Chit Fund Scam: Cheating At Grassroots!

Trinamool means grassroots and the Trinamool Congress (TMC) party with Mamata Bannerji as its leader romped home in the 2011 elections of West Bengal seemingly winning the votes at the grassroots and rescuing the poor commoners from the ‘clutch’ of the long ruling Left. The masses of the state had hailed the win as a kind of revolutionary, not knowing what would follow. In fact, a whole lot of shockingly bizarre events followed with Mamata Bannerji as the Chief Minister ranging from Baby Deaths, Rape controversies to curbing of freedom of expression. The Merciless Mamata syndrome showed no signs of stopping. And now, the grass-root reality of her government gets exposed again with the Saradha Chit Fund Case that looted the poor of their lifelong savings. 

Chit Funds (Ponzi schemes) are very common in India flourishing with the investments of fallible and vulnerable commoners and with rampant political patronization. Scores of poor investors went bankrupt as the Saradha Chit Fund was proved a Cheat Fund with its kingpin fleeing first and then getting arrested. The scenes of the poor people of West Bengal and Assam losing their lifelong savings were heart wrenching and so far two poor investors reportedly committed suicide. The people of West Bengal erupted in protests all over the state demanding immediate refund.

Fighting complicity of several politicians of TMC in the scam and with the continuing crackdown of the Government of India on such fraud chit funds Mamata became desperate. She wanted 50 million bucks to somewhat compensate the poor investors and in her efforts to raise that money she created more controversies. She started making donations that were allegedly donated earlier to her government only by the fraud Chit Fund. More bizarre happenings were in store. Mamata imposed a ten percent local tax on cigarettes to raise some amount of the money needed and in a media conference advised people to ‘smoke as frequently as they could’ so that she could compensate the poor. Her ‘smoke joke’ has shocked all and irked particularly the medical fraternity.

In India the poor provides the vote banks to most political parties and the ‘gratified’ political parties offer sops in return. But, in the final bargain the poor only stands to get looted, looted and looted.  

Is this just the tip of the iceberg?

Gaylestorm Gone, Hurricane Gayle Now!

Watching Chris Gayle in action the thought often comes to our mind, what will happen if he gets just uncontrollable like the unstoppable bullet train or the speeding bus! That’s exactly what happened yesterday, the 23^rd of April 2013, in Bangalore in his team Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB)’s match against Pune Warriors during the on-going Indian Premiere League—2013 (IPL-6). His bulldozing yet effortless shots all around the park created world records not just for IPL or T20 Cricket, but also for the world of cricket.

Gayle raced to his century in just 30 balls, a world record in all formats of cricket. He hit 13 fours and 17 huge sixes in his unbeaten knock. His tally of 17 sixes created another world record in all formats of the game, and RCB had also achieved a new high of 23 team sixes in a match. He did not seem to end his innings at 175, but the allotted 20 overs were over by then. This became the highest individual score ever in the history of T20 cricket. He helped his team reach a total of 263—the highest ever team score in the history of T20 cricket. In fact, Gayle has also completed a century with the help of sixes only (17 * 6= 102!). By then the result of the match was a forgone conclusion with the hapless Pune Warriors losing by a huge margin of 130 runs. Gayle already holds an IPL record of scoring four big hundreds.

Chris Gayle’s unbelievable knock of 175 in 66 balls created ripples throughout the world of cricket. India captain and T20 specialist MS Dhoni got overwhelmed by the superlative display of flawless batting. Darren Sammy, the WestIndiescaptain, had reportedly expressed his ecstasy saying Gayle was “not human, he’s a tsunami mixed with a nuclear bomb”. Yes, he is definitely Hurricane Gayle. His knock assumes great significance in IPL-6 where most of the matches played so far are low-scoring and choked with the bowlers enjoying an edge and achieving several hattricks already.

It is another wonder that despite having a player like Chris Gayle as the opener RCB has not been able yet to lift the title or rather any kind of T20 Championship titles, though they have proved to be the most consistent team in IPL reaching the knockout or semis stage several times.

But then, IPL-6is not even halfway through, only 33 match have been played and in all there are 76 scheduled matches. With the participation of many greats and veterans this extravaganza of money spinning tournament has invariably managed to inject some amount of genuine cricket too. By the way, today India cricket giant Sachin Tendulkar turns 40. Wishing him a Happy Birthday the cricket-crazy nation must be geared up to see some fascinating cricket from the little master in the rest of the IPL-6 matches.

Delhi Gudiya: The Rape Capital Shames India Again!

This time it was a five-year-old baby girl, lovingly called 'Gudiya’ (Doll), who fell to the perverted and fiendish greed of the rapists. She was reportedly abducted by a 25-year-old neighbor of her building on the evening of 15th April, 2013. The distressed family informed the police, but nothing was done except for registering an FIR with lot of delay. The point here to note here is that the family was a poor one with no political or influential connections to impress upon the police. And naturally, the ‘investigating’ officers never bothered to conduct a search in the building complex.

The baby girl was raped and tortured for more than forty hours. Finally, somebody heard her crying from inside a locked flat and she was rescued in a most precarious state. The neighbor seemed to have fled the premises as the noise over the abduction grew. The police arrived, and instead of taking the serious girl to a good hospital tried bargaining with the family for a cover-up. The family was allegedly offered 2000 bucks to remain silent and thus close the case. The 'magnanimous' police officials allegedly told the family that there was nothing now to worry about since Gudiya was found alive. 

Yesterday Gudiya was finally shifted to the best hospital in the city and protesters took to the streets creating a national outrage once again in the Rape Capital of India—Delhi— where only four months ago a brutal gang rape shook the government of India forcing it to consider the issue of crimes against women more seriously. Action, ordinances and draft bills followed in quick succession. Within three months the anti-rape bill was made into a law that aimed to cover a whole range of crimes against women prescribing the death penalty in the rarest of rare cases. But, unfortunately, all rape-related cases in a country inhabited by an overpoweringly large class of male chauvinistic monsters could only be commonplace occurrences while in most foreign countries such cases would be immediately termed as 'rarest of rare'. 

A team of specialized doctors started treating Gudiya. One of them said that he had never seen such barbaric torture inflicted upon a little girl.

More was in store. The same day yesterday some protesters barged into a police station demanding action and immediate punishment to the culprits. The police officers, true to their feudal colors, became oblivious even of the camera persons present there. Before a shocked nation one of them slapped a girl repeatedly and shoved the protesters out. The visuals went viral and angry reactions began to pour in from all quarters.

Even as the Prime Minister of India expressed his anguish and asked for stringent action to be taken Delhi Police showed little concern. The top cop never showed up and only a local Deputy Commissioner held a press conference last night. The Indian society, particularly the feudalistic northern belt, refused to change even after the most horrific Delhi Gangrape and the revolutionary aftermath. Another incident occurred at the same time at Aligarh in Uttar Pradesh where the body of a five-year-old girl with torture marks was recovered. When the mother of the child went to the local police station to lodge a complaint she was beaten and thrown out.

Money, power, corruption, perversion and degeneration have penetrated the Indian society to the core. If you do possess all these attributes you are fit to live in this country, if you try to be different better leave India.  In such a situation even strict laws, severe punishment and fast-track courts fail to act as deterrents. The only solution is a deep-rooted revolution. The Young India Movement for Change that started after the Delhi Gangrape must not be case specific and must go on without letup till it changes the ‘male-volent’ society.

Hope must still be kept alive in all our hearts. Gudiya is doing well as per the latest medical bulletin, but would need long-term reconstruction. The fiendish accused has been arrested in Bihar. A few police officials were suspended last evening, but suspension is only a stop-gap measure. All male monsters must be dismissed from service and arrested.