Brown Pundits – Page 313 – A discussion of all things Brown..

Dual Lt Generals up for a duel

Brown Pundits Archive · July 4, 2014 · Comments Off

…the main
accusation against Suhag is that …he
was shielding the Colonel commanding the Intelligence Unit that had
indulged in the above cases of murder and dacoity….This particular Colonel faces several
other allegations, the most significant of them being narcotics
smuggling on the Indo-Myanmar border…

Indian Army succession battles are becoming more and more frequent and the allegations are getting more and more serious.

The concern now is about possible links to illicit drug trade running from the North-Western border of the country to the North-East. We hope that the Supreme Court will clean up the mess so that the integrity of the Army is not compromised. The last thing we want is Mexico like drug warfare breaking out and the complete destruction of civil society.
…..
Here is where the concern comes in and is reflected in the ongoing
legal battle between two of the senior most Lieutenant Generals of the
Indian Army—Dalbir Singh Suhag and Ravi Dastane.

Recently, there was a
controversy about the tearing hurry in which the appointment of the
former as Chief of the Indian Army was announced by the UPA government
after it was virtually voted out.
……..
Strangely enough this appointment was
confirmed by the acting defence minister of NDA government the day he
took charge and was re-confirmed in the Rajya Sabha, though a writ
petition filed by Lt Gen Dastane against the seniority of Lt. Gen Suhag
was pending in the Supreme Court.

….
The Apex Court has finally come around to hearing the petition in the
second week of July. It was to have been heard on May 2, but the
ministry of defence (MoD) under A.K. Antony got it deferred to September
which would have rendered the case infructuous and facilitated the
implementation of the ‘line of succession’ drawn up by the UPA and
adhered to by the NDA government without let or hindrance. In the
event, Suhag would become Army Chief on 1st August 2014 and Lt Gen
Dastane would superannuate on August 31.

…
Dastane’s case hinges on the actions taken by General Bikram Singh
who took over as the CoAS from General V.K. Singh on June 1, 2012. It
is alleged that a cabal of bureaucrats in the MoD, purportedly having
links with the arms lobby and drug traffickers, is hell bent on ensuring
the status quo ante.

Inter alia Dastane’s writ petition points out that
the MoD had put up only two names to the Appointments Committee of the
Cabinet to fill the vacancy of two Army Commanders in the summer of
2012.

According to rules, four names should have been submitted which
would have automatically included Dastane’s as well. Suhag was then
under Discipline & Vigilance (DV) Ban and therefore not eligible to
be promoted. Had Dastane got his rightful promotion as Army Commander
then, he would have been the one in line to succeed Bikram Singh as the
CoAS based on the principle of seniority and unblemished service
record.

….
The DV Ban imposed on Lt-Gen Suhag, then General Officer Commanding 3
Corps, was based on the advice and recommendation of the Judge Advocate
General and Vigilance branches of the Army Headquarters for the command
failure to take appropriate action in the Dimapur fake encounter case
and the Jorhat dacoity case.

While the triple-murder in the fake
encounter case was hushed up, the Court of Inquiry by the Army and later
Court Martial found the Intelligence Unit working directly under the 3
Corps Commander fully responsible for the Jorhat dacoity. Recovery of
most of the loot from the officers of the unit by the police further
proved its involvement.

….
Though concealed by MoD and spun differently by the media, the main
accusation against Suhag is that by not initiating stringent action he
was shielding the Colonel commanding the Intelligence Unit that had
indulged in the above cases of murder and dacoity. Because of this, the
victims in both cases were forced to approach the Guwahati High Court
for justice, which is pending.

This particular Colonel faces several
other allegations, the most significant of them being narcotics
smuggling on the Indo-Myanmar border by abusing Armed Forces Special
Powers Act. This has not been refuted so far.

MoD officials have only
come out with childish excuses that Lt. General Suhag was either not in
station or was on leave when these horrific offences were committed by
officers directly under his command. They also ensured the promotion of
Suhag as Army Commander by, it is alleged, illegally overturning the DV
Ban against him. This has now become the bone of contention in
Dastane’s writ petition in the Supreme Court.

….
As is their wont, in this case also, Army brass and MoD have been
indulging in deception, falsehood and character assassination of those
raising these concerns. And they are determined to bulldoze the
appointment of Lt General Suhag as next Army Chief come what may.

It is
only hoped that the Apex Court would go into all aspects of the case
and render justice. It is also time Prime Minister took charge of
matters and sort out the MoD mess before it is too late. Because what is
at stake is not mere national security but the nation’s very future.
….

Link: http://www.outlookindia.com/printarticle.aspx?291305

…..

regards

Home free!!!!

Brown Pundits Archive · July 4, 2014 · Comments Off

We did say that miracles could happen even if unlikely, and so it has. The girls are free to come home.

We feel an overwhelming sense of generosity towards the ISIS Caliphate and we hope that the Indian govt establishes full diplomatic relations with such extremely kind, gentlemanly people:-)

All big and small people who got involved deserve our heartfelt thanks. Chief Minister Antony, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, the Ministry of External Affairs, the Indian embassy in Iraq…Congress, BJP….everybody came together. Certainly a victory for humanity.
………………………..
All 46 nurses who were held up in ISIS controlled areas in Iraq have
been freed and will reach Kochi tomorrow morning by a special Air India
flight from Erbil in northern Iraq, a relieved Kerala Chief Minister
Oommen Chandy said today.

“Government of India, Indian Embassy in Baghdad and the state government
all have worked together and finally we are achieving the great aim to
bring back to the nurses to India,” Chandy told reporters after his
second meeting with External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj.

He said that the nurses have started their journey at 12.30 pm today
from the place in ISIS-controlled area where they were kept and
“according to our latest report they have reached the border near the
international airport (at Erbil)”.

Chandy said the Central government has agreed to send a special aircraft to bring them to Kochi.
“We are very thankful to Government of India and Indian embassy for
their active involvement in the mission,” said the Chief Minister who
was camping in Delhi for the last two days holding consultations with
the Central government.

He said nurses will reach Kochi tomorrow morning. “They will stay there (Erbil) and tomorrow early morning the Indian
officers will bring them to the airport and from there they will be
flown to Kochi in a special aircraft,” Chandy said.

Asked to whom he gives credit for this achievement, the Chief Minsiter
said, “We approached the External Affairs Minister (Sushma Swaraj),
Indian embassy in Baghdad. We got support from all the quarters”.

“The External Affairs Minister, the Indian ambassador in Baghdad…All helped us. So we are thankful to everybody,” he said.

Terming the nurses’ issue as “a humanitarian problem”, Chandy said they
were working in Iraq for their livelihood and they were living in a
“very very difficult situation after civil war broke out there”.

“We are all happy because we could solve a humanitarian issue,” the Chief Minister said.

He said Indian embassy officials have made arrangements in Erbil for
their comfortable stay and representatives of Government of India and
Kerala state government will go in the special aircraft to facilitate
their return to Kochi.

“Our priority is to bring them back safely to their homes,” he said.

….

Link: http://www.outlookindia.com/news/article/Indian-Nurses-Freed-to-Reach-Kochi-by-July-5-Chandy/848112

….

regards

Human made oasis (in defense of humanity)

Brown Pundits Archive · July 4, 2014 · Comments Off

Indian women will get some relief and that is surely grounds for relief. In the short term we hope that the centers are able to help the needy.

In the long-term we have to all stand together to make sure that women get a higher ranking on the power meter. Political representation (and reservations) may be key to bring rural women out of the shadows. For urban women it will be economic power that will bring freedom. Ladies, please do not quit your jobs after marriage!!!
…….. At least
660 rape crisis centres will be established across the country and
named as Nirbhaya Centres, as a tribute to the victim of December 16,
2012 Delhi gang-rape case. The centres will be set up in
all the 640 districts and 20 additional locations in the country and
the project will cost 477 crores approximately, women and child
development ministry officials said.

The women and child
development ministry has already prepared the concept note which has
been approved by the Expenditure Finance Committee (EFC) and has been
sent to various stakeholders like ministry of law, finance, tribal
affairs, health, social justice and empowerment and minority affairs
seeking their suggestions.

These Nirbhaya Centres will act as
one stop centre for women victims of molestation, rape, sexual assault,
domestic violence and provide them medical assistance, police
assistance, psycho-social support and counselling, legal aid and
temporary shelter.

Under the medical assistance, victims of
violence can approach the Nirbhaya centres where they will be provided
medical assistance like referral to hospital and assisted in filing FIR.
They will be counselled, provided legal aid and short stay with food
and clothing at the centre itself along with the video conferencing
facility.

“A retired police officer will posted at the centres
to facilitate prompt and proper filing of FIR by the ministry of home
affairs, state or district. A list of lawyers will give legal aid to the
victims.

“Nirbhaya centres initially will operate in rented
premises and the shelter facility for the victims will be also arranged
at the centre itself,” said a senior official from the WCD ministry.

……

Link: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/660-Nirbhaya-Centres-to-be-set-up-across-India/articleshow/37716232.cms

….

regards

Snow-piercer

Brown Pundits Archive · July 4, 2014 · Comments Off

The underclass uprising is brutal, with much hand-to-hand combat in confined, jolting
spaces…..

Revolution on a train results in the erasing of inequality for all time to come…..what a wonderful world it would be.

Our opinion is that it is the lack of Swiss banks and off-shore
accounts on board that forced the haves to accommodate the wishes of the
have-nots. In India it was Lalu Yadav who promised to bring the black
money home and to make the roads in Bihar as smooth as the cheeks of
Hema Malini (aka Aaisha Bi). We the Aam aadmi are still waiting for that liberation day.

…….
Snow-piercer is set some decades in the future, after a
misguided attempt to reverse global warming has instead precipitated a
new ice age.
…

Virtually the entire film takes place on a moving train
that, endlessly traversing the globe, carries the last vestige of life
on a frozen earth. Order is rigidly enforced. A tiny fraction of haves
occupy the luxury cars up front; the hapless 99 percent are packed into
rear cars and looking to redress their situation.

…
Rampant inequality is the film’s narrative motor. Human interest is
negligible and psychology is irrelevant. The claustrophobic, forcibly
focused tunnel vision suggests the situation of the doomed sewer-trapped
partisans in Polish director Andrzej Wajda’s Kanal (1956), a film about the Warsaw uprising; the continuous trajectory is reminiscent of David Cronenberg’s Cosmopolis (2012), set almost entirely in a limo crawling through midtown Manhattan traffic.

…
The spectacle of class warfare aboard a 1,001-carriage super train
makes for the most overtly leftwing pop movie in the eight years since V for Vendetta brandished the black flag of anarchy as the only recourse in a media-driven police state. Snowpiercer
has enjoyed great success abroad, in part because its political program
is couched as an action film.

The movie’s principals are an appropriately motley lot. Chris Evans, the eponymous star of Captain America
and a presence as generic as his name, is the nominal protagonist, an
angry young “natural leader” from the back of the train. John Hurt hams
it up as his wizened guru, and Jamie Bell, the original Billy Elliot, is
his young sidekick. Korean actor Song Kang-ho appears as a
drug-addicted scientific genius who is bribed to join the revolt; the
ingénue Ko Ah-sung plays his daughter, as she did in Bong’s The Host (2006). Oscar-winner Octavia Spenser, part of The Help (2011), is the aggrieved mother whose loss provides the spark that ignites the revolt.

….
The director discovered Le Transperceneige (1982), the comic by Jacques Lob and Jean-Marc Rochette on which Snowpiercer
is based, in a used bookstore in Seoul. Bong says that he was
transfixed and, as if to demonstrate the nineteenth-century stock phrase
that railway travel produced the “annihilation of time and space,” read
the entire novel then and there. But in adapting Le Transperceneige,
which is undistinguished in every aspect save its concept, Bong and his
American cowriter Kelly Masterson kept only the novel’s premise, freely
embroidering it with new characters and incidents.

…
The underclass uprising is brutal, with much hand-to-hand combat (as
well as stabbings, gougings, and amputations) in confined, jolting
spaces. Everyone is under pressure. As shortages are endemic, even
bullets are “extinct.” At one point, someone smokes “the world’s last
cigarette.”

…..

Link: http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2014/jul/01/revolt-polar-express-snowpiercer/

…..

regards

Historical nihilism…

Brown Pundits Archive · July 4, 2014 · Comments Off

…repudiation of the
“historical purpose” of the Chinese revolution….rejecting
“the scientific and guiding value of Mao Zedong thought,”….“tantamount to denying the legitimacy of the CCP”…….“I admit that what I have done touched on legal issues and threatened national interests….My
actions were very wrong”

Next time, any damn fool of a 70-year old lady dares complain about how Hindu imperialism imposed slavery on Shudras and Dalits or how Muslim-Anglican imperialism imposed slavery on the rest of us, we can always compel them to repent publicly for having committed one of the seven deadly sins- “historical nihilism.”

The seven deadly sins are appropriately named from a sense of forbidden fruit. God forbid the Chinese get a taste of the free press and free elections – it may lead to statues of Mao being toppled in public squares. So much devotion for the greatest mass murderer in history…it is awe inspiring indeed.
…….

In late April, a 70-year-old Chinese journalist, Gao Yu,
was taken into custody, one of several human rights activists rounded up
to keep them from observing the 25th anniversary of the massacre of
student protesters by government troops in Tiananmen Square.

Shortly
afterwards, Gao appeared on television, confessing to a specific
offense: leaking what the Chinese news agency Xinhua described as a
“highly confidential document” to a foreign website.

“I admit that what I have done touched on legal issues and
threatened national interests,” she said, according to the BBC. “My
actions were very wrong.”

What had she revealed? Not the plans for a new Chinese
warplane or cyberattack. Not even details about the real health of
China’s economy or major industries. Rather, as her lawyer has all but
acknowledged, the secret paper Gao made public was “Document Number 9,”
issued a year earlier by the main administrative office of China’s
Communist party.

Entitled “Communiqué on the Current State of the
Ideological Sphere,” it demonstrates what the leadership of China
regards as truly threatening: not the West’s economic or military might
but its political and philosophical ideas.

Pronouncements such as this—the ninth issued in 2013—aim
to instruct the party faithful throughout China on official doctrine as
promulgated by the Central Committee and, importantly at that time,
newly chosen President Xi Jinping. Like the others, Document Number 9
was meant to be discussed at local party meetings and inform party-run
publications and websites, but was not for public consumption. It opens a
window into what China’s normally secretive government officials are
thinking, or at least want loyalists to think, which, thanks to the
unfortunate Gao Yu, everyone can now know.

The communiqué focuses on seven “false ideological trends,
positions, and activities” that the party leadership believes are
spreading in the country and endangering “the great rejuvenation of the
Chinese nation.” Foremost among them is “Western Constitutional
democracy,” the idea that good governance requires a separation of
powers, general elections, a multiparty system, an independent
judiciary, and other features. According to Document Number 9, China’s
system of government should reflect “Chinese characteristics.” It should
place “the Party’s leadership” and “the People’s Democracy” ahead of
the political and legal processes championed by the West.

Likewise, in the eyes of China’s leaders, advocating for
“universal values” amounts to claiming “that the West’s value system
defies time and space, transcends nation and class, and applies to all
humanity.” Such arguments are “confusing and deceptive,” they contend,
because China—and “Socialism”—should subscribe to fundamentally
different values.

These include rejecting individual and economic freedom.
Document Number 9 dismisses “promoting civil society” as based on the
idea that “in the social sphere, individual rights are paramount and
ought to be immune to obstruction by the state”; it pits “the Party
against the masses.”

Nor does “neoliberalism,” defined as relying on
private property and markets to shape economic activity, fare any
better. The “catastrophic consequences” that have occurred in “Latin
America, the Soviet Union, and Eastern Europe” show its flaws, the
authors write, and underscore the dangers of efforts “to weaken the
government’s control of the national economy.”

Also disparaged is freedom of the press. It is an idea,
says Document Number 9, which challenges “China’s principle that the
media and publishing system should be subject to Party discipline.”
Those who embrace it “gouge an opening through which to infiltrate our
ideology.”

Writing about the past is suspect as well. “Historical
nihilism,” which Document Number 9 defines as the repudiation of the
“historical purpose” of the Chinese revolution, such as by rejecting
“the scientific and guiding value of Mao Zedong thought,” is not only
mistaken, but also “tantamount to denying the legitimacy of the CCP’s
long-term political dominance.”

Finally, the communiqué makes clear that questioning
public policies, even in the name of “reform” or of “opening,” is
impermissible.

Raising doubts about the direction or pace of the
government’s current course will “disturb people’s existing consensus on
important issues like which flag to raise, which road to take, which
goals to pursue, etc.,” ultimately retarding China’s “stable progress.”

Not least of all, Document Number 9 warns that this could encourage
“Tibetan self-immolation,” “terrorist attacks in Xinjiang,” and the
breakup of China along ethnic and religious lines, among other dire
consequences.

To prevent those, the party leadership called on its
followers to work harder in the “ideological sphere.” They should do
more to “distinguish between true and false theories” and be steadfast
in their efforts to control the media. “We must reinforce our management
of all types and levels of propaganda on the cultural front, perfect
and carry out related administrative systems, and allow absolutely no
opportunity or outlets for incorrect thinking or viewpoints to spread,”
Document Number 9 concludes.

…..

Link: http://www.weeklystandard.com/print/articles/forbidden-thoughts_795409.html

…..

regards

The Kerala girls….probably beyond help

Brown Pundits Archive · July 3, 2014 · Comments Off

“In
zones of conflict, there’s no freedom. As diplomats we are trained to
see every difficulty as an opportunity. There’s no free will in zones of
conflict”

The Kerala nurses have been kidnapped and moved to Mosul, deep inside ISIS held territory (they were previously in Tikrit where the Shia and Sunni armies are at a stand-off). Of course miracles can always happen. But it is unlikely that the Caliphate is going to voluntarily surrender 46 Christian girls.

It is time for the Govt (Ministry of External Affairs-MEA) to think out of the box. Why not request the Hon. Salman Khurshid to lead an all-Sunni delegation to plead with al-Baghdadi (with Saudi patrons serving as intermediaries)?

The MEA should also consider requesting the Owaisi brothers from Hyderabad to plead with their fellow brothers in Iraq. Akbaruddin – “remove police for 15 mins, we will finish off 100 crore hindus” – Owaisi has always been a vocal and consistent supporter of Christian sisters from Odisha (who were being tortured by Hindutva-vadis). We imagine that he would be just as eager to help out his Christian sisters from Kerala who are being imprisoned (and perhaps subjected to worse indignities) by Sunni thugs.

Finally, since this is a humanitarian endeavour (and thus beyond sectarian and national politics) we would request the (Indian American) Muslim organizations to help out. The Milli Gazaette article lists some of these high profile organizations (http://www.milligazette.com/Archives/01122001/26.htm):
….
Today four such organizations exist in US. They are: 1.
Washington DC: The Association of Indian Muslims of America. 2. Chicago:
Consultative Committee of Indian Muslims. 3. San Francisco: Indian Muslim
Relief Committee. 4. Detroit: American Federation of Muslims from India.

Through these organizations, Indian Muslims in US are trying to help their
Qaum back home, by supporting programs for the improvement of education
among the youth, provide financial relief in the event of natural
disasters and anti-Muslim riots and do public relations work to draw
attention to instances of injustice to their community in India.

Alumni of
the Aligarh Muslim University have established fairly successful Alumni
Associations in Washington DC, New York, Chicago, San Francisco Atlanta
and Detroit. Generally, every year in October, they organize annual
get-togethers and Mushairas to celebrate the birth anniversary of Sir Syed
Ahmad Khan, the founder of the university.
…….
The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) rebels have forced 46 Indian nurses to move out from Tikrit to Mosul in Iraq.

“Indians have also been asked to leave Karbala, Najaf and
Basra. Regarding the nurses in captivity, we have confirmed of people
seeing them unharmed, but in captivity. A short while ago they were
moved to another location. All of them are unharmed.

The external
affairs minister has been in consultation with Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy.
Our embassy continues to be in touch, even as they are moving to
another location,” MEA spokesman Syed Akbaruddin said in New Delhi.

“In
zones of conflict, there’s no freedom. As diplomats we are trained to
see every difficulty as an opportunity. There’s no free will in zones of
conflict,” he said.

The Indian nurses have now been
relocated to Mosul, which is under militants’ control. All the 46 nurses
who have been moved are from Kerala.

“Tickets have been given to 900 Indians to fly out of non-conflict zones in Iraq right now,” he said.

…..

Link: http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/more-trouble-for-indian-nurses-in-iraq/1/369700.html

…..

regards

Who killed Sunanda Pushkar?

Brown Pundits Archive · July 3, 2014 · Comments Off

The
head of the AIIMS forensic department on Thursday [03 July, 2014] stuck to his
controversial claim that pressure was brought on him to manipulate the
post mortem report on Sunanda Pushkar

The ISI may be the #1 intelligence agency in the world but Dr. Subramaniam Swamy is without question the #1 secret agent. Just after Sunanda Pushkar’s death Swamy had claimed that she was killed with “russian poison.”

The chief of forensics @ All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) has now confirmed (and re-confirmed) that he was being pressurized (by then Union Minister and AIIMS president Ghulam Nabi Azad) to cover up the matter.

As we have noted before, Sunanda’s fate was probably sealed when she spilled the beans about her husband’s activities, which have been linked to the Dubai underworld. It was Pakistani journalist Mehr Tarar (as alleged by Sunanda herself) who helped trap the flies nicely in her spider-web (elite men are always so reliably vain and stupid). Thus once more it is made clear that the ISI is the #1 intelligence agency in the world. Bravo.
……..
In an explosive revelation, senior journalist Nalini Singh has said that
Sunanda Pushkar was tensed and crying hard hours before her death.
Notably, the TV journalist was the last person Sunanda called from her mobile.

In an exclusive conversation with Zee Media, Singh said she
received a call from Sunanda at 12:10 am on January 17, hours before she
was found dead in the room of a five-star hotel here.

“At 12:10 am on January 17, I received a call from Sunanda. She was
crying hard and was very tensed. I thought it is because of the then
ongoing Twitter spat between her and Pakistani scribe Mehr Tarar. But
Sunanda told me that Shashi has deleted messages from his BlackBerry
Messenger. She said that as a media person, I should help her in
retrieving those messages...”
…….

Less than six months after her death, Pushkar’s death has
once again made news with the head of forensic sciences at AIIMS, Dr
Sudhir Gupta, alleging in an affidavit submitted to the Central
Administrative Tribunal (CAT) that he was “pressurised” by former Union
minister and AIIMS president Ghulam Nabi Azad to act in an
“unprofessional” manner and to cover up the matter.

“(The)
applicant could not muster courage of openly placing the facts in black
and white as the former president of AIIMS Ghulam Nabi Azad was an
immensely powerful politician and the then health minister, and the
husband of late Sunanda Pushkar was also a minister and a powerful
politician,” the affidavit stated.

….
The
head of the AIIMS’ forensic department on Thursday stuck to his
controversial claim that pressure was brought on him to manipulate the
post mortem report on Shashi Tharoor’s wife Sunanda Pushkar

A day after the premier health institute denied his claim, Dr Sudhir Gupta said, “I stand by what I said”. “How do they know there is no pressure on me? Who were they to clarify
that there is no pressure on me? What was the hurry to call a press
conference?,” he said.

….

Soon after Pushkar’s death, BJP leader Subramanian Swamy had
alleged that she did not commit suicide, but that it was a case of
murder. He had also questioned Tharoor’s nervousness regarding his
wife’s death. He had also claimed that Pushkar had been given “Russian
poison”.

Investigators had pointed out at that time that Pushkar’s body had 12
injury marks including a bite mark on her hand. However, the injuries
were not life-threatening but raised questions as to whether she was
physically assaulted before her death.

Other theories that did the
rounds at that time said that she had overdosed on sleeping pills.

Pushkar’s autopsy report had stated that the cause of death was
unnatural. The report also indicated that she died of drug overdose,
most likely a combination of sedatives, other strong medicines and
probably alcohol. What isn’t clear is whether she was forcibly
administered the same or did she willingly consume it herself.

The Delhi Police which is investigating the
case has sought a third opinion to ascertain her cause of death. After
contradiction in AIIMS and CFSL reports, the Delhi Police has asked
Forensic Science Lab to carry out advanced tests to ascertain whether
alprax turned into metaboloids. Experts, however, say there are chances
cause of her death may never be known.
…..

Pushkar’s
marriage to Tharoor wasn’t the first marriage for either party. Both of
them had been married earlier as well. Both had met at a party in
October 2009. They got married in 2010 after Tharoor was elected as an
MP.

Tharoor was earlier married to Tilottama Mukherjee
and later to his UN colleague Christa Giles. Sunanda’s first marriage,
to fellow Kashmiri Sanjay Raina, had ended in divorce. Her second
husband, Keralite businessman Sujith Menon, died in an accident in 1997.
They had a son, Shiv.

In April 2010, Pushkar had relinquished her estimated Rs.70-crore
stake in IPL when allegations of corruption against Tharoor had caused a
furore. It was alleged that Tharoor had used her as a front to collect Rs.70 crore to help the Kochi owners get their IPL team.

…..

Link (1): http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/Sunanda-Pushkar-death-case-AIIMS-forensic-head-sticks-to-stand/articleshow/37690684.cms

Link (2): http://zeenews.india.com/news/nation/shashi-tharoor-deleted-bbms-to-mehr-tarar-sunanda-pushkar-wanted-to-retrieve-them_944725.html#

Link (3): http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/sunanda-pushkar-death-10-things-you-should-know/1/369490.html

…..

regards

Sexiest woman in the world

Brown Pundits Archive · July 3, 2014 · Comments Off

…as voted by FHM magazine (we strongly disagree, it should have been Vidya Balan). Deepika Padukone, with all due respect, is not the strongest character actor (she claims she got the crown because of her work). She has displaced Katrina Kaif who was voted #1 three times in a row.

We wish her all the best. In a few decades time can we expect a “women have to leave the crown in the garage” thesis from her as well? Nah…once the chains fall off they never come back.

…..

Link: http://www.dnaindia.com/entertainment/report-deepika-padukone-displaces-katrina-kaif-in-fhm-100-sexiest-women-in-the-world-2014-1999264

…..

regards

“leave that damned crown in the garage”

Brown Pundits Archive · July 3, 2014 · Comments Off

“…You might be president of PepsiCo.But when you enter this house,
you’re the wife, you’re the daughter, you’re the daughter-in-law, you’re
the mother. Nobody else can take that place. So
leave that damned crown in the garage”….

Well, we have already noted the example of the ideal Bharatiya Nari- Shrimati Jashodaben Narendrabhai Modi. She still prays daily for the welfare of her missing in action husband and in his glorious victory, her blessings presumably counted just as much as that of the First Mother.

Now we have the self-spoken example of Indra Nooyi who was sent out to get some milk, the night she was informed that she has been appointed President of PepsiCo. Her husband was “tired” and her own mother told her to “leave that damned crown in the garage.”

We are admittedly in awe. In the Bong-world, there are no brave souls who will dare ask the lady of the house to “leave that damned crown in the garage.” Even faux-thugs like Tapas Pal are known to hide behind the convenient pallu (wife, didi) when threatened.

Since we are playing with extra fine Iraqi oil here, let us throw in a matchstick as well. Long long time ago, when we were looking to “settle down” a suitable boy gave us the ultimate advice about Indian women. North Indian ladies, he claimed, were modern on the outside (traditional inside), while South Indian ladies were the opposite. How about Bongs? Well, it is your destiny to be oppressed for the rest of your life!!!
……..
While interviewing Indra K Nooyi, the CEO of PepsiCo, at the Aspen Ideas Festival Monday, David Bradley,
who owns The Atlantic, asked two questions that elicited as frank a
discussion of work-life balance as I’ve seen from a US CEO. Below is a
lightly edited transcript. The second question was preceded by a brief
discussion of Anne-Marie Slaughter’s “Why Women Still Can’t Have It
All.”

You come home one day as president of the
company, just appointed, and your mom is not that impressed. Would you
tell that story?

This is about 14 years ago. I was working in the office. I work very late, and we were in the middle of the Quaker Oats
acquisition. And I got a call about 9:30 in the night from the existing
chairman and CEO at that time. He said, Indra, we’re going to announce
you as president and put you on the board of directors … I was
overwhelmed, because look at my background and where I came from — to be
president of an iconic American company and to be on the board of
directors, I thought something special had happened to me.

So rather than stay and
work until midnight which I normally would’ve done because I had so much
work to do, I decided to go home and share the good news with my
family. I got home about 10, got into the garage, and my mother was
waiting at the top of the stairs. And I said, “Mom, I’ve got great news
for you.” She said, “let the news wait. Can you go out and get some
milk?”

I looked in the garage and it looked like my husband was
home. I said, “what time did he get home?” She said “8 o’clock.” I
said, “Why didn’t you ask him to buy the milk?” “He’s tired.” Okay. We
have a couple of help at home, “why didn’t you ask them to get the
milk?” She said, “I forgot.” She said just get the milk. We need it for
the morning. So like a dutiful daughter, I went out and got the milk and
came back.

I banged it on the counter and I said, “I had great
news for you. I’ve just been told that I’m going to be president on the
Board of Directors. And all that you want me to do is go out and get
the milk, what kind of a mom are you?”

And she said to me, “let
me explain something to you. You might be president of PepsiCo. You
might be on the board of directors. But when you enter this house,
you’re the wife, you’re the daughter, you’re the daughter-in-law, you’re
the mother. You’re all of that. Nobody else can take that place. So
leave that damned crown in the garage. And don’t bring it into the
house. You know I’ve never seen that crown.”

What’s your opinion about whether women can have it all?

I don’t think women can have it all. I just don’t think so. We pretend
we have it all. We pretend we can have it all. My husband and I have
been married for 34 years. And we have two daughters. And every day you
have to make a decision about whether you are going to be a wife or a
mother, in fact many times during the day you have to make those
decisions. And you have to co-opt a lot of people to help you. We
co-opted our families to help us. We plan our lives meticulously so we
can be decent parents. But if you ask our daughters, I’m not sure they
will say that I’ve been a good mom. I’m not sure. And I try all kinds of
coping mechanisms.

I’ll tell you a story that happened when my
daughter went to Catholic school. Every Wednesday morning they had
class coffee with the mothers. Class coffee for a working woman — how is
it going to work? How am I going to take off 9 o’clock on Wednesday
mornings? So I missed most class coffees. My daughter would come home
and she would list off all the mothers that were there and say, “You
were not there, mom.”

The first few times I would die with
guilt. But I developed coping mechanisms. I called the school and I
said, “give me a list of mothers that are not there.” So when she came
home in the evening she said, “You were not there, you were not there.”

And I said, “ah ha, Mrs. Redd wasn’t there, Mrs. So and So wasn’t there. So I’m not the only bad mother.”

You know, you have to cope, because you die with guilt. You just die
with guilt. My observation, David, is that the biological clock and the
career clock are in total conflict with each other. Total, complete
conflict. When you have to have kids you have to build your career. Just
as you’re rising to middle management your kids need you because
they’re teenagers, they need you for the teenage years.

And
that’s the time your husband becomes a teenager too, so he needs you
(laughing). They need you too. What do you do? And as you grow even
more, your parents need you because they’re aging. So we’re screwed. We
have no … we cannot have it all. Do you know what? Coping mechanisms.
Train people at work. Train your family to be your extended family.

You know what? When I’m in PepsiCo
I travel a lot, and when my kids were tiny, especially my second one,
we had strict rules on playing Nintendo. She’d call the office, and she
didn’t care if I was in China, Japan, India, wherever. She’d call the
office, the receptionist would pick up the phone, “Can I speak to my
mommy?” Everybody knows if somebody says, ‘Can I speak to mommy?’ It’s
my daughter. So she’d say, “Yes, Tyra, what can I do for you?”

“I want to play Nintendo.”

So she has a set of questions. “Have you finished your homework?” Etc. I
say this because that’s what it takes. She goes through the questions
and she says, “Okay, you can play Nintendo half an hour.” Then she
leaves me a message. “Tyra called at 5. This is the sequence of
questions I went through. I’ve given her permission.” So it’s seamless
parenting.

But if you don’t do that, I’m serious, if you don’t
develop mechanisms with your secretaries, with the extended office, with
everybody around you, it cannot work. You know, stay at home mothering
was a full time job. Being a CEO for a company is three full time jobs
rolled into one. How can you do justice to all?

You can’t. The
person who hurts the most through this whole thing is your spouse.
There’s no question about it. You know, Raj always said, you know what,
your list is PepsiCo, PepsiCo, PepsiCo, our two kids, your mom, and then
at the bottom of the list is me. There are two ways to look at it.
(laughing) You should be happy you’re on the list. So don’t complain.
(laughing) He is on the list. He is very much on the list. But you know,
(laughing) sorry, David.
…….

Link: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/Women-cannot-have-it-all-PepsiCo-CEO-Indra-Nooyi-says/pmarticleshow/37689157.cms

…….

regards

China….big inspiration for Big M?

Brown Pundits Archive · July 3, 2014 · Comments Off

This is actually the million dollar question (comment by Shah Alam). As an imagery of a dystopian future this may well catch on with the academic left – naga sadhus hand (force) feeding muslims during Ramzan. So, will He, or wont He?

The easy (and lazy) answer is that India is not China (and hindu-muslim power equation is nothing like the han-muslim equation). However it may be worthwhile to explore this question in some detail.

(1) First and fore-most: What did the electorate have in mind when it handed a super-vote to the BJP? Was it for war on poverty or war on religion?

(2) How does the BJP behave when in power? We can learn from the precedence of the NDA government and there are multiple state govt ruled by the BJP (including post-2002 Gujarat).

(3) Finally, did Hindutva-vadis learn any lessons from Gujarat 2002? What are their priorities??

It is hard to decipher how the Brahmins of Nagpur are thinking (they do not go much for public discussions). But if they are really the long-war thinking types (and RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat is an unusually astute politician) then the first order of business is to arrange for a realignment of Indian politics. And that can happen only by finishing off the Congress for good.

The way things are right now, this should not be hard to achieve. All dynasties disappear beyond a point- that has been the perennial Indian story. But indications are that with Rahul being decisively rejected by the masses, Sonia is planning for a comeback. She is also extremely astute. A single mis-step and she will destroy the saffrons for another decade.

So the most probable answers are: (1) the electorate will be very impatient with poor economic performance and already many external factors are darkening the horizon (rise in oil price due to civil war in Iraq),
(2) BJP while in power has generally had a more moderate record than the so-called secular parties, plus Modi has made a show of co-operation- inviting all SAARC nations to his inauguration, there are also plans for a SAARC satellite,
(3) Hindutva-vadis will likely be impatient for the ram temple but they may be willing to give the BJP a long rope, in the long run their turn will come (they think).

This is not saying that there will be no discrimination. Muslims are likely to be neglected at the expense of other backward castes (shudras). The building of a permanent OBC vote-bank will be key for transforming BJP into the natural ruling party of India.

Game-changer: If there is a repeat Mumbai like attack, then India and Pakistan will go to war. That will be a nightmare because most of us in India will not survive to tell any tales.

regards