On 26/2/2010 Pranab Mukherjee presented India’s budget for the Financial Year 2010-11. Since 1992 prices used to come down after budget or did not go up. This time prices went up. Previously prices used to increase 15 days before the budget or some days after the budget or during the year and the government of the day used to claim that there is no increase of prices in the budget.
Month: February 2010
Maqbool Fida Husain, India and Qatar
Maqbool Fida Husain, a famous painter from India, has been offered Qatar nationality and he has applied for it. He has said “I, the Indian origin painter M. F. Husain at 95, have been honoured by Qatar nationality.â€
M. F. Husain has attracted controversy for his paintings. Exhibitions having his paintings were disrupted. There were many court cases against him. His life was in danger. For many years he lived abroad. He was not in exile because the government did not banish him.
Impeach Pratibha Patil
As per one report India’s President Pratibha Patil has refused to reject mercy petitions of murderers sentenced to death penalty. She follows Home Ministry’s advice only when it is to commute death penalty to life imprisonment.
Supreme Court and CBI
CBI’s record is pathetic. Many times CBI officers are susceptible to fear or favour. It is likely that they will not do a better job than state police and many times may do a worse job. There is no guarantee that if the judiciary orders a CBI probe it will do better or guilty will be caught and punished. Jain hawala case is an example.
Poona Blast
On 13/2/2010 in the evening, according to one report at 6.52 p.m., there was a blast in German Bakery at Koregaon Park in Poona. The bomb used is said to be a mixture of high intensity RDX and ammonium nitrate. At last count nine were dead and around forty were wounded, including some foreigners.
It is said that Chabad House and Osho Ashram were original targets of terrorists. However security there unnerved the terrorists and they planted bombs in German Bakery.
Parole and ICU
Some months back Praveen Mahajan, serving life sentence for murder of Pramod Mahajan, was out on parole. On the last day of parole he was supposed to have suffered brain haemorrhage and was admitted to an ICU in a hospital. After that his family said they do not have money to pay for his medical expenses and wanted the state to pay for his medical expenses. The state was looking into the issue on humanitarian grounds.
Film and the city
On 12/2/2010 the film My name is Khan opened for show in a few theatres at noon in Bombay. After two hours more theatres had opened and by night it was business as usual.
The film’s release was hanging in balance for the past two weeks. Shiv Sena had demanded apology from Shah Rukh Khan for his statement that Pakistani players should have been selected for IPL 3. If no apology they will not allow the film to be shown in Bombay. They had also said Bombay belongs to Marathi people and had criticised anyone who said Bombay belongs to all Indians. They had dared Rahul Gandhi to visit Bombay. If he came he will be shown black flags. Rahul Gandhi visited Bombay and travelled by local trains. Black flag demonstrators were arrested. Next day Shah Rukh Khan returned from abroad. He was given security from airport to home. Shiv Sena was dejected and would have given up the boycott. Sharad Pawar visited Bal Thackeray and that gave a boost to Shiv Sena which renewed the threat to boycott the film. They sent letters to theatre owners not to show the film.
India Loses Nagpur Test
India lost Nagpur Test by an Innings and 6 runs on 9/2/2010, fourth day of the Test. India’s Test ranking is No. 1 and South Africa’s No. 2.
As per original tour programme South Africa was to play seven ODIs. India defeated Sri Lanka in Tests at the end of 2009 and attained No. 1 ranking in Tests. India wanted a change in the series to retain its No. 1 status and the series was changed to two Tests and five ODIs.
BJP and Shiv Sena
BJP is a national party. Shiv Sena is a regional party. They are in alliance and part of NDA. At one time both parties had Hindutva as main agenda and that brought them close. BJP had alliances with regional parties which lasted a few years. It had alliance with TDP in Andhra Pradesh. It had alliance with AIADMK in Tamil Nadu. That broke down in 1999 and BJP had alliance with DMK and its associates which broke down in 2004. BJP and Shiv Sena had differences over certain matters over the years and they had ended in compromise.
Crime and media
Media has a responsibility in what it shows and how it shows. If anything that TV channels do gives a boost to crime, TV channels refrain from doing it.
If some people call TV reporters and tell them at a particular they will go to a particular place and damage public or private property there or beat people, TV reporters should not go to cover that event but report to the police. The people want publicity for their crime and if there is no publicity there will not be crime.