Honest Cop Murdered by Mining Mafia!

Narendra Kumar Singh, a young officer of the elite Indian Police Service (IPS—2009 batch), was mowed down by trolley laden with stones in Morena district of Madhya Pradesh on Thursday. An honest and upright officer, Narendra Kumar was trying to stop the trolley, allegedly belonging to the mining mafia, for carrying stones illegally.

He was posted as a sub-divisional police officer in that district just about two months ago. The area has been notorious for illegal mining activities and Narendra had been very active taking the initiative and conducting checks, seizures and arrests round the clock. Acting on a tip-off that day he along with his driver and security guard intercepted the trolley ordering it to stop. The vehicle did not stop and ran him over. He was rushed to the nearby hospital and was announced brought dead. A horrific price of honesty young Narendra had to pay.

His distraught father while taking pride in his son’s crusade against criminals asked some very crucial questions. Why a top ranking officer had to go physically for the job normally done by inspectors and constables? Why the state machinery did not provide him the support and security despite his on-going efforts? Was the mining mafia enjoying patronage from the people in power? His father also alleged that all the criminals arrested by Narendra were freed eventually.

This points a finger to the government (read political)-mafia-underworld nexus that had seemingly plagued many states of India in recent times. But nobody takes the responsibility of initiating some action and all doubts and allegations get denied in normal course of proceedings. Political parties are only quick to capitalize on even the most tragic issues to make political gains. Seeing a party under pressure the opposition parties will only try increase it asking for resignations and even mid-term elections.The ruling parties or governments will also be more guided by the noise made by the opposition parties rather than focusing on the issues for the actions needed and for justice.

If you are an honest officer or employee in any of the governments in India you just cannot hope for admiration or protection for your righteous actions. You will be protected only if you allow yourselves to be forced, coerced, brain-washed and baptized into the correct or required or desired political scheme or theme or alignment.

Narendra Kumar Singh’s murder must be condemned by all right-minded Indian citizens. They must ask the authorities, ‘Do you have the courage to look straight in the eyes of Narendra’s pregnant wife and all his grief-stricken family members, and announce you will give justice?’

Australia Winners of CB Tri-Series ODI Cricket!

Australia emerged winners of the Commonwealth Bank Tri-Series ODI cricket defeating Sri Lanka by 16 runs in another low-scoring thriller today at the Adelaide Oval. Australia won the best-of-three finals 2-1.

Sri Lanka missed a tremendous opportunity today. They bowled out the mighty Australians for just 231 and the total could have been less than 200 if Sri Lanka capitalized on the chances given on the field. Their fielding was not at all the quality they are used to normally and they also missed a few crucial catches. Strike bowler Lasith Malinga was more of a liability today giving away too many runs without taking a single wicket. Maybe he has been still reeling under the hammering given by India in their last league match which Sri Lanka lost after amassing 321 runs. Even then, the target of 232 was a modest one, but the pressure of a big final was always there. It has been observed in the last few matches of the CB Series that teams found huge totals harder to defend and low ones easier to defend!

Except for a roaring opening partnership Australian batsmen did miserably losing 5 wickets from the score of 115 to 151. At 151/6 a total of even 200 seemed remote. But pacers Brett Lee (32) and Clint McKay (28) added precious runs helping the team take the score to a somewhat respectable 231. There was not a single half-century in the entire innings, the highest score being 49 by Wade. 

Disciplined bowling and tight fielding made the Sri Lankans falter after a rousing start. They were reduced to a precarious 53/4 in the tenth over and then 142/6 in the 36^th thanks to some great bowling by Brett Lee and McKay. Kulasekara, the hero of the first final, raised some hope of a comeback with Lee bowling two expensive overs in his second spell. But Lee managed to take the prized catch of Kulasekara amidst the run-deluge and McKay did the rest capturing 5 wicket for just 36 runs. Stand-in skipper Shane Watson though failing with the bat did some good captaincy with a tight first spell of 5 overs for only 8 runs and 1 wicket. It was perplexing why he came almost too late for his second spell, but when he came in again he took a wicket immediately slowing down the flow of runs too. For Sri Lanka only Tharanga could go past the half-century mark scoring a patient 71, but he could not carry on till the end. Man of the Series for his three brilliant centuries, Dilshan fell today cheaply to Lee though he chipped in well again with bowling. Clint McKay won the Player of the Match award for his all-round performance.

Finally, the better team of the day won. In a big final you cannot afford to have your top-order misfire and your middle-order suffocated for runs.

State Elections of India 2012: Sidelights!

Yesterday was a hectic day for all in the Indian media including this writer as counting for assembly election results of the five states of India started at 8am sharp. This was rated as the semi-final for India’s General Elections of 2014 and so the media hyperactivity and expectations were at the peak.  All news channels were live the whole day and late into the night debating, analyzing, assessing, speculating and of course reporting the trends, results and possible government formations with permutations and combinations. Not possible to give you everything here and so we have selected a few observations for you on calculations based on various exit polls going terribly or pleasantly wrong from the media point of view.

• The first state of interest was Uttar Pradesh—the biggest and politically the most important state of India. Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi campaigned extensively here to oust feudalistic and corrupt Mayawati and bring in a rejuvenated Congress. Mayawati was ousted alright, but Congress fared only marginally better than last time. Since his campaign itself was hyped his apparent defeat was hyped even more.
• Representing the young generation Rahul succeeded in only throwing out Mayawati while another young leader of Uttar Pradesh, Akhilesh Yadav—son of the former chief minister—brought his Samajwadi Party (SP) back to power. That too a landslide victory with a stunning majority when all in media were speculating about a hung assembly with immense possibilities, who can ally with whom and even imposition of President’s rule there.
• SP back in power with resounding success gave way to more speculation, because SP is considered as a party of goons and as another feudalistic force replacing the other. In fact, some journalists were attacked and taken hostage last night by SP workers. But young Akhilesh is well-educated, down-to-earth and relatively liberated. So the question is how he is going to rule the state! With his dad around live and kicking he cannot possibly become the next chief minister! And comically, the first question he faced from the media was ‘Will you destroy all the statues of Mayawati now?’ The young man said ‘No!’ Before political campaigning the Election Commission of India had ordered all statues to be veiled immediately!
• Recording an all time voting record of 81% Goa gave a clear verdict. The ruling Congress alliance was beset with problems of the illegal land mining scam and tourist security, but nobody could predict its unceremonious ousting. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) alliance got rewarded with nearly two-third majority in the 40-member Assembly.
• In Punjab it was cut-throat between Congress and Akali Dal-BJP alliance, but actually the latter secured a record number of seats coming back for the second term.
• Scam-corruption-inflation infested India’s ruling coalition is under tremendous pressure from opposition parties and the media due to poor performance of Congress. ‘What will happen to you in 2014?’ The answer is ‘No impact!’ And yes, who knows! The other question being would the newly elected parties be able to function free of the same vices!

In a true democracy you are not at all supposed to predict the citizens’ verdict. It’s because of creation of vote banks, politics of compartmentalization and polarization and the like that prediction is often accurate. If more than 80% of India decides someday to vote the result is bound to be most democratically unpredictable.