If you had been wondering from where all the heroin of the world comes, it must not be too difficult to guess. It’s from the most troubled nation on earth, Afghanistan. The country depends literally on the money that comes from the sale of homegrown opium and poppy and also the derivatives like heroin and morphine. These narcotics make way to Western Europe through the neighboring Tajikistan.

Just 13 hours ago, many afghan smugglers were killed in a shootout in Tajikistan when they were caught red handed smuggling heroin into Tajikistan’s borders. These drugs after reaching France, Germany and elsewhere, are sold at exorbitant prices. What I fear is that the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan has actually encouraged the Afghan opium farmers to grow more as lawlessness has increased many folds after the Americans have entered.

Only through proper negotiations with the U.N. and afghan government can the drug route and trade be blocked. I wonder how things will go in the near future. Though listening to the news of the smugglers being shot dead isn’t a very pleasant one, it may just have the right thing to do, for the Tajik forces, whose land is being used as a transit for drug delivery to Europe.

Via: AfghanConflictMonitor

The Bombay High Court is furious at the Maharashtra government. Justice J.N. Patel publicly reprimanded the Deshmukh sarkar for not taking adequate actions against Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray. The world has been hearing of Thackeray’s escapades of regional discrimination in the state. And it’s the same thing on everyone’s mind – why are the authorities not doing anything about it?

After the MNS activists vandalised shops without a Marathi name, complaints were registered by the frightened shopkeepers. The police booked a case against many vandalisers but not Thackeray. In such a scenario, Patel expressed his disappointment in the law protectors and enforcers; because of them the law system of our country has been put in a negative light.
As per Patel, if the authorities don’t take strict action against the miscreants, people will think that there are some who are untouchable by the law. The police is hardly controlling the chaos and the politicos are deliberately ignoring the issue. This may encourage anti-social elements to create more damage.
Via hindu

Niketa and Harsh Mehta have been in new for the last two days with their 24-week foetus that they want to abort. The High Court has still not decided the fate of the foetus diagnosed with congenital heart disease. The existing law does not permit abortion more than 20 weeks after conception. This has led to quite a nationwide debate as the mother of the unborn child says, “I just want a healthy child. I don’t want it to suffer. Even if you do not consider the suffering me and my family will go through, at least think of the miserable life the child will be forced to lead.” Even their doc Nikhil Datar stands by the appeal with a medical reason. “The child will have to be fitted with a pacemaker the moment it is born, which will have to be replaced every four years.
In my opinion, the Mehtas are not justified in taking the life of their unborn child. C’mon won’t more than half of our nation come forth to abort their female foetuses saying, “Oh, it is so difficult for a girl to have a normal life in our country. They are molested, raped and discriminated against all the time. I don’t want a miserable life for my child.” The argument is as shallow as the one offered by the Mehta missus. Life should be given a chance to take its own course because miracles and breakthrough medicine do happen all the time. I can’t seem to understand what the Mehtas are panicking about? I even hear some activists willing to adopt the unborn kid.

Via CNNIBN

Imagine being one of the 37 passengers on a Greyhound bus travelling in Canada while one of your co-passenger calmly stabs another about 40 times before decapitating him. It surely would not be comfortable place to be in. A couple of months earlier, a Tomohiro Katō unleashed fury with his dagger in the busy Electric town of Akihabara in Tokyo eventually killing 7 people and injuring another 12. Both the attackers were arrested by the police eventually but had this been India, I wonder how this would have ended. I also have my doubts if Kato would have managed to carry on his rampage for so long.

Lynching of criminals is a growing concern in India, or is it? The people of Bihar seems to be OK with it, given the fact that even the policemen there have been caught on camera punching and kicking a chain-snatcher on the streets. Delhi and Mumbai too gets its fair share of mob justice.

Lynching seems directly proportional to the crime rate of the state. Furthermore, it would be safe to assume that Narendra Modi, Chief Minister of Gujarat is one of the promoters of this summary justice, looking at the controversy of Sohrabuddin Sheikh. You tell me, how many Indian movies have you seen when in the end the bad guy does not get his ass kicked?

Coming back to the point, even though we might blame our Judicial system or the law-enforcing agencies as the primary reason for mob fury but it’s not just about justice. If the crowd at Akihabara or group of people inside the Greyhound had intervened, maybe some innocent lives could have been saved. I am not advocating the idea of Extra-Judicial punishment but there are times when the so called mob is salutary. Post Akihabara massacre, 12 more people have been arrested who have stated their intention to follow the steps of Kato. The Police of Japan surely seems to be on an alert, but are the people of Japan?

Via CBCCA

Ram Gopal Varma’s latest film ‘Contact’ that shares its plot with the Ahmedabad blasts, opens with the quote, ‘you may ignore terrorism but terrorism won’t ignore you’. Yes, isn’t that what our attitude is! As long as we know it is not harming any of our near and dear ones, do we really ever care? Not only do we listen to the news with a lazy ear but also continue with our reckless ways. Oh c’mon, who are we kidding here? We are responsible for spreading terrorism. Don’t we always like to play truant with the law? Get passports made by bribing whoever it is that finds information conflicting your interests? Don’t we lie to the law with a straight face? Have we forgotten all about the unlicensed cars? I mean this is not the entire list of ways how we play with the law in our country; if I tried giving every detail I may probably exhaust at least ten 10 blog posts. Little do we realise that our playing hide and seek with rules laid by the law enforcing bodies in our country spell danger for US!

See laws are there to provide obstacles to illegal activities. But our encouragement of thuggishness proves to be a magic wand for terrorists. They can get away with their misdeeds because we do not help the police and other law enforcing bodies to maintain a safe, abiding by the law environment. Are we anywhere close to getting there?

Via IBNLive

Husbands harassed by their wives under false dowry charges have finally, yelled “charge” as we saw in the recent incident in Bangalore almost a week ago. The banner accompanying them says ‘Save Indian Family Foundation’. For the uninitiated, it is a seven years old organization and has 8000 members.

It has been found that are increasingly being falsely implicated under the Domestic Violence Act, 2005, and anti-dowry law (of 498a). These Acts have been found to be draconian as they are “non-bailable, non-compoundable (complaint that can’t be quashed) and cognizable (arrests without investigation or warrants) on a report from a woman or close relative. In fact, they have been compared to the Prevention of Terrorist Activities Act as it is cognizable. Mind you, POTA was scrapped.
Of course, women groups are refusing to compromise because the crime bureau reports every second Indian woman commits suicide because of dowry demands. However, the time has come when men are not taking things quiet. Why should they when they are being battered by the law without a fault of theirs. A very tricky situation for the law of our country to be in, that too because of those who love to “misuse”.

Read

Indian chapter of Transparency International conducted a fresh survey, Global Corruption Barometer 2007 among 1069 respondents revealed that political parties grab the lion’s share in the field of corruption.
As high as 76 percent of the respondents opined that political parties are “extremely corrupt”. The Police are only the competitor that goes neck and neck.
The recently conducted Gujarat assembly election is before us to show how low the parties campaigned against one another. The Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha are no exceptions to evidence the character of our politicians. No doubt few watch such programs.
Politicians who claim to posses’ blood of patriotism even do not know the lines of our National song or National anthem. Gone are the days when leaders and politicians exerted themselves for the betterment and upliftment of the common man.

Presence of MPs and Legislators in the Houses some time well below the mandatory quorum exhibits their loyalty towards nation and people.

Nations must eye at heightening level of CORRUPTION.