What ... err ?

It took seventeen years for the Cauvery water tribunal to reach a decision on the sharing of Cauvery water. I was majorly impressed by the Judiciary, because for starters I never thought that I will see the day when this case would be decided. But then, the after-effect of the decision was exactly as I had imagined -

• Tamil Nadu welcomed the decision, Karnataka declared that they will file a petition against it. This means when Karnataka files a petition, the first thing they will ask for is a stay order, which means for another 17-20 years, the water sharing would be haphazard. After that again, one of the states would get a chance to appeal to higher court. Higher the court, more time does it take to reach a conclusion - which means the next hearings would take another 25-35 years. By that time, my guess is that the polar ice caps would have melted and half of Tamil Nadu and Karnatak would be submerged. The problem might actually get resolved by itself.
  
• Coming back to the present, the present is tense in Karnataka. A sea of farmers pooled together and came on streets - blocking highways using violence and arson. Hence a lot of precious Karnataka water has to be wasted in dousing that fire and some more was used in water canons. This started a cascade of Karnataka Tamils towards TN, as they fled Karnataka to ensure their right to life was not diluted.
  
• The IT companies closed their shops in Banglore, which meant a few million dollars went down the drain. Schools and Colleges were also shut down - which made parents sweat all day. Banks were closed, and hence the liquidity of people of Karnatka was also frozen for a day.
  
• When all the above was happening, politicians indulged in their usual shallow talks, pissing everyone off.
  
• The most entertaining part was that the cable operators of Karnataka stopped showing Tamil Channels and Theatres showing Tamil Movies closed their shops - a classic example of "What? Err ... What? Err... everywhere..."

In West Bengal, the story was not too different. In Singur, about a dozen people died in violent protests. In Nandigram, a cop was lynched as he wanted to restore peace. Kolkota saw violent protests by Trinamool Congress and Youth Congress. Muslim Organizations came together and declared Industrialization in WB as "Anti-Muslim". All finally led Buddhadeb Bhattacharya to agree to not to disturb Nandigram and shift the SEZ somewhere else. He still insists however, that Singur Tata project still not "OK-Tata"-ed. But then the "Blow Horn" policies of the opposition are still on, and its wait and watch on the Bengal front.

In the capital of the Nation - the Master Plan 2021 was finally rolled out by the Central Government. For the reasons of confusions in the plan , I can not mention the details here - but in short - "By 2021, all unauthorized colonies would be regularized and commercial activities will be allowed in these colonies and in others which are regularized now." The mess-age is clear - "Please do not vote us out just because we sealed your shops and did not provide sewer to your homes and roads to your house were potholed." More on this on the next edition of SWTW.

Coming to good news - It was a week of WomenLib. In Harvard's 371 year history, for the very first time is all set to have a Woman as its president. Drew Gilpin, the historian is believed to be an almost final decision of the University. Also, Indira Nooyi became the PepsiCo chairperson - the 51 year IIMC pas out had just become CEO of PepsiCO four months back. Back in India, Manmohan Singh was given the "Man of The Year" title by CNN-IBN. This indirectly was the victory of Sonia Gandhi ... as we all know how Man-mohan spends all his time listening to Madam. In fact, the very fact that Sonia wanted him to be the PM proves that he is always "Man(mohan) of the hear"

Other headlines of the week were -
"BJP declares to raise inflation in the house"
- I thought it is already pretty much high, thanks to the UPA government. Do they plan to waste tax-payers' money on staging walkouts. For BJP there is a simple principle- "all is is well that ends in the Well"

"Campaigning ends in Punjab for Elections"
- BJP and Allies have gone all out in Punjab against Congress and UPA. This is a litmus test for Congress- which in all probability they will fail.

"Polls in UP only after 90% voters get I-cards - EC"
- Okay, that means I will never get to vote in UP, even after moving to Noida last week.

"Delhi : Only packed food to be sold on streets"
- If this is finalized, say goodbye to matar-kulchhas, chholey-bhaturey and golgappas. We want to make Delhi beautiful for foreigners who visit us in 2010. The first step is to remove ugly food from the streets. The next step probably would be to remove ugly people from the streets. That is why I moved to Noida, before the Delhi Government asks me to do it.

-Amit