Jay Leno cracks a joke on the ‘Golden Temple’ on his TV show in US, and Sikhs are upset, and demand an apology. It was from this same temple when Sikh militants staged their demand for an independent state, Khalistan, which did cost the life of Indira Gandhi then Prime Minister of India. In retaliation to her assassination hundreds of innocent Sikhs were killed, with Amitabh Bacchan justifying and fanning the murderous frenzy seeking blood for blood in revenge. For this who, do we ask for an apology, and who would apologize to whom?

US on the other hand have even gone on record to defend Jay Leno under its constitutional rights of ‘free speech’. Just few days ago an Indian lady named Lyvita Gomes dies in US, due to starvation in Lake County Jail. Her death was not even notified to her kin in India. Who we ask an apology from for her death? Is such a death also defended under US constitutional rights? Is India only seeking apologies for jokes made on India from foreign shores, and deaths of Indians over there do not matter?

BBC TV show depicts India in derogatory poor light on its program ‘Top Gear’. Indian diplomacy as always gets into ‘Top Gear’ seeking an apology as the program insulted the whole society, culture and people.  Indian High Commission in London complained that the show was “offensive” and had “toilet humor”. It was only humor an in reality in Bombay anyone can squat anywhere on the railway tracks and take a dump. If you want to urinate you just find the nearest wall or a bush, and just take leak. Who will apologize to whom for this “toilet reality”?

A cartoon in a Danish Newspaper depicts Prophet Mohammed, and there is hysteria in India. Salman Rushdie writes the ‘Satanic Verses’ and there is a hue and cry over it in India. Some Russian groups raise an issue over Bhagvad Gita, and the Indian Government machinery gets into diplomacy to resolve the matter. In India if youngsters want to celebrate Valentine’s Day they get roughed up, as it is branded as Western evil cultural influence, and if at the same Westerners have a problem with our culture and beliefs we have a problem. Now who is going to apologise to who for this?

Indian students in US are made to wear tracking devices on their foot like criminals for visa violation; Indian students are killed in Australia, Indian Fishermen and caught by Pakistani and Sri-Lankans are put in inhuman conditions in jail and no one is making a scene like what is being done for some as insignificant as Sulman Rushdie. Indian criminals are calling the shots from foreign shores and no one is issuing ‘fatwas’ to kill them. Foreign terrorists come and blow up Bombay city are lodged in special cells with special treatment given and no one is having an issue, or demanding apology. Again who is going to ask whom an apology?

Indian movies can show Westerners in poor light and one movie even went to the extent of showing the Queen gassed at an event with Nitrus Oxide (laughing gas), and she rolling on the floor with laughter, and we enjoyed it. Pakistan bashing in nothing new our movies, and no one asked us for an apology, then what are we asking for one. Instead of defending our culture and religious beliefs by satirical jokes by foreign media, and seeking an apology, let us look at the reality in our country and feel sorry for ourselves.

Once again another opportunity of investment in thwarted under the pretentious claim of protecting jobs. So if Foreign Direct Investment in retailing would affect jobs and small time traders, why was the same yard stick not used for a KFC, McDonald, Pizza Hut, Coca-Cola, Pepsi or foreign designer clothing? Why not for everything of foreign origin?

If a Wal Mart comes to India, the fear is that they could source produce directly from farmers and sell at lower rates. Can this not be done by Reliance, Tata or a Godrej? Then what happens? Will prices be better for the farmers? Will they not use the same strategy of killing small time traders with cheaper prices, or hoard produce and sell later at higher prices, or they being Indian companies will they be doing charity?

Tatas trying to set up a car manufacturing plant in Singur in Bengal is made to shut shop, and they have to then set it up in Gujarat. So even creating jobs is a problem. Indian IT companies Bangaloring jobs from US and Europe is fine, and it is even finer the workers paid peanuts and the employers rake in millions, but if a foreign company wants to do business in India is bad.

Indian consumer getting products cheap is bad, as jobs and small businesses have to be protected.  Why can’t India not compete and need to be always protected? Is it really protection or a government going on its knees to stay in power, as it is bullied by a Mamta Banerjee who can topple it? This was the same Mamta Banerjee who threw Tatas out of Singur, and the same Mamta Banerjee who made a mess of the railways when in power, and was the running the Railway Ministry from Calcutta instead of the Centre in Delhi.

Food price are anyways skyrocketing, is it because MNC’s are in retailing?  If a FDI in retailing can bring prices down it is bad. If the fear is that MNCs will hike prices after killing the corner stores, then why not regulate food prices? Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar was recently a slap gate victim in Delhi for the rice in food prices. With that what happens, security for politicians is demanded to be increased. At the same time security for food prices is not a concern.

Security for the common man is the least concern when political parties go on a rampage and indulge in vandalism under the pretext of rising prices, or sectarian attacks on people from other state working in another state, for example in Maharashtra. If a common man wants to protest peacefully their protests are attacked like what happened to Baba Ramdeo or permission for a fast denied to Anna Hazare, at the same time political parties need no permission to get on the streets and create mayhem.

So it is not just FDI that is not allowed, but even raising your voice to protest is not allowed. Privatization and globalization is only way out for an economy to improve. Foreign investment is allowed in the stock market, then why not in common market?

Foreign Direct Investment in retailing cannot be worse than the Foreign Direct Intervention by an Italian who is running a government of puppets.

First it was raising the age bar, for drinking from 18 to 25 in Maharashtra. No logical conclusions and explanations, and is made a rule as some idiots of moral brigadiers in the government feels so. It can’t be moral because no one in the government has any moral values.  It is just opening more avenues for corruption. To make it even easier for more corruption now even if you are above 25 you still need a license to drink. How would a license help you to drink responsibly?

A license to drive is required, as it needs specific skills. What skills do a license to drink offer? If  it is to earn revenue then tax alcohol even more higher, which is anyways taxed beyond a common man’s reach, or make it like Gujarat a ‘dry state’. If morality is the concern then why only Gujarat; every Indian should be made morally a better citizen. Then are the alleged evils of drinking and driving, or crime associated with drinking. Godhra carnage in Gujarat had nothing to do with drinking, but one Narendra Modi who was drunk and intoxicated in power had thousands killed in the riots. Maybe he had a license to kill.

The weirdest is issuing ‘one day drinking permits’. So how does one day qualify a person to drink on ‘one day’ and other days he cannot. Why create a maze for breeding corruption. If 25 years of age is decided as an eligible age to drink, why add a license over it. Maximum should be proof of age which can be asked for. Then if responsibility to drink can be achieved only at the age of 25, then so should be age for marriage and voting. If a person can vote at the age of 18 and can decide responsibly on who should run the country, then the person is more than capable to know how to drink responsibility.

If morality is again an issue, then contraceptives should be dispensed to only people who have a license or who are married, and should be aged 25 and above. So Chemist shops should be told to issue ‘one day license’. So this could be additional revenue issuing a license to have sex. Then the same should apply for smoking, dancing, singing, seeing movies, etc. If a movie is rated A, then adults who go to watch should have a license.

The craziest and most draconian of the law is the bar premises you’re drinking must have all its licenses in place, for you could be jailed even if the bar has lapsed in the observance of rules. How much more weird could it get? For transporting alcohol you should have a license. Then make it mandatory for all the commuters in any form of transport including public transport to have a license, as if a bar runs illegally the people patronizing it are held it guilty. So if a person is transporting alcohol does not have a license then all who are travelling with the person are also guilty. Then it should be mandatory when you get a license to drive, you should also get a license to drink, so if a commuter is transporting alcohol the driver is also licensed to transport the commuter………or better still license to drink and drive.

Maharashtra is the only state where a person can buy only two bottles of 750 ml liquor every week. What is the logic? If you want to make revenue then let a person buy any amount they want. Maybe the aim of the government could be to save on water resources which is a scarcity, then the rule should apply for soft drinks, and that too should be licensed. Make the age limit to drink soft drinks, also 25 years. Since aerated drinks contain harmful chemicals the person should reach a mature age to know about it, and the government feels a person is mature at the age of 25.

Bar dancers are resorting to prostitution as ‘dance bars’ have been made illegal. So if dancing to entertain is illegal, then any form of entertainment should be illegal. The government instead of killing gangsters, and terrorism, is killing the right of a citizen to be happy with a license to chill.

No other country in the world can match Indians in their fervor of prayers and traditions. Then within the myriad of religions and traditions is the interaction of faith, with people of one faith visiting shrines of other faith which transcends above religions and rituals. This strength of social harmony defies the logic of spiritual leaders and politicians who fear it. The divisions of religions and fabricating flaws in other’s religions are what survival for them is.

Then there are the weak in their faith who want to try another God because their God is not answering their prayers, or people going to a shrine of their faith in faraway places as if God who resides in the shrine in their neighborhood or the altars in their home cease to exist. The basic teaching that God resides in every human being, is losing its value and virtue and getting shrouded with rituals and traditions.

So when you have a Anna Hazare that mobilizes a nation to fight corruption it connects deeper and stronger than a call for religion and its rituals. It connects with neighboring Pakistan who we love to consider as our enemy, and we have people there visiting Anna Hazare to understand and emulate his fight in Pakistan. The same goes with Mother Theresa who works of charity and humanity were not restricted to a ‘gated community’ of religion. Her inspiration could be religion but her work was above its rituals, and reached out to humanity. The list of examples can be endless, but what is limiting us to do the same is the corruption of our souls and conscience.

Articles such a death of a new born child and the parents donating the eyes of the child, acts of bravery to save lives; acts of honesty where a poor driver returns a bag of a passenger who forgot it in his taxi and it contained diamonds and jewels; touch our hearts with joy of the existence of human values and again list of humanity can be endless. What is limiting is the narrowness of our minds with ambition and success. The desire to win and succeed at any cost is what creates the ugly world we are now living and experiencing. A simple act of donating eyes after death is not done due to our selfishness. If we cannot be generous even after death, what generosity can we practice when alive? Which God are we trying to please when we cannot stir the God is us?

We then blame the politicians for the mess. What they are doing is exactly what we are doing. They too want to succeed, they too want to acquire wealth, they just want about anything and everything we want. So why complain? Where does this logic or doctrine come about that politicians are there to do good for their people; religious heads are there to lead people of their faith towards good; municipal officials are there to serve us. When the fact is we don’t want to good or desire good of our neighbor or society. We do wrong in our moral lives and want religious head to lead us to good, we litter the streets and throw garbage around and think it is the job of the Municipality to keep the streets clean.

We all like to believe that we are so spotlessly clean, that we don’t cheat, we don’t harm, and we don’t do evil. All of this could be true, but the problem is that we turn a blind eye towards people who cheat and people who get cheated, we thank God that we are not victims of harm and don’t do a thing to report the one who has harmed or help the one subjected to harm, we don’t do evil but fear the ones who do it.

The worst form of corruption is not being involved in it, but knowing about it and not doing anything about it. Still shamelessly we pray to God and appease him with rituals and offerings, and tell Him that he almighty and all powerful and fear human beings that do wrong, and stay contended that we don’t do the bad. Religion is standing up against the bad and evil and not just standing before God.

Anna Hazare has decided to go forward with his fast on 16^th Aug 2011, crusading his campaign and movement against corruption and implementation of the ‘Lok Pal’ bill. Majority of Indians (including me) love someone doing the dirty work and we will wait and watch. If Anna Hazare succeeds in his movement which is remote, many will facilitate Anna, and it will be soon forgotten. If it does not, which is highly possible, and there is police atrocities, media will benefit either ways with its breaking news and raking in the moolah with ad revenues.

If corruption needs to be reduced, as it can never be eradicated, then we need to think on our education system. The system is designed to build achievers and success, and not character. Even achievement and success is encouraged to be got by any means, even foul. There are no moral values in the education system. Instead rules are dictated that students should stand and sing the national anthem, viewers going for a movie should stand sing the national anthem before the movies begins. No one is educated to stand for the country.

Surprised to see NRI’s (Not Really Indians) showing solidarity with Anna Hazare by congregating outside the UN Headquarters in New York. How many of these allegedly patriotic Indians will fly down and support Anna Hazare in his movement? Thousands of Indian Diaspora will congregate for the ‘Pravas Bharati Divas’ meetings in India, wish even a handful of them could come and fast with Anna Hazare.  Not a single one will be there, as there are no cocktails served at the end of it.

The Indian Diaspora are the same who would be referring to India as a ‘shit hole’, and complain how bad India is, and how its infrastructure sucks. Well now there is someone who is fighting to building it, why not come down and invest with your courage and love for the Mother Land, instead visit only to see how investments could be made to multiply fortunes.

Anna wants a place to stage his fast, but the governing party will use the police institution and avoid giving permission, or will dictate that his fast should be only for three days. Surprisingly lands are encroached by slums and there is place for that. Buildings like Adarsh are constructed illegally and there is place for that. There is place for corrupt leaders statues or Samadhi to be erected, but no place for a person to exercise his fundamental right to protest.

Suddenly Anna Hazare’s records are checked to see if any fault could be leveraged to show his intentions as doubtful. When Baba Ramdeo went on a fast, his assets and source of his million dollar empire are probed. Was this all sudden revelation when they decided to go on a fast? How come no politician’s assets and wealth have been probed? How come they all become rich after coming to power?

It’s time we stir our consciousness, which is numb or dead to the India outside us. It’s time we fast forwarded our thoughts and ideas, as else it would be too late and many Anna Hazare’s may come and just die of a fast. Why not support someone desiring a fast success of the nation, or we prefer a slow death with corruption? The choice is ours.

Very soon the Nursery Rhyme London Bridge, would be sung as ‘London Bridge is burning down’. A colonial power intoxicated by its past of ruling the world, looting wealth from its colonies, to the extent even the Royalty’s crown has the Kohinoor diamond robbed from India; is today burning.

A power that colonized most of the world now regaled to a piece of land which boasted that the sun never sets on the British Empire, does not even have decent sunshine. A nation that was driven out from many countries after more than hundred years of evil ruling is today facing its own homes and businesses burnt.  A power that ensured nations stayed in disharmony after they with their divide and rule policy, is today divided by Immigrants who are larger than the ethnic population of UK.

A nation that prided itself with the title of ‘Great Britain’, has now realized how small and vulnerable they are. A nation known as United Kingdom, is crying for unity. Has a monarchy which is tainted with infidelity, a past where the kids who are today adults used to revel in pubs and create a ruckus, gets one wondering is this Royalty and class? A Royalty like Lady Diana pregnant with an Arab’s child and gets killed for that, and covered up as an accident because of paparazzi. A democracy challenged regularly, by religious fanaticism, and immigrant ideology.

They prided their colonial ability, today they are colonized by Immigrants, many of them from the countries they once occupied. Their businesses are getting colonized by countries like India which has taken over their national pride of business houses like Jaguar and Land Rover. An Indian Immigrant holds the title of being the richest in UK. Their government now having Immigrants in it, and won’t be too long in the future where a person of Immigrant descant will be ruling the country. Even their language is today better spoken by Indians.

The same goes with the United States of America, which would soon have to rename itself as the ‘Devastated States of America’. A nation whose economy that was fuelled by greed, production of weapons and selling it to countries that were war torn and financial institutions that lacked ethics. A country that cannot be trusted for its policies and intentions as it engaged with Iraq during its war with Iran and then turn against Iran. Engaged with Al-Qaeda during its war with Russia and then turn against them as they refused to be dictated by US. Arm Pakistan to the teeth and keep the region always in a state of war, and then cuts of aid to Pakistan as it today it is a threat to US by it offering safe heavens to terrorists. Their currency which states in God we trust, but the problem is even God cannot trust them.

Today the United States ratings are downgraded by an Institution that is based out of there. The decision to downgrade was an unprecedented move was taken under the leadership of Deven Sharma an Indian Immigrant. The downgrading confirms US has no Standard and is going to be poor, and the rating Institution coincidentally is Standard and Poor’s. The fact that US was weeks away from pulling the plug on payments that they are obliged too, shows how poor they are. This included salaries to government employees and even soldiers fighting wars in countries they never wanted to be in the first place.

With these super powers tumbling down, there would be small hiccups, maybe a recession, but it’s not going to be end of the world. It just could be a new beginning of new world powers like Brazil, India, China, etc. This could be a good lesson for the new world powers, to have more human values and genuine trust and faith in God when they will be prosperous as what goes round, comes around.