Salute!

Republic Day is another one of the many Indian public holidays which hold no significance anymore...indeed if it ever did. Our constitution was unveiled and India became a republic....there was a big ad in the newspaper that quoted the Preamble to the Indian constitution...big words like liberty, freedom, equality & fraternity. So much nonsense when girls are being attacked for drinking a beer andNarendra Modi's Gujarat is corporate India's favourite destination (how could Ratan Tata share the same podium as Modi? It still rankles) but that isn't the half of it.

Remember this? : (from Amit Varma's India Uncut)

She allegedly protected her brother from murder charges, and mismanaged a cooperative bank she controlled by cancelling loans taken by her relatives.

Reading the above you'd think this is the story of R. Raju's close associate but you would be wrong. This is much bigger and better than any corporate scam. That above excerpt was about none other than our dearly beloved first ever woman President of India! The most disturbing image I have seen in recent times was not the Israeli massacres in Gaza nor of the Taliban whipping people in Pakistan nor even of young girls being roughed up in Mangalore but of Pratibha Patil saluting the armed parade on Republic Day. Can irony get any more bitter?

Read Amit Varma's commentary on our honourable President here

At least I still live in a country where I can publish such posts...if I was in Beijing or Peshawar I'd probably be fertilizer by now. Small mercies I guess...