A couple of days back, there was this news that our dear prime minister is being given a chartered plane just like that of the Air Force one that belongs to the US president. But it was to be a bit more advanced and luxurious than that of the US president. After all our prime minister is no less than that of the United Stated President. Isn't it?
We are the 2nd largest democracy in the world. That itself calls for an Air Force One like aeroplane for our Prime Minister. But I was wondering about the money that was to be involved in this. Where is it going to come from?
I as a good citizen of my country pay my income tax. Thanks to the tax-system in our country that I end up only getting 71% of what I earn every month. The big fishes in the country end up paying nominal amounts as taxes and we keep wondering as to how is it possible that they are assessed so small an amount. But our Income Tax department doesn't find anything fishy in it.
I travel on 3rd grade roads that get a gutter in it even before the Corporation decides to repair the already existing gutters. Ask them what the problem is and they would answer - it is lack of funds.
I pay 3 times the cost of fuel, just because the government feels that the oil companies in India are still not making any profit. So I have to pay that amount for the fuel that I use, because I am the financier for the oil companies in India.
So, then who is paying for our Prime Minister's chartered plane.
The answer was obvious - it is me. The common man.
As I was digesting this news, I read another news in the newspaper the other day. Another Prime Minister aspirant in my country - Mayawati (chief minister of Uttar Pradesh and the Bahujan Samaj Party Chief) is now planning to buy a chartered plane for herself. She was shown a few, but she wants one that is the best in luxury. Now ask her where the money is coming from and she would answer that it is her hard-earned money. If she as a minister, who gets a disclosed salary that is only 60% of what I am paid every month (and I have not been able to manage a house for myself) how is she able to buy a chartered plane.
Ask the Income Tax department and they think that Mayawati is a good citizen of India and should not be looked upon with suspicion.
The answer to all this is quite obvious and was something that I wrote about in one of my blogs earlier. Yes My Minister.

The Singur saga - this is a saga of a huge auto manufacturer planning to launch a Rs. 1-Lac car called 'NANO' and setting up a plant in a remote village called Singur in West Bengal and then having to decide to pursue their dreams from some other location, thanks to an absolutely useless, good-for-nothing politician.
The adjectives used could sound to be harsh but that was the best that I could use for a villain in an otherwise good story. The Tatas, probably made their worst decisions ever, having decided to set-up the manufacturing facility in a state like that of West Bengal which is a fort to a bunch of good-for-nothing politicians having done nothing to the welfare of the state other than playing petty politics for their vested interests. States like that of Kerala and West Bengal which are amongst the only strong-holds of the Communist Party in India, are reeling with problems of unemployment. But these politicians are the last ones to let any company set-up any organizations in these states. They would start agitations, hartals and strikes even before the facility starts to function, on some petty issue, propelled by some politician in the state who wants to gain popularity through media coverage at least.
Same is the story of Mamta Banerjee - an ex-congressman who when did not achieve her dreams in that party rebelled to form a new party called Trinamool Congress, which was always willing to shake-hands with the parent party Congress, provided they were given a good portfolio. They were even ready to join the opposition, the Bharatiya Janata Party, for the same
thing. So what else could you expect of this politician.
As expected she had some petty issues which were blown out of proportion, and a handful of illiterate villagers joined her in her protest not knowing what the consequences would be, only to be followed by a larger group. Their agitation was against the Tata's manufacturing facility in Singur and finally fed-up with all this, the Tatas decided to move the facility to a different state and why would they not do it when there are so many states standing with their arms spread to embrace them.
What resulted was a suicide by a poor farmer, whose bread and butter came from the manufacturing facility.
Are these proteste required? Aren't we being made a fool of by these politicians?

Just search Google with the title of this post and you would find thousands of pictures that are even more hurting than the one you see here. If you are wondering as to what this problem is all about, then before i explain what this is, I should say that this is another face of politics in India.

This entire dispute is about alloting a specific piece of land to a pilgrimage in Jammu, called the Amarnath. The entire row is about this 100 acres of forest land that nobody had claim to. What is worthy of thought is the fact that are we really so much interested in what this land is and why it has been allotted to the pilgrimage? In such a busy life that I lead, where I find it difficult to even bother about my own problems, I would not have time to run after a land allotment, that too to a pilgrimage.

Then how did all this start. This started when a few politicians with vested interests, blowed up the issue to this extent, unnecessarily. Leaders from the valley like Mehbooba Mufti, who have been in politics with a view of deriving personal interests from it were the ones at the forefront of this unnecessary row. What is sad is the fact that these people forget that such small issues, if unnecessarily blown out of proportion could lead to an even bigger problem which would then get out of control of everyone.

Why would they bother? They have never bothered and will never bother because they are not concerned about the country but were always interested in their own personal growth.

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politics, corruption, indian politics

The ethics being practised by the Political Parties in India stooped to a new low during the vote of confidence by the Indian government in the Parliament on 22nd July 2008. There were rumors that money was being offered by certain politicians to MLAs from the opposition to vote for them or, abstain from voting. These news were denied by various sources and the entire nation prayed that these refutals were true.

But that was not to be.

People who watched the live telecast of the vote of confidence in the Parliament witnessed the above picture of one of our Member of Parliament flashing bundles of notes that he claims were offered as "Bribes".

From the next day onwards started balming and counter blaming by the party in power and the opposition parties. Along with it came a few tapes and recordings, whiche were claimed to be spy-videos (which later proved to be fake ones) of people offering and yet others receiving bribes. This went on to such an extent that a few people even started blaming certain political parties to have masterminded a few bomb blasts in the country to distract the attention from the investigations about this cash-for-vote scam. It is a pity that the politicians of a nation, who ideally are the ones responsible for the country, did not have time to weep or, express their condolences to the hundreds who died in these blasts, but found time to gain mileage out of it. Waht a dirty political story is this?

Since the past few days, the No-Confidence motion scheduled to happen in the Parliament on 22nd July was the hottest topic around. Political parties were busy getting their acts together to ensure that their numbers were in place. At the same time, media was also quite busy gathering information about which minister changed parties, who accepted a deal, what was the deal worth and what were the projections like.
So close was this numbers game that the ruling party and the opposition both forgot what ethics were all about and went to the extent of offering huge sum of money to minister to initiate them to vote for their party or, abstain from voting. This was not it. The next level to which these parties went was even worser and showed their real character.
These parties first went to minister who were convicted and were in jail promising them that the legal proceedings against them would be reconsidered and their crime would be forgiven in case they support these parties. In a few of my earlier posts I had written about Surajbhan, Pappu Yadav and other such ministers.
In addition to all this, these convicted ministers were even granted bail to let them participate in the voting to be done in the Lok Sabha. I wonder how the conscience of these parties allow them to do all this. Where is the judiciary? Isn't it the responsibility oft he judiciary to stop all this.

The Lok Sabha is going in for a No-Confidence motion in a few days. The fate of the ruling party and the government is to be decided in this. After a fall-off between the various parties in the ruling coalition government a few parties withdrew support to the ruling coalition and thus the government is now in an unstable state. But what use is this No-Confidence motion?
It is funny when you try to figure out all that is happening in the political circle these days. The ruling party is trying to gather as much support as possible and the opposition is trying to gather as many people as possible to ensure that the government does not win the No-Confidence vote. What could be the extent that these people could go to, to attain their objective? One would not even have imagined it.
The ruling coalition members and the opposition alike are these days very busy bribing Member of Parliaments to support them in the No-Confidence motion. And these members who were once not even considered as valuable ones are these days swinging their support to whichever side is offering them a better package. You should not be surprised when you hear the packages that are being offered as bribes - it could be anything starting from Rs. 25 Crore onwards.
What good is this No-Confidence motion? The very objective of it is defeated. But still our parties are not defying from going ahead and claiming that it is the people's verdict. What is a matter for even more pity is the fact that these politicians cry for cleaning up corruption and bribery from the system and the very constitution is being bribed in order to ensure that a few chair and power hungry idiots stay in power.
Hail Democracy. Yes My Minister

Wondering what this picture is about? It is the picture of a road that I normally take to my home. It reminds you of a well, right? It did remind me too.
This road was just fine when I went to office in the morning. I drove my car through this road and was happy that my elected MPs are concerned about my country. It was a smooth ride and I loved taking this road because I cared for my car and have never dared to take a bad road. It was drizzling when I went to office in the morning. It drizzled for most of the day that day. But let me assure you it was not like rainfall in Cherapunji. The total rainfall for the day would have been about 1/10th of the rainfall in a normal rainy day in New Delhi. The weather was fine and I was enjoying the weather.
It was a bit late when I left office that day but was happy that I would have a good night's sleep. As I took a turn to this road, I had the shock of my life. My car jumped into a pot hole and came to a halt. I couldnt believe it. When I got out to see what had happened, I was shocked. The smooth silky road in the morning had turned to a disastrous road full of gutters.
I wondered if a slight drizzle could lead to this, what would a heavy rainfall do? What is the quality of work going into these constructions. Poor quality material, inappropriate proportion of mixtures and what not. Everybody from my MP to the babus in the PWD, has to be involved in it, else the condition of the roads would not have been like this.
Are we punishing these people involved in the construction of these roads? If not, why aren't they being questioned as to why a road that is suppossed to last for years deteriorated in just a day, after a slight drizzle. It doesn't happen so, because if questioned there would lots of names that would become party to the corruption.
I once defined "democracy" differently after a similar incident. I feel what I defined out of frustration then is what actually democracy is. Democracy is a confused state of mind, where you feel that you are the master as you ride the chariot, only to find that the horse can pull you down anytime and then you curse yourself for selecting that horse.
But that is what development is all about, my friend.

This would come as a surprise to anyone who knows about Indian politics and Indian politicians. Wondering why? Because we in India are not used to seeing our politicians like this. So what is this surprise all about.

This is about a person who wears white like all politicians do, but doesn't mind stains on it if it comes from hard work unlike other politicians who can only tolerate stains from corruption but not hard work. He is a first-time MLA, elected from the Bussy assembly constituency in the Union territory of Pondicherry, in 2006. He is called, "Bussy Anand" out of love by his people. When this 44-year-old legislator of Puducherry Munnetra Congress is not pushing for schemes, meeting voters or discussing local politics over a cuppa, he's clearing garbage, cleaning clogged drains and spraying mosquito repellent across the town.

Anand began a garbage collection unit of his own about 9 years back, after he was tired of the lack of response from the government. He is still continuing with his social work and spends around Rs. 75000 - Rs. 85000 from his pocket as expenses on this service. One would not wonder at the fact that Congress - the biggest party in India, did not give him a ticket to the elections. Rightly so, because they would not want a person spending money out of his pocket for social causes to be a part of them, because they are there to earn money from the public and not spend on them.

Hats off to this MLA. May God make you the Prime Minister one day.

Blogging has been an excellent medium for interaction between businesses and its customers and clients. Now blogging has reached new heights with even ministers taking to blogging.

So here is our "blogger minister". It won't be surorising to know that this blogger minister is none other than our very own "Management minister", Shri. Laloo Prasad Yadav. This effort of his is worth appreciating because his first blog itself has generated quite a huge response and has a lot of readers commenting upon aspects of the railways that require improvement and attention. In a way this blog would help our railway minister, to gather feedback from the general public, who till a few days back had no means of approaching our dear railway minister.

All said and done, what is worth wondering is the fact that this "blogger minister", Shri Lalu Prasad Yadav, had once made the famous comment 'yeh IT-YT kya hota hai', meaning 'What does this IT-YT mean?'.

But as it is, Lalu is a politician and all politicians and ministers have the right to take a U-turn from what they said. They have the right to refuse, deny and accept. They have the right to say that they were misquoted and misinterpreted. Let Lalu be one of them. Yes, my minister.

This is a killer minister in the UP government ministry. He is a new variety of a killer. He doesn't do things himself, but makes others do these things for him.
One would say that is "great influence". You would probably be right, because that is how this democracy with the most citizens function. Ministers are influential people and they can influence people to do anything. This innocent faced minister also did the same thing.
Jamuna Prasad Nishad is the fisheries minister in the UP government. He led a group of people, we would normally call the "mob", to a police station protesting against the rape of a Nishad girl. It is learnt that our minister provoked the mob to attack the police station and in the mob-attack, a police constable was shot dead. Our minister pleads innocence saying he had no part in the shooting. But what one would wonder is, how and where did this firearm come from in a group that were followers of such a, self-proclaimed nice and clean minister.
Incidental is also the fact that he is the 5th minister to be sacked from the UP ministry, on grounds of murder or, sex and rape. I am amazed at what a ministry this is and what are the quality of minister that we as citizens vote for.

A very homely cheif minister of the state of Bihar was Smt. Rabri devi, wife of Shri Laloo Prasad Yadav. She had no knowledge of politics but in order to save her husband's self-respect she entered into politics and her first achievement - she became the chief minister of the state. I am sure this could happen only in India.

Now this very homely chief minister was given a residence 1, Anne Marg. As homely as she could be, she planted a few trees in the courtyard of this house which was the government's property. The trees grew big and gave fruits. But because our chief minister was homely she could not survive after her 5 year term in the office and she had to consequently quit her residence.

But our ex-chief minister could not forget the trees that she had planted but could not eat the fruits from. So what would you do if you were in her place. You would forget about the whole episode and move on with life.

If you though this is what our homely chief minister did, then you are mistaken. She has ensured that she pester the life of the new chief minister living in this house for the fruits borne by the trees she had planted and our new chief minister had no choice but to heed to her demands and send her a basket full of "litchis" and "mangoes".

It was a very funny way of protesting. The government had declared a hike in fuel prices a day back and as always the opposition had to oppose it. It was indeed their birth right to do so and by the very meaning of their name - Opposition, they had to oppose it. What is funny here is the fact that the opposition in this democracy has only one reason to oppose. That is to pull the government down so that they can call for a mid-term election and hope that they would come to power this time round.

Now for the actual story. So the ministers in one of these states which was being ruled by the opposition party decided to protest the fuel price hike. These ministers lead by the chief minister decided that they would cycle their way to the state secreteriat. The healthy and fit chief minister rode the bicycle and kept his commitment. But there were quite a few ministers from his cabinet who were not that unfit. They started off with quite a bit of excitement but later realized that "Hard-Work" is not meant for them and that they would die without that air-conditioned cars that they normally travel to office in. This gives me a reason to wonder how these ministers would understand the pain faced by the common man.

So what started off as a protest finally ended as a protest to the protest. The fizz was to such an extent that the Panchayat and rural development minister Rustom Singh got off his bicycle and complained: "What will be the outcome of this? Nothing will come out of us riding bicycles." He started walking with his cycle.

The bicycle ride became a painful ride for the security personnel who had to push the bicycles that the ministers were riding.

Why did you have to do something that you were not capable off, my dear ministers? But if you decided you want to do it, probably you are right because you can never be wrong. Yes, My Minister.

This is the story of minister who was arrested for bribing an officer of the investigating agency to negotiate the decision on a murder case. Now what murder case would be the next question. Yes, of course, this dear minister of ours was a party to a murder about 8 years ago, the investigation of which is still on. And our efficient minister wanted to ensure that he comes out of it clean.

The irony of the story is that this minister heads the education portfolio. Just imagine the fate of the students who are being covered by this education ministry. A minister who should be an ideal for the future of the country, was caught bribing an investigating officer. Worser is the fact that the minister had a criminal past. What is worth wondering is, how can a murderer be made a minister of such a respectable portfolio. But what can you say. Our country is a democracy where ministers are never convicted. So if a minister cannot be convicted, then a murderer handling the education ministry is pretty normal.

The climax of the story is that the honorable minister Mr.Borah, was given a clean chit some time back in the year 2001, when the state CID failed to prove his involvement. I have all the reason to believe that the minister would have successfully bribed a few of the investigating officers then also. It was then that this case was handed over to the CBI.

Now if the minister was actually involved in the murder is anybody's guess. The how was he give a clean chit earlier. that is because he is a minister and a minister in India can never be punished.

"Yes, My Minister".

Once upon a time, there was a minister who would push and pull people and then when these people fell down and hurt themselves, he would say that he was trying to catch them from falling.
This is not a boring story of a king and a queen. This is the story of the Agriculture Minister in Bihar, Mr. Narendra Singh. What a minister he is, very efficient and truthful. Efficient to such an extent that when an MLA tried to take credit of the work he had done in his constituency, he pushed him from over the dias. The fall was so bad that the MLA broke a bone in his leg. He is very truthful also. Truthful to such an extent that when asked what had happened, he says that he was trying to stop a quarrel between the MLA and some body else on the dias and the MLA had fallen off the dias in the scuffle. Now so many eye-witnesses said that the minister had pushed the MLA off the dias, but all of them are liars according to the minister.

Now for the history of the minister. This minister is a warrior. He fights for his honor, or, so he feels. If it is honor or, not is for us to decide.

• A couple of months ago he allegedly pushed an old woman approaching his car with a petition asking for a job to her son on compassionate grounds. The woman broke her hand.
• About a couple of years back the minister was in the eye of a storm for allegedly manhandling a magistrate who sought to know his identity at the entrance of the state legislative assembly.

One would wonder as to what is the action that is being taken against the minister. An enquiry commission has been constituted who would look into the case and would in a few months let go of the minister. Why? Because he is a minister and a minister can never be punished in India.

"Once upon a time there was a minister who was very fond of his chair."
This is not a story that I am about to narrate. This is one of our dear minister from Karnataka, Mr. H.D.Deve Gowda, who also fell in love with the chair - the chair of power and chief minister ship.
This dear minister of ours was once the prime minister of India. So that would make anyone think, if he can stoop to such low levels. yes, he can because he is just another minister who wanted to make use of the chair of Prime Minister to the best possible effect but had to step down prematurely because the hand that rocked the cradle of the coalition governement then, decided to stop rocking the cradle.
So our dear minister, having lost the powerful chair without really exploiting it to the fullest had to go back to his hometown from where he had started. He had actually held another powerful post (and consequently the chair) in this very own state of his for some time before he chose to leap to the even powerful chair. But this time when he came back he was even more powerful and became the King-maker in the state, probably because nobody pushed him or, recommended him for the chief minister's post, or, so I thought. But the truth was that the intelligent minister had plans of bringing his next generation - his son, into the business of politics. So he did. He finally made his son a chief minister.

It was then that he realized that his son was not very powerful so he played a smart game of chess, by suspending his son from the party and then helping him make a coalition with another party - the BJP, and then came the climax. H.D.Deve Gowda, pulled back his hands and the party that jumped into the well assuming this "Chair Minister" would hold them, fell into the well with a loud thump.
Now after a few months the assembly elections happened and our dear wanted-to-be-chief minister found that he and his party was routed and thwarted by the public. Alas! the "Chair minister" is now without a chair. Poor H.D.Deve Gowda.
"Sir, you said you now want any chair - be it a wooden or, iron one.Oh! I understand".
"Yes Minister".

There is a very good dialogue in a good hindi movie, where the villian politician asked the hero of the film, "Have you heard about a politician being convicted in our country for any crime till today?" The hero of the movie doesn't have an answer. This is particularly true in India, where our ministers are out of the purview of the law. They can murder, threaten, extort money and do what ever they want and still get away.
About a decade back the favorite minister of India, Mr. Laloo Prasad Yadav was involved in a "fodder scam". The scam shook the country and from the little that I still remember, because I was very young to understand these things then, the scam was such that the money spent on the fodder for poultry was so much so as to feed a hen about 1.5 kgs of fodder daily. So that meant that Lalooji had such huge hens that ate more than their weight, in one day. That would sound strange to anyone. So if the money was not spent on the fodder, then where did it go?
Lalooji was framed for the scam but our brave hero came out scratchless, only to become the railway minister. Then there was a change in story.
Railways became a profit making organization from a loss bearing organization that it was before our dear Lalooji came into it. And our hero, Lalooji became the most talked about manager in the country who could even turn the world upside down. He would any day beat the best management gurus in the world, hands down. Such was the fame of Lalooji that many b-schools from the world called Lalooji to deliver lectures and teach their students. A few students from Harvard University even came down to India to have a conversation with Lalooji.
I am not surprised at all this. Because I know what Lalooji would have done. He would have taken a few points from what he did in the fodder scam and would have implemented it in the railways. What else could a corrupt minister do?
Or, are there a few brains behind the success who are being denied of their due share just because Lalooji has claimed all the limelight? No one knows.

This blog is about politics - when I say politics, I do not intend to contest an election and become a politician one day. But "Yes My Minister" is about everything that a politician is about. If you wish to spend some time watching humor, you would not have to choose the television. Just pick a politician of your choice and carefully listen and observe everything that he does. Your humor recipe is ready. This very politician of yours could also serve you the daily dose of action packed drama and horror.
So why would you want to fall back onto something else when you have this one, all-in-one entertainment channel called the 'politician' at your own service.
So my blog is about politics. Now if you ask, Why Politics? I would have only one answer to it. Because this is the only place where my frustration has to be contained within myself. So I thought why not vent it here and thus give a chance to a few of my friends also to do the same.
So here I start by saying "Yes My Minister".