"Deshmurkh and Pakuntalay"

For the last two days I was not able to write as I was a bit pre-occupied. A couple of public comments in the last couple of days by Mr. Deshmukh (whose case I shall take first) and by Mr. Antulay on whom I will comment after the first one.

After Mr. Ratan Tata went public with the statement that there was no actionable intelligence which they received from the State Government other than general alerts, Mr. Deshmukh went and contradicted Mr. Tata by saying that they had given specific inputs to the Taj group of hotels. Now, I wonder, how in hell did that happen! This same person was crying from the rooftops that the Central Intelligence agencies had not provided the State Government with actionable intelligence other than general alerts!! Now, if this was the case before Mr. Tata went on record (he has more integrity and thus is more believable than any politician!)then Mr. Deshmukh is lying through his face to save his backside by claiming that he had given the Taj group specific information. Makes me wonder if he had not got actionable intelligence from the Central Agencies, then how come he gave "specific information to the Tata's?? "Deshmukh" in the Marathi language means "voice of the nation" - I would prefer renaming him as "Deshmurkh" which means "fool of the nation"!! All these guys need to be operated for "foot in the mouth disease", is what I think.

Coming to "Pakuntalay" - I call him that because willy nilly he has become the voice of Pakistan - he is actually parroting their line. Given Mr. Antulay's background as a confirmed scamster(remember the cement scam) and person who keeps the company of people with doubtful integrity, I really would not be surprised if he has been paid off by people across the border to say that Mr. Karkare was killed in a conspiracy because he was making headway in the Malegaon investigations. This is in spite of the fact that events which transpired on 26/11 have been recorded and corroborated by different agencies in full view of the press and public. So, how come Mr. Antulay comes up with his conspiracy theory unless there is something which more than meets the eye!! In one fell stroke he has called the press and the public liars, when his own integrity is cloaked only in shades of grey!! This is the worst kind of politics - getting religion into the picture when the nation has been violated from people across the border. We as a secular nation do not require such mentally challenged people to be Ministers or anywhere in public life. The leaders of the Muslim community have castigated him - for which they must be lauded.

It is high time we start rising above such petty mindedness and stop trying to score brownie points with elections at the back of our minds - because if we don't then the nations enemies will take advantage of our internal disunity to wreak more havoc in the future. It is now time for change, and change we must, by ensuring that poiticians/bureaucrats or whoever has this major foot in the mouth disease should be operated and put out to pasture sooner rather than later. The forthcoming elections give us the chance to do so - I hope we have learnt our lessons and we vote for the person who has the right credentials to govern rather than coming from "the right political party"!