New Zealand Beat India In Napier ODI, Brilliant Virat Ton Goes In Vain!

Mitchell McClenaghan In Fury! 

After losing both the ODI and Test Series in South Africa Indian batsmen today in the first one-day-international (ODI) against New Zealand in Napier had a great chance to reverse their poor overseas cricket trend, but they failed miserably despite a brilliant hundred by Virat Kohli (123 in 111 balls) as New Zealand beat India by 24 runs. As is usual for Indian ovseseas cricket the Indian Tour of New Zealand started with a defeat. Again, it is more of a story of the Indian batsmen not able to negotiate short balls and bouncers with four of the top batsmen failing due to sheer pace. Even then, reduced to 129 for 4 in the 29th over chasing a daunting target of 293, Kohli and Dhoni (40 off 46 balls-the second highest individual score for India) built a fast-paced partnership bringing India within sight of victory, but a quick fall of three wickets sealed an exciting New Zealand victory. Possibly it is the same fear of the short stuff that made Indian captain MS Dhoni give New Zealand the first chance of batting on a good track after winning the toss. The contrast to Indian batting is more striking when we see that New Zealand tailenders CJ Anderson and L Ronchi put together 98 runs in just 58 balls between themselves taking New Zealand to an eventually winning total. CJ Anderson went on to take two crucial Indian wickets to prove his credentials as an emerging all-rounder. MJ McClenaghan took 4 wickets including a burst of three quick ones to take his team to a great victory.

Most of the Indian bowlers were expensive though Mohammed Shami put pressure on the hosts by taking the first two wickets pretty quick. In fact India managed to slow down New Zealand most of the times when the hosts threatened to run away with the match. However, no bowler could prevent the destructive Anderson-Ronchi duo hitting sixes and fours at will taking the score to 292/7 after fifty overs. The two Indian spinners Ashwin and Jadeja gave away more than hundred runs between themselves for just one scalp making you wonder why two spinners were actually selected for the match. The Scorecard:

New Zealand lead the five-match ODI Series 1-0 at the moment. It will take a huge effort from India to come up and fight back. Of course, there is ample time left for regrouping. After the loss MS Dhoni admitted it to be a batting failure and stressed on the need of having long partnership. Team India must also try capitalising on superlative efforts by players like Virat Kohli. It is extremely depressing that Kohli got the rare misfortune of scoring a brilliant century and his team losing which never happened in his last 12 of his 18 ODI hundreds. 

Darbari Politics: Do Not Go Overboard, Mr. Kejriwal!

Emperors or Kings of ancient and medieval India used to have their ‘darbar’ or ‘courts’ to hear and address the subjects’ problems. These autocratic monarchs had full authority to decide action or punishment on the spot and nobody dared question the verdicts. However, modern Indian democracy is much more different, and Arvind Kejriwal’s brand of ‘common man rule’ is the extreme contrast with everybody having the right to ask, question or contest. Besides, Indian mob behavior is only too predictably well known. In an almost unmanageably overpopulated country plagued by unemployment and inflation the huge crowds at the employment exchanges, freebie events and public transport stations are only to be seen to be believed. And then the ‘me first’ mentality has been a constant witness to innumerable stampedes at religious places, fatal road accidents and huge traffic snarls. Having a Chief Minister within a touching distance you can lucidly imagine how desperately the crowd would behave. Therefore, the common man’s Chief Minister of Delhi, Arvind Kejriwal’s decision or promise to have ‘janta darbar’ or ‘people’s court’ to hear and redress problems on the spot was fraught with dangers from the start. Yesterday on Saturday, the utter chaos of his first attempt of ‘janta darbar’ proved the point beyond doubt. He had to escape from the desperate ‘janta’ by canceling the hearing and had to apologize later expressing his fear of ‘being crushed by the crowd otherwise’. However, he stuck to his promise saying that next time suitable arrangements would be in place. Alas!

As per his most important anti-corruption agenda-related promise Arvind Kejriwal launched the Corruption Helpline in Delhi on Wednesday, 8^th of January and in the first three days it received nearly 15,000 complaints. So far so very good. Normally, a Helpline is supposed to ‘help’ the callers or complainants and not ask/solicit their help. But this Helpline demands the complainants to execute a sting thus providing crucial ‘evidence’ against the ‘guilty’ parties to the government. Now, how a complainant is supposed to do a sting is left to the imagination of the unspecified. Cynics would say that this compulsion of doing a sting is set to initiate another corruption racket with complainants trying to hire ‘resourceful’ professionals for the job at minimum cost implying a chain of bargaining or influence, not to say about how the stressed police or the overburdened courts are going to view or review such precious sting ‘evidence’ eventually. The inherent dangers involved in this system are well imaginable. Fighting corruption in India is extremely difficult and therefore the way to fight it must be foolproof. Sticking to his promise Kejriwal on Friday replaced the normal number with a friendlier four-digit number, which is 1031. Alas!

Considering the tremendous euphoria and hope all over the country following Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) coming to power in Delhi with big shots from almost all fields including industry, IT, electronic media and the arts joining the AAP fold, Arvind Kejriwal must tread very carefully controlling his populism and fulfillment of election agenda impulses, and not to go overboard. He also must understand that the big and established political parties are waiting patiently for a huge AAP mistake so as to expose the ‘common man rule’. They would be too overjoyed if they get a chance to expose before the General Elections in April-May, 2014.

Humor In Corruption: Speed Money And The Honesty Dilemma!

Somewhere in India.  In a small nondescript town two friends are sorting out issues. 
 

Friend 1: “Hi buddy! ...You seem to be in a bit of a worry. What happened?” 

Friend 2: “Well, a debate is raging within me…You know I told you about my land settlement issue. Job is almost done except for one last document. And the concerned official is asking for ‘speed’ money to expedite it quickly…”

Friend 1: Ha! Speed money? The legalized term for a plain simple bribe? 

Friend 2: “I don’t really know. People nowadays hardly have enough time for odd jobs. But these have to be done too. I’m told people readily pay ‘speed’ money to save precious time. …Anyway, my predicament is not actually that. Something else is disturbing me…”

Friend 1: “You mean to say you are ready to pay bribes! How could you be so immune to the anti-corruption wave going on around?” 

Friend 2: “How do I matter? Meaning how do I solve the problem by my so extremely personal example? I need to close this chapter quickly for my own benefit. …And what do you see? Arvind Kejriwal has become the Chief Minister in no other place than the capital of our country. But what happens? People are still brazenly paying and accepting bribes there. You need a news channel sting to bring it to the government. You see, like all bad elements in our blood such as cholesterol or creatinine ‘corruption’ too runs in the Indian veins.”

Friend 1: “If everybody thinks like you what changes can you expect in this god forsaken country! ...Anyway, tell me your real problem.” 

Friend 2: “Okay, I pay the speed money…bribe… for the job. Now I’d expect the job to be done quickly as assumed. But would they be loyal enough to do that? I mean if they just pocket the money and do nothing!” 

Friend 1: “Ha! Ha! Ha! Trust the corrupt? No my friend, you cannot even expect the minimal ‘honesty’ in corruption in this…whatever country! Well, if you include bribe-takers in the larger tribe of criminals, and rightly so, then criminals need to show some sort of ‘honesty’ too in their dealings or crimes. But no, but they don’t care…you must have seen in so many Bollywood movies how one member of a gang finally eliminates his/her ‘comrades’ or ‘partners’ or ‘inseparable friends’ to run away with the loot!” 

Friend 2: “Yes, that is why…I am unable to decide what to do…”

Friend 1: “But why should you join the ‘criminals’ by being a bribe-giver? Why at all? Say a loud NO to bribes and decide once and for all. …Wait for your job to be done in the normal course.”