RTE

Starting tomorrow, all hospitals will provide free services to the poorest of the poor in the country. What more, even shopkeepers will stop charging any money for goods bought by them. In fact, let everything under the sun be offered for free to India's poor and needy.

Shocked?

Well, don't be because the way the decision makers are functioning right now, the scenarios outlined above may well become a reality. We are sure that the Honourable Supreme court does not have any sensible economist as its judge. For had that been the case, its recent decision to allow 25% of seats in private schools to be reserved for economically weaker sections may not have seen the light of the day.

We believe that this step is a retrograde one and does not take into account the cost of delivering educational services to society. The honourable court should have known that there is no free lunch and ultimately, the burden of sponsoring education for poor kids will fall on the other 75% students. Why can't the Government clean up its act and improve the education standards in the country instead. On one hand, it continues to tolerate massive inefficiency in India's public education system and on the other, chooses to put further pressure on the already overburdened middle class population of the country. Don't get us wrong.

We are not against denying a right to education to the country's poor. But the mechanism could have been much, much better we believe.

The above is from the mail I receive from Equitymaster.

I agree with the the author.. The inefficient government cannot improve the education system.

They appoint sub-standard teachers according to their political affiliations and quotas and then expect the education to improve.

There is so much work to be done but our government is mired in corruption.

Population is to be controlled if the benefit of any increase in GDP is to reach everybody otherwise we will be fighting a losing battle.

Proper facilities for storing and preserving our food produce should be put in place so that nobody sleeps hungry in the country.

Proper education should be provided to all up to the graduate level, inculcating values in the people. What goes education today is to gain materialistic gains - by hook or by crook, mainly by crook as our political leaders who should set example are the worst lot.

Earlier we used to have Chandrasekhar Azad, Bhagat Singh and Sukhdev as leaders to whom the children looked up to.

Now we have Mayawati, Mulayam Singh, Lalu Yadav, Karunanidhi, Jaylalitha, Raj & Bal Thackeray, Sharad Pawar, Suresh Kalamadi as examples. What a let down?

I am of the opinion that if we can provide good education, to all and women work along with men in offices, the caste problem will solve by itself

Free education should be provided to the economically weak sections of society irrespective of caste or religion or language and it is the governments duty to provide it.

They are already milking us dry with hundreds of taxes, duties, cesses and yet they cannot do it for their inner corruption.

Joke arrests spread scare

From the Telegraph

Sir,
We submit to you that Ambikesh Mahapatra (and) Subrata Sengupta… sent, from the mail of the (co-op society) board, an obscene printout and message in the name of the honourable chief minister at 7.38pm on March 22, 2012, to all the members of the said board. Besides, they visited the house of each board member and maligned the characters of the chief minister and other central ministers and used obscene language. Therefore, we humbly request you to arrange for the strictest of the strict punishment for them

Excerpts from a complaint filed by a man who identified himself as a Trinamul member at East Jadavpur police station. Based on the complaint, the Jadavpur University professor and the retired engineer were arrested at 12.40am on Friday

If you are still not wearing such handcuffs in Bengal, Subha Nava Varsha and read on...

Calcutta, April 13: A Jadavpur University professor and a 72-year-old retired engineer have been arrested for allegedly circulating clips of an Internet joke about chief minister Mamata Banerjee and charged with trying to outrage her modesty.

Fittingly, the police crackdown got off the ground 40 minutes past the appointed hour for the dreaded midnight knock.

The professor and the retired engineer were granted bail this evening though police had sought judicial custody for a fortnight.

By the time the surreal events had ensured that the joke with subtle rapier thrusts, inspired by one of the most loved films of Satyajit Ray, had taken on a life of its own and grown into the talk of the country, the contours of an unsettling picture had emerged in Bengal.

First, you can’t laugh in Bengal at the expense of those in power.

“This is very autocratic…. I earlier did not want to use the word ‘scary’ but I have to admit that this scares me,” said economist Abhirup Sarkar, who has been a vocal supporter of the new government on several issues.

Second, even the everyday act of circulating something that you have found humorous could cause you bodily harm and invite police action.

Third, if you happen to be the secretary of your residential society and if someone uses the society’s mail to send jokes that the ruling party finds offensive, you are in trouble.

ourth, the offence of attempting to outrage the modesty of a woman has been given a mystifying definition. The Telegraph is publishing the cartoon (left) so that readers can make up their own mind if it outrages the modesty of anyone and if it is obscene as charged.

Sukanta Chaudhuri, the renowned academic known for measured words, expressed incredulity. “When the chief minister of the state is a woman, then should every criticism of the government now amount to insulting the honour of a woman? Then any speech becomes impossible!” said Chaudhuri, professor emeritus, Jadavpur University.

If you manage to escape or survive all the tribulations mentioned above, you still can be beaten up near your home and forced to sign a confessional statement — the fate that awaited Mahapatra, the chemistry professor, on the intervening night of Thursday and Friday.

The arrests, based on a complaint signed by a Trinamul Congress local committee member, took place after the professor was beaten up outside the gates of his co-operative housing society at New Garia, on the south-eastern fringes of the city.

The attackers, some of whom Mahapatra said he recognised, forced him to sign an undertaking that said he was an “active CPM worker” and had forwarded the mail to the other members of the housing society with a “motive”.

‘I was crying’

“I was crying. I was begging for my life. They kept beating me. I had no option but to give the declarations,” he said after being released on bail on Friday evening.

The police booked Mahapatra and Subrata Sengupta, the secretary of the New Garia Development Co-operative Housing Society Ltd, on charges of intent to insult the modesty of a woman through words and gesture, defamation and dissemination through computer of information that they knew was false but was meant to “cause annoyance, inconvenience, criminal intimidation”, etc.

The joke has been in circulation on the Net since Mukul Roy was sworn in as railway minister on March 20. Between then and now, those who trawl the Net for jokes on the chief minister would have had ample time to sample the clip. Those who had not read the joke till now were made aware of it today by the police action.

Insiders familiar with the workings of the police in Calcutta said the arrest of a Jadavpur University professor could not have taken place without the chief minister’s knowledge.

“Usually, before a formal complaint has been registered, we try to assess the motive of the accused. If we see no malice, the person is let off with a warning,” said an officer at Lalbazar.

ID apology

Mahapatra, the assistant secretary of the housing society, had forwarded the mail on April 3. Three days later, he sent an apology to all the recipients because he realised he should not have used the housing society’s official ID to forward a joke.

Retired engineer Sengupta, who repeatedly pleaded with the attackers to spare Mahapatra last night, was arrested because the mails from the society’s official ID were deemed to have been sent on his behalf.

An officer of the East Jadavpur police station said they responded to a call last night and went to New Garia. “We got a call at the police station saying someone who had tried to malign the chief minister had been caught. A team was sent to the spot and the accused taken to the police station.”

A senior officer of the south suburban division added: “By the time the accused had been brought to the police station, a section of the people who had handed them to the police had reached the police station and lodged a complaint.”

Mischief, says CM

The chief minister appeared to defend the arrest. At the foundation stone-laying for a private medical college in Durgapur, she said: “If someone commits some mischief, what will police do? Won’t they arrest him? And if somebody is arrested, the CPM’s two channels and a handful of newspapers will start a slander campaign against us. They will show it through the day.”

Sending a message to the CPM, she added: “I will feed you well, dress you well, let you sleep in a cool room and ensure all comforts but you have to go to sleep for 10 years.”

Mahapatra said he used to send mails on Sengupta’s behalf as the latter was not savvy with computers. “I had forwarded the mail to 60-odd people. But some of my neighbours told me they didn’t approve of my using the official ID. So, I mailed an apology to all the members of the society on April 6 for using the co-operative’s mail ID.”

The beating

Mahapatra was returning home from the university around 8 last night when the alleged Trinamul supporters pounced on him.

Led by a building materials supplier, they had allegedly been harassing the members of the housing society since the afternoon and claiming dues worth Rs 17 lakh. The complex 2km south of Peerless Hospital has 550 houses.

The group had gone there armed with printouts of the joke, although the stated purpose of the visit was collection of dues. Society sources confirmed some outstanding payments but disputed the amount.

Waving the printout, the alleged supporters cried insult to the chief minister. “We know what you are up to,” a neighbour of Mahapatra quoted the attackers as saying.

They left in the afternoon and returned late in the evening. Seeing Mahapatra, they screamed “Dhor byata ke (Catch him).”

“There were 20 to 25 people who first asked me why I had sent such a mail. I told them it was a mistake and apologised but they started beating me up mercilessly,” the professor said.

The victim turned the culprit when the police came. Sources said the attack and the police complaint appeared “pre-planned because of the speed at which the formal complaint was lodged”, almost at the same time as the arrival of the accused at the police station.

Mahapatra and Sengupta were among five men named in the FIR.

Asked why only the two of them had been arrested, an officer of East Jadavpur police station said: “Because they were the ones handed over to us. The complainant held Ambikesh as the main accused. We are conducting a probe against the three others.”

Mahapatra, popular among his students and neighbours, told The Telegraph he was a Left supporter but not an activist.

Wife’s fears

His wife, who teaches chemistry at a college, said the family had been apprehensive since the change of guard because of his political leanings. “But I could never have imagined him being beaten up the way he was,” Jolly Mahapatra said.

Although she was home, she had not realised her husband was under attack until he called her from a police jeep on the way to the police station.

At the Alipore court, the police sought a fortnight’s jail custody for the two. “The sections under which they have been booked are bailable,” said defence lawyer Sanjeeb Ganguly. Acting chief judicial magistrate Suparna Roy granted them bail.

Mahapatra, who identified Sonar Kella as one of his favourite films, clarified he had apologised only for having used the official ID, not for circulating the joke

I think this single action of Mamta Banerjee has made her lose the support of a large chunk of people.
Mamata, in her vanity, haughtiness and pride forgets that she came to power not on any positive votes for her but for negative votes against the Left Front.
People knew she was fickle but in spite of that they were so fed-up of the LF that they were willing to give her a chance although she had given them a preview of her reign when she drove out the Nano from Bengal.
The CPM and LF have wisely decided to keep a low profile and not utter much.
They know that one five year rule will make the people of Bengal forget Mamta for another 30 years.
They have given her a long rope to tie herself in knots and hang herself.
She has many intellectuals and educated people in her party but she will not take their advice as she trusts nobody.
They have seen the fate which occurred to Dinesh Trivedi

Govt may ban futures trading in select farm commodities

NEW DELHI, APRIL 13:
The Government has indicated that it may ban futures trading in certain agricultural commodities in view of excessive fluctuations in the commodity market. The Government banned futures trading in guar gum on March 26.

Mr K.V. Thomas, Food and Consumer Affairs Minister, said, “The Secretary in the Department of Consumer Affairs will give a report on the overall situation in the commodity market. The report is expected within the next 10 days. A ban will also be considered subject to the findings of the report.” This committee will consider the price movement reports in certain commodities before finalising its views.

The Ministry has already received a report on the price movements of eight agriculture commodities. These include pepper, potato, cardamom, menthe oil, soya oil, soya bean and chana. However, it has been found that prices of potato in the futures market have come down.

According to Mr Thomas, the Forward Market Commission (FMC) has been asked to ascertain whether there have been attempts to hoard commodities to influence the futures markets and if so, how these activities have been financed.

The Agriculture and Processed Food Export Development Authority recently found that some guar gum export has taken place despite a fall in domestic production. This raised suspicion that speculative activity in the futures market was being financed. Now, the Finance Ministry is also looking into the matter.

The issue of excessive speculation figured at a meeting between the Minister and the Chairman of the FMC, Mr Ramesh Abhishek. It was said that the rise in the prices in recent months of certain agricultural commodities, including some essential commodities, have come to the notice of the Government. There have been complaints in some quarters that excessive speculations in future markets have also contributed to the price rise.

Its about time the government banned forward trading in all food items.
People sitting in air-conditioned offices who haven't ever been to a field deal in crores which affects the lives of farmers who toil throughout the year.
Forward trading should be allowed only for farmers, that too only locally through banks.
They know what they are going to produce and should be able to sell their produce in advance so that they obtain liquidity.
I dabble in shares but I have taken a conscious decision of not dealing in the shares of alcohol based companies, tobacco companies and companies like KFK which deal in non-veg products.
Neither do I trade in commodities although once my son had suggested to do so.
We should not play with food was one of the advices we received at a very early age.

SRK Episode

By M K Bhadrakumar

Facts go against SRK
The SRK episode is becoming curiouser and curiouser. K P Nayar, the veteran ‘Washington hand’ of The Telegraph, who is extremely well-informed thanks to a decade-long stint in the US capital and his first-grade professionalism, has unearthed the devil in the fine print of the SRK story. It appears that the matinee idol landed up on American soil on a wrong visa.

KP’s viewpoint is balanced. ‘Islamophobia’ is a fact of life in America. Countries that go through searing experiences like 9/11 (or 26/11 in Mumbai and the Beslan school siege in Russia) may develop phobias, but that has nothing to do with racism. That is the plain truth, because it is human nature. But in this case, SRK can’t complain.

The Americans observed the law — perhaps, a little too literally that a celebrity like SRK is unused to in our society with its feudal culture of fawning over the lords and the nouveau riche. External Affairs Minister S.M.Krishna should calm down. This is the second time he barged in without checking up facts. The first one was in interfering with the tragic life of two Indian children in Norway. Unfortunately, in the competitive environment of Indian politics today, EAM is coming under pressure, lest someone accused him of being waffly. Opinions may vary, but facts, Sir, are sacrosanct. Diplomacy is always well-rooted in facts.

Obviously, the Americans have dutifully apologised. Why? For one thing, they know the prickly Indian character well enough. Second, they don’t want to take punka with us on such a trivial matter. Iran nuclear issue? Yes. Nuclear Liability Act? Yes. SRK? For heaven’s sake, NO.

From KP’s dispatch, available facts seem to suggest SRK has no case to be unhappy except that he was treated like an ordinary mortal by the Americans. Ever read Jane Austen novels in your college days, SRK? Be proud without being vain — that’s what she wrote. SRK should tell the MEA to move on.
Posted in Diplomacy.

There have been murmurs of treating the Americans the same way as they have been treating our idols.
But, can we?
You go to any tourist place and see how the local people associated with tourism fall over each other in trying to get their business and fleece them.
Even the government fleeces through whatever charges are imposed for any facilities.
If the charge for an Indian is Rs 10/-, the charges for a tourist is Rs 100/-, i.e ten times more.
The corruption sanctioned by our government has made us a sick nation.
Forget BRIC of GDP.
Just look at Mamta's behaviour in arresting a Jadavpur University professor for passing a chain mail cartoon which she says denigrated her.
If she acts in a denigrating manner how can she expect cartoons praising her.
That can be done only by sycophants and that is what she should watch out for.
Sycophants never give the correct picture.
Remember Indira Gandhi deciding to call for elections after the imposition of Emergency.
It was done on the advice of sycophants and we all saw the result

Bay Bridge Lightning Strike

(Photo: Phil McGrew/Flickr)


Phil McGrew (Flickr)
The San Francisco Bay Area has been buffeted by bad weather lately, and as a rare thunder storm rumbled through, photographer Phil McGrew thought to set up his camera and snapped rare sight: Eight bolts of lightning hitting the Bay Bridge.
The San Francisco currency trader, who took up photography two years ago, set up his camera from his office in San Francisco, and set the lens to a long exposure. He wrote on Flickr, "This shot has been on my list since moving to San Francisco. Unfortunately, I've only seen lightning 3 times in the 2 years I've lived here. Tonight, I got lightning in 3 seperate 20 second exposures. This is a single exposure."
The photo shows each of the four towers of the bridge that connects the East Bay with San Francisco lit up with lightning against the murky sky and rain-spattered window.
McGrew told the Daily Mail: "You can count the strikes, the Bay Bridge has four distinct towers and you can see the lightning hitting each tower."
You sure can. The shot, which was trending on Twitter, received over a hundred comments on Flickr. Fans called it "eerily beautiful," and "stunning."

No noose is good news.

There was once a court jester who was famous for his puns.
He made one too many of the king who got terribly annoyed and angry.
He ordered the jester to be hanged the next day.
However, during the course of the day, the king realized that it was difficult coming by a good jester.
He called the jester and informed him that he was forgiving him this time but he should never repeat these puns.
But it is difficult getting over a habit.
The jester smiled and said, " No noose, is good news."

The above was told to us by Bro.Forhan in school.

The following puns have been sent by Prakash Bhartia


When chemists die, they barium.

I know a guy who's addicted to brake fluid . He says he can stop any time.

Q: How does Moses make his tea?
A: Hebrews it.

This girl said she recognized me from the vegetarian club, but I'd never
met herbivore.

The pathologist's report said I had Type-A blood, but it was a Type-O.

A dyslexic man walks into a bra.

When you get a bladder infection, urine trouble.

Q: What does a clock do when it's hungry?
A: It goes back four seconds.

I tried to catch some fog. I mist.

Q: What do you call a dinosaur with an extensive vocabulary?
A: A thesaurus.

England has no kidney bank, but it does have a Liverpool.

I dropped out of communism class because of lousy Marx.

Venison for dinner? Oh deer!

Earthquake in Washington ... ? It's the government's fault.

Be kind to your dentist. He has fillings too.

Angus Broon of Glasgow, Scotland, comes to the little lady of the house exclaiming, "Maggie, cud ya be sewin on a wee button that's come off of me fly? I can't button me pants."

"Oh Angus, I've got me hands in the dishpan, go up the stairs and see if Mrs. MacDonald could be helpin ya with it."

About 5 minutes later, there's a terrible crash, a bang, a bit of yelling and the sound of a body falling down the stairs.

Walking back in the door with a blackened eye and a bloody nose comes Angus. The little lady looks at him and says, "My god, what happened to ya? Did you ask her like I told you?"

"Aye," says Angus. "I asked her to sew on the wee button, an she did, everything was goin' fine but when she bent doon to bite off the wee thread, Mr MacDonald walked in."

Mumbai is not Raj Thackeray's legacy, says Ram Kripal Yadav

By ANI

Patna, Apr 13 (ANI): Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Ram Kripal Yadav on Friday hit out at Raj Thackeray for telling Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar not to celebrate 'Bihar Divas' in Mumbai, saying such statements of the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief encourages hatred among the people.
Yadav, who is the Rajya Sabha M.P. from Bihar, said Mumbai is not the 'legacy of Thackeray', and added that his statements must not worry the people of Bihar.
"It is not a political function. Bihar has completed its 100 years and to mark this occasion, the people there (in Mumbai) are celebrating it. It is not the legacy of Raj Thackeray that he continues making such unpleasing statements and encourages hatred among the people," said Yadav.
"The comments of Thackeray are dividing the country. He had earlier also come into limelight through such statements. Whenever election approaches, he makes such unpleasing statements to gain popularity and as a result spreads hatred," he added.
Yadav also demanded that Thackeray must be put behind bars for his comments that aimed at dividing the people of the country.
"I believe that the Bihar Divas should be celebrated there very robustly and the chief minister should attend the event. Raj Thackeray should be arrested immediately. And I believe that people spreading so much hatred and dislike should not be allowed to roam freely," said Yadav.
"Raj Thackeray is indulging in intimidation. The people of Bihar and the Chief Minister in particular should not get worried by his threat and put forward the views strongly on the occasion of Bihar Divas, which will be celebrated," he added.
He said that there may be political differences between the various political outfits in the state, but the people of the state are united for the cause of Bihar.
"I admit there is political difference. But as far as the unity of Bihar is concerned, we are all one and anyone's warnings or intimidation will not affect us," he said.
MNS chief Raj Thackeray had earlier on Thursday dared Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to celebrate "Bihar Divas" in Mumbai.
"I thought that Nitish Kumar was a nice person who was developing his state," he said, while addressing a rally at Idgah maidan at Malegaon.
Referring to the Bihar Chief Minister's statement that he does not need a visa to come to Mumbai, Thackeray said: "Let us see how he (Nitish) celebrates Bihar Din in Mumbai." (ANI)

Raj Thackeray talking such rubbish is a corollary to the Congress succumbing to pressure not to hoist the Indian flag in Kashmir

Pakistani flags are hoisted in Kashmir as and when the people there want but an Indian flag is not allowed to be hoisted there. If India considers Kashmir a part of India, why this diffidence.
Raj Thackeray has just taken a page out of the Congress booklet of dividing people according to their caste and religion and language.
Such people as Raj Thackeray should be shot dead - no questions asked.
They are a bigger threat to India than the terrorists.
But the Congress government in Maharashtra will not take action for 1) it will divide the votes between the two Shiv Senas and 2) the Congress will get the votes of the UP and Bihar people.
But why is the BJP silent?
Are they so scared of the Shiv Sena that they will not utter a single word of condemnation for fear of antagonizing Bal Thackeray.