Why are the Tatas obsessed with white?

Why are the Tatas obsessed with white ?

Have you seen a leech? It attaches itself painlessly to your body and sucks your blood till it is full and then drops off quietly. Usually, you do not even notice it! The entire process is designed by nature to be painless, so that you do not realize and protest.

That is the closest description I can give of the Tatas. The biggest and fattest leech which has fed on the blood of Oriyas since the last 100 years.

I think this should be the ad line for the steel makers .........…“we loot Orissa and make steel too”.

The elite Tatas and their philanthropy! Which Indian has not heard of the omnipresent group! Seeing the papers and TV full of their social activity ads, I seriously wonder when do they ever get the time to make steel ?

Beating the drum of corporate social responsibility (CSR) when the term was unheard of in India, they managed to deceive us over the last 100 years.

If you folks, can remember, not so long ago, a Tata employee was a prize catch in the marriage market, especially in a poor state like Orissa where people pine for secure salaried jobs. Ofcourse that was in the Mughal era before Reliance, Infosys, Satyam and Essar blazed their path in the corporate firmament !

I know quite a few gentlemen who still revere these bandits as God. They laud the social service done by the Tatas who never mind building a few schools, colleges and hospitals for the poor masses. I would rather die than consider treatment in a Tata funded hospital! Do not wish to surrender my soul to the Devil, Faustian style!

How successfully have they been hoodwinking successive governments of our state since the last 50 years!They have not set up a single steel plant in the state though they have been sitting on prime industrial area at Gopalpur since the last one decade.

The phantom steel plant issue surfaced to silence critics whenever the question of renewal of the lucrative iron ore mines came up. And how do they handle the demanding babus? Cash is a strict no no. Rather they generously appoint their offspring as executives, never mind if they passed out from unknown management institutes.

They have ripped off mountains of iron ore from Orissa at ridiculously low royalty rates. At least,Rs.100,000 crores worth of ore has been looted from our state over the last century. Money which every Oriya has lost!

At the abandoned mines at Gorumahasini in Mayurbhanj,not even a blade of grass grows anymore and locals find it difficult to get even one meal a day.Yet the common Oriya believes them to be the leaders in philanthropy. Why? Because they have make a big fuss about the tit bits they throw to the poor, which is invariably backed by a powerful advertisement campaign.

After the tragic firing at Kalinga nagar where 12 tribals died, the company immediately washed off its hands from the issue saying that it was the government’s job to hand over the land.How convenient!

Do our prestige conscious SPs and Collectors ever stand guard like watchmen to oversee the construction of boundary walls of private companies? But how could they refuse when the powerful Tatas have the Queen and his courtiers in their steely grip?

The group achieved a total group turnover of Rs. 79,912 crores for the year 2004-05. They made a pre tax profit of Rs.11,833 crores. And how much they did spend for charity? The Sir Dorabji Tata Trust disbursed Rs. 44 crores in 2004-05 and the Sir Ratan Trust disbursed around Rs.51 crores. Add to this about another Rs.50 crores odd spent directly by group companies on sponsorships of sports and events and the total does not exceed Rs.145 crores.

This measly amount is approximately 1.22 % of the gross profits ! Actually, the Rs.50 crores handed out as sponsorships for events should be left out, since they get free social advertising for boosting their brand name.I am sure that the total expenditure for Orissa is not more than Rs. 10 to 15 crores. Now that is the real truth of Tata charity once you rip off their façade of benevolence!

Must say, that though most of the Indian banias do not spend even this paltry percentage of their profits on charity. Yet, the sum doled out by the Tatas is a laughable amount, too small by any standards to make them qualify as the messiah of the poor and the needy.

Remember the profit is artificial, derived at the cost of the public exchequer since they grab a non renewable resource like iron ore at ridiculously low rigged prices, helped by the every ready netas and babus of the state. Let Tata Steel pay for iron ore at the market price of Rs.2,850 per tonne instead of getting it at the rate of Rs.26 per tonne as royalty and you can imagine what will happen to their share prices!

They usually paint their office buildings an immaculate white and dress up their liveried peons, drivers and attendants in spotless white uniforms.Why this obsession with white? I think it is a self delusion move to hide their stained pathway to success!

However, no amount of white washing can hide the blood stains of the dead tribals of Kalinga nagar which are clearly visible to the entire world.


P.S.: Kalinga Sandha wishes to gratefully acknowledge the dope sent by "Kick the Tatas" for this post

A true son of the soil !

Dear Friends,

The following comment by Oriya Tokia deserves a main post. Hence I am posting it. My sincere congrats to the gentleman who wants to strive to improve our lot! Read on............

Oriya Toka said...

Dear Sandha,

Orissa does not seem to produce great leaders any more. The only one we could see was Biju patnaik the real Kalinga Sandha. Can we see you coming out as another Kalinga Sandha (not on the paper...sorry web)??

Jokes apart, I think we Oriyas should ignore everything else like which political party, what background, what age, what experience etc. and just concentrate to elect a "Leader" who is aggressive, loud, learned, clever and fast.

Then and only then can we prevent the Ambanis and Mittals taking us for a ride. Check out J.C.Mohanty the IAS officer who took voluntary retirement from his position at Hyderabad to serve the people of Orissa and help us recover our self esteem. See this -

Land beckons: IAS officer quits job in Andhra to take up social cause in Orissa.

While the Principal Secretary, Remote Area Development J C Mohanty has tendered his resignation after 27 years of service in Andhra Pradesh to go back to his home state Orissa and work for poverty eradication.JC Mohanty, who has already chalked out a future plan to work as a facilitator in Orissa, said that he would do something for "Mo Odisha" campaign.

In an interview to the Pioneer Mohanty said that the campaign aimed at inspiring the ordinary people of Orissa that even they can do a lot for the development of the State."I recall the time, when India Today carried a state ranking and Orissa came on last but one position.

In every indicator Orissa was placed among the lowest levels. I have done my service in Andhra Pradesh for 27 years and now I should go back to my state and do something for the poor there", he said."The main purpose of my campaign is to improve the living standards of the poor and to increase their income.

Everybody should think about his state and do whatever is possible. It is not the question of spending Rs five lakh or 10 lakh. You clean your street teach a kid and give emotional support to a depressed person, do something for the society. If everybody starts thinking like that there will be a big difference," he added.

Mohanty's future plans includes coordinating with the agriculture universities that are expert in horticulture, fisheries and animal husbandry and bring them together with the people to work on a poverty alleviation and income generation programme.

Analysing the reasons for the poverty and backwardness of Orissa, Mohanty said that unlike Andhra Pradesh, the ordinary people of Orissa were not enterprising."Compared to other States, nothing has changed in Oriss in the last 55 years. Orissa has not progressed much. According to the Orissa development report 2004, South Indian States have 87% poverty and Northern Orissa only has 50% poverty", he said.

Mohanty said that there could be many reasons for the State lagging behind. Stressing that he was satisfied with the Government service, Mohanty said that he found the work atmosphere quiet favorable in Andhra Pradesh.

When asked why the IAS officers from Orissa were so successful in Andhra Pradesh and not in their own state, Mohanty said that there could be many factors behind it."Here the work environment is very good. Even if politicians try to interfere or influence, they will not touch you if you are doing a good work. Here the conditions are very favorable for working and taking initiative. Perhaps it is lacking there in Orissa. I do not know because I have not worked there", he said.

Mohanty had an excellent track record of service in Andhra Pradesh and successfully held many key positions including the head of the State finance corporation, head of Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Board and more recently, Principal Secretary, IT. "Now I would like to utilize this experience to bring about a change in Orissa and contribute to its development", he said.

No pen drives this time !

No pen drives this time !

Welcome back on this busy Monday morning! Sorry folks, with Bharat sarkar playing net nanny, blogs were down last week!

Yet another tycoon has touched down at the normally deserted Bhubaneswar airport! The chhota Ambani arrived even before the ink had dried on the kabadiwallah’s university pact. He announced the mother of all investment proposals! 61,500 crores !

It was hilarious to hear that one of the world’s biggest semi-literate non ferrous metal crook has decided to set up a world class university to churn out Nobel prize winners and Olympic champs. Does the idiot think that he can bribe the Nobel or Olympic jury, the way he buys up our netas and babus?

Our hassled babus have just no time nowadays to push files and meet ordinary folks like you and me! Much against their wishes, they have to wear their stuffy suits in this bloody humidity and turn into waiters to usher in banias heading for MOU land. And later on they also have to put on fake grins before TV cameras to play act and nod approvingly about the fairy tale project announcements.

With all this talk of mega crores, I am sure child sale and starvation deaths will be only found in historical films on Orissa! Nowadays, if you arrive for an MOU which is less than 10,000 crores, even the liftman at the Secretariat will not talk to you!

Without Lord Jagannath’s blessings nothing happens in the poorest state of India. Therefore, the first thing which our gujju bhai did was to drive straight to Puri for his blessings. The wily bania knows that to win the hearts of the trusting Oriyas all he has to do is offer a free zarda paan or announce his devotion to the Lord!

There was a mela at the Conference Hall as our dear media bhailog pushed and shoved their way in, determined not to miss out anything. Actually, the hacks thought that bhai would also be distributing pen drives like the bald marwari lootera did a few days ago. But the only thing the stingy gujju gave away were free smiles, nothing more! Sorry, no pen drives this time!

The Queen for a change did not have his usual pain-in-the ass look on his florid face. Rather he appeared to be genuinely interested in the proposal. Ah, now I am sure the first instalment has been already paid at Delhi! Seriously wonder if the Queen has fallen for the junior Ambani, with his muscular build and clean shaven chikana face!

And the grumpy CS was looking like a character from a Hindi movie of the 1970s with his mediavel ill fitting suit and the extra along tie. Again the stupid Paika Minister as usual was looking like an unwanted gatecrasher! He preferred to sit right across the Ambani, though he hardly got a glance from him. I hope the bania remembers to throw him a few crumbs after he takes care of the Queen! Ha Ha!

A few days ago, uncomfortable question were raised by dear Napoleon, the Queen’s dreaded bete noire about how the Ambanis are yet to pay up their Rs.2,000 crores dues to the state. But who is bothered about such a piddly sum when we are talking about Rs.61,500 crores?

Guys, I am sure, you must be aware that the much touted electrical reforms in Orissa is one huge fountainhead of corruption! AES had similarly vamoosed with Rs.400 crores of public money. In any other country, the dacoit would have been arrested the moment he stepped out of his fancy jet.

But can this ever happen in Queensland where mega crooks are feted while Tehsildars and BDOs are promptly locked up in jail for pocketing even thousand bucks?

I need a blunt knife please !

I need a blunt knife please!

A recent TV story jolted my attention last week. The victim of the 7 year old Balasore sex scam has mustered courage to approach the courts afresh by filing a fresh petition against a top babu of our state.

A PIL filed in the High Court earlier, did not yield results since the central investigation agency did a thorough job in shielding the accused. The Womens’ Commission had also failed her miserably. I hope you guys can recollect the large faced whore who was the chairperson in 1999. This easy bitch who was the willing bed partner of several Congress top guns ensured that the victim’s cries of protests were officially stifled!

Whether he is guilty or not, the courts will decide! But let a fair trial first take place and let the rat explain why he asked the girl to meet him at a flat instead of his usual office?

I was enraged to see the spunky girl on TV asking society as to why she has to fight these evil forces all alone! She wondered as to why no one is coming forward to support her? She also pointed out the constant harassment from goons who want to silence her pitiable cry for justice!

This babu with an overflowing libido was a powerful one in the Congress ministry, when he was ruling the roost with the drummer CM in the chair! While the acclaimed joker was busy drumming, this guy was looting the state. He also never lost an opportunity to grab any female who came his way! In fact, this rascal has a terrible reputation of being an incorrigible womanizer and alcoholic. His father in law who is a powerful Congress leader always bailed out dear jamai babu from any major trouble!

Have all of us become impotent in this shameless state? Is this what happens when the Queen reigns? And why is the Queen reluctant to suspend him? Ah, I am sure our omnipotent babus have his nuts (wonder if he has any?) squeezed between their dreaded files. Everyone knows that the imbecile can’t even breathe without their nod!

And where are our screaming NGOs who never fail to hold grand workshops and seminars in posh hotels to discuss women rights? Why are they hiding? Their deep concern for women rights is ofcourse limited to the luxurious confines of fancy hotels! For all you know they will soon raise funds to host another stupid seminar to study the current case and its hoary implications on the future of women rights!

No civil society outfit in Orissa will ever dare to expose the misdeeds of a babu! How can they, when they think that a babu is the eleventh avatar of the Lord!

I wish this would have been a Arab state! I would have been delighted to hack out this randy babu’s family jewels and his exhausated tool with a blunt knife and hung them in front of the state secretariat.

This would be a grim reminder to the rest of the ilk not to play around with women!

One dal or subzi will never do !

One dal or subzi will never do !

Just like an illiterate African tribal fails to realize the true value of the jewels in his backyard, so also we have failed to realize that our cuisine is one of the best in the world!

Only when you live outside the state for long periods and do not have a loving Oriya wife or mother to cook and serve your favourite dishes, you will start missing your good home made food !

If you guys who have worked outside the state have any experience of getting an impromptu invitation to dinner by a non-Oriya, I am sure you must have wrinkled up your nose at the limited dishes served to you! No offence meant to fellow Indians though! It is just that we cannot do without variety in our meals!

I think it all started off with the culinary indulgence of Lord Jagannath who also loves good food! Oriyas spend a lot of time and money on the food part of our lives! Just walk unannounced into the house of the average citizen and you will be amazed to find a whole variety of dishes in the kitchen. No Oriya housewife will dare to cook one subzi or dal for her husband and go back to her Sas and bohu serial! There shall be at least 3-4 dishes apart from the staple rice! Otherwise, dear husband and the demanding kids will throw a fit!

Our mornings normally start with a hunt for the best greens, fish or mutton. A common morning sight in cities is that of men going around haats with shopping bags slung all over their bikes or scooters! Doesn’t matter if he is late for office by 15 –20 minutes!

A close friend who did time in Mumbai told me that his neighbours always used to wonder if guests were coming to dinner, when they saw him returning from the market weighed down with shopping bags bulging with vegetables! They were astonished when he explained that this was just for 3 days of use for his tiny family of three!

I am an unabashed fan of Oriya food! And I am bedazzled by the mind boggling variety! I guess we have more than 50 varieties of sweets alone and each one makes me salivate! tasty! Everybody loves our Chennapoda and whenever friends visit the state they insist on packing some of this stuff for their kids!

Wonder if you guys ever have had the authentic Chennapoda as made in the village sweet shops? This is baked overnight on the glowing embers of a wood fire and is a far cry from the stuff sold by city shops which are cooked in ovens!

Ah ! How much I relish our humble pakhala bhaat with badhi chura, saga, aloo bharta, sukua bhaja,etc! The dish is an ideal way to relieve the stress of the hot summer afternoons . And I love parboiled (usuna) rice pakhala not the polished arua which is tasteless! Just add a bit of dahi, sprinkle a few lemon leaves to spice it up !

I always get ecstatic when I taste our delicious pithas! The wide variety simply stumps me! I wonder how our ladies remember their zealously guarded recipes and complicated preparation methods! If you visit any coastal Orissa village during the Raja festival, you will agree with me! Once I remember counting 12 types offered to me on a large bronze plate which was truly a visual delight apart from their lovely aroma! Poda pitha, chakuli, monda, chittau, muga, suji, etc are some of the names I can recollect!

The king of pithas is the tasty poda pitha no doubt ! Every housewife has her own recipe and no two poda pithas taste the same! I can never forget the appetizing smell of a chakuli pitha cooked over a low wood fire! And the best combination is to have it with piping hot watery mutton curry! I wonder if any of our city bred kids have ever tasted a chakuli pitha made on a wood fire?

I had a good friend, an army major from Rajasthan who loved Enduri pithas which are prepared only during Prathamastami festival! He was enchanted by the strong aroma of turmeric leaves which are used to wrap and steam them.

Unlike the guys from North who love to cook a single vegetable we have experimented for centuries on the mix and match concept and have arrived at wonderful combinations like dalma, santula, sajana saag with dal, buta dal with fish head, lau with shrimp, etc.

Every district has got its own special dish, each one a gastronomic delight no doubt! I relish the mudhi mansha of Baripada, macha mahura of Jagatsinghpur, malpua and dalma of Puri, poda mansa of Angul, dahi bara, aloo dam and guguni of Cuttack city, kora of Bhubaneswar, sukhua rai of Khurda, bara of Dhenkanal, etc. Yum! Thinking of these dishes has made my mouth water!

Can’t claim to do justice to the paschim Orissa cuisine since I have never had a traditional western Orissa meal! I hope one of our western Orissa dadas invites me!

But we are a self-effacing race, rarely taking pride in our priceless culture, heritage and lifestyles! We should feel proud of our remarkable cuisine! And I sincerely hope that we can survive the onslaught of pizzas and burgers which our kids love to chomp!

And guys, make it a point to invite friends and visitors from outside the state to your homes for a true Oriya meal so that he goes back with a truly unforgettable experience!

Head waiters at the secretariat!

Mittal is coming! During the last few days, the entire babudom and media world of Orissa was agog about his hyped up visit! Yesterday, our dear Papu was also sweating and getting nervy over the flight delay. None of these morons of course had his satphone number to call up and find out. Ultimately, there was relief when the steel baron in his plush jet touched down at the desolate local airport.

Our local netas and babus were salivating in happy anticipation since they knew that richie rich would not arrive with small change! What if the steel badshah decides to invest in a multi million tonne steel plant? Dispensing the usual red tape, they promptly declared him a state guest!

But I doubt if the wily Marwari was impressed with the blaring siren of the police escort and the local bureaucrats jumping up and down like jacks in the box to attend to his whims!

Thank god, nobody thought of checking him into our cockroach infested state guest house or made the momentous mistake of sending a state car to receive him! For the record we have a Contessa and a couple of faded white Maruti vans and rickety Ambassadors without ACs earmarked as state cars! Never know, the ride in the doddering Contessa might have impressed him as he would have thought that he was being honoured by a ride in an antique car! However, his help had ordered a swanky private car to ferry him.

Trust the babus to change colour like the proverbial chameleon! If you guys would have seen the way the tycoon was ushered into the Secretariat you would have thought that probably the missile man has resigned and this guy is the new Prez!

Do any of you guys remember the bad old days when businessmen were shooed out of the office of any self respecting sarkari babu? They were supposed to be cheats, ever ready to loot the public exchequer for sinful profits! A rich man was both despised and pilloried, blamed for everything from price rise to failure of monsoons!

At the height of the permit and quota raj, the babus loved grabbing the businessmen by their necks and tying them with up a maze of clearances and permissions. The poor sods needed a sarkari nod before they could even pee! Sorry for the history lesson, let me tell you more!

In this bloody sweltering heat and humidity, the Queen’s chief courtier who negotiates all his deals, was waiting at the ground floor to welcome the prized catch! Both the district collector and the police chief ushered him in like two head waiters at a fancy 5 star restaurant! One on the left and the other on right! It was a disgusting sight!

There is no need for the stupid babus to fall at his feet in supplication! If Mittal, the sharp nosed businessman wants to lay his claws on the richest iron ore deposits in the world, then he has to come here you idiots! There are few places in the world which have 65 % grade reserves. It is his need, not our fortune that he has flown down to do business. He is not here for charity!

And we also need to strike a good deal with him, not offer him captive iron ore mines at the niggardly Rs. 26 per tonne royalty rates like we did with Posco! But must say I have serious doubts, since the double faced Queen would happily fork out all our prime maal at a pittance; claiming that he stands committed to wiping out Orissa’s poverty!

Ah, the bloody fraud! I think he shall be reborn as a famished bullock for at least seven lives and pull a Oriya peasant’s plough through unyielding soil to atone for all the gargantuan sins committed on the trusting Oriyas!

The Queen in his supreme ignorance had his usual bored face while he sat through the presentation made by the laptop savy CS, scarcely comprehending anything beyond the lovely pics! However, I did notice the worried look on his beefy face! He had nagging doubts if the chalu Marwadi would pay up in advance after seeing the plight of Posco and Tatas who are yet to get an inch of land! You see, the murga might flee without dropping the golden egg!

I wonder what the useless Paika, the Minister for Industries was doing at the meet ? Trying to impress upon the steelman and his cohorts that he was somebody important in the government? Ha Ha? Has he forgotten that he came to know about the Posco MOU only from the morning papers?

I was also amused to see the moronic minister for mines who has a perpetually lost look, eagerly bending forward, trying to make head or tail out of the Mittal’ utterances! The official fall guy’s two penny initials are sought after the file is complete, to wrap up the mining deals, nice and tidy! Heard that the mining lalas do not consider him worthy of even a courtesy call since the Queen’s office does the entire paperwork and decides the take as well!

What a relief after the baratis left! But guys, they sure forgot the bride! Shall I conduct a poll to find out who is the bride ?

Have you planted a tree?

Have you planted a tree ?

Come July and everybody gets a tree planting paroxysm in Orissa! The papers carry full page ads announcing the launch of the Van Mahotsav week from 5th July. The most despicable part is that this plantation “natak” is limited to the capital city only and the district headquarter towns! Nothing happens in the 55,000 villages of the state!

From tomorrow onwards you will find the chief minister and his dhoti clad ministers religiously going around the capital planting trees. The entire babudom gets infected by the planting fever and an official blitzkrieg is launched! No empty public space is spared anywhere .

Much of the plantation is ill advised, since nobody bothers to leave space for the large species to grow up properly. The measly gap of 5-7 feet is ridiculous! If even 10 % would have survived, the capital would have turned into a tropical forest with Tarzan and his apes reigning supreme!

Ofcourse no VIP plants trees without TV cameras and photographers in dutiful attendance! And have you ever seen a tree planting ceremony without the mandatory banner?

Methinks, if you want to do a good deed just go ahead and do it! No need to holler that you have done your bit for the environment!

And tree planting occasions are now turning into celebrity events with liberal doses of glamour! Nowadays, even the desi celebrities ……..the album artistes and Oriya film heroines are being pulled in.

Everybody has a lovely time! Crowds gawk at the giggling cuties as they flash their instant sunny smiles at adulatory fans while they gingerly sprinkle a few drops of water on a sapling, careful not to soil their dainty hands. The bald headed ministers are also happy to grace the gathering. Who would miss this golden chance to leer at the chirpy 20 somethings young enough to be their grand-daughters ? Then everybody poses for the photographs under the prominent banner with the ministers pulling and holding the reluctant lassies closer! Thereafter, the crowd disappears forgetting the drooping seedlings which dry up and die due to sheer lack of care!

This year, about Rs. 200 lakhs is supposed to be spent by the BMC in greening. With this amount one can easily create a mini Simlipal! Every councillor is hestitant to find out about the fate of the thousands of seedlings planted earlier, since he fears of being dubbed anti-environment! The bloody exercise is supposed to be such a noble and holy thing!

The tree planting campaign has come as a boon for the govt. bandits . ………. a ridiculously simple way to loot the public funds. 90% of seedlings are dead within a few months either due to lack of water or cattle grazing. Out of the rest hardly 2- 3 % survive the next year!

The BMC headed by that bear faced moronic lawyer who never had a practice, does not hesitate to cut off trees to put up hoardings all around the city. Plant with one hand and destroy the old trees with the other!

You should also hear the inspiringly sweet spiels delivered by the bloody forest wallas who espouse the golden virtues of trees and how without forests we would all die! At the back of his mind, the rat would be calculating his share from the last consignment of illicit logs which would have been removed by the timber mafia from his beat!

For that matter, have you guys ever heard of an honest forest officer? The entire deptt. is now enjoying its golden age! Since the infantile Queen is at the head, it is easy to fool him with their fairy tales of how they have managed to stop the timber loot, rampant wildlife poaching, etc. Pure BS, I must say! The forest guys are also mighty thrilled! Nowadays, the entire loot goes home as they do not have to part with a penny to any Minister! A bird told me that the take in the mining belt is astronomical! With the booming price of iron ore, illegal mines operators are ready to pay obscene amounts. I heard about a range officer of Bonai division who makes half a crore a year by just closing his eyes to the mining !

At the same time, the Queen grandly announces at every public meet that he loves forests and is committed to their protection while he smilingly signs away prime areas for mining! The bloody fraud needs a whip on his soft backside!

Why do we enact this bloody tree planting rigmarole every year, when we are fast losing thick forests every day? Any answer please?

Assault on Oriya swabhiman?

Assault on Oriya swabhiman?

One of the most unlikely scene flashed across TV channels a few days ago. A smiling Budha babu embraced Mukesh Ambani ( a snake and mongoose jodi! ) who smugly announced his grand investment of Rs.4,000 crore to set up farm retail points and gas based power plants which would apparently push the Bong economy to stratospheric heights!

What has the world come to! How could a dyed in the wool commie jump into blissful union with a much reviled capitalist !

I also couldn’t help guffawing when the Ambani crook said that he was there to help the farmers of WB! Folks have you ever heard of the Ambani dakus ever helping anyone in their chequered corporate history? They are bloody merciless sharks who would happily suck the farmers to death! All they need now are the obliging red netas!

Cut to Orissa! Cries of protest by the vociferous red unions and their hired crowds rent the air as they protest Nalco’s privatization. What a turn round! Trust the reds to be true turncoats!

In redland they will happily welcome India’s most notorious investor the perfectly immoral Reliance group who buy out every bloody minister or babu to ensure that a truly free market economy prevails so that they are “free to loot the janata!”

Oh the double standards of the hypocritical reds! And secondly, why protest in Orissa against Nalco dis investment. Why don’t they pull the rug from under the Sardar’s feet at the center? They want to have the cake and eat it too!

When it was accepted in 1991 by the entire nation that we need to liberalize the economy to improve our lives; that the government has to get out of business so that the taxpayers do not bear their mounting losses; why these protests ?

Everyone knows that PSUs are milch cows for the vast army of netas and their chamchas! Corruption is rampant in Nalco as its officers and employees make money left and right. Who wants to give up this honey pot?

The moment private management takes control (not after this measly 10 % dis investment since it will only reduce the GOI’s holding to 77.5% ) the first thing they shall do is to exterminate these rats who now freely loot the company. There is no dispute that a privately managed Nalco will be run better, be more efficient and fetch better returns for the same capital employed.

And the most ethical reason I can think in favour of dis investment, is that the owner (GOI) has every right to decide how to deal with his property. Who are the bloody household help to object to this? Tomorrow if you decide to sell your house, can your servant stop you by saying that he does not like the new owner. If he hates him, let him vamoose!

And the govt. of Orissa also has no right to ask the center to stop. The moronic argument that they gave the captive bauxite mines to Nalco because it was a PSU does not jell.Since when has it become a condition of mines lease that ownership will always be with the state? If that be so, then why don’t they apply the same rule to the Tatas and the Birlas who have grabbed obscene amounts of iron, chromite and bauxite leases?

If the state badly wants to protect the “ Oriya swabhiman” whatever it means, let them set up a patriotic fund and ask every Oriya to contribute so that they can buy out 10 % shares ? And woe betide Nalco, if the Queen’s govt. manages to jostle into the board with an equity backing! Our inimitable babus will successfully use their stone age managerial skills to convert the current Rs.1,234 crores profit into a net loss within one year! Have you forgotten their notorious management track record of the state PSUs?

I also wonder why the same BJD or BJP netas don’t launch public protests against the planned loot by Posco! The Korean bandits are being handed over 600 million tones of iron ore at Rs.26 per tonne royalty ! Assuming the company gets it at Rs.2,600 = 2,850 – 250 (raising cost + royalty) the loss to our state comes to Rs.156,000 crores at present market prices. The state would have earned this amount by just selling the ore in the market! Shockingly, there is no rasta or rail roko over this daylight banditry!

Why there is so much of opposition to the Nalco deal ? Freebies and goodies like hefty cuts on purchases and contracts, fake bills, free use of company guest houses and cars, foreign junkets, nepotism will of course disappear!

The Statutory Auditor’s report on Nalco for 2004-05 says…….. “ As regards fraud on the Company, in one case, one transport contractor has forged the signature of officers of the Company and has claimed false bills, the amount of which is being worked out. The business with the contractor has been suspended and the amount will be recovered from his pending bills.”

This shocking fraud happened inspite of a full fledged internal control system and at least 3 audit firms looking into internal audit. Were the officers sleeping when the false bills were paid out? The fraud amount is so huge that they could not calculate the amount of the loot ! Now you have a fair idea of how many crooks are bleeding the company and why they are screaming against dis investment !

‘Nalco is the pride of the state and we will not allow the central government to do that,’ a leading BJP neta loftily proclaimed. What pride? The state government has not invested a single naye paise and has not managed this company for a day! How can you blow a trumpet which does not even belong to you? Folks, I hope you do remember that the BJP banias were happily bartering away Nalco shares when they were in NDA a few years ago!

The government has no business to be in business and let Nalco's dis investment proceed smoothly !