Even Somnath Bharti's Tweets are not acceptable by some

Delhi law minister Somnath Bharti’s night-outs continued on Wednesday. Only this time, his action helped someone.

Bharti reportedly helped an accident victim at the IIT flyover late on Wednesday night which he also tweeted about later.

While the man in his early twenties was sent to the AIIMS Trauma Centre, a debate raged on Twitter between those appreciative of Bharti’s intervention and the others wondering why he had to put it out in a tweet.

"It was around 11 pm that Bhartiji and others were going in a car. We saw a man on a scooter hitting the wall at IIT flyover. He tumbled four-five times and landed in the centre of the road. The minister immediately stepped out and helped pull the man away," said an official from Bharti’s office.

The victim named Bharat was sent to the trauma centre in an autorickshaw along with an AAP volunteer. "We called the police and Bhartiji went to see him at the Trauma Centre later," the official added. This time, they did not have a problem with the police. "They arrived with an ambulance shortly after," he said.

Messages blessing Bharti soon started pouring in. "@attorneybharti god bless," tweeted Deepti Sutaria. Others wanted him to be focused and tide over the controversy he created by attempting to ‘bust a sex and drug racket’ in Khirki Extension earlier this month. "their blessing will b there for u always....keeping going with ur gud job without lookg back," tweeted Sumi (@sumisududharm).

However, others criticised him for ‘advertising’ his actions. They questioned him on what he had done to bring reforms in governance and judiciary. "S. Bharti has done good but by Tweeting, did he expecting credit, what about accepting responsibility 4his earlier actions," tweeted Dr Mallikarjun Abrol (@mallikarjun456).

"His ego is on display in all his actions! Silly initiative to fool the people! Zero governance 100% Farzilokpal," DelhiMuse responded. According to records at the AIIMS Trauma Centre, the victim was discharged around 2 am on Thursday after treatment for nasal bleeding.

George Bernard Shaw was a very good dramatist and he knew he was good and he saw to it that the world too knew he was good.

Once he was pulled up by one of his well-wishers, "Why do you blow your own trumpet?".

GBS replied, "If I don't blow my own trumpet, who will blow it for me?".

The same can be said of Bharati.

We cannot expect the paid and blinkered media to praise Bharti for any of his good deeds.

They are just waiting for an opportunity where he may falter and then they will be on his throat again.

So naturally, Bharti has to let us know by Twitter when he performs a good act. Its a good idea.

The next time he plans to go on a raid, he could telephone the police before going on raid and then if police do not take action, post it on Twitter.

Just watch how fast the police move.

Arvind Kejriwal's AAP to field more than 350 candidates in 2014 Lok Sabha polls

Arvind Kejriwal's Aam Aadmi Party will field more than 350 candidates in the general elections due by May, with a focus on challenging politicians accused of crimes, the party said today.

The priority, AAP said after a meeting of its national executive in Delhi, will be to field candidates against 162 legislators that it alleges have "criminal backgrounds."

Until now the party had not said how many of the 543 Lok Sabha seats it might contest in an election pitting the Congress-led UPA coalition against the BJP's Narendra Modi. Only the two major parties have fielded those many candidates in recent national elections.

Following the year-old anti-graft party's strong performance in the Delhi election last month, interest in AAP has surged. Since the announcement earlier this month that it would contest the general election, its membership, it claims, has passed 1 crore.

While surveys and polls have suggested that AAP is unlikely to win more than a dozen or so seats, its success in Delhi has shaken up the national race, with both Mr Modi's BJP and the Congress aping AAPs anti-elite, anti-corruption language. (AAP fails to stir enthusiasm in Modi's Gujarat)

Even a small clutch of seats for the AAP could be enough to deny Mr Modi a chance at forming a government, and could give AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal, who is the Delhi chief Minister at the head of a minority government, a say in national policy.

"The most important thing is there are a large number of cabinet ministers who have indulged in corruption, they need to be defeated," Mr Kejriwal had said in a recent interview to Reuters.

He did not say how many, or which, government ministers would be a target.

In the last parliamentary election in 2009. politicians accused of crimes had a higher success rate.

How long will the Govt. continue to cheat the people in the matter of Gas cylinders?

Congress Party's anti-people policies exposed by cap on unlimited LPG cylinders: BJP New Delhi, Jan.30 (ANI): The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday criticized the ruling Congress Party for increasing the cap on subsidized LPG cylinders from 9 to 12, saying that it was the Congress' policy to put a cap on the initial unlimited subsidized cylinders. BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar claimed people are very angry with the Congress party's anti-people policies.

"This is ridiculous that the Congress today will increase the subsidised gas cylinder from 9 to 12. It used to be unlimited, and you (Congress) made it 6. So people are asking who made it 6? Now you (Congress) want people to clap for your decision to increase from 6 to 9 and from 9 to 12?" he questioned.

"People are not fools, and they know who made unlimited number of subsidized cylinders to 6. This is the Congress anti-people policy. And so people are angry and will be up against the Congress in the coming days," he added.

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) is likely to consider raising the quota of subsidised LPG cylinder from nine to 12 per household.

Earlier on January 17, Union Petroleum Minister, Veerappa Moily announced that the quota of subsidised LPG cylinders will be hiked to 12 from 9 per household.

Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi had made a demand to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at the January 17 AICC meet to increase the cap on subsidised cooking gas cylinders (LPG) from 9 to 12 per household. (ANI)

The Congress action in increasing the number of cylinders reminds me of the discounts offered by traders during festivals.

First they increase their prices and then offer discounts.

The Congress party first reduced the number of cylinders to six.

Then increased it to nine.

Any now propose to increase it to twelve.

While I believe one cylinder per month is normally enough for a household having four members but where more than one family live in a household it is not sufficient.

In 2011 I lived with my two sons and their families (total 8 members) and a cylinder lasted about 20 days.

I had to buy cylinders at market rates on a number of occasions.

In 2012, one of my sons has moved out with his family, because of his work and I would again have had to buy gas at the market rates as I would have exhausted my allowable 9 cylinders.But if it is increased to 12, I will be safe.

Instead of capping cylinders just blindly, they should make it dynamic.

According to the number of persons in the family, the number of cylinders should be made variable.

Cooking gas is no more a luxury, it is a necessity as all other fuels like coal (dirty), kerosene(distribution) have become a problem.

The government just fools the people by saying that the oil companies are subsidizing the cylinders.

It is the government which these oil companies are subsidizing for more than 60% of the cost of each cylinder is taken by the government by way of various taxes.

The Imbecile Strikes again

Mumbai/Pune: Even as Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) continues with acts on vandalism at toll booths in the state, the Pune Rural police has registered two FIRs against party chief Raj Thackeray and others for instigating violence.

The FIRs have been lodged for vandalism at the Khed-Shivapur toll plaza on National Highway towards Satara and at the Kavadi Pat toll plaza on Pune-Solapur highway.

Yesterday, Mumbai police detained at least 25 MNS activists after they vandalised a toll booth at the Rajiv Gandhi Bandra-Worli sea link.

Police in Rajgad and Loni-Kalbhor towns in Pune district booked Thacekray and 17 others for instigating violence and abetting rioters who have been vandalising toll booths in different parts of the state.

Cases have been filed also in connection with toll-booth violence on the Pune-Bangalore highway in the past couple of days in which some state transport buses were damaged.

The attacks on toll booths run by the government or authorised private agencies were launched Sunday night in at least eight cities across the state.

Over the past few days, more than 70 political activists have been taken into custody even as Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan and Home Minister RR Patil appealed against violence and targeting of toll booths.

Reports said that the Maharashtra cabinet may take a decision on reducing toll rates at a meeting today.

The latest attack came after a speech by Raj Thackeray, who called upon people to refuse to pay toll and oppose any force by toll collectors and not bother about traffic jams resulting from their protests.

There are 145 toll booths in the state, including 28 run by the National Highways Authority of India, 61 by the Maharashtra State Roads Development Corporation and 56 by the Maharashtra Public Works Department.

Initiated during the Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party regime in 1995, the daily average collection at each toll booth is around Rs 9-10 million, contributing significantly to the state exchequer.

I have always considered Raj Thackeray a mentally retarded who, as P G Wodehouse would have said, was dropped by his nurse at birth.

The way he holds Mumbai to ransom every now and then, is a fit case of booking a place for him in the mental asylum in Ranchi or Agra.

Unfortunately, the Congress party finds use for him in driving fissures in the Shiv Sena and thus does not put him behind bars.

How can any civilized society tolerate his utterances is beyond my comprehension?

Has the Delhi Commission for Women post become politicised?

New Delhi: The Delhi Commission for Women chief Barkha Singh made serious allegations against the Aam Aadmi Party government on Wednesday, accusing them of threatening her to force her out of the panel.

Singh, who has been at loggerheads with the Arvind Kejriwal government over action against law minister Somnath Bharti, accused the government of targeting her as she had not paid heed to their diktats.

“They (AAP) talk of providing safety to women; when Women Commission's chairperson has to undergo such atrocity,how will other women be secure? They are harassing me,” she said.

“What did I do? I only tried to redress the grievances of the women who came to me. I just did my duty. They are doing just because I summoned Somnath Bharti?” she said.

“It is a constitutional post, only the Lt Governor can remove me. Won't be scared by such things,will meet LG, demand Somnath Bharti's arrest,” added Bharkha Singh.

DCW had summoned Bharti over allegations that he had last week led a group of AAP workers on a raid against some African women in south Delhi after claiming they were involved in a drug and prostitution racket.

Bharti had been asked to depose before the commission this afternoon, but he sent his lawyers instead who explained that the law minister was absent due to "some urgencies".

Barkha Singh later warned that if Bharti didn't appear in person at the DCW office, she would write to Lt Gov, seeking an FIR against him over the alleged misbehaviour with Ugandan women during the midnight raid at Khirki Extension.

AAP, in a statement, has said that it "strongly disapproves of the politicisation of the Delhi Commission for Women by its chairperson".

Somnath Bharti had also accused the DCW of being a political organisation, saying that Barkha Singh's action was politically motivated as “she was a Congress member”.

The above episode just shows that constitutional post should not be politicised.

Unfortunately, our political leaders have politicised everything, right from the President so DCW politicisation is very minor. That is why when these personalities utter something, which is to carry weight, nobody pays any attention to them.

Barkha Singh above has been uttering just what the Congress has been saying so there is no point in paying attention to her.

The opposition and the media is just harping on Bharti's visit to Khirki but do not say anything of what led him to do that.

Rahul Gandhi faces rough weather in Amethi

Lucknow, Jan 28 (IANS) Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi is not finding the going easy in family bastion Amethi.

As he prepares for the Lok Sabha election, there are enough indications that the Aam Aadmi Party's (AAP) entry into the electoral battle has upset the Congress calculations. There is also infighting within the Congress. And Uttar Pradesh's ruling Samajwadi Party is shedding its friendly face to throw a challenge to the Gandhi scion.

While Gandhi supporters may not yet admit it openly, there are enough signs that they are worried in the face of the gauntlet thrown at them by AAP's poet-politician Kumar Vishwaas.

The 'AAP effect' is already evident.

Two-term MP Gandhi, the Congress campaign chief for the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, last week not only mingled freely with Amethi's people but offered a ride to a woman in his SUV.

He even interacted with the local media, which in the past would be kept at arm's length by the Special Protection Group which guards Gandhi.

Not to stop at this, Gandhi, after reaching New Delhi, sent family loyalist and union Surface Transport Minister Oscar Fernandes to Amethi to study the state of roads in the constituency.

Fernandes was also told to take "corrective measures".

This happened after a series of black flag protests Gandhi faced in Amethi.

Close aides and local Congress leaders concede the contours of the electoral fight had changed after the AAP foray. "We cannot ignore him," a Congress functionary told IANS, pointing out that Kumar Vishwas was harping on the lack of development. This is finding takers here.

"Kumar Vishwas' charge that he sees no real development despite Rahul Gandhi's claims of spending Rs.55,000 crore here is lapped up," a party source told IANS.

There have also been street protests against a grim power scenario and poor roads in the Munshiganj, Injauna, Jagdishpur and Gauriganj areas.

The Congress fears that slogans of "road nahin to vote nahin' (no roads, no votes) that echoed in Karaundi village in Amethi earlier could revive.

In the 2009 Lok Sabha election, Gandhi bagged 4.64 lakh votes -- or 71 percent of all votes. But just three years later the Congress won only two of the five assembly seats in Amethi.

In Rae Bareli, Congress president Sonia Gandhi's Lok Sabha constituency, the Congress could not win any of the five assembly seats. Camping in Amethi for over two weeks, Kumar Vishwas dares Gandhi at every meeting he holds.

"I am here to be with you and not to take your vote and fly off to Delhi," he says.

"I am nothing compared to Rahul Gandhi. He comes from a famous family; I have modest background," Kumar Vishwas told IANS. "I am here to challenge a work culture in politics that takes voters for granted."

Another problem with the Congress is the rivalry within, with the party split between Gandhi loyalists and supporters of Sanjay Singh of the erstwhile Amethi royal family.

The ruling Samajwadi Party too might pitch a candidate against Gandhi - unlike in the past when it did not take on the Gandhis. Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav has promoted Gayatri Parasad Prajapati and Manoj Pandey, state legislators from Amethi and Rae Bareli Lok Sabha constituencies, to the Uttar Pradesh cabinet.

Prajapati told IANS that Rahul Gandhi had lost the goodwill of Amethi. He was also dismissive of the AAP. The Bharatiya Janata Patty has also got into the act. "We will pit strong candidates against political heavyweights," says Vijay Bahadur Pathak, the BJP state spokesman.

A Child finds God's Wife

Author and lecturer Leo Buscaglia once talked about a contest he was asked to judge.

The purpose of the contest was to find the most caring child.

The winner was:

1. A four-year-old child, whose next door neighbor was an elderly gentleman, who had recently lost his wife.

Upon seeing the man cry, the little boy went into the old gentleman's' yard, climbed onto his lap, and just sat there.

When his mother asked him what he had said to the neighbor, the little boy just said, 'Nothing, I just Helped him cry.'

*********************************************

2. Teacher Debbie Moon's first graders were discussing a picture of a family.

One little boy in the picture had a different hair color than the other members.

One of her students suggested that he was adopted.

A little girl said, 'I know all about adoption, I was adopted..'

'What does it mean to be adopted?', asked another child.

'It means', said the girl, 'that you grew in your mommy's heart instead of her tummy!'

*********************************************

3. On my way home one day, I stopped to watch a Little League base ball game that was being played in a park near my home. As I sat down behind the bench on the first-base line, I asked one of the boys what the score was 'We're behind 14 to nothing,' he answered with a smile.

'Really,' I said. 'I have to say you don't look very discouraged.'

'Discouraged?', the boy asked with a puzzled look on his face...

'Why should we be discouraged? We haven't been up to bat yet.'

*********************************************

4. Whenever I'm disappointed with my spot in life, I stop and think about little Jamie Scott.

Jamie was trying out for a part in the school play.

His mother told me that he'd set his heart on being in it, though she feared he would not be chosen.

On the day the parts were awarded, I went with her to collect him after school.

Jamie rushed up to her,eyes shining with pride and excitement.. 'Guess what, Mom,' he shouted, and then said those words that will remain a lesson to me....'I've been chosen to clap and cheer.'

*********************************************

5. An eye witness account from New York City , on a cold day in December, some years ago:

A little boy,about 10-years-old, was standing before a shoe store on the roadway, barefooted, peering through the window, and shivering with cold.

A lady approached the young boy and said,'My, but you're in such deep thought staring in that window!'

'I was asking God to give me a pair of shoes,' was the boy's reply.

The lady took him by the hand, went into the store, and asked the clerk to get half a dozen pairs of socks for the boy.

She then asked if he could give her a basin of water and a towel.

He quickly brought them to her.

She took the little fellow to the back part of the store and, removing her gloves, knelt down, washed his little feet, and dried them with the towel.

By this time, the clerk had returned with the socks.

Placing a pair upon the boy's feet, she purchased him a pair of shoes.

She tied up the remaining pairs of socks and gave them to him.

She patted him on the head and said, 'No doubt, you will be more comfortable now..'

As she turned to go, the astonished kid caught her by the hand, and looking up into her face, with tears in his eyes, asked her:

'Are you God's wife?'

*********************************************

The above was sent by Arun Shroff

Who will speak for Neha Yadav? The burnt Girl

Few of Delhi’s journalists will know where Sagarpur in West Delhi is, but they do know where Khirki village is (in the heart of elite South Delhi, next to a mall, and famous for a fancy art studio). This past week, they have gone on and on about Khirki for good reasons, but ignored Indira Park. In both places, the new Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government in Delhi tried to prove a point. It blundered in Khirki, so the media has gone after it. Black and white narratives demand ignoring the other side of the story. For the media, the AAP can be either heroic or evil. Complexity is bad for target rating points (TRPs).

But Neha Yadav would be grateful to the AAP, even as she lies in Safdarjung Hospital with 45 per cent burns. Her six-year-old son wakes up remembering the horror of seeing his mother being set on fire by her in-laws. The burns on her neck, chest and waist are so severe that she may not survive. Even after 11 years of marriage, she was being harassed for dowry; the real reason being that they wanted her to leave the house and divorce the husband so he could marry someone else. The local police knew about this case because neighbours had told them of the continuing torture and harassment of Neha Yadav. And yet, when Neha Yadav was set ablaze, the police was so lax that it let the in-laws flee (for, some allege, a bribe).

This is nothing extraordinary for policing by South Asian standards, except that in another place, the protesting neighbours and Neha Yadav’s parents could have gone to the local legislator and the chief minister, or just the local representative of the ruling party and put pressure on the police. Except that in Delhi, the ruling party does not control the police. The Delhi chief minister (CM) is India’s only CM who does not control the police. The Delhi police reports to the Ministry of Home Affairs. Since Delhi is the capital and Delhi police has to guard the embassies and ensure Barack Obama’s security when he comes, Neha Yadav must suffer police apathy. That is the argument the Congress party’s pathetic Sushilkumar Shinde has made.

India’s feminist movement has a long history of struggle against bride burning, but that didn’t help Neha Yadav. I don’t see any of Delhi’s feisty feminists protest or express outrage for Neha Yadav, let alone the insensitive TRP-hungry media. That’s because they have all decided that the AAP is evil, and the evil party intervened in the Neha Yadav case and made sure the police was forced to find the absconding in-laws.

Another intervention the AAP government made in Khirki village was to ask the police to nab African migrants indulging in trading drugs and prostitution. Laws against narcotics and trafficking of women do not require a warrant, yet it has been falsely said that the AAP was asking the Delhi police to conduct raids without warrants. But the AAP’s law minister did say racist things against Africans, and this is indeed a case of the AAP pandering to local racist sentiment against Africans, and it does show dangers of ‘giving power to the people’. It is great pressure from the media and activists that is making the AAP rethink the dangers of eulogising ‘the people’ as though the people can’t be wrong.

But even so, does the AAP not deserve credit for thinking about Neha Yadav, and for generally showing up Delhi police’s apathy to citizens, and making the point that the police force of a city of 16 million people should be answerable to its citizens and not to the central government? Ah, no. That would be giving the AAP too much credit.

The pro-establishment media and intellectuals are too uncomfortable with the AAP changing the old order. The old elite are unhappy their powers are going away. Obviously, the home ministry does not want to lose control of the Delhi police. Who wants to give up any powers? So let us find a stick or two to beat the AAP with, until we discredit it enough that nobody wants the home ministry to let the Delhi police be accountable to Delhi’s residents.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 24th, 2014.

Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal is star attraction at President's At Home

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, dressed casually in a simple maroon pullover and his trademark muffler around his neck, was the centre of attraction at President Pranab Mukherjee's At Home reception on the occasion of Republic Day on the expansive lawns of Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi on Sunday.

After President Mukherjee greeted the guests, mingling among the gathered dignitaries, bureaucrats and ambassadors, the people soon realised that the city's new chief minister was in their midst. A crowd soon formed around Mr Kejriwal, with people jostling to get closer and introduce themselves. Some foreign dignitaries too approached him to speak to the bureaucrat-turned-activist-turned-politician, whose every move makes news.

Mr Kejriwal answered queries posed to him patiently, explaining the motive behind the sit-in by him and his ministers last week and also defended his Law Minister Somnath Bharti's recent actions and utterances which has drawn him and the Aam Admi Party government a lot of flak from all sides.

As one group of people left, another group gathered around the chief minister. Even after most guests had left, Mr Kejriwal still had a crowd around him. Prodded by some about the president's Republic Day address comment that "populist anarchy cannot be a substitute for governance", Mr Kejriwal had a simple answer "Let's have a debate on the subject".

There were some people taking photographs of the chief minister on their mobile phones, though mobiles were a strict no-no at the function. Among those clicking him was a Congress party worker from Madhya Pradesh, Kazi Aasif-uddin, a zila Congress committee worker and part of the minority cell of the Congress in the state. Mr Kazi admitted he was an admirer of Arvind Kejriwal.

The reception, which was attended by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, saw several union ministers in attendance, including External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid, Finance Minister P. Chidambaram and Defence Minister A.K. Antony.

Somnath Bharti, who has attracted flak for his midnight raid on African nationals in South Delhi's Khirki Extension over an alleged "drugs and prostitution racket", walked in to the reception a little late and also attracted crowds. Dressed in a blue kurta, Mr Bharti had a tough time justifying the raid to some media persons.

According to the President's Press Secretary Venu Rajamony, the crowd at Sunday's At Home was much bigger than earlier. President Pranab Mukherjee too spent more time mingling with guests this time. After he took over, President Pranab broke from tradition to mingle with guests instead of just restricting himself to a cordoned VIP section.

AAP expels rebel legislator Binny

New Delhi, Jan 26 (IANS) The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Sunday expelled rebel legislator Vinod Kumar Binny, who has been criticising the party's Delhi government.

A party statement said the decision was taken by a disciplinary committee set up after Binny went to press with complaints against the Arvind Kejriwal government.

"This disciplinary committee has decided to expel Vinod Kumar Binny and terminate his primary membership from the party, for publicly making false statements against the party and its leadership, thereby bringing disrepute to the party," it said.

Binny, who defeated A.K. Walia, the health minister in the Sheila Dikshit government, from the Laxmi Nagar assembly constituency in east Delhi, had attacked his party and the government for allegedly backtracking on the promises made in the election manifesto, including on water and power sectors.

He also threatened to go on a hunger strike at Jantar Mantar Jan 27.

AAP leaders countered his charges saying he was upset about not being given a ministerial berth in Delhi cabinet.

A disciplinary committee was formed by AAP on Jan 19, headed by party national secretary Pankaj Gupta.

The other members of the committee included Ashish Talwar, Illyas Azmi, Yogendra Yadav and Gopal Rai.

Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader V.K. Malhotra meanwhile said Binny would be welcomed if he wants to join the BJP.

"If he (Binny) comes to BJP, we will welcome him," Malhotra told news channel Times Now.

Mr. Binny thought he became bigger than the party when Arvind Kejriwal started quoting his example in "Swaraj" which AAP was promoting.

I suppose he thought he could bring in the Congress/BJP culture of ayaram-gayaram in the AAP.

I am sure all AAP volunteers will be happy at his exit.

Good riddance to a misfit.

As is their expertise, the BJP has already welcomed him.

Harry Potter and the Order/Anarchy of the Aam Aadmi.

Do stories, especially stories of wizards and witches have any to do with real life?

Here is one of our volunteers explaining how Harry Porter stories work in the present context in India.

Radheshyam

Hi Everyone,

While most of us have already got used to spotting biased/paid media coverage, I think it has been particularly pervasive lately. And it has to be so since the stakes are now going national level with Lok Sabha elections coming.

So, we've been seeing the President warning people against 'anarchy', our Finance minister is using/abusing Davos forum to voice the same opinion and so on. Kejriwal is being called: mad, item girl etc. etc. Because obviously there is no evil worse in India right now other than him. Mocking and ridicule has taken the center stage rather than any discussion on real issues.

Such attacks aren't exactly a new tactic. They follow set patterns and sometimes it's funny to see how uncannily these patterns have been recorded in literature.

After seeing yet another social media post/video mocking Kejriwal, got reminded of this part of the political parable 'Harry Potter and the Order of Phoneix' where the fictional government is running a subtle campaign against Harry Potter to discredit him. In this extract, Hermione explains to Harry how the smear campaign is being run.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Pg. 73-74.

....

Not if you've only been reading the front page, you wouldnt, said Hermione, shaking her head.

I'm not talking about big articles. They just slip you in, like you're a standing joke.

What d'you ?

Its quite nasty, actually, said Hermione in a voice of forced calm.

They're just building on Ritas stuff.

But she's not writing for them anymore, is she?

Oh no, she's kept her promise not that she's got any choice, Hermione added with satisfaction. But she laid the foundation for what they're trying to do now.

Which is what? said Harry impatiently.

Okay, you know she wrote that you were collapsing all over the place and saying your scar was hurting and all that?

Yeah, said Harry, who was not likely to forget Rita Skeeters stories about him in a hurry.

Well, they're writing about you as though you're this deluded, attention-seeking person who thinks he's a great tragic hero or something, said Hermione, very fast, as though it would be less unpleasant for Harry to hear these facts quickly. They keep slipping in snide comments about you. If some far-fetched story appears they say something like a tale worthy of Harry Potter and if anyone has a funny accident or anything its lets hope he hasn't got a scar on his forehead or we'll be asked to worship him next

I don't want anyone to worship Harry began hotly.

I know you don't, said Hermione quickly, looking frightened.I know, Harry. But you see what they're doing? They want to turn you into someone nobody will believe. Fudge is behind it, Ill bet anything. They want wizards on the street to think you're just some stupid boy who's a bit of a joke, who tells ridiculous tall stories because he loves being famous and wants to keep it going. ....

Reminds us of something?

P.S:

Such campaigns work, and that's why are repeatedly used. (After all, the fake sting tapes, Anna controversy creation and other underhanded tactic did help opposition in reducing AAP's projected 47 seats to 28 actual seats in only few months. That was quite an effective smear campaign.)

In the book, the campaign continues for a long time. Many characters who were earlier close to Harry began doubting him and even apolitical normal people around him distrust him heavily.

How does it end?

How does it end in literature and how -as history often shows- does it end in the real life? Well, it ends through the facts.

It's up to Arvind to continue tackling the real issues, to make AAP's promises to become facts, and it is up to us to continue keeping a close watch and to act accordingly.

Saiba Kataruka

President's comments on 'anarchy' a larger message on Indian politics, says Aam Aadmi Party

In a hard hitting address to the nation on the eve of Republic Day, President Pranab Mukherjie said on Saturday that popular anarchy cannot be a substitute for governance.

Without taking the name of Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal, who earlier this week staged a two-day dharna outside Rail Bhavan against the Central government, he was critical of Mr Kejriwal's style when he said "elections do not give any person the license to flirt with illusions".

"Government is not a charity shop. Populist anarchy cannot be a substitute for governance. False promises lead to disillusionment, which gives birth to rage, and that rage has one legitimate target: those in power," the President said.

"Equally dangerous is the rise of hypocrisy in public life. Elections do not give any person the license to flirt with illusions. Those who seek the trust of voters must promise only what is possible," he added.

Speaking to NDTV after the President's address, Aam Aadmi Party leader Yogendra Yadav claimed that Mr Mukherjee's address to the nation is being misinterpreted and that he must have bigger issue in mind.

"I am sure the President meant the larger situation in the country. The country faces challenges of authoratism and dynasty politics. To say that President's address targets AAP is an attempt to insult the dignity of President's office," Mr Yadav said.

Mr Kejriwal and his cabinet colleagues had staged a dharna outside Rail Bhavan in New Delhi defying prohibitory orders demanding action against some policemen. They ended it after two policemen were sent on leave.

The President said the rage will abate only when governments deliver what they were elected to deliver: social and economic progress, not at a snail's pace but with the speed of a racehorse.

Aspirational young Indians, he said, will not forgive the betrayal of their future. Those in office must eliminate the trust deficit between them and the people. Those in politics should understand that every election comes with a warning sign: perform or perish.

Mr. Yogenda Yadav may have been lenient on the President since he is a perfect gentleman in his interviews. We all respect him for that.

The President now say that "elections do not give any person the license to flirt with illusions".

He and his ilk in parliament had once asked Arvind and India Against Corruption to fight elections and come to parliament if they wanted to pass laws.

Now that they have done that, he has raised the bar further.

He talks of the government not being a charity shop, then how has his ilk allowed lakhs of crores to be pilfered by politicians and their cronies. From where did the money come?

If we could just save the money so pilfered, there is just no shortage for all that Arvind is planning.

Unfortunately, the President is part of the system which is the cause of the degeneration of India and any advise he gives will be just to prolong the degeneration of India, unless he can breakaway completely from the Congress Party. But seeing that he has taken the help of the Congress to make his son an MP, there is no such hope.

SO WHAT HE HAS SAID IS JUST BULLSHIT FOR PUBLIC CONSUMPTION.

AAP holds broom yatra across Gujarat to take on 'anti-people and pro-corporate' Narendra Modi

Making their foray into Gujarat, the Aam Aadmi Party launched what it called a 'jhadu' or broom yatra across the state on India's 65th Republic Day.

In Ahmedabad today, the yatra was led by TV journalist-turned-politician Ashutosh who said the intention behind the campaign was to highlight the "anti-people and pro-corporate stand" of the Narendra Modi government.

The yatra to be taken out in all the 33 district headquarters in the state will culminate at Gandhinagar on January 30 with a rally near Mahatma Mandir, a monument in memory of Mahatma Gandhi.

The AAP is now finalising plans to put up its candidates in all the 26 Lok Sabha seats in Gujarat, Mr Modi's home turf. The Arvind Kejriwal-led party held a two-day state level core committee meeting recently in which strategies for contesting the polls were worked out.

The AAP announcement has given a new twist to the battle for Lok Sabha, so far seen as a direct contest between the BJP and the Congress.

Though recent opinion polls give the BJP a clear edge in the general elections, due by May, experts say the rise of AAP, buoyed by its success in Delhi and currently engaged in an ambitious membership drive recruiting several high-profile members, might upset the forecasts.

Mr Modi has recently been seen attacking the rookie Aam Aadmi Party in his speeches, which is a departure from his precision ambush on the Congress and its top leaders with a particular surname.

In a rally earlier this month, Mr Modi slammed AAP for its "lack of experience" and said the country needed "people who have experience to take it forward."

Ten Things To Disappear In Our Lifetime.

This is USA oriented, but Canada & the rest will not be far behind.

Whether these changes are good or bad depends in part on how we adapt to them. But, ready or not, here they come.

1. The Post Office

Get ready to imagine a world without the post office. They are so deeply in financial trouble there is probably no way to sustain it long term. Email, Fed Ex, and UPS have just about wiped out the minimum revenue needed to keep the post office alive. Most of your mail every day is junk mail and bills.

2. The Cheque

Britain is already laying the groundwork to do away with cheque by 2018. It costs the financial system billions of dollars a year to process cheques. Plastic cards and online transactions will lead to the eventual demise of the cheque. This plays right into the death of the post office. If you never paid your bills by mail and never received them by mail, the post office would absolutely go out of business

. 3. The Newspaper

The younger generation simply doesn't read the newspaper. They certainly don't subscribe to a daily delivered print edition. It will go the way of the milkman and the laundry man. As for reading the paper online, get ready to pay for it. The rise in mobile Internet devices and e-readers has caused all the newspaper and magazine publishers to form an alliance. They have met with Apple, Amazon, and the major cell phone companies to develop a model for paid subscription services.

4. The Book

You say you will never give up the physical book you hold in your hand and turn the literal pages. I said the same thing about downloading music from iTunes. I wanted my hard copy CD. But I quickly changed my mind when I discovered I could get albums for half the price without ever leaving home to get the latest music. The same thing will happen with books.

You can browse a bookstore online and even read a preview chapter before you buy.

And the price is less than half of a real book. And think of the convenience!

Once you start flicking your fingers on the screen instead of the book, you find you are lost in the story, can't wait to see what happens next, and you forget you're holding a gadget instead of a book.

5. The Land Line Telephone

Unless you have a large family and make a lot of local calls, you don't need it anymore.

Most people keep it simply because they've always had it. But you are paying double charges for the extra service. All the cell phone companies will let you call customers using the same cell provider for no charge against your minutes .

6. Music This is one of the saddest parts of the change story. The music industry is dying a slow death. Not just because of illegal downloading. It's the lack of innovative new music being given a chance to get to the people who would like to hear it. Greed and corruption is the problem. The record labels and the radio conglomerates are simply self-destructing. Over 40% of the music purchased today is "catalogue items," meaning traditional music the public is familiar with, older established artists. This is also true on the live concert circuit.

To explore this fascinating and disturbing topic further, check out the book,

"Appetite for Self-Destruction" by Steve Knopper, and the video documentary, "Before the Music Dies."

7. Television

Revenues to the networks are down dramatically. Not just because of the economy. People are watching TV and movies streamed from their computers. And they're playing games and doing lots of other things to take up the time usually spent watching TV. Prime time shows have degenerated down to lower than the lowest common denominator. Cable rates are skyrocketing and commercials run about every 4 minutes and 30 seconds.

I say good riddance to most of it. It's time for the cable companies to be put out of our misery. Let the people choose what they want to watch online and through Netflix.

8. The "Things" You Own

Many of the very possessions we used to own are still in our lives, but we may not actually own them in the future. They may simply reside in "the cloud." Today your computer has a hard drive and you store your pictures, music, movies, and documents. Your software is on a CD or DVD, and you can always re-install it if need be. But all of this is changing. Apple, Microsoft, and Google are all finishing up their latest "cloud services." It means when you turn on a computer, the Internet will be built into the operating system. So, Windows, Google, and the Mac OS will be tied straight into the Internet.

If you click an icon, it will open something in the Internet cloud. If you save something, it will be saved to the cloud. And you may pay a monthly subscription fee to the cloud provider. In this virtual world, you can access your music or your books, or your whatever from any laptop or handheld device. This is the good news. But, will you actually own any of this "stuff" or will it all be able to disappear at any moment in a big "Poof?" Will most of the things in our lives be disposable and whimsical? It makes you want to run to the closet and pull out a photo album, grab a book from the shelf, or open up a CD case and pull out the insert.

9. Joined Handwriting

Already gone in some schools who no longer teach "joined handwriting" because nearly everything is done now on computers or keyboards of some type (pun not intended)

10. Privacy

If there ever was a concept we can look back on nostalgically, it would be privacy. It's gone. It's been gone for a long time anyway.. There are cameras on the street, in most of the buildings, and even built into your computer and cell phone. But you can be sure 24/7, "They" know who you are and where you are, right down to the GPS coordinates, and the Google Street View. The TV show "Person of Interest" isn't as far out as you may think. If you buy something, your habit is put into a zillion profiles, and your ads will change to reflect those habits.. "They" will try to get you to buy something else. Again and again.

All we will have left with, and can't be changed, are "Memories"

Sent by Jimmy Keir

A Letter to the NCW ladies by Porf.U K Chowdhury

To

Madhu Kishwar, Kavita Krishnan, Kamayani Bali Mahabal, Sukla Sen, Shabnam Hashmi, DELHI.

Dear all the honorable ladies who have launched a protest against Minister Somnath Bharti,

I had read the Open Letter from some of you and many other women's organizations and also then last night saw two channels (NDTV and CNN-IBN) air two programs from that locality of the incident (Malviyanagar, Kirkee Extension). Since I am not a Delhi resident, I asked one of my former students, Karan Rajpal, aged 29 years, now a mid level manager with a leading communication consulting company and resident of Malviyanagar, about the issue, to which he forwarded me his facebook post (copy-pasted at the end of this email).

As both the television stories from the spot and also the third story (IBN 7) of the mother of the half-burnt woman of Sarupnagar whose culprits were not initially arrested neither FIR allowed to be lodged initially, show: ALL the affected people (and the programs show a huge number of them) are UNIVOCALLY condemning the police inaction in both these incidents and considering the work of the two ministers (Somnath Bharti and Rakhi Birla) heroic, and their CM’s protest in their interests and bold!! The Sarupnagar culprits were arrested only on the second day of the Protests by Delhi govt.

Exactly the local affected people have the opposite of the views of ALL of you, none of you being the aggrieved party. A few affected people of Kirkee and the girl’s mother told the same point a few times, “Those who have never faced a situation as we have today would speak in all high-flown moral terms without knowing the pain of being ignored by the Police when we need their action most.”

I am NOT a resident of Delhi, NOT in any way related to these ministers (never met them or Kejriwal) and not an activist of AAP.

But common sense and known people in Delhi tell me that Police in Delhi has been highly compromised on issues of women safety, sex and drug rackets, and indulged in petty corruption of collecting haftas etc. And, Sushmaji and Sheilaji also talked about state govt’s police control as in other states (BJP, Congress and AAP talk about this and complete statehood in their manifestos). It seems to an outsider like me that they talked and the new govt is WALKING the talk.

If Bharti has spoken the derogatory sentences (of racial difference with Africans or spitting on the leaders etc), it is highly deplorable, no question of holding any brief for this, and none of us should. However, no video footage has been aired by the media ON THESE two talks. His party has chided him, hence, I believe his words must have been wrong even though we have not seen the footage of the same.

The only footage all of us have seen repeatedly that Bharti is asking the Police officer to raid the house where he and residents feel sex-drug racket going on. And this is by itself NOT wrong when for two years last (as repeatedly told in the two programs and complaint letters shown on TV), local Resident Welfare Association leaders have been complaining against the racket there to which no action was taken (you do not need two years to get a warrant), and NO WARRANT is needed for cases of narcotics abuse (some of you are law-graduates and would know what I am saying), and finally, an ACP rank officer (who was there at the spot) can cordon off an area/house where such a thing is allegedly going on, get warrant in two hours and conduct a raid otherwise too.

None of these were done. And no blood tests were done. Urine tests were done with a gap of 6-7 hours. There are ways of going out of alcohol effect in those many hours. And drugs can only be understood through blood test

In spite of all of these FACTS as noted above, not opinions, and the voices of the affected people in both cases, you all choose to ignore them and bay for the blood of Bharti, Birla and Kejriwal. Then, either you have POLITICAL reasons (as Ms Kishwar may have being a declared Modi-admirer like Kiran Bedi) OR are genuinely misguided (which I do not think being educated and socially very active ladies that you all are) OR are paid by opponents of AAP (like a part of the media) which also I find little tough to believe (may be true for some), OR most probably, just seeking your 30 seconds of fame each time a camera approaches you!! And, since your views help the paid media to put up its case, they are USING you repeatedly.

Most of you are left-leaning persons. My family has been a left voter in Bengal, and an elder cousin of ours has been a Naxalite leader of North Bengal later killed by the Bengal Police of Siddharth Shankar Roy govt. He was our role-model. I have participated in movements of the left forces connected to price-rise, Safdar Hashmi killing, anti-nuclear protests and Narmada Bachao movement earlier in life.

I am shocked with your stand, in spite of most of you being leftists. Bharti’s wrong words withstanding (I have no proofs of that though), the cause they all are fighting for MUST be close to your heart too. Do you want another Nirbhaya case? If you are so concerned about some African women (in this case, actually ONLY THOSE involved in drug-sex racket), why are you not even more concerned once about the gang-raped Danish woman which was the third case they were protesting about? And, is the issue here racialism or drug-sex racket? Obviously, NO BODY says all Africans are bad (just out of context mention: one of the best friends of mine is Tafesse Sahelle, MIDROCK Communication Director in Ethiopia, who was my batch-mate in International Relations Masters in Jadavpur University long back, and an accomplished black gentleman).

Leftists are expected to be WITH people, and some of you were there in the TV programs from Malviyanagar and have SEEN the anger of the local people (ALL THERE) against the police inaction on this issue for last two years in spite of repeated protests. If suppose one of you were an MLA instead of Rakhi or Somnath and your people would have come to you with these issues and history of these, in case of Bharti, repeatedly, what would you have done facing an inactive and compromised police?

It is the failure of left forces in representing people’s issues and take up cudgels against corrupt Congress and communal-dictatorial BJP that has given rise to AAP. As pro-people intellectuals and activists, you should rather welcome the battle for pro-people pro-active Police (first in state govt command in the short run, as in every other state of India, and then professional and independent Police through Police Reforms).

I still have faith in your sagacity and commitment to people, so writing this email you all. Hope that you at least think twice. You are NOW being seen in one line with Congress, BJP and the paid media! And your complete silence on the issues of Danish rape victim and the burn-victim, the other two cases of the three protested against, further shows your selective judgment and points to a political method in your stand!!

I have nothing more to say. I thought this is an opportunity for women’s organizations to take up the issue of women’s safety in a major way. But you are stuck with Bharti’s words, and not the substantive issue of women’s safety, at all. And most of the so-called wrong words of Bharti have not been proven by any video yet….

Thanks and regards

UKC/Kolkata

Prof Ujjwal K Chowdhury

Senior Consultant with New Business Age-Abhiyan Group, Kathmandu.

President, Advisory Board, Whistling Woods School of Communication, Mumbai

Former Director, Symbiosis Institute of Media & Communication & Dean, SIU, Pune.

Former Media Adviser, Textiles Ministry, GOI; The Nippon Foundation; and WHO, India.

POST FROM Karan Rajpal, resident of Malaviyanagar:

Karan Rajpal (to all who are blatantly ridiculing AAP today): You're here to troll everyone who raises a point for the AAP. Drugs and other paraphernalia wasn't found because the Police did not gherao the area as they should have. Under the Narcotics act, they didn't even need a warrant any way. No blood tests were conducted, hence nothing could be proven. The minister you castigate so ruthlessly walked up to a door, and asked how much, and was given a rate. Everyone in the neighbourhood knows what's happening.

Also, the ground situation of the ghetto in Malviya Nagar is as unknown to you as the atrocities in Central Africa, where many of these folks emigrate from to save their lives. Most of them are extremely poor and trafficked to our country, else they would have chosen a first world country. So prostitution, narcotics and other illegal means of earning a livelihood exist, as they do in weaker sections of our society.

Delhi Police caught with their pants down

New Delhi: Just few minutes after the Aam Aadmi Party made public a shocking Youtube video showing two Delhi Police constables beating a civilian, senior officers swung into action and suspended three policemen over the incident.

The accused policemen were posted at the Civil Lines police station. A departmental inquiry has been ordered into the incident which will be headed by a ACP level officer.

Delhi Police Commissioner BS Bassi reacted strongly over the incident and added that police brutality will be strictly dealt with. "We will not tolerate any such incident. We will inquire about this video," he said.

AAP dug out a 12-day old video from Youtube in which two Delhi Police officials are shown beating up a man. The video shows the constables beating the man near Lal Quila in north Delhi. The party claimed that the video also establishes that police officials indulge in corruption. In a bid to mount pressure on the Union Home Ministry to bring Delhi Police under the Delhi government's purview, the AAP released the video saying the behaviour of police officials was inhuman. AAP has asked why the Union Home Ministry, under which the Delhi Police functions, failed to check their actions.

"Not only does the video clearly shows Delhi Police's inhuman behaviour but also the urban legend of police extorting money is caught on camera. This video was shot by a vigilante near Lal Qila and will the Home Minister (Sushil Kumar Shinde), under whom Delhi Police comes, make sure that action is taken against these policemen," asked party members while releasing the video.

The Delhi Police and the AAP government are at loggerheads after some police officials refused Law Minister Somanth Bharti's demand to conduct raids to bust an alleged prostitution and drug trafficking racket at Khirki Extention in south Delhi.

Another rape in Mamata Banerjee's government

Kolkata, Jan 24 (IANS) In yet another incident of a kangaroo court "justice", a rape victim in West Bengal's Burdwan district was offered Rs.1 lakh to "settle the issue" and not to approach the police.

The woman, a resident of Purbasthali in the district, 90 km from Kolkata, refused to budge and following her complaint her attacker was arrested Thursday and remanded in judicial custody.

"He (accused) used to repeatedly rape me, and threatened to kill my son and husband if I opened my mouth. But, I later confided in my husband who then related the incident to the villagers. The villagers then assembled to do justice and offered me Rs.1 lakh to settle the issue," said the woman.

But, the woman filed a complaint with the police who arrested Inai Mallick - an insurance agent - and presented him in court which remanded him in judicial custody.

"I want punishment for him. I want to see him hanged. That is why I filed the complaint," said the woman. She also alleged the police turned her away when she initially approached them.

Burdwan Superintendent of Police S.M.H. Meerza, however, rubbished the woman's claim of police inaction. "We promptly arrested the accused after the woman filed the complaint. We interrogated him for hours and then presented him before a court which remanded him in judicial custody," said Meerza.

This case comes close on the heels of the brutal gang rape of a 20-year-old tribal woman Monday night allegedly on the orders of a kangaroo court in Subalpur village of Birbhum district, 180 km from Kolkata. The abhorring mass rape of the woman evoked nationwide outrage. The woman was allegedly violated by over a dozen men after the village kangaroo court held her "guilty" of having an affair with a man outside her community. As many as 13 people have now been arrested for the incident.

Bihar to dismiss 70 corrupt officers

Patna, Jan 24 (IANS) The Bihar government has decided to dismiss 70 corrupt officers, and more will be sacked in the coming weeks, an official said Friday.

Chief Secretary A.K. Sinha has given the go ahead for the dismissal of the 70, an official in the Chief Minister's Office said.

Official sources told IANS that most officers facing the sack were caught red handed while accepting bribes.

The process to dismiss them was initiated after departmental proceedings proved the charges against the officials.

Nearly 10 days ago, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar demanded that inquiries against corrupt officers should be expedited and they should be dismissed from service within two months if found guilty.

In the last two days, the Economic Offences Unit of Bihar Police raided two corrupt officers in Patna and detected assets worth crores of rupees with them.

The effects of the AAP Tsunami is being felt from Rajasthan, Punjab, Maharashtra and now Bihar.

What India Against Corruption could not achieve, AAP has done by just winning the Delhi elections and the fear of the political parties in the coming assembly elections.

One thing I would like to ask Mr. Nitish Kumar.

You have so far taken actio Have your ministers suddenly become honest or are you scared of taking action against them?

Arvind Kejriwal must acknowledge, rectify mistakes, writes Justice Santosh Hegde

(Justice N Santosh Hegde has served as a Supreme Court judge and the Lokayukta of Karnataka. He was part of the core team that led the India Against Corruption movement, demanding the new anti-graft Lokpal law)

The Aam Aadmi Party was created out of the India Against Corruption team. I remember having a long chat with Arvind Kejriwal around the time he decided to form the party. He wanted to be a part of the system to change it. I have never wanted to join politics, so I wished him luck and told him that I would continue to remain a watch-dog and be critical of parties including his when they made mistakes.

I felt existing political parties had developed strong roots and become big trees. They got too complacent. In that background, I thought there was a need for an alternative to be brought about to attempt to bring the change. The hope was that AAP would take a different path.

AAP did surprisingly well in the Delhi elections and at that time I thought in a democracy, it is the responsibility of the party given a chance by voters to form the government, even if it means by taking support from another party. There is nothing wrong with that, if values are not compromised.

So I did not find the alliance with the Congress problematic.

But after AAP took over the administration, things went wrong one after another. The manner in which they took some decisions, and some of the decisions they took, were arbitrary. Many of them can be described as unconstitutional. The SMS poll they held asking people whether they should form the government was also strange.

That is not the way it works.

But there was also a lack of consistency in the stand of the Delhi Chief Minister on government accommodation, official cars, etc.

Now, what happened with the African women was totally illegal. None other than the Law Minister, who is a lawyer, took the law into his own hands. Things have to go as per the criminal procedure code. If a police officer does not cooperate, you go to a higher officer. If that doesn't work, go to a court. What authority does he have to ask a few people who are not even part of the government to handover women to the police? This is not public interest. It is illegal. The women say they were illegally confined. Then came allegations on how they were assaulted. How can a law minister do this?

Then came the big mistake. The Dharna. The Chief Minister, apart from other duties, also has constitutional obligations. The CM is signing files, takes decisions in matters of administration of the capital sitting on a footpath? Didn't he take the oath of secrecy? Isn't he violating the law? I find this childish. This shows arrogance of power. If this is the way they want to govern Delhi, they may as well conduct another referendum to see what the public thinks.

Kejriwal can still rectify and deliver as the Chief Minister.

I hope he rectifies his mistakes, acknowledges them. He must go on and discharge the duties of CM.

Just some youngsters supporting him is not enough, some elderly like me too need to be heard.

Dear Justice Hegde,

I have been a great admirer of yours but here I do not agree with you.

Since you have been part of the system, you would like Kejriwal and Bharti to go according to the system. But our existing political parties and bureaucrats have destroyed the system and nothing short of an operation would do.

Sheila Dixit had spent 15 years trying to rectify the system with her party in power during the last 10 years. Was she able to do it?

Kejriwal's two days dharna has brought the focus on what is ailing the Delhi police. In future, let us hope, the Delhi police will think twice before refusing a request from the public. That was the aim of the Dharna.

I would suggest you read an article written written by Avay Shukla by an IAS officer who retired in 2010. I have posted the article on our blog http://goethals1907-2007.blogspot.in/ for you to read. I am of the opinion that both Bharti and Arvind were correct in doing what they did.

KEJRIWAL’S DELHI DHARNA – THIS IS NOT ANARCHY, MR HOME MINISTER, THIS IS REVOLUTION

What we are witnessing in Delhi today is historic – for the first time since Independence a legitimate political party has refused to play by the rules that all political parties in India have battened on for sixty-five years; for the first time a State Government has taken on the Central Government at its own doorstep; for the first time a Chief Minister and his entire Cabinet are sitting in protest in their own capital; for the first time their own police force is ranged against them in their thousands.

The immediate reason for this may be the demand for the suspension of five police officials, but the actual reason is more basic, and fundamental to any democracy — accountability of the rulers to the ruled.

The rulers are not just the politicians and the bureaucrats – they are also the larger constituency that benefits from the present status quo: the industrialists, the TV and news organisations, the “cognoscenti”, the “glitterati”, the South Delhi socialites, the “intelligentsia” that makes a nice living by appearing nightly on TV panel discussions: in short, all those who are comfortable with the status quo.

They have, with the assistance of disgruntled elements like Kiran Bedi and Captain Gopinath, unleashed a veritable barrage of abuse and condemnation against Kejriwal and his party over the last week, terming him a Dictator, Anarchist, Chief Protestor, Law-breaker and so on.

It is because they feel genuinely threatened by the forces that the AAP has unleashed, the ethical standards that it has prescribed and demonstrated, the personal examples that its leaders have shown. Because they know that if these paradigms become the norm of a new India then the sand castles that these privileged reside in shall come crumbling down in no time.

And so they accuse Kejriwal of not following prescribed conventions, protocol or procedure and thus encouraging anarchy. Let us look at just three of these alleged transgressions:

1. Law Minister Somnath Bharti asking for a meeting of judicial officers of Delhi. What is improper about this? Isn’t the judiciary a part of the government – funded, staffed, appointed by the state.

Yes, it is operationally independent of the government (as it should be) but it is certainly not a holy cow whose performance cannot be questioned, or monitored, by the people of this country through their elected representatives.

The judiciary is meant to serve the people, just as the bureaucracy is, and it cannot have internal accountability only. An elected government has to have the right to review its performance, especially given the pathetic state of the disposal of cases in courts.

In my view Mr. Bharti was within his rights to take a meeting of judicial officers to assess the shortcomings of the system (which is the first step to removing these shortcomings). Yes, he could have routed the request through the High Court, but this was a trivial error and certainly not the grievous violation that the media made it out to be.

To the contrary, the Law Minister should be lauded for his initiative in seeking to address the issue instead of washing his hands of it as ALL LAW MINISTERS OF THIS COUNTRY HAVE DONE SO FAR, as if the collapse of the judicial redressal system was no concern of the government!

2. Subsidies on water and power to small consumers in Delhi (something for which Kejriwal has been contemptuously branded a populist). Really?

The Central Government dishes out more than 160000 crores worth of subsidy every year on just three schemes (Mid-day Meals, MNREGA and Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan). Just about every state gives subsidies on water and power.

Here’s something Mr. Arnab Goswami and his kind should consider: the Golf Club in New Delhi which has about 4000 privileged members (all of whom are now arraigned against Kejriwal) has been given 250 acres of the most expensive real estate in the country worth 60000 crores for a paltry lease of about Rs. 15 lakhs per annum.

The annual return on Rs. 60000 crores should be at the very least Rs. 6000 crores: in effect, what this means is that every member of the Golf Club is being given a subsidy of Rs. 1.50 crores every year! The same is the case with the Gymkhana Club, another watering hole for the rich, the famous, and the now scared.

According to the latest report of the RBI, the total non-performing assets (NPA) of the Banks in India is more than Rs. 1.60 lakh crores.

NPA is just a euphemism for what the Vijay Mallyas and the Captain Gopinaths of the world owe to the aam aadmi (and refuse to pay) while flying all over the world in their private jets and pontificating in TV studios on the correct form of governance. Is it “populism” if indulged in by Kejriwal, and “entitlement” and “economic surge” when practiced by others ?

3. Somnath Bharti’s (Kejriwal’s Law Minister) mid-night visit to Khirkee village has generated so much misinformation, ignorance of the law, reverse racism and hypocritical harangues that it is sickening.

Shorne of all this, what does the entire incident amount to? Merely this: a Minister, in response to complaints by residents (which are on record, as is the police inaction on them for months) of a locality personally visits the spot and asks the police to take immediate action by raiding the building where illegal activities are taking place.

The police refuse and insult the Minister. This is the essence

All the rest – search warrants, lack of female police, racism, urinating in public, cavity search(!) [the latest addition to the shrinking vocabulary of Ms. Meenakshi Lekhi] etc.- are red herrings and a smoke screen which no doubt the judicial Inquiry Commission shall see through.

How was the Minister wrong in asking the police to take action? Is it a Minister’s job to simply sit in an air-conditioned office and write on files? (a question which Kejriwal has asked and to which we are still waiting for an enlightened response from Ms. Barkha Dutt and gang).

Does the police require a search warrant to enter a place where they have reason to believe that illegal activities are going on? Really, Mr. Salve?

If so, then how do you explain their barging into the house in the Batla House encounter and shooting three people, WITHOUT A SEARCH WARRANT? Or their constant nocturnal forays into the poor whore-houses of GB Road whenever they are short of spending money?

No, sir, the opposition to Kejriwal from the BJP and the Congress, from the Arnab Goswamis, Rajdeep Sardesais, the Barkha Dutts, the Kiran Bedis, from the Editors of English dailies, from the captains of industry, from the Single Malts and Bloody Marys of Gymkhana and Golf Clubs, does not stem from any illegality or impropriety on his part, or from any ideological differences between them.

It stems from their complete and total failure to comprehend what Kejriwal is and what he stands for. It stems also from the deep social divide between the upper crust of society( who are happy with the status quo where their money, power and contacts can ensure them a comfortable life) and the masses below them who have to daily bear the brunt of the system inspired corruption, harassment, inconvenience and indignity that the present dispensation guarantees them.

This (hitherto unacknowledged and invisible) divide becomes clear when we compare the editorial slants of the English and Hindi channels in the coverage of the ongoing protests: the former are virulently anti AAP and only pop up panelists who support that view, while the latter appear to be more understanding of what AAP is trying to do.

Those who are denouncing Kejriwal for being an autocrat, anarchist, activist and for protesting at Raisina Road are missing the most obvious point of his movement – THAT KEJRIWAL WILL NOT PLAY BY THEIR RULES ANY MORE.

As they say in Las Vegas – you can’t beat the house, because the dice are loaded against you. Everyone wants him to play with their set of dice which they mysteriously call the Constitution and the CRPC!) but Kejriwal wants to play with his own dice, hence the confrontation.

They want him to pass a joint resolution of the Assembly for bringing the police under the Delhi govt.-he’s smart enough to see that the resolution will be thrown into the same waste paper basket where presumably the Ordinance on protecting convicted MPs was consigned by Rahul Gandhi.

They want him to be a good boy and take his dharna to Jantar Mantar where all civilised protests begin and inevitably end, while the govt. of the day can get on with its gerrymandering uninterrupted-he knows that unless he disrupts the comfortable existence of the bourgeois he may as well relieve himself in the Yamuna for all the difference he will make.

They want him to sit in the Secretariat and be guided by his bureaucrats and lose all touch with reality- he won’t fall for this Pavlovian routine. They desperately want him to become one of them, red light, siren, gun-toting commandos, Lutyen’s bungalow and all- he knows that if he falls for this he loses his USP and becomes just an intern in this hoary club of gnarled sinners.

They want him to follow the script co-authored by all the political parties of the day, not one excluded, because this script contains an agreed-upon plot, wherein politicians make noises but don’t act against each other, wherein corruption is just a sound-bite, where dynastic succession is a silently accepted sine qua non, where no one is interested in finding out whether the hundreds of proved Swiss bank accounts contain anything other than Swiss chocolates – Kejriwal, however, wants to write his own script with substantial inputs from the aam aadmi, not from the Ambanis or the Radias or the Shobhna Bhartias.

They want him to talk about corruption but not do anything about it, something Manish Tewari’s poetic flair would term “willing to wound but afraid to strike”, an attitude as old as Chanakya and Kautilya which offers all of us a catharsis via the good offices of Arnab Goswami and little else- but Kejriwal is no respecter of Machiavelli or Chanakya, his vocabulary is limited because he can only call a spade a spade, he is colour blind because he can only see in black and white (the shades of greys can be left for the likes of Manu Singhvi), and therefore he insists on striking, not just talking.

Is there any cause for surprise, therefore, at why the present dispensation, both in and out of government, is rattled by this five foot four inch “insect” from Ghaziabad? He is neither fish nor fowl, he defies understanding.

The establishment has made the supreme mistake of trying to counter him by quoting the rules of the game (loaded in the former’s favour, naturally!) they are past masters of- but Kejriwal has changed the rules, and now they don’t know how to control him or neutralise him.

For the time being only Kejriwal knows the new rules, and he is springing them on the carpet baggers one by one, catching them by surprise all the time.

Forget the English TV channels-they rarely get anything right. Forget the Manish Tewaris, the Kiran Bedis, the FICCI spokespersons, the Minakshi Lekhis- they are either scared witless or rank opportunists. What they all do have in common, however, is that they have failed to see how the common man-the aam aadmi-are gathering behind this dimunitive man with the perpetual cough.

The sincerity, integrity and commitment of this man is phenomenal, his capacity to harness the anger and frustration of the people is limitless. His defiance of accepted conventions and interpretations is not anarchy – it is nothing short of a revolution. When the people have had enough of injustice, callousness and indignity, they will not play by the rules of the rulers-they will make new rules.

The French Revolution would not have happened if the existing rules had been followed. Tehrir Square would not have happened if everyone swore by the old rules. Changing the rules, Mr. Home Minister, is not anarchy – it is the beginning of a people’s revolution.

The sooner we realise this the less pain in the transition, the less violence. No matter how the stand-off in Delhi ends – capitulation by the Home Minister and the Police, withdrawal of support by the Congress, imposition of President’s Rule, police violence on the protesters and their eviction – one thing is certain: Kejriwal is going nowhere.

He, and his paradigms, are here to stay and haunt our rulers. With his uncanny understanding of the pulse of the people he has re-written the rules of politics and governance.

There are now only two options Kejriwal has left the ruling class – either they change, or the people will change them.

The above has been written by Abhy Shukla in his blog http://hillpost.in/2014/01/kejriwals-delhi-dharna-this-is-not-anarchy-mr-home-minister-this-is-revolution/97741/

Avay Shukla retired from the Indian Administrative Service in December 2010. He is a keen environmentalist and loves the mountains- he has made them his home.

Police, Rape and Government

The Aam Aadmi Party government led by their Chief Minister, Arvind Kejriwal, had gone on dharna for two days in Delhi to bring the police under the control of the State government as the police was not obeying the instructions of AAP ministers.

It has created quite a din with the Congress, the BJP and the media which supports either of these parties on one side and AAP on the other side.

A commission of enquiry has been set up to pin-point who was at fault, the AAP minister or the police which is under the central government.

However, while the commission is working it is worth pondering whether having the police under the state will bring the number of rapes down.

In West Bengal, we have the police very much under the state government rather too much under the state government. They are not allowed to do any work until they receive clearance from the government.

Rapists from the ruling party, TMC, roam about freely even after an FIR is lodged and threaten the victim and her family to withdraw the FIR or else disfigure her permanently with acid, murder family members or even rape the victim a second time.

So you see, having the police under the state government does not help unless the police is allowed to work. If the police is shackled with instructions on whom they should and whom they should not arrest, no police force can contain crime of any kind, leave alone rape.

So the question is not who should control the police but why should not the police work independently, honestly, efficiently?

This is what the media, the Congress, BJP and other people who are shouting hoarse are not realizing.

Somnath Bharati and Rakhi Birlan had to interfere as they did because the police were not doing their work.

It is not that these two went to the places without first informing the police.

It was only, when the police was not taking appropriate action, that they had to interfere.

Remember, a few months back, the police did not lodge an FIR of a woman who had been raped until the AAP volunteers forced the police to do so. Many AAP volunteers were even injured in that episode. But at that time there was no reaction from the media or anyone else because at that time AAP was considered a "monsoon insect".

The Delhi elections proved the media all wrong in their forecasts and they were festering under that wound and were looking for an opportunity to hit back.

AAP had said in the electioneering stages that they would not sit quietly if the police did not act to contain crime and especially crimes against women.

This was the first test case. In one case, a woman was being burnt by her in-laws and in another case locals had complained of a drugs and prostitution racket in their locality. In both cases, the respective ministers had first contacted the respective SHOs to act. It was only when the police failed to act that these ministers took it upon themselves to visit those areas. If the police had acted when the complaint came, they need not have gone there. But as is their practise, the police probably because they were receiving a cut from the drug business and the in-laws had bribed them, the police took their own time. Further, when women are involved in the drugs and prostitution racket, why didn't the police take lady constables along with them.

It makes no difference under whom the police is, whether State or Central government.

The police are to act even from a complaint of a common man.

Why should the minister have to interfere?

This is what AAP wants to instil in the minds of all the government staff.

The system should move by itself, without any push from ministers.

Why doesn't the media realize this?

Intentionally and knowingly they have allowed themselves to be misled by the BJP/Congress propaganda who are just interested in continuing the status quo so that they can continue to loot the people.

When the British came to India, it was the richest country in the world but continuous loot by the Afghans, Mughals, British, French, Dutch and now by our own politicians and bureaucrats has made India a Pauper.

Arvind is trying to reverse that but he is fighting against a system which controls the wealth, power and media of the nation and who would not like to loosen their hegemony of the system.

Manoj Kumar: Arvind Kejriwal is 47 years behind me

Veteran actor Manoj Kumar, who played powerful roles as the quintessential common man, says the Aam Aadmi government has to fulfill its promises as the youth have a lot of expectation from them.

The 76-year-old actor says he is happy to see an awakening in people, especially the youth. "The youth today are very aware and the public anger is simmering. I believe Arvind Kejriwal and his party is the first wave of Tsunami. For now, we don't know what is behind it, whether the current is strong. He has taken a step and now he has to fulfill the promises he made. Kejriwal is like a new shirt, he is yet to go through the wash," Kumar told PTI. Manoj Kumar says he has already portrayed the things that are happening in politics today in his films Yaadgaar and Upkaar.

"I played the common man and his rise through politics in my film Yaadgar years before Kejriwal came. He is 47 years behind me. In the film, I played a man who revolts and unmasks black marketers, bad doctors and even defeats the ex-king in elections. My character was a man working in a factory," Kumar said.

The actor, real name Harikrishna Giri Goswami, made his debut with Fashion in 1957 but found success with 1962 movie Hariyali Aur Raasta. In a career spanning more than four decades, Kumar starred in and directed hits like Upkaar', 'Purab Aur Paschim', 'Shor', '10 Numberi and Kranti. Mr Kumar credits his stardom to people but the actor is not very happy with the films that are being made today. "The race here is which picture is selected for the Oscar though no picture has won anything there. To make our cinema international, we first need to make national movies. I find there is no emphasis on story or emotions now.

"We used to guarantee at least one week to our producer and distributor. Today, the stars are charging crores but they can't guarantee even three days or the opening day houseful even though some of them are brilliant actors. Manoj Kumar says he made films on brain-drain, poverty and farmers' sufferings, topics that are still relevant. "My films are not the films of rich men, they are the films of the common man. As a responsible citizen, if you see the plight of your countrymen, it haunts you and then the bitterness comes to you. You wonder why this is happening.

"I made Purab Aur Paschim on brain drain. A song I heard in my school became Roti, Kapda Aur Makan. Upkaar was inspired by Shashtriji's (Lal Bahadur) slogan 'Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan'," Mr Kumar said.

The actor was born in Abbottabad (Pakistan) and came to Delhi after Partition before finally making it big in Mumbai film industry.

Walking down the memory lane, Mr Kumar recalled how being displaced during the Partition and the subsequent poverty that his family saw in Delhi shaped his experiences. "I remember my days in a refugee camp, being displaced during Partition and coming to Bombay. We saw riches in Lahore and saw poverty in Kingsway camp. Slowly we came up. But I have no regrets as those days enriched me and gave a lot of things to my films," Mr Kumar said.

The actor likes to keep himself busy despite a troubling back. Kumar says he will soon make a movie even though he would be forced to sit in a chair the entire time.

"I refuse to look back. My only worry now is my back, it is troubling me a lot but I am a restless man. I want to die with my shoes on. I want to make a film even if I have to sit on a chair the whole time," he says.

I agree with Manoj Kumar that Arvind Kejriwal is 47 years behind Manoj Kumar.

There have been many actors before Manoj Kumar and many actors after Manoj Kumar who have portrayed the role of an angry man fighting corrupt politicians, criminal and policemen but they have just remained as roles for the actors to earn money.

After, the picture, those same actors craved for awards from the same politicians and went off to entertains those same criminals in far off places in the middle east where dons are said to reign and some of the actors received AK-47 rifles from them.

It was left to Arvind Kejriwal to challenge the system and show the mirror to the politicians, criminals and policeman.

But why do I use three words and all three mean the same thing for they are all combined in one.

Of course, the media is also to blame for they get their finances from the middle east and other tax havens and so they do not welcome the change which Arvind Kejriwal is introducing and so have started baying for his blood.

In a blistering attack on media, Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar has alleged that most national news channels were being backed by the Congress.

Parrikar was speaking Tuesday at a public function at Quepem, a sub-district located 50 km from Panaji, a few days after the media, quoting opposition leaders, reported that two BJP MLAs had engaged in an alcohol-fuelled fight while they were in New Delhi to attend their party's recently concluded national executive.

"I want to ask these channels in Delhi, where do you get their benefit from? I know all their money comes from the Congress ... Financially, none of the channels are viable," said Parrikar.

Parrikar, who at a press conference on New Year's day this year, requested media to report "positively", also asked why newspapers in Goa had chosen to "waste time", writing about the alleged fight between two MLAs.

"Did they not have anything good to show? I am speaking clearly. There is a vested interest. Once this government came to power many vested interests have been pinched. I used to be surprised when the earlier government did nothing, but always managed to get good mileage in newspapers," Parrikar claimed.

Sanguem MLA Subhash Phaldesai, who was at the receiving end of the alleged drunken slugfest at the New Delhi-based Goa Niwas in the early hours of Jan 18, claimed that he had fallen from a flight of stairs at the Chanakyapuri-based state residency.

"I have injuries on my knees and hands. I showed it to the press, but they do not publish it because media has been sold," Phaldesai said, adding that media in Goa was "corrupt and operated like a syndicate".

In my last post, I had mentioned that the media was compromised.

Even the goa Chief minister, whose party was at the receiving end in the above episode thinks so.

Using smartphone at night can kill your productivity: study

Washington: Using a smartphone after 9 pm may leave workers disengaged and kill their productivity the next day, a new study has warned.

Night-time smartphone work drains employee effectiveness in the morning, according to the study by Christopher Barnes from the University of Washington Foster School of Business.

"Smartphones are enormously valuable for helping people fit work activity into times and places outside of the office," said Barnes and colleagues who summarised their paper in a Harvard Business Review blog post.

"However, our new research indicates the greater connectivity comes at a cost: using a smartphone to cram more work into a given evening results in less work done the next day. Smartphones are bad for sleep, and sleep is very important to effectiveness as an employee," they said.

Mr Barnes said that smartphones keep us mentally engaged with work late into the evening, making it harder to detach, relax, and sleep deeply to recharge our batteries.

He added that managers need to find creative ways to balance the downside of smartphone use with the significant upside of this powerful work tool.

One possible solution cited is adopting predictable time off each day, a set time to power down and psychologically disengage from work. Another is establishing new norms of when employees are expected to respond to e-mails.

"As smartphones become more embedded in our daily lives, we should continue to seek solutions that will enable us to stay in touch with smartphones and still get the sleep we need to be effective the next day," researchers said.

'Kejriwal's anarchism better than Congress, BJP's status quo': K C Tyagi

New Delhi, Jan.22 (ANI): Janata Dal-United (JD-U) leader K C Tyagi on Wednesday defended the protest held by Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to suspend the erring police officials, and said that he preferred Kejriwal's anarchism to Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) status quo.

"There can be disagreement on the language and execution of a protest. But I prefer Kejriwal's anarchism to Congress and BJP's status quo," he said.

"I understand that the protest created problems for the people. To solve the problems of the public, sometimes protests create difficulties for the public. But in the long run, protests like these are taken up to solve people's problems," he added.

Earlier on Tuesday, Kejriwal called off his protest outside the Rail Bhawan, after the Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung appealed to end their protest.

He also apologized to the people for the inconvenience caused to them due to shutting of the Metro stations, and also condemned action taken by police, which got people injured during the protest. (ANI)

Besides the congress and BJP, who are the status-quoists.

The electronic media.

Have you noticed they way they have been baying for the blood of AAP.

They would have been the first to ridiculed AAP if it took no action and remarked "the Delhi police is not under the state Government", as had been done by the sheila Dixit government these last few years.

You are criticised if you do anything and you ar criticized if you don't.

The electronic media is completely aligned to either of the two main parties, the Congress and the BJP and they will repeat what is said by these parties so there is no point in listening to the media.

These last three day, I just stopped listening to the news bulletins on the TV channels for they just broadcasted twisted rubbish. Only Rakhi Birlan was able to answer back to their rubbish. She is a great lady.

And I would like to inform the media there has been no reduction in the middle class support base of the AAP although they had hoped their propaganda would reduce it.

AAP - News from Hyderabad

HYDERABAD: With the Aam Aadmi Party ranks swelling by the day in the city, the latest one to sign up is noted lawyer and human rights activist Shafeeq Rahman Mahajir.

"Yes, I have filled up the membership form and submitted it. That was about five days ago," he said.

Mahajir added that he joined AAP because he felt that the philosophy of the party was in sync with the thinking of the common man. Underprivileged and marginalized sections see their own aspirations in AAP. "Since I am eminently suited to be called a common man, I thought I should be part of AAP," he quipped.

The senior lawyer said he has no plans to fight the upcoming elections as they are not his cup of tea. "I cannot afford to suspend my legal practice and devote myself to canvassing. Therefore, there is no question of entering the electoral fray. However, I am there to chip in with my bit of contribution to the party," Mahajir said.

Ramesh Reddy, zonal chief of AAP in Telangana, said he would find out before letting the media know. The response was similar from Arshad Hussain, another functionary. Meanwhile, Ramesh Reddy said the party has been flooded with requests for membership forms. "We have exhausted the forms and are directing people to opt for online membership. In Old City alone, about 20,000 people have joined the party," he said.

Advocate Qawi Abbasi, who was one of the first to join AAP from the Old City, claimed he and his colleagues filled in forms for 700 applicants at Charminar on Thursday. "I think 15,000 people living in the Old City have become AAP members," he said, adding that another noted lawyer and activist Ghulam Rabbani has also become a member of the party.

Shinde not even letting water inside, making it like India and Pakistan: Manish Sisodia

New Delhi, Jan. 21 (ANI): Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Manish Sisodia while protesting over his demand for suspension of Delhi Police personnel, who have been accused by his administration of dereliction of duty, on Tuesday said that Union Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde was making the place of protest like India and Pakistan by not even allowing water for people.

"Shinde is making this place to be like India and Pakistan by not even letting water inside the place of protest, leave alone people. They are behaving like our enemies," said Sisodia.

He further said that they will continue fighting for the safety of women.

"The People have elected us and we had promised them that we will fight for the safety of women and we are fighting," he said.

"If some four people protest in front of Shinde's house, and a window gets broken, then he will suspend policemen. But if a women is burnt alive or gangraped, or if someone is running a sex racket, he won't suspend anyone," he added.

On Monday evening, leaders from his party were seen on camera arguing aggressively with the police about allegedly beating up their supporters, including a law-maker named Akhilesh Tripathi, who was injured and moved to hospital.

Over 4,000 cops and several anti-riot vehicles have been deployed at the venue to prevent the situation from getting out of hand.

Kejriwal says the Delhi Government must be given charge of the city's police force which currently reports to the central government via the Home Ministry. His demand comes after last week's gang-rape of a Danish tourist, and a controversial midnight raid by Law Minister Bharti in South Delhi's Khirki Extension area.

The minister asked the police to arrest Ugandan citizens and raid a house where he alleged they were trafficking drugs and sex. The police refused, saying they had no warrant.

Braving the Delhi winter, Kejriwal slept on a mattress at the side of the road, right next to his blue Wagon R.

Four Metro stations have been shut near North Block. The police had asked Mr Kejriwal to shift his protest to Jantar Mantar, but their attempts failed.

Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde, after the cabinet meeting yesterday, met the Prime Minister and apprised him of the developments and the planned action.

Arvind Kejriwal while protesting over his demand for the suspension of Delhi Police personnel, who have been accused by his administration of dereliction of duty on Tuesday, said ninety percent of the crimes take place with the knowledge of the police.

"Almost 90 % of the crimes take place in the knowledge of the police which is extremely unfortunate and shameful," said Kejriwal.

He further said that he was not sitting on a dharna for personal benefits, and that the people protesting there wanted to convey, that if any woman in the nation was raped, somebody had to take the responsibility.

"We are not here to protest for personal benefits. We are here to convey that if any woman in the nation is raped, somebody has to take the responsibility; otherwise women can never be safe. It's not like no one is responsible," said Kejriwal.

"If a Danish woman is raped; the SHO of the area must be suspended. If a woman is burnt alive; the SHO of that area must be suspended. If a sex racket is going on; the ACP and the SHO of the area must be suspended," he said.

Kejriwal has rejected Shinde's offer that appropriate action will be considered against three Delhi Police cops the Chief Minister wants suspended after an inquiry. He has demanded the immediate suspension of the cops, who he has accused of dereliction of duty.

The AAP has also alleged that one of their ministers, Saurabh Bharadwaj, had been arrested and made to sit in a bus.

The Delhi Police has denied the charge. They said Bharadwaj had sat in the bus of his own accord. The cops disconnected the public address system in an attempt to make the protesters shift to Jantar Mantar, an area earmarked for demonstrations.

Both the BJP and the Congress have severely criticised Kejriwal for his unprecedented protest.

The BJP called it "anarchy", while the Congress said he was "taking the law in his own hands."

Shinde has asked Kejriwal to "maintain the dignity of the Chief Minister's office." (ANI)

The status-quoists would like things to remain as they are without disturbance.

These include the existing political parties together with the media who depend upon the two main parties for their sustenance.

We have seen the same thing happening in Bengal and Barasat seems to have become the Rape Capital of India, with the maximum number of rape cases.

Just yesterday, a 21 year old had been abducted and raped by 5 people and dumped.

These rapes will continue until our laws stop giving bail to people who are accused of crimes like extortion, kidnapping, dacoity, rape, murder and terrorism.

They should remain in jail until they are either imprisoned or released by the courts.

Ecen people who have been given jail sentences are released.

Lalu Yadav was given a 5 year jail sentence but has been given bail after just three months.

What is then the purpose of sentencing him to 5 years.

It is just such laxity in our judicial process which is the cause of increasing crimes.

If we want to contain crimes, we should build more and larger prisons so that criminals are not let out on bail just because of lack of space.

We have seen time and again how extortionist and rapists have threatened people who have filed FIRs and committed further crimes by even murdering those people.

I agree with Arvind. If the SHO of the police station where rape cases occur are suspended, these rapes would stop.

61-year-old woman clad in sari and running barefoot wins Baramati Marathon

Age: 61; sex: female; dress code: sari; gear: barefoot; event: Baramati Marathon; finish: FIRST!! Yes! That is the unexpected and surprising tale that emerged from the Baramati marathon as Lata Bhagwan Kare outran every other conventional runner to emerge victorious at the event

. She took everyone – the organizers, the spectators and fellow competitors – completely by surprise, as not only was this her first ever race of such a kind, but she also established a big lead over the remaining participants within minutes of the start. Everything about this runner was a surprise element, right from her being 61-years-old, to running barefoot and the fact that she wore a traditional nauvari (Maharashtrian sari) while running.

And the final bit of the puzzle that stumped everyone present was the fact that not only did she perform well, but she beat all the experienced marathoners in the fray to finish first.

Kare is a farm labourer who stays in a town called Pimpli, which is about 7 km away from Baramati. Some of her relatives informed her of the event just a few days before the main race day after which she left to compete.

“When I came to know about the competition, I decided to participate in the event. I gathered courage and informed my son that I wanted to run the Marathon. Initially, he gave me a weird look as in his opinion it was not possible, given my age. But I was determined, so he finally gave in,” Kare.

She revealed that she was used to walking one kilometre every day to get home from where she worked and that it held her in good stead during the event.

“I used to go for morning walks daily, but I had never run. If I had even tried to run, people would have found it strange and they would have asked me uncomfortable questions,” Kare laughed.

Kare stays with her husband and son in Pimpli where they have been residing for three years now. They originally hail from the Buldhana district and had migrated to Pimpli for work.

Kare revealed that she felt a little nervous standing at the start line – “I felt a little awkward, as all the other participants were staring at my dress. That also made me a little nervous. However, when the race began and I started overtaking them one by one, I gained my energy. While running I was talking to myself and telling that I want to win this race and I did it.”

Kare, in fact, did not start the race barefoot; she initially ran with her slippers on. But she did away with them a few metres into the race, when one of them slipped out from under her foot and she decided to abandon the other one.

Organizer Sachin Satav said on this surprising development, “We never expected a participant like Kare to be the winner of the race. It was pleasant surprise. We were extremely happy while handing over the trophy to Kare.”

After her miraculous run, there was only one question on everyone’s mind – whether she would run more races in future?

To that query she replied – “I want to. But only god knows whether I remain as strong then as I am today.”

Sent by Prakash Bhartia