Sometimes looking at the way the government does things one wonders whether the lunatics are running the loony bin. But perhaps the truth is not funny at all, and more horrifying: the people running the country are not crazy but rather they are terrifyingly smart and know exactly what they are doing and why. Their game involves controlling the masses through lies and misdirection.

Narendranath Dutta was born in 1863 on this day Jan 12th. As a disciple of Sri Ramakrishna Pramahansa, he became the sanyasi known as Swami Vivekananda.

Goodbye Christopher. I am glad that you lived and I have had the pleasure of meeting you a couple of times — once at the Berkeley Repertoire Theater in the 1997 and once at a book release in 1999. I am certainly going to miss your incisive writing. The world is going to be a poorer place for your departure.

I support Dr Subramanian Swamy’s right to express his views and I support Harvard University’s right to remove Dr Swamy’s economics courses from Harvard’s summer teaching roster. Academic freedom — which includes the freedom to choose whom you allow to teach in your institution — is as important as freedom of expression. We, the third party, have the freedom to decide whether or not we wish to support Harvard. Given a choice, I will not support Harvard University. Note the distinction between “supporting Harvard” and “supporting the rights of …

Kapil Sibal’s uncivilized behavior has to have the backing and protection of the Queen Antonia Maino aka Sonia Gandhi. As @vinod_sharma pointed out, “Sibal can’t be head of Gestapo unless there is a Hitler who wants him to do whatever it takes promote & protect him. Why silence about that?” Kanchan Gupta writing in Mid-Day, “A brazen attempt at political censorship” notes that censorship is nothing new: the Congress party and the Nehru-Gandhi family have a history of trying to dictate to the press and muzzle free expression.

Dr Swamy is a national asset. I sometimes wonder why the Congress goons don’t bump him off. May his tribe increase. To increase awareness among Indians of the corruption charges against the Nehru-Gandhi-Maino clan, please circulate this widely.

My friend Keith Hudson gave me permission to quote a recent piece of his in full. He presents an historical perspective to the present global financial conditions, thus helping our comprehension of what’s going on and what is needed to fix the broken bits. Read, enjoy, and pass it on.

Narendrabhai is in China leading a business delegation which includes my colleague Rajesh Jain.

I have mentioned the basic laws of human stupidity enunciated by Prof Cipolla before on this blog. For your convenience, I repeat the basic laws here:

My previous post “Narendra Modi Scares Some People” received a comment by Sanjeev Sabhlok. See the full text of the comment here. He began by writing, “Much as I respect your opinions on other matters, I simply can’t understand your stand on Modi.” This post is a reply to Sanjeev explaining why I support Narendrabhai Modi.

In the 10 days that I have been in India, I have traveled quite a bit. First was a road trip from Mumbai to Nashik to see my younger brother. Then a day trip to Ahmedabad/Gandhinagar. Three days ago I came to Kolkata and I’ll return to Mumbai on Tuesday 25th October.

The answer to that question is very clear to our dear Dr Subramanian Swamy, president of the Janata Party. For those of us who have had a keen interest in the appointed prime minister Dr Manmohan Singh’s cabinet, it seems almost natural that under the slightest scrutiny skeletons come tumbling out of it. A veritable rogues’ gallery. But the charge Dr Swamy levels against the Home Minister P Chidambaram goes beyond mere roguery and lands in traitor territory. If what Dr Swamy alleges is indeed true, then you may say …

On this day, Swami Vivekananda (1863-1902) spoke at the Parliament of the World’s Religions at Chicago in 1893. He addressed his audience as “Sisters and Brothers of America” and proceeded to introduce them to the dharma — the Sanatana Dharma which is also known as Hinduism. Here’s bit from that speech:

Madhu Kishwar writing in OutlookIndia.com says, “I fail to understand why almost every commentator, every TV anchor, every editorial writer feels compelled to pay ritual obeisance to the “personal honesty and integrity” of Dr Manmohan Singh.” I note that Madhu qualifies the statement with “almost every.” As a blogger, I have been insisting that the appointed prime minister Dr Manmohan Singh is despicably dishonest man, and that he will be remembered for his venality. That he is getting a free pass right now can only be because Indians are not …

Dr Manmohan Singh is a despicably dishonest man. The Supreme Court is slowly realizing that.

[Hat tip: Santosh.]

It is widely rumored that India is a vibrant democracy but one wonders if the rumors are wild exaggerations with little bearing to reality. I could be wrong but doesn’t the idea of a democracy include having an effective opposition to the ruling party? Or is it still a democracy if it is a one-party rule which does whatever suits its narrow interests because there is no opposition to provide the checks and balances that are needed to assure that the ruling party does not use its rule to enrich …

Dear old Hans Rosling can always be depended upon to teach while making the lesson interesting and fun. I am confident that one day everyone will realize what an amazing machine the world wide web is and how it can be the answer to our educational problems. But for now, sit back, and watch this amazing man do what he does best — lift the veil of ignorance and reveal a little bit of what lies beneath. And most of all, remind us to mind the gap. The video is …

IndianExpress.com reports that “Three official letters — one written by Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) in 2008, and two by the Kerala government in 2006 and 2008 — suggest the palmolein case against P J Thomas had come to the notice of the Prime Minister.” Manmohan Singh knew what he was doing in appointing PJ Thomas as the CVC. It was a despicably dishonest thing to do and then lied about it. But then he’s a despicably dishonest man. This is not the first time that he has done …

Why is Dr Manmohan Singh the perfect ventriloquist’s dummy? Because he has no guts and no spine, which makes it easy for the hand up his behind to control him.

In a license control quota permit raj, the link between big businesses and the government is bi-directional. The government hands out licenses in exchange for part of the loot that the businesses make from their monopolistic businesses.
Just the other day a friend was telling me how one major business house (starts with a B) used to give freebies to one of India’s prime ministers (starts with a N). N would be hosted and feted by B, and in exchange, N made sure that B got licenses for steel or …