LIVING WITHOUT LIGHTS!

By Manuwant Choudhary

When the world switched off its lights yesterday to mark the earth day to show concern over carbon emissions I was hoping they would send some electricity to my village in Bihar.

I waited for an hour but none came.

I've waited for a year, for five years and even ten.

My parents have waited for 50 years and when my father passed away he saw no hope he would ever see Bihar with 24 hour electric supply.

He even gave some land to the Bihar Electricity Department to build a power station in the hope that electricity would come.

My mother still talks about electricity.

Perhaps, people talk because in the villages life is slow and one runs out of talking points and so lets say something about the electricity that has eluded us.

So I am not green..the Bihar government is, denying electricity to all of Bihar.

I do not care much for Chinese products but this smuggled LED rechargeable light really works and lights up a room for four hours easily and costs only Rs.150.

WHY INDIANS SHOULD NOT VOTE THIS ELECTION?

courtesy: liberalstreetfighter.com

Sacrificing Our Children At The Altar of Our State

By Sauvik Chakraverti

As elections near, our Reichwing Press is going ballistic urging people, especially young people, to vote.

Vote for whom? All our “political parties” are quasi-criminal gangs. They have no principles; they have no real ideology. They are all corrupt to the core. Their leaders are all “pragmatists.” Why should our idealistic youth be encouraged to vote? Why not encourage them to boycott elections? Wouldn’t that teach the old fuddy-duddies like Chacha Manmohan and Advani a good lesson?

However, what really got my goat was an ad on UndieTV last night, which featured parents promising to vote with their hands placed on their children’s heads. “I swear on the head of my child that I will vote,” they all said.

What kind of bullshit is this?

We are being encouraged to sacrifice our children at the altar of our The State?

Just as Abraham was asked to sacrifice his son, Isaac.

God was testing Abraham's obedience.

Is our Obedience being tested by our The State?

Abraham obeyed God. These parents are obeying the Reichwing Press!

Leonard Cohen, the great Canadian poet and songwriter, composed “The Story of Isaac” to warn against those who will sacrifice one generation for another. Here are the lyrics. Very powerful indeed, so read them carefully.

The door it opened slowly,
My father he came in,
I was nine years old.
And he stood so tall above me,
His blue eyes they were shining,
And his voice was very cold.
He said, I’ve had a vision
And you know I’m strong and holy,
I must do what I’ve been told.
So we started up the mountain,
I was running, he was walking,
And his axe was made of gold.

Well, the trees they got much smaller,
The lake a lady’s mirror,
We stopped to drink some wine.
Then he threw the bottle over,
Broke a minute later,
And he put his hand on mine.
Thought I saw an eagle
But it might have been a vulture,
I never could decide.
Then my father built an altar,
He looked once behind his shoulder,
He knew I would not hide.

You who build these altars now,
To sacrifice these children,
You must not do it anymore.
A scheme is not a vision,
And you never have been tempted,
By a demon or a god.
You who stand above them now,
Your hatchets blunt and bloody,
You were not there before.
When I lay upon a mountain,
And my fathers hand was trembling
With the beauty of the Word.

And if you call me brother now,
Forgive me if I inquire,
Just according to whose plan?
When it all comes down to dust,
I will kill you if I must,
I will help you if I can.
When it all comes down to dust,
I will help you if I must,
I will kill you if I can.
Have mercy on our uniform,
Man of peace or man of war,
The peacock spreads his fan.

The portion in bold is inscribed on the front page of my book, Antidote: Essays Against The Socialist Indian State (Macmillan India: 2000). This song is very dear to my heart.

My message to the youth is this: Reject the old. Reject the aged. It is their mistakes that have bequeathed this Predatory State upon us. It is the aged of today who deified Gandhi and Nehru, who worshipped State power. They claim to have “fought for freedom” – but their legacy is just Slavery.

Reminds me of another great song – Bob Dylan’s “The Times They Are A’Changin’” – where he says:

Come mothers and fathers
Throughout the land,
And don't criticize
What you can't understand,
Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command,
Your old road is
Rapidly aging.
Please get out of the new one
If you can't lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin'.

Go sing that to the aged, to Chacha Manmohan S Gandhi and Advani, to Laloo and Sharad Pawar – all the PMs-in-waiting.

Don’t allow yourself to be sacrificed at the altar of our The State.

Your life is yours alone.

Tell your parents what Kahlil Gibran wrote in The Prophet:

“Your children are not born to you, but through you.”

It’s Your Life.

1.8 MILLION SOLD, CHEERS TO THE MAHATMA!

Life is irony enough but in the case of Mahatma Gandhi his story never ends and its such an irony that the man who bought his trademark round eye-glasses at the New York auction Vijay Mallya earns all his money from alcohol, something the Mahatma did not want to prohibit by law (as the Congress Party has done) but through voluntary abstinence.

Cheers to the Mahatma !

Not Ceasefire, Pakistan Surrenders Swat to Taliban

By Manuwant Choudhary

The headline "Ceasfire in Swat' in the western media is misleading. Rather, it should be `Pakistan Surrenders Swat to Taliban'.

And this coming only a day after Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari told American CBS Television that Pakistan was fighting for its `survival' as large parts of its territory had been taken over by the Taliban.

It was a belated admission and only after the Pakistani Geo TV had shown the world how citizens of Pakistan had fled Swat abandoning their businesses since the government could not protect them.

More than a 1000 people have been killed in Swat, caught between hardened Taliban fighters and a weak Pakistani army.

Now people even want the Pakistani army to leave Swat completely.

And the `ceasefire' agreement means the provincial government will have to implement `shariat' laws according to the Taliban.

So in fact while Pakistan would shout about its `soveriegnty' being violated everytime a US drone entered its airspace to bomb Taliban hideouts, the Taliban had in fact taken over Pakistani territory.

President Asif Ali Zardari and the Pakistani Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani are answerable to their people as to why they have failed them.

Mr. Zardari now says the Pakistani army did not raise its numbers.

Its not just numbers. In order to fight Taliban militia the governments resolve must be single-minded and focussed and only then can a traditiona army take them on.

The Russians observing 20 years of leaving Afghanistan have already warned the Americans that they can never win against the `Taliban' . "Fighting is religion for them."

And death is religion too for them.

So the big question is what Pakistan is going to do at this crossroad and what India is going to do.

Taliban threatens India also despite India not being a partner in America's war on terror. Are we prepared?

In this final leg both India and Pakistan will have to jointly fight the Taliban.

Pakistan will have to dismantle its terror networks completely.

And yes even re-look at Kashmir afresh.

There can be a new way forward but only if we show some leadership.

Well, isn't it about survival?

WHO WILL TRY KASAB, INDIA OR PAKISTAN?

By Manuwant Choudhary

Already one can see a dispute building up as to who will try the lone surviving terror suspect Ajmal Kasab - India or Pakistan?

Pakistan claims it has finally done its job by accepting the terror attacks on Bombay were planned in Pakistan and has posed some 30 questions to India - some genuine others vague and still others which are really not questions.

But belatedly Pakistan says that they may not just seek more information but may also ask India to hand over Kasab to Pakistan for a trial.

Logically, the place of the occurrence of crime is where the case is registered and the trial happens. In this case its Bombay and India.

Everything else including the countries affected by the terror attacks and where the crime has been planned falls later.

Logically, Pakistan should hand over the 6 arrested in Pakistan to India for a trial in India, with or without an extradition treaty.

One cannot have 15 countries trying Kasab or Pakistan trying Kasab.

Yes, one can have both India and Pakistan trying Kasab jointly in cooperation but provided Pakistan understands that justice systems are sacred and not open to `mischief'.

Or one can have legal representatives of all 15 victim countries to try Kasab and all accused, if Pakistan has a problem with just India trying Kasab.

For many years there has been a campaign for an International Court for Criminal Justice and all along India has not been a signatory to it. I am not sure whether Pakistan is?

But it is in such cases where a crime spreads across countries and even continents that such an international system becomes imperative.

But India will never hand over Kasab to Pakistan, come what may.

And Indians rightly ask this question that why should they trust the Pakistani judicial system when the Pakistani government itself seeks a UN probe in the assassiantion of Benazir Bhutto.

But sane voices out of Pakistan are never highlighted in the Indian media like an independent political commentator Musharraf Zaidi writes in The News International.

"This government has set new benchmarks for incompetence, and brought new meaning to the Pakistani people's resilience. In the current environment it is quite plausible that the greatest damage done to Pakistan is the set of statements, misstatements, steps and missteps that Pakistan itself has made. No amount of Indian surgical airstrikes or diplomatic conferences could have done the kind of damage that Pakistan has managed to do to itself, all by itself."

Mr. Zaidi writes, "For the hawks who would rather that Pakistan continue to deny that there are Pakistanis in the business of hurting India through terrorism, this kind of talk is blasphemy. But they should take a deep breath. India doesn't need Asma Jahangir or Gen Peacemaker Durrani to point out the miserable state of justice in the land of the pure. In a country where Mukhtaran Mai's rapists can have their convictions overturned, where the chief justice can be summarily fired, and then denied his job against all legal and political odds, why would anyone trust the system to ensure that the alleged Mumbai planners will be given a free and fair trial."

Gandhiji In New York!

By Manuwant Choudhary

Yesterday was a big day since Pakistan admitted its soil being used by terrorists and a court in India convicted the Nithari man-eaters.

On such big days and whenever the world is in a crisis Gandhiji speaks to me.

But yesterday Gandhiji did not give me his toothless smile but told me he did not have much time.

He asked me for something unusual, "Can you arrange for a US visa?"

I replied, "Oh no, I've never been to the United States."

Gandhiji, "Cummon, you don't have to visit the US to know a nearby travel agent or visa agent or dalal who does all those things."

Me to G, "Yes, yes there are many there but they just cheat you. Every single person has to stand in a long queue outside the US Embassy at Warden Road in Bombay."

Gandhiji, "But now I hear there is a recession in the US and nobody wants to go there."

Me to G, "If I may ask you why do you want to go to the US."

G, "You don't read the newspapers. I don't know if they have a recession why should they auction the last of my few belongings?"

Me to G, "Exactly, thats why. I think they need the money to pay for the `stimulus'. But Gandhiji you're a ghost you don't need a visa."

Gandhiji, "Oh trust the Americans. After 9-11 they can detect anything. They have ghost detectors installed at every airport."

Me to G, "But you're a harmless ghost - a non-violent and truthful ghost. You won't harm them."

G: "Oh, the British were democratic. Cant say that of Americans. Look one Richard Holbrooke came to Pakistan and Pakistan threw its entire foriegn policy out of the window."

Me to G: "Yes, but he is Obama's man...you will be so happy to learn that a black man is in the white house and they say he keeps your photo in his office."

G: "All that is ok but I just dont trust the Americans..how anything and everything even such valueless things like my glasses land under a hammer."

Me: "But Gandhiji why should you be concerned after all these years. You gave your glasses away to one colonel as `inspiration' saying this helped you in your vision of India."

G: "Sure, but can you sell inspirations?"

Me: "You are being unkind to the colonel. He may really need the money for say some heart surgery. Everyone is not India's Prime Minister."

G: "Ok, ok."

Me, "Plus, I hear that watch on auction was passed on to your own family members. Even they..."

G: "But they have a right..they are my family. If they benefit in anyway why should you object. I gave more time to my country and negelcted my family so I can't complain. And look when Nehru's family members win election on my name then why not my blood relatives?"

Me: "But why then do you still want to visit NY? Only if you have Rs.20 lakhs with you can you bid at the auction."

G: "Even I have secrets."

Me: "Oh no, you don't. You told us everything there is to know in My Experiments With Truth."

G: "Well, just help me or not?

Me: "Ok, as long as I can always interview you."

G, "You journo, I've never turned down an interview request."

Me, "Ok, since you are a ghost you dont need a visa or an airticket. All you need to do is to walk into space and cling onto one of those fragments of the US-Russian sattelite that have collided, and you will land in New York!."

G, "Ah, I watched CNN and they say those fragments will never fall on the earth."

Me, "Gandhiji, just close you eyes and you will be in New York."

G: "Yes, yes I can see those nice glass buildings. They look the same, except the twin towers are missing. Who says there is a recession?"

G to a New Yorker, "Excuse me madame, which way to the auction house."

AT THE AUCTION HOUSE THE BID IS ON....


ONE FOR THE GLASSES.

TWO FOR THE GLASSES.....

THREE FOR THE GLASSES......


SOLD.

Gandhiji is not interested in the auction but in the man who buys it...or woman.

But auction houses are even more secretive.

They don't reveal the names of the bidder.

But Gandhiji being the clever old man he is ...knows the bidder...and all he does is whisper in his ears.

"Don't sell it again. Its my inspiration. And if you want to know what to do with the money you have. Well, I have just come from Bihar and despite me the lepers still need help."