The issue: In order to gain the support the Samajwadi Party (SP), the PM asked his National Security Advisor (NSA) - Mr.M K Narayanan. According to the news reports, the NSA assured the SP by saying that the India-US nuclear deal does not compromise India’s strategic freedom, provides access to much needed energy and allows retention of the right to conduct nuclear tests.

Now, that’s a smart lie. A very very smart lie. By saying that India retains the right to conduct nuclear tests, the NSA is just telling you half the truth, by intentionally avoiding to tell the full truth, the NSA is actually guilty of lying on behalf of his boss - the PM. The PM has been toting this line for a long long time and the time has come to call the lie.

According to the US congressional record S.11021 on November 16,2006, the following has been recorded in the minutes of proceedings. I quote verbatim:

Mr. OBAMA. On a related note, is it the chairman’s interpretation of the legislation that, in the event of a future nuclear test by the Government of India, nuclear power reactor fuel and equipment sales, and nuclear technology cooperation would terminate; other elements of the United States-India nuclear agreement would likely terminate; and the United States would have the right to demand the return of nuclear supplies? (emphasis mine)

Mr. LUGAR. Yes, under our bill, the only requirement which is waived is that in section 123.a(2) of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, for full-scope safeguards. India’s 123 agreement would still have to meet the requirement of section 123.a(4), which requires that in the event of a test by India of a nuclear
explosive device the United States shall have the right to request the return of supplies as you have stipulated. (emphasis mine)

Read it again, this is Barrack Obama, the Presumptive Democratic Nominee for the post of the President of the United States of America asking very clearly whether the US has the right to end this deal and ask for return of supplies if India does a nuclear test. Based on his question, what do you think he would do if he was the President and India does a nuclear test. Do not forget as of today he has a 50% chance of being the US president considering that only he and McCain are realistic candidates to be the President.

Now, why is it half the truth - because this section that I quote falls under the President’s advisory, so the President can choose to ignore this advisory, which is what the current US President has done so. His tenure is running out and in any long term agreement, this should be an important consideration, because a political change can happen anytime and this is a potential landmine for India.

Now, as per the news report, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) released a statement which read that, “There is nothing in the agreement which places an embargo on India’s right to carry out a nuclear test if it thinks this is necessary in India’s supreme national interest.”

I just proved it that is a lie and it is a lie that is being said very intentionally.

So, why is it being done? Why does this Prime Minister want this deal so badly, a deal that has too many cons that it needs a much more detailed thought process to be applied by India and Indians before going ahead with it - that he is willing to go to the extent of blatantly supplying false information to the citizens of India.

Is it ego or is it a desire to leave a legacy behind? What do you think has made Dr. Manmohan Singh, the Prime Minister of India lie through his teeth?

The reason why this post comes so late into the day - now that its almost a given that the Government of India (GoI) will go ahead with the deal despite the opposition to the deal by its coalition partner; the Left with the PM now officially going to the G8 meet, is because I have spent a lot of time in finding out information and framing a fact oriented opinion.

I am not against using Nuclear energy as a form of energy source to meet our nations growing requirements, I understand that Nuclear energy is a clean source of energy and that as per a 60 Minutes report on CBS, France has one of the cleanest airs and cheapest energy costs in Europe due to its reliance on Nuclear energy, what I oppose is  the form and shape of the India US Civil Nuclear Co-operation agreement.

My opposition to this deal centers on the following grounds, questions which the media has not bothered raising and neither the opposition:

1. Shift of dependencies: Oil & Gas is a form of energy that is used worldwide in everything from agriculture to electricity generation. Oil is controlled by a cartel called OPEC. For nuclear energy creation, you need Uranium, India does not have enough Uranium resources so India needs this deal for access to Uranium. Now, that would mean being dependent on another cartel - the NSG - Nuclear Supplier’s Group. Will this provide energy self independence?

2. Why rely on another nation?: Do you know that another fission material that can be used for generation of Nuclear Energy is thorium, India has 24% of the world proven thorium reserves in the world. India is conducting cutting edge research on how to use thorium in producing nuclear energy. This research will lose its importance and significance when you are going to be getting the Uranium from somewhere else. Now, why should you spend strategic forex reserves outside of the country to benefit another nation. If India needs nuclear energy so much (India does need alternative forms of energy as  India will be short of 412 gigawatts by 2050 and the need to import 1.6 billion tonnes of coal will be needed to fulfill this energy) then India can increase the allocation in the budget to thorium research and increase the strategic importance. As per the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL), its company profile on its website points out that the capacity of thorium based reactor is 1,55,502 GWe of electricity per year compared to 42,559 GWe of electricity per year in Uranium based reactor. So since this is publicly acknowledged by a GoI entity, then why not increase the strategic importance of research into thorium as a fuel and increase budgetary allowance, the amount you would spend on building nuclear plants can be diverted to increased R&D on using Thorium. Why become dependent on another country for fuel once again?

3. Minor benefits in the short term: India currently produces 4000 MWe of nuclear energy after this deal, it will rise to 20,000 MWe in a DECADE, yes in a DECADE. So, it is not a short term solution to the energy crisis in India. Also, construction of a nuclear reactor is a time consuming process.

4. Water usage in nuclear energy production: Nuclear energy, though considered one of the cleanest forms of energy, you require a lot more water (which is they are usually located close to water bodies like lakes, rivers, etc) - which is another resource that is depleting worldwide - for production and storage.

5. Strategically swallowing a bullet: Let’s get to strategic issues, as per the Hyde act as amended by both the Senate and the House of Representatives in the US (Bills: H.R. 5682 and S. 3709, a comparison of the two can be found here) and passed in the final version clearly dictates the following if you go through the congressional record S.11021 on November 16,2006:

i. India’s ties with Iran. As per Section 105 (8) of H.R. 5682 as passed by the

Senate (with text of S. 3709 as engrossed amendment), Requires India’s full & active participation in U.S. and international efforts to dissuade, sanction, and contain Iran for its nuclear program consistent with U.N. Security Council resolutions (source). So, this puts us in a bind w.r.t to the Iran-Pakistan-India pipeline which will provide us with much needed cheap gas. Because, if construction begins in 2009, the gas can be supplied starting September 2012 (source). According to Jorge Hirsch - a physics professor at the University of Chicago, who initiated a letter to George Bush Jr., to prevent the US from adopting a hawkish stance towards Iran which will inevitably lead to use of Nuclear weapons against Iran - feels that unlike Russia and China, “India could indeed be bought off by US incentives like the nuclear deal, because its shortsighted leaders don’t recognize that they are committing national suicide by entering into this nuclear deal with the US.” (emphasis mine).
ii. In an event of a nuclear test by India, the US President will have the right to end the deal on the spot and demand return of the materials supplied and guess who wanted this clause in the bill - Senator Barrack Obama of Illinois and the presumptive Democrat Party nominee for the President of United States of America. From the congressional record S.11021 on November 16,2006, this is what Barrack Obama said:

Mr. OBAMA. On a related note, is it the chairman’s interpretation of the legislation that, in the event of a future nuclear test by the Government of India, nuclear power reactor fuel and equipment sales, and nuclear technology cooperation would terminate; other elements of the United States-India nuclear agreement would likely terminate; and the United States would have the right to demand the return of nuclear supplies? (emphasis mine)

Mr. LUGAR. Yes, under our bill, the only requirement which is waived is that in section 123.a(2) of the Atomic
Energy Act of 1954, for full-scope safeguards. India’s 123 agreement would still have to meet the requirement of section 123.a(4), which requires that in the event of a test by India of a nuclear
explosive device the United States shall have the right to request the return of supplies as you have stipulated. (emphasis mine)

Read it again, this is the Democratic Presumptive Nominee for the post of the President of the United States of America asking very clearly whether the US has the right to end this deal and ask for return of supplies if India does a nuclear test. Based on his question, what do you think he would do if he was the President and India does a nuclear test. Do not forget as of today he has a 50% chance of being the US president considering that only he and McCain are realistic candidates to be the President.

6. Lag in gaining benefits from this deal: India will have to wait for some years before it can actually get to use the Nuclear energy, I believe a reasonable time frame will be 5-10 years - considering that it involves going to so many governmental organizations, the NSG, the IAEA, the time it takes to construct additional nuclear reactors. Now, meanwhile our dependency will not reduce on Oil and Gas. Iran who has been a longtime friend of India. India and Iran have long cordial relations. India and Iran are talking with regards to a gas pipeline from Iran to India. The act of signing the deal means that India will have to forego this deal, read point 5(i). Period.

7. Economic costs: Commercially, the cost of producing Nuclear energy will be high considering the capital cost of setting up the Nuclear reactor, understand that you cannot produce electricity till the reactor is completely up which means the cost of production can vary anywhere between US$ 2,950/kWe to to a Moody’s Investors Service (read para 9 in the link) conservative estimate of between $5,000 and $6,000/kWe. According to a BusinessWeek report, “…,the [US] industry is aiming to build new plants for $1,500 to $2,000 per kilowatt of capacity,…”. However, they also added, “Trouble is, the cheapest plants built recently, all outside the U.S., have cost more than $2,000 per kilowatt.”  For further information go to the wikipedia entry on economics of nuclear energy). There are a few costs no one is willing to factor in. Who will pay for the costs of ensuring compliance and the safeguards and all other reporting elements that are critical to the functioning of the deal after signing it. It is common sense that it will cost more.

8.Alternative energy creation: India has a stated goal of achieving energy independence by 2012, don’t see that happening with this deal for reasons explained above. India introduced the Jatropha incentives to encourage production of bio diesel using Jatropha seeds. Jatropha can grow in the wastelands. GoI has already identified 400,000 sq.km. of land where Jatropha can be grown. A much more prudent and truly long term solution to India’s energy crisis than the Nuclear deal, as India is a big consumer of diesel especially in rural areas.

9. Safety considerations: The world has already seen the impact of two major nuclear accidents, the famous Chernobyl disaster in former Soviet Union and current Ukraine and the Three Mile Island disaster in the US. Just as the Richter scale is used to measure the magnitude of Earthquakes, there is the International Nuclear Event Scale (INES). Chernobyl was rated 7, a non nuclear event that can be rated 7 is the Bhopal disaster in India and Third Mile was rated 5. Now, India’s nuclear reactors are close to two major cities in India - Mumbai (Tarapore) and Chennai (Kalpakkam), as the Chernobyl disaster The radioactive debris of the Chernobyl reactor covered an area more than 5,000 square kilometres. Imagine the damage it will cost if something goes wrong. Thank God, nothing has gone wrong so far, but still it should be an important consideration. India has not framed a Nuclear liability framework, what if something goes wrong, who will bear the brunt of clean up work, the economic cost and other such issues. We have not learnt our lessons from the Bhopal disaster as the clean up work continues to be stuck. Yet, the Government is silent on this issue.

Now, Dr. Manmohan Singh, may go right ahead and sign this deal, because he is hell bent on this deal as he views this as his personal stake being on the line plus this is the legacy he wants to leave behind, as he has nothing much to show as being the Prime Minister, except maybe be known as the most compromised Prime Minister.

Also, he has chosen a very good time - there is about 6 months left for the next General elections in February 2009, and even if his Government falls, it would take the Election Commission atleast 6 months to prepare itself for elections. As an economist he knows that India’s inflation problem - which will be a key poll issue cannot be solved in the 6 months timeframe without compromising serious growth, hence he has sensed his opportunity and decided to push for it regardless of the Left’s threat to withdraw support.

As I have outlined, overall it is not in our interests to go ahead with the deal and if the PM does sign the deal, the legacy he would leave behind will not be of securing India, a place as a Nuclear Weapon State but it will be of selling India’s nuclear independence.

These are my thoughts on the same:

If the DoT is really serious about increasing broadband penetration it needs to do the following:
1. Redefine the definition of broadband to reflect technological reality take a cue from either Korea and Japan and redefine broadband from the current pathetic 256 kbps to atleast 2 mbps. I mean the internet is now more bandwidth intensive than ever so there is a definite need for us to redefine what constitutes broadband. Because of lame ass ISPs purporting any always on connection as broadband, people do not see the value in broadband.

2. Allow last mile access to all ISPs regardless of whether they own the last mile or not which is currently owned majorly by BSNL and MTNL.

3. Reduce broadband tariffs, encourage ISPs to provide high speed unlimited hours + data usage at reasonable prices.

4. Improve the way consumer complaints are handled. Mainly there are many ISPs who promise 256 kbps and provide much less speeds and provide pathetic service throughout India, namely Sify Broadband which has pissed many customers.

5.Have a ISP rating service that is based on customer reviews, and provide the higher rated ISPs with cheaper bandwidth access or such financial incentive which will make the ISPs want to provide better service and respond better to customer complaints.
6. Be technologically forward looking and frame the policy with higher concentration towards consumers interest.

Broadband will then be ubiquitous. I do not know why the DoT has not worked this out on its own, just shows how the DoT is certainly not in touch with what is really needed for the consumers to start adopting broadband more and more.

I had heard about this movie because it was Kamal Haasan’s latest movie and with him doing 10 different roles it was a movie that I was waiting to watch, though it’s release got postponed so many times that I lost track of when it will release till recently my cousin brother in law got the tickets for the movie today as it released Friday July 13th 2008 (I wonder whether it being Friday the 13th will have any impact on the movie’s success though)

I was gung ho about the movie and man did Kamal Haasan not only not disappoint me but he exceeded all expectations that I had from the movie. In a short sentence, Dasavathaaram, leaves you riveted on your seat, leaves you thinking plus leaves you short of words to describe it - beat that!!! Though one way to describe the movie is that this movie proves why Kamal Haasan is India’s best in fact the bestest actor which is not as surprising as the fact that Kamal Haasan can now claim to being India’s finest scriptwriter too. What an amazing movie!!

It has been roughly 18 hours since I saw the movie and still describing the movie in words is difficult for me, I would never be up at 7 am in the morning writing a review for a movie if it did not impact me in a huge way, so I would try to put together scenes which made the most impact on me.

The true impact of the imagination, creativity, hard work, amazing attempt and last but definitely not the least - the sheer genius of the movie will only hit you at the end. But, you get a sense of the grandeur and the history making that this movie not just portrays and achieves, at the start of the title credits when this line of text scrolls on the screen:

For the first time

in the history of world cinema

Dr. Kamal Haasan, Universal Actor

in Ten Roles

The begins in 12th century Tamil Nadu where the Chola Dynasty King, Kulothunga Chola II,who is a big Lord Shiva devotee, decides to start a major redevelopment of the Nataraja Temple in Chidambaram, which also housed the Lord Vishnu idol in the form of Lord Govindarajan and decides to remove the idol forcibly against the wishes of Vaishnavites, followers of Lord Vishnu. This at the height of the (disputed) religious persecution of Vaishnavites by Shaivites led by Kulothunga Chola II. Enter, Rangaraj Nambi a Vaishnavite who grew up with the Chola King and was buddies with him, who resists the effort of the King to remove idol, the King does not pay heed and tells Rangaraj that if he praised Lord Shiva, then he would spare his life, Rangaraj refused and he is chained to the idol and immersed in the sea alongwith the idol.

The scene shifts to modern day America, where Govind the scientist is working on a lethal biological weapon and testing it on a monkey called Hanu. Govind prevents the biological weapon from being sold to rogue people by his boss. His quest to ensure that the terrorists do not end up with the biological weapon takes him to India where we get introduced to other 6 characters (apart from Rangaraj, Govind, Christian Fletcher - the ex CIA man one of the rogues, George W Bush Jr. - all played by Kamal Haasan) - a Japanese karate expert, an Indian intelligence official, a 95 year old lady, a environmentalist, a 6.5+ foot tall man, a Punjabi pop singer.

The movie scores highly in the manner in which these characters and their story are interwoven and are joined by a common thread. The movie can very well be termed India’s first genuine attempt at sci-fi thriller. Kamal Haasan does an amazing job as a scriptwriter where the theme running through the film is questioning the existence of God but in a very balanced manner placing both sides of arguments in favor of theism and atheism, which clearly brings to fore his intelligent questioning mind. Also, the way he uses tsunami to show how the tsunami protects the world eventually, shows that he has an optimist tendency where even a catastrophe has something good that happens. It’s a script where he presents strong arguments both in favor of and against the existence of God.

The challenge for the viewer though is that it is very difficult to pick which is Kamal’s best role in the movie. Despite 10 characters to choose from, it becomes a problem of plenty and is very difficult to even do a top 10 countdown.

The amazing visual effects that are used in two scenes involving the ocean, the one where the idol gets immersed in sea in 12th century and the tsunami climax scene. The tsunami climax scene which alone cost Rs. 3.5-4 crores for that one scene was an amazing scene which showed how it came.

Also, Kamal’s perfectionist tendency were fully out in fore as the Japanese character is the one who understands that it is Tsunami, as it is a Japanese word, be it the scientist’s inability to explain the biological weapon in simple words to non scientists including the intelligence officer - which will be a major turn off for those who do not understand what biological weapons especially the mass theatre goers in TN, starting and ending the movie with the idol and spinning the story around it so it is a full circle.

Kamal Haasan proves why he is India’s best actor - no one would have the guts to take on a movie like this and pull it off as well as he did.

Asin in her role as the Brahmin girl who is overly possessive about the idol can sometimes be irritating because of over acting but she does play a role in adding to the comic effect in the movie. Mallika Sherawat provides glamour to the movie. Though her character as a deadly assasin’s deadly assistant did not have much meat, she was bearable.

The biggest letdown in the movie for me was the music, not surprisingly as it was Himesh Reshammiya who was the music director and to expect good music from him is to expect intelligence from George W Bush. The background score is excellent and really adds spice to the proceedings thanks to Devi Prasad who provided the background score.

K S Ravikumar proves his mettle as a very capable director as he unveils an amazing array of directorial skills to direct this magnum opus.

Dasavathaaram - Legen…………….wait for it ….. darry (you need to be a How I Met Your Mother fan to understand it :))

Dasavathaaram is a must watch.

I cut half a star for Himesh Reshammiya’s music. I am listing the sound tracks of the songs in the movie courtesy wikipedia. I like the 2nd song Kallai Matum (listen lyrics) as that song is about how the point of view makes humans consider a statue made of stone to be the Supreme being or just a statue.

Soundtrack

Let me know what you think of the movie after you see it. I will be following this post soon with a detailed post containing the story and how it is connected by next weekend (weekend for me in Dubai is Friday and Saturday).

Hope you liked the review and more importantly the movie too. Enjoy

I give Dasavathaaram a Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

What is DemoCamp? - DemoCamp is a participant-generated social event for designers, developers, entrepreneurs. It is free. Participants sign up to demonstrate software they have been working on, or to give a presentation with the goal to inspire, educate or challenge the audience. Presentations and demos are 15 minutes in length. For more information about DemoCamp in general, click here.

DemoCamp Dubai is inspired by DEMO conference that’s been going on in the US successfully for more than a decade, a gathering of venture capitalists and corporate high-tech investors watch as demonstrators are present their efforts at breakthrough technology worth investing in. Demo has witnessed the unveiling of some great companies and impressive technologies. It’s so critical an event that companies plan their whole year around that event to make it in time to launch the next big thing.

DemoCamp Dubai is a more open event, trying to maintain the same excitement around innovation and technology without being commercial and exclusive.

[NOTE: Those interested to learn more about DemoCamp Dubai or doing demo(s) at DemoCamp can find more info at their about page on their website]

The format was that presenters presented for 10 minutes and followed by Q&A for 5 minutes. The following were the demos chosen to be presented:

• Darrb: a marketplace for delivery services, it will be presented by its co-founder Murshed
• Logta: a one-stop-shop on promotions for all sorts of products, to be presented by Hisham Baker
• Wasfati: the first dedicated Arab portal for food, recipes and nutrition. It will be presented by Fouad Masoud
• SwalifCast: is a Arab portal for digital learning, to be presented by Mohammed Al-Fares
• Zeid Nasser will present mediaME, a user-generated content website for advertising and media professionals

We only had the four demos from the first 4 presenters, there was no fifth demo. So, I will be talking about each of them in an order of my preference.

1. Wasfati: This was the most liked presentation at the event as it was about food , something everyone loves. It is a website which allows people to share recipes online in Arabic. It started out as a way to share recipes amongst university students. Though many asked for the site to be multi-lingual, I believe that the uniqueness of the site lies in the fact that it is Arabic. There are many recipe sharing or recipe websites that are available in English. But, there are many Arabic speaking and reading population which is more comfortable on an Arabic site. So, I believe it does not make sense for the guys behind this to expand beyond Arabic. The future plans includes a way to make it different by incorporating an idea where one can search for recipes by ingredients - how this would work is let’s say you have only potatoes, carrots and peas in your fridge and you want to find out what you can cook using these then you head over to the site and you will be able to then search for recipes based on what you have and then you can go ahead and cook. I suggested that they should allow trade of food i.e. someone can ask for help/food like let’s say I am hosting a party and I am looking for Arabic food I should be able to post an ad and people could bid for it and then I can get it picked up - with the site just acting as a medium and not selling it on their own.

2. Logta: Logta, roughly transliterates from Arabic to mean a ‘quick deal’ or a ‘hot deal’ and that is what Logta is, it is what I call an online deal aggregator aimed at the Middle East. I believe they have the potential to be highly disruptive in their model, why do I say so? Their current model is that they go to retailers and talk to them and find out deals from the various promotions and publish it on their site. I feel that and I told the Logta team that they can and should move away from being just a deal aggregator to a sales platform, where they can provide media buyers in various companies a very easy way to measure ROI on their ad spend. They could do that by assigning an offer code unique to Logta and Logta gets credit for sales for those who use that code. This would mean that the media buyer’s risk is reduced and he can safely buy ads from Logta.

3. Darrb: Darrb is a cool site which allows people like you and me to post an ad online asking for someone to either pick up or drop something anywhere in a given geographical area. It is based on the idea that let’s say I am going to point B for work and there is someone who wants something to be dropped off at say point A which is on the way to point B, I can then bid for it and then if that person decides to accept my bid then I will pick up the stuff and drop it off at point A and I can charge for it. There have been some surprising things happening, where someone transported a pet and also someone who transported something across 570 kilometres. The founders have not found a way to monetize this as yet and they are working on a subscription model - I am not sure about the subscription model though. Plus, there are issues with respect to reliability, traceability of goods in transit. Maybe it could grow into the Middle East’s own variant of the craigslist.

4. SwalifCast: SwalifCast is an online educational video sharing website. Though it looked very similar to YouTube and there are already numerous video players online, I am not sure whether they will be able to create a niche in the marketplace. Plus, the presenter too much time espousing the advantages of a simple design and dishing Logta. I always believe that when you are presenting your demo maximize talking about your demo than waste time talking about other competitors. Because of this, I honestly lost track of what the entire thing was all about and I cannot comment much on this as I personally failed to see what differentiates it.

Overall, it was a fun event, I had a great time as I felt that this was a good way to ideate in a group and of course network. I met a lot of interesting people and I feel that many more DemoCamp’s should be held and I am sure I will be there. Though I would prefer if the presenters viewed it as not just a promotional presentation but as a place for ideation with a lot of opportunities to improve their offering either in terms of features, revenue model or raising money.

I would certainly recommend those that are in the Web 2.0 or generally in the IT business in and around Dubai to take a look at it atleast once - I am sure it will be worth it.

As you can see in the image alongside, a 22.65 MB installation file for Safari was included in the update. This lead to a lot of uproar in the blogosphere led by Mozilla’s CEO John Lilly, who went so far as to say that Apple was pushing malware to its customers.

Though, I do not completely agree that Apple was pushing malware, but I strongly believe what Apple did with this update was ethically wrong, the reason why is that, a majority of users will not bother to read through the text and would just implicitly go ahead and install both the items. Now, imagine that a 22.65 mb file has taken that much bandwidth plus the time for something the user may rarely use. I mean, if someone really wants to use Safari, then they will go over to Apple’s website and download it, install it and use Safari.

This has been widely criticized in the blogosphere, because many are livid at Apple’s tactics and see this as misusing the dominance of the iPod+iTunes Platform. As you know, anyone who owns an iPod or an iPhone has to use iTunes to sync content between your PC/Mac to your iPod or iPhone. Now, whenever you install iTunes, you install the Apple Software Update, which is like the Windows update all PC users are very familiar with.

Now, the job of a software updater should be just that - update software. Now, all software on all Operating Systems have bugs - a software update allows the vendor to address it.

John Lilly explains it better in his post about the Safari fiasco:

Keeping software up to date is hard — hard for consumers to understand what patches are for, how to make sure they’re up to date.

It’s also critically, crucially important for the security of end users and for the security of the Web at large that people stay current. If people don’t update software regularly, it is impossible for them to remain safe; good software developers are creating improvements constantly. That’s why Mozilla spends so much time making sure our own Automatic Update Service works, and why we spend so much time agonizing over the user interface for the updates. We look at the data every time we do an update; we obsess about what we call “uptake rates” — the percentage of Firefox users who are on the most current version of the browser a day or a week or a month after release. As a result, Firefox users are incredibly up to date, and adopt very quickly.

There’s an implicit trust relationship between software makers and customers in this regard: as a software maker we promise to do our very best to keep users safe and will provide the quickest updates possible, with absolutely no other agenda. And when the user trusts the software maker, they’ll generally go ahead and install the patch, keeping themselves and everyone else safe.

Anyone who uses iTunes on Windows has Apple Software Update installed on their machines, which does just what I’ve described above: it checks for new patches available for Apple-produced software on your Windows machine, alerts the user to the availability, and allows updates to be installed. That’s great — wonderful, in fact. Makes everyone more likely to have current, patched versions of Apple’s software, and makes everyone safer.

The problem here is that it lists Safari for getting an update — and has the “Install” box checked by default — even if you haven’t ever installed Safari on your PC.

That’s a problem because of the dynamic I described above — by and large, all software makers are trying to get users to trust us on updates, and so the likely behavior here is for users to just click “Install 2 items,” which means that they’ve now installed a completely new piece of software, quite possibly completely unintentionally. Apple has made it incredibly easy — the default, even — for users to install ride along software that they didn’t ask for, and maybe didn’t want. This is wrong, and borders on malware distribution practices.

It’s wrong because it undermines the trust that we’re all trying to build with users. Because it means that an update isn’t just an update, but is maybe something more. Because it ultimately undermines the safety of users on the web by eroding that relationship. It’s a bad practice and should stop.

And he is right on the money as far as I am concerned, simply because of the trust issue, I mean I am sick of having to install QuickTime too when I have to use iTunes (only for syncing content with my iPod or iPhone), I do not use iTunes as my music player on my pc anyways and I do not intend to do so ever. I do not like it that I cannot use iTunes to do a backup of either my iPod or my iPhone.

But, what Apple did with Safari was highly unethical. I do not want to be shipped out programs under the guise of a security update. I think Apple should realise that is playing with fire as things like this will surely prick the ears of the antitrust authorities in the US and EU. Especially, EU which is far more aggressive at policing considering its stance vis a vis Microsoft, Apple has been dragged to court in the US over iTunes + iPod and the EU followed it up with an investigation of its own into iTunes and the territorial restrictions (you can only buy if you have a card from a bank in a country where iTunes Store is available) that are placed on the consumers and this Safari fiasco just aggravates the situation.

Why do I say so? Because, the defense (which was quite strong) that Apple had in all of these cases was that it was not a monopoly in the digital music market and it did not abuse it as it built up the market based on merits. Microsoft was not fined for having a monopoly position in the OS market but for abusing it by prevent other OEM’s from using any other browser apart from Internet Explorer when they shipped Windows. That was abuse of a dominant position in the OS market to push another product down the consumers throat.

That is what Apple did with Safari too, pushing an unrelated application under the guise of Software update. Now, this pains me a lot to see why my favorite company Apple is doing something so dangerous and is actually mimic our rivals up north in Redmon (read: Microsoft). This fiasco actually led to Ed Bott at ZDnet write a post titled, ‘What Microsoft can teach Apple about software updates‘ - he compared both the Apple Software Update and the Windows Update in a gallery showcasing the difference with the conclusion that Microsoft’s process was more opt-in, i.e. the consumer had the choice and the right over what was being downloaded onto his machine and Apple’s process was more opt-out, i.e. the consumer had to be alert and vigilant and of course knowledgeable enough to opt-out. Probably, Microsoft learnt the hard way because I remember Microsoft once sent me a update for Windows Media Player 10 when I was using Windows Media Player 9, but I did not want to install it at that point as it was too new and my strategy with Microsoft’s products is to wait a bit before installing it (yes, I still run XP SP2 and I have zero plans to change to Vista anytime soon, most probably will move to Mac OS X Leopard and will install XP using either Parallels or Fusion.

Now, why is opt-out so bad and something Ed did not cover in his post was because of what John said - Consumers instinctly, implicitly and intrinsically trust a vendor like say an Apple or a Microsoft when it comes to security updates, because for the vast majority of user, security updates description are mumbo jumbo, they don’t understand how a bug in the system can be exploited and they don’t care about all this mumbo jumbo, they just know its bad so what they do is just tick all and install all updates, I personally have done this many times.

I sincerely hope that Apple for its own good does not keep repeating this and that it really keeps out the antitrust authorities at bay. I would like Apple to render an unconditional apology for having done this and promise not to repeat it, it would do wonders for Apple (I know this is more of wishful thinking but hey what the heck!).

It was against the price rises of rice and other basic commodities in the state of Kerala. This despite the fact that the Congress heads the Union Government in New Delhi. Now, the crux of the matter is that Chacko laments about the fact that Rahul Gandhi, who is poised to be the next Congress leader and is projected as the next generation of the Congress, does not list his email address in his Lok Sabha (the lower house of Indian Parliament) profile page. This despite, Rahul Gandhi’s interests being the Internet. Now, any 4 year old kid today knows how to use e-mail, chat and surf the net. And I am sure someone whose interest is Internet surely would have an email id. And also every leader in the Lok Sabha is allocated an email id which is yourname@sansad.nic.in (Sansad means Parliament in Hindi, NIC stands for National Informatics Center, which is responsible for all Government domain and Internet services and .in stands for the country Top Level Domain of India.), so Sonia Gandhi’s email is soniagandhi@sansad.nic.in, which is where Chacko sent his email to.

Maybe Rahul did not want to share his email id for the fear of ’spam’ from the people of India, who by the way he is supposed to represent. Maybe he should have just shared his email anyways which leader would read his own mails will be handled by some secretary any ways unless of course you are President Abdul Kalam, who as everyone knows was known to respond to his emails and who by the way has his own website where he talks about his thoughts and idea, no political agenda bullshit.

Now, I digress, why am I blogging about all this with a post title of Nehru Dynasty: Why should we not ask questions? - no its not that I am going to do a summary of what he has done. But this has more to do with a side note to Chacko’s post where he asks Sonia Gandhi this question:

“Anyway, what I wanted to get in touch with you is about my home state of Kerala. I’m not an LDF supporter but what your party workers did during ”Hartal” day was shameful. Is this the kind of politics you want to encourage? Please let me know. Why do you want to make people’s life so difficult? What good does a hartal do? I’m not going to go into details, it’s been well documented in the media. How can we expect a different kind of politics from you and your party? Your response or lack of it will decide whether I vote for your party in future elections.”

This despite Sonia Gandhi saying this on her biography page and I quote:

“The Congress is unique. Our uniqueness arises from several basic features of the Congress s history, its character, its ideology and the legacy of its leadership. I am convinced that the time is ripe for a massive renaissance of our political culture so that we build that society which combines compassion with competence, equity with excellence.”

-Smt. Sonia Gandhi

Emphasis is not mine but picked up from the webite.

And I commented on this saying thus:

Haha, I really take this post as a satirical one, because I cannot believe Sonia Gandhi is even bothered about ordinary citizens like you and me. And you want to know why, because we are not from the lower strata of the society, we are not the ‘aam aadmi’ you see.

You have a roof over our head, branded clothes to wear and four square meals a day. We do not fall in her ‘target demographic’.

You do not belong to a minority group of any interest to her.

Why the hell would she even bother to read. The ‘Youth’ leader probably does list an email address for one reason only that is not to get any. This despite the internet being one of his Favourite Pastime and Recreation.

By the way his Lok Sabha page reads like an entry made into a page. I mean he does not even care to create his own page unlike Anil Ambani who had a pretty flamboyant web page till the time he was in the Parliament.

Well, what else can you expect out of the Nehru family?

(The last line has been highlighted by me as this is the basis for this post.)

1conoclast, responded to my comment:

VS… Care to explain your last line…?

I responded saying:

1conoclast,
The Nehru family has consistenly let down India ever since the times of Jawaharlal Nehru. Who do you think got China the Permanent seat on the UN Security Council with the veto power - It was the great Jawaharlal Nehru who sacrificed an offer to India and instead gave it to the Chinese to propagate the ‘Hindi-Chini Bhai Bhai’ concept.

Who was the first democratically elected PM of India to impose an Emergency in India and then let her cronies take over. - Indira Gandhi

Who was the first Prime Minister who went into another country to help it in its genocide program? - Rajiv Gandhi

Does that justify my line?

1conoclast was not satisfied:

No VS it doesn’t.

You’ve picked on the mistakes (and that too is open to debate) of some of India’s greatest children (2 of whom sacrificed their very lives in the service of their nation), and are assuming that they were all bad based on those debatable facts.

Nehru was a freedom fighter. As was his father. As was his daughter. Shouldn’t that alone bring him respect? Do we now insult freedom fighters in our country? Nehru tried to govern India to the best of his abilities. He may have failed (very debatable again!!!) according to a bunch of people, but to another (bigger) mass of Indians, he remains a hero. So who’s right?

I just typed in Nehru+”security council” in Google. Nothing came up that vindicates your claim. Can you quote a respectable source for your claim?

No one questions Dr. Radhakrishnan’s achievements in India. Only the Nehru-Gandhi family is painted black. Ever wonder why??? It’s a deliberate ploy to target India’s first family, so that the hindutva brigade can wrest power from them. We all quickly need to realize that!

Once we’re done with Nehruji, we’ll move on to Indira Gandhi.

I followed up with:

1conoclast,
Here is my source - http://www.thehindujobs.com/thehindu/2004/01/10/stories/2004011004021200.htm

I hope The Hindu is a credible enough source for you.

Also, I do not understand this - I do not and will not ever question the freedom fighter in Nehru. I did not do so.

Well, you say that it should not be compared like that - well well let’s see how other leaders are remembered. Adolf Hitler - hated all over the world despite the things he did for his country - revamped its economy when it was struggling, united them, made a forlorn nation proud.

Winston Churchill - they say he is the best wartime PM Great Britain ever had, as if he did nothing else in his regime.

JFK - Known for the Bay of Pigs invasion disaster despite what all he did to help the segregation end - the Civil Rights Act of 1964, people do not remember the aversion of the Cuban Missile Crisis, they call him a flamboyant flirt and best known for having a relationship with Marilyn Monroe.

Which is why I like Gandhi. The man had the guts to write a book that told about his wrongdoings in life. He was the one who said he will not be the PM as that was not his goal and Nehru was the second choice to C. Rajagopalachari, but Gandhi feared that C. Rajagopalachari’s personal relationship (their children were married to each other - source http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rajmohan_Gandhi - their grandson) can be construed as such.

The fact of the matter is my friend - the rightful First Family of India is the true Gandhi family whose patriarch is Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, not his disciple’s family whose daughter so conveniently decided to keep the Gandhi surname for political benefit - do not believe me go into the villages in backward areas and ask if Indira Gandhi was the daughter in law of Mahatma Gandhi and they will say yes.

And, I am an independent thinker, Nehru’s socialist policies kept us behind for quite sometime this despite the fact that as per Dr. Manmohan Singh’s speech at the Japanese Parliament on 14th December 2006 - He stated; “Jawaharlal Nehru wanted India to develop close ties with Japan and learn from its experience.” - source - http://www.embassyofindiajapan.org/word/2006primeminister/Diet_Speech_eng.doc (its from the Indian Embassy in Japan - credible source right?)

I do not understand why questioning his policies as the first Prime Minister of Independent India equates to questioning his role in the freedom struggle?

This is the bullshit that the Congress feeds to you - that the first political family of India is the Nehru family - that’s a piece of bullshit. It took a Mahatma Gandhi with his ideals to free India become one of the very few countries in the world whose freedom struggle was founded on the principle of peace.

I highlighted the hyperlink to my source on the Nehru issue because that was a cause of concern with 1conoclast who said this and this:

Heyyyyy VS…!

The link you mention is something I saw yesterday. The reason I hadn’t torn it to shreds yesterday is because my research on it is still incomplete. FYI, The Hindu has a website called hinduonnet.com not thehindujobs.com. I have sent this link to The Hindu for them to verify it’s veracity & am waiting for their response. I may be wrong but I strongly suspect that the website you mentioned is a cleverly disguised hindutva propaganda website. A large number of them abound & we internet novices in India quote them as creditable sources!!! Dangerous trend; MUST be curbed! Will let you know the moment I hear from the guys at The Hindu.

(If you go to thehindujobs.com home page, you’ll find that it was last updated on Feb. 20th! Today is the 27th! If you go to hinduonnet.com, you’ll see today’s date. Does that point to anything…? If I’m right here, this will be an expose worthy of Tehelka!!!)

Even if this link above is valid, are you sure that Shashi Tharoor’s comments have not been misrepresented? If I’m not mistaken Tharoor has called the period after Shashtri’s death up to the ’90’s, India’s worst period development wise (citation needed). That could only mean that he considered Nehru’s economic initiatives worthy!

And since you seem to rely pretty heavily on Wikipedia, I’d recommend you read the entire section on Nehru, with special attention to his socio-economic policies. Would like to know what you have to say post that.

I’m a little upset at your speaking of Nehru & hitler in the same breath. My point on Churchill & JFK is exactly that. It isn’t fair to remember them only for one thing! Similarly Nehru! It’s important to understand the man in his totality, understand his good points as well (which I personally believe are greater).

As for Indira adopting Gandhiji’s surname, I’d like “respectable” proof again. As far as I’ve “heard” Feroz too had the same surname & they only changed the spelling a little. Even if they did so, what is to say that they didn’t do it as a tribute to Gandhiji & not for political gains. It all depends on how you view people. If you are bent on assuming that everything is done with a negative ulterior motive in life, then even their good deeds will look bad to you. (You here means anyone!)

I’m as big a fan as you are of Gandhiji, but that’s a side discussion.

Again, like I said, we’ll talk about Indira later, once we’ve settled on Nehru!

—(2nd comment: ) –

PS VS…

Missed some points in my response…

- Don’t quite get your point on the Jap embassy link. Are you saying that you don’t credit Nehru with anything despite what Dr. Singh said??? Please come back to me after reading the Wiki section on Nehru that I mentioned earlier.
- As for socialist policies keeping us behind, I’d like to know if anyone else at that time had suggested any other alternatives??? From my memory, when PV Narsimha Rao & Dr. Manmohan Singh embarked on their Globalization programme, the bjp was insisting on “Swadeshi”!!!!!!! Today, the same hypocrites want to claim credit for India’s development??? LAUGHABLE!!!
- Don’t jump to conclusions. The Congress hasn’t fed me anything, least of all bullshit. I wonder how you came to the conclusion that the Congress feeds us bullshit. Who fed that precious tidbit of information to you???

All this was on 27th February 2008. I had gone home by the time this comment was posted and the next day Thursday I was not well, did not land up to the office and the weekends in Dubai being Friday and Saturday, I could not get to respond before today. Now, I came to the office specifically to ensure that 1conoclast (and other readers) dont miscontrue my absence as something else, which almost happened.

Now, I am a die hard Virgo, a guy who really takes it personally if he is questioned about whether the sources he mentioned are correct, I almost feel like my integrity is questioned (in fact my economics teacher in college used to comment on my fixation with adding the source of whatever information I am putting as a laudable one) . Though let me add I know and understand that 1conoclast did not do it.

And here is the beginning of my response, this post was spawned off because my reply is too long.

1conoclast, you wanted a more credible source than The Hindu Jobs site, well here it is. The original link from The Hindu website itself. Now, I do not know and neither am I qualified enough to answer your question about why The Hindu Jobs website is not updated. But, I do have on the Internet since 1995 and have gone through the ARCHIE, VERONICA, JUGHEAD, BBS, etc days when someone running a 19.2 Kbps modem was on a ‘fast’ connection to the broadband era driven Web 2.o days today. I know about phishing and I do know when something is a bad link or not. Plus, you are giving the RSS and the VHP too much credit by saying they will do something like this to just discredit the Nehru family.

Also, what surprises me is that the link is dated Saturday Jan 10 2004 and for the right wing parties to have kept the site update for so long is very vivid imagination. You and I know that a simple tag like %systemdateandtime% is enough to display your computers current date and time on a website and have a script that can say minus anywhere between 10 mins to 2 hours and Show it as updated at a particular time but on the same date.

Now, with that sorted out and by the way I am sorry to have spoiled your ‘tehelka’ level expose - which proves that you have been fed up bullshit from the Congress because you believe against all logic that this could be though of by them, give me a break.

I want to bring your and the rest of world’s attention to the fact that I never compared Nehru with Hitler in that post. I am not that stupid to insult a prominent freedom fighter for one of the rare peace oriented freedom movement in the world to someone who caused so much anarchy. I was just saying that for you to tell me not to talk about the mistakes Nehru made as the Prime Minister of Independent India has nothing to do with his involvement in the freedom struggle. You want me to talk about Nehru’s good points and not talk about his mistakes and say that those mistakes are debatable. Well, so, is the history surrounding Hitler, with people saying there was and there was no holocaust. But, Hitler is and always has been painted in the black for the same despite the fact that his popularity was because he ran for elections under the backdrop of the Great Depression.

Well, I do link a lot to Wikipedia and that is because you can find the information in one page, instead of having to link to many pages and usually Wikipedia articles do quote sources. By the way, in that comment, I had quoted Wikipedia only once and that was for the Gandhi grandson Rajmohan Gandhi.

If, you feel that being a hero equals to being popular, sorry I disagree and I believe that’s the fundamental problem with us Indians. We do this hero-worship without finding out whether the guy was any good for the nation or not. Nehru did do things that really changed India - notable being Industrialization, foreign policy (though I felt he leant too much to the Left creating a rift with the US, further stoked by his daughter, Indira), secularism that he proposed.

I cannot worship a guy blindly, sorry its not so simple for me, because I can think. A true hero is one who is as open to admitting his mistakes as he is to taking credit. Which is why Mahatma Gandhi was so great and he made people come with him, because he gave the people a noble cause and a novel way of doing it, which is why he became the undisputed leader of the freedom struggle and the Father of the Nation. Now, I have failed to understand how come the Nation’s Father’s family is not the first family. Well, that’s India!!

So, why are you so closeted about admitting Nehru’s mistakes. His leaning towards Left really left India behind for a long time. Did you forget the Licence Permit Raj, how that stifled the Indian economy for ages, we would have been a far developed nation. If Nehru did admire Japan so much for what it did post World War II in terms of economy why did he not follow it - which is what the link for the Japanese Diet (Parliament) was for?

You talk about P V Narasimha Rao and Manmohan Singh’s liberation of economy, sorry my friend the truth is that if at that time we would not have liberated the economy we would not have had enough foreign exchange to buy us necessary items like Petrol, Kerosene, Cooking Gas, etc. The IMF arm twisted India into signing the deal. And by the way, the Gandhi family had nothing to do with it, but guess who gets the credit, its Rajiv Gandhi. Manmohan Singh gets it because he is the PM and they cannot take it away from him. But, Narasimha Rao rarely got any credit. Even when he died, no one from the Gandhi family turned up instead sending representatives. This was for a man who sent Atal Behari Vajpayee, a member of the opposition to represent India’s case in a debate on disarmament at the United Nations. That takes guts, let’s see Sonia do that with the Left, who are her allies, let alone the opposition. If that’s asking too much how about going against convention and appointing a non political minister who later goes onto become the Prime Minister (read Manmohan Singh)

I am pissed with the Nehru family because cumulatively they have been in power for 37 years directly in power and 4 years indirectly (read Sonia Gandhi as UPA Chairperson) - my source is this. And yet their execution has not been that great. I mean 37 years is a long period out of which 17 by Nehru, 15 by Indira, 5 by Rajiv and yet we are still a developing nation, garibi hati nahi mere dost. What happened to Nehru’s promise when he rose at the stroke of midnight hour on the 14th of August 1947 to make the speech titled ‘Tryst with Destiny‘ and said thus,

“The future beckons to us. Whither do we go and what shall be our endeavour? To bring freedom and opportunity to the common man, to the peasants and workers of India; to fight and end poverty and ignorance and disease; to build up a prosperous, democratic and progressive nation, and to create social, economic and political institutions which will ensure justice and fullness of life to every man and woman.”

You tell me they are all heroes for majority of the people of India, so much so that the Congress has built a legacy which says that anyone from the Nehru family is a hero - case in point Rahul Gandhi. I was stunned when I went to Amethi and I found that the place was full of shit, so much so for the next PM in waiting as he is touted to be taking care of his constituency. I know that shall be the case all over.

Also, I want to point out to you, that I am neither a supporter of the Congress, the BJP, the Left or any political party out there. I think. I speak. I comment.

My point of view on some matters may match that of any political party either in full or part. But, that does not make me a supporter of that political party.

In my comment, I have never questioned the contribution by the Nehru family towards India in its freedom struggle. I admire the family. But, that in no way means I am going to hero worship them blindly.

The fact of the matter is that the hyper extension of economic policies - they said the Government should be in all strategically important sectors - they were in everything even in paper - what was so strategic about paper that the Government needed to be part of it, , the war against China, where we were betrayed by the Chinese or atleast Nehru felt so was a mistake. I would suggest you read the book on J R D Tata - Beyond the Last Blue Mountain: the Authorised Biography of J.R.D. Tata by R M Lala, in ther JRD was quoted as saying that once Nehru commented to him that he ‘hated’ the word profit and it was ok if the PSUs did not make money.and to never ever utter the word to him again. Well, what that meant was a lot of our taxes went in the drain to the PSUs which was a waste, because their bosses never expected to make profits because as the leader of the country, the CEO of the PSUs was making a comment which said profit nahi kiya chalta hai. Maybe that’s where the chalta hai attitude came through huh?

You have yourself mentioned that Shashi Tharoor said that the period from the Lal Bahadur Shastri’s death to the 90s (1966-1990 is 24 years) was economically the worst period of Indian economy, guess who ruled the majority of the time - - the members of Nehru family (Indira - 15, Rajiv - 5) for 20 years out of it. What does that tell you? By the way thanks for making that point for me.

By the way, do not come back to me on this and say that let’s talk about Nehru first and Indira later. The point I am trying to make is about the Nehru family not Jawaharlal Nehru.

I really take offense to the fact that you insinuated by saying thus, “Another thing popped into mind. If you are the Gandhian you say you are, it may be a good idea of revisit his “Hate the sin, not the sinner” theory in light of your BOLD “what else canyou expect from the Nehru-Gandhi family” statement…”. What makes you think that I ‘hate’ the Nehru family, is being critical of one’s achievements hateful. Come on give me a break, this is what makes think more that you have drank too much of the Congress cow piss as Kool Aid.

This is all I ask, do not be afraid to ask what they did for our country, when they ask for our votes to lead the country. You do not question you do not encourage good governance. If you are content being lead astray by the Congress spin and are happy drinking the Kool-Aid dished out to you, you are more than welcome. But, do not tell me that I am a rightist, leftist or centrist or populist. I am just a realist trying to find answers to relevant questions.

I have never said the Nehru family has not done anything, but they have not done enough and by doing so they let us down. ‘Garibi Hatao’ has been just a slogan what about the implementation, what did the ‘Aam Aadmi’ get from the current UPA government. I am not saying the BJP/other parties at the center are any better but when your supporters claim that on virtue of birth, a person can become a leader.

Also, do not come back and tell me that Sonia ‘gave up’ her seat. She is a smart cookie, put in a puppet both in Dr. Manmohan Singh’s case and in (what is the name of our President by the way) Mrs. Patil….. something, oh wait, its Pratibha Patil, isn’t it?

Another case in point, yesterday the Finance Minister P. Chidambaram announced the Budget and you had farmers who were lined up outside 10 Janpath with tractors, waving Congress flags, within minutes of the Budget announcement, wow, never knew so many farmers were in New Delhi, did you?

And on Times Now, Arnab Goswami(photo) asked Rajeev Shukla, a Congress MP, “who do you give credit for this budget?” ,you know who - the UPA Chairperson, the Prime Minister and his cabinet. Note the order, I shall repeat again - the UPA Chairperson, the Prime Minister and his cabinet. Do not believe me how about checking it out with Arnab himself or someone at Times Now.

That itself shows that they value the UPA Chairperson more than the Prime Minister of this land. This is what I mean by the bullshit that Congress feeds - the reforms were initiated by Rajiv Gandhi, Narasimha Rao just followed him - LIES AND BULLSHIT this is. Rajiv did bring in reforms but it was not as wide as Rao’s and Rao did not follow him he was a path breaker.

The Budget 2008 was made by the UPA Chairperson - Sonia Gandhi - oh what a lie!!! So, P Chidambaram should be removed as the Finance Minister and Madam Sonia should be made the FM if she is so good.

The Congress has marketed them to many Indians so well, you just dont’t think and blindly hero worship.

I want to end this post, with the following quotes:

“Hero-worship in the sense of expressing our unbound admiration is one thing. To obey the hero is a totally different kind of worship. There is nothing wrong in the former while the latter is no doubt a most pernicious thing. The former is man’s respect for which is noble and of which the great men are only an embodiment. The latter is the serf’s fealty to his lord. The former is consistent with respect, but the latter is a sign of debasement. The former does not take away one’s intelligence to think and independence to act. The latter makes one perfect fool. The former involves no disaster to the state. The latter is a source of positive danger to it.” - Dr. B.R. Ambedkar

“Hero-worship is mostly idol gossip”- Anonymous

You know on which side I stand (refer Dr. Ambedkar’s quote), what about you? Right now, I feel you are in the latter group like millions possibly even billion Indians. Change my friend, cause that is when we will see change in this world.

Please do not be a source of positive danger to the state. (refer Dr. Ambedkar quote)

UPDATE 2nd March 2008:

I posted on Mutiny, asking 1conoclast to respond. And he responded thus:

VS…

I hope you’re feeling better now.

If I’m not mistaken, I had visited your blog some time back, read a post of yours, found it commendable & commented on it.

There are a few reasons why I’ve not clicked on the link you’ve provided:
-The discussion began here & must be carried on in this very forum, for all to see.
-I know that this isn’t your intention, but some people may use the same method to divert traffic to their sites.
-I am therefore still waiting for your response. It’s taking rather long I must say. (Don’t take that last sentence seriously; I’m just practising my sledging)

We’ll see about an open mind, once your response is on this site. I have the time (it being the weekend) & the open mind. Over to you, my friend.

I said very well, since my intention was to avoid Mutiny from taking a load on its resources because my response was long, I pasted this post over and told him that I felt if he had to resort to sledging he was not so sure about his own abilities to present his case to which he responded:

VS…

To your point, “I have always believed that when you resort to sledging it means you are not so sure you can do well on your own abilities”…
I thought point of this entire conversation was to correct what you “believe”!
Now to your reply. I MUST say, THAT is the LONGEST reply I have EVER encountered…!!! I will always wonder how 2 or 3 questions can possible elicit this long an essay! Before I begin my rebuttal, allow me to say that while I may not agree with all the points, it is one of the finest responses I have encountered on this blog.

I’m not in the least bit disheartened at your ruining my “Tehelka” expose. I had already stated that even if the piece was true, it should by no means warrant a blanket indictment of Nehru. It’s just one snippet of information. It hasn’t been analyzed, it’s reasons haven’t been analyzed. In fact the end of the article points out that at a time when India didn’t have a foreign policy, Nehru had one. We may criticize that foreign policy in the light of the political situation today, but at that time, Nehru’s non-alignment mantra may have had immense merit. Question for you again: Where were the naysayers then? Did anyone object at that time to Nehru’s (apparent) decision? Or was everyone else sleeping? Are we (& possibly Tharoor too?) abusing the advantage that hindsight gives us?

I never SAID that you were comparing Nehruji to hitler! I only asked you to refrain from mentioning him in the same breath as Nehruji. Something that you have still gone ahead & done. Something that I can’t bring myself to do. Anyway…

You haven’t come back to me with your views on the Wiki section on Nehru’s achievements. You only make a passing, grudging reference to it with your “Nehru did do things that really changed India - notable being Industrialization, foreign policy (though I felt he leant too much to the Left creating a rift with the US, further stoked by his daughter, Indira), secularism that he proposed” statement.
You & others who criticise the governance, fail to make the disclaimer that you’re focusing on the failings of people who have otherwise contributed immensely to this nation!
I don’t see any achievements from anyone else but the Congress (& therefore the Nehru dynasty?)! The IIM’s, the IIT’s, the education, the industrialization that your grudgingly mention. Who should the credit go to?
It is in this light that I took offence to your blanket “Well, what else can you expect out of the Nehru family?”. It is not a fair & balanced view at all. It is malicious & reeks of the cow-dung that the bjp feeds you, and you so obviously savour, as if it was “gajar ka halwa”! (Sorry about that one, but you started it!)

So everything happens in India because of outside influences like the IMF…? Interesting…

In response to your “garibi hati nahi mere dost” comment, I will quote Lord Meghnad Desai. He stated, “The decline in Indian poverty levels from roughly 40 per cent in 1980 to roughly 20 per cent would not have happened without globalisation”. Source here: http://www.indianexpress.com/sunday/story/273786._.html

“was economically the worst period of Indian economy” section. You missed my point entirely. Again I think you’re seeing only what you want to (or taught to) see! I’d like to point out that Tharoor (if he said what he did, I don’t know this for sure, I’ve only heard) referred to a period after Nehru. He didn’t call Nehru’s period bad economically!!! Where does that leave your earlier argument about his leftist leanings keeping us behind? So, I didn’t make any point for you really!

I don’t think you “I think. I speak. I comment” as you claim. The problem here is this: You speak/comment, & then I have to make you think!!! Another example:

““what else canyou expect from the Nehru-Gandhi family” statement…”. What makes you think that I ‘hate’ the Nehru family”… I never said you hated them. I just indicated that your statement that kicked this off was unfair & biased. If you had changed that statement a little, add a disclaimer or two, things would be different.

Lastly, your calling for change is noble. I am content in the belief that I am “the change” in this country. In light of what India has recently become, I am happy that I am a departure from the norm. Today’s generation slams Gandhiji. And Nehru. And believes that India’s answers lie in violent protests, rioting, separatism. I don’t. I continue to stand for the good, the right and I don’t paint genuine Indian leaders black. Now that you’ve done the iconoclastic bit that I set out to do, maybe it’s time for you to change?

I was pissed, who the fuck does this guy think he is when he so conveniently ignores my very relevant questions, when he so conveniently chooses a small part of an interview of Lord Desai which he himself linked to. I said this guy has the balls to tell me I am biased. So, with my blood boiling I decided to write down, then I said wait a minute, I cannot do that, that will only bring me down to the level of this guy, then I cooled down and I finally responded:

1conoclast,
You yourself admitted it was a long reply, but you did not have the courtesy to go through it in its entirety, did not think on it and just shot off a response. I thank you for skimming through the post, but I felt it was a very important topic that needed a detailed response.

I think you need to revisit my response as you clearly fail to read the sentence where I talk about my political affiliation. Seems you have a problem with the fact that if I oppose the Congress or its leaders, I am pro BJP - not necessarily get that straight into your head.

My point is that I am not ‘grudgingly’ accepting the Nehru’s achievements, I commend him for it. I have no objections to Nehru’s NAM which I felt was a stately masterstroke, but you clearly forget that Indira Gandhi took us away from the US to lean more towards the Soviet, so how does that make you Non Aligned that is my question, which you so conveniently ignore?

You think I ate up the cow dung from the BJP, well guess what, the BJP cannot present this argument the way I did, because it does not look at it the way I look at and you certainly cannot look at it.

You have very cleverly focussed on the achievements and ignored the failures. The reason why I am focussing on the failure is to provide a balanced viewpoint. You quoted Shashi Tharoor and not me, so don’t ask me for the reference. But you still have not come back to me on the fact that 24 years after Shashtri, 20 were ruled by members of the Nehru family, so what about the failure that Tharoor was talking about.

You clearly forget that I am talking about the Nehru Family’s Political Dynasty and that the Congress is making you drink Kool Aid, which obviously reflects in your response. No response to my point on Sonia Gandhi getting credit for Budget 2008.

You want to talk about IITs and IIMs, well let’s talk about it. How about the fact that the original vision of the IITs was to foster scientific development in India on the lines of research in the US universities. But, what happened, since 1953 25,000 (source: The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century. USA: by Thomas L. Friedman) IITians left our country and enriched the US. Don’t come back and give me the sada hua logic of the fact that they sent forex back to India when India needed it. Imagine if we had given them an open economy, which encouraged entrepreneurship we would have gained a lot more than the measly forex we earnt. Which is what happened after we liberalized the economy, the brain drain percentage went down from 70% to 30% (source: http://www.newkerala.com/news2.php?action=fullnews&id=21668).

You argue that liberalization reduced poverty, so the question is who liberalized the economy - members of the Nehru Family - the answer is NO. It was P V Narasimha Rao and Manmohan Singh, who at that time was a non political person unlike today. So, does not that mean that if we had liberalized we would have been a better country economically. Also, I don’t buy into the 20% figure that much, because percentages lie. 40% of 100 is 20% of 200. What I a making the point is that the population has increased massively since 1980 to 2008 we are a 1 billion+ people. So, would not read too much into it. Even if I take the figure at face value - it means that 20% of 1.2 billion is 240 million which is still a very high figure of people who are poor. The devil always lies in the details, look carefully. This is why I said I think - I go into details unlike dig something up and say hey I have proved my point. Go deeper my friend, devil is always in the details like I said.

You want to talk about education, how many primary schools in this country provide quality education to the poor. We have a defense equipment manufacturing industry which is highly regulated by the Government, how is it that we still spend so much on our defense, because we have to buy most of it from other nations. Tell me why?

Who edited the constitution to suit her own purposes and added the word ‘Socialist’ to our constitution - Indira Gandhi.

Thanks once again for making it obvious that you do not want to see the truth, you want to idol worship the Nehru family you are more than welcome, but what you are not welcome to do is force me to do the same or deride me for not doing the same.

The comment about the Nehru family was that they have always overpromised and under delivered. And in all instances, it has been proved so. You did not choose to respond to my points about Amethi, you do not believe me go there and see for yourself for I have done so and I have seen Rae Bareili too, that’s where my cousin got married, so I have been there after Sonia was elected from there and I was appalled.

You again are insinuating that by talking about Nehru and HItler in the same breath, I am belittling Nehru, which is again wrong. I have explained it to you that I am just saying that the legacy is what the media makes it out to be- which you have conveniently ignored and chosen to take off on a different mode.

If you did not insinuate that I hated the Nehru family, then what does the point about me being a Gandhian and should follow the policy of ‘Hate the sin. hate not the sinner.” That felt like a subtle way of saying that I hate the Nehru family, so I thought of putting on record that it was not so.

The talk of current generation deriding Gandhi and Nehru is it aimed at me? Then my friend you are absolutely wrong. If you talk about rioting and violence, I have never indulged in the same, never endorsed the same. In fact, I criticize Modi more than I criticize Nehru family - that’s another post another day. You talk about being the change, what change have you brought, have you bothered about the execution ability of the leaders across the political spectrum? Have you questioned them about their leadership, their values, their agendas, their ambition for this country? Have you questioned them why you should vote for them based on who their ancestors were?

Have you questioned at all my friend? My aim in life is to make our political process transparent which is why I believe we should directly elect our PM, let it be a person to person contest and let’s make that one person accountable for it. Let, thought leaders in the respective areas lead the ministries. Much like the Presidential form of Government.

Why is it that my statement about the family has become the statement against the man Nehru and why is it that my viewpoints on Nehru the PM disrespectful of Nehru the freedom fighter.

Can you not look at them dispassionately and compare the difference. Nehru as the PM is as open to criticism as are other PM’s after him, why should Nehru and Indira’s involvement in the freedom struggle absolve them of the mistakes they made as the PM.

Let’s take Budget 2008, the 60,000 crore relief for farmers, who is praised and who is reaping the benefit, Sonia Gandhi. And will it provide relief for farmers - rich farmers YES poor farmers NO. You want to know why? Because majority of farmers take money from the village moneylender and those farmers live in abject poverty and are enslaved by the moneylender. Who is going to pay for it? The tax payer? Hell No - its going to be the banks - which means that the majority of deposits that a lot of small savers might have put can be jeopardized because the Govt. will provide liquidity to the banks over 3 years. Why should the government then not improve agricultural productivity, how about a radical solution as saying that those who want to enter into retail sector need to adopt a certain number of villages, that is Public Private Partnership at its best - then see how the agriculture industry is transformed, case in point, the ITC e-choupal.

But, no one asks these questions, because they believe the media will ask these questions, but the media does not have the balls. When people like me question it, you and people who think like you counter by saying you pay respect to them dont ask such questions.

This clearly shows that you cannot make me think because my thinking is a level at which you have not graduated to. And by the way, who taught me about Nehru, our textbook, let’s see which of our textbooks reflect on Nehru’s policies in a critical manner.

You say that my post is biased, so are you, you want to take the good side, I am balancing by saying hey all humans are both successes and failures. Including I and you.

If you at least read the Ambedkar’s quote than you shall probably understand and probably not maybe you are not intellectual enough to understand the depth of that statement.

As far as trying to change the way I think, forget about it, you cannot change my thinking pattern because I search for truth, none of it is pure hearsay, everything has a reference and a source and something that I do not just quote for it because I think before I do so unlike you who jumps up with joy and says wow found something that matches what I think.

Counter me with facts not with noise. Any argument that does not contain facts is pure noise.

And followed it up with this, as I had missed a pertinent point:

1conoclast,
Missed one more point, which I just remembered how about the fact that Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi are credited with the NREGA (National Rural Employment Guarantee Act) has been criticized by Lord Desai in the same link that you added.

You are the one who is conveniently quoting the answer to the last question, kyun bhai poori baat nahi padoge?

And Lord Desai has been clamoring for the Congress-BJP alliance as it makes more sense. Well, that tells you about his political affiliations.

He also mentioned about the Anti-Sikh riots for which no member of the Nehru family has ever apologized in fact, Rajiv Gandhi even said, “When a big tree falls, the earth trembles!” but no one had the fucking temerity to ask, where there only Sikhs under the tree?

You think Rajiv Gandhi could not have averted it. Could Rajiv Gandhi not have apologized. Could he not have quickly ordered a commission of enquiry, we are so quick to criticize Modi and I feel he is also one big dickhead for doing what the fuck he did in 2002. And he also did not apologize, maybe he took his inspiration from Rajiv, come on man give me a break. Do not idol worship them.

You do not come and tell me about Rajiv Gandhi as the PM as it was all noise and nothing else (again overpromise and underdeliver).

Like I said - Talk without facts and you will fall flat. Don’t subvert the things, the truth is in the details which is why they say the devil is in details. Take a loan from a bank and see if you can trust them blindly. Come on man, be practical, be realistic and be factual - 100% don’t give me emotional bullshit that Nehru was a great freedom fighter he can do no wrong. Nehru was a great freedom fighter one of the best India has ever had. But he is definitely not as great a PM. What is wrong in saying that? And what is wrong in saying that his successors (including his immediate family members) have not been better either. You are so open to receive criticism of non Nehru family members but not about the family itself.

Sorry friend, that shows you have been drinking a lot of Kool-Aid that is cowpiss in disguise. By the way ‘Drinking Kool_Aid’ actually means that you are believing in marketing spin similar to FUD (Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt). There is no such thing as ‘eating Kool-Aid’.

In the post, Balu talks about how a terrorist can be lured into thinking that attacking the fibers that connect India to the world will be able to bring India to an abrupt and devastating halt. There were fears expresses that the high seas cannot be monitored, there are neighbors who cannot be trusted and that not having cables through land can be a major source of security lapse.

Then, I come across this post on ZDNet Blogs, titled ‘Pakistan removed from the Internet‘. I was like whoa, what the hell happened there. I thought the ICANN was banning Pakistan and not allowing it to use the Internet or something on those lines. But, here is what actually happened:

4:30 PM Eastern (US).

The telecom company that carries most of Pakistan’s traffic, PCCW, has found it necessary to shut Pakistan off from the Internet while they filter out the malicious routes that a Pakistani ISP, PieNet, announced earlier today. Evidently PieNet took this step to enforce a decree from the Pakistani government that ISP’s must block access to YouTube because it was a source of blasphemous content.

Confused and want to learn more about and understand it go here. The thing is that PCCW which is a Hong Kong based ISP for ISPs screwed up because PieNet sent a bad routing information which made all goers to YouTube reach a Pakistan based website which the Government of Pakistan felt was more appropriate content.
So, I was thinking can this be alarmist, I mean the Internet can be screwed by one unscrupulous ISP acting on Government orders. It is highly dangerous not only for India but for all countries.

I felt Balu’s post was an alarmist, but it does make me wonder if the UN should classify any form of Information Technology attack as an act of war. Then I immediately realized that would give enough fodder for any powerful nation to go to war against any nation. Imagine this, I want to go to war against any other nation and I get some ship to anchor and break the cables and then say that it’s an act of war and off I go to war against it.

Thank God in 2008, a certain nation goes to elections and let’s hope a more smarter and statesman like person gets elected as their leader.

But, I digress. Coming back to my main point, what is it that India Inc. and India’s Government is doing to maintain its IT assets- stuff like its IT cables, the Internet backbone, etc. India is highly dependent on IT for its economic growth. The Gove