Rumbles of a Lonely Mammoth

Background: Alberta has oil. Low quality, but still economically viable. However Alberta is landlocked. Without a pipeline, the oil is worth less than what it really is. So, Alberta asked for a pipeline to be built and connected to the US. US is incidentally the largest market for their crude. However this oil extraction has seen strong opposition by the domestic and US based environmental groups. Alberta doesn't have any other big industry. What went on: in a see saw of decisions and political posturing, Trump signed an agreement allowing the construction of a pipeline from Alberta to USA. This is despite Canadians spitting on him on a daily basis. There is a good reason why the oil patch saw good support for Trump even after impeachment. One of the first acts of Biden govt was to use an Exec Order to cancel the project. It nullifies what Trump had signed .. this is no different from what Mulayam Singh Yadav and Mayawati would do in UP.  What is interesting is the Canadian Federal...

In 2012, I had written out a wish list for BJP India, asking them amongst other things, to focus on development and deciding on a PM candidate [full blog reproduced here ]. The most striking thing about the wish list was that, much of it actually found its way into BJPs 2014 electoral strategy. Don't misunderstand me - am not saying I am all that important. Merely that my thoughts must have found strong resonance across a wider electorate - and BJP had listened to voices on the ground. Listening to voices on the ground and social media (SM) had paid off handsomely for BJP in 2014. So, here is the unsolicited wish list for BJP's 2019 manifesto. Hopefully, some of it would resonate with the larger population. 1. Talk about and act on #Core issues. If nothing else, talk about legal discrimination in education sector and in religious matters [Art 25 - 30, and Amendment 93]. I don't want to elaborate on these issues - since none other than the MoS HRD, Dr. Satyapal Singh ...

This was a post I wrote, way back in 2012. A particularly nasty comment to BJP IT cell on Twitter, led to them asking what I think should be done - and I thought I will become part of something constructive. Hence, in all my starry eyed liberalism, I wrote this post in 2012. It is interesting to see how far I have moved in 6 years hence. 1. Define your core competency: Sorry guys, Hindutva as a core competency has lost its vote gathering value. I still remember when BJP attempted the rath yatra a few years ago (not the 1990's one) - and how it flopped. How I wished I could just bury my head in the sand and just forget your existence. Please, pretty please, don't repeat something like that. A Ram mandir at Ayodhya might matter to probably a few million people. But that would barely make up 1% of the population. Today, a good four lane road leading to a mandir / masjid / market is more appealing to an average Indian than the destination itself. Be the facilitator, but don't...

This week witnessed the arrogance and fall of a missionary who wanted to introduce "Jesus" and "Gospel", in the face of an isolated and legally protected tribe. Chau, an American missionary [or should I say, zealot], tried to take the gospel to a group of highly secluded and protected tribals in Andaman Nicobar islands. The tribe, Sentinalese, are known to be one of the oldest surviving isolated tribed outside Africa. They are thought to have settled in A/N Islands, about 60,000 years ago. They are protected tribe, and the competent authorities consider them at a risk of extinction. They are likely to be highly vulnerable to normal pathogens that today's modern humans carry on their person. This zealot, Chau, bribed his way into the island, breaking several rules and laws along the way, and died at the hands of the tribe - after refusing to heed repeated warnings. The reaction of most civilized people is one of utter horror and disbelief. Words such as ...

When was the last time you enjoyed a dance without adding a political connotation to it? When was the last time you listened to a song without commenting on its language? When was the last time you went to a movie without checking the political leanings of the actor, the director, the producer or even that of the movie theatre owner? When was the last time you saw a Disney movie, and didn’t comment “subliminal liberal messaging”? When was the last time anything in life, existed without an underlying message or meaning? There was such a time, you know!! Question is, do you remember it? For men and women alike, do you remember a time when you looked and admired a person of the opposite sex, without wondering about their political / social leanings? Ever remember a time when you didn’t say “oh! she / he is beautiful / handsome, but … “?   We are quick to blame the left for hating. And it is legitimate. But, the question remains - are we becoming quicker? In our pursuit for our p...

It is that time of the year when all Hindus are shamed for celebrating one of their most important festivals - Diwali. Apart from lights, the festival is celebrated with fireworks and crackers. The common refrain is that the festival causes pollution, and serious harm to health of kids and adults alike. Besides which, we are also reminded of animals not liking loud noises, and the pollution killing off birds - all for one day.  While smoke is an issue on Diwali day, we will take stock of the facts about pollution - and Diwali's contribution to it. There are few threads in this problem: a) the overall pollution levels and the source thereof, b) the persistence of firecracker / Diwali pollution, and c) the economics of firework / crackers in the recent years. A Greenpeace report [ here ] reports that all around the year, Indian metropolii are uninhabitable with respect to air quality. Particularly, Delhi has the distinction of being the most polluted city in the world. Aver...

Finally, the ills of Right to Education Act (#RTE) are coming out to light. Apart from the outcome based failures that have been discussed threadbare by even the Govt of India, the sectarian nature of #RTE (it applies only to Hindu run schools) is finally trickling down into public domain. The efforts of one anonymous twitter handle in this respect must be acknowledged: @realitycheckind (RCI). In a literal David vs Goliath, RCI has fought a long, and often lonely, battle to bring the ills of #RTE to public attention. Yours truly got educated from his tweets on this topic since 2012. In a recent article, Education policy maker Meeta Sengupta (@meetasengupta on Twitter) wrote an article in LiveMint , where she discusses three major problems with #RTE factually. I say factually because the article doesn't bring out the whole truth in that issue - and in that sense, the article hides some and reveals some. I am also at odds with the overall direction of solutions that Ms. Sengupta a...

It is a fad today, to pontificate on the wonders of learning in one's own mother tongue. "It is a wonderful thing", they say. "All the developed countries do it", they say. "English is making slaves out of us", they say.  Yet - they say all of this in English, on a platform called Twitter made mostly by men speaking English, based on computer languages that are predominantly written in English using algorithms that are mostly published in English. Never mind that those who say this, have made a living in India / out of India using their "English" knowledge, and have gone on to monetize on that advantage. Now, they want youngsters in India to forego English and learn everything in their own mother tongue. What these warriors of mother tongue refuse to accept is India is vastly different from the other countries they mentioned. Let us first burst that myth. Here are the top 10 economies in the world, with their GDPs and population siz...

Warning: Long Post / Rambles in some parts The old Chinese curse: "may you live in interesting times". It is considered a curse, because interesting things to hear and read are often tumultuous to live through. "Interest" in a particular time period, presupposes life altering changes to countries or even civilizations. For example, volcanic eruptions produce some of the most fertile soil known to humans; but you won't want to be near one when it erupts. Tamizh Nadu is going through some interesting times. The events are big - and in a subtle way, interconnected. First was the demise of the reigning CM, Madam JJ last year. In what seemed to be a smooth transition, her prime loyalist Mr. O. Panneer Selvam (OPS) took over the reigns of the government. It was no surprise, since he had been her choice for CM whenever JJ was forced to not occupy it. Interestingly, the controversial friend and confidante(?) of Ms. JJ - Mrs. Sasikala Natarajan (SN), was found to...

Jallikkattu has been in the news - and is proving to be a sharp dividing factor between people. We will look into the cultural continuity of Jallikkattu, its purpose, its position in the rural economy and agriculture, and the problems associated. I am not going into the power play behind the NGO / PIL / Supreme Court nexus that is hell bent on stopping this game - though we will see briefly how it ties up with the continuing colonization of India. First things First : Jallikkattu (சல்லிக்கட்டு) is NOT bull fighting. "Bull Fighting" as a term creates a negative connotation where successive players try and kill the bull. In Jallikkattu, the bull is not killed. In fact, the multitude of men in the play do not even fight the bull. Henceforth, we will not use the term bullfight to describe this sport. There is a strong historic reason to not call it bull fighting.  The technically correct term for this sport in tamizh is ஏறு தழுவல் - "Embracing (தழுவல்) the Bull (ஏறு)...

Yesterday, the PM addressed the nation on the issue of demonetization and its impact on the general populace. It was a damage control exercise with two objectives. First was to acknowledge the hardships that everyone went through during this exercise, thereby mollifying rising impatience. The second was to outline a roadmap for what the govt aims to get done in the next year. The points raised in the talk came as no surprise. In fact, as we had noted in an earlier blog - ( here ) - the main target of demonetization hasn't been black money itself. While the bank deposit wind fall has been accepted with due gratitude by the government, the main targets were Fake currency rackets, terrorism and naxalism. One facet that we had not thought of, but turned to be a blessing was the almost complete crackdown on human trafficking. One would also imagine narcotics business to have taken a big hit. Each of these problems have enormous prevalence in various border states. On the whole, it ha...

The Hindu Wedding - the extravagant, "feed the whole town" and "bring together the whole clan" kind of wedding, has been under attack for several years - if not decades by the liberals of this country. Incidentally, the same group that is attacking the Hindu wedding is at the forefront of the so called "Social Justice War" to ensure prosperity to the lower strata of the society. The attackers of the Hindu wedding are proponents of forced wealth redistribution, and go as far to rob Peter to pay Paul. They imagine themselves as modern day Robin Hoods, who want to deprive the evil rich Hindu of his / her ill-begotten wealth and give it to the poor. They argue that the Hindu wedding is a grotesque exhibition of wealth; a kind of "in your face insult" to the poor, and hence must be curbed. We should look at this accusation in a bit of detail. Let us consider a typical 3 day traditional Hindu wedding. A brief summary of a Hindu wedding goes as follo...

Two major events shook the world. One was the election of Donald J Trump as the president of the United States. The second, and closer to home (and more important in my mind) was the demonetization of large denomination currencies by the government of India. First on US Elections I had always held through this election season that HRC - the Democrat contender, would be a global disaster as a president. Part of the sentiment was the disdain with which she dealt with an emerging India. She made it a deliberate policy decision to hyphenate India with a failed state, Pakistan. Her shenanigans as a secretary of defense in hurting Indian interests has been detailed elsewhere, and I shall not venture into them here. Suffices to say, I am glad she lost. While she will still have considerable pull in the way Indo-US relations will shape up, she won't be in the driver's seat. Having said that - it would be naive to suggest that DJT is the best thing since sliced bread for Indian i...

There have been political murders in many southern states. Even though Kerala and TN stand out (in that order), the murder of the day in Bangalore (16/10/2016) and one today in Pune (17/10/2016) shows a widespread and planned attempt to murder dissenting political voices. On the top most layer - each of these issues seem unconnected. In Kerala, it is Communists that unleash the violence. In TN, the violence has decidedly religious undertones - most that were murdered were politically active Hindu activists, and the murderers are suspected to be Islamic fundamentalists. Nothing is known about the murderer in Bangalore. These are the superficial observations. The connecting thread is that the victims in all these cases are politically active members of Hindu organizations. The levels of these conflicts have been kept deliberately below retaliation threshold; and their reporting deliberately muted. Given the press coverage a single murder in Dadri cases of inconsequential vandalization...