August 2011 Archives

I never thought the recent movement in India protesting corruption, would go beyond some small NGO show of strength.

Anna Hazare, who leads the protest, with all his strength and faith has achieved something...

I don't know whether this is the same with everyone, but at least for me, he has proved the Gandhian way is still something that works even in 2011.

And the recent reactions by some Indian politicians does seem to prove... majority of politicians in India want to see the country developed and corruption free... just like the rest of us. I always thought not more than a handful of them would want that for India.

Unfortunate for all the good politicians, we are stuck with the British colonization style of laws and government model, which were forced on us by the British to keep us weak... and changing a truck load of all that (importantly how government offices should work) is taking time.

I always believed current generation of Indians will bring in change, and the old-modellish generations will be replaced with the newer generation people, and India will have its day.

But, the change is already here. And the old generation of people seem to want it as much as the new ones. Probably everyone was waiting for a revolution.. very true there is always a time things happen. It is now.

Anna and the Lokpal.. just a beginning of things to come?

What are your thoughts?

On a side note: Sony pix played the film 'Gandhi' today.. to go with the timing of Anna Hazare's protest and recent developments I think, and the film which all these days looked only like a history film, today felt very different.

I can remember seeing Ambedkar pictures as graffitti on walls, statues being celebrated in Chennai from long long ago... Initially, I used to think he was a Tamilian... then when I was in karnataka, because he was celebrated there also I thought he was a south indian probably not born in Tamilnadu.

Later when learning about his involvement with Nehru, the constitution, and all, I got to understand he was actually a North-Indian, but his actions made him a celebrity around India... especially the idealogies of uplifting lower class by caste quota in education and employment policies... called "Reservation".. what is one of the chiefly argued topics even today.

I am still strangely surprised that there has been a person who is celebrated all around the country, and he never got something sort of a media attention or publicity... but only became a celebrity, due to fondness because of his thoughts and actions helping people later. Sir.Ambedkar seems to have had an interesting amount of Futuristic vision in law and political thought.

Even today, if somebody threw a stone on an Ambedkar statue there will be a riot. And people raise statues for him without thinking twice that he was not one of them or one of their caste.. etc., How is that?

In the last week, American bonds were downgraded on their credit rating from AAA to AA+.. with a further Negative outlook for the future.

Finally... after a long long long delay.

It should have happened when America decided to re-elect Bush.. as his first term itself killed America's economy enough.. with Bush busily spending lots of money into policies like 2% housing loan subsidies, high health spending for the public.. etc.,.. to cover up for what he did on the other side, leading a war which was eating many billions in expenses.

It should have been done when America went to war .. with Iraq ???
At least you could explain why they went to war with Afganisthan, as a reaction to September 11... but Iraq? What interest was that to bring Saddam and his men down in a distant country with all your economic reserves committed on that war, when the reserves were already going of like quick sand

It should have at least been downgraded when America hit a no-return recession which claimed all America's who's who in Mortgage, Banking and Investment corps.
And American government, with all those intelligent guys there, committed extraordinary amount of money to bring back these bankrupt companies back on foot... with nobody, just no bad money hungry company boss brought to justice for having managed things badly(read 'greedily) to pull the entire country's economy down.

And still not withstanding any economic sense, instead of pulling up the sack of money and starting to fill it, Obama committed a large amount in public health policies than what was already a high amount committed by Bush before him.. just to score political points.

After all this.. it would be funny, if they didn't see this coming.. the downgrade of their economic credit rating from AAA to AA+.

.. and even now some people are talking like it was Deven Sharma, an Indian American who is to blame for America's downgrade. Deven Sharma, is Indian-by-birth, President of the rating enterprise S&P which downgraded American bonds.