Our Funarena!

New Delhi , November 09, 2012, 1.30 PM. Time for anti-corruption campaigner cum politician Arvind Kejriwal to release the fourth expose installment. And dot on time the India Against Corruption (IAC) functionary  added one more to the land of allegations…call it India . This time it was against black money allegedly stashed in alleged Swiss bank accounts owned allegedly by over 700 Indians with the Government allegedly helped by HSBC, industrialists and ministers allegedly not allowing it come into the country. The issue of black money has been doing rounds in this country since time immemorial. Various political parties when not in power raised this issue in various times asking questions while the political parties in power did the answering. The anti-corruption crusader Anna Hazare started the movement on the general issue and Yoga guru Baba Ramdev was quick to join in attacking the specific issue of black money. But it always needs Arvind Kejriwal to bring it out in the op

The traditional date of arrival of the South West Monsoon in Mumbai is 10 th June. This year the monsoon officially hit Mumbai on 16-17 th June, 2012. But there have been no rains thus far. As I was writing out this post a heavy downpour started and looked set to continue. Alas! It dried up very fast as if not at all in a mood. For the coming days the met office has no optimistic forecast. But the met office is hardly taken seriously around this part of the world. Whenever it forecasts heavy to very heavy downpour in the next twenty four hours people think they can leave their umbrellas safely at home! The greatest deluge in recent times and many other major rain disasters caught the met office totally unawares.   Apart from causing uncertainty for the Maharashtra farmers the no-rain situation worries the city as the authorities have declared that the city has a water reserve to last only 19 days more. After that water scarcity looms large, if monsoon does not still get i

Basically, the politicians of India have failed miserably to deliver on curbing the menace of corruption and black money. Huge and huger scams kept on surfacing making the masses disillusioned. So, social activists, saints, god-men and the like have come to occupy the center stage starting a movement against corruption. Anna Hazare , who was relatively unknown outside Maharashtra, sat on fast in the national capital in April, 2011 and became a national hero eliciting unprecedented mass support. Many political parties and leaders wanted to be a part of this, but Anna was firm keeping the movement non-political. Ramdev Baba , the Yoga-guru who made his billions all over the world running two television channels and stigmatized by the alleged murder of his own guru, saw this and thought why not have some political power and clout. He picked up black money issue which is only the other side of a larger issue of corruption. He started his fast unto death at Ramleela Ground, New Delhi yes