Damn Commies, and other Left-Wing Idiots
Before i get started, a small complaint: if you had an opinion on any of my posts, any kinda opinion whatsoever, comment on the blogspot...not just to my face. it's disappointing to see just one or two comments for any of your posts. on that note, allow me to suggest an excellent blog, one which will become quite prolific in the days to come: http://itsmedrdre.blogspot.com/
Also, check out newsweek's latest cover story: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11571348/site/newsweek/
its' about asia's second rising superpower (no prizes for guessing which nation i'm talking about.) real inspirational stuff for anyone who cares even a smidge about India.
I keep bitching about Indian communists, much as I'm about to tonite, but it's not my fault: They're just so full of shit. Take for example their desire to use the Iran issue to play vote-bank politics, their silence on muslim violence in the aftermath of the Danish cartoons, but what really takes the cake is their advocacy of non-alignment, and their paranoia of the US.
Fareed Zakaria says that India is probably the most pro-American country in the world, after America itself, quoting a survey that shows that 71% of all Indians view the US favourably. Speaking on behalf of these 71%, let me send a message to India's commies: Go and get mental help, and in keeping in line with your philosophy, the rest of us will 'subsidise' your treatment. :)) Foreign policy must always be based on self-interest, not morality. If we had kept this lesson in mind, Kashmir would never have been referred to the UN in 1948, and we wouldn't have a 'Kashmir issue' today. India wouldn't have allowed filthy words like 'Third world solidarity', 'Non-alignnment', 'Disarmament' to drop from its tongue, and wouldn't have come across as the nation of fools that we proved ourselves to be. But I digress, returning to the present, the need of the hour is to grasp this one moment we have been given, to return to the glory of our halcyon days. We must align ourselves with the US, and take all that they have to offer. If they want us to be a counter-weight to China, that's a fantastic idea! I'm not talking about sub-ordinating ourselves or our interests, but we must draw a line between protectionism, paranoia and isolationism on the one hand, and sovereignity and self-interest on the other. The communists spout their bullshit because the world as it is today scares them. And they are afraid of playing the role of a Superpower, in fact they're afraid of playing any other role than that of beggar, because that's all they're used to. And just because these misfits happen to be a part of government, we must not let them hijack our future. (What can we do? Vote for the BJP the next time, even if you think they're 'communal'. Better than being ruled by an italian, or worse yet, being a communist). And WE MUST REFORM. Cut taxes, make the whole process easier. (Music to your ears, right?) But at the same time, downsize the government. Change labour laws, and allow companies to fire people at well. (Allow governments too, come to think of it). Cut subsidies. Get rid of idiocies like free power and controlled petrol prices. Set a fixed 4 or five year term for all state and central governments, and if neccessary, incorporate a provision for recall elections. Defang the damn beauracracy. Get rid of all the red tape in the country. Don't be pro-poor, concentrate on elevating the poor above the poverty line. Don't dole out money to villages, use it to construct better roads and facilities, so that people might actually invest in those villages, and give their inhabitants a source of employment. Look at the obvious truth: The state has no business running or owning businesses. But this is what the government must do. What about us? At the expense of sounding pedantic, those of us emigrating or intending to, must always remember to give back. Not neccessarily come back, but give back.
Of course, the beauty is, this government has been almost the same as the BJP one, except for a slightly enhanced propensity to dole out money to bums. But other than that, in areas of foreign policy, economic reform, national security, it's pretty much the same thing. If only the left could open it's eyes for a second to look at the import of this: It's become irrelevant, whether in or out of power. Except for West Bengal.
Also, check out newsweek's latest cover story: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11571348/site/newsweek/
its' about asia's second rising superpower (no prizes for guessing which nation i'm talking about.) real inspirational stuff for anyone who cares even a smidge about India.
I keep bitching about Indian communists, much as I'm about to tonite, but it's not my fault: They're just so full of shit. Take for example their desire to use the Iran issue to play vote-bank politics, their silence on muslim violence in the aftermath of the Danish cartoons, but what really takes the cake is their advocacy of non-alignment, and their paranoia of the US.
Fareed Zakaria says that India is probably the most pro-American country in the world, after America itself, quoting a survey that shows that 71% of all Indians view the US favourably. Speaking on behalf of these 71%, let me send a message to India's commies: Go and get mental help, and in keeping in line with your philosophy, the rest of us will 'subsidise' your treatment. :)) Foreign policy must always be based on self-interest, not morality. If we had kept this lesson in mind, Kashmir would never have been referred to the UN in 1948, and we wouldn't have a 'Kashmir issue' today. India wouldn't have allowed filthy words like 'Third world solidarity', 'Non-alignnment', 'Disarmament' to drop from its tongue, and wouldn't have come across as the nation of fools that we proved ourselves to be. But I digress, returning to the present, the need of the hour is to grasp this one moment we have been given, to return to the glory of our halcyon days. We must align ourselves with the US, and take all that they have to offer. If they want us to be a counter-weight to China, that's a fantastic idea! I'm not talking about sub-ordinating ourselves or our interests, but we must draw a line between protectionism, paranoia and isolationism on the one hand, and sovereignity and self-interest on the other. The communists spout their bullshit because the world as it is today scares them. And they are afraid of playing the role of a Superpower, in fact they're afraid of playing any other role than that of beggar, because that's all they're used to. And just because these misfits happen to be a part of government, we must not let them hijack our future. (What can we do? Vote for the BJP the next time, even if you think they're 'communal'. Better than being ruled by an italian, or worse yet, being a communist). And WE MUST REFORM. Cut taxes, make the whole process easier. (Music to your ears, right?) But at the same time, downsize the government. Change labour laws, and allow companies to fire people at well. (Allow governments too, come to think of it). Cut subsidies. Get rid of idiocies like free power and controlled petrol prices. Set a fixed 4 or five year term for all state and central governments, and if neccessary, incorporate a provision for recall elections. Defang the damn beauracracy. Get rid of all the red tape in the country. Don't be pro-poor, concentrate on elevating the poor above the poverty line. Don't dole out money to villages, use it to construct better roads and facilities, so that people might actually invest in those villages, and give their inhabitants a source of employment. Look at the obvious truth: The state has no business running or owning businesses. But this is what the government must do. What about us? At the expense of sounding pedantic, those of us emigrating or intending to, must always remember to give back. Not neccessarily come back, but give back.
Of course, the beauty is, this government has been almost the same as the BJP one, except for a slightly enhanced propensity to dole out money to bums. But other than that, in areas of foreign policy, economic reform, national security, it's pretty much the same thing. If only the left could open it's eyes for a second to look at the import of this: It's become irrelevant, whether in or out of power. Except for West Bengal.
posted by Rushin at 4:01 AM
13 Comments:
gud tht u have raised this thing coz jus came across a report on CNN IBN tht Leftist using Bloggers to Protest Dubya... WOW
Well, I would certainly like to debate on this issue face to face.As much as I hate communists, I do strongly believe that you must have some communist elements in your government to maintain the economical balance.That 'some' has to be a minority though.The current situation implies that UPA has to forcefully agree with the communists which is unfortunate.
The first half of the blog was good but second half is just 'easier said than done' thing. Also, its quite easy for someone like you who has all the ammenities at his will, to comment that companies should have a freedom to throw people at will.But think of it from the person's point of view.As a government you have to think of the 4th class as they are the people who can go to any extent for their bread and butter.Today, 300 million Indians have their income less than $2 a day.Now,if you take away even that then they will take the gun which happened in Afganistha.India is shining but only in some parts.The IT and engg. sector is a significant minority which does raise a lot of capital.But the point is that capital is distributed amongst a very limited part of the population and when you run a govt. you can't just make poor even poorer.
Also, I have read that whole article a few days back and I believe that its written by too much of american point of view, so I wouldn't buy it.
think its good to look at the country from an outside point of view....gives a better idea of our flaws
ya, but our society is too complex to be understood so easily. we have so many cast/religion/education barriers that actually it becomes extremely difficult to execute anything.
Also, UPA is not exactly like NDA simply because NDA used to be called as the Hindu Nationalist party outside.It had that non-secular colour with it.whether the italian rule is right or not is an all together different issue but at least UPA has a very secular image outside.since the independence, congress has had the image of being goody-goody...it didn't really make us grow exponentially..but they did maintain the communal harmony to a great extent.India is not china and will never be like China.I gues fine the way we are.We don't really need an outsider to poke his nose in country, be a big brother and give piece of crap.We are developing man and we will develop..
hi reference in reference to aditya i dont think tht my fellow blogger wants the poor to be poor actually he has made a valid pt of takin them above poverty line and jus not treat them as vote bank and utter rank shit as "congress kaa haath aam aadmi ke saath" the thing is tht there is no genuine attempt to make the aam aadmi the khaas aadmi... one more thing coming back to the red brigade wht do they do except protest??? they want a say in the govt bt they dont want to be in the govt?? and thn they jus threaten i guess no one takes them seriously not even the softy manmohan... and tlkin abt economy of our country believe me if leftist had there way in it thn yaa i guess one thing cld be served tht the 300 million u are tlkin abt get more money thn 2$ per day bt it wont get more thn 4$ also.. we need wealth and for tht we cant jus oppose investments in all forms... and ya to add to it the Red brigade is FULL OF DOUBLE stanDARDS.. whts rite in WB is wrong in Centre... if this is not Vote Bank shit thn wht IT IS?? i hope u clarify and rectify my doubts
the newsweek article is not a gospel on india, but it does bring up a few pitfalls that we need to keep in mind, pitfalls which are only visible from an objective point of view. that's my point. and look, i'm not ultra right, i'm just saying the mainstream needs to shift more to the right, than it is right now. or at the very least, the right has to be seen by people as a credible alternative to the centre-left, not a a bunch of hindu nationalist bulldogs.
hi reference in reference to aditya i dont think tht my fellow blogger wants the poor to be poor actually he has made a valid pt of takin them above poverty line and jus not treat them as vote bank and utter rank shit as "congress kaa haath aam aadmi ke saath" the thing is tht there is no genuine attempt to make the aam aadmi the khaas aadmi... one more thing coming back to the red brigade wht do they do except protest??? they want a say in the govt bt they dont want to be in the govt?? and thn they jus threaten i guess no one takes them seriously not even the softy manmohan... and tlkin abt economy of our country believe me if leftist had there way in it thn yaa i guess one thing cld be served tht the 300 million u are tlkin abt get more money thn 2$ per day bt it wont get more thn 4$ also.. we need wealth and for tht we cant jus oppose investments in all forms... and ya to add to it the Red brigade is FULL OF DOUBLE stanDARDS.. whts rite in WB is wrong in Centre... if this is not Vote Bank shit thn wht IT IS?? i hope u clarify and rectify my doubts
@drdre - leftists in India definitely do not function properly but the point is it is extremely easy for us to sit in the room and say that someone should be fired etc.the reason why we need leftist element is because without them there would be a few giants who would own everything.e.g.US also has some leftist elements in the govt.they curbed the growth of microsoft.in the past (i don't recall the name of the company) was becoming too strong and they took unscrupulous measures to divide them.look at ambanis, they had begun to take over everything. they had gone on top of people like pramod mahajan.when industrialists become bigger than the govt. the 4th class is never benefitted.
the basic point is it is very easy for people like us to sit in ac rooms and comment on these issues.the ground reality is very different.majority of the uneducated /oppressed class has a struggle for life.bjp unfortunately did not realize this and they further divided the society.congress ,no matter how badly it functions, give a sense of security for almost all the casts and sub-castes. obviously, i don't disagree with the idea of bringing poorer above the poverty line but my point is easier said than done.our society is too complex and only a few minority of people can think of all these issues from a broader perspective.at every level there's a struggle and hence actually implementing any good project becomes really difficult.
bjp's mistake was they never understood this society.they helped the middle class a lot and in the end middle class ditched them by enjoying holiday at hill stations on a hot summer day.UPA's mistake is they are bound to be driven by the communists as they have something like 40 seats if I am not mistaken.also, the ideas like bringing poor over the poverty line will take at least 15-20 years to materialize.now, the anti incumbancy amongst the 4th class is so strong that no govt. can take the "risk" of long term planning which may not show its results with an immediate effect.but still we hit a gdp of 8%.we hit the sensex of 10K...again the reflection of sensex in indian economy is debatable but i would consider it to be one of the factors.and its all despite the communists.also, communists will ensure that the repeat of reliance - mtnl type chaos doesn't happen again.but overdoes of leftists creates WB which is what we don't want.
one Q aditya let me jus cut copy paste whtever u have written...
"Also, UPA is not exactly like NDA simply because NDA used to be called as the Hindu Nationalist party outside.It had that non-secular colour with it.whether the italian rule is right or not is an all together different issue but at least UPA has a very secular image outside."
"I gues fine the way we are.We don't really need an outsider to poke his nose in country, be a big brother and give piece of crap.We are developing man and we will develop.. "
if this is the way it shld be and i agree we dont need a brother or a godfather thn y do we care abt the outside image of NDA coz i think its way better thn the remote controlled VOTE bank ( sorry "SECULAR" ) pASTA UPA...
and ya now tht ones tlkin abt elections and the middle class ditching the NDA i dont knw bt i think they got there Poll Mix wrong wit Jaya in TN they got swept there all 39 seats.. again TDP coming up with only 5 seats... and ya its better to be frank and work for a particular class... not tht they didnt do anything for the "4th Class" i guess didnt highlight it and jus went to India Shining... The BSP - Bijli Sadak Paani which the NDA coined got lost and thts where they lost the elections... one more thing i dont knw how safe teh castes and sub-castes u are tlkin abt feel safe under the UPA... and abt the communal thing i guess u have to see it and face it to believe it and u knw precisely the same thing easier to sit in some other part of the country and say tht whtever happened in GUjarat was shameful.. it is shameful no DOUBT bt please dont only see one side of the story... and ya getting back to the REDS ( feel pathetic coz i luv liverpool and man u these ppl - comm - have made red pathetic ) if they are so much for the "truth" and "right" i think the democracy has been killed enuf times under congress's Pasta Regime i need not remind jharkhand goa and bihar... and not to mention MR Q case.. dont u think tht congress is jus being as u said 2 goody goody and for its own case and misleading the country???
are i don't totally disagree with whatever u or rushin have said.all i wanted to say was, our society is too complex to manage/understand.hence our achievements can not really be quantified or compared in nos.
we should not belittle our progress.it could definitely have been better but the things in reality become very difficult to execute.
democracy needs time to succeed.
As much as I hate the commies but I hardly find this post of yours reasonable . Little of it has got to do with lines like "Better than being ruled by an italian" which I must say are dissapointing .
But important point is that India is growing despite that we are pseudo-ruled by the commies. As also you have noted that the congress is just another BJP when it comes to all the policies. We are past the phase wherein a new govt results in a totally new foreign policy , reforms agenda etc. Reforms have become "irreversible". It hardly matters who remains in power now . The private sector is now too strong for the govt to do anything that would be a roadblock for the nation's growth.For eg: take the telecom sector , BSNL(public sector) is at the recieving end of most of the new policies which the govt has had to implement to ensure the telecom boom continues.
Coming to the commies , surprisingly most of the foreign investment , privatisation over the past year have happened in our dear bengal. While i guess we have more to thank Mr. Bhattacharya than the CPI's & M's for this trend. So we can assume that the verbal ramblings of these parties against anything american and pro-reforms is just a facade to keep the unions smiling and the vote bank intact while their own govt opens arms to the same. While depressing enough for a normal person this is just normal politics. BJP is not going to forego RAM and the commies thr red flags.
P.S. i was not patient enough to read the other comments so my point cud have already been made here
Well, the i'd like to present a counter argument to one of the points that you make in your blog. You obviously seem to believe that India shouldnt mind acting as a counter-balancing force to China if it serves its long term strategic interests. Whether USA will drive a hard bargain over the nuke deal still remains to be seen but a section of commentators believe that the deal is part of its larger design for balancing the power equations in the region.
A similar exercise was undertaken a few decades back when the US decided to support Pak with the intention of keeping India embroiled with the task to fighting a nagging neighbour and retarding its growth, possibly fracturing it from within-aims in which it partially succeeded. In fact, in many ways the fiscal crisis of 1991 forced India to take stock of the situation anew. It had to refresh its economic and geo-political thinking. One needs to clarify here that there were other Cold-War era considerations behind the US backing Pak at that time, considerations that do not hold true in the current world order.
But what did the exercise achieve for Pakistan? A delayed shipment of F-16s, a resident army of jehadis that can as happily train its guns on the Pakistanis as it trains them on Kashmiris and Indians, a retarding economy and bad structural-regulatory framework for its country which were a direct fall out of their US-aided extreme obsession with India.
Does India want to go that way?
Although at the outset I must recognise the fundamental differences in the bargaining position of the two countries. Pak was a beggar that decided to fight for the US and got a few million dollar worth of crumbs thrown its way. India does not need that. It is big, it is booming and it will remain so for a considerable period of time in the future.
The geo-political situation of India and Pak are fundamentally different.
Pak was a nobody on the world stage untill it was catapultaed into the first nuclear Islamic state under the auspicies of the US. India has achieved that and much much more without selling out to any foreign power. Even the decades-long collaboration with the erstwhile USSR wasnt close to the Pak-US nexus.
This begs a question: what does India stand to gain out of being US' foil against China? Out of purely sefl-serving interests, what does our country have to gain from it? NOTHING
On the one hand we have been making steady head-away on the issue of delineating our eastern borders with the Chinese and on the other hand we are actually considering becoming a US crony? Our formidable economic and political standing in the South Asian region and the whole world commands that we behave in a slightly more independent fashion.
India stands to gain much more by joining hands with China on the economic front. History is witness to several instances where economic cosiderations force a compromise on hollow issues such as determing who owns a few hundred acres of land in Arunachal Pradesh and so on. Ultimately people want to be healthy, wealthy and safe. It is reasonable to assume that if people see these things improving all other things would gradually fade in comparison.
Therefore, I believe that India should not and will not play the role of a foil for the US, the role of a "counter-balancing" force in the South Asian region.
And to my mind the cautious approach and the hard bargaining done by the Indians esp. in the nuke dela issue are indicative of this no-nonsense position adopted by India.
Also, do visit http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/03/10/opinion/
edkiss.php
for a more insightful analysis of the emerging Indo-US relations. Coming from Henry Kissinger it was quite a pleasant surprise!
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