New India is nothing but a banana republic

[Ali.009]

New India is nothing but a banana republic​

While you were glued to your flat screen, with your eyeballs popping out every time the ball was hit for a six, in a dark corner of India – in a Haryana village very close to the national capital – a dog was barking. Since it was a Dalit dog (in India, even dogs have caste), the upper caste Jaats were getting all riled up. So they decided to teach the dog a lesson. A bunch of them surrounded a Dalit house and set it on fire. Inside the house were trapped an 18-year-old girl and her old father. Since the girl was physically challenged and could not move out of the burning house, she and her father were engulfed and consumed by the fire. This is how people teach a lesson to dogs in New India: by making the poor, lower castes die like dogs.

Even as you were glued to TV, watching the IPL drama – on the field as well as off it – a few more things happened. Highly dangerous radioactive material affected several people in a scrap market of Delhi; more than 100 people died in the cow-belt areas as mercury touched 43 degree mark; more people died of hunger and starvation across the country; new figures revealed that the number of poor in India stands at 800 million and not 327 million as claimed by the government; and it was reported that the government was tapping the phones of important political leaders. It may also be tapping the phones of ordinary citizens.

Now, a look at the IPL muck. Though nothing has been proved so far, the whole IPL drama now looks like one big farce. In general perception, IPL is now all about money (black and white), sex, drugs, corruption, betting and match fixing. It’s only in a country like India that a minister’s daughter can pull out a scheduled flight of the national carrier and turn it into a chartered flight for an IPL team. It’s only in India that a money-minting machine like IPL can enjoy tax exemption for years. It’s only in India that a collective effort of politicians, babus, Bollywood stars, businessmen, players and match-fixers can reduce the game to a drama whose script never changes. Yet people watch it. It’s the new opium of New India.

Before he was kicked out of office, the disgraced minister Shashi Tharoor thanked the “New India” for its support to him. “We will bring the change but it will not be without pain,” tweeted the minister to his 7,00,000 plus followers, who have begun to behave like a nation within a nation. People like Tharoor and his twitter army are more concerned about Brand India and Brand IPL than propriety in public life or for the millions of issues crying for attention.

New India is nothing but a banana republic. Here the reality looks like a mythical drama and a fake drama called IPL looks like real. So when a Dalit girl is burnt to death by a gang of upper caste loonies, nothing happens, not a soul is stirred, no one comes out on streets to protest. But when Dhoni lifts a ball into the stands, thousands of people go berserk as if this is the only reality that matters, as if this the only reality that will make India stand on its feet. No one knows, how many bets are won or lost on each IPL six, how much money rides on every wide ball.

Free market is not a free license to loot, Barack Obama reminded the Wall Street honchos this week. Every dollar carries hopes and aspirations of millions of people, the US president said. Obama will look like a silly fool in India, where free market has become a synonym for crony capitalism of the worst kind. In fact, it is turning into predatory capitalism where the rich and powerful hunt the poor and weak without any fear, with the full backing of the state.

The dalit girl’s death is only one of the millions of stories of injustice and cruelty unfolding in front of us. We can’t see them because we are busy watching IPL. Or, maybe, we are watching IPL because the reality is too much to bear.

At 800 million, India is the world’s poorest nation. It’s the poorest nation ever in human history. The number of people trapped in poverty and bondage in this country is double the population of Africa. It’s more than the combined population of North and South Americas. But who cares. New India needs its daily fix of IPL. New India or New Banana Republic, Shobhan Saxena, 24 April 2010, 03:27 PM IST

 

[riju78]

man please check if a thread already exists before starting one..thank u

 

[indiarocks]

New India is nothing but a banana republic​

While you were glued to your flat screen, with your eyeballs popping out every time the ball was hit for a six, in a dark corner of India – in a Haryana village very close to the national capital – a dog was barking. Since it was a Dalit dog (in India, even dogs have caste), the upper caste Jaats were getting all riled up. So they decided to teach the dog a lesson. A bunch of them surrounded a Dalit house and set it on fire. Inside the house were trapped an 18-year-old girl and her old father. Since the girl was physically challenged and could not move out of the burning house, she and her father were engulfed and consumed by the fire. This is how people teach a lesson to dogs in New India: by making the poor, lower castes die like dogs.

Even as you were glued to TV, watching the IPL drama – on the field as well as off it – a few more things happened. Highly dangerous radioactive material affected several people in a scrap market of Delhi; more than 100 people died in the cow-belt areas as mercury touched 43 degree mark; more people died of hunger and starvation across the country; new figures revealed that the number of poor in India stands at 800 million and not 327 million as claimed by the government; and it was reported that the government was tapping the phones of important political leaders. It may also be tapping the phones of ordinary citizens.

Now, a look at the IPL muck. Though nothing has been proved so far, the whole IPL drama now looks like one big farce. In general perception, IPL is now all about money (black and white), sex, drugs, corruption, betting and match fixing. It’s only in a country like India that a minister’s daughter can pull out a scheduled flight of the national carrier and turn it into a chartered flight for an IPL team. It’s only in India that a money-minting machine like IPL can enjoy tax exemption for years. It’s only in India that a collective effort of politicians, babus, Bollywood stars, businessmen, players and match-fixers can reduce the game to a drama whose script never changes. Yet people watch it. It’s the new opium of New India.

Before he was kicked out of office, the disgraced minister Shashi Tharoor thanked the “New India” for its support to him. “We will bring the change but it will not be without pain,” tweeted the minister to his 7,00,000 plus followers, who have begun to behave like a nation within a nation. People like Tharoor and his twitter army are more concerned about Brand India and Brand IPL than propriety in public life or for the millions of issues crying for attention.

New India is nothing but a banana republic. Here the reality looks like a mythical drama and a fake drama called IPL looks like real. So when a Dalit girl is burnt to death by a gang of upper caste loonies, nothing happens, not a soul is stirred, no one comes out on streets to protest. But when Dhoni lifts a ball into the stands, thousands of people go berserk as if this is the only reality that matters, as if this the only reality that will make India stand on its feet. No one knows, how many bets are won or lost on each IPL six, how much money rides on every wide ball.

Free market is not a free license to loot, Barack Obama reminded the Wall Street honchos this week. Every dollar carries hopes and aspirations of millions of people, the US president said. Obama will look like a silly fool in India, where free market has become a synonym for crony capitalism of the worst kind. In fact, it is turning into predatory capitalism where the rich and powerful hunt the poor and weak without any fear, with the full backing of the state.

The dalit girl’s death is only one of the millions of stories of injustice and cruelty unfolding in front of us. We can’t see them because we are busy watching IPL. Or, maybe, we are watching IPL because the reality is too much to bear.

At 800 million, India is the world’s poorest nation. It’s the poorest nation ever in human history. The number of people trapped in poverty and bondage in this country is double the population of Africa. It’s more than the combined population of North and South Americas. But who cares. New India needs its daily fix of IPL. New India or New Banana Republic, Shobhan Saxena, 24 April 2010, 03:27 PM IST

List of countries by Failed States Index - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
check ths out...u will feel good...



well dont forget ur whole country was crying because no ipl boss showed any interest in ur players otherwise u also would have been glued to tv



Pakistan will be a "failed" state by 2015 as it would be affected by civil war, complete Talibanisation and struggle for control of its nuclear weapons, premier US intelligence agencies have said in an assessment report.

Forecasting a "Yugoslavia-like fate" for Pakistan, the US National Intelligence Council (NIC) and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in a jointly prepared Global Futures Assessment Report have said "by year 2015 Pakistan would be a failed state, ripe with civil war, bloodshed, inter-provincial rivalries and a struggle for control of its nuclear weapons and complete Talibanisation".

"Pakistan will not recover easily from decades of political and economic mismanagement, divisive policies, lawlessness, corruption and ethnic friction," said the report quoted by former Pakistan High Commissioner to United Kingdom Wajid Shamsul Hasan in an article in the ' South Asia Tribune '.

Titled 'Will Pakistan Army invade Balochistan as per the NIC-CIA Plan', the former senior diplomat said "in the context of Balochistan, one would like to refer to the 2015 NIC report. It forecast a Yugoslavia-like fate for Pakistan.

"The military operation that has been put in motion there would further distance the Baloch people from rest of the country. That perhaps is the (NIC-CIA) Plan," Hasan said.

"Nascent democratic reforms will produce little change in the face of opposition from an entrenched political elite and radical Islamic parties. In a climate of continuing domestic turmoil, the Central government's control probably will be reduced to the Punjabi heartland and the economic hub of Karachi," the former diplomat quoted the NIC-CIA report as saying.

Expressing apprehension, Hasan asked, "are our military rulers working on a similar agenda or something that has been laid out for them in the various assessment reports over the years by the National Intelligence Council in joint collaboration with CIA?"

His article comes in the backdrop of growing violence between the Balochis and the Pakistani security forces stationed in the gas-rich province.

The recent moves by the security forces to evict all residents within a 15-km radius of the Pakistan's biggest Sui gas plant and the decision to create a cantonment near it has given a fillip to the anti-Islamabad insurgent activities of Balochi groups like the Balochistan Liberation Army, reports said.

The reports said Pakistan was taking the "most drastic step yet" in its bid to crush a deadly tribal rebellion by forcibly evicting all residents from around 500 dwellings within 15 kilometres of the country's biggest Sui gasfield.

The Army says such a step would prevent further attacks and protect residents from the devastating consequences of a major explosion, the reports said.

 

[below_freezing]

failed state index is ridiculously biased.

it places China as more failed than Russia or India, both countries with armed insurgencies running large parts of the country and with a much smaller GDP.

in addition all of China is internet connected and electrified, more than I can say for India.

neither india or china have problems with refugees or sharp economic decline.

so with india worse on 2 measures and the same on 2, how is it ranked better than china?

 

[Frankenstein]

List of countries by Failed States Index - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
check ths out...u will feel good...



well dont forget ur whole country was crying because no ipl boss showed any interest in ur players otherwise u also would have been glued to tv



Pakistan will be a "failed" state by 2015 as it would be affected by civil war, complete Talibanisation and struggle for control of its nuclear weapons, premier US intelligence agencies have said in an assessment report.

Forecasting a "Yugoslavia-like fate" for Pakistan, the US National Intelligence Council (NIC) and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in a jointly prepared Global Futures Assessment Report have said "by year 2015 Pakistan would be a failed state, ripe with civil war, bloodshed, inter-provincial rivalries and a struggle for control of its nuclear weapons and complete Talibanisation".

"Pakistan will not recover easily from decades of political and economic mismanagement, divisive policies, lawlessness, corruption and ethnic friction," said the report quoted by former Pakistan High Commissioner to United Kingdom Wajid Shamsul Hasan in an article in the ' South Asia Tribune '.

Titled 'Will Pakistan Army invade Balochistan as per the NIC-CIA Plan', the former senior diplomat said "in the context of Balochistan, one would like to refer to the 2015 NIC report. It forecast a Yugoslavia-like fate for Pakistan.

"The military operation that has been put in motion there would further distance the Baloch people from rest of the country. That perhaps is the (NIC-CIA) Plan," Hasan said.

"Nascent democratic reforms will produce little change in the face of opposition from an entrenched political elite and radical Islamic parties. In a climate of continuing domestic turmoil, the Central government's control probably will be reduced to the Punjabi heartland and the economic hub of Karachi," the former diplomat quoted the NIC-CIA report as saying.

Expressing apprehension, Hasan asked, "are our military rulers working on a similar agenda or something that has been laid out for them in the various assessment reports over the years by the National Intelligence Council in joint collaboration with CIA?"

His article comes in the backdrop of growing violence between the Balochis and the Pakistani security forces stationed in the gas-rich province.

The recent moves by the security forces to evict all residents within a 15-km radius of the Pakistan's biggest Sui gas plant and the decision to create a cantonment near it has given a fillip to the anti-Islamabad insurgent activities of Balochi groups like the Balochistan Liberation Army, reports said.

The reports said Pakistan was taking the "most drastic step yet" in its bid to crush a deadly tribal rebellion by forcibly evicting all residents from around 500 dwellings within 15 kilometres of the country's biggest Sui gasfield.

The Army says such a step would prevent further attacks and protect residents from the devastating consequences of a major explosion, the reports said.

Wikipedia?? is that what you got??

 

[Jade]

failed state index is ridiculously biased.

it places China as more failed than Russia or India, both countries with armed insurgencies running large parts of the country and with a much smaller GDP.

in addition all of China is internet connected and electrified, more than I can say for India.

neither india or china have problems with refugees or sharp economic decline.

so with india worse on 2 measures and the same on 2, how is it ranked better than china?

GDP and internet connectivity has less to do with arriving at failed state index and more to do with the basic governance and responsibility of the government towards its citizens.

 

[chinapakistan]

GDP and internet connectivity has less to do with arriving at failed state index and more to do with the basic governance and responsibility of the government towards its citizens.

So, you mean a government full with corruption and let 40% their citizen living under poverty line and be illeteracy has better basic governance and responsibility? A government failed to provide food to feed his citizens and created the world largest malnutrition population has better basic governance and responsibility? A government still cant ban ancient caste system using 63 years has better basic governance and responsibility?