1.2 Delhi's Cold Shoulder

This was a week where a lot of stuff happened - sadly none of them good for Delhi and the people who rule the Nation from there - actually , especially for the people who rule from there.

The first setback to the country was ULFA returning - literally with a bang, actually several of them. The targets were kiln workers, fishermen and daily wage earners. Their fault ? They were not Assamese and were Biharis. Entire Assam came together against ULFA - at least the urban Assam with local assamese forming groups to protect the Biharis. But neither that nor an extra lot of paramilitary forces could stop the exodus from Assam. You would be surprised to know that we have a Home Minister in the Central Government - and you would not be surprised to know that he has not spoken a word about this. Perhaps a Home Minister in UPA government is someone who looks after 10 Janpath. If Mr Patil becomes even half active as his predecessor - the number of life insurance policies would go down dramatically in this country. I am not sure about the fine print in those policies though , whether they still cover terrorists acts as unnatural/unusual scenario of death. Or is it just me, creating much ado about nothing - after all just 30 people have died - those too the ones you wont even notice when you drive on that expressway.

More violence was reported from Nandigram - a village in West Bengal. This particular piece of violence was tough to understand. A reason for my lack of comprehension might be that the place is in a state ruled by Communists, which incidentally is also the reason the violence started. It seems that a group of villagers who thought that their land was about to be acquired for a Chemical SEZ, grouped together and took up arms to protect their land. CPI(M) workers did not like that and attacked the village with crude bombs and about half a dozen people died. If you still can't make head or tail of why it happened, join my party. The Union Government in Delhi again could not say or do much except send a few letters - because any strong move might destabilize the Center. In the end all that was happened was that the opposition parties called for a bandh. I never quite understood the concept of Bandh against people dying. Like Assam, here the people who died were farmers or daily wage earners. A bandh next day would mean that more daily wage earners would go hungry, increasing the probability of more dying next day. Which means the day after will be another bandh , in protest of people dying of hunger. which means another set of people dying. Which means ....

The news which takes the cake this week is the Supreme Court's decision that any law made under Schedule 9 of the constitution can be challenged in the Court, if it violates the fundamental rights. According to the SC, Fundamental Rights are the top priority to the Nation. For a moment, BJP cadres thought SC was talking about them when it mentioned "fundamental" rights. However, they anyway issued a statement welcoming the decision. Any court decision which puts the Government in Delhi in trouble is always welcomed by the opposition. Many laws including the ones on reservations and conversions could now be challenged in court. This will start a new chapter in the relationship between the Executive and the Judiciary. We might see many more stand offs between the two - like the one happening last week. This might be bad news for the executive but it is a really good news for people like me. We would now have a lifetime supply of things to make fun of.

However, none of the above news was of enough interest to make it to living rooms of India. We Indians never worry about people dying anywhere in the country if the count is less than five hundred. Which just means that the news from Bengal and Assam did not qualify for discussions. What qualified was Sehwag being sent to the gully because of his slip position performance and Ganguly being sent to the on side in a catching position. For those who hate their cricket - Sehwag was taken out of the one day squad and Ganguly was brought in. Another news which was hot was the wedding of Aishwarya Rai and Abhishek Bachhan. While people were being slaughtered in Tinsukhia of Assam, news channels caught hold of numerologists, astrologers and tarot card readers to spell the future of the couple. Hundreds of people called up these channels to ask questions about the couple. I was glad sexologists and gyanaes were not brought on board to discuss about the other aspects of their married life. (The day is not too far though). Now that their wedding has been announced , I am afraid we will have to watch live and exclusive pictures of Ash and Abhishek getting married, going on a honeymoon. I am not scared of those pictures - I am scared because Amar Singh will follow the couple everywhere. Now I understand why the astrologers were saying that there is a "shani" in the couple's married life. You know who that Shani is

1.1 : TWTW returns with name changed

TWTW is back - but with its name changed. As the new edition is being sent to a large set of people who never saw TWTW , I would take a short paragraph to tell them about it. So new guys on the blog, The Week That Was , was one of the most well written, most awaited , most captivating mailer on the news from India. Old guys know that most of the above is fabricated.
Lets stop living in the past, and concentrate on the past which just went by - How was the week that was ? So was the week ....

The most important news of the week was from Noida. I used to think that Noida just has multinational and Indian companies which take their employees' "khoon-pasina" (blood and sweat). I was wrong - there are also men who do it to fellow humans. Ever since the skeletons have been dug out of the D-5 , Sector 31, people have started digging up stories which start from organ trading to cannibalism. The Mohinder Singh-Satish duo has now confessed to killing 35 people. Some of them were sold as organs, some raped and some eaten up - but all of them killed and buried in their Noida house. Most of them were kids and women. Noida police dismissed the disappearance of children and women from Nithari village as a common trend. The apathy of Noida police is not just the only thing where the police can be laughed at. Suddenly, all cities where Mohinder had ever lived are buzzing with activity. Police in those cities is quickly solving all disappearance cases - attributing them to Chaudhary. But back in Noida, the case has been handed to CBI - rather reluctantly by the Chief Minister. With elections round the corner and Soniya and Mayawati pitching against him, poor old Mulayam is scared to do anything these days.

Speaking about women politicians creating trouble for male politicians - Mamta Banerjee has created a major chaos in the left front. Yes, this chaos is on top of the chaos which the left front is made of. Mamta's 25 day hunger strike not only helped her shed those extra kilos, she also managed to gain some mass(es) to follow her. Singur battleground between a fasting Mamta and a not so fast to act Buddhadeb has brought a new life to the state of West Bengal, which has been feeling "left" out for a few decades. While all this was happening, Tatas, for whom the farmers' land was being acquired could think of only one thing - "Ok Tata".

Speaking about conflicts - amongst thousands happening each day in this country, one that caught my attention was between Central Government and Supreme Court. Supreme Court had created a list of 9 people , whom they thought were experts in Environmental Studies and Sciences, Government had to chose from these people to constitute a three member Forest Advisory Committee which would oversee all forest-based projects in India. Central government found none of the 9 fit enough to be given such a responsibility. A war of words followed - with the Additional Solicitor General telling the court that is "encroaching" upon Executive's domain. The court, obviously, had not heard anything like this before and said a lot of stuff which sounded like grumble-mumble. In an another story, Delhi Police chief in his annual press conference patted his officers' back and said that his team performed well despite social turmoil and provocation by Supreme Court and High Court orders. I guess His Lordship's court-ship period is over.

Speaking of ending courtships - this one takes the cake. An RJD M.P.'s wife has written a letter to the Lok Sabha speaker Somnath Chatterjee that her husband has been neglecting her ever since he became an M.P. Are you thinking what I had thought earlier ? An ideal member of parliament , who is so engrossed in his work that his wife feels neglected. A workaholic politician , and that too from Bihar, and that too from RJD ? Time to burst the bubble - his wife has alleged that he has started showing interest in other women after he became an MP and has been travelling with other women on MP wife's quota. The MP has denied everything, and the Speaker has nothing to say.

-Amit