Why should you support Anna Hazare and a strong Lok Pal bill?

This is a burning issue many Indians are aware of (provided they follow Indian news). Most of us support Anna Hazare either because we know the facts behind the need for a strong Lok Pal (will be a very less percentage in my opinion) and others simply support because they don’t have faith in the current government’s version of Lok Pal (will be the majority). There is a third category of people who do not support Anna Hazare’s movement because they think only formally elected MPs and Ministers have the right to constitute a new law in the country.

This article is for the second category of people I have mentioned above – who want to support Anna Hazare but don’t know why! These are the top 5 reasons due to which I strongly believe that we all should support Anna Hazare’s movement for a strong Lok Pal (not necessarily all the points in their version though).

1)      Corruption is the root cause of most problems in India today

If you have lived in India for few years and visited government offices, you must be familiar with the way things work in most government offices. It can be as small as getting your address changed in your ration card to as big as getting a frequency range in the spectrum as a mobile operator, money does many things in India. This practice is so deep rooted in our society that even the citizens have become corrupt – a classic example is registering your property for a lower value to avoid paying stamp duty by paying bribe to the registrar to allow it. We do have a Prevention of Corruption act (1988) but nothing has changed drastically. As per the statistics from www.ipaidabribe.com, the total value of bribe reported so far in the site is Rs. 296,995,425. Remember, this is only from those who reported it and reported it in this website. The actual value of bribe paid in my view should be multiple folds of this amount. Even worse, the poor condition of infrastructure development and public services in India can be and should be attributed only to corruption and embezzlement by bureaucrats and politicians.             This clearly indicates the ineffectiveness of Prevention of Corruption Act and a need for a stronger law with severe punishment and penalties for those who are convicted of corruption.

2)      Other countries have set a working example through a strong ombudsman

This point in time, I should draw the example of how corruption was so well handled through the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) in Hong Kong. Hong Kong was even more corrupt than India. But today if you talk to those who are from Hong Kong you would hear totally different stories. This was possible through a strong independent body with sufficient powers to investigate corruption and punish those who are corrupt working with a clearly defined SLA. You can get to know about the great story of Hong Kong from here.

3)      The Government’s version of Lok Pal is too weak to say the least

Intentionally or unintentionally, most likely intentionally, the Lok Pal bill tabled by government on 4^th Aug 2011 is simply too weak. You can see the complete draft of the UPA government from here. I did go through the entire draft (yawn :O) and tried to understand (difficult without legal knowledge). I’ve also gone through the draft proposed by Anna Hazare and team (you can read it from here). These are the key differences I have noticed which makes the Jan Lok Pal much better than the Joke Pal the government has tabled.

Feature	Jan Lok Pal	Lok Pal	Impact to Indians
Ability to enquire Prime Minister	Lok Pal will have the powers to initiate investigation and indict PM and PMO	Lok Pal cannot investigate any complaint relating to PM while PM is in power	If the highest person in the government of India is not made accountable by law, it is a shame on us! See what’s going on now – Raja is accusing PM but MMS is simply not answering!
Ability to prosecute MPs and Ministers	Lok Pal will be able to investigate and prosecute any government servant defined as per prevention of corruption act (1988)	Lok Pal will have to submit a report to PM and wait for the report to be discussed in parliament before MPs or Ministers can be prosecuted.	This is another place where UPA’s Lok Pal becomes Joke Pal. In other words, don’t even dare to touch politicians.
Investigation wing	CBI’s anti-corruption unit must be under Lok Pal	A separate wing will be constituted with powers equivalent to Delhi Police	What’s the point in CBI (which works for government) investigating corruption charges against government? If Supreme Court doesn’t intervene every single time (like it does now) nothing will progress.
Ability to enquire senior judges	Lok Pal will be able to investigate and prosecute any government servant defined as per prevention of corruption act (1988) including the Chief Justice of India	Senior Judges cannot be inquired by Lok Pal	Read my previous point where CBI working well only if SC intervenes. What if the CJI himself/herself is part of corruption? Remember CJI K.G.Balakrishnan?
Prosecution Wing	CBI’s prosecution wing to be under Lok Pal. A special court to be formed with retired judges of Supreme Court.	A separate court to be formed. Prosecution of general public within the purview of Lok Pal but cannot prosecute MPs or Ministers.	Prosecution Wing is included just for the sake of inclusion without any real powers to punish politicians.
Ambit	Jan Lok Pal will be able to receive complaints from general public and initiate suo motu against those accused.Any complaint received by Lok Pal to be investigated within 30 days. Any loss to government or public to be recovered from the corrupt.	General public should send their complaints to Lok Sabha or Rajya Sabha speaker and it’s left to the Parliament to decide which ones should be investigated by Lok Pal.No authority to enquire low level corruptions.	Another point that makes the government version seriously weak and allow low level corruptions (that people face day to day) to continue.

To sum it up, the government version of the Lok Pal cannot prosecute corrupt MPs and Ministers without the permission of the parliament which is totally absurd. Furthermore, they cannot enquire senior judges and PM who can well be part of the corruption. General public are not given any assurance of elimination of corruption in day to day life and punishment to those who are corrupt is not within the purview of Lok Pal. In a nutshell, Lok Pal will seek help from government to investigate, seek help from government to prosecute, and seek help from government to even appoint its own members, including the chairperson. In other words, Lok Pal will be indirectly controlled by the government, like MMS being controlled by Sonia

4)      The government has betrayed team Anna and the nation

Remember what UPA said when they asked Anna Hazare to withdraw his hunger strike in April’11? They assured to formulate a joint committee which will draft Lok Pal bill. What happened then? The ministers kept closing meetings in disagreement and finally decided to get away with the joint committee totally. Even then Kapil Sibal assured to present both the versions in parliament. But look at what they have done now. The government has silently ignored the version prepared by Anna Hazare’s Panel and just proceeding with the one they made with some minor alterations such as investigation and prosecution powers. This is a total betrayal of the nation which supported Anna Hazare’s movement in April’11. What else can you expect from a government which filed a suit in Supreme Court to stop Supreme Court from formulating a committee to investigate and recover black money? It can happen only in India and only when Congress is ruling.

5)      If it’s not now, it is never

As you might know the very first draft for an independent Lok Pal more than 40 years back. It has taken 40+ years and a strong protest from Anna Hazare and team and the whole nation to even table a Lok Pal bill in the parliament. Now if we allow this weak bill to get passed it might take another 40+ years to strengthen the bill. We not only need a Lok Pal but a strong Lok Pal which can take severe actions against those who are corrupt. If this Lok Pal is setup, it won’t even be able to punish those who are already corrupt, forget about those who commit corruption in future.

This is the right time to bring the right Lok Pal bill by supporting Anna Hazare’s movement in every little way you can, by participating in the protest or participating in a signature drive or just spreading the word, or anything you can do. Remember, it’s now or never! Jai Hind!!

PS: After a long time (since my MS days), I have read, referenced, and written so much in a single day…At least happy that I did not have to include a reference list ..Phew! Time to take some rest before the next post

Living amidst danger – lessons to learn from Israel

Those who know the history of Israel would not be exclaiming too much about the problems India is facing from its neighbours. Instead, they will showcase the strong actions Israel has taken to suppress its enemies as example of  how India should react when it comes to terrorism. With a population less than an average Indian city, Israel has been so effective in protecting itself as well as giving a strong response to attacks.

If you closely observe, similarities between Israel and India are amazing. Israel was formed as part of a partition during its independence separating Jews from rest of Arabs. Right from the very next day of its independence in 1948, till date Israel has been facing threats from its neighbours, just like India.  Even after combined efforts from all Israel’s surrounding Arab countries, no one has been successful in defeating Israel. Jews have suffered many holocausts across the world by many rulers just like how Hindus have. Surprisingly, Judaism is still alive after several thousand years just like Hinduism. 

This has led to many important allies between India and Israel, officially as well emotionally. India was one of the few countries which accommodated several Jewish refugees over the years. Israel has always been in good terms with India. Even after all these, its our blatant failure to learn self-protection from Israel. Even when Israel offered assistance in resolving issues with Pakistan, India has refused to accept to maintain its image as a ‘peace-seeker’ in world arena. Result? We are still facing unwarranted terror attacks in major cities and losing lives every now and then. Even after it has been proved evidently that Pakistan has major role behind these attacks, we are still negotiating with them to accept the facts!

India has strong defence allies with Israel resulting in mutual assistance. This has already put tremendous pressure on Pakistan as it has no way of tackling India-US-Israel ally against terror. It is India, which is procrastinating strong actions resulting in underutilization of these allies. I felt it was totally unnecessary for India to comment on Israel’s attack on Gaza strip as it is Israel’s fundamental rights to protect itself from Hizbullahs of Gaza strip. Communist party has asked Indian government to sever its ties with Israel due to these attacks, proving again that communists will never do any good for India.

Enough is enough. Its time to follow Israel’s footprints in responding to terror. Otherwise, this is how India will be…

Being tolerant is not cowardliness

It’s been ages since I wrote something about Hinduism. I was contemplating on whether I really gone out of thoughts on my beautiful religion (let me call it ‘way of life’)…when I got an interesting topic to write on, unfortunately, I had noticed incidents happened in Mangalore last week…my busy schedule has kept me outdated of latest happenings in my mother land…it was really unfortunate to see my ‘tolerant’ brothers coming out of their cuticles and behave violently…though that’s how it appeared when I overlooked the issue with what was available in web, its not the real story…

Again, this issue is not initiated by Hindus, but, as usual, being ‘the majority’, they have become the victims of media…this incident is wholly due to the ‘denigration’ of Hindu Gods by the Missionaries of New Life…after trying out several cheap and dirty methods, finally they got enough guts to besmirch a religion in its own land…here are some quotes from the book ‘Satya (?) Darshini’ that they had distributed in Mangalore…

Urvashi – the daughter of Lord Vishnu – is a prostitute.  Vashitha is the son of this prostitute.  He in turn married his own Mother.  Such a degraded person is the Guru of the Hindu God Rama. (page 48)

When Krishna himself is wallowing in darkness of hell, how can he enlighten others?  Since Krishna himself is a shady character, there is a need for us to liberate his misled followers. (page 50)

It was Brahma himself who kidnapped Sita.  Since Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva were themselves the victims of lust, it is a sin to consider them as Gods. (page 39)

When the Trinity of Hinduism (Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva) is consumed by lust and anger, how can they liberate others?  Their projection as Gods is nothing but a joke. (page 39).

When Vishnu asked Brahma to commit a sin, he immediately did so.  How can such a “evil brahma” be a Creator of this Universe?  How is it possible for both the sinner and the entity which provoked the sin to be gods?  (page 39)

God, please liberate the sinful people of India who are worshipping False Gods that believe in the pleasures of illicit ‘Vyabichari’ relationships. (Page 39)

I am definitely not trying to justify the action taken by our friends, but, the way they have written their propaganda by denigrating our Gods can kindle anybody. Rest we know. What happened was unfortunate. But, how long can one be ‘tolerant’? How can one endure continuing slanders? I am not supporting violence or denigrations in any form. But, when the government is not ‘secular’ and in favor of minorities, this is bound to happen someday or the other.Especially when a community is hurt and continues to get hurt, they are bound to explode. And, this is not the first time I am hearing a dirty action by missionaries. There were, are and will be many. This came to limelight because of the totally unexpected aftermath.

This is a never ending story…being a neutral person myself, I want real ‘secularism’ in place…I am not against anyone here…but, when you want others to respect you, you must learn to respect others…after seeing the kind of incidents that take place, it can only be a dream to have real ‘secularism’ in India…Where are we going????

Amarnath atrocities, Hurt Hindus

‘Indha naadum nattu makkalum naasamaai pogattum’(Let this country and its citizens go to hell) – This was one famous Tamil dialog uttered by yesteryear villain actor P.S.Veerappa in one of his movies. This is what I said when I heard about Gulam Nabi Azad’s decision on the Amarnath land row. If you are fuddled with what I am talking about, please check any news channel or ‘Google’ it. One of the holy pilgrimages of Hindus, the Amarnath Yatra is popular this year for very bad reasons.

It all started when Jammu & Kashmir government has decided to allot 40 hectares of forest land that falls on the pilgrimage route to the Amarnath shrine board to make temporary accommodation facilities for the pilgrims. When Indian government spends hundreds of crores of rupees every year on the Haj pilgrims no Hindu has ever said a word of protest in this country (including Bajrang Dhal, VHP, Shiv Sena, RSS and groups of such sort). But this petty act in favor of Hindus by the J&K government has kindled the monopoly Muslims of Kashmir. The result is excessive protests, loss of precious lives and more than 500 injured souls.

Now the government has decided to countermand the decision and above all, has decided to transfer the complete control of Amarnath Yatra to the tourism department. In a country which has Hindus as majority, even ‘basic’ facilities are restrained to them and no one bothers about that.

If they are not able to control the insurgents, no point in having a government. It would be better if army takes over and controls the situation. I have a strong feeling that Kashmir has never belonged to India. It has and it will belong to Muslims and only to them. Even our constitution has been written in favor of them. And the politicians, who don’t even bother to lick their boots to get votes always held their lips zipped in these kind of issues. Even ‘Mahatma’ Gandhi was not an exception when innocent Kashmiri Pandits were expelled from Kashmir.

What ever said and done, this act is nothing but a shame on the Congress government. BJP sure will make this as an election issue. With inflation already causing jerks at the center, hurting the Hindu majority will give Congress a jolt from which they can never recuperate. No Congress person, including Dr. Manmohan Singh and our ‘most secular’ communist leaders have said a word about this issue so far. In fact, some communist parties support the act of Muslim parties like PDP. I feel BJP was far far better ‘secular’ than this Congress government which keeps hurting Hindus every now and then.

Having said about the government, I should mention about the ruthless acts of our fellow Muslim brothers (especially PDP). I don’t have any second thoughts in calling those who protested as ‘Desh Drogis’ as said by Baba Ramdev. Like how billions of Hindus respect the sentiments of Muslims throughout the country, Muslims should learn to respect the religious sentiments of Hindus and ask the Jammu and Kashmir government to transfer the land back to the SASB. But, it will never happen in this ‘secular’ country.

‘Indha naadum nattu makkalum naasamaai pogattum’

Can’t we have true sportiveness?

Indians are emotional…sometimes over-emotional, at least when it comes to sports…not for all the sports, but only for Cricket…when Indian hockey team fail to qualify for Olympics, nobody seemed to have cared about that…when Indian football team won Nehru cup, it got a tepid response…but when it comes to Cricket, we are not ready to compromise…if Indian team wins, the players become Gods…if it loses, their effigies are burnt…when are we going to change ourselves?

The same old bad Indian sporting spirit is now under spot lights again because of ‘Red Hot’ IPL…though IPL is bringing out some of the budding talents, it has also created unintended (or may be intended) hitches…the city spirit has gone beyond the national spirit…if you are a regular watcher of IPL, you must have experienced this…now its not an entertainment anymore…it is prestige…whether your city wins a match or not is a question of pride…is it achieved by Indians or not is out of discussion…people are going mad with their city spirit and it is blatantly visible when they fail to support our own players…

the worst affected are Indian players who are playing ‘away’ matches…in a Mumbai VS Punjab game nobody was ready to cheer up Yuvi’s team’s heroics…but they roared when Jayasurya thrashed Indian bowlers like Irfan Pathan and Sreesanth…when everyone else kept silence about this, Yuvi had the guts to expose this bad attitude publicly…if you are a true sports person, you must appreciate good sports irrespective of whether it is by your city or by the opponent…

Kolkata audience are known for their bad sports attitude (remember 1996 semi-final and the day they supported SA when India played against SA without Ganguly) and it is once again evident in IPL…but because of this IPL, this attitude seems to have propagated to almost all the cities…but BCCI and Lalit Modi must be very happy…they have done their marketing properly to achieve what they have intended to keep IPL a success story for years from now…but what IPL is going to contribute for Indian cricket is still a question…

In an interview to CNN-IBN, Jeffrey Archer said ‘IPL is not cricket…its mere entertainment…real cricket is a test match between India and England at Lords where every single Brit will expect Sachin to score a century’…when are we going to develop such a kind of sportiveness and support real talent rather than blindly supporting our cities for the sake of doing it?

Can’t we have true sportiveness?

Indians are emotional…sometimes over-emotional, at least when it comes to sports…not for all the sports, but only for Cricket…when Indian hockey team fail to qualify for Olympics, nobody seemed to have cared about that…when Indian football team won Nehru cup, it got a tepid response…but when it comes to Cricket, we are not ready to compromise…if Indian team wins, the players become Gods…if it loses, their effigies are burnt…when are we going to change ourselves?

The same old bad Indian sporting spirit is now under spot lights again because of ‘Red Hot’ IPL…though IPL is bringing out some of the budding talents, it has also created unintended (or may be intended) hitches…the city spirit has gone beyond the national spirit…if you are a regular watcher of IPL, you must have experienced this…now its not an entertainment anymore…it is prestige…whether your city wins a match or not is a question of pride…is it achieved by Indians or not is out of discussion…people are going mad with their city spirit and it is blatantly visible when they fail to support our own players…

the worst affected are Indian players who are playing ‘away’ matches…in a Mumbai VS Punjab game nobody was ready to cheer up Yuvi’s team’s heroics…but they roared when Jayasurya thrashed Indian bowlers like Irfan Pathan and Sreesanth…when everyone else kept silence about this, Yuvi had the guts to expose this bad attitude publicly…if you are a true sports person, you must appreciate good sports irrespective of whether it is by your city or by the opponent…

Kolkata audience are known for their bad sports attitude (remember 1996 semi-final and the day they supported SA when India played against SA without Ganguly) and it is once again evident in IPL…but because of this IPL, this attitude seems to have propagated to almost all the cities…but BCCI and Lalit Modi must be very happy…they have done their marketing properly to achieve what they have intended to keep IPL a success story for years from now…but what IPL is going to contribute for Indian cricket is still a question…

In an interview to CNN-IBN, Jeffrey Archer said ‘IPL is not cricket…its mere entertainment…real cricket is a test match between India and England at Lords where every single Brit will expect Sachin to score a century’…when are we going to develop such a kind of sportiveness and support real talent rather than blindly supporting our cities for the sake of doing it?

Galz in IT

Usually, a disclaimer is put only at the end of an article. But considering the sensitivity of this article (Girls are always sensitive, aren’t they?), I am forced to put it right here, right now.

Disclaimer:
Whatever I am presenting here are absolutely my own observations. It can no way be called a ‘generalisation’. So, no hard feelings please . Read on…

Girls, the 33% topic of India, are essential part of IT industry. Though they are still less in number, one cannot deny that they already placed their foot firmly into IT. Like how a coin has two sides, from guys’ perspective, girls are distraction as well as motivation, they are the thrust as well as the hindrance. Whatever be your perspective, one thing is true: they are indispensable.

When Kandasamy, Muthusamy, Kuppusamy or Ramasamy (hereafter referred as KMKR) sit and bang their heads on the PC to solve a high priority production issue, Seetha, Geetha, Lalitha or Kavitha (hereafter referred as SGLK) will be rushing to catch the 6’O clock bus to home. If any support is needed on weekends, or at nights, only KMKR will be called and SGLK will not even be aware of such and such thing happened. The worst part is, on a Friday, KMKR would want to leave office by 6 and go to his home town, but SGLK will come to his desk by 5:55 PM with her lunch bag in hand, throw a sweet smile and ask him to attend the conference call on behalf of her. Poor KMKR, being a helmet*, can never say ‘no’.

KMKR will be working at a place which will be way far away from his home town. His parents may be genuinely ill. He would have tried to get transfer ‘n’ number of times, but would have never got it through because of the famous ‘dependency’ factor. SGLK will just tell her manager that she is getting married and so she needs a transfer. Without any further questions, without any second thoughts, she gets it through. There is a popular Tamil adage which says, ‘Even a Ghost will show mercy on Girls’ – words of wisdom.

After working tirelessly for 2 years, KMKR will try for an overseas chance. The manager would say they will try their level best. The HR would say, they don’t have any matching onsite openings for his profile. But, SGLK will simply come with her marriage invitation and give it to her manager and HR. Her abroad trip will be planned instantaneously as her fiancé will be working abroad. Competencies don’t matter, roles don’t matter, people who are waiting in the queues are unlucky, but it is the job of the organization to ensure that she lives her life happily with her husband. Once one of the guys tried the same route. Alas! the reverse has happened. I mean, his fiancée was brought back to India

Girls may claim that they are more efficient than guys at times since they don’t have (m)any distractions. But, KMKRs always point SGLKs as one of the major sources of distraction. Acceptable. But, the other side of the coin always has a contrasting story. One of my friends says(his exact words recited) – ‘After immersing into an issue for 3-4 hours, if you turn to your left or right, there should be a chick sitting to cool you down machi. Otherwise life will be miserable’. Seems to be logical . Whatever the case be, as I said early, Girls are indispensable in IT (at least for the last reason ).

* – helmet is a code-word used to refer a most eligible bachelor

P.S: I am trying my level best not to behave like an IT manic. Almost every alternative post is some or the other way related to IT. But what to do, being an ITian myself, couldn’t really help. But surely, will try to avoid this in future.

IT and our culture

It is a quite disheartening fact that the number of divorces is increasing rapidly in India and ITians hold the major share of it. In most of the cases, the husband and wife have worked in the same office, loved each other and got married. But within months, their conjugal life turned bitter and they stepped into family courts to get separated. Though all the revolutionists are supporting it, love marriage between ITians seems to be occupying the top slot in number of divorces. The kind of love in IT industry is merely an outcome of planning for the future. When both understand that they can pay the EMI for the home loan sooner with 2 salaries, they get married. But since both of them are not ready to leave their egos and not ready to sacrifice even petty things for their better(?) half, they get separated.

Unlike other industries and government jobs, ITians see a lot of money in their very tender age before even they get matured. Please note that maturity here has nothing to do with their level of intelligence. They may be solving real time problems of Nasdaq but they literally don’t know what to do with the money they have in their wallet. Those who have self-control stay within the boundaries and those who don’t break the barriers. Week end parties, boozing, night clubs, dating…there are really a zillion ways to burn your money. And its quite easy for a cat on a wall with money to get tempted and jump into the wrong side.

Pre-marital and Extra-marital affairs were once a talk with the BPO sector alone. It seems the bug has now bitten IT also. Though it is good to see that the majority are still not infected, in many smaller companies and foreign MNCs who have their branches here, this is slowly catching up. A raid conducted in early 2007 on various resorts and villas in ECR Road, Chennai has caught many ITians and BPO persons red handed. But all were amnestied or rather sent out free without charge for a charge. Even last week there was an incident in Bangalore where a person has killed his wife and committed suicide as she has had an adulterous affair.

Debilitating life style, unhealthy diet, unbalanced work and personal life, odd working hours, extreme stress and pressure – all these seem to be making many IT professionals lose their health and vigor and ramble with a potbelly. Since every other colleague is doing, they are joining fitness classes and aerobics and they never seemed to be effective for IT people. Because of their inimical life style, the number of ITians who are losing their sterility is increasing steadily and this has been found to be one of important causes behind the marriage break-ups. For the citizens of US, UK and other countries to lead a sophisticated life, our guys are losing their irrecoverable health.

Every one seems to be interested in knowing the effects of US’s recession on IT and IT’s effects on Indian economy. They don’t seem to be bothered about IT’s effects on our culture which we have been preserving successfully for 1000s of years. Before the situation goes out of hands, we have to take it out of harm’s way.

Mother Teresa – some polemical facts Part 2

In Part1 of this article, we have come across some controversial accusations and impeachments against (Mother) Teresa. Here, in this part we continue on the same track with more information that I have collected from various sources.

What happen(ed)s to the Millions of Dollars?

I told that we will look at what (Mother) Teresa and the nuns did with the millions of dollars of donations that they have been receiving. This is what Chatterjee writes in his book on (Mother) Teresa,
Mother Teresa’s organisation ignores this prescription! It is not known if the Finance Ministry in Delhi who would be responsible for charities’ accounts, have the actual figures. Upon STERN’s inquiry, the Ministry informed us that this particular query was listed as “classified information”.

Perhaps the most lucrative branch of the organisation is the “Holy Ghost” House in New York’s Bronx. Susan Shields served the order there for a total of nine and a half years as Sister Virgin. “We spent a large part of each day writing thank you letters and processing cheques,” she says. “Every night around 25 sisters had to spend many hours preparing receipts for donations. It was a conveyor belt process: some sisters typed, others made lists of the amounts, stuffed letters into envelopes, or sorted the cheques. Values were between $5 and $100.000. Donors often dropped their envelopes filled with money at the door. Before Christmas the flow of donations was often totally out of control. The postman brought sackfuls of letters — cheques for $50000 were no rarity.” Sister Virgin remebers that one year there was about $50 million in a New York bank account. $50 million in one year! — in a predominantly non-Catholic country. How much then, were they collecting in Europe or the world? It is estimated that worldwide they collected at least $100 million per year — and that has been going on for many many years.

While the income is utter secret, the expenditures are equally mysterious. The order is hardly able to spend large amounts. The establishments supported by the nuns are so tiny (inconspicuous) that even the locals have difficulty tracing them. Often “Mother Teresa’s Home” means just a living accomodation for the sisters, with no charitable funstion. Conspicuous or useful assistance cannot be provided there. The order often receives huge donations in kind, in addition to the monetary munificence. Boxes of medicines land at Indian airports. Donated foodgrains and powdered milk arrive in containers at Calcutta port. Clothing donations from Europe and the US arrive in unimaginable quantities. On Calcutta’s pavement stalls, traders can be seen selling used western labels for 25 rupees (DM1) a piece. Numerous traders call out, “Shirts from Mother, trousers from Mother.”

What is the condition of the hospital?
After getting all these donations, Mother Teresa’s Kolkata hospital is highly unhygienic and dangerous for human life, opines Dr. Robin Cox, Editor of ‘Lancet’, which is a prestigious British medical journal. After visiting the said hospital, he remarked, ‘This is not a treatment center but a place where the dying can die in a dignified way.’

Mary Loudon, another English investigator, found as many as 60 patients sleeping on the floor in a single room of Mother Teresa’s hospital. Even rudimentary health procedures were not being followed. Loudon saw unsterlized needles being used and reused after being simply washed in cold water. Also, patients in need of even simple surgery were allowed to die instead of being sent to other hospitals in Calcutta!
- Ref. N.S. Rajaram (A Hindu View of the World)

Can it really be called as a charity?

Charles Keating, who was involved in the biggest finance scams of America, donated a sum of 1.25 million dollars to Mother Teresa’s institution. He would also allow her to use his private aircraft. When his case was being tried, she wrote to the trial judge Lance Ito asking him to show clemency towards Keating saying, “He has always been kind and generous to God’s poor. Look into his heart and do what Jesus would have done in that circumstances.” The judge wrote back to Mother Teresa saying, “I submit the same challenge to you. Ask yourself what Jesus would have done if he were given the fruits of crime… money that had been stolen… I submit that Jesus would promptly return the money to its rightful owners… Do not keep the money. Return it to the rightful owners.” Thereafter, Mother Teresa did not reply to him and kept the stolen money.
Source: http://www.hindujagruti.org/activities/campaigns/religious/christianity/motherteresa.php

Ambulance or taxi?
The Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta possess a small fleet of ‘ambulances’, many of them donated by businesses and individuals. These vehicles are painted to appear as ambulances and are fitted with red beacons; they are exempt from traffic regulations. But their main or sole function is to provide a taxi service for the nuns. In my time, I have never seen an ‘ambulance’ carry a patient or a destitute. Indeed, most of them do not have the provision to carry a stretcher, for the rails on the floor have been removed. The seats on the sides have been replaced by patterned sofas for the nuns to sit on. On 21 August 1996, I saw an extraordinary sight, even by the standards of the Missionaries of Charity – here was an ambulance, donated by Federal Express (India), filled with chickens; they were being brought to Mother House for the nuns’ annual feast the following day! I have a photograph of this bizarre spectacle. Vegetarians amongst the readers will be happy to know that the chickens had an unexpected extension of their lives, as the feast was cancelled due to Mother taking seriously ill.

Conclusion
I am no saint. At the same time I feel its my duty to make my view point clear on (Mother)Teresa. I am not claiming that whatever I have presented here are nothing but truth. At the same time, we cannot ignore the research and travail of these people who have tried to bring the real color of MoC and (Mother) Teresa. I have a lot more information on MoC and (Mother) Teresa but I think its better to close it here and leave to the readers to explore further based on their own interest.

Mother Teresa– some polemical facts — Part I

I admit that this could well become a very, very controversial topic. But, if I stop myself from writing about this, I feel that I am doing injustice to all my readers out there.

Like you all, till some time back, I was also having much reverence to Teresa. The things I read about her as part of my curriculum and outside inculcated a deep veneration on her and her services to humanity and the less-abled people. At one point of time after her demise, she was even raised to the level of a divine messenger and was called a saint. Does she really deserve all these? Was she really a selfless philanthropist? Like me, if you have had a profound respect for Teresa, it is worth reconsidering your assumptions now. I am just presenting here the information collected from various sources across the web. The objective of my post is to clarify people that she is just another person like us and no way near sainthood because of some of the activities she and her MoC claimed to have done as per the articles linked here.

(Mother) Teresa was a bit more fanatic about her religion than the service to humanity. There’s nothing wrong about this as at times even I am very religious. But to what extent? Teresa Speaks about herself When, for instance, Edward Le Joly, first wanted to write a book on her, she erupted:
Do it, do it. We are misunderstood, we are misrepresented, we are misreported. We are not nurses, we are not doctors, we are not teachers, we are not social workers. We are religious, we are religious, we are religious.

(Mother) Teresa’s homes, shocked the professional world by saying that any systematic operation was foreign to the running of the homes in India: TB patients were not isolated, and syringes were washed in lukewarm water before being used again. Even patients in unbearable pain were refused strong painkillers, not because the order did not have them, but on principle. “The most beautiful gift for a person is that he can participate in the suffering of Christ,” said (Mother) Teresa.
Once she had tried to comfort a screaming sufferer, “You are suffering, that means Jesus is kissing you” .The sufferer screamed back, furious, “Then tell your Jesus to stop kissing me”.

Source: http://www.geocities.com/willdirne/mo.html

OK, then was she at least true to her religion? This article raises serious questions on her religious stability and the funds she had raised.

Here’s one more, which debunks (Mother) Teresa’s activities and principles.

Here’s the experience of a poor foreigner who came to work in MoC (Missionaries of Charity).
“I went to India – specifically, Kolkata (Calcutta) – to spend a week working with Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity. It was nothing at all like I expected, but it had a strong effect on me and changed me for the better in ways I never thought it would. I was assigned to work in an orphanage, and circumstances resulted in me being assigned to a job that is usually reserved for volunteers staying no less than a month. I got to be an assistant teacher for a small class of toddlers, all of them older than 12 months but younger than 3 years. I witnessed the smiles of children who have nothing. I saw their gratefulness for the smallest of things, including the exuberance of a boy who happened to find a small, soggy scrap of cardboard that he could pick up and claim for his very own. I saw frightening neglect. I saw what I can only describe as abuse – physical, psychological, and possibly even sexual – that I was powerless to prevent, stop, or respond to in any way. My inability to do anything about what I saw is perhaps the most shaking experience of my life. A few weeks ago, I stumbled upon an article written by another former volunteer at the orphanage where I was stationed. This writer verbalized all the thoughts I hadn’t be able to put together into words: the Missionaries of Charity are among the least charitable people I have ever met. They would – do – keep millions of dollars in funds locked away in bank accounts while the orphans under their care are dressed in little more than rags.
The nuns sit humbly, silently, meekly in the corners of classrooms, statue-like, while the Indian nannies they employ slam toddlers into chairs, scream into babies’ faces, whip them around by their bony arms, and banish them into dark rooms as punishment. The international volunteers seem honestly dedicated to improving the lives of these children, but they are powerless to do anything but the tasks in front of them (teach, feed, bathe, dress, repeat), and many of them are diluded into thinking that these conditions are normal, acceptable, and inevitable. The truth, I have since discovered, is that the conditions in that orphanage are NOT considered acceptable or normal in India, and that they are NOT inevitable! The Missionaries of Charity have the funds to bring their orphanages up to international standards of cleanliness, safety, and care. Instead, they leave infants to writhe in soiled rags for hours before changing them, and they force feed children in such a rough way that some wards with trouble swallowing have been known to develop pneumonia as a result. I watched the brighest little girl in my group, a 2 and a half year old, lick another child’s urine off her desk because the temperatures were record-breaking and the children weren’t to be given water for another few hours. Horrifying. I will never think of Mother Teresa, her nuns, or her zealous worshippers in the same way again.”
Source: http://www.43places.com/places/view/102955

PS: Don’t call me an ‘Obnoxious weed ’ of being overzealous about religion and disdaining the services of (Mother) Teresa. All the articles presented here are written by Westerners which I feel increases the credibility of the information presented.

MORE to come on what (Mother) Teresa did with the millions of funds she received from benevolent donors and the luxurious life lead by the nuns of MoC.