On the Bhushan tapes

Shanti and Prashant Bhushan are in the news for the wrong reason of late. The elder Bhushan has been "caught" on tape saying his son can fix a case with a judge. Apparently different labs are giving conflicting reports. There are two questions that come to my mind.

1) The government was in the news, again for the wrong reason of tapping phones some time back. So does the CD contain voice samples that were somehow obtained by the government by surreptitious means?

2) I wonder if it is possible to fake the CD. First you splice the individual samples together giving the appearance of a continuous conversation. This can probably be detected by forensic labs. Now if you play this "conversation" via a high audio fidelity device and record it onto a different tape/CD can a forensic lab detect this?

The Moon and His Star

Once upon a time long long ago
and trust me, it happened so
a lovely star the moon beheld,
and felt he like a big oak felled

the star too was smitten by love,
for at work was cupid's bow
many an hour, together they spent
on that lovely night, deep and silent

soon the star saw the morning glow
and she let the moon's hand go
his glare frightens me, she said
and though in love, she fled

every night, although in vain
the moon did tell her of his pain
of no avail was his pleading
though both their hearts were bleeding

the sun will be back, all fire and show
said the star and kept lying low
but so would the moon all cool and nice
little, this did the star realize

Religion and Real Estate

Recently an apparently illegally constructed mosque was demolished in Delhi after which hundreds of people conducted prayers there led by the Shahi Imam of the Jama Masjid. There are multiple issues that came to my mind from this article. 

The Shahi Imam says two things - that the land was actually owned by the Wakf Board and that he was promised the land would be purchased and given to the Wakf Board to reconstruct the mosque. Who will pay for the land to be given to the Wakf Board? The mosque was demolished on the orders of a court. Is the promise not in contempt of the orders of the court? This raises a larger question. Forget religion, will a place of worship be allowed to hijack public convenience? Obviously, a structure cannot be demolished purely on the basis of public convenience, but a line should be drawn somewhere. The general citizens should also realize when vested interests are at play and when there is a genuine case.

Asset Building

The Government says that Nira Radia built up an empire of 900 crores in a short period of 9 years. Hence she was investigated.

As per a magazine article, Jagan Reddy has done a similar thing in probably an even shorter time. Raja's company has gone to become a 600 crore company from one crore I believe. What about them? Some time back, before the Karnataka Assembly elections, NDTV showed the rise in income of politicians over a few years. The appreciation of a few was over 1000%! Are they being investigated? Can you throw stones at somebody if you are living in a glass house?

India's Cash Economy?

There was a quote in a recent edition of Business Today by Ajay Banga, Head of Mastercard in India. He says that Indians prefer dealing in cash. They do not like electronic money as it can mean monitoring by the IT people. Now, I think I have said this before also, but I will say it again. Probably everyone who pays tax grumbles about it. Add to that the misuse of the public's money and one's blood really boils. 

Mayawati's statue-building spree immediately comes to mind. The CPM government in West Bengal has renamed the New Town area as Jyoti Basu Nagar. It is probably set to install a number of statues of him also. I would be happier if the government instead spent the money on hiring more people for the metro's construction and then named the metro after Jyoti Basu (I know, construction happens through tenders, blah blah, but I can hope). Also, every time I pay sales tax I am adding to the state government's kitty, so I should have a say in state finances also!

Today, I don't think there is a really effective way of registering protesting against misuse of public funds. One can always approach the courts, but what the outcome would be is something that is highly questionable. But sigh, what can be done?

The Innovative Nature of Miserliness

I do not claim to be a miser, let this be my disclaimer. Yesterday I came back from Bengaluru to Kolkata and had to go home from the airport. It was around 10.30 PM. Owing to the long line (and possibly missing clerk) at the pre-paid taxi booth I decided to find my own way. I underestimated the distance from the airport to the main road and walked, but that is a separate story. The taxi fare from my place to the airport will hardly be 60 rupees. The rates I got quoted 250, 270 and 190! 

Eventually I caught an auto (auto rickshaw to be more specific) and then a (cycle) rickshaw and reached home by spending 40 rupees. In the course of that journey I was reminded of a small joke I read.

There is a couple and both are misers. One day the husband comes home from work, panting and sweating. The wife asks him what happened. He proudly tells her, "Instead of catching my daily bus, today I ran after it and saved 8 rupees!" She glares at him angrily and retorts, "You are good for nothing! You should have run after an auto and saved 50 rupees!"

Vindicated?

I wrote a post commenting upon the non-transparent funding of our political parties. Coincidentally, two Congress members have been caught on camera discussing funding for an upcoming rally. The CM has apparently given 2 crores for buses for the rally. From where is this money coming? The CM said there is nothing wrong in this as the ex-President of the BJP was caught on camera accepting money.

Does the guy realize what nonsense he is spouting? Do two wrongs make a right? Is he justifying his actions on the basis that someone else has done something similar? Is there no moral thought left in politics today?