26/11, Is war a solution ?

Indians have been known to be peace loving people for a long time. We Indians always take pride with the great things India has done in the past like “the invention of the numerical zero and the mathematical pie” and also “that India has never invaded or attacked any country” but things have changed after 26/11 Mumbai attacks.

Time has been running out for India as we could not achieve anything in the last few attacks across India. This time also the government went ahead with the same process of providing evidence to Pakistan about its involvement and Pakistan clearly rejecting the same. This time around the only thing which stood apart from the previous attacks was the public anger against the terrorist who attacked Mumbai and the government and the politician’s for not being effective. Even an online poll conducted by one of the leading newspaper of Pakistan the “DAWN” clearly mentions that India’s action after 26/11 against terrorist was not effective. Every Indian needed action against Pakistan the main perpetrator’s of the terrorist attack on Mumbai, across the nation rallies were held by all walks of people blaming the politicians for not doing enough, especially the ruling Congress government. Even celebrities like Simi Garewal wants action against Pakistan an attack similar to what US did in Afghanistan after 9/11, she also went on to say that US was safe and not a single terrorist attack has occurred anywhere in US after attacking Afghanistan.

The Indian government is running out of options after Pakistan didn’t react as expected and went on with its usual flip flops and India is in a confused state as to whether they are dealing with right power centre in Pakistan. The Congress government was quick to come out with a new terror law which didn’t find many buyers across India. The Congress government with the public pressure mounting against it and US on its side might try for a quick attack on specific locations in Pok and Pakistan which may also help the Congress and its allies for the forth coming Lok Sabha elections due on April-May2009. This quick attack might well turn into a war which will be disastrous for India as well as the sub continent.

To do something like what US did after 9/11 is highly impossible for India as India is not US and Pakistan is not Afghanistan nor Iraq. Simi Garewal is perfectly right when she says “there have not been a single attack on US after 9/11” but the war is not over yet either in Afghanistan or Iraq. The allies of US are slowly deserting the US after suffering major casualties and sooner or later US will be forced to leave Iraq and Afghanistan after creating new terrorist breeding grounds. The war expenses as mentioned by the US Defence Department puts it spending as $4.5 billion a month on the conflict in Iraq, or about $100,000 per minute and in Afghanistan is about $800 million a month, or about $18,000 per minute and India has neither the financial capability nor the military capability like the US to try for such adventures. A war with Pakistan will only force Pakistan in moving their army from the troubled Western border to the Indian border and the Western border shall provide a free passage to the foreign terrorist to sneak into Pakistan which will create more uncertainty in the sub continent and will also weaken the US war in Afghanistan. On the domestic front war will be too huge a burden for economy which has been on free fall since early 2008 and might force India into a unwarranted recession.

The war will only force India into a trap laid by those who are not in favour of good relations between both the countries and will also push the majority Pakistanis to go with the fundamentalist way which is not good neither for Pakistan nor India. India should pressurize the international community especially the US in ordering the ISI bosses who have been loyal to the them since the Cold War to get rid of the fundamentalist elements and close all channels of funding to Pakistan for its support against terrorism. Pakistan has already recevied as much as $10 billion dollars from US for its counter terrorism support after 9/11 and recently around 6 million pounds from Gordon Brown that too after the Mumbai attack. Its this funding which needs to be tightened or else Pakistan would be very much keen and obliged to be paid in dollars and pounds for fighting the terrorists. Fighting the terrorists is such a profitable business that one can come to conclussion as to what Pakistan will do if they actually caught the terrorists. It’s always better to have Pakistan as our neighbour than Afghanistan.

Mumbai’s Pandu’s.

During my many visits to Mumbai, I have come across several instances where the Mumbai police (called as Pandus or Hawaldhars with their lathis) have been on the receiving side from all set of people from hawkers,to the small shop owners, to the bus drivers, to the cab drivers, to the star hotel owners and from lower class people to the rich class and finally the politicians. The lower class considers the pandu as their non-working partners as they have to share anything which they earn the urban middle class and rich class considers them as illegal hafta’s agents on Mumbai road waiting to catch any car which jumps a signal or speed away.

Our Pandu’s are treated so shabbily by our own citizens for no mistakes of their’s. The hawker shares his profit and the rich pays the Pandu not because the Pandu wanted it but these people want to get rid of the things which they have done which is wrong as per the law of our country. The same rich later castigates the Pandu by comparing them to the super cop in US and Europe with their high flying latest gadgets chasing local thugs or drug addicts or mentally unstable guys which they see on “World’s Amazing videos”

Things have changed after the 26/11 Mumbai attacks where our very own Pandu’s with their lathi’s and decade old revolvers countered the terrorists with the most sophisticated arms and ammunititions right from the CST railway stations to the Cama hospitals to the roads of Mumbai to our Taj and Oberoi hotels. Had it not been the act of the few pandu’s at CST station who ran right in front of terrorist who were firing indiscrimately to pick their’s lathi’s and their revolver and fire back which saved another 100 people at CST, the same holds for our another Pandu gave his life by blocking the terrorist firing at others by holding the AK 47 to his stomach so that nobody else is hurt before the terrorist was overpowered by other Pandu’s, the same holds for the four pandu’s who with pistol and a gun each and two lathis entered the Taj hotel with the staff of the hotel to block the terrorist from moving to any other floors and convinces their inspector on their walky talky that they will give their life but will not allow the terrorist to move anywhere else till the NSG arrives.

The nation paid rich tributes to Hemant Karkare, Ashok Kamte & Vijay Salaskar but what about our local pandu’s who with their very own lathi’s gave their life’s, who considered the safety and security of Mumbai and Mumbaikar’s before themselves and their families. The government, the media and we the citizens should identify all our Pandu’s who gave their life’s or injured so that we the people of India and India remains safe and a peaceful place. The government should see to that the families of our very own Pandu’s who gave their life should be taken care of and benefits should be provided to them. The last thing we as citizens can do to our Pandu’s is to take a pledge that we shall thank our Pandu’s whenever we come across them anywhere else in India.
Jai Hind

Time to Invest - Indian Stock Market

The Indian stock market had this great bull run for the last few years which started after the US attacked Iraq ie March2003. People who were normally used to the rise and fall were in for surprise when there was no fall and then the assertion from Mr Mukesh Ambani during the 2nd half of 2003 that Reliance Industries would not raise fresh capital from the markets clearly gave the view that corporate were sitting on piles of free cash. People who had seen the IT rise and crash were too hestitant or not willing to believe that this bull run was for real. Almost everyone sold the shares the moment the Sensex moved up by 1000 points but the Sensex continued uninterupted.

The same people who thought it was a right decision to sell when the Sensex was at 4000 considered it was right decision to buy at 8000 and again considered it as right decision to buy again at 12000 till they considered it to buy again at 21000. The Sensex kept on moving and it was the talk of the town with every TV channels eager to start their own business channel with its analysts giving vague ideas to lay men on which stock to buy and which one to sell.

The spectrum of investors covered everyone from brokers to retail people, doctors to patients, lectureres to students, housewife to working woman and everyone wanted to outsmart the other in terms of investing. Sensex gained more prominance than the TV soaps, housewifes spoke more of Reliance and ITC than regular TV Soaps. Woman started appearing on TV channels to prove that they are as smart as men in investing and taking risk and not tied to only hosuehold work and raising children.

That was the time when everything , everyone touched turned into gold and everyone made profits. People made tons and tons of money with good, bad and penny stocks and evrything was going good for the India and the Sensex in all sense. The analysts on TV kept on revising their targets by few thousand points every quarter and everyone was eager to accept what the analysts said.

Then, the begining of the new year 2008 started with a bang and a bang again, the markets just crashed and kept on crashing and crashed the hopes of millions of smart investors who expected a V shaped recovery the way it did all the last few years but the markets didnt have the rush to move up and people kept on investing falling to except that the Sensex has once again outsmarted them again in their own game taking it below 13000 which was a major support level and now below 8000 from the levels of 21000. Few have excepted their mistakes and decided to get back with their work, housewives have started taking good care of their family , the working class has been more productivity this year, the students and lecturers have started taking their classes and career seriously and have come to terms that the SENSEX is the big boss in its field and no person can outsmart it nor can anyone time it.

Sensex is not for weak hearts, here you dont need to follow the herd but you need to go against the herd ie " be greedy when others are scared ". The same people who bought, borrowed and begged to invest when Sensex were at 21000 levels are hesitant to invest now when the Sensex is at 8000 levels. Companies are not about numbers its the value which each company holds, there are lot of companies which are of great value at 8000-9000 Sensex, the time is right to buy and not be away. The Sensex might still drfit but if it moved up then the guys sitting outside will still be sitting outside cursing themselves as to why they didnt invest. The time is now - Dec 2008, Sensex below 8000 - take the same risk again which everyone took at 21000 and invest, the Sensex is bound to recover sooner or later and good days will be back again. Why dont you look at crude; thats atrractive too.