely this 42 years old debutant must have been around for over 20 years looking for break. But remained ignored for varieties of reasons including lack of god father. Until of course, Rahul Dravid, the captain of Rajasthan Royal, the IPL team, picked him up and played him. And played him over and over again. An...

AN OPEN LETTER TO ANNA HAZARE Respected Annaji Namashkaar. Nayee Baras ki Shubh Kaamnaaye. Greetings of the New Year, although little belated. Hope this finds you in good health and at peace. Must be really relaxed and happy that you have been able to influence, however little, the clearance and passage of Lokpal Bill. That you have decided to go with the government draft is a tribute to your accommodative spirit, which is very essential in the larger public space of governance. That you went by the suggestion and opinion of Justice Santosh Hegde makes it fair enough. After all he too was part of the original Janlokpal andolan. Having parted company with your former deputy and associate Arvind Kejriwal, his divergent stand wouldn’t have really disturbed you. However, you had publicly stated “Those who are not happy with the format can go ahead with their agitation for a better Lokpal Bill”. How much more can happen on this Bill, we may only have to wait and see. But the fact ...

INDIAN IN COWBOY COUNTRY THE INTERVIEW “Focus, Satish, focus,” he said to himself. “Focus on keeping your job and getting your green card. Not on the promotion; that can come later.”  “Mr. Peterson will see you now,” announced Ms. Black from Pete’s door.  “Thank you, Ms. Black,” he said as he went into the room. She shut the door behind him.  Pete’s office was the largest, most imposing one he had ever seen. Satish had heard about its features. It was laden with rich mahogany panels on the walls, a formal library with richly bound volumes, a huge, almost red cherry desk, leather Queen Anne chairs, and a leather sofa in a corner with a matching love seats.  The adjoining room had a huge dark mahogany conference table and white boards on the walls. Pete’s oversized desk faced large windows that overlooked the woods of the campus.  “Good afternoon, Mr. Peterson,” he said as he entered the room.  “Afternoon,” Pete said, without looking up from...

Patient not doing well; certainly intervene. Prof. B. M. Hegde, hegdebm@gmail.com William Osler, one of the great thinkers in modern medicine, had said way back in 1905 that: “when the patient is doing well DO NOT interfere.” This statement of his reverberates in my ears each time I see apparently healthy people being labelled with all kinds of new “doctor-thinks-you-have-a-disease” syndromes only to suffer in the long range of multiple ADRs (Adverse Drug Reactions). The latter, in turn, are then treated with some more drugs! Thus starts the never ending cycle of human misery. I am now observing a new syndrome of people suffering and doctors not doing anything about their suffering as long as the laboratory reports are within the doctors’ accepted norms! I had the misfortune of seeing a good friend of mine who wanted to see me for some time now but could not. My mistake! Let us call him Mr Singh, which is not his real name, anyway. Mr Singh is an important VVIP of this state. He...

No Reservations for standing Mumbai: A reporter was in a packed BEST bus when a woman demanded that a man step aside and let her stand in the space `reserved’ for women. The man did not like her tone but politely replied that only seats and not standing space was reserved. But the woman was in no mood to listen, at which he lost his calm and said, “Kahan likha hai batao? (Show me where it is written)’’ As the argument continued, the conductor was told to be the arbitrator. He ordered both of them to shut up or get off the bus. That was the end of the argument and both of them were quiet during the rest of the journey. Justice 23 yrs after losing job New Delhi: Twenty-three years after a railway employee was dismissed from the job for allegedly taking money in exchange for issuing fitness certificates to colleagues, Supreme Court has set aside the removal of the man, now 75-years-old, saying that the penalty had shocked its conscience. A bench of Justices TS Thakur and Vi...

Educated well off tortured helpless minor domestic Bhayandar: Yet another shocking case of physical abuse of a minor domestic help has come to light in an upscale locality. This time such an incident which exposed the shameful face of humanity has been reported from the posh-Poonam Crown Complex in the Govind Nagar area of Mira Road. Thanks to the intervention of building residents, an 11-year-old girl was rescued from the clutches of her tormentors who are a couple identified as –Sarjil Ahmed Ansari (38) and Farhat (35). The monster couple have been charged with physically torturing the minor girl, whom they had brought from her native place in Budaun village, Uttar Pradesh, a year back under the pretext of educating her. However, the couple held the little girl captive and forced her to do all the household chores and brutally assaulted for trivial reasons. Suffering silently the girl, who has visible bruises and wounds all over her body, had nowhere to go and seek help. Howeve...

Beware there are pavement thieves In a bizarre robbery, thieves posed as workmen cordoning off an area in UK's Kent county and stole pavement slabs weighing more than five tonnes. A 35-year-old man from Chatham, Kent, has been arrested on suspicion of theft and bailed until January 14. The thieves used stolen roadwork signs to cordon off part of the centre of Rochester, Kent, and lifted 7,000 pounds worth of Yorkstone paving slabs. "This appears to be a brazen operation to make it look genuine. It would have taken time and effort to set up and work in this way," Councillor Phil Filmer was quoted as saying by Daily Express. "It could be very difficult for the council to replace the missing slabs with matching Yorkstone as it is difficult to get hold of. I would ask any resident who may have seen what was going on to contact the police as soon as possible," he said. ‘Vandalism’ French style Paris: Some 1,067 vehicles were torched in France over New Year’...

Presidential and Prime Ministerial travels M.V.Kamath How much should the President of India or, for that matter, the Prime Minister of the country, travel during his or her term of office? Once every month? Once every term? And this, at a time, when one can get in touch with anybody just by the touch of a button? But then it may be argued that heads of state or government don’t travel to have a good time but to conduct government business. But then the question may arise: what are Ambassadors for? Or Ministers of External Affairs? Such questions have recently occurred following Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh’s visit to Russia and China. It is asked: what has he gained? What has India gained? In the past President Pratibha Patil came in for loud criticism for spending a whopping Rs 205 crore on her foreign visits, surpassing the record of all her predecessors. Since assuming office as the country’s first woman President, Patil had undertaken 12 foreign trips covering 22 count...