Mother of mine You gave to me all of my life To do as I please I owe everything I have to you Mother, sweet mother of mine Mother of mine when I was young You showed me The right way things Should be done Without your love, Where would I be? Mother, sweet mother of mine
Mother, you gave me Happiness much more Than words can say I pray the Lord that He may bless you Every night and every day
Mother of mine Now I am grown And I can walk straight All on my own I'd like to give you What you gave to me Mother, sweet mother of mine (x2)
The ad by Docomo about "no fine prints" in their tariff plans is sarcastic about the competition. But if biggies like Airtel resort to the "tricks of the trade" I guess they are justified. Hope the ads and articles like these on the net would bring about some awareness and perk up the telco bosses.
Living in a housing-society which has a Airtel hub and being offered a Combo plan giving both broadband (@2.1mbps) and a phone line with Rs 200 worth free calls to any phone made the choice obvious - I had opted for this bill plan way back in 2008. Having had billing issues in the past, it was very comfortable when neither the speed nor the bills were upsetting. Alas ! peace was to last only 3 years !!
One fine evening in Aug 2011 the bill came in and the TV channels were boring. So I found time to scrutinize the bill - an act I am sure nobody finds time for these days. How much on STDs, how much on Internet, and lo ... the discount on phone calls was not there? How come, take out an older bill - yes, it's there, why not in this bill, call customer care, register a complaint - again many customers wouldn't go this far - after all it's only hundred and something rupees - kiske paas time hai?
And that's exactly what these companies bank upon ! Kiske paas time hai - noone will notice! even if they do nobody would complain ! We need a lokpal to rid our society of all evil. Us ? we don't have time !
What followed was emails and counter-emails. What will probably shock you is the number - I diligently kept on reminding - 24 times in 4 months to Nodal officers, Appellate authority and the Ombudsman!! What kept me going were two email acceptances of error in Sept and Oct 2011 and 4 reversals till Nov. So it was working, right?
Wrong ! Come 2012, they stopped responding and the reversals stopped too. Then the phone went dead. But the erroneous billing continued (over a dead phone ;), funny na?).
No internet, and worse... one day when we needed to call the Hospital (and another day the Electric office) the mobiles would not connect the Toll-free numbers. We missed the landline badly.
A Consumer forum complaint and the officials became tight -lipped. "Our legal team is working on it, I am not authorized to respond anymore". Again nothing for a month in spite of reminders. Then the case was closed based upon an Airtel response - "All is well !" - what a farce if the authorities only listen to the mischief-mongers and not the complainant.
Somebody mentioned a DoT complaint.
And Yessss!! After 10 months, Airtel accepted that they changed the FCV calculation to a "new process" (A2A). Rather stealthily, no notification on the bills or mail - noone noticed - kiske paas time time hai? And those who complained were "educated" (read 'bribed' with reversals). Rather clandestine for a market leader, don't you think?
They say "TRAI guideline gives them the right to change tariff plans at their will after 6M" ! Should I feel elated that they took 3 yrs to change? Attitude !!
When asked whether the TRAI guideline talks of PRIOR notification to customers - lips sealed again ! Cat-and-mouse !! Then came the "Apologies for the inconvenience...blah...blah ". Offer for alternate plan. Sending the official home for reactivation. etc..etc
So now I must migrate to another plan with no free call option to all phone, policies changed .... some offer for discounted STDs.
OK, but only if you are a little wary can these surreptitious acts be brought to light. And only if you spare a little of your time to spread the word (even if its Internet activism like the threats from Airtel incident) will these betrayals stop !! Alone Anna cannot help !!!
With all the 'Coalgate' and 'Porngate' happening closer to home, a bit of fact finding for the antecedent to these scandals took me to 'Watergate' a few fortnights back. And my photograph of the Watergate complex taken few years back found a place on the cloud. Musing over the past era and the reading about the largest exodus of the sub-continent - a little overshadowed by the 'big brother' partition of India and Pakistan two decades prior, takes you to 1971. It takes you to the much televised interview of Mrs Gandhi to the BBC - where she's asked pointed questions about India's role in Bangladesh. She answered them vehemently, empathy for the stricken neighbours and anger written across her face. The reading takes you to the war of liberation of Bangladesh, it takes you to Yahya Khan, INS Vikrant and the controversial fate of PNS Ghazi. And yes, again the face of the overbearing President pops up.
Although the Americans are divided in their opinion of whether George W Bush was a worse President than Richard Nixon, ask any Indian citizen on the 'wrong' side of 40 - the answer will probably be unambiguous if you are asking (especially) a citizen from the eastern flank. And the reasons are not merely (the now past) 'Red' but also the pain of the line drawn though their backyards (read 'hearts'), separating friends and family and making them citizens of two countries, and then watching their relatives butchered in a manner the Nazis would have probably frowned at.
"Kill three million of them," said President Yahya Khan at the February conference, "and the rest will eat out of our hands." (Robert Payne, Massacre [1972], p. 50.) On March 25 1971 the genocide was launched. The university in Dacca was attacked and students exterminated in their hundreds. Death squads roamed the streets of Dacca, killing some 7,000 people in a single night. It was only the beginning. "Within a week, half the population of Dacca had fled, and at least 30,000 people had been killed..."In her ground-breaking book, Against Our Will: Men, Women and Rape, Susan Brownmiller likened the 1971 events in Bangladesh to the Japanese rapes in Nanjing and German rapes in Russia during World War II. "... 200,000, 300,000 or possibly 400,000 women (three sets of statistics have been variously quoted) were raped ... Hit-and-run rape of large numbers of Bengali women was brutally simple in terms of logistics as the Pakistani regulars swept through and occupied the tiny, populous land ..." (p. 81).
A few documents declassified by the US state department tells the story. The conversation transcript from Nov 1971 after Indira Gandhi's US visit depicts the national security adviser (Henry Kissinger) speaking of India to the then US president, Richard Nixon, at his derogatory best. The boss appreciates the same adding a few expletives for the 'Iron Lady' of India - whom they confess of having drooled over in the past. The infatuation which Mrs Gandhi commanded from many an Indian through the generations seems to turn into a revulsion - the disillusionment from the visit and the failure to intimidate the lady justifying the profanity. In the run-up to the Indo-Pak (Bangladesh Liberation) war of 1971 thereafter, Nixon developed a 'special relation' with the 'handsome' Pak dictator Yahya Khan. This prompted the oversight of the 'Blood Telegram' of 6th Apr 1971 from the US consulate at Dacca (now, Dhaka) after the massacre in March. In fact Nixon's prompt reply was proclaiming the "squeezing rights".
Keating, the US ambassador to India met with similar rebuke for his support for India and the Bengalis.
President Nixon : "We really slobbered over the old witch,..."Kissinger : "The Indians are bastards anyway, they are starting a war there..While she was a bitch, we got what we wanted too. She will not be able to go home and say that the United States didn't give her a warm reception and therefore in despair she's got to go to war."
Nixon: The Indians need $#?@# what they need really is a $%#@#Kissinger: They’re such bastards. Nixon: A mass famine. But they aren't going to get that…But if they're not going to have a famine the last thing they need is another war. Let the goddamn Indians fight a war.
Kissinger: They are the most aggressive goddamn people around there.
In 1971, some 3 million people are estimated to have been killed in the genocide unleashed by Pakistan's military government on East Pakistan, leading to a rush of refugees into India. The cost incurred by India in the year alone spiralled to $600mn, feeding and sheltering some ten million refugees. The bombing by Pak airforce drew India into a swift and decisive war that eventually forced Pakistan's debacle. But all along, the Nixon administration sided with the military establishment of Pakistan over democratic India because of Nixon's fear of India growing as a major power in the sub-continent and the support it enjoyed from arch-rival Soviets. It sided with the side that was morally in the wrong and militarily doomed to defeat.
Nixon: Our desire is to save West Pakistan. That's all. Kissinger: That's right. That is exactly right.
Nixon: All right. Keep those carriers moving now.
Kissinger: The carriers—everything is moving. Four Jordanian planes have already moved to Pakistan, 22 more are coming. We're talking to the Saudis, the Turks we've now found are willing to give five. So we're going to keep that moving until there's a settlement.
Nixon: Could you tell the Chinese it would be very helpful if they could move some forces or threaten to move some forces? Kissinger: Absolutely.
Nixon: They've got to threaten or they've got to move, one of the two. You know what I mean?
Kissinger: Yeah.
Nixon: How about getting the French to sell some planes to the Paks?
Kissinger: Yeah. They're already doing it.
Nixon: This should have been done long ago. The Chinese have not warned the Indians.
Kissinger: Oh, yeah.
Nixon: All they've got to do is move something. Move a division. You know, move some trucks. Fly some planes. You know, some symbolic act. We're not doing a goddamn thing, Henry, you know that.
Kissinger: Yeah.
Nixon: But these Indians are cowards. Right?
Kissinger: Right. But with Russian backing. You see, the Russians have sent notes to Iran, Turkey, to a lot of countries threatening them. The Russians have played a miserable game.
While triggering Operation Chengiz Khan on 3rd Dec, where Pakistan faltered and the pair underestimated India's might was the timing. Indira had already toured the globe and mustered the support of UK and France. An UN block of any pro-Pakistani directive attempted by US ambassador George HW Bush (later the 41st President of US) & vetoed by the Soviets gave India the diplomatic edge. A treaty with the Soviets gave insurance from China. Gen Sam Manekshaw was given a go-ahead in April '71 and he had planned and waited till winter when the drier grounds would ease operations and the snow would block a Chinese intervention. Eight mountain divisions stood guard at the Sino-Indian border having learnt its lessons from 1962.Yahya had gauged that Pak forces could easily resist India for a month. As one of the most tactical battles ever, the war was over in 14 days. The PNS Ghazi late by a week or so in its effort to capsize Vikrant, the Pak FM missing the UN Security Council resolution to force a cease fire by a few days, the mighty 7th fleet arriving at the 11th hour and the fate of East Pakistan sealed.After a weeks fighting (on Dec 10), US urged China to join the war promising a backup which they suavely declined. Brezhnev had ordered 40 divisions to mobilise on his border with China at India's request and the 'dragon' kept their eyes gazing northwards. US then sent the Seventh Fleet comprising the USS Enterprise and other destroyers into the Bay of Bengal as a show of strength against the INS Vikrant standing guard. Enterprise was the world's first nuclear powered aircraft carrier, the longest ever. "The bomber force aboard the Enterprise had the US President's authority to undertake bombing of the Indian Army's communications, if necessary."Soviet intelligence reported that a British naval group led by the aircraft carrier Eagle had moved closer to India’s territorial waters. This was perhaps one of the most ironic events in modern history where the Western world’s two leading democracies were threatening the world’s largest democracy in order to protect the perpetrators of the largest genocide since the Holocaust.These disturbed Admiral Nanda. In a defence briefing he intervened to mention the imminent arrival of the 7th fleet to Mrs Gandhi. Nothing happened - the briefing went on. After a while the Admiral repeated: "Madam, I have to inform you that the 7th Fleet is sailing into the Bay of Bengal." She cut him off immediately: "Admiral, I heard you the first time, let us go on with the briefing."All the officers present were stunned. Ultimately, their morale was tremendously boosted by the prime minister's attitude. She had demonstrated her utter contempt for the American bluff. "The Americans are on a dry run; call them on-board, and give them enough drinks", she is said to have told him later. And she also sent for Raja Ramanna from BARC and told him to start working on an underground nuclear detonation, for our own show of strength.Therefore the air strikes on Bangladesh by the Sea Hawks continued unabated from Vikrant. Credit goes to Admiral Nanda to have redirected the steam from the forward machinery due to the cracked catapult boiler of Vikrant. Not a single Sea Hawk was lost in the strikes.Pakistan deployed its flagship Ghazi to intercept and sink Vikrant. It was unaware of being 10 days late since Vikrant had already reached the Andamans from Madras. The 'Champion' (Ghazi) reached Vizag looking for Vikrant led by bogus signal traffic generated by their Indian counterparts and deceived by the Indian ruse de guerre (a private telegram from a sailor from Vizag; and contracts to supply huge quantity of meat and vegetables for an 'arriving' ship at Vizag port). Not finding Vikrant it started laying mines and was sunk by the INS Rajput, not a single soul survived. If the Pak version is to be believed, their mighty Ghazi fell to its own mines without scoring a single hit, so much so for the handling of the famed USS Diablo refitted by the Paks. The same night Indian missile boats ventured into the Pak bastion (Karachi) and downed three ships to avenge INS Khukri.An erroneous BBC report of 5000 paratroopers dropped near Dacca by IAF sent chills down Niazi's spine on 11th Dec. The number was actually a little over 500 and it's still a mystery how the only trusted media at that time made this error. However the hope for chinese aid was so high that Pak army waived at the IAF paratroopers jubilantly while they descended.Dec 12th saw a desperate Deputy PM Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, fearing certain defeat, scampering to New York to plead the US and re-convene the UN Security Council which had refused to intervene just the previous week.
By the time the council deliberated and finalized, the world map had changed. Nobody ever saw the content of the (also) Foreign Ministers speech for the council, ripped apart by himself in frustation over UN inaction. However on the war front, Yahya continued to "hope for Chinese intervention and the American Seventh Fleet any moment".Russia dispatched a nuclear-armed flotilla from Vladivostok on December 13 under the overall command of Admiral Vladimir Kruglyakov, the Commander of the 10th Operative Battle Group (Pacific Fleet). Kruglyakov recalls : “The Chief Commander’s order was that our submarines should surface when the Americans appear. It was done to demonstrate to them that we had nuclear submarines in the Indian Ocean. So when our subs surfaced, they recognised us".
In the backdrop of the US duos hatred for India (conversation below), this Russian deterrence gave Indira the needed confidence to continue.
Kissinger: And the point you made yesterday, we have to continue to squeeze the Indians even when this thing is settled.
Nixon: We've got to for rehabilitation. I mean, Jesus Christ, they've bombed—I want all the war damage; I want to help Pakistan on the war damage in Karachi and other areas, see?
Kissinger: Yeah
Nixon: I don't want the Indians to be happy. I want a public relations programme developed to piss on the Indians.
Kissinger: Yeah.
Nixon: I want to piss on them for their responsibility. Get a white paper out. Put down, White paper. White paper. Understand that?
Kissinger: Oh, yeah.
Nixon: I don't mean for just your reading. But a white paper on this.
Kissinger: No, no. I know.
Nixon: I want the Indians blamed for this, you know what I mean? We can't let these goddamn, sanctimonious Indians get away with this. They've pissed on us on Vietnam for 5 years, Henry. Kissinger: Yeah.
Nixon: Aren't the Indians killing a lot of these people? Kissinger: Well, we don't know the facts yet. But I'm sure they're not as stupid as the West Pakistanis—they don't let the press in. The idiot Paks have the press all over their place.
A day later (Dec 14th : mourned as Shaheed Buddhijibi Dibosh in Bangladesh today) hundreds of intellectuals including professors, journalists, doctors, artists, engineers, and writers were rounded up blindfolded by the military and executed en masse. An attempt to cripple the education and culture of the Bengalis at the brink of being drubbed themselves.
Pak perish
On 16 Dec 1971, Gen Niazi alongwith more than 93,000 strong garrison of Pak forces surrendered to the Indians making it the largest surrender after WWII. The dictator who fantasized building a 'Niazi corridor' from Dhaka to Pakistan via Delhi was disgraced. The person incharge of the carnage in Dacca who'd said "Dacca will fall over my dead body" relinquished his position at the fall of merely 1300 men, becoming the object of scorn of the humiliated nation - so ironically having to surrender to his counterpart from the same Indian Military Academy he trained at.
As the Pak commanders, though surrounded and asked to surrender, were still quibbling, expecting an US bailout or dreaming about a final Chinese intervention (as promised by their western counterparts) - a flight of MiG-21 supersonics roared past the governor's office, shooting a line of holes on its roof, but without damaging the structure or killing him - not at all lethal, but completely unnerving. It scared the wits out of Niazi and in no time he agreed to surrender. Incidentally, that brilliant precision-strike, by a squadron of pilots who had never before flown supersonic planes, was more precise than the laser-guided bombing of Al-Jazeera office in Kabul by US satellite-guided warjets 30 years later.
An entire generation of Pakistanis await to avenge 1971.The Pak CJ Hamidur Rahman's Report later blamed the entire Pak army brass. "Fattened (Pak Army), corrupted and brutalised by power ... just wasn't in any position to take on the Indian Army in adverse circumstances ... brought a bad name for the Pakistan Army and alienated the sympathies of the local population by their wanton cruelty and immorality against our own people". Bhutto ordered every copy of the Hamidur report to be burnt.
Noting the lessons of war, Major General Hakeem Arshad Qureshi - a 1971 war veteran wrote in his book: " We must accept the fact that, as a people, we had also contributed to the bifurcation of our own country. It was not a Niazi, or a Yahya, even a Mujib, or a Bhutto, or their key assistants, who alone were the cause of our break-up, but a corrupted system and a flawed social order that our own apathy had allowed to remain in place for years. At the most critical moment in our history we failed to check the limitless ambitions of individuals with dubious antecedents and to thwart their selfish and irresponsible behaviour. It was our collective ‘conduct’ that had provided the enemy an opportunity to dismember us." Qureshi's words cannot be denied by Pakistan - he is a Sitara-i-Jurat awardee - Pakistan's second highest military award.
The Nazis were tried for massacring the Jews, the Khmer Rouge, Saddam Hussein, Serbian militants, all faced international courts - only the Pakistani army got away with murder, rape and loot.
The fortnight of Dec 1971 marks India’s ‘crowning glory’ since the final outcome of the conflict was a result of well-executed military strategy, diplomatic success and intelligence breakthrough backed by a bold political leadership.
The two most powerful women of the world ... and the 'perfect' wars of 1971 and 1982.
The Watergate scandal was a 1970s United States political scandal resulting from the break-in to the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate office complex in Washington, D.C. Effects of the scandal ultimately led to the resignation of the President of the United States Richard Nixon on August 9, 1974, the first—and so far, only—resignation of any U.S President. It also resulted in the indictment, trial, conviction and incarceration of several Nixon administration officials.
The affair began with the arrest of five men for breaking and entering into the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate complex on June 17, 1972. The FBI connected the payments to the burglars to a slush fund used by the Committee for the Re-Election of the President, a fundraising group for the Nixon campaign. As evidence mounted against the president's staff, which included former staff members testifying against them in an investigation conducted by the Senate Watergate Committee, it was revealed that President Nixon had a tape recording system in his offices and that he had recorded many conversations. Recordings from these tapes implicated the president, revealing that he had attempted to cover up the break-in. After a series of court battles, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the president had to hand over the tapes; he ultimately complied.
Facing near-certain impeachment in the House of Representatives and a strong possibility of a conviction in the Senate, Nixon resigned the office of the presidency on August 9, 1974. His successor, Gerald Ford, issued a pardon to President Nixon after his resignation. courtesy:Wikipedia
Soon after coming to power in the state, the Mamata Bannerjee government passed the Singur Land Rehabilitation and Development Act, 2011. On June 22 this year, the government took over possession of the land on which Tata Motors had started construction before moving to Sanand in Gujarat. On the next day, Tata Motors moved the high court, challenging the legality of the Act.
Calcutta high court on Wednesday ruled that the state government was well within its rights to repossess the land in Singur, Hooghly that was handed over toTata Motors for a small car factory. Tata Motors can't get back possession of the land but can apply for compensation to the district judge of Hooghly who will determine the same under sections 23 and 24 of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894.
Floodgates have opened on the net with comments for and against ... in a vote conducted by Times 78% respondents feel Singur would not have benefitted by Tata opening the factory there. I re-post some of the comments here for a good read of both perspectives...
Sougata Pramanick Giving fertile land to TATA was an error which the Left committed. If Mamata opposed that - it was not her fault. She became the scapegoat for Left's folly. Tata could have easily taken barren land few hundred km away. The land near Kharagpur is a arid plateau near to Jamshedpur - what about the multi-crop yielding greenery of Singur besotted Tata / CPM govt's imagination, is beyond comprehension.
WB no doubt needs industrialization, but not by grabbing land like in Lavasa, Noida or Gujarat. These poor farmers elsewhere in the country have splurged the extra cash on Skodas and Mercs and reverted back to alcohol/poverty in no time.
Mamata now needs to attract industrialists by reforming work culture in the state, again spoilt by the decades of Leftism.
Krishna Sharmawhat TATA has given to India none of any other industrialist or any charitable organization has ever given or in future they will give .. and this treatment with the India the most respectable firm is really very sad.. We youngster are the great sufferers of all this ...........
Vivek (Sydney)
29 Sep, 2011 07:29 AM
TATAs were, a couple of decades back, synonymous with "nation building". This perception, in recent times, has eroded drastically because participation in Nation Building programmes by TATAs is minimal. Nano or most of their ventures are part of personal wealth building. Yes, had it been linked to 'road space' increase - we would have continued to accept their role in NB. Negotiating with a government to usurp arable land from farmers without negotiating an acceptable "package", (by farmers ; not govt) is certainly unbecoming of a business house of the repute of TATAs. When the push came to shove during Mamata's movement, at no stage did any senior representative of Tatas meet the farmers or landowners to negotiate a fair deal. The contact was mostly through the government machinery, which invariably had vested interests. On one hand we laud Team Anna and in the same breath how can we tolerate "Corporate Zamindari" being practiced from the shadows of the government. Well done Mamata!!! The farmers will bless you, not only if they get their land back but also if they get a better deal from any future venture in Singur.
Rama (Hydrabad)
29 Sep, 2011 02:36 AM
Calcutta High Coart has given a judgement, it is expected in all the state same rule should be followed. There are huge land grabbed by Railways,Government agencies,Corporate body and army,those lands should be returned to land owners.. Equal Rule should be followed for all the states .Can any government change the act and take back the land as they desire? What will be the fate of future development?
Abhijit Kulkarni (Singapore)
28 Sep, 2011 10:45 PM
who says India is a capitalist country? here comes the bold statement from Indian judiciary stating development at the cost of non creamy section would certainly dismissed and dismissed strongly. well who knows what the actual repercussion of this judgement on longer term would be, since this doesn't send a very good signal to India INC which has already had quite a few dent because of bad governance. I certainly feel bad for Tata's, one of those few names in Indian corporate which are perceived to holds some strong real moral, to loose on this front specially after going through their defense since they were never quite wrong in this case, its a bit mis-handling the deal by government with some injustice to localities best exploited by political moves .. I am sure Mamta would never have got that for Tata's since this is case, that has brought her into the power. In the end, we can only hope that the common people who lost their land should be benefited. The irony is this is one of the biggest industrial deal signed by communist government only to get ruled out by so called Socialist (or capitalist) Congress.
Sutanuka BanerjeeThere are a large number of closed and sick industries in West Bengal. The West Bengal Government does not have any policy related to the land locked-up in such closed and sick industrial units. This land had been given to various industria...lists to set up factories in the past. This land cannot be used for any other purpose, but residential complexes and shopping malls are coming up on such land and they are also being used for other non-manufacturing activities......http://www.mainstreamweekly.net/article52.html...... Citizens’ Chargesheet On West Bengal Government’s Development Policies.....
Sutanuka Banerjeemore than 4,000 heavily armed police stormed the Nandigram area with the aim of stamping out protests against the West Bengal government’s plans to expropriate 10,000 acres (40 km2) of land for a Special Economic Zone (SEZ) . The police sho...
Aurangzeb Alamgir invaded Varanasi and destroyed the original Vishwanath temple at Gyanvapi ("Well of knowledge") complex and erected this mosque from the parts of the temple (beyond dispute from this photograph).
Later Marathas captured the city and reconstructed the new Vishwanath temple which is seen today. But they spared the mosque, as it was Shivaji's order, ".. fight muslims but don't destroy their holy places". Hope some radical Hindus (who claim to be his followers) are listening !
The temple (reconstructed few hundred metres away) stands today as one of the holiest of Hindu shrines, shrouded with nearly a ton of gold.
