It was good to see the Lok Sabha session today. I wonder what brought the changes - the election results or, the Gateway of India march. Whatever was the reason the change is now imminent and visible. The people wanted to get rid of the corrupt politicians. They wanted actions against the insensitive politicians who couldn't stand by their people at the time of crisis like in Mumbai and they forced the government to take action.
By going to the polls in huge numbers in the recently concluded Vidhan Sabha elections in 5 states and electing back the governments that have worked towards to the development of the respective states and pulling down the ones that did not, they exhibited the power of democracy. They showed the "Good-for-nothing" politicians that they have a choice and that they know what their rights are. They can make or, break the ones who they feel should be governing their country and protecting them. It was the power of the mass.
This brought about was a sudden shift in the stance of the opposition as well. The opposition who had always demanded resignation from the governments who were in power when anything like that of the Mumbai incident happened, now went on to say that they stand by whatever the government will do towards countering the attack of terrorism. When Mr. L.K.Advani, the leader of the opposition and the BJP candidate for the post of PM in the Lok Sabha polls ahead, was showering praises on the things that the government has done to counter terrorism and the investigations that they were doing to find the culprits at the Mumbai terror attacks, for a minute anybody would have felt - "Yes, My Minister, You can do it".

Do you remember the name Sharad Yadav? Probably you won't. Even if you do you would not remember his face. Let me remind you.
He was once the President of the Janata Dal (United) in 1998, probably. I do not even recollect the year and very few people would, except for the ones who had to learn this again and again for some competitive exams. Do you find a reason why the terrorists would attack this no more useless politician?
When this "NETA" of ours was asked if he would sacrifice his security for the security of the citizen of his country, he was at loss of words initially. Then he goes on to say, "Your question itself is baseless. How would anybody's security affect the security of the citizen?" I pray that he should have been staying in "The Taj Hotel" during the terrorist attack. He would have got his answer.
Another politician Sajjan Kumar, who is under trial for several murder charges against him has about 12 people as security personnel around him. The irony is the fact that he is not even a minister.
A look at the statistics on the security cover being provided to our politicians reveals some startling facts:
Total expenditure on security - Rs. 250 Crores per annum
Total personnel involved - more than 15,000 (Out of these about 1400 are specially trained NSG commandos)
Politicians who are not serving ministers are many amongs these who are provided this security. An excerpt from "The Times of India" -

{Over Rs 250 crore is spent on VIP protection — including VIPs like Deve Gowda, Amar Singh, Ram Vilas Paswan, Sajjan Kumar, B L Joshi, R L Bhatia, Sharad Yadav, Rameshwar Thakur, E Ahmad, Murli Manohar Joshi, Brij Bhushan Sharan and Pramod Tiwari. Most of these worthies are said to be facing little real risk. It's also questionable whether lakhs of rupees should be spent on the protection of some others, like Sajjan Kumar, who have murder cases against them.
The explosion of VIP security has led to a ridiculous situation in which commandos meant for anti-terror operations have been diverted to protect politicians. The NSG, set up in 1984 for anti-hijack and anti-terror operations, has two wings--the Special Action Group (SAG), comprising army personnel on deputation, and the Special Rangers Group (SRG), comprising personnel from the ITBP, CISF, CRPF, BSF and SSB. More than half of SRG has been diverted to VIP security.
This is in addition to the Special Protection Group (SPG) that is exclusively meant for providing security to the PM, former PMs and members of the Gandhi family. Interestingly, the SPG budget for 2008-09 is Rs 180 crore, up from Rs 117 crore the previous year, while the 2008-09 budget for NSG, which is meant to protect over a billion people from terror, is Rs 158 crore, down from Rs 159 crore crore the previous year.
It's not only the SPG and NSG that protect our netas. In addition to them, every state diverts a sizeable number of policemen for VIP security. In Delhi, where the number of self-important politicians is highest, as many as 14,200 policemen have been deployed on round-the-clock VIP security duty.
VIP security is broken up into five levels — SPG for those at the top of the heap, followed by the Z-plus, Z, Y and X categories. Z-plus security is provided by NSG `black cats' consisting of six personal security officers, two head constables, 12 constables, one escort and one pilot vehicle. Thirty politicians like L K Advani, Mayawati, Narendra Modi, Jayalalithaa, Murli Manohar Joshi, Amar Singh and Paswan are provided this cover.
The pyramid gets wider at the lower level of security — 68 VIPs get Z category protection, 243 get Y category and 81 X category. Of course, all of them get to flash red lights on their cars and flaunt their status, generally viewed as a nuisance by the aam admi . So intrusive is their security that the Delhi high court was recently provoked into saying, ``Politicians are not national assets that need to be protected.''}

When a few of these honorable politicians were asked if they were willing to sacrifice a few of their security men for the security of the citizens, they refused. That is the kind of concern they have their citizens who vote for them and elect them as ministers. Also notable is the fact that all that money that is spent on these rogues is funded by common men like you and me.

After more than 60 hours of terror in Mumbai and a death toll exceeding 200 and more than 250 injured, it is now time for politicizing the issue.
Our politicians are back to their normal games. The first of this was the L.K.Advani, Manmohan Singh split visits to Mumbai each quoting different reasons, then Narendra Modi with his compensation and now the resignations of Home Minister-Shivraj Patil and Maharashtra Dy.CM - R.R.Patil and the Maharashtra C.M.'s offer to resign.
Isn't that brilliant politics? Shivraj Patil took the blame on him and resigned. So will this solve the purpose? Will the people who are dead come back? Or, will the Home minister hang himself for what has happened? If he thinks he is to blame himself for the incident, it means that he is agreeing to the fact that there was laxity in security and that he knew about it. In that case shouldn't he be tried and punished for the incident under section related to homicide. The same should be applicable to the Dy.CM and the CM of Maharashtra. The Dy.CM Mr. R.R.Patil a couple of days back went on to say that the Mumbai incident was a minor incident. Is it because none of his kins died in the incident. The two of these should be hanged in public to whatever they have let happen in Mumbai for the past few months including the bloodbath and acts of the coward Raj Thackeray.
But the objective behind all this is something else. What these political parties are trying to show is that they are really touched by the incident and feel that they are the reason for whatever has happened. This would in turn stimulate a public sentiment, which would in turn mean that they don't loose out too much on the already lost votes, in the Lok Sabha elections that are to come. What a ploy!
Hail politicians in India!
Mr.Politicians, Stop politicizing the incident and stop this resignation drama. Instead take some stern steps on whatever evidence has been gathered reather than issuing useless threats to the neighbors. Implement things that would ensure that no Tom,Dick and Harry can enter our country and keep our security forces at bay for more than 60 hrs.
ACT Minister and politicians!ACT!

As I wrote the last post about the increasing terror attacks in India and the Congress Governments failure in curbing it, little did I knew that, in a couple of days I would be writing about the biggest terror attack ever to happen in India. This time round the attack was so open as if it felt that the terrorists were throwing an open challenge mocking at us and our security systems. The way in which they have launched this attack killing more than 132 people in the process and a few able security personnel, they made a mockery of the security system.
Our honorable Prime Minister was again seen on television, with the same old statements, issuing warning to the neighboring countries who he assumes to have a part in the terror attacks. It is been long that we have been hearing to such statements, Mr. Prime Minister and the consequence is that we have seen the highest number of attacks this year and the highest number of casualties. Our honorable politicians would be considering this attack a blessing in disguise, because they would now have something to talk about as an agenda to their election campaigning. But what is the fate of we civilians.
As we leave our houses to go to work or, spend some time out, we don't even know if we would come back home. How would we, with terrorists roaming on the streets, shooting people at will? Does the Prime Minister have an answer to it? Can he guarantee a safe return for us and our families.
A peek into the terror attacks in the Taj Hotel and Trident Oberoi hotel in Mumbai would show the kind of seriousness that this government has shown towards curbing terrorism. Our ministers keep saying that it is the neighboring country which is sending in infiltrators. If they are so sure about this then why is it that they are unable to find a permanent solution to it. Instead of doing this, they drop open our gates to Samjhauta Expresses and Trains, and in the process kill innocent civilians from both the countries who would never even have thought of the fate awaiting them.
The United States saw one attack on their country and they destroyed nations. Terror in the US is now a distant dream for the terrorists. Here in India, an entire battalion of terrorists capture a couple of 5-star hotels and engage the security forces for almost 2 days. Just imagine the kind of preparation that they would have done. If they were to carry such huge amount of am munitions into a five star hotel, just imagine the apathy of the security checks that we have here in India. After such a terrorizing attack in one of the Metro's in the country, one would be surprised to see the laxed attitude of the security personnel in a Capital city like that of New Delhi.
Will there be an end to this? Why is it that we as the citizens boycott the elections this time round and hold these corrupt politicians at ransom till they provide us with a solution to this?
That's enough now, My Minister, that is enough!!!