The world is smoking dope!

Ever since the 26/11 terror attacks in Mumbai, the US, UK, India and several other governments from around the world have been asking the Pakistan government to take tangible action against various elements hat are believed to be fomenting terror.

Not surprisingly, nothing much has happened. Several sympathetic noises around “cooperating with India” later, and even more admonishments that “Pakistan should do more”, there is still no tangible action. The Pakistan government’s stand has been that there is no evidence that India has presented, that incontrovertibly establishes Pakistan’s links with the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai.

India has provided some evidence, but perhaps not all, for it fears that sharing everything might compromise its counter-terrorism capabilities. Besides, the “evidence” may be used as an input to refining the training programs conducted for future batches of terrorists.

Personally, I do not expect the Pakistan government to do much in terms of arresting Dawood Ibrahim or banning the Jamaat Ud Dawa. Firstly, any such action would be tantamount to accepting complicity. Secondly, the civilian government of Pakistan is not really in control of the ISI and others that are really the moneybags, trainers and motivators behind the jihadis.

Military action is not the solution- for that will only unite the various factions across Pakistan’s polity. Perhaps international sanctions alone will work- and even then, only if China agrees to be a part of the coalition imposing sanctions- and more importantly, does not renege on its commitment for furthering its own geopolitical agenda.

President Obama inherits a very tricky situation indeed. That India will also go to the polls in the next 6 months or so does not help the cause.

South Africa too beats Australia in Perth

Graeme Smith’s Proteas have beaten Australia in Perth. Set a stiff 413 to win, the South Africans achieved the target comfortably, losing only 4 wickets in the process.

Australia 375 & 319
South Africa 281 & 414/4

India beat Australia in Perth when they toured Australia last. The once-feared WACA pitch has now done the Australians in twice.

Perhaps the secret lies in the fact that visiting teams too now have pretty fast bowlers. South Africa has Dale Steyn, Ntini and Morkel, while India had Ishant Sharma and Zaheer Khan.

To some extent, Australia’s performance also reflects the team’s dependence on its “big guns”. Neither Hayden or Ponting scored as heavily as they are expected to. And the foundation of the new-look team- the Husseys and Michael Clarkes- did not deliver in this match.

Clearly, not a very happy situation for the Australians to be in. But then, the South Africans won’t view things the same way, will they?!

DNA launches its Bangalore edition

Daily News & Analysis (DNA) launched its Bangalore edition today. The launch was delayed at least by 2 months, as the guy at the mall who sold me a year’s subscription for Rs300 said that the nespaper would be delivered starting October 1. Anyway, I am glad it has been finally launched.

DNA has used “I believe in Bangalore” as its tag line in its marketing campaign for Bangalore. The campaign highlighted the positives of Bangalore to underscore this message (e.g. the country’s first helicopter taxi service was launched in Bangalore) and took the sting off the city’s known negatives (New York city has traffic jams too!). That is why I found something quite ironic in today’s edition- a full page ad reiterating DNA’s “I believe in Bangalore” message cheek by jowl with a full page ad for the investor conference being organized by the government of Gujarat. I am sure it was not deliberate. But the relative positioning of the two full-page ads next to each other came across as quite ironic, if not downright hilarious. And get this: both Karnataka and Gujarat are currently ruled by BJP governments.

Is anyone from DNA reading this? If this was deliberate, I’d love to know the rationale.

Smart Politics= Real Development + Good Governance

The results of the recent state assembly elections in 5 Indian states seems to prove that the Indian voter has matured and is now less prone to being fooled by idle promises. What seems to work is real, demonstrable actions that have helped improve the quality of life, income etc. of its citizens. Several political parties and leaders have realized (some, the hard way), that Smart Politics = Real Development + Good Governance.

Beware the reprisal!

Under mounting international pressure, the government of Pakistan has taken some steps such as banning the Jamaat Ul Dawa and LeT , and by placing certain prominent leaders of these groups under “house arrest”. So far, so good, it would appear.

But think of it this way: Even if enlightened self-interest played a role in the Zardari government taking these steps, what does all this action do to the terror groups? Cornered for the moment, they may hunker down- but only to buy time. And they will surely bide their time for an opportunity to hit back- at the Pakistan government, India and other members of the international community involved in pushing them against the wall. And that is what we must all be prepared for and watch out for. Only problem- we won’t know till it’s too late answers to al-important questions like “where”, “who”, “how” and “when”.

Now, Geo TV does it!

Through the day, Indian TV channels have been carrying snippets of hidden camera reports broadcast by Geo TV, a Pakistani TV channel. These reports show local citizens from the Faridkot area of Pakistan acknowledging that Ajmal Kasab (the lone terrorist captured alive in Mumbai after the 26th Nov terror attack) was indeed from that part of the world. More damning, perhaps, was the on-camera statement that he had visited the village a few months ago and sought his mother’s blessings for his upcoming jihad.

Taken together with the Dawn’s expose that showed Ajmal’s father breaking down and accepting that Ajmal was his son, this probably represents inconveniently solid evidence that the perpetrators came from and used Pakistani soil- irrespective of whether they had use of that country’s official machinery or not.

But as I watched these reports, my first reaction was more on the lines of “Oh God- now the cat is among the pigeons! The people behind this dastardly terror attack now know exactly who all squealed and thereby destroyed their alibi- albeit unsuspectingly, because they did not know they were on camera. What risk this puts them at, we can only speculate.

Call it a pet peeve. But on more than one occasion in the past few weeks I have been left with a mixture of emotions directed squarely at the media- especially, broadcasters. Suffice it to say that not all of the thoughts are very positive!