Mindless Mind©

On Saturday night, I watched the interview with Dr A P J Abdul Kalam and if he feels happy about the deal, I know we have really made a breakthrough.

I would have never believed any politician about the goodness or the adversity of the NSG waiver - be it from Congress, BJP or any other party.

But when the Nuclear-Man of India feels satisfied, it definitely would have made sense.

In the interview, I noted something intersting - the Thorium reserves that we have at the southern-tip of the nation; and also the Uranium reserves that a few of the states have. And I think the only thing that we really need is technology. And of course if we can get high-quality Uranium supply from other countries, we can keep our reseves and use them only in emergency - something what USA has kind-of done with their petroleum reserves.

China, undoubtedly tried to play spoil sport. And I am - probably for the first time - proud of India’s External Affairs Minister - Pranab Mukherjee by sending strong words to China. However, as I see the his interview at CNN-IBN with Rajdeep Sardesai, I feel a little sorry. Anyway, at the highest levels, diplomats need to be diplomatic. “Whatever has to be told, has been told”, says Pranab.

And I am really amused - though not surprised - when China demands NSG waiver for Pakistan for “geopolicital balance”. Ha ha ha ha! What a joke! I really pity such remarks… it’s like reading Dilbert or R K Laxman’s “Common Man”. God Bless!

This is a good news, so it seems. Young blood looking to take control and put things straight. I wish it happens in my country as well. Note that the position is an unpaid post… so, no monetary incentives for Tyler Hammons.

Associated Press reports, “Muskogee, Okla., teen ready for mayoral challenge”. It reads:

The University of Oklahoma freshman is moving out of a dorm and back in with his parents as he gets ready to be sworn in next week as mayor of this 38,000-person city made famous by the Merle Haggard song “Okie From Muskogee.”

However, my favourite is:

As mayor, his first priorities are the creation of an independent ethics commission to monitor elected and appointed city officials. He also wants to establish campaign finance reporting requirements for those running for office.

I really don’t know when will the Indian Media become socially responsible.

I cite media as one of the biggest reasons for continuation of Casteism and call for Reservations in the country. I think India is the only country in the world that takes pride in being called backward and people agitating to include themselves in the backward class. What a Shame!

Take the latest incident here, e-Paper from Times of India, May 29^th, 2008, Bangalore Edition or directly this item.

I don’t really understand what is the need of the media to dig into such issues. If the categorization is done on the basis of region, gender, age, educational qualification, economic background etc demographics, probably it makes sense. And they are measurable. What’s cast, btw?
Caste! What a ridicule. And unless media gets responsible, I think we will continue to lose lives and property. What do we gain - I am yet to take a note. Some recent incidents:

• Delhi braces of Gujjar Protest
• City’s borders under siege on Thursday
• Rajasthan seals borders with Haryana, MP
• And probably, the most meaningful of them all - Who’ll pay for damage to public property? We, the taxpayers. Who else. Those agitators anyway don’t pay anything.
• And the most worrysome - Food scarcity looms as no one budges.

Hope there’s some saviour who takes off Caste from the political agenda and from the front page in newspaper, and more importantly, does not call for unnecessary articles like the one I mentioned earlier.

Let’s aim towards making an equal India. Classify, but not divide. Segregate but not exclude.

Is anybody listening out there?

Swaminathan S A Aiyar, in Times of India, writes that the ban on food exports form countries like India is one of the main reasons for the fueling of the prices across the world.

IMHO, every country will first protect its own interest than that of the world. That’s what the “Western World” has been doing for ages.

During the British Territory days, East India Company / British Government always wanted the “Lagaan” irrespective of what was the state of the crops. They cared a damn about the weather. They cared a damn about whether crop was good or something wrong happened.

Now if the countries protect their own interests, what is the harm?

I object to Aiyar’s article making this item as an agenda… an item to even think about.

The TOI article “Security scenario grim, admits Govt” comes as a shock to me.

Excerpt: “Briefing the Cabinet on Friday on the terror strikes on Jaipur, national security adviser M K Narayanan painted a grim, if accurate, scenario”.

Now if - National Security Adviser - the top security person in the country expreses his inability to resolve the matters or even get the coordination between various parties involved - the Prime Minister’s Office, State Governments, Research and Analysis Wind (RAW), Intelligence Bureau (IB) - how can you expect the “real men” to do their work effectively.

And added to this are two worse situations:

• Home grown terror is increasing faster. Whatever be the actual groups, they are slowing creating or finding base within India itself. Now, if there’s an insider doing all this work, it becomes impossible for the castle to be safe
• The terror outfits are increasingly finding base along the eastern borders, specially, Bangladesh. I am not quite sure but I feel that ISI and other agencies still have the memories of East Pakistan and how it was freed as Bangladesh by India.

We really have to see how safe and secure we are.

And if the PMO is involved in just saving the face of the government, Gods save the country! I don’t think even armed forces will be able to do it.