Barackface

Friday, July 03, 2015

Advani's Ghost And Nitish

English: cropped photograph of L K Advani with Hillary Clinton outside his residence. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Today, what L.K. Advani has said — that he is not confident that the Emergency cannot return — is not without reason.

Let's start with the fact that there is absolutely no chance of the emergency being imposed again.

So why did Advani warn of it? He was trying to get attention. News mein aana tho unko. Ek saal se news mein nahin aaye the. Suna suna sa lag raha tha. And maybe he never made peace with the fact that Modi, not Advani, became Prime Minister. Which is weird. Advani as the BJP PM candidate would have likely seen a Third Front government, possibly under Mulayam, who would have promptly taken India down from the Manmohan Singh rate of growth to the old Hindu rate of growth.

I worry for Nitish. You can't not respect the people's mandate. The people of Bihar gave a clear mandate to Modi last year. That is why Modi is in power in Delhi. Minus Bihar that would not have been possible. And that mandate lasts five years. So Nitish should not be second guessing the people of Bihar.

If Nitish does not get to fight the 100 seats his party already has right now, and Laloo wakes up the old jhagada like there was before he "drank poison" and settled on Nitish as CM candidate, and if Narendra Modi decides to give two full weeks to Bihar right before the elections, Nitish is toast.

Kya Advani Advani kar rahe hain? Is he not the mastermind of the Babri Mosque demolition?

The Next Chief Minister Of Bihar?

Thursday, July 02, 2015

The Republican Hunger Games

In the Republican Hunger Games, is #TheDonald (aka Donald Trump) the guy with the taser gun? If he is, he is winning. T for taser, T for tongue. This guy is a True Republican. He does not need to raise money, and he will NOT raise money. He was born on Ellis Island. It does not get any more American than that. If I were Jeb Bush, I would not get too comfortable with my lead. I would take a second look at my talking points. The Donald has a tendency to surprise in the debates. You never know what might come out of his mouth next. It is not like he is running for President of Mexico. Who cares, right?

As Donald Trump surges in polls, Democrats cheer

So Much For The Butterfly Effect

Immigration Court Decision

2009: June 3 Immigration Court Date
2012: Continued Push For Political Asylum
One More Immigration Court Date
Enemy Of The State
What Is Racism?
A Statement For My Next Immigration Court Date
March 8, 2012: Next Immigration Court Date
Using Political Contacts To Beat The Immigration Beast
Questions Prepared By My Lawyer For Immigration Court Date Tomorrow
Immigration Court Date: June 6, 2011: Prepared Statement
June 3 Immigration Court Date
Immigration Mess/Humiliation And Window Shopped Tech Entrepreneurship
My Non Personhood Of 2009, 2010
A Life Of Poverty
April 22 Immigration Court Date
June 3 Immigration Court Date
A MLK Style Death Awaits Me In Nepal
Jail Time
A Political Immigration Detention
Letter To The Department Of Homeland Security
Freedom, Finally
Robin Hood: My German Nickname

Next Step: Temporary Protection Status (2015 Nepal Earthquake)

Wednesday, July 01, 2015

Modi: A Force Of Nature

Elon Musk's Hyperloop And India

Narendra Modi is all taken by bullet trains and for good reason. But he should not overlook Elon Musk's Hyperloop. It is cheaper, faster and, get this, it runs on solar.

I have talked of all of Bihar being one big city. The Hyperloop would turn all of India into one big city. I mean, if you are moving at 900 miles per hour! That is an hour (less) to get from Delhi to Mumbai. You could live in one city and work in another. You could live anywhere in Uttar Pradesh and commute to Delhi for work.

Hyperloop connections between the diamond cities Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata would be a great idea. It would turn all of India into one big city for real.

The Hyperloop takes urban design to a whole new level. The city need not be one big crowded cluster. It can be vastly dispersed.

Beijing to Delhi is three hours by Hyperloop. I guess no more war! It is hard to go to war with people you see all the time.

Saturday, June 27, 2015

Obama, My Man

Officially Great

Friday, June 26, 2015

Palanquin

What Modi wave? BJP may find it difficult to take on Nitish-Lalu combine in Bihar

Over the last few weeks, politics in election-bound Bihar has taken an interesting turn. One moment, it appears that the BJP is at an advantage, the next as if the party is far from sweeping that state. ..... the issue of leadership remains a major problem for the BJP. The prime worry within the saffron camp is that it does not have a leader to match the stature of Nitish. The lone prominent face with the state BJP is Sushil Kumar Modi, former deputy chief minister but a large section does not support him ....... A dominant section within the BJP wants someone from the Bhumihar community to be projected as the CM candidate. Former minister CP Thakur remains an obvious choice but the problem with the BJP is that if its tries to go with him, the OBC and Dalit voters may turn against the party. ....... the brand value of Nitish who was a no nonsense leader and would discuss only serious matters. ...... Nitish obviously had emerged as the “giant killer” but in the last 2010 polls, he created history when the NDA under him got a massive three-fourth mandate—restricting the opposition to just 37 seats. ...... There is also the possibility of Muslim voters completely dumping the BJP. In the last Lok Sabha polls, some Muslim votes had gone to the BJP but post the alliance between Lalu and Nitish, Muslim voters look more united than ever before. In all likelihood, a strong 16 percent of Muslim votes will go en-bock to the Janata Parivar. But a great relief for the BJP is that the Yadavs, who constitute about 15 percent of the state population, are annoyed with Lalu for accepting Nitish’s leadership and will, in all likelihood, switch over to the saffron camp. Also, a huge chunk of Dalit voters which comprise about 23 percent has now broken ties with the JD-U and will head towards the party where their leader Jitan Ram Manjhi goes.

Bihar: Lalu-Nitish's Janta Parivar may find it difficult to handle Pappu Yadav

Dalits account for some 23 percent of the state’s total population whereas Yadavs’ share is 15 percent. Experts say if Pappu is able to cause a split in the Yadav vote bank, then the Janata Parivar is bound to suffer serious setbacks. ...... Lalu now can’t say with certainty that he commands holds over his fellow caste men. This is underlined from the fact that all the four Yadav candidates fielded by the BJP, such as Ram Kripal Yadav (Paltriputra), Om Prakash Yadav (Siwan), Nityanand Rai (Ujiarpur) and Hukum Deo Marayan Yadav (Madhubani) emerged victorious in the LS polls, defeating none others than the RJD candidates.

Quake rumour triggers panic; half of Patna's residents spend night in the open

The panic was apparently triggered by a WhatsApp message reportedly shared by a former legislator from Narpatganj in Araria which went viral on the social media. The message quoting the meteorological department, Chhatisgarh, said an earthquake of high magnitude with 13.4 on the Richter scale will hit Bihar twice during the night—first between 10.36 pm and 11.47 pm and next between 1.42 am and 2.20 am. It asked the masses to share it with a maximum number of people and take precautionary step...... As all efforts to send them back to their homes failed Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar eventually made rounds of various city parks and asked them not to worry saying the government was with them. He even directed the police to keep a constant vigil on the citizens taking shelter in the parks and the open ground and take care of their safety. In fact, Nitish had gone to Delhi to attend a meeting over merger of the six parties but he cancelled all his programmes and returned to Patna on Saturday afternoon after coming to know about the high intensity quake hitting the state.

'Does Modi do yoga?' asks incredulous Vladimir Putin

"He is a good man, and a personal friend," Putin said in reply to questions from visiting wire service reporters from around the world

Believe it or not, Lalit Modi is the best thing to have happened to Indian politics

Lalit Modi has rocked the cozy back-scratching political world by proving that it’s just as dangerous to be Lalit Modi’s best friend as it is to be Lalit Modi’s ex-friend. He is an equal opportunity destroyer. ...... Lalit Modi is the antithesis of Anna Hazare with his Armani suits, his Rambagh Palace suites and jetsetting exile in London and Ibiza and Montenegro. But unlike Anna, he is a consummate insider. And when an insider explodes, the shit hits the fan. ..... that Modi is now being called the BJP’s Robert Vadra proves that Rahul Gandhi is fighting with one hand tied behind his back. ..... The way to mega-success in India is more often than not greased by the same things Lalit Modi accumulated – friends in high places, favours for friends in high places, favours by friends in high places. ..... Lalit Modi, the BCCI alleged that Modi “manipulated due process, handed out favours, ran the IPL for the benefit of a coterie of family and friends ....... Stories abound about how he used his proximity to Vasundhara Raje during her first term as chief minister to great advantage earning himself the title of “Super Chief Minister” operating out of an opulent suite at Rambagh Palace. ....... how Modi would brag “That was P Chidambaram on the phone, begging me to keep the IPL in India. I told him nothing doing.” And then predicted it would cost the Congress 75 seats. ..... As a student at Duke University in the US, Modi had been charged with drug trafficking, kidnapping and assault after a cocaine deal went wrong. But he managed to come back to India in the middle of his probation pleading ill-health. Perhaps that instilled in him an unshakeable conviction that he can fix anything and eventually come out on top. And that gives him the chutzpah now to burn his bridges because he’s sure that in the end it will all work out for him. ....... That might explain why the man who became powerful by name-dropping is now obsessed with name-bombing instead, damning Vasundhara Raje by revealing stories about her kindness to his cancer-stricken wife. That is an Et tu Brute move that requires serious chutzpah. But then this is the man who thinks nothing of summoning India's top journalists to Montenegro where he is on vacation while a political crisis with him at its centre rocks India. ....... Lalit Modi might end up as a red-corner-notice bhagoda today

डिग्री ना होना बुरी बात नहीं

It is not about what degree you have or do not have, it is what you accomplish or do not accomplish. Judge Smriti Irani on her work since she took office. भाड़ में जाए डिग्री ---- वो तो मोदी के पास भी नहीं ---- अमीर खान भी बगैर डिग्री के ही घुम रहे हैं। बिल गेट्स भी तो। लेकिन PK को देखो, दुनिया भर में वर्ल्ड रिकॉर्ड कायम किया।

Trouble for HRD Minister Smriti Irani: Delhi court to hear complaint over her degrees on 28 August
Smriti Irani's degrees should be probed: PM Modi's brother

Long Live The Roti?

हिन्दी: देश के उप राष्ट्रपति मोहम्मद हामिद अंसारी पटना में पूर्व मुख्यमंत्री सत्येन्द्र नारायण सिन्हा(छोटे साहब) की 94वीं जयंती पर आयोजित व्याख्यानमाला श्रंखला पर पूर्व सांसद किशोरी सिन्हा और मुख्यमंत्री नीतीश कुमार के साथ (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Bihar: BJP’s Mission 185 under threat as allies fight over seat sharing

The top leadership of the party is taken by surprise by the aggression being displayed by junior NDA allies with only marginal presence in the state. They have stopped being docile and it does not augur well for the BJP which is caught in its own low intensity conflicts over leadership. Poor handling of the situation could rip apart the umbrella alliance of caste-based outfits, rendering the NDA weak against the combined might of Lalu Prasad and Nitish Kumar........ As if offering himself as the NDA’s chief minister candidate was not enough, Upendra Kushwaha, leader of the Rashtriya Lok Samata Party (RLSP), has even come up with a formula for distribution seats among the allies. As per his formula, BJP should contest on 102 seats—the number of seats it had been spared by the JD(U) while both were parts of the NDA, 74 seats should be allotted to the LJP whereas the remaining 67 seats should go to his party. He even suggested that all the three partners should spare seats in a proportionate way in case Jitan Ram Manjhi becomes parts of the NDA. .... Kushwaha, a creation of Nitish Kumar ..... the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) headed by Union minister Ram Vilas Paswan too is trying to extract its pound of flesh from the BJP. The party with no legislator in the Bihar assembly has announced that it would oppose five candidates from Manjhi’s party ....... LJP, which corners five percent of votes on an average, is scared that Manjhi may emerge as a taller Dalit leader than him. Manjhi represents some 23 percent of Mahadalit population comprising 23 sub-castes of Dalits but he too remains to be tested as his newly-formed Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) is yet to join any election. Manjhi formed the HAM shortly after his rebellion against Nitish in February this year. ...... Right now Manjhi and Paswan, two coalition partners of the BJP, are now engaged in bitter verbal duels on the streets much to the merriment of the grand secular alliance. While the LJP has declared to oppose HAM candidates, Manjhi has dared Paswan to do that ....... Past records show that the BJP has grown up in Bihar more due to bitter rivalries among various splinter groups of the Janata family than its own strength. The party, which enjoys its support primarily among the upper castes and the Bania community, banked on the support of either Samata Party, the Janata Dal (United) or the LJP for its success. This is the first time in 20 years that it will be facing a united Janata family comprising Nitish and Lalu with the Congress and the NCP on their side.

Infographic: Here's how much our MPs lunch is subsidised