Friday, July 24, 2009

President Obama and his call to Cambridge Police Sergeant James Crowley.

Cambridge police arrested Prof. Gates a black professor of Afro-American history at his home on some flimsy grounds. Incident made headlines all over USA. President Obama called the arrest stupidity of Cambridge police. It seems all hell broke loose in police line after these remarks of president. Entire police force got united against President Obama and ask for his apology. In my view the president calling police stupid was taken of his supporting a black fellow citizen. All news papers started reporting the threats coming from police. It did not take 24 hrs for the president to call the Sergeant James Crowley and literally express regrets for his comment.
What does this reflect on the conduct of police ? Not a very healthy sign for the authority of President Obama. I have strong feeling that president climbed down to save the situation from spreading into a communal flare up. I wonder if a white president would have done the same thing? I don't think so. I am sure this single incident has made president very weak and this is like to affect his decision making capacity. Not a very good sign for American democracy in my view.

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Indian defence exports

India still imports about 70% of its defence equipments. Till date we don't produce our own fighter jets and many other essential equipments. As mentioned by our Defence Minister Mr Antony, this is not only shameful but dangerous. We hardly export defence equipments. So much about the dark side of our defence story. Let us now look at the brighter side. We have a large population and there is no shortage of young people ready to join the defence services. Many European nations and Americans are having difficulty in recruiting people for defence services. This is where we can join hands with friendly countries. Our young people should be allowed to join the armed forces of the countries with whom we have deeper defence relations. This will lead to a two way cooperation and the dependence will be mutual. Chances of one blackmailing another will be much less. Government of India should think over seriously about this and work at diplomatic level to ensure that our young people can join American and some european and possibly even Japanese armed forces.

Thursday, July 9, 2009

Mayawati: Sahazadi of Lucknow

There is something very special in the air of Lucknow. Nawabs have long gone but Nawabiyat remains. Like infection it spreads everywhere. Latest victim is Ms Mayawati or I should call her Sahazadi Mayawati of Lucknow. Scale at which she is building the monuments, were possible only during Mughal period or to a lesser sacle during the period of Nawabs of Lucknow. Like Mughals and Nawabs were least bothered about the welfare of masses, our beloved Sahazadi too has little interest in the welfare. Monument coming by the side of River Yamuna in Noida is really massive. It seems Sahazadi wants to send the message through Yamuna to Taj Mahal. As if Black commandos were not enough to protect t Sahazadi, Khaki Commandos will be protecting all her statues. Sabazadi has taken lessons from Taj tourism and wants to add her own bits to the tourism industry of Lucknow kingdom. Who says Nawabs have gone from Lucknow.
Sahazadi has very high hopes of sitting on the throne of Delhi. It seems her Vazirs have not briefed her about the condition of roads from her kingdom to Delhi which are all full of potholes and crowded with slow moving traffic. No wonder Sahazadi is purchasing a special jet to bypass the roads.
Times of Mughals, Nawabs and Sahzadi forces me to go back and look into history of the fate of such rulers and the public. When Mughals were building Taj Mahal, Europeans were busy in scientific research. Newton did all his scientific work when Aurangzeb was invading and fighting wars. Our beloved Sahzadi is no different. When all states are developing their educational and research institutions, our beloved Sahazadi is busy paiting Lucknow blue and eracting her own statues. Fate of our Sahazadi and the kingdom won't be any different than those of Mughals and Nawabs. People of Uttar Pradesh will suffer like people of India in post Mughal period.