Blog@GraceJunction

The entire nation (and in fact a few more nations) is still ranting and raving because of the despicable carnage that it was forced to watch helplessly (which need not have been relayed live to this extent in the first place) and breathlessly even as a few (no one knows for sure how many) perverse and fanatic young men held a host of our army and other security men on their toes and positions for about 60 hours needlessly killing hundreds of men, women and children of diverse religion and race in the due course and damaging property worth millions and much worse, denting the image and morale of this allegedly glorious nation (glorious perhaps only by its own definition and that definition too perhaps acceptable only to not the whole of itself)! A mask, the nation, at least at the socio-political level, is inwilling to put off! Let me show you the masks associated with the Mumbai event! (more…)

Barack Hussein Obama II, born on August 4, 1961 to a Kenyan father and White American mother has become the President of the United States of America, the first African American to do so. This news flashed on every news screen in the first week of this month. The President elect of the United States is all set to officially take over from George Bush on the 20th of January, 2009. (more…)

Democratic systems derived from British democracy have the system of recognising a official opposition to the ruling party. The traditional role of the opposition can be classified under three broad headings:

1) the voice of the voiceless,
the opposition expresses the view of a significant section of the electorate and helps to ensure that concerns of the various groups and other interests not represented in government are not forgotten or trampled upon.

2) alternative to the ruling government,
the oppostion constantly reminds the electorate that there is a viable alternative to the incumbent government. One that has a real or imagined potential to improve the quality of life of the people and let them realise their aspirations. (more…)

Tuesday, July 22, 2008, 8:00pm

The Manmohan Singh led UPA government finally did win the trust vote by a margin of 19 votes amidst the mudslinging and all the hoopla in House of the People (Lok Sabha). The victory they said was sure. They described it as a ‘convincing win’. Meanwhile the battered opposition almost predictably termed it as ‘corrupt victory’.

Over the past few days, the nation woke up to numerous stories about MPs switching loyalty for payoffs ranging from rupees 3 to 25 crores. Charges of horsetrading were doing the rounds since the past three days but the countrymen did not expect MPs to suddenly start disgorging wads of currency on the table of the House, allegedly given to them as a ‘bribe’ for abstaining from voting in the confidence motion moved by UPA government. The MPs also claim to have videographic evidence (Rajdeep Sardesai trying to earn some brownie points over Tehelka and Pranoy Roy’s NDTV, with a stunning sting operation) of the whole bribery deal. India was stunned (perhaps more by the flashing of the wads, in the sanctum sanctorum of world’s largest democracy, than by the allegation per se). This cash-on-table was the first for the Lok Sabha! (more…)

The Manmohan Singh government seeks a trust vote in the Lok Sabha today and the political drama in India has managed to attract widespread attention worldwide, as it will decide the fate of the Indo-US civil nuclear deal. Under this bilateral pact, the United States will provide India access to civilian nuclear technology and fuel in exchange for IAEA-safeguards on India’s civilian nuclear reactors.

A lot of time and energy was spent behind the passage of the Hyde Act in 2006. The leading opposition party BJP which laid the groundwork for the deal criticized the deal and does not want the government to accept the deal without a vote in the legislature. The Left too had withdrawn its support. The nuke deal has been scripted by Manmohan Singh but the political risk is almost that of Mrs. Gandhi. The possible UPA meltdown will be a hard blow for the party to bear. The loss could be terrible and a win might have a few downsides. (more…)

I wasn’t so scared and afraid earlier during the day as I was now, driving down nervously, with my senses on peak alert, searching everywhere for any signs of rioters and trouble makers. We sneaked thru the streets very close to my house, and I could see all around my house burning cars and trucks, stone strewn streets, shattered glass. I choked, my tongue stuck on the roof, trying very hard to gulp my spit as my mind began to recreate the images of what transpired during the day, when my wife made a distress call. Sobbing uncontrollably and tearful, she was scared and terrorized, while locking her self up in the confines of our house.

I had never attended a call like this before and those moments seem permanently etched in my memory. I was at the factory up on a giant machine, explaining it all to a foreign customer whom I had picked up at the airport early in the morning. While I left home it was all ok, the air was a bit tense but as I drove further from my house I did sense the turmoil in the air. I drove past people, up in small mobs and saw shattered windshields and glass all over the streets. I just reminded myself of God’s love and protection on our lives and confidently drove past all of it, seemingly ignoring it all. (more…)

Few men sat together and played with the LIBOR rates in the wake of the US funds crisis and this has allowed in artificial interest rates into the world economy which could have serious ramifications very soon. LIBOR rates are used as benchmark for over 300 trillion USD worth of transactions worldwide!

Few men sit together at the OPEC and decide how much you and I will pay for our petrol or diesel. They decide the production limits of its constituent countries and this gives them large control over the prices of crude. The crude cost per barrel is estimated to be around 15 USD per barrel, that however is now selling at 130 USD per barrel or even more. (more…)