Author: Vincent Augustine D'Souza

Vincent Augustine D'Souza is a blogger, author, novelist, and quiz master. He writes on politics, economy, corruption, terrorism, current events, sports/games and many more topics on his blog Voice From The Rooftop (http://voicefromtherooftop.com). He has written four novels — King, Pope, Dream and Trump. They are available in ebook format. His major non-fiction work is English Konkani Dictionary (https://englishkonkanidictionary.com). He has also written Model Constitution for India and Model Constitution for United States of America. His quizzes appear on his quiz site Go 4 Quiz (https://go4quiz.com). Amazon Page: https://amazon.com/author/vincentdsouza Gumroad Page: https://gumroad.com/vincentdsouza

Colleges and cut offs

Posted on June 18, 2011 by Vincent Augustine D'Souza

It is time for admission to colleges. Delhi University introduced common admission form for its colleges and allowed colleges to fix cut-off percentages. Sri Ram College of Commerce (SRCC) fixed 100% as cut-off percentage. Some have criticised it. P. C. Jain, principal of SRCC, defended it. Science students who do not get admission in SRCC can go to IIT or IIM. Best way to do away with stress is to have no marks, no examinations and no evaluations and have lottery to select students.

Some other colleges had cut-off percentages in the range of 95%-99%. Students who do not get admission in the first list may get admission in subsequent lists.

Anna, Baba and Congress

Posted on June 9, 2011 by Vincent Augustine D'Souza

Veerappa Moily must be a happy man. When four ministers went to meet Baba Ramdev at airport he was not one of them. It was interpreted as he was losing favour. By 5/6/2011 the tide had turned, the pendulum had swung, Kapil Sibal was under attack.

Anna Hazare led a fast for Lokpal Bill and was successful. Baba Ramdev was unhappy about the composition of the drafting committee for Lokpal Bill which had Shanti Bhushan, Prashant Bhushan and Arvind Kejriwal among others. He said, father is chairman, son is member and the secret of Arvind Kejriwalâ€™s seat. Shanti Bhushan replied drafting committee needs legal experts not yoga guru. Anna Hazare spoke to Baba Ramdev and Baba Ramdev muted his criticism.

Sheila Dikshit and sanitary napkins

Posted on May 31, 2011 by Vincent Augustine D'Souza

Delhiâ€™s Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit has said that Delhi government will distribute free sanitary napkins to school girls. May be the money she and her colleagues made during the run-up to Commonwealth Games has run out and other sources have dried up and sanitary napkins contract is a way to make money.

Sanitary napkins are not a necessity. Till few decades back women did not use sanitary napkins. Around 70% of women in India do not use sanitary napkins. It is not the job of the state to provide sanitary napkins. After sanitary napkins it may be the case of free distribution of fairness creams, talcum powders, lipsticks, scents, perfumes and such things.

Club over country

Posted on May 30, 2011 by Vincent Augustine D'Souza

There is a feeling that cricketers prefer club over country. Gautam Gambhir playing IPL matches when he had an injury and opting out of West Indies tour is one instance. As Dean Jones put it was a choice between 11 crores for IPL and 2 crores for West Indies tour. It is said that as per contract Gautam Gambhir would have got the full amount of 11 crores for IPL if he had played five matches. He did not have to play other matches. However the contract could have something in fine print that required Gautam Gambhir to play all matches to get the full amount. When Sri Lanka wanted its players to return early for practice for England tour they were told that payments to players will be held up. Lasit Malinga retired from Test cricket instead of giving up IPL.

BCCI owns IPL. Franchisees pay money to BCCI and players. They want to recover their money. Franchisees drop players whom they do not want. BCCI wants money and does not care about players getting medals for country and did not send a team to Asian Games.

ITBP Bill and Maharashtra

Posted on May 30, 2011 by Vincent Augustine D'Souza

Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) has sent a bill for Rs.10.87 crores to Maharashtra government for providing security to Ajmal Kasab for the period from 28 March 2009 to 30 September 2010. Maharashtra government says it does not have the money and has discontinued ITBP protection to Ajmal Kasab.

There was no need to deploy 200 men to guard Ajmal Kasab. The trial was inside the jail. There were other expenses that were unnecessary like constructing a hospital ward for him at the cost of 2 crore rupees which was not used and a tunnel at the cost of 50 lakh rupees which was rarely used.

Terrorists delisted

Posted on May 17, 2011 by Vincent Augustine D'Souza

Indiaâ€™s Home Ministry has delisted 142 terrorists from the list. The list had names of 169 Sikhs. Somebody filed a petition in the Delhi High Court and pleaded that the list should be reviewed as it has led to unnecessary harassment of those individuals at airports and embassies across the world as their passports were not renewed. The Delhi High Court ordered the Home Ministry to take a decision. The Home Ministry consulted Punjab government and security agencies and deleted 25 names in August 2010 and 117 names in April 2011.

Land acquisition

Posted on May 17, 2011 by Vincent Augustine D'Souza

The protests by farmers against land acquisition in UP and support to them by politicians belonging to Congress, BJP, SP and RLD have raised questions about land acquisition. The central government has announced introduction of a bill in the monsoon session. Politicians oppose land acquisitions in states where they are not in power and justify land acquisitions in states where they are in power.

Election Results 2011

Posted on May 14, 2011 by Vincent Augustine D'Souza

Election results for Legislative Assemblies in four states and one union territory are out. In Assam it is third time successively for Congress and allies. In West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee led TMC-Congress defeated Left Front which was in power for 34 years. In Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry, Jayalalitha led AIADMK and partners to victory over DMK-Congress coalition. In Kerala, UDF won, LDF lost.

CPI-M and CPI lost power in West Bengal and Kerala. They are in coalition with ADMK but did not contest many seats. Congress was in the winning combinations in Assam, West Bengal and Kerala. In Kerala and Tamil Nadu governments have changed every five years for the past few times. BJP lost seats in Assam and did not win seats in other states. Congress is happy that BJP did not do well.

Commando operation

Posted on May 10, 2011 by Vincent Augustine D'Souza

Many Indians want India to send commandos to Pakistan to kill Indiaâ€™s Most Wanted in Pakistan. Operation Geronimo by USA is the inspiration. When asked by journalists army chief and air force chief have said that India is capable to commando operations.

The idea is fine but needs to be tested. India is not USA. India does not have the technology that USA has. In Indiaâ€™s case there is no room for error. Every commando operation is not a success. USAâ€™s attempt to rescue hostages in Iran in 1979 was a disaster. Operation Geronimo was a success in that it achieved its aim of catching Osama Bin Laden dead or alive but one helicopter could not fly back and had to be destroyed. USA has inter-continental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) that can hit any country in the world. Pakistan does not have ICBMs. India and Pakistan do not need ICBMs to hit each other. India does not have stealth helicopters that can evade radar detection.

Helicopter crashes

Posted on May 6, 2011 by Vincent Augustine D'Souza

In India helicopter crashes are more than passenger plane crashes. Many people have died in helicopter crashes including G. M. C. Balayogi, Madhavrao Scindia, Y. S. R. Reddy and Dorjee Khandu. In April 2011 there were two helicopter crashes in Arunachal Pradesh. In both cases helicopters belonged to Pawan Hans and Tawang featured in the flights. The crashes can be due to various reasons. The helicopter could be old and not fit for flying. The pilot does not have sufficient experience. Bad weather and poor visibility make flying difficult.

It seems there is no check on airworthiness of helicopters. Either DGCA does not do its job or the owners of helicopters continue the use of unfit helicopters without the knowledge of DGCA.