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.

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:

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 …

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.]

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.

There’s something fascinating about the Congress party which is only infrequently noted. It’s a party of sycophants and brown-nosers. The better a person is at bending, bowing, scraping, groveling, and sucking up to the members of the Nehru-Gandhi family, the higher his or her position in the whole sordid hierarchy.

If you have a sense of deja vu reading the title of this post, don’t worry. That appears to be most apt description of the man (and I use the word loosely), with each new multi-lakh crore scam coming out in the open.

India’s present predicament can be fully ascribed to the flawed policies of those who guided India’s destiny since 1947. The person most notable among the lot that set India along a disastrous path is Jawaharlal Nehru. Scores of places, institutions, roads, ports and government schemes are named after him. New Delhi, the city I am currently visiting, is festooned with not just his name, but the names of his relatives. Nehru Place, Kamala Nagar, Jawaharlal Nehru stadium, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Rajiv Chowk, Indira Gandhi International Airport, JN Urban Renewal Mission, …

I am torn between contempt and pity for the small man that Dr Manmohan Singh is. Does the man have no shame? Do guts? No spine? Apparently there’s nothing in him that is of any value. He traded in his integrity — that is if he had any to start off with — to become the appointed prime minister. But he could have grown a backbone and redeemed himself. If not for himself, at least for the sake of the clan to which he belong, the proud fearless warrior clan …

We pretty much know how despicable Dr Manmohan Singh is. I struggle inexpertly to express my contempt for him on these pages. The contempt I feel for him arises from the certain knowledge that much of what the hundreds of millions of poor & middle-class Indians suffer (and will continue to suffer) can be laid at his door.

That’s my conclusion. YMMV. Ashok Malik wrote a piece in Hindustan Times, “Modi Operandi.” While the title is too clever by half, you should check it out. An excerpt below the fold.

The Copernican Revolution.
In the Western tradition, the idea that the sun revolves around the earth — geocentrism — is known as the Ptolemaic model. It was a notion that led people to explain astronomical observations such as the movements of planets with convoluted arguments and constructs. In 1543 Copernicus provided an alternative hypothesis — heliocentrism — which placed the sun at the center of the solar system, and was later confirmed in 1610 by Galileo Galilei. From geocentrism to heliocentrism was a “paradigm shift” (a term much abused …

I should apologize for being a lazy bum. Otherwise I would have responded sooner to some of the comments that need a response to my post “Arundhati Roy is a Damn Nuisance.” Anyhow, better late than never. So, first, a note of thanks to those who left the thoughtful comments. I am glad that you took the time. Next comes the more interesting part of replying to the negative comments.

My post, A few home truths for Indians, did not go down too well with some. They don’t like my pointing out the fact that the Gandhi-Nehru dynasty has been India’s primary curse, and one commenter apparently believes in shooting the messenger when he disagrees with the message. But it is a small price to pay for my continued education. (In recognition of the fact that I use this blog for my own education, I categorized that post as “My Continuing Education on the Web.”) I’d like to share with …

Mohan Murti writing in Business Line of May 31 asks “Is the nation in a coma?” I think so. The nation’s leaders are dishonest, corrupt, venal, and criminal. Yet the citizens don’t seem to know or care. The most telling fact is that Dr Manmohan Singh, the prime minister of the country, is an astonishingly dishonest person. But he enjoys a reputation of being clean. Dr Singh presides over a collection of the most heinously dishonest bunch of criminals ever to have walked the earth and yet there is no …

Arun Jaitley, the Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, in an interview he gave to rediff.com said that “it was evident that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has the capacity to damage institutions to remain in power.” Not a very nice thing to say. But then, when talking of not nice people, one cannot say very nice things. Actually, Jaitley understates — perhaps deliberately — how despicably Mr Singh has behaved. Mr Singh has clearly overused his capacity to do damage.

“Give a man a reputation as an early riser, and he can sleep until noon.” Mark Twain’s pithy remark is illustrated most forcefully in the case of Mr Manmohan Singh and his integrity. In his case, give the man a reputation as an honest person, and he can rob the country blind with impunity.

Congress, Nepotism and Corruption: The Eternal Rotten Braid
The three — corruption, nepotism and the Congress party — form India’s most enduring triumvirate. It is hard to think of one without thinking of the others because they characterize India’s politics and political landscape like nothing else conceivably can. The Congress party is the fiefdom of one family — being part of that confers the inalienable right to be the boss. Nepotism gains a whole new meaning in the hands of the Congress. Chronic, acute and pervasive corruption at the highest levels …