Chronicle of my life, times, this n that

a 44th at the age 47 and a first black president. As I write this Obama delivers his victory speech. And when the camera rolls at the audience not a single eye watching him is not moist. A new dawn of american leadership is here. A new era unfolds. A black is a president. Of the most powerful nation of the world. I can’t help but feel emotional. Our own Gandhi fought against apartheid, what a moment this must be. As my 4.5 month old son sleeps in my lap and my 70 year old father must be watching this victory at his home, tears roll down my eyes too. Me and my husband would have heard stories of discrimination of the blacks, our children will only read it in history books and people of my father’s age must be thinking we have indeed come a long way in the 21st century. No discrimination. A world for all. Hope for all. We are certainly preparing a better future for our own children.

The encounter carried out by delhi police in Batla House area of Jamia Nagar to catch the suspects of recent delhi bombers has been of huge interest to the media (http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20080919&fname=delhi&sid=1). Was watching this show on NDTV few minutes ago called Newsnet- hosted by this guy who used to host a show on latest electronic gadgets – can’t recollect his name.

He mentioned and showed visuals of this blog called ‘Indian Muslim Blog’ (if you want to read it, search google with the following – indian muslim  blog batla house and click on the first link (not giving links here due to sensitivity of the matter). The post is titled “Media Circus” Of The Encounter. This is what they were talking about on the show. Apparently the blog is from someone who lives in the same area and so his account is hailed as a first account. I am unable to swallow that the entire thing was ’staged’. Was a fake encounter. Preplanned. Invites sent to media houses. This is absolute crap. How do we explain that the death of the highly decorated inspector of the delhi police was a fake? Is their not a single patriotic soul in the entire government/police setup who would come out in the open and tell everyone if there was a conspiracy? Someone argued that he was killed since maybe he was due for promotion/has access to sensitive information. Were there no better ways to slain him that could be thought by those who wanted to kill him? This theory is too hypothetical. Even if that is the case – he was killed by the system – I salute that man who instead of bowing down to the system, laid his own life and left behind a family, a wife, a daughter, a son to bereave. May God be with his family.

If you are thinking this post is about some kind of nursery  rhyme or something, well it isn’t. It is the nuclear humdrum that I am talking about.

US and India decided to sign a pact for nuclear cooperation between the two countries. This was said to be a giant leap for India as it meant supply of technology, fuel and equipment for India to be able to use nuclear science for other than war purposes.

There was a lot of noise about the whole of the Section 123 of the one of the Acts of US governing the deal. Our government and PM were trying their best to make the Left come around and support them on this deal. While the government reiterated the deal signified the end of the nuclear apartheid and would give India the technology and resources for use of nuclear science for civil purposes. Every expert under the sun was coming out in support of this. People said such cooperation with the US was unprecedented and it indicated India’s growing acceptance as one of the influential democracies of the world. They said this technology would  help us see through our growing need for electricity. The government faced a floor test of its strength in the Parliament ..because of this issue. And came out in flying colors..though its win was tainted with allegations of buying out support.

The US applied all of its might to see that the proposal was accepted by all the members of the NSG and Bush wanted to see it through the Congress before the end of his term. I read in the papers today, the though the deal will come accross – the Congress is said to have been told that no sensitive technology will be shared with India. !!!. Now the point is I am no nuclear tech scientist. Nor do I understand the nity grity of the 123 Act.

But my question is – Why was the government so keen to see this through, even though it meant losing power at the Centre? If it was so keen (despite the possibility of it being thrown out) we are led to believe that this deal was highly beneficial for the country and they acted in good spirit? Why neither the government nor the media has any clarity on what the deal entails? why cant we come out with something like a 10 pointer on it? why one day we are made to believe that the deal is good for us? and another day believe that it is just a proof US’s might in working everything to its own advantage? I am looking for answers.