W’end Reading: Japan, DMK, Hasan Ali and MMS

Very brief excerpts from some of the blogs/stories I am reading (and thinking about) this weekend…

Japan earthquake: Emperor Akihito’s exceptional speech

Minutes before Emperor Akihito made his first-ever television address to his people, the Japanese public broadcaster NHK instructed its editors to cut into the speech if important news on the unfolding nuclear crisis broke

Japan earthquake: Emperor Akihito’s exceptional speechMinutes before Emperor Akihito made his first-ever television address to his people, the Japanese public broadcaster NHK instructed its editors to cut into the speech if important news on the unfolding nuclear crisis broke

K Klutch Klan, via centerofright

IN THE summer of 1991, in a crowded political rally in Patna, thousands stirred impatiently as a portly Muthuvel Karunanidhi, in dark glasses, white shirt and dhoti, walked up to the podium. Expecting the chief minister of Tamil Nadu and leader of the Dravidian movement to speak in nothing but chaste Tamil, people settled down to catch a few winks before the good Hindi stuff would begin. Unfazed, Karunanidhi adjusted the mike down to his height, cleared his throat and said in perfect English: “Before I proceed with my speech I would like to introduce myself,” he said. “My name is Karunanidhi. I am anti-national… I am a dangerous person to this country.”

Black money issue: Hasan Ali Khan not cooperating with ED

Even as the Enforcement Directorate (ED) secured the custody of Pune-based stud farm owner Hasan Ali Khan to interrogate him in a money laundering case following the Supreme Court’s intervention, sources told Headlines Today on Saturday that he was not cooperating with the agency and was tight-lipped on accusations levelled against him.

Ali, alleged to be the country’s biggest tax evader, refused to answer specific queries by the ED on his cross-border transactions. He has been telling the sleuths that he has no bank accounts abroad and that he has not stashed black money in foreign accounts. Sources said Ali has not yet revealed anything concrete which can help ED in its probe to nail him.

More on Hasan Ali: here and here

and finally, Atanu Dey

I feel outrage, why don’t you? I feel outraged that India is a desperately poor country. Outrage that our children are malnourished, and our people abjectly poor. Outrage that people are committing suicide by the hundreds of thousands. (Farmers are people too. If there had been alternatives to doing subsistence farming, they would not have had to kill themselves.)

Every aspect of the dire straits that India is absolutely due to government policy. Every one of them — farmers killing themselves, children starving, school and colleges failing, massive public corruption, loss-making public enterprises, communal conflict, terrorist attacks, weak borders, military insecurity, you name it. Just ask and I will show step by step why government policy is at the root of India’s troubles.

…

What have we come to? We have been diminished as a people. Our society is so impoverished that the old and infirm have to beg for a living. As a society, we are not just poor; we are impoverished — meaning reduced to poverty, deprived of richness, vitality and strength.

How did we get here? We are not evil people; we are not stupid people; periodic natural calamities have not reduced our work to rubble; foreign forces have not robbed us of our wealth; divine curse has not condemned us to hell. So why then all the misery?

I have sought an answer for many years. And here’s my answer. India’s government is the greatest evil force that is destroying India. Manmohan Singh epitomizes that evil since he heads that government. So I believe that unless we wake up and destroy those who seek our destruction, we would be responsible for our demise.

Have a relaxing weekend. Stay safe. Past weekend readings are here.