Shanti has started an interesting series to bring into our attention “various freedom fighters of India”:http://www.madhoo.com/archives/002683.php#002683. Everyone knows Gandhi, Nehru and Bose. But there are so many people who have not receieved that kind of attention. These are people we have forgotten.

Pazhassi Raja was the king of Kottayam in Kerala in late 17th century. Following an unpopular revenue policy by the East India Company, he stopped the collection of all revenues in Kottayam. Following this the British tried to capture him. He fled to the hills and led a Guerilla war against the British, but finally he was gunned down
Continue reading “Forgotten Indians: Pazhassi Raja” →

InstaPundit has been keeping track on the debate going on about electronic voting machines and the “possible fraud”:http://www.instapundit.com/archives/010702.php.
bq. “What we know is that the machines can’t be trusted. It’s an unlocked bank vault …, a disaster waiting to happen,” said David Dill, a Stanford University computer science professor who has prompted more than 110 fellow scientists to sign a petition calling for more accountability in voting technology.
In this context it is interesting to note this announcement by the Election Commision of India that the next General Election in 2004 would be completly done using Electronic Voting Machines.
bq. Talking to newspersons after a meeting with the Delimitation Commission, headed by Justice Kuldip Singh, he said the Election Commission (EC) would require nearly one million EVMs to cover the entire country.
This is the largest election in the world in terms of the number of people who vote. And here is what the Election Commision had to say about the last elections
bq. In the 1996 election to Lok Sabha there were 1,269 candidates from 38 officially recognised national and state parties seeking election, 1,048 candidates from registered parties, not recognised and 10,635 independent candidates. A total number of 59,25,72,288 people voted.
[See: “SIFY”:http://sify.com/news/politics/fullstory.php?id=13201701, “Sameer”:http://optimystic.typepad.com/optimystic/2003/07/india_will_vote.html, “Election Commision of India”:http://www.eci.gov.in/infoeci/elec_sys/elecsys_fs.htm, “Denver Post”:http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36~53~1540873,00.html ]

And guess who is behind the “bomb blast in Mumbai”:http://www.rediff.com/news/2002/dec/02mum.htm, India in which three people were killed after a bomb went off in a bus.
bq. The Maharashtra government has blamed Monday night’s bomb blast aboard a BEST bus in Ghatkopar on Al-Hadees – a group that was formed by activists of SIMI, after it was banned in India nearly two years ago.Police authorities believe that the group, which has the backing of the Lashkar-e-Taiba, was responsible for previous blasts in the city as well.
Why am I not surprised ?
[Ref “NDTV”:http://www.ndtv.com/template/template.asp?template=Ghatkoparblast&slug=Al%2DHadees+behind+Ghatkopar+blast%3A+Bhujbal&id=12386&callid=0]

The Indian Supreme Court has finally said what we have been “saying for a while”:http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/3089539.stm
bq. The Indian Supreme Court says all citizens should be bound by the same laws in civil issues such as marriage, divorce and property rights.
But this will prove to be very difficult to enforce, so long as there is a Muslim votebank.

The Washington Post has an article on how the Jews and Indians are coming together in the US to fight for common causes. This includes
* an amendment pressuring Pakistan to stop Islamic militants from crossing into India.
* getting Bush administration’s approval for Israel to sell four Phalcon early warning radar planes to India for about $1 billion, a deal that has alarmed the Pakistani government.
There are 5.8 million jews in US and 1.8 million Indians, and according to the article, “highly educated, affluent and attached to democratic homelands facing what they increasingly view as a common enemy”
The common enemy is not very happy about it. Now “Ariel Sharon”:http://www.sulekha.com/redirectnh.asp?cid=313552 is visiting India on Sept 11th and he is not visiting Pakistan to balance the equation like some American Presidents.
This is an alliance which was long due between two democracies attacked by Islamic fundamentalists. A return visit by the Indian Prime Minister to Tel Aviv would be another bold step by the NDA Administration.
[ref: “Washington Post”:http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A13526-2003Jul18.html?nav=hptoc_p , “Indian Express”:http://www.sulekha.com/redirectnh.asp?cid=313552]

Even after providing “face saving measures”:https://varnam.org/archives/000151.html, India has decided not to send troops to Iraq. As this blog said before, this is a very risky proposition since elections are right around the corner for the Indian Govt. Another point of resentment might have been the fact that US is still pally with a dictator in Pakistan, who is their “ally” in the war on terror. He becomes the first South Asian leader to get invited to Camp David (only to be told that he will not get his F-16s), and a democracy like India is shunned. But with the death toll increasing there is a move to get the UN cover, so that India can send its troops
bq. It has started looking to the United Nations Security Council for a much broader mandate that would facilitate India and some other nations sending troops to Iraq. The US Secretary of State, Colin Powell, admitted on Wednesday that moves were on with other governments and UN officials, but only at the preliminary stage.
[ref: “Asia Times”:http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/EG19Df01.html]

Kerala is a state where there are no industries. Most malayalis work in the gulf countries and the economy is sustained based on the NRI remittances. But the tourism industry is doing wonders there and Paul McCartney can vouch for it. The story of how the bureaucrats achieved this is an “amazing story”:http://www.flonnet.com/fl2014/stories/20030718003310900.htm (This article has a picture of Thrissur pooram, from the place where I am from)
This is good. As more people earn income from tourism which cannot tolerate disruption, it might affect the political parties who call hartals (since bandh is banned) every other day.
Frontline has two more articles on Kerala
* “Tasks on the economic front”:http://www.flonnet.com/fl2014/stories/20030718004311600.htm
* “Taking IT into the big league”:http://www.flonnet.com/fl2014/stories/20030718005312100.htm
These article all show positive developments happening in a state which gave the impression that it was opposed to development of any kind.
[Thanks to “Niraj”:http://www.nirajweb.com/mt/niraj/ for sending the links]

“Liar”:http://www.madhoo.com/archives/002358.php Praful Bidwai has written “another article”:http://www.sulekha.com/redirectNh.asp?cid=313026. Since we have been reading his article for a while, we have come up with this pseudo code which will help people implement the first Praful Bidwai article generator.
1. The agenda is that it has to be pointed out that hierarchies of class, caste and gender exist. This issue has to be bought it some how. This time he does this in the most wierd way.
bq. This ‘knowledge-based’ description sounds odd, to put it mildly, in a society in which almost half the population is illiterate, the general level of skills very low, and transmission of knowledge severely restricted by the hierarchies of class, caste and gender.
So, Take up an issue you dont like, say India has strong foreign reserves, India is now the fav destination for outsourcing, there maybe life in other planets and end that sentence with “hierarchies of class, caste and gender”.
2. Create a random issue. Then go and explain why it will not happen. For example:
bq. IT certainly contributes in growing measure to the Indian economy, but it remains an ‘island’ phenomenon. It cannot drive the entire country into another epoch or ‘stage’ of development. There are three reasons for saying this.
See no one told that it will drive the entire country into another epoch. He just made that up. Then he writes to debunk his own theory. So we could say “Many people think that finding water on Mars is a good thing or Indian Prime Minister walks on two legs and many people think that is great”. Then write some 1000 words to say why it is not.
3. Produce a number bigger than what you want to demolish.
bq. Even in external sector accounts, software exports ($7.2 billion) still contribute less than remittances, mainly from poor workers in the Gulf ($8.1 billion).
If “poor workers” are able to remit 8.1 billion, then how are they poor ?
4. Remind people that since people who invest money become rich, they are bad.
bq. Thus, a good proportion of the sub-programmes in Windows 95 and 98 were developed by Indian engineers. But it’s Bill Gates who skimmed off the profits!
What about the many employees for Microsoft who became rich through stock options ? What about the many stock holders who became rich. Bill Gates has more investment in the company, so he makes more. This fact should never be told.
5. Throw in some unverifiable facts like ” The average Indian employee’s productivity is high”. These kind of statements dont need any proof.
I am bored already and sorry for writing code, remember I am a code coolie.
Update: Ravikiran already had a well “thought of response”:http://www.ravikiran.com/?RequestId=306 as usual.

bq. “Troop morale in Iraq hits ‘rock bottom’:”:http://www.sulekha.com/redirectnh.asp?cid=312756 Some frustrated troops stationed in Iraq are writing letters to representatives in Congress to request their units be repatriated. “Most soldiers would empty their bank accounts just for a plane ticket home,” said one recent Congressional letter written by an Army soldier now based in Iraq.
The Americans are trying their best to get India to get involved with the peace keeping in Iraq. This is a very tricky issue. India has been against this war which did not have the United Nations blessings, as we still remain a country which worships UN decrees.
Sending troops without UN approval would mean a political suicide for the present NDA Administration. 2004 is an election year. If the troops are sent and if Indian soldiers get killed, that will be the major issue in the elections.
Kofi Annan has said that “he disapproves of Indian troops”:http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/s883798.htm in Iraq. So the current face saving measure is going to be this. Jalal Talebani of the People’s Union of Kurdiustan (PUK) and Massoud Barzani of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) will extend an invitation and say that they don’t have a probelem if Indians come to Kurdistan. “The Americans are working overtime”:http://www.newindpress.com/Newsitems.asp?ID=IEH20030709130029&Title=Top+Stories&rLink0=

bq. He urged representatives of the minority community to show some patience as far as the Marad issue was concerned. He wanted them to take sober positions in view of the general feeling among the majority communities that the minority communities were enjoying several privileges and were using their organised strength to wrest more benefits from the Government.
bq. The representatives of the minority communities and party leaders should not shut their eyes to the large-scale economic inequalities that exist in the State. They should not think that they could make the Government do anything on the basis of their organised strength,…
Guess who is giving this lecture to minorities in India ? No it is not Praveen Togadia or Ashok Singhal or Bal Thackarey. “It is AK Antony”:http://hinduonnet.com/stories/2003071006280700.htm, the Chief Minister of Kerala, who is from the secular Congress party. He is a courageous man, since he is ruling the state with the support of Muslim League, another secular party.