And he’s back

Sigh. Just when we thought the city was safe from the menace called Suresh Kalmadi, he’s free to prowl Pune again. What can you say? It had to happen. In a country with such lax anti-corruption laws, people like him were bound to be set free to continue their plunder.

And with civic elections around the corner in Pune, he will once again have a shot at power. Most distressing.

Surely, he must have been plotting for the elections sitting in Tihar. The only positive would be that he won’t have much chance to do publicity given that the code of conduct is now in force. Of course, he, like Ajit Pawar is above the law so let’s not rule it out totally! Never mind how upset some people may be!

Sadness looms…

Another block on blogs

What is this country coming to? After an initial block on blogs after 7/11, the Congress party (in power) has decided to flex its muscle and ban all Anti-Congress blogs and sites. The explanation states:

India’s Department of Telecommunications (DoT) passed an order to ISPs on July 14 to block blog sites, as they were said to be spreading anti-national message. The list of the websites to be blocked was confidential

Now. since when did Anti-Congress become Anti-National? Most sites that have been asked to be blocked talk negatively (or truthfully, if you will) about the Congress and its allies. Why are these bans never extended to the mainstream media? Why can newspapers write true stuff and survive? Ditto for TV Channels?

Or is that because blogs are new media, they are being experimented with? Something similar had happened recently in Pakistan and China… and we were sandwiched in the middle thinking, “Hm. Nice place, this India”. Well, wake up.

Two points come to mind:

1. Bloggers should be proud of what they do if the govt. needs to block them for it obviously means they are “in the public eye”.

2. The Bajrang Dal blogs? (Don’t bother, it’s blocked!)