Delhi Verdict - Why BJP bulldozed?

So finally verdict is out and the BJP has successfully snatched defeat from victory's mouth.

Final Score : 67-3-0-0 (AAP, BJP, Congress, Others).

7 Reasons, I believe, that contributed most towards BJP's biggest and unprecedented loss in the its history of Indian politics:

1. Inner party democracy, err.. fight

2. Negative campaign

3. Late decisions which made BJP late.

4. Focusing on countering rival's strengths than playing on its own.

5. Accepting everybody and anybody from other parties, ignoring their past records and affiliations

6. Late induction of Kiran bedi and leaving her unattended for first 3 days when opposition & media exposed her weaknesses, which she could never recover from.

7. Free run of Fringe elements giving stupid statements and alienating many voters.

A Letter to Ms. Kiran Bedi

Dear Ms. Bedi,

I'm from a generation that has always admired you for your work and zeal.

I also believe BJP is the best platform to serve the nation because of people at its top and therefore I also agree with your decision to make it as your platform to launch yourself in politics.

I strongly think you and BJP did right thing by joining hands and you can surely complement each other if play on your individual strengths.

However, I also think in last few days, after joining BJP, u sounded more like Mr. Kejriwal - overexcited, immature, vulnerable.

Your efforts to appear honest, showing Modi file for to prove that your change in opinion is genuine and not opportunistic, have made you look like a sycophant.

You need to understand one thing, Delhi BJP lacked contemporary leadership and that is why they have inducted you. So, think before taking their advice everywhere, for ex. Garlanding Lala Lajpat Rai with BJP Stole.

If you don't do a course-correction, I am afraid, even Mr. Modi would not be able to win you the votes to make you the Chief minister.

- An ordinary guy

Canada Foreign Officers Strike

It seems Canadian Foreign Officers strike is at the peak of conflict and pressure is mounting on both government and PAFSO to resolve it quickly.

It has become a issue of who will blink first. As of today, things are worse than they were in the first week of June when it all started. Biggest losers of in all this are Canadian Public because of huge loss of revenue from tourism, lost work because of unavailability of temporary workers and impact on the choices Students make this time of the year.

From GDP perspective, as per few estimates, Canada is loosing $20 million/week only in tourism. Losses accounting from Students and Workers can't be quantified very easily. This is obviously a bad business equation if we see only from this perspective. To save approx. $4.5 M/ year by not giving increment to Foreign Service Officer, government is actually loosing almost 4 times of it in a single week.

But if we see from the administration perspective, it can't be an easy decision for government to accept all the demands of PAFSO members because it may end up in surge in the similar demands from other public service officers.

PAFSO has chosen a time when historically it gets highest number of Visa applications and which is not helping the Visa applicants either.

I hope both parties are able to come to the table and come up with a workable solution as soon as possible. I hope they would think about those students who have applied in Canadian Universities and might end up loosing an year in case they don't get Visa on time. I hope Agriculture world and corporate world is able to put some amount of pressure on both the parties to get this resolve quickly and not drag it further.

Americans choose the world leader....

So finally BO won the votes of Americans. Last election was the first time when Indians (atleast I) took keen interest in American election. Before then this, we just used to hear news about the event. But this time, the media coverage given to the event was much more than ever before.

If we try to put our views on few of the things that were discussed in last few days and how this election could have made significant impact on them, than following come as front runners:

Economy: There is no doubt that Mr. Obama got a tragic financial legacy from his much beloved predecessor. When Mr. Obama took office, USA had $10 Trillion of debt, on which he added $6 Trillion more. Now the argument could have been made from other side that Obama made the economy worse by adding as much debt in just 4 years as no other president, except Mr. Bush Jr., could do in total. But in my opinion, Mr. Obama should get the credit for this that he got the situation in control. Although $6 Trillion are not less, it could have been more.

Foreign policy: This was a subject of interest for whole world. And If I see differently than China is the only entity that came as front runner. A dedicated debate on foreign policies got marginalized to a discussion on China and its economic policies. Now it is very clear to the whole world that China is not emerging super power, but it has already become one. Few more years of political diplomacy and it will be The Super power, surpassing the USA. Mitt Romney’s stand was very clear on this issue and he showed clear solidarity with Israel while making it clear what he would do with China. At the same time, Mr. Obama still found to be ambivalent on most of the related issues.

World peace: This is one place where our Nobel Laureate (in peace) had an upper hand. Mitt Romney’s stand that he would increase the military budget by $2 Trillion did not go very well with the people who wanted to spend that money on their on welfare rather on fighting war against other countries.

Inspirational leadership: This is a softer aspect but most dear to my heart. In my personal opinion, Mr. Obama is the best orator among world leaders in today’s time. Except in first debate, he has always come well prepared and been very assertive in putting his points across the tables. He showed himself engaged with the people but at the same time not emotional. He demonstrated that leaders have to empathetic but still they have to control their emotions.

Even though I have many challenges at my work (high rate of Visa rejection made IT manager’s job even tougher) after Mr. Obama sworn in 2009, I personally admire his oratorical skills a lot.

Where is corruption?

"My father paid bribe for my birth certificate .I repaid the dues by bribing to get his death certificate. Is this the Independence that our forefathers sacrificed their everything for?", this is the statement I just encountered in the readers' section of an Indian newspaper.

Corruption is not there only in the government, or in the bureaucracy but its there in the blood and that blood flows in the veins of each & every Indian. There are so many occasions when we ourselves not a victim of corruption but a part of corruption. Some of them are:

- Organizing an event or party but paying the bills without any taxes

- Not getting Income Tax Refund, paid the bribe to IT officer to expedite the process

- Could not buy Train ticket because of Crowd on the counter, so paid the money to Ticket collector just to save the fines

- Planning to get the Passport, paid the bribe for police verification, to speed up the process

and many more...

So in short, corruption is not something which we can blame on others, it is in our culture, in our roots and in our veins.

First hand account from Mumbai

This is the mail, I got from one of my friends who was there, with her friend, in Cafe Leopard at the time Mumbai Massacre. When they were trying to save themselves from the blind gunshots, they found themselves in Hotel Taj. Here they tell what happened there, & how they could survive & manage to return back to their home.

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(from Dara, a young architect on vacation, and a former roommate of my girlfriend as well as Bassam)

mumbai: my story and how i survived.

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Today at 5:50am

Thanks to all of those who wrote me notes and posted on my wall. i just wanted to take a moment to pay respects to those who lost their lives to save us. I am praying for the hotel staff, police, and other reinforcements that were brought into Mumbai that deadly night that should have never occurred.

The horrific acts that happened in Mumbai was a life altering experience for me and something that will haunt me for the rest of my life. Around 9:40 pm I went to the night market with my friend John.

As the store were closing we were excited to take a drink in the famous cafe, Leopolds- A small cafe that opens up completely to the street. After finishing a tall glass of watermelon juice there was a huge boom that hit an aquarium in the back of the room.

Everyone turned around simply think 'what was that?' but not expecting anything serious. The next thing I knew consecutive shots rang non-stop across the room. John threw me to the floor screaming "GET DOWN!" My purse was in the seat next to me, but I didn't even think for a second about it. I was bent over trying to run out. John pushed me to the floor again. I believed he saved my life. I still don't understand how I made it out when I later read there were two gunmen walking in with large guns. There was glass in my hands, the skin on my knees were rubbed off from hitting the floor- yet I couldn't feel the pain. My heart and adrenaline were so high I was just thinking "this IS NOT really happening to me". I never thought in a million years that I would ever be involved in a situation such as the ones I had read in the news. All I remember that night is running as fast as I could because I was convinced they would bomb the café. As I picked myself up off the glass shards on the floor I bolted down the road, my left hand dripping in blood. My shoes fell off, but I didn't care, I just kept running. John was right behind me, as he got closer he took my hand and said 'Don't ever let go of my hand'. I remember my way back to the hotel we had checked in at 9 hours before- The Taj Palace. It was only 3-4 minutes before we got to the hotel. John stopped and said "No! the Taj will be a target for sure!" but there we were, his pants splattered with someone else's blood, my hand dripping in my own. We had no other place to go. We didn't know the city yet, and we needed help. For it felt like the most secure place since we only had

half a second to make a move.

I walked through a line of cab drivers who stood there in confusion on the bullets they had heard just down the streets. All the doormen and guests turned to stare at john and I who came storming in with blood on our hands. The guests dressed in the fine evening wear stood at the glass lobby entrance, staring out in curiosity about the gun shots.They sounded like a string of fireworks going off. They were shocked when they saw us pace in. The Taj staff was continuously wonderful. The minute I entered the lobby, a man sat quickly took us to the couches in the lobby, sat me down and had someone run to grab a towel.

As soon he came back to wipe my leg, the all too familiar sound of gun shots came back into the lobby. I was so terrified I never even turned around to look at them, b ut was later told that they were men dressed in black with large guns shooting everyone in site. All I knew is that as soon as I heard those shots again I dove for the closed double doors on my right side. The men who were helping me did too. It was just an instinct we all just ran as fast as we could to the doors- I didn't even know where they led to. This all happened in literally seconds. It was a restaurant. There were still guests dining at the table with looks of confusion. We dashed through the restaurant looking for any door to run through-quite certain that somebody would follow us. We ran straight into the Kitchen. Stopped at the dead end. There was one exit door in the back that somebody had locked. I didn't have time for tears. I was set on survival.

The hotel staff was amazing!-especially one man in particular named Javed. He told everyone to stay calm, we were safe, the doors were locked. We didn't believe him. We knew they had guns and could burst in at any moment if they wanted to. There was an Indian girl next to me who was crying hysterically because she had separated from her friend and mother in the lobby. There was a Muslim women on the floor praying for her life. John and I, both Christian, knelt down beside her and repeated the Lord's prayer over and over again. The Hindu women with us were also praying. There in the kitchen three separate religions prayed for the same thing. Asking God to spare our lives. Although the room was filled with chefs, hotel staff, guests of different nationalities, different social classes, different religious backgrounds- absolutely NOTHING separated us that night. We were all the same. We were all holding one and others arms saying "it is going to be okay, the police will be here soon." The hotel staff was on the phone calling for reinforcement. Meanwhile, Javed came back with a first aid kit and continued to dress John and mine's wounds. As he was cleaning them the hotel staff came back to tell us that it would be safer if we came back into the restaurant because they had blocked the doors. We were scared if it was safe or not, but proceeded to the restaurant because we did not want to be in the kitchen alone. There was a large grand piano pushed against the doors and furniture piled up on top of it.

The rest of the story is written by John: ....30 others were already in there, and after our entry, they barricaded the doors with a grand piano. What followed, for us, was eight hours of entrapment, while guns, bombs and most terrifyingly an ever louder fire raged outside.

I am amazed at how lucid we were throughout the ordeal. Our bodies provide us with incredible clarity in a crisis. I kept thinking of Winston Churchill's quote, "When you're going through hell… keep going". Still, we were terrified. Stupidly, I persuaded Dara not to call her par ents. Thinking of my own mother, I thought she might have a heart attack if she knew what was happening. I wish I hadn't done this. Everyone else was on their cell phone.

The people in our room made the scene feel like a movie set: covered Islamic women, a hard focused German businessman, a tender hearted French, obnoxious hipsters, lithe and immaculately dressed blonde Russian girls, Indians, Muslims, Christians. Everyone of all religions were praying together that night on the floor of that restaurant.

Our first evacuation attempt, around 3 or 4 am, ended in more gunfire, and the few who had ventured out of the room, raced back in. Miraculously, we were evacuated around 7am.

It wasn't until I learned the news of what had happened, until I digested my own relief that I began to cry. I read about the deaths of the chief of police, the chief of counter-terrorism, the burned wife and children of the hotel manager, and I began to weep. I thought of the incredible and admirable bravery, presence and commitment of the Taj staff. And I thought of all these people, big and small, that had given so much to save us. I still cry when I think of it.

The journey home to was another adventure. We didn't know if it the attack was a one off event or the start of war, and we hurried to exit the country. Terrified, we waited 25 minutes to be let into the US embassy, while they checked their computers for our reco rds. Even though we had called three times to report we were coming and they had our names. It would have been a good tip for them to actually pre-print the identification of all of the Americans who had called in to state their names. As cars drove by the street in front of the embassy, I felt like I was sitting on top of a bull's eye. The guards did not speak English. The reception was staffed by an Indian, who would not come to the gate. We crouched behind a concrete piling, and I scanned the horizon for potential terrorists. When we were finally let in, an Indian woman told me I would need to pay $200 to get an emergency passport.. How did they know if we even had money? Dara lost her money, credit cards and even shoes in the attack at Leopold's. Luckily I had one credit card in my pocket.

Despite having only one other couple in their office, we waited two and a half hours for emergency passports. We were hoping to leave before sunset. We appreciated the fact that the embassy was working around the clock, and they explained that we waited almost three hours because they were busy answering the phones, but I felt that they were more helpful on the phone telling us to "stay calm" then actually helping us in person when we actually really needed it.

Before we arrived to the US embassy, the Taj staff at the evacuation center had taken photos on a digital camera and printed six passport sized pho tos for us. The embassy said the photos were not acceptable – they were not professionally taken. They told me that because they had no camera man, and I would need to go back into Mumbai to find a photo center. Everything in the city was closed. I was flabbergasted. The British embassy had sent emissaries to the evacuation center, the Spanish had arranged military transport for evacuation, and here, wearing ripped and bloody clothes, the US embassy was telling me I couldn't have an emergency passport because the quality of my photographs were not professionally taken. We screamed at them, and they acquiesced. I was further surprised to lean that we had to obtain a new visa from the Indian government to leave the country. The only place to obtain this was the South Mumbai police headquarters, which had also been attacked. The US embassy tried and failed to waive this rule. We had to go..

Remarkably, heroically, the driver the Taj hotel had provided us, Jabraj, had patiently waited for us during the 2+ hour delay at the US embassy. The embassy was kind enough to lend us one of our staff to help us find the Indian visa office, and so an extremely brave Indian woman nicknamed 'Nicky' went along. As we drove back into Colaba, the streets filled with police and army personnel. We found the visa office, and pulled in, but had to back up the car, as they were hauling out a dead body. When we got into the police station,20it was amazing how quick the Indians acting in getting our paper work done in less than five minutes!

Eventually we made it out of the country. I have seen in the press criticism of the hotel, of the Indian government and of their police, but I cannot sing their praises loudly enough. Their courage is inspiring. We mourn the horrendous loss of life. For those of us who survived, how will we ever repay this debt?

I am praying for guidance on what to do now, on how I can help. I am praying for the families of the deceased, and I am praying for the leaders of India. Violence cannot be defeated with violence, and an eye for an eye will make the whole world blind.

If anyone has any information on how we can help India please contact me and others around the world to pitch in. Additionally, I hope that this news will allow our government gain insight from the situation- even if it is as simple as having a Polaroid camera on site or training techniques to better prepare US embassies around the world for the future.

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Drama is over....What next?

After a long struggle, & loosing some 195 people which includes 3 senior officers of police, a Major of NSG & several other police-men, the catastrophic drama is over. First time Mr. Home Minister did something good for the country & that is by putting down his papers.

People are anguished, deserted & angry on the failure of the government & its policies on terrorism. Postmortem has been started by Media Channels. Government is again blaming Pakistan for this & as usual Pakistan is saying when they themselves are victim of terrorism, why Indian Government is blaming them for this incident.

Things are being discussed but nothing is coming out. Leave common man, Government itself doesn't seem to be focused. Politicians are trying to blame others, for their mistakes; Government is confused, don't know what to do; & common man is feeling debilitated & enervated because of these continuous acts of terrorism. Taj has estimated the total loss to INR. 5 billions which doesn't include the hit on the brand India. India is not being perceived as safe country. Governments of different countries are asking their citizens for deferring the plans of traveling India, If any.

And in all this, I am feeling afflicted & tormented because I am seeing Brand India is being tarnished, my country is being perceived as unsafe country & the government is not able to understand how to handle this situation.

Spirit becomes Excuse

Every time heard about these incidents, I feel so helpless as nothing is in our hand while dealing with the bastards who had been attacking the sovereignty of the largest Democracy. In last couple of months, almost all the big cities of India have gone through several terrorist attacks & I don't know who is to blame. But If somebody asks me the same question then my question would be "Not at least Terrorists" , the simple reason is because they are terrorists & you can't expect anything good from them for the humanity. They are properly brain-washed by few radical group of people. If not they, then who should be blamed, simple answer comes to my mind is our soft attitude towards terrorism by the politicians & the government.

We have a Prime Minister, who just doesn't know what to do in these kind of crisis, who is a great economist, good bureaucrat or you can also say great scholar but sadly not a deserving candidate for Prime-minister's office. I don't know what goes in the Prime-minister office but at least it gives the impression that even that novice Gandhi Scion has more powers then Mr. Prime-minister. Then comes our Mr. Home-minster, first question arises when the people of his own constituency didn't find him capable of representing him in the parliament political party, how could our oldest political party choose him for the portfolio of home ministry & only Her Highness can give the answer. Next great personality who knocks on the doors of my mind is Mr Chief Minister, Mumbai. And you know what, I feel, he doesn't have any control on any activity happening in his state which has been proved very well in last couple of months. Besides these 'Three Stooges', there are few for whom militancy means one community only. They try to certify that anybody from their community can not be a terrorist even if prime suspects of any heinous crime are from his community.

Anyway, here I want to emphasize on the latest one in the list of terror acts of world history. The attack on Mumbai is very different from other terrorist activities in last few years. Here, innocent people were captivated without any reason, no use of big explosive was done though it was planned if terrorists had survived a little more. The only incident in India I can relate with this incident is the Plane Hijack in December 1999 though in that incident, people were made hostages with the demand of acquittal of three militants which were in Indian jails which didn't happen this time. They came with the solo motto of killing as many people as possible wanting nothing in return.

In these kind of situations, its very difficult to save the people because at one side security forces have to eliminate all the militants ensuring that no innocent give the life. At this time, the united courage of the hostages could be very supportive in handling the situation and rescuing maximum no. of people.

In 1999, Rupin Katyal was the one who protested a bit though it was a failed effort & cost him his life but when similar effort (a united effort) was made in the United 93 flight, which was allegedly targeted to Capitol Building OR White house, by the passengers of that flight, they saved the the capital of their nation & proved the patriotism.

In the Taj-Oberoi incident we lost more then 150 innocent people till now & death toll is still increasing intermittently. If even 50 people there could have the spirit of 'DO & Die' and protest against those terrorist in a united form, so many lives could be saved.

Here, what I think, are few possible steps which could help India in becoming a Safe country:

1. At least one young Man from each family should be sponsored for a compulsory Army Training for 1-2 years. If I get a chance now, I'll be the first one in accepting this challenge.

2. Second Police Force should be paid well. In USA, a police-man is being paid a salary more then a Software Engineer, but in India, a Police man with a service of 10 years is being paid half salary then a Software Engineer with 2 years of service.

3. Third, if history repeats itself and anyone of us finds him/herself in the hostages, don't just pray for your life,go ahead & motivate fellow people who could help you in fighting with those terrorists. If nobody agrees then fight alone, because you don't know if you'll remain to fight the terrorism after that.

Today I may not know anything but what I know is if I find myself any of the situations like United 93(Plane crashed after attack on twin towers), IA 814(Kandhar Plane Hijack) Or Taj Hotel, I'll not just come out without fighting.

Localized in a Globalized world

Yesterday I was reading an article on Rediff.com which was talking about the large population of Indian Americans who are more inclined towards Mr. Obama in coming Presidential election. In the same article I came across a society [SAALT(South Asian Americans Leading Together)] which fights for the Americans who are natives of South Asia & are victim of Hate Crimes by Native Americans.

Here I was seeing how difficult situations many Asians have gone through while staying in United States. There was a guy who was shot by few people & caught paralysis. Now his life has bound to a Wheel-chair, he can't work or I should say he is nothing but a dependent creature in this independent world. There was another old person who was beaten by few boys who were saying that this person should leave their country & go back to his home country.

There were many such instances when South Asian people were at the receiving end of Hate Crimes but my intention on writing this topic is not to emphasize what is happening with Indians in America but what I want to ask how we talk about free trade market, equal opportunities across the globe for any body of any ethnicity when we, ourselves, can't let our fellow Indians to work in our state. This is nothing but hypocrisy that we are lobbying in United States for allowing our people to work there by favoring Off-shoring but, a big BUT, we can't save the livelihood of our own citizens in our own country.

Today, I don't know what makes our fellow Indians to say that India is a greatest country in the world. We crib about our culture being ruined by western influence, but, frankly we don't have any culture if we can't respect the freedom of individuals, no Country is great if its people can't come together & fight against sinisters.

When a foreigner comes & replace a local worker in any job, a feeling of resentment is inevitable, but the kind of drama is going in India makes me feel ashamed that even after few thousands year of Indian history, we are still divided on the basis of cast & state.

The Only question I am asking here is why can't we called Indians only rather then Hindu, Muslim OR Bihari, Maharastrian.