The baadshahs of our Babudom have been spoilt for too long. Its time they were disciplined a little. Or so think, some of the politicians who have proposed a bill for 100 days of mandatory Parliamentary attendance. I am excited. Its not often one gets to witness live demonstrations of apne-hi-pair-par-kulhadi-maarna. And our babus are masters at the art of saving their backsides.
Do our babus really have the flair for self discipline? I, for one, don’t think so.
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Monday, July 27, 2009
How to answer a stupid question!
Queen Elizabeth: Why was nobody able to predict the recession?
LSE Economists: Your highness, It was a failure of our collective imagination.
ROTFLMAO!!!!
LSE Economists: Your highness, It was a failure of our collective imagination.
ROTFLMAO!!!!
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Jassi babu and a few peals of laughter
Jassi babu and a few peals of laughter
No, it isn't Jaspal Bhatti but our beloved ex-finance minister Jaswant Singh who decided to play comedian to our perpetually-somnolent central legislators this time. Jaswant babu triggered quite a few peals of laughter in the recent session of the Lok Sabha as he dished out some anti-dethroning tips to the government in power. His tip- Money, Money, Money, It's not funny.
According to him, the finance minister is faced by a tough job. He often has to endure sleepless nights in the foregoing weeks of the budget because everything is related to money. making reference to his one brief and one not-so-brief terms in the same office, he prophesied- Sooner, than later, the finance minister ends up abandoning this portfolio. Reminiscing in nostalgia, he remembered- during his days in that office, he had to transfer the reins because the government was kicked out. He cleverly added in the middle of this autobiographical repertoire- ' I am only cautioning'. This makes me wonder whether that was for the ears of Pranab Mukherjee or Sonia Gandhi. Whoever the intended recipient, he sure had the Babus-in-white entertained even as he thrust a direct attack at his residing-in-office counterpart on the budget saying- The tax break would not even gift me a bottle of whisky! Jassi Babu, I sympathize.
No, it isn't Jaspal Bhatti but our beloved ex-finance minister Jaswant Singh who decided to play comedian to our perpetually-somnolent central legislators this time. Jaswant babu triggered quite a few peals of laughter in the recent session of the Lok Sabha as he dished out some anti-dethroning tips to the government in power. His tip- Money, Money, Money, It's not funny.
According to him, the finance minister is faced by a tough job. He often has to endure sleepless nights in the foregoing weeks of the budget because everything is related to money. making reference to his one brief and one not-so-brief terms in the same office, he prophesied- Sooner, than later, the finance minister ends up abandoning this portfolio. Reminiscing in nostalgia, he remembered- during his days in that office, he had to transfer the reins because the government was kicked out. He cleverly added in the middle of this autobiographical repertoire- ' I am only cautioning'. This makes me wonder whether that was for the ears of Pranab Mukherjee or Sonia Gandhi. Whoever the intended recipient, he sure had the Babus-in-white entertained even as he thrust a direct attack at his residing-in-office counterpart on the budget saying- The tax break would not even gift me a bottle of whisky! Jassi Babu, I sympathize.
How dare you, you Yanks!
Dr. Abdul Kalam was recently frisked at the Indira Gandhi International Airport on a Newark-bound flight. FYI, Newark is not an indigenous spelling of New York, but a town in the latter. Anyway, the subject of the article is not a certain part of the huge North American country nor the U.S. flight which indulged in this allegedly 'preposterous' gimmick. If it was the airline's intention to grab a little attention though, it surely succeeded.
What IS preposterous about the whole episode,however, is the reaction of our beloved Ex-President. He has demanded an apology from the airline for treating him like a civilian passenger. He was after all the 'ex' de-facto supreme commander of the armed forces of the country. Our now jobless ex-president, tired of attending ribbon-cutting invitations at school annual functions and science laboratories, is now resorting to unworthy acts of grabbing attention in order to be back in the limelight once again. Our Parlimentarian babus, always happy to oblige, cannot stop singing 'Amen! So be it!'
What IS preposterous about the whole episode,however, is the reaction of our beloved Ex-President. He has demanded an apology from the airline for treating him like a civilian passenger. He was after all the 'ex' de-facto supreme commander of the armed forces of the country. Our now jobless ex-president, tired of attending ribbon-cutting invitations at school annual functions and science laboratories, is now resorting to unworthy acts of grabbing attention in order to be back in the limelight once again. Our Parlimentarian babus, always happy to oblige, cannot stop singing 'Amen! So be it!'
Friday, July 24, 2009
Yet another Babu Basher!
This blog has been inactive for a while. Now that I am reveling in that beautiful phase of life which is the blogging universe's delight- read unemployment, this blog shall see the light of the day once again. And yes, I am a civilized citizen of this blogging universe and like every good civilized citizen I shall respect the rituals of the blogosphere. So, I commence to do the.back-from-the-dead Shree-Ganesh of this blog with the customary hows and whats and whys.
I used to work as a writer. Yes, I am one of those few neuron-damaged people who think they can make a living out of putting words in perfect grammatical sentences. Having dabbled in a fair bit of freelance writing for some magazines, I worked for a while as a web content developer. I was hired on the proposal that I would be given charge of an orphaned political blog. Instead, I was asked to write ‘well-researched’ articles on ‘Top ten ways to get bitten by a dog’ and ‘Top ten ways to be sad’. I was witnessing commercialization of writing in its crudest form and was being made a victim of the ‘show me the money’ game. Well, the plea of the directors couldn’t be ignored and I decided that charity- (read: not-for-profit writing) was the best way to keep alive the human in me.
So ‘ByMerlin' shall celebrate its return-to-life birthday on 24th July 2009. How does this blog promise to be different from the rest? Well, it doesn’t. Like the others in its realm, it, too, will indulge in self-righteous talk proclaiming the ludicrousness of others while offering no solutions of its own. It will often broach highly controversial subjects, delve into trivial inconsequential details and avoid sensitivity talks. It will call a man a man, a woman a woman and Karan Johar Karan Johar. It will accept only love mail with open hands and trash the rest. And yes, it will make the mistake of revealing that the author is a woman.
I used to work as a writer. Yes, I am one of those few neuron-damaged people who think they can make a living out of putting words in perfect grammatical sentences. Having dabbled in a fair bit of freelance writing for some magazines, I worked for a while as a web content developer. I was hired on the proposal that I would be given charge of an orphaned political blog. Instead, I was asked to write ‘well-researched’ articles on ‘Top ten ways to get bitten by a dog’ and ‘Top ten ways to be sad’. I was witnessing commercialization of writing in its crudest form and was being made a victim of the ‘show me the money’ game. Well, the plea of the directors couldn’t be ignored and I decided that charity- (read: not-for-profit writing) was the best way to keep alive the human in me.
So ‘ByMerlin' shall celebrate its return-to-life birthday on 24th July 2009. How does this blog promise to be different from the rest? Well, it doesn’t. Like the others in its realm, it, too, will indulge in self-righteous talk proclaiming the ludicrousness of others while offering no solutions of its own. It will often broach highly controversial subjects, delve into trivial inconsequential details and avoid sensitivity talks. It will call a man a man, a woman a woman and Karan Johar Karan Johar. It will accept only love mail with open hands and trash the rest. And yes, it will make the mistake of revealing that the author is a woman.
How dare you, you Yanks!
Dr. Abdul Kalam was recently frisked at the Indira Gandhi International Airport on a Newark-bound flight. FYI, Newark is not an indigenous spelling of New York, but a town in the latter. Anyway, the subject of the article is not a certain part of the huge North American country nor the U.S. flight which indulged in this allegedly 'preposterous' gimmick. If it was the airline's intention to grab a little attention though, it surely succeeded.
What IS preposterous about the whole episode,however, is the reaction of our beloved Ex-President. He has demanded an apology from the airline for treating him like a civilian passenger. He was after all the 'ex' de-facto supreme commander of the armed forces of the country. Our now jobless ex-president, tired of attending ribbon-cutting invitations at school annual functions and science laboratories, is now resorting to unworthy acts in order to be back in the limelight once again. Our Parlimentarian babus, always happy to oblige, cannot stop singing 'Amen! So be it!'
What IS preposterous about the whole episode,however, is the reaction of our beloved Ex-President. He has demanded an apology from the airline for treating him like a civilian passenger. He was after all the 'ex' de-facto supreme commander of the armed forces of the country. Our now jobless ex-president, tired of attending ribbon-cutting invitations at school annual functions and science laboratories, is now resorting to unworthy acts in order to be back in the limelight once again. Our Parlimentarian babus, always happy to oblige, cannot stop singing 'Amen! So be it!'
Monday, June 30, 2008
How far have we come?
In the summer of 2006, I had studied a lot of AIR manuals spanning the second half of the last century and carried out a review of the history of the broad direction of the legal system of this country through the reading of a number of publications which found their way into the markets and libraries at the turn of the new millenium.
Nothing can be more frustrating for an individual than the inefficiency of a redressal forum or system and the legal system of this country bestows just this helplessness on its subjects. The following contains one of the most comprehensive and insightful readings I had come across in the course of the two months of my brief tryst with the fundamentals of law in this country. The incredible feature of this reading, apart from its quality is the time of its composition. Drafted and published at a time very close to the formation of the constitution, it exhibits a rare clarity defining the purpose and the requisite fundamentals behind the execution of law. As one progresses through the script, one realises its ever growing relevance in modern day life in this country and makes one wonder just how far have we come in the last 60 odd years?
Excerpts from the speech delivered at the inaugural meeting of the Legal Study Circle of the Calcutta Small Causes COURT Club on the 10th of march, 1951 under the presidentship of Sir Arthur Trevor Harries, Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court and in the presence of H. E. Dr. Kailash nath Katju, Governor of W. Bengal:
The March of Statutory Laws in IndiaThe law dominates the whole of life. Every activity is subject to legal regulation, from personal habits to the ways of earning one’s living. The humblest man cannot pass through life without coming into contact with the machinery of the law. Whether you are a businessman, a labourer, an agriculturist, a landlord or a tenant you are coming up against the law at every turn. The enormous strides in statutory laws today are not necessarily an indication in the stride of national development. India with her teeming millions most of whom are illiterate and disorganized, presents a problem which raises the fundamental issue how far legislation and statute can be made the foundation and basis of nation building.
The ideal is and the practice should be the less the laws the better for the country and its citizens. The reason for this is that if you make the laws too numerous and too complex touching men’s life at every conceivable point, there are bound to be in the very nature of things many breaches of such laws both conscious and unconscious and such breaches are apt to be too frequent.
Life is greater than law. Life will express itself through laws if possible, but without laws if compliance with them is made impossible. That is a truth very often ignored. Also numerous and frequent breaches of law which are difficult to comply with have the tendency to convert the state into a punitive institution. The ideal of a welfare state legislating for the good of its citizens in every sphere of life has to steer carefully enough to avoid the Scylla of public disrespect and the Charybdis of punitive tyranny.
Legislation like any other human act and perhaps more than any other requires thoughtful planning. The legislatures must have in view sufficiently clear in their minds the objective that they intend to reach. Each and every legislation that they put on the statute book must then be so directed as to be in aid of that main objective. Random legislation will always defeat its own purpose. Also, legislation is not like the clothes to be put on casually and taken off equally casually but is intended to be the very sinews and arteries of orderly life and existence. It is not a practical proposition for any country through means of legislation to achieve at the same time all and every conceivable reform-industrial reform, labour reform, social reform, political reform, religious reform, and moral reform. A nation cannot be reformed by laws. The reform must well from within and must be part of the life of people.
Laws today passed by the legislatures are frittered away in conflicting tendencies. The present spectacle is like that of a high powered motor car whose gear is on the neutral but whose accelerator is being pressed hard in every manner so that the engine is constantly running out but there is no movement. Legislation is not normally an instrument for reform but is only one for registering a certain stage of public opinion already reached. If the vacuum between public opinion and legislation is great then the laws and the people do not react on one another.
Democracy is said to be the government of the common man but it is not recognized that legislation is not the job of the amateur politician. Legislation has always been a very skilled and technical work and more so in the growing complexities of modern life. Constant amendments raise difficult and sometimes impossible problems of construction where justice is defeated and adjudication becomes a farce. The sine qua non of good sound legislation is good careful draftsmanship. The existing system and principle in drafting statutes require radical improvement. Statute drafting in India should be the care and job of individuals specially trained for the work.
Federal democracy under the written constitution like any other form of democracy depends for its very existence on the rule of law. The rule of law must be clear and well defined. A nation that does not know how to respect the rule of law and the judiciary as its final interpreter is a nation that is not fit for the democratic way of life.
- delivered by Mr. Justice P B Mukharji of the Calcutta High Court.
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