Again humanity violated, democracy mocked and life raped, by few fundamentalists. (Scores dead in Mumbai train bombs)

How can anybody take lives of innocents.. be it USA, Islamists or Fascists. For that one has to look down at God's creation.. How could anybody gain entry to heaven by mocking God? LeT, SIMI hand in Mumbai blasts (I'll not ask for forgiveness or punishment for preperators.. I am too fragile and insignificant for that)

Yes, I do feel empty! Mumbai blasts: An NRI's view

As a Non-Resident Indian, this is a strange feeling. You want to help, but the only thing you can do is make a few phone calls. You want to feel sad, but you are too far away to know what it's like for an official standing in the middle of mangled bodies at dinnertime. You want to curse the 'system', but it is no longer yours to curse. In essence, you feel helpless.

I know I do. 

Nice article on Reservation System by Mr Gurcharan Das @ A Highway Called India

Excerpts from the article.. 

Arjun Singh's proposal, however, seeks to artificially push persons from the slower to the faster lanes. This will cause accidents on the road and all the lanes will slow down. When high performers observe persons with lower marks stealing ahead by unfair means, they are bound to lose heart. Some of their competitive spirit will die. The notion of fair competition develops early in human beings. Studies by the Swiss psychologist, Jean Piaget, show that even three year olds get offended when one child gets a bigger piece of the cake. This is why every judgment by the American Supreme Court has opposed quotas even though it was sympathetic to affirmative action.

At the same event in Delhi, Larry Summers, the former President of Harvard University, claimed that history will remember our age by the rise of China and India. The importance of this event to world history, he said, is equal to the Renaissance and the Industrial Revolution. If the cabinet proposal on reservations goes through then history will only remember the rise of China. India, it will record, was too busy cutting itself up.

THE CONDUCT OF ELECTIONS RULES, 1961

49O. Elector deciding not to vote

If an elector, after his electoral roll number has been duly entered in the register of voters in Form-17A and has put his signature or thumb impression thereon as required under sub-rule (1) of rule 49L, decided not to record his vote, a remark to this effect shall be made against the said entry in Form 17A by the presiding officer and the signature or thumb impression of the elector shall be obtained against such remark.

Good observations made in this posting on rediff.

I had a call with another senior journalist friend (yes, I have journalists as friends -- I have no life, I know). We discussed the reservation issue -- on how it was practically more relevant to middle class Indians than any other issue. While the issue does get coverage, it has not ignited minds and galvanised the middle class. Somehow the issue is not getting as forceful a treatment. Fanaa's ban in Gujarat attracted far more media space for instance.

"The reason quite simply is the lack of a dramatic event. Ten years back, kids were burning themselves. Nothing of that sort is happening now. And the media is so immune now, to get them interested young people need to do more", was what she told me. (sic)

Read Full story @ Stay strong, stay inspired

There is big protest going on against Reservation System in India as all universities are required to reserve high number of seats (>50%) for OBC and SC/ST catagory, including IITs and IIMs. See previous blog posts in SVTechie Blog for in depth detail on this.

Pratap Bhanu Mehta, member of the National Knowledge Commission, resigned on May 22. This is the full text of his resignation letter to the prime minister, Manmohan Singh.

May 21, 2006

To,
Dr. Manmohan Singh,
Prime Minister of India,
7, Race Course Road,
New Delhi

Honourable Prime Minister,

I write to resign as Member-Convener of the National Knowledge Commission. I believe the Commission's mandate is extremely important, and I am deeply grateful that you gave me the opportunity to serve on it. But many of the recent announcements made by your government with respect to Higher Education lead me to the conclusion that my continuation on the Commission will serve no useful purpose.

The Knowledge Commission was given an ambitious mandate to strengthen India's knowledge potential at all levels. We had agreed that if all sections of Indian society were to participate in, and make use of the knowledge economy, we would need a radical paradigm shift in the way we thought of the production, dissemination and use of knowledge. In someways, this paradigm shift would have to be at least as radical as the economic reforms you helped usher in more than a decade ago. The sense of intellectual excitement that the Commission generated stemmed from the fact that it represented an opportunity to think boldly, honestly and with an eye to posterity. But the government's recent decision (announced by the Honourable  Minister of Human Resource Development on the floor of Parliament) to extend quotas for OBCs in Central institutions, the palliative measures the government is contemplating to defuse the resulting agitation, and the process employed to arrive at these measures are steps in the wrong direction. They violate four cardinal principles that institutions in a knowledge-based society will have to follow: they are not based on assessment of effectiveness, they are incompatible with the freedom and diversity of institutions, they more thoroughly politicize the education process, and they inject an insidious poison that will harm the nation's long term interest.
 

This is interview of Arjun Singh regarding ongoing reservation debate. As we know that he is the person behind all this reservation controversy. In the interview, Karan Thapar has made Arjun Singh look ugly, and rightly so.

Arjun Singh was trying to hide behind his colleague's back during whole process of interview. A snippet from the interview.

Arjun Singh: I wouldn't like to say much more on this because these are decisions that are taken not by individuals alone. And in this case, the entire Parliament of this country - almost with rare anonymity - has decided to take this decision.

Karan Thapar: Except that Parliament is not infallible. In the Emergency, when it amended the Constitution, it was clearly wrong, it had to reverse its own amendments. So, the question arises - Why does Parliament believe that the reservation is the right way of helping the OBCs?

Read full interview at http://www.ibnlive.com/news/decision-on-quota-is-final-arjun/11063-4-0.html

Finally I know which side to take.. Look previous entries on Vote Bank Politics & Reservation & Taking Sides.

I urge NRI community to come forward and protest.. Influence governements or investments bodies. Indian political system has failed and I guess that some of us should step up to the plate and start our own political party.