A smart Flight Attendant and matter of Company Policy

A 50-something year old Muslim man arrived at his seat on a crowded flight and immediately didn't want the seat. The seat was next to an elderly white woman reading her Bible.

Disgusted, the Muslim man immediately summoned the flight attendant and demanded a new seat. The man said "I cannot sit here next to this infidel." The flight attendant said "Let me see if I can find another seat."

After checking, she returned and stated "There are no more seats in economy, but I will check with my Cabin Manager and see if there is something in first class."

About 10 minutes went by and the flight attendant returned and stated "Unfortunately she has confirmed that there are no more seats in economy, but there is one available seat in first class. It is our company policy to never move a person from economy to first class, but being that it would be incorrect of us to force a person to sit next to an UNPLEASANT person, my Manager has agreed to make the switch to first class."

Before the irate Muslim man could say anything, the attendant gestured to the elderly woman and said, "Therefore madam, if you would kindly gather your personal items, we would like to move you to the comfort of first class as we do not want you to sit next to an unpleasant person."

Passengers in the seats nearby began to applaud while some gave a standing ovation.

I say, can I get an Amen to that!

Sent by Prakash Bhartia

How our inner Ego sometimes misjudges a person!

A lady in a faded grey dress and her husband, dressed in a homespun suit walked in timidly without an appointment into the Harvard University President's outer office. The secretary could tell in a moment that such backwoods, country hicks had no business at Harvard and probably didn't even deserve to be in Harvard.

"We want to see the President "the man said softly.

"He'll be busy all day "the secretary snapped.

"We'll wait" the lady replied.

For hours the secretary ignored them, hoping that the couple would finally become discouraged and go away. They didn't and the secretary grew frustrated and finally decided to disturb the president.

"Maybe if you see them for a few minutes, they'll leave" she said to him. The President, stern faced and with dignity, strutted toward the couple.

The lady told him "We had a son who attended Harvard for one year. He loved Harvard. He was happy here. But about a year ago, he was accidentally killed. My husband and I would like to erect a memorial to him, somewhere on campus."

The president wasn't touched….He was shocked. "Madam "he said, gruffly, " we can't put up a statue for every person who attended Harvard and died. If we did, this place would look like a cemetery."

"Oh, no," the lady explained quickly "We don't want to erect a statue. We thought we would like to give a building to Harvard."

The president rolled his eyes. He glanced at the gingham dress and homespun suit, and then exclaimed, "A building ! Do you have any earthly idea how much a building costs? We have over seven and a half million dollars in the physical buildings here at Harvard.."

For a moment the lady was silent. The president was pleased. Maybe he could get rid of them now. The lady turned to her husband and said quietly, "Is that all it costs to start a university ? Why don't we just start our own?"

Her husband nodded. The president's face wilted in confusion and bewilderment. Mr. and Mrs. Leland Stanford got up and walked away, traveling to Palo Alto, California where they established the University that bears their name- Stanford University, a memorial to a son that Harvard no longer cared about.

Most of the time we judge people by their outer appearance, which can be misleading. And in this impression, we tend to treat people badly by thinking they can do nothing for us. Thus we tend to lose our potential good friends, employees or customers.

Remember

In our Life, we seldom get people with whom we want to share & grow our thought process.But because of our inner EGO we miss them forever.

It is you who have to decide with whom you are getting associated in day to day life.

Sent by Prakash Bhartia

Scams of the UPA Government

Source : Subramanian Swamy

--------------------------------------

1. Insurance Scam

2. Telecom scam (Sukh Ram)

3. HDW Submarine

4. Bitumen scam

5. Tansi land deal

6. Securities Scam

7. JMM Bribery Scandal

8. St Kitts case

9. Urea scam

10. CRB Scam

11. Anantnag transport scam

12. 1971 Nagarwala scandal

13. Fooder scam

14. Churhat lottery scam

15. Bofors Scandal (1990)

16. Animal Husbandry Case (1990)

17. Bombay Stock Exchange Fraud

18. Hawala scandal (1993)

19. Bangalore-Mysore Corridor (1995)

20. Sukh Ram (1996)

21. Fodder Scam in Bihar (1996)

22. Kerala SNC Lavalin power scandal(97)

23. Home Trade

24. Ketan Parekh Scandal,

25. Barak Missile Deal Scandal,

26. Tehelka Scandal (2001)

27. UTI Scam

28. Taj corridor case (2002–2003)

29. Telgi scandal (2003)

30. DSQ Software

31. IPO Scam- karvy

32. Oil-for-food programme scam (Natwar) (05)

33. Human Trafficking Scam (Babubhai Katara)

34. Cash-for-votes scandal

35. Satyam scandal

36. 2G Scam - 2008

37. Madhu Koda, laundering money Rs. 4000 Cr

38. NREGA Scam

39. CWG

40. Adarsh

41. Coal-Gate

42. Helicopter Scam - Latest

43. --- Coming Soon----

44. --- Coming Soon----

----------------------------------------------

Long Live the Congress Party

How to ...?

He was in ecstasy with a huge smile on his face as his wife moved forward,

then backwards, forward, then backwards again...... back and forth...

back and forth..... in and out.......

She could feel the sweat on her forehead, between her breasts and trickling

down the small of her back.

She was getting near to the end.

Her heart was pounding..... her face was flushed.....

Then she moaned, softly at first, then began to groan louder.

Finally, totally exhausted, she let out an almighty scream and shouted,

"Okay, Okay!!! I can’t park the car!!! You do it, you smug bastard!!!"

Sent by Prakash Bhartia

Solving a Jigsaw Puzzle

A little silver-haired lady calls her neighbor and says, "Please come over here and help me. I have a killer jigsaw puzzle, and I can't figure out how to get started."

Her neighbor asks, "What is it supposed to be when it's finished?"

The little silver haired lady says, "According to the picture on the box, it's a rooster."

Her neighbor decides to go over and help with the puzzle.

She lets him in and shows him where she has the puzzle spread all over the table.

He studies the pieces for a moment, then looks at the box, then turns to her and says,

"First of all, no matter what we do, we're not going to be able to assemble these pieces into anything resembling a rooster."

He takes her hand and says, "Secondly, I want you to relax. Let's have a nice cup of tea, and then," he said with a deep sigh ............

"Let's put all the Corn Flakes back in the box."

Sent by Prakash Bhartia

Loyalty friends

An old cowboy was riding his trusty horse followed by his faithful dog along an unfamiliar road. The cowboy was enjoying the new scenery, when he suddenly remembered dying, and realized the dog beside him had been dead for years, as had his horse. Confused, he wondered what was happening, and where the trail was leading them.

After a while, they came to a high, white stone wall that looked like fine marble. At the top of a long hill, it was broken by a tall arch topped by a golden letter "H" that glowed in the sunlight.

Standing before it, he saw a magnificent gate in the arch that looked like mother-of-pearl, and the street that led to the gate looked like gold.

He rode toward the gate, and as he got closer, he saw a man at a desk to one side. Parched and tired out by his journey, he called out, 'Excuse me, where are we?'

'This is Heaven, sir,' the man answered.

'Wow! Would you happen to have some water?' the man asked.

'Of course, sir. Come right in, and I'll have some ice water brought right up.'

As the gate began to open, the cowboy asked, 'Can I bring my partners, too?'

'I'm sorry, sir, but we don't accept pets.'

The cowboy thought for a moment, then turned back to the road and continued riding, his dog trotting by his side.

After another long ride, at the top of another hill, he came to a dirt road leading through a ranch gate that looked as if it had never been closed. As he approached the gate, he saw a man inside, leaning against a tree and reading a book.

'Excuse me,' he called to the man. 'Do you have any water?'

'Sure, there's a pump right over there. Help yourself.'

'How about my friends here?' the traveler gestured to the dog and his horse.

'Of course! They look thirsty, too,' said the man.

The trio went through the gate, and sure enough, there was an old-fashioned hand pump with buckets beside it. The traveler filled a cup and the buckets with wonderfully cool water and took a long drink, as did his horse and dog.

When they were full, he walked back to the man who was still standing by the tree. 'What do you call this place?' the traveler asked.

'This is Heaven,' he answered.

'That's confusing,' the traveler said. 'The man down the road said that was Heaven, too.'

'Oh, you mean the place with the glitzy, gold street and fake pearly gates? That's hell.'

'Doesn't it make you angry when they use your name like that?'

'Not at all. Actually, we're happy they screen out the folks who would leave their best friends behind.'

Sent by Arun Shroff.

The above is similar to the story of Yudhistra and the dog in the Mahabharata.

Upon the onset of the Kali yuga and the departure of Krishna, Yudhisthira and his brothers retired, leaving the throne to their only descendant to survive the war of Kurukshetra, Arjuna's grandson Parikshita. Giving up all their belongings and ties, the Pandavas made their final journey of pilgrimage in the Himalayas.

While climbing the peaks, Draupadi, and each Pandava in reverse order of age, fell to their deaths, dragged down by the weight of their guilt for their sins. Yudhisthira reached the mountain peak, because he was unblemished by sin or untruth.

The true character of Yuddhisthira is revealed at the end of the Mahabharata. On the mountain peak, Indra, King of Gods, arrived to take Yudhisthira to heaven in his Golden Chariot. As Yudhisthira was about to step into the Chariot, the Deva told him to leave behind his companion dog, a creature not worthy of heaven to Indra. Yudhisthira stepped back, refusing to leave behind the creature who he had taken under his protection. Indra wondered at him - "You can leave your brothers behind, not arranging proper cremations for them...and you refuse to leave behind a stray dog!"

Yudhisthira replied, "Draupadi and my brothers have left me, not I [who left them]." And he refused to go to heaven without the dog. At that moment the dog changed into the God Dharma, his father, who was testing him...and Yudhisthira had passed with distinction.

Yudhisthira was carried away on Indra's chariot.

On reaching Heaven he did not find either his virtuous brothers or his wife Draupadi. Instead he saw Duryodhana and his evil allies. The Gods told him that his brothers were in Naraka (hell) atoning their little sins, while Duryodhana was in heaven since he died at the blessed place of Kurukshetra.

Yudhisthira loyally went to Naraka (hell) to meet his brothers, but the sights and sounds of gore and blood horrified him. Tempted to flee, he mastered himself and remained after hearing the voices of his beloved brothers and Draupadi...calling out to him, asking him to stay with them in their misery. Yudhisthira decided to remain, ordering the Divine charioteer to return ... preferring to live in hell with good people than in a heaven of evil ones. At that moment the scene changed. This was yet another illusion to test him on the one hand, and on the other hand, to enable him to atone for his sin of using deceit to kill Drona. Indra and Krishna appeared before him and told him that his brothers were already in Heaven, along with his enemies, for earthly virtues and vices don't hold true in heavenly realms. Krishna yet again hailed Yudhisthira for his dharma, and bowed to him, in the final defining moment of the epic where divinity bowed down to humanity.

The Moral of the Story is to be righteous and fight for it till the end. You can never lose.

Is land responsible for high inflation?

We recently came across an article in Firstpost that drew our interest. The article talked about an asset that is also responsible for inflation in our country. Interestingly the same asset is also responsible for the widening current account deficit problem. The asset is none other than land. As per the article, land is responsible for higher inflation to a significant extent. And the reason it does so is because of its limited supply.

It all starts with people investing in land in order to earn rates higher than the rate of inflation. But things go awry when speculation sets in. Since the supply of land is limited, speculators enter the market and pay higher prices to hold on to the land. Their idea being that if they hold the land long enough, they would be able to find another speculator or interested party willing to pay a higher price. As this cycle of speculation sets in, the same piece of land keeps getting priced higher and higher. Two things come off it. First the persons from whom the land is being bought get richer and have more money at their disposal. Second, the feeling that they have become wealthy leads them to splurge even more not just on essential goods and services but also discretionary ones.

As demand of these goods and services rise and supply shrinks, there is inflation which leads to higher prices of goods in the country. The increase in prices attracts foreign goods and services without commensurate rise in exports. When this cycle sets in, there is an adverse impact on the country's current account deficit. As the cycle of speculation deepens inflation rates and current account deficit increases.

When this cycle continues for a long time then asset bubbles start to build. This seems to be exactly what is happening in India. Land prices have been spiraling upwards thanks to speculators. Though this is not the only contributing factor for inflation, but still it has supported continued higher prices in the country. The government needs to reform the laws to prevent and control this kind of speculation. The consequences are severe. We can already feel its repercussions with slowing growth and dampened economic conditions simply because the high inflation is not letting Reserve Bank of India (RBI) cut rates and encourage investment towards production of more goods and services. If the bubble continues to build then things are just going to get worse. And when it bursts, the shock waves will hurt the economy even more.

The above came in my mailbox from Equitymaster.com.

I fully agree with this view.

Prices of land in the Gurgaon area started skyrocketting once DLF and Unitech entered there.

They had advance information of the plans of the Gurgaon area and so started buying land.

People gradually started raising the price when they got wind of the plans.

Farmers who had land became millionaires overnight and splurged the money.

Robert Vadra is the son-in-law of Sonia Gandhi who talks of rooting out corruption.

Robert Vadra’s company purchased prime land, on the Manesar-Gurgaon road, in February 2008 for Rs.7.5 crore.

A month later, Vadra’s company got a licence from Haryana’s town and country planning (TCP) department to develop a housing colony at the site.

Vadra entered into an “agreement to sell” with DLF within 65 days of the licence being granted for Rs.58 crore.

A net Seven hundred and seventy three percent profit in 65 days or four thousand three hundred and forty three percent profit per year.

Now, you know why the price of flats keep shooting up.

That is inflation.

Afzal hanged but mastermind Masood walks free in Pak

ohammed Afzal Guru, who helped Jaish-e-Mohammad terrorists carry out the dastardly attack on Parliament in 2001, was on Saturday hanged and buried in Tihar jail. But the main accused in the case, Maulana Masood Azhar is walking free in Pakistan.

The Parliament attack case chargesheet lists Maulana Masood Azhar as the main conspirator.

Another accused, Tariq Ahmed is also in Pakistan. Ghazi Baba, who was also among the accused in the case, was killed in an encounter with Indian forces.

Post 26/11, Indian agencies sent several dossiers to Pakistan and Maulana Azhar figured in each of them.

It may be recalled that Maulana Azhar was released in exchange for hostages during the Kandahar hijack of India Airlines IC 814.

After his release, the dreaded Jaish-e-Mohammad was floated following which the attack on Indian Parliament was executed.

Indian agencies lament that in most cases they manage to get hold of the foot soldiers, but the masterminds continue to be protected and walk free in Pakistan.

The latest report on Azhar prepared by the Intelligence Bureau suggest that he has fallen out with the ISI.

This was more to do with the fact that Azhar wanted to lead the battle in Kashmir [ Images ], but Pakistan’s espionage agency Inter Services Intelligence preferred the Lashkar-e-Tayiba [ Images ] over his outfit due to the good relations it shares with LeT founder Hafiz Muhammad Saeed.

The JeM, on the other hand, had gone out of control and had begun interfering in Afghanistan much to ISI’s dislike. He was clearly told that he should continue to focus only on Kashmir and provide support to the Lashkar, which would lead the battle.

Also, the ISI did not like the manner in which Azhar had tried to move his troops independently and hence ensured that he was stopped in his tracks.

Today, JeM's only area of operation is Kashmir.

Intelligence officials say that today Azhar has mellowed down and would only act on ISI instructions. However, the Indian agencies warn that despite being told to maintain a low profile, he could still spin out of control and use the hanging of Afzal Guru as a reason to strike. Moreover, the ISI may also permit such a thing as it would mean that the heat on the Lashkar would go down a bit.

Azhar can marshal a few troops even today, as he is considered an inspirational figure by some in the KashmirValley. Although he is not an immediate threat to the Indian security agencies, the fact that he is alive and walks around freely is sufficient for Indian agencies to believe he still poses a danger.

During the 2010 Kashmir uprising, traces of the JeM were found although the operation was led largely by the Lashkar. During this operation, the Lashkar managed to recruit 70 local boys. These youth today work for the Lashkar, but coordinate with the JeM, which again is an indication that the ISI is striking a balance with the Lashkar and JeM to work in tandem at the Valley.

So finally, Afzal Guru has been hanged for the failed attack on Parliament.

Some people are of the view that he should not have been hanged.

He should have been given another chance.

No action? Why commission?

State objects but court allows petition on joke arrest

TAPAS GHOSH

Calcutta, Feb. 7: The chief justice of Calcutta High Court today overruled the Bengal government’s objections and allowed a petition demanding action against police officers who had arrested a Jadavpur University professor for circulating an Internet joke that featured the chief minister.

The petition asked why the government had failed to act on the state human rights commission’s recommendations suggesting payment of damages to Ambikesh Mahapatra and his septuagenarian neighbour besides action against the police officers.

Chief Justice A.K. Mishra told a government pleader: “If the recommendations are not to be obeyed by the state government, what is the commission there for?”

“You file a fresh petition,” Chief Justice Mishra told Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharyya, senior advocate and former Calcutta mayor.

The chief justice’s statement came after the government pleader contended that a human rights commission’s recommendations could not be binding on the state government.

“State governments are not bound to implement the human rights commission’s recommendations. It is the discretion of the government whether it will implement the recommendations or not,” additional government pleader Tapan Mukherjee said.

But the division bench of Chief Justice Mishra and Justice Jaymalya Bagchi demurred.

“This is not acceptable,” the chief justice said. “In other states, the government treats the human rights commission’s recommendations with respect. Can you cite another instance where a man has had to move the high court because the state government has refused to obey the commission’s recommendations?”

The government lawyer looked stunned.

Although the state human rights commission is headed by retired Supreme Court judge Ashok Kumar Ganguly, who was picked by chief minister Mamata Banerjee, the government had refused to act on the recommendations. A day after the commission issued its recommendations in August last year, Mamata had referred to Justice Ganguly as “a very good person” but added that he “doesn’t know what is his jurisdiction, his authority”.

Former mayor Bhattacharyya had withdrawn a public interest litigation (PIL) after the state human rights commission recommended departmental proceedings against the police personnel who had picked up the teacher and his neighbour around midnight. The commission’s recommendation in August last year also proposed Rs 50,000 each as damages to Mahapatra and Subrata Sengupta, a 72-year-old engineer.

Initially, the police charged Mahapatra under Section 66A of the IT Act (sending false and offensive messages through electronic communication devices) and Section 500 of the IPC (defamation). But in the chargesheet, the defamation charge was dropped and only the one under the IT Act was retained. The court has yet to frame the charges.

On August 13, the rights commission issued a suo motu order asking the state to compensate the professor and his neighbour and initiate action against Milan Kumar Das, the additional officer in charge of East Jadavpur police station, and sub-inspector Sanjay Biswas, who had gone to the housing complex to arrest the two following a phone call by a local Trinamul leader.

Bhattacharyya’s earlier PIL became infructuous after the commission ordered action against the police personnel. He wanted to file a fresh appeal today demanding action against the accused policemen.

“You don’t need a human rights commission if the state doesn’t pay heed to it. It is a mockery of democracy that the state sets up a commission and then reduces it to a redundant institution,” a retired high court justice had earlier told this newspaper

Teachers scam: Chautala seeks suspension of sentence

New Delhi, Feb 7 (IANS) Former Haryana chief minister and Indian National Lok Dal chief Om Prakash Chautala, who was sentenced to 10 years in jail in the teachers recruitment scam, Thursday moved the Delhi High Court for suspension of sentence.

Chautala, seeking suspension of the sentence and appealing against the trial court order, said that he is "unwell and suffering from various ailments".

The 78-year-old Chautala, in his appeal, said the trial court's order is liable to be set aside as it was against the tenets of law as well as contrary to the evidence.

The trial court last month sentenced Chautala, his son Ajay Chautala, and eight others to 10 years in jail while one convict was sentenced to five years and 45 others to four years in jail.

Chautala and the other accused were found guilty of illegally recruiting 3,206 junior basic trained (JBT) teachers in Haryana in 2000.

"The trial court has failed to appreciate that in a democratic set-up and under the principles of collective responsibility, it is the entire council of ministers which is responsible for a cabinet decision and not any one minister," the plea said.

Chautala's plea added: "In such a scenario, only singling out the appellant (Chautala) merely because he is the chief minister is unwarranted and erroneous. Further, it a settled principle that in a cabinet, the chief minister is only first among equals."

The court had earlier found prima facie evidence against the Chautalas and 53 others and charged all of them June 6, 2008, for their role in the irregularities in recruitment of teachers that took place between 1999 and 2000, when Chautala was chief minister.

Chautala in his plea further said that the present case is "false, fictitious and subsumed with political overtones" and he ought not to be put to such great prejudice and hardship due to his conviction and incarceration during the pendency of the accompanying appeal, which is unlikely to be disposed of expeditiously.

The Chautalas and others were held guilty of offences under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Prevention of Corruption Act (PCA).

In no case should Chauthala's sentence be suspended.

Let him remain in jail and file his appeal from there.

These corrupt politicians are known to twist the judicial system by seeking adjournments so that the judgement is delayed by years.

However, if they remain in jail, it will be in heir own interest to expedite the case and will not seek unnecessary adjournments and employ other dilatory tactics.

Story of a Cowboy

A cowboy named Mark was overseeing his herd in a remote mountainous pasture in California when suddenly a brand-new BMW advanced toward him out of a cloud of dust.

The driver, a young man in a Brioni suit, Gucci shoes, RayBan sunglasses and YSL tie, leaned out the window and asked the cowboy, “If I tell you exactly how many cows and calves you have in your herd, Will you give me a calf?”

Mark looks at the man, then looks at his peacefully grazing herd and calmly answers, “Sure, Why not?”

The man parks his car, whips out his Dell notebook computer, connects it to his iPhone, and surfs to a NASA page on the Internet, where he calls up a GPS satellite to get an exact fix on his location, which he then feeds to another NASA satellite that scans the area in an ultra-high-resolution photo.

The young man then opens the digital photo in Adobe Photoshop and exports it to an image processing facility in Hamburg , Germany. Within seconds, he receives an email on his iPhone that the image has been processed and the data stored. He then accesses an MS-SQL database through an ODBC connected Excel spreadsheet with email on his iPhone and, after a few minutes, receives a response.

Finally, he prints out a full-color, 150-page report on his hi-tech, miniaturized HP LaserJet printer, turns to the cowboy and says, “You have exactly 1,586 cows and calves.”

“That’s right. Well, I guess you can take one of my calves,” says Mark.

He watches the young man select one of the animals and looks on with amusement as the young man stuffs it into the trunk of his car.

Then Mark says to the young man, “Hey, if I can tell you exactly what your business is, will you give me back my calf?”

The young man thinks about it for a second and then says, “Okay, why not?”

“You’re a Consultant”, says Mark.

“Wow! That’s correct,” says the man, “but how did you guess that?”

“No guessing required.” answered the cowboy. “You showed up here even though nobody called you; you want to get paid for an answer I already knew, to a question I never asked. You used thousands of dollars worth of equipment trying to show me how much smarter you are than I am; and you don’t know a thing about how working people make a living – or about cows, for that matter. This is a herd of sheep. ….

Now give me back my dog.

Moral: All Qualified are not intelligent and an intelligent not necessarily be qualified.

Sent by Satyen Hora.

After my retirement, I must confess, I work as consultant.

BJP committed to Ram temple, but will wait till Supreme Court decision: Rajnath Singh

Chennai, Feb. 7 (ANI): Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Rajnath Singh on Thursday reiterated that the party is committed to construct Ram temple at the Ram Janamboomi in Ayodhya, but will wait till the Supreme Court decision, as the matter is sub-judice before the court.

Responding to questions here at a press conference, Rajnath Singh expressed hope that the apex court will deliver a favourable verdict.

"The BJP has the firm opinion that the Ram Temple should be constructed on the Ram Janm Bhumi, but at present the matter is sub-judice before the Supreme Court and we should wait for its decision," said Rajnath Singh.

Asked about whether the ally partners will be convinced with the ideas of raising issues of Hindutva and building temple ahead of general election 2014, Rajnath Singh said: "I think there should be no any problem with the ally partners, because we had inducted the temple issue in our election manifesto in 2009 elections, despite having alliance with so many parties."

Earlier on Wednesday, Rajnath Singh, after taking a holy dip at Kumbh Mela in Allahabad, participated in a meeting of the VHP's central advisory committee in presence of its top leaders like Ashok Singhal and Pravin Togadia.

The VHP has demanded that a Bill should be introduced in the monsoon session of Parliament so that Ram Janambhoomi land could be handed over to the Shri Ram Janambhoomi Nyas Board for construction of the Ram temple. (ANI)

Dear Mr. Rajnath Singh,

I am a Hindu and was once a supporter of the BJP.

However, what with all the corruption charges in Karnataka and the action taken by the Goa Chief Minister, Manohar Parrikar in weakening the office of the Lokayukta, has made be disillusioned with the BJP.

Now, instead of moving forward and providing good government in all the states your party is in power, you prepare to flog a dead horse.

Just as you once flogged Bofors just before elections, you are now flogging Ram Janambhoomi.

Please do not divide India and create tensions once again in the name of religion.

Whether you like it or not, the Muslims who stayed behind in India after Independence have as much right as Hindus to stay in India.

I agree with you that infiltrators who came to India from Pakistan and Bangladesh thereafter do not have the right as they had chosen to form Pakistan and moved over there.

If the government there is even more corrupt than the government in India, they are to blame and they should not expect succour in India.

Various political like the Congress, SP and Trinamul Congress has made these infiltrators regular citizens of India by issuing false identities, just for vote bank politics.

This has resulted in a change in the population ratios especially in the border areas of W.Bengal and the North East states.

The Hindus are fed-up of this pampering and are willing to support you if you provide good, honest government as they have in Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Chattisgarh.

They have thrown you out as in Uttarkhand and Himachal Pradesh and will do the same in Karnataka.

So, it is up to you whether you want to come to power.

Provide good honest government, if you want to.

Rake up Ram Janambhoomi, if you want to be thrown out.

Policing must change, say Antony, Dikshit

New Delhi, Feb 6 (IANS) Defence Minister A.K. Antony and Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit Wednesday called for police reforms to make the force responsive and to win the trust of the people.

"Police reforms are the real need of the hour," Antony said in a message to the organisers of a meeting here on police reforms convened by former CBI director D.R. Kaarthikeyan.

"Our policing system must change to be more sensitive and responsible to the people," he added. Saying police reforms ought to be an integral part of good governance, Antony said the police must win the trust of the people through more and more accountability.

In her message, Dikshit said people at large had come to realize that "police should be more responsible, proactive and sensitive in order to ensure a sense of security and confidence".

Referring to the Dec 16 gang-rape of a young woman in Delhi, she said the outrage "has also made both the public and the government to join heads together to have fruitful interaction in this regard".

She demanded that proper attention be given on training to improve professionalism in police forces and to enhance operational efficiency.

It is all very well for the above two personalities to talk of Policing changes.

But the first change should be that the police be made free of political interference.

Will they do that?

The party in power depends on the police, CBI, ED, IT departments to smother dissent from opposition political parties.

See how it has used these tools against Mayawati and Mulayam Singh.

If they truly want the police to work, it should be made independent like the Judiciary and the Election commission.

That the government will never allow.

Classroom Socialists

An economics teacher at a local school made a statement that he had never failed a single student before, but had recently failed an entire class. That class had insisted that Gillard/Brown socialism worked and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer.

The teacher then said, "OK, we will have an experiment in this class on the Gillard/Brown plan". All grades will be averaged and everyone will receive the same grade so no one will fail and no one will receive an A .

After the first test, the grades were averaged and everyone got a B. The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy. A s the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied even less and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too so they studied little.

The second test average was a D! No one was happy.

When the 3rd test rolled around, the average was an F.

As the tests proceeded, the scores never increased as bickering, blame and name-calling all resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for the benefit of anyone else.

To their great surprise, ALL FAILED and the teacher told them that socialism would also ultimately fail because when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great, but when government takes all the reward away, no one will try or want to succeed. It could not be any simpler than that.

These are possibly the 5 wisest sentences you'll ever read and all applicable to our government:

1. You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity.

2. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving.

3. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else.

4. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it!

5. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that is the beginning of the end of any nation.

Kolkata intellectuals demand action in Park Street rape case

Kolkata, Feb 5 (IANS) A section of city intellectuals took to the streets Tuesday to protest the government's "inaction" in the alleged Park Street rape case.

They were protesting the government's apathy in the case, which Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had called a "cooked up" incident.

Painter Samir Aich, educationist Sunanda Sanyal, writer-social activist Bolan Gangopadhyay and former Naxalite Asim Chatterjee were part of the march that began from Mahatma Gandhi's statue on Mayo Road. Police stopped the march near Park Street in the heart of the city.

Hundreds of people, including Congress leaders led by its state president Pradip Bhattacharya, participated in the protest.

"The incident was not cooked up as Mamata Banerjee had claimed. It was a true incident. Two of the accused are still free. It has been a year.

The culprits should be arrested and proper punishment meted out to them. That is why we are marching to the Park Street police station to file a deputation," Aich said.

An Anglo-Indian woman was allegedly raped at gunpoint in a moving car in the early hours Feb 6 by five men who abducted her from Park Street area.

The incident - and comments by Banerjee and some of her ministerial colleagues - had triggered a furore across the country. Later, the police officer who played a leading role in cracking the case, was shunted to a low profile posting.

Charges are to be framed Feb 19 against the three arrested. Two others, including the prime accused, continues to be at large.

"There has been no change in the state of affairs. This political culture has to change. The chief minister has to change," said educationist Sunanda Sanyal.

The protestors slammed the administration for stopping them before they could enter Park Street.

"We were blocked at Kyd Street just before Park Street. Police did not offer us any explanations. We were stopped at the same spot in 2007 when we had brought out a protest march after the Nandigram (in east Midnapore district) violence. Regimes change but the attitude of the administration remains the same," academician and social activist Miratun Nahar said.

When the head of a state, the Chief Minister, states that a case is concocted, how can you expect the police to solve it?

Wouldn't it be a slap on the face of the CM.

The police will do all that is possible to delay the case so that the CM may be proved right.

A woman is a woman's worst enemy.

The worst rape case occurred in Delhi where Sheila Dixit is the Chief Minister.

Delhi too holds the record for maximum number of rapes.

West Bengal, where a woman Chief Minister rules, comes second.

What conclusion can you draw?

Women are not fit to be Chief Ministers for under their reign, women suffer the most.

Woman in distress gets no help from police

New Delhi, Feb 4 (IANS) A 45-year-old woman was forced to lead a drunken man to a police station here after Delhi Police failed to respond to her distress call.

The accused, identified as Anand, 28, tried to molest the woman when she was taking an evening walk Sunday at Lodi Gardens, police said Monday. The accused was beaten up by some people who collected there after hearing the woman scream.

The woman told police that she got no help from the Delhi government's Women Helpline Number 181 while the Police Control Room failed to rise to the occasion.

She said repeated calls to 181 elicited no response.

A police officer blamed the woman for apparently not providing her exact location.

Why is it that the police always find some excuse to hide their incompetence?

Court slaps cheating charges against Kalmadi, 9 others

New Delhi, Feb 4 (IANS) A Delhi court Monday formally slapped charges of forgery and cheating against former Commonwealth Games Organising Committee chief Suresh Kalmadi and nine others in a corruption case related to the 2010 Commonwealth Games. The BJP welcomed the move and sought action also against Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit for alleged lapses.

The 10 accused were present in the special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court when Judge Ravinder Kaur framed the charges. All accused are at present out of prison on bail.

The court order came in a case against Kalmadi and his associates, including former Organising Committee secretary general Lalit Bhanot, in the case related to financial irregularities in awarding a Rs.141 crore contract for time, scoring and records system for the Games.

The court earlier passed the order for framing the charges for illegally awarding the Rs.141 crore contract to Swiss firm Swiss Timing Omega that caused a loss of over Rs.90 crore to the exchequer. Kalmadi was arrested in the case April 26, 2011.

The court had said that prima facie charges of cheating, forgery, criminal conspiracy under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and offences under the provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act were made out.

The court said: "Charges under Section 120B (criminal conspiracy), 201 (destruction of evidence), 420 (cheating), 467, 468, 471 (relating to forgery), 506 (criminal intimidation) of the IPC and Section 13(1)(d) read with Section 13(2) (criminal misconduct by public servants) of the PC (prevention of corruption) Act are ordered to be framed against all the accused."

The CBI, in its first charge sheet, described Kalmadi, who is a Lok Sabha member, as the prime accused and the mastermind in the corruption case related to financial irregularities in awarding the contract.

Besides Kalmadi and Bhanot, the other accused in the case are the Organising Committee's former director general V.K. Verma, former director general (procurement) Surjit Lal, former joint director general (sports) A.S.V. Prasad and former treasurer M. Jayachandran.

Promoters of two construction companies - P.D. Arya and A.K. Madan of Faridabad-based Gem International and A.K. Reddy of Hyderabad-based AKR Constructions - are also accused in the case. Swiss Timing Omega is an accused too.

Welcoming the court order, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) sought to know if action would also be taken against Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit for alleged irregularities during the 2010 Games.

"While the BJP welcomed the belated charge-sheeting of Suresh Kalmadi", it would like to know about the other recommendations of the committee, which was constituted by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to examine the entire CAG (Comptroller and Auditor General) report pertaining to the Commonwealth Games, BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad told reporters here.

The V.K. Shunglu Committee had in 2011 blamed Delhi Lt. Governor Tejinder Khanna and Dikshit for procedural violations and inadequacies in executing projects related to the Commonwealth Games.

At last the strongman of the Indian Olympic Association is being charged.

Kalmadi's status as Member of Parliament should be cancelled and all his privileges which go along with the status should be withdrawn.

This is so he does not influence the case.

The same procedure should be followed in all future cases involving MPs and MLAs.

One nabbed in Mumbai's Rs.1 crore e-banking fraud

Mumbai, Feb 2 (IANS) One accused was arrested Saturday and a hunt launched for 11 others in connection with a Rs.1 crore illegal transfer from a businessman's bank account here, police said.

"We have arrested one person in this connection and are on the lookout for another 11 who are suspected to be involved in this fraud," Additional Police Commissioner (East) Quaiser Khalid told IANS.

The financial crime - considered to be among the biggest online banking and business fruads - took place Thursday in Mulund in north Mumbai.

Ankur Korane, 29, a director in a cosmetic company, suspected something amiss that morning when he received 12 SMSes informing him of debits of Rs.12 lakh, Rs.5 lakh, Rs.15 lakh and other amounts totalling Rs.1 crore.

After the first two messages, Korane asked his bank to freeze his account but was told to furnish a police complaint.

Korane went to Mulund police station and lodged his complaint of cheating, fraud and impersonation.

Police said that the Rs.1 crore siphoned off from his account was transferred to 12 different bank accounts all over India.

Investigators suspect that Korane's e-banking details may have been stolen to perpetrate the fraud.

Shri. G. Gopalakrishna Chief General Manager-in-Charge Department of Banking Supervision Reserve Bank of India Centre I, World Trade Centre Cuffe Parade Mumbai-400 005..

Dear sir,

I would like you to go through the report below.

You will agree that it shows red-tapism in the extreme.

RBI has mandated that all banks should sent an SMS to the account holder if any money is debited from his account.

I receive these SMS from my bank, HDFC Bank, even if Rs 1000/- is withdrawn through debit card, credit card or even an ATM.

If we receive such SMS and feel that the withdrawal is unauthorised, we are supposed to inform the bank, immediately.

If the bank, who is supposed to freeze the account, then tells us to furnish a police complaint then the very purpose for which the SMS is sent by the bank is defeated.

In this case, if the bank had taken immediate action when the person informed the bank after the second SMS, then the loss would have been limited to only RS 17.00 lakhs, By not taking action, the loss was extended to Rs 1.0 crore.

I would request you to take action on the bank concerned and recover the money from them and also impose exemplary punishment so that this type of behaviour is not repeated.

Yours sincerely,

Radheshyam Sharma

188, Bangur Avenue,

B-Block,

Kolkata – 700055

A French journalist on Hindu terrorism

Quite an inspiring and thought provoking piece, and that too from a foreign journalist

HINDU TERRORISM

Posted on January 22, 2013 by François Gautier

Is there such a thing as ‘Hindu terrorism’, as Home Minister Shinde is heavily hinting at?

Well, I am one of that rare breed of foreign correspondents — a lover of Hindus! A born Frenchman, Catholic-educated and non-Hindu, I do hope I’ll be given some credit for my opinions, which are not the product of my parents’ ideas, my education or my atavism, but garnered from 25 years of reporting in South Asia (for Le Journal de Geneve and Le Figaro).

In the early 1980s, when I started freelancing in south India, doing photo features on Kalaripayattu, the Ayyappa festival, or the Ayyanars, I slowly realised that the genius of this country lies in its Hindu ethos, in the true spirituality behind Hinduism.

The average Hindu you meet in a million villages possesses this simple, innate spirituality and accepts your diversity, whether you are Christian or Muslim, Jain or Arab, French or Chinese.

It is this Hinduness that makes the Indian Christian different from, say, a French Christian, or the Indian Muslim unlike a Saudi Muslim.

I also learnt that Hindus not only believed that the divine could manifest itself at different times, under different names, using different scriptures (not to mention the wonderful avatar concept, the perfect answer to 21st century religious strife) but that they had also given refuge to persecuted minorities from across the world—Syrian Christians, Parsis,Jews, Armenians, and today, Tibetans.

In 3,500 years of existence, Hindus have never militarily invaded another country, never tried to impose their religion on others by force or induced conversions.

You cannot find anybody less fundamentalist than a Hindu in the world and it saddens me when I see the Indian and western press equating terrorist groups like SIMI, which blow up innocent civilians, with ordinary, angry Hindus who burn churches without killing anybody.

We know also that most of these communal incidents often involve persons from the same groups—often Dalits and tribals—some of who have converted to Christianity and others not.

However reprehensible the destruction of Babri Masjid, no Muslim was killed in the process; compare this to the ‘vengeance’ bombings of 1993 in Bombay, which wiped out hundreds of innocents, mostly Hindus. Yet the Babri Masjid destruction is often described by journalists as the more horrible act of the two.

We also remember how Sharad Pawar, when he was chief minister of Maharashtra in 1993, lied about a bomb that was supposed to have gone off in a Muslim locality of Bombay.

I have never been politically correct, but have always written what I have discovered while reporting.

Let me then be straightforward about this so-called Hindu terror.

Hindus, since the first Arab invasions, have been at the receiving end of terrorism, whether it was by Timur, who killed 1,00,000 Hindus in a single day in 1399, or by the Portuguese Inquisition which crucified Brahmins in Goa.

Today, Hindus are still being targeted: there were one million Hindus in the Kashmir valley in 1900; only a few hundred remain, the rest having fled in terror.

Blasts after blasts have killed hundreds of innocent Hindus all over India in the last four years.

Hindus, the overwhelming majority community of this country, are being made fun of, are despised, are deprived of the most basic facilities for one of their most sacred pilgrimages in Amarnath while their government heavily sponsors the Haj.

They see their brothers and sisters converted to Christianity through inducements and financial traps, see a harmless 84-year-old swami and a sadhvi brutally murdered.

Their gods are blasphemed.

So sometimes, enough is enough.

At some point, after years or even centuries of submitting like sheep to slaughter, Hindus—whom the Mahatma once gently called cowards—erupt in uncontrolled fury. And it hurts badly. It happened in Gujarat. It happened in Jammu, then in Kandhamal, Mangalore, Malegaon, or Ajmer. It may happen again elsewhere.

What should be understood is that this is a spontaneous revolution on the ground, by ordinary Hindus, without any planning from the political leadership.

Therefore, the BJP, instead of fighting over each other as to whom should be the next party president, or who will be their PM candidate for the 2014 elections, should do well to put its house together. For it’s evident that the Congress has decided on this absurd strategy of the absurd, the untrue, the unjust, the treacherous, only to target Mr Narendra Modi, their enemy number One.

It should also fight the Untrue with Truth: there are about a billion Hindus, one in every six persons on this planet. They form one of the most successful, law-abiding and integrated communities in the world today.

Can you call them terrorists?

Let the BJP compile a statistics of how many Hindus were killed by Muslims since 1947 and how many Muslims by Hindus. These statistics will speak by themselves.

Francois Gautier

Quite an inspiring view.

We have only one party in India which was supposed to take care of the Hindus views.

However, of late it has become so much mired in CORRUPTION that people have become disillusioned with it.

It was the only party which allowed the Hindus to say "GARB SAY KAHO HUM HINDU HAI", "Say with Pride that I am a Hindu"

The Muslim can wear his skull cap whenever he wants and nobody to question him of being communal but if the wears his saffron rope, he is called communal.He wears his pagri very apologetically.

Why do we have to bend over backwards to prove our secular credentials.

All Muslim countries have driven out people of other religions and anybody saying anything against them is accused of blasphemy and sent to jail or given whipping.

It is only in India that the Muslim population which was 10% during partition in 1947 has now become 25%.

If the Muslims are so worried of their status in India, why are they multiplying by coming over the border.

In contrast, Kashmir, a state in India has decimated the Hindu population from over 10 lakhs in 1947 to hardly a hundred now. The BJP would have been the only party which could have helped the Hindus but their tendency to receive with open arms defectors from other parties like Congress, BSP, SP which are all turncoat parties has destroyed the BJP.Now there is no difference between the BJP and the others.

Their tendency to rake up the Ram Mandir during election time is self defeating. They have already milched that cow and its udders are now shrunk.

People are now more interested in bread and butter issues.

We are more interested in how clean a government you give us. How you root out corruption.

The Lokayukta controversy of Manohar Parrikar, the Goa Chief Minister has done more harm to the BJP than anything else.

Now, the only hope for the people of India is Arvind Kejriwal's AAP.

Kejriwal targets Sheila Dikshit on power discoms

Targeting the Sheila Dikshit government, activist Arvind Kejriwal Friday alleged that power distribution companies in the capital "fudged" their records and "committed fraud" to show losses in their revenue while actually making profits.

The Aam Aadmi Party chief also claimed that Delhi [ Images ]ites are paying two times the electricity bills they should actually be paying.

He accused Dikshit of stopping the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission from passing an order in 2010 which recommended 23 per cent reduction in the tariff.

"The then DERC chief Brijender Singh was to pass an order on May 5, 2010 but the Delhi Government wrote a letter to Brijender Singh on May 4 under pressure from discoms and stopped him from issuing the order," he told a press conference in New Delhi.

Reacting to the allegations, Dikshit's office termed them as "bunch of lies". "The allegations are a bundle of lies," her office said.

Power Minister Harun Yusuf said Kejriwal was trying to "sensationalise the issue as he did not say anything new".

"The allegations are totally baseless. The tariff order he was referring to was not signed by all the three members of the DERC. So you cannot call it a tariff order. Even Delhi high court had held that it was not a DERC order," Yusuf told PTI.

Circulating copies of the letter written by Joint Secretary (Power) S M Ali on May 4 to Singh, Kejriwal said the order had concluded that discoms were making "huge profits" and that the power tariffs in the capital should be reduced by 23 per cent rather than increased.

"The power companies had projected Rs 630 crores of losses for the year 2010-11 and they wanted electricity tariffs to be increased to recover that. However, Singh had concluded that they would make profits of Rs 3,577 crores which if passed on to the consumers would result in 23 per cent reduction," Kejriwal alleged.

"Why did Dikshit issue such an order? Only she can answer the question," Kejriwal said adding that she brought an official perceived to be close to her who "turned a blind eye to all the fraud committed by the discoms owned by Tatas and Ambanis".

Claiming that DERC itself had held that the discoms had fudged records, he alleged that BSES Yamuna and BSES Rajdhani owned by Anil Ambani [ Images ] group were showing zero bills for a number of consumers including the DelhiAirport and the Delhi Jal Board.

"These were done to show losses. Can anyone believe that Delhi Jal Board does not consume power at all? This was done to show losses," he alleged.

The AAP convenor demanded that FIRs for alleged cheating be registered against the discoms.

"Brijender Singh's tariff order should be implemented and the excess money charged from consumers in the last 3 years should be refunded to them," he demanded.

Kejriwal also demanded that the chief minister immediately give her nod for performance and financial audit of discoms by the CAG and sack the current chairman of DERC.

He also claimed that the BJP did not raise these issues despite having proof by not doing justice to its role as Opposition party.

Yusuf said the DERC headed by Berjinder Singh had made calculations on assumptions that power would be available from newly built power plants at low rates. But actually those plants could not generate power as per expectation due to various reasons.

"In last 10 years, there has been 83 per cent hike in power tariff against 137 per cent increase in power purchase cost. We always tried to be very transparent," said Yusuf.

Yusuf said Delhi government did not have any problem with CAG audit of accounts of the distribution companies.

"We have filed an affidavit in the Delhi High Court favouring CAG audit of discoms' account. The court is yet to come out with its order on the issue," he said.

Our governments are in the habit of denying any wrong-doing until it is forced out of them.

Remember the 2G and CWG scams.

Remember how the central government continued to deny any wrong doing until the Supreme Court started monitoring the case.

These politicians are a bunch of liars and the bureaucrats just parrot what the masters tell them.

I agree with Kejriwal.

This should be handed over to CAG for audit and then to the Supreme Court to monitor the action being taken.

Delhi is full of crooks as it is the crook and rape capital of India.

Panaji, Feb 1 (IANS) Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar Friday asked for an apology from Justice Santosh Hegde for the former Karnataka lokayukta's criticism of controversial amendments to Goa's Lokayukta law.

Speaking to reporters at the secretariat here, Parrikar also said that he was willing to take Hegde "head on" in a Lokayukta debate.

"He should apologise for his comments," Parrikar said, a day after Hegde told local newspapers that the controversial amendments to the Goa Lokayukta law amounted to "dilution" of the act.

"Why have the Lokayukta at all," Justice Hegde said, adding that steep fines (to the tune of Rs.1 million) for "frivolous" complaints would also act as a deterrent for genuine complainants.

The amendments, which were passed in the state legislative assembly Thursday, sought hiking of penalty and even imprisonment for filing "false and frivolous complaints".

The amendments also allowed declarations of the Lokayukta to lapse if the chief minister's office does not take cognizance of the same in three months.

"I have respect for Hegde, but he should not be speaking to the media like this as a former Supreme Court judge," said Parrikar, who is already under fire from civil society for diluting the public ombudsman law.

Chief Minister of Goa

Dear Mr. Parrikar,

I read with disgust the above which came to my mail box through Yahoo.

I don't know whether to laugh at you or to pity you.

In school we had read the story of a doting mother who observed her son in a school sports March past and remarked astonishingly, "See, my Johnny is the only one marching correctly. All the other boys are out of step" You are acting like Ravana who considered himself right and all his other brothers including Bibhishan wrong when they criticised him for kidnapping Sita.

By the way, your action too is very like Ravana's.

I pity you.

This single action has destroyed all the good will you had built up till now and made the BJP a laughing stock, just like the Congress.

Congratulations!

You and B S Yeddyurappa have done more to revive the fortunes of the Congress than they would have been able to do it themselves