Indian Government Refuses to Learn from Mistakes

You know what the definition of insanity is? It is to keep on doing the same thing over and over again yet expecting a different result each time. That's where the Indian Government is now.

I talked earlier about what happened to the 25,000 people, who were marching to Delhi. What happened to that peaceful protest by the 25,000 people who wanted to go see their representatives? Nothing. Police herded them away into a compound, refused to let them meet Dr. Manmohan Singh, the Prime Minister of India and then it all just dribbled away. Remember what they wanted? All they wanted was their legitimate rights. The rights to the land they owned and which was taken away forcibly and criminally. Land which was common land at first, but has become private land, and that land was promised to them, but nothing has been delivered.

While discussing this with some people, one comment was, "they should form a political party and fight for their rights". Well, they did, or rather they tried and nothing happened. But for long term political movements, what you need are full bellies. When your children are having a distended belly in front of you, then you are more inclined to riot and destroy for food. And I am afraid that is what is already happening. The current government coalition as well as the opposition coalition comprises of a bunch of frankly consumerist blind corrupt politicians who frankly do not give a toss about the populace. This brings me to the most threatening factor to India, the Naxalites.

So if nobody listens when people talk to you peacefully, you might listen when the talk becomes violent. Speaking to an intelligence chap at the Indian Embassy here in London, he talked about 200 districts, which are now impacted by Naxalites. Many districts in a vast swathe of the country are now being ruled by Naxalites. Yes! Ruled! There is NO INDIAN GOVERNMENT there whatsoever. No mandi tax, no octroi, no district administration, no public health centres, no electricity, no irrigation officials and certainly no forestry people.

For those who think this does not matter, remember what happened to POSCO?the biggest FDI in India, 12 Billion. This was announced 4 years ago, and nothing has happened. Here is my prediction: nothing will happen and very soon, a full fledged insurrection will break out targeted at the South Koreans. In 2 years maximum, you will see Korean or Posco employee fatalities. And there is a better than even chance that this investment will be withdrawn.

Remember these Naxalites are Maoists, and one of the central tenets of Maoism is control over the countryside. So while we are having fun and orgasms over the Sensex reaching 20,000, the base of our country is being sucked dry by these maggots and termites. Between the venality of the politicians and the ideological maneuvering of the Maoists, the poor are getting poorer and stay ignored. Once the rural countryside is in their hands, the urban areas become useless and thrash around like fish out of water.

More importantly, for those of you who are living in the cities and towns in and around these districts in MP, UP, Bihar, Orrisa, AP, WB, etc., you will notice that the cost of foodgrains, vegetables and beedis is steadily going up. Have you also asked around to find where the tax take is coming from? No, the onions which you eat are now coming from further away from the towns and they are being shipping in from further as local produce is not happening. Have you noticed that the freight insurance costs are going up by much more than the rate of inflation? Now this is still not feeding into national inflation as it is not happening in the big population centres (our inflation measurement is highly urbanised), but this will happen soon and we will have fun! And these stupid politicians keep on making the same mistake over and over again! So many governments have fallen because they did not deal with rising prices (remember the onion crisis which screwed the BJP in 1998? The Janta Dal in 1980?)

25,000 of our fellow countrymen came in and went away saddened, all they wanted was "do bigha jamin". The intelligence fellow said that the estimated strength of the jihadis in India is about 200 hardcore. There are 200,000 naxalites, with more than 120 million sympathisers. Do you see where I am going?

All this to be taken with a grain of piquant salt!