George Bush may not be the US president anymore, but he sure left a legacy.
During a press conference being addressed by P Chidambaram following CBI’s exoneration of Jagdish Tytler’s involvement in the 1984 riots, Singh lobbed a shoe at Chidambaram. It didn’t connect, but that didn’t seem to be his intention. He ended up being a hero, and the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) promptly offered him a job in case he lost the one he currently holds.
The gesture worked, and Congress eventually removed Tytler and Sajjan Kumar from its list of candidates contesting the election.
For those who missed the first shoe, there was another one coming up as a retired school teacher hurled a shoe at Naveen Jindal during a rally. Our politicians better get their act together. The Indian people seem to be losing it.
Interesting statistics on the state of the Indian democracy.
16% of the candidates going to polls in the first phase of elections have pending criminal cases against them. They are all there – Congress, BJP, BSP, SP, RJD et al. The Congress leads this pack though. They are also rich. 193 of the contestants in the elections are crorepatis.
Crime and money – unbeatable combination!
The BJP-Congress tug of war goes on. Narendra Modi called the Congress a budhia (old) party. The Congress hit back asking the BJP to dump Advani and Vajpayee into the Arabian Sea. Modi duely changed the title to gudia (doll).
BSP leader Mayawati is eyeing the top political post in the nation, but turns out her party isnt exactly a symbol of purity. The BSP nominee for the Sagar Lok Sabha seat quit the party to join the BJP alleging that BSP is selling tickets. Corruption in Maya land? We are so shocked!
More on the so called fourth front.
Rahul Gandhi seems to be gaining traction as a future prime minister, thanks to his DNA. Latest push came from his sister who said true bollywood style, how her heart tells her that Rahul will make a great PM. The people in Orissa didnt think so, as the Gandhi boy’s rallies didnt really turn out very impressive.
To his credit he did raise some sound bites against Mayawati.
But then given how these things work, we will not be surprised to see the day when Mayawati extends support to a Congress government in return for a Home Minister birth.
Mama Gandhi reminded us of the dark days in Laloo’s Bihar, while ignoring the fact that the Congress was a part of Laloo’s government.
Laloo Prasad Yadav bellowed how he would have crushed Varun Gandhi under a road roller for his anti-muslim comments. In true politician style he soon ate his words and clarified how he was referring to a symbolic road roller. Meanwhile his wife went on a rampage against Nitish Kumar, and duely got herself a notice from the Election Commission. Getting rapped by the EC is the new status symbol.
Ulta Pulta Jaspal Bhatti launched his recession party. Yet to be seen whether he will join the third front, the fourth, or just start his own secular coalition.
Everything isnt lost for India though.
The India cricket team won the test series against New Zealand 1-0. They could have made it 2-0 but a lack of aggression and weather played spoil sport as the last test ended in a rain curtailed draw. Rahul Dravid broke the record for the maximum number of test catches.
They say justice delayed in justice denied. This saying must have been created keeping India in mind. In a bid to reduce the huge backlog of cases pending with the Supreme Court, the court proposed hiring new judges. But in a classic case of bureaucratic crap latency, the urban development ministry expressed its inability to find adequate housing for the incoming judges.
Social networking came off age as Twitter was used to organize a massive uprising in Moldova. Twitter has come a long way from celebrities posting pictures of their wives’ underwear.
On the outsourcing front, IBM’s deal with Bharti Telecom tripled to a whopping $2.5 bn over ten years, even as Sallie Mae reported moving 2000 offshored jobs back to the US in a bid to appease the Obama administration, which seems to have opened up an anti-offshoring front to protect US interests.
USCIS started receiving applications for the much maligned H1B visa earlier this month. Last year they received 130,000 applications for half that many visas within two days, and the visas were awarded via a lottery. This year, USCIS reported receiving just 32,500 applications in the first five days.
Signing off with this exasperated Pakistani reporter trying to work in a busy train station. Who said being in the media was all rosy?
Related posts:
I have seen that funny reporter on Shekhar Kapur’s blog. And the shoe throwing continues. Indian elections are funnier than Laughter challenge.
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[...] Read more here: The World This Week – 12 April 2009 [...]
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Interesting and happening week!
I will truly believe that America is purely capitalist nation when someone tries auctioning that shoe….. for charity
Politics is a complex profession, you cannot escape legalities and judiciary. Even Mahatma Gandhi had a police record! Well that said its up to us voters to make right choices.
I was just watching pics on this page…Mahatma Gandhi is in white(in the top banner); Manmohan Singh is in white with blue turban; Laloo, Pawar and Yadav are in white too. The santity of the color white is gone leaders, u rather save effort of your wives to keep those clothes Tide safed (white)….
Regarding ofshoring, i read a nice article in BusinessWeek which said “Nasscom hired McKinsey to do impact analysis of Indian outsourcing on US economy and jobs. Result was a Positive impact!! ” http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/blog/globespotting/archives/2009/03/will_india_beco.html?chan=technology_technology+index+page_top+stories
America should read this article.
Btw way to go Indian Team!! & Happy Baisakhi.
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Btw nice series! Way to go!!
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ha ha ha ho ho ho he he ha ha ha .God bless amreekandesi and God bless this reporter. ha ha ha ho ho ho he he ha ha ha ho ho ho ho ha ….
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16% of the candidates going to polls in the first phase of elections have pending criminal cases against them. They are all there – Congress, BJP, BSP, SP, RJD et al. The Congress leads this pack though. They are also rich. 193 of the contestants in the elections are crorepatis. — Sad state of India!!!
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@Solilo – Indian elections are funny indeed. It’s us citizens who are being made a joke!
@AmListening – Thanks for the additions. White is indeed no longer pure…years of dirty politics have made it so dirty that it would take a lot of Tide to clean up.
Thanks for the appreciation.
@MeSingh – Look at you howling away…somebody really enjoyed watching the train to Karachi!
@Chirag – Sad state – sure. I just hope the elections end up producing a decisive result. An unstable government is the worst thing we need right now.
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Elections have certainly become good entertainment! Is it a surprise that our political parties are full of jokers
The funny reporter was hilarious!!!
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That reporter had me and my roommate in splits.
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@Smitha and @Amit – Thanks. Glad you liked the Karachi express! That sure was one professional journalist!
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