Protests Awaken Sleeping Giant: India's Middle Class

The recent protests that have gripped India show that the sleeping giant of India's middle class has been awakened politically.

Historically, the middle class has been the agent of democratic change around the world.

IIT Student Refuses to Accept Degree from Manmohan

An IIT student has taken a courageous stand, and is urging his fellow batchmates to do the same, in refusing to accept his degree from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh who will appear at the graduation ceremony. He is doing this in support of Anna Hazare's anti-corruption movement.

The Crackdown

Regarding the brutal crackdown on Baba Ramdev and his supporters at the behest of Sonia Gandhi, it's so predictable to see the Congress suddenly calling him a "mask" for the RSS. You could be Sonia Gandhi's live-in giggolo and nobody will say a thing, but the moment she has a tiff with you, then you'll be called an RSS Pracharak. If BJP had been a political threat to the Congress during the 80s, then Operation Bluestar would have been called "Operation Stop RSS"

As an atheist and a rationalist, I don't really put any faith in holy men, but Ramdev was a pretty rich guy who could have gone on living a luxurious life without any problems, and yet he decided to take on the ruling powers-that-be over the vital all-concerning issue of corruption, which is to his credit.

The longer the Congress stays in power, the more addicted they become to all the bribes and jizya they collect, and the more desperate they become to retain power by all available means. India complains that Pakistan's ISI behaves like a "state within a state", but meanwhile in India it's the Congress Party which is the "state within a state". It's inevitable that these greedy crooks will eventually impose another Emergency, or a de facto One Party state.

The reason the Congress kleptocracy is so aggressively defending its black money is because this is its bread-and-butter and raison d'etre. Without black money, how can they twist the Indian democratic system towards their own selfish ends? Without that black money, then all their rats would desert their sinking ship.

Public Journalism, Civic Action

I came across this Youtube video piece by a group calling itself "Video Volunteers":




We really need to promote public journalism by ordinary people, to improve civic action.

The biggest corruption scams may be at the state and federal levels, but the most common routine corruption is at the local level.

Sure, everybody complains about corruption, but documenting it is the best way to really put the guilty on the spot and in the spotlight.

The corrupt ruling party and their rentable media mercenaries have gotten a free ride with their "India Shining" mantra, but if enough public journalism can put their lies to shame, then it will significantly curtail their latitude to commit excesses.

We may talk about the potential for cellphone-led Jasmine revolutions in China nextdoor, but if we can put our own house in order, we'll be much better off for it.