Shillong – India's little rock and roll town
BBC's Soutik Biswas has a superb piece on the flourishing blues tradition in Shillong. A must read.
It is Friday night in the north-eastern Indian hill town of Shillong, and Tipriti and her band Soulmate are belting out gut-wrenching blues in a cavernous pub called Cloud Nine.
BBC NEWS | South Asia | India's little rock and roll town
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Striking Down of the Knock and Wait Rule
So lets say that you are a policeman and you have a warrant for searching the home of a person who is suspected to be a drug dealer. Would you rather go to his home, knock on the door and wait for at least 20 seconds to follow an arcane and non-common sensical law and maybe give the guy sometime to get equipped with gun, hide evidence or run from the back door? Or would you rather just barge inside, retaining the element of surprise with you? I suspect any person with little bit of common sense will choose to do the latter.
But the New York Times is in agony over the Supreme Court Decision yesterday that allows the police to do exactly that. Remember, we are not talking about warrant less searches here - the police still has the warrant to search the home of that person - we are just talking about the niceties here. Knock and Wait? Well that is just ridiculous.
The Supreme Court yesterday substantially diminished Americans' right to privacy in their own homes. The rule that police officers must "knock and announce" themselves before entering a private home is a venerable one, and a well-established part of Fourth Amendment law. But President Bush's two recent Supreme Court appointments have now provided the votes for a 5-4 decision eviscerating this rule.This decision should offend anyone, liberal or conservative, who worries about the privacy rights of ordinary Americans.The case arose out of the search of Booker T. Hudson's home in Detroit in 1998. The police announced themselves but did not knock, and after waiting a few seconds, entered his home and seized drugs and a gun. There is no dispute that the search violated the knock-and-announce rule.
The Don't-Bother-to-Knock Rule - New York Times
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There are businessmen and then there are businessmen
No matter how much you might hate Microsoft and its products, you cannot help praising its founder, Bill Gates and now, with today's announcement, Bill Gates will join such legendary tycoon-philantropists such as John Rockefeller.
In the end, it is all about legacy. It has been barely a couple of years since Dhirubhai Ambani passed away and his legacy is his two feuding sons. I think the only tycoon you might look upto and respect in India is Ratan Tata and of course, his foster father JRD Tata.
Microsoft Chairman Gates to leave day-to-day role. - Jun. 15, 2006
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Dilbert Does It Again!
Asok the pernnial favorite gets the stick again!
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The Enron Verdict: Lessons for India
In December 2001, Enron – a high and mighty US corporation that was at one point of time, the seventh largest in the country, and whose executives were hailed as the gurus of the new economy, filed for bankruptcy. Yesterday, on May 25th, 2006 – within five years of its implosion, two of its highest executives were deemed to be guilty in what possibly was the culmination of an unprecedented era of corporate greed and dishonesty in the US.
However, there is an unusually bright lining in this dark cloud and it is that the justice system still works in the US. Whether it be a once highly respected congressman (Randy "Duke" Cunningham), a highly influential leader (Tom Delay - under investigation) or now, in the case of Enron – former pals of the current President Bush – the message is clear that if you are guilty of wrongdoing, then you will be prosecuted and you will be punished. It also proves another of my beliefs – that the US might have a large number of corrupt officials and leaders at the highest levels, but the country is kept on track by the honesty and law abiding nature of a majority of its citizens. In this case, these were the career prosecutors at the Justice Department and ordinary citizens who were members of the jury who stuck to their jobs with utmost honesty.
What lessons are there for India in the prosecutions and guilty verdicts of the past couple years in the US? It is famously said that “justice delayed is justice denied” – but in the Indian justice system – justice is denied because justice IS denied. After all, how many cases can you recall in which influential people were caught, prosecuted and punished? If you want a simple comparison with the Enron case, imagine Subroto Roy (of Peerless chit-fund and Sahara India fame) being caught and punished for financial irregularities when Amar Singh (shudder-shudder) is the Prime Minister of India.
There might be any number of text messaging campaigns to get justice and NDTV might use any number of them to improve its ratings, but the bottom line remains the same – the criminal justice system in India is hopelessly overwhelmed. While there might still be some reprieve in the famous and higher level cases which get considered by the Supreme Court – even at slightly lower levels, the system is absolutely rotten. The lesson in this verdict for India is simple – no country can ever claim to be great or progress too much without a justice system that works.
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