I arrived in New Delhi on the evening of Saturday, July 28, for a 3-week summer vacation. On Sunday, in the middle of the night at 2:33 A.M., the lights went off. I woke up sweating ten minutes later. Electricity came back sometime after 10:00 A.M. The very next day at about noon, lights went off again. This time, too, the outage lasted about 7 hours. The second time, we learned, more than six hundred million people, or the entire North India, was affected.
Within hours of the second outage, it was announced that the Minister of Power, Mr. Shinde, was being moved to "Home". In any other civilized country, it would have been reasonable to expect that the minister will get fired for incompetency. Instead, the Indian Government rewarded him by promoting him to the position of Minister of Home Affairs. This is India. But what can we expect from Manmohan Singh, the 'Underachiever of the Year'. It would be only normal for somebody like him to hand over one of the most important portfolios to another underachiever, lest he outshines him.
In India, the corruptest of the corrupt are routinely rewarded with greater status, power, and position. Only a few days back, it was reported that Suresh Kalmadi, the defendant in the CWG scam case and who is out on bail, accused of swindling the CWG of millions of dollars, was being granted permission by the Delhi High Court to travel to London in connection with the 2012 London Olympics. How is this possible? How come he still has his passport? How come there is no authority in the Government of India that can stop him from proceeding to London, and presumably projecting himself as its representative? But then he is a member and representative of one of the most corrupt governments the world has ever seen.
Most Indians are fed up with their politicians who refuse to go away, resign, or otherwise die. Isn't it remarkable that this species, native only to India, has a much longer life span than the people it represents? It seems even God is scared to touch them lest they pollute his otherworldly abode.
Within hours of the second outage, it was announced that the Minister of Power, Mr. Shinde, was being moved to "Home". In any other civilized country, it would have been reasonable to expect that the minister will get fired for incompetency. Instead, the Indian Government rewarded him by promoting him to the position of Minister of Home Affairs. This is India. But what can we expect from Manmohan Singh, the 'Underachiever of the Year'. It would be only normal for somebody like him to hand over one of the most important portfolios to another underachiever, lest he outshines him.
In India, the corruptest of the corrupt are routinely rewarded with greater status, power, and position. Only a few days back, it was reported that Suresh Kalmadi, the defendant in the CWG scam case and who is out on bail, accused of swindling the CWG of millions of dollars, was being granted permission by the Delhi High Court to travel to London in connection with the 2012 London Olympics. How is this possible? How come he still has his passport? How come there is no authority in the Government of India that can stop him from proceeding to London, and presumably projecting himself as its representative? But then he is a member and representative of one of the most corrupt governments the world has ever seen.
Most Indians are fed up with their politicians who refuse to go away, resign, or otherwise die. Isn't it remarkable that this species, native only to India, has a much longer life span than the people it represents? It seems even God is scared to touch them lest they pollute his otherworldly abode.
