The Chairman of the Co-ordination Committee of the utterly puerile UPA, uniformly perverse UPA, unitedly preposterous UPA and unconscionably pernicious UPA Dr Sonia Maino Gandhi has authorized her petticoat non-government to make it clear that JMM Chief Shibu Soren would not be divested of his Lok Sabha membership despite the fact that he has been sentenced to life imprisonment by Delhi court in the kidnapping and murder of his secretary Shashinath Jha. This is the organized centenary tribute of the Italy-born president of the Indian National Congress to the sacred memory of Mahatma Gandhi, who launched his great Satyagraha Movement in South Africa in 1906 and thus made history. The UPA government today under the stranglehold of a supremely suave Italian woman has become a government of chosen and nominated thugs, by thugs and for thugs.

Students of modern Indian history cannot help recalling the magnificent life and achievements of Sir William Henry Sleeman (1788 - 1856) in this context. He is best known for his suppression of the Thugs or fraternities of stealthy murderers of travelers in India, becoming Superintendent of the Operations against them in 1835, and Commissioner for the Suppression of Thuggi and Dacoity in 1839. During these operations, more than 1400 Thugs were hanged or transported for life. One of them confessed to having committed over 700 murders. Sleeman was a Resident at Gwalior from 1843 to 1849 and at Lucknow from 1849 to 1856. The village called Sleemanabad in UP was named in his honor. Sir William Sleeman took orders from Lord William Bentinck who was Governor General to put down Thuggee Raj with an iron hand.

Lord William Bentinck            Col. William Sleeman
(1774 - 1839)                          (1788 - 1856)
Governor General of India                                                      

What is the position in India today? Dr Manmohan Singh takes hourly orders from Sonia Gandhi for the promotion and elevation of Thuggee Raj. Both of them together have succeeded in putting India back to the dark days of Thuggee Raj. The venerable Speaker of the Lok Sabha who took action on a war-footing against certain BJP and other MPs for receiving illegal ratification, 'ought not to be unconcerned' about the desirability or otherwise of the continuance of a convicted criminal like Shibu Soren as a Member of the Lok Sabha.

As a private citizen of no significance, I have quoted Walt Whitman (1819 -1892), the great poet of American democracy, several times in the past to describe the depraved character of many of our deranged MPs in these columns. Whitman had, perhaps, many Members of our Parliamentary system in mind when he paid this glowing tribute to them in biting words : 'The members who composed it were seven-eighths of them, the meanest kind of bawling and blowing officeholders, office-seekers, pimps, malignants, conspirators, murderers, fancy-men, custom-house clerks, contractors, kept-editors, spaniels well-trained to carry and fetch, jobbers, infidels, disunionists, terrorists, mail-riflers, slave catchers, pushers of slavery, creatures of the President, spies, bribers, compromisers, lobbyers, sponges, ruined sports, expelled gamblers, policy-backers, monte-dealers, duelists, carriers of concealed weapons, deaf men, pimpled men, scarred inside with vile disease, gaudy outside with gold chains made from the people's money and harlots' money twisted together, crawling, serpentine men, the lousy combining and born freedom-sellers of the earth'.

Montesquieu (1689 - 1755), great French political philosopher, rightly said: 'The corruption of each government almost always begins with that of its principles'. Let us now turn to Sonia's principles adopted by Dr Manmohan Singh. The Sonia Gandhi led Congress party has had the temerity to compare a political non-entity like Dr Manmohan Singh with a great Statesman like Atal Bihari Vajpayee who has been a Member of the Lok Saba for nearly five decades. When Shibu Soren facing murder and other criminal charges was retained as Cabinet Minister, Sonia had defended Dr. Manmohan Singh by saying that even Attal Bihari Vajpayee had 'misused his prerogative' by inducting L K Advani and Dr Murali Manohar Joshi into his Cabinet despite their being charge sheeted in the Babri Masjid demolition case. A convicted murderer is treated on par with political rebels and agitators like L.K. Advani and Dr Murali Manohar Joshi by Sonia Gandhi.

Sir Winston Churchill contrasted two Prime Ministers H.H. Asquith and Arthur Balfour in these words: 'The difference between Asquith and Balfour is that Balfour is wicked and moral, Asquith is good and immoral'. This quotation can be suitably adapted in the Indian context and the readers can draw relevant conclusions for themselves. The common people of India now know that Dr Manmohan Singh has sufficient conscience to bother him, but not sufficient enough to keep him straight. In this context, I am reminded of the brilliant observation of Lloyd George (1863 - 1945), British Prime Minister during World War I, in regard to the historical impact of Sir Arthur Balfour (1848 - 1930), a former Prime Minister of England: 'No more than the whiff of scent of a lady's pocket handkerchief'. The whole world knows with unconcealed glee and contempt the actual position obtaining in India today. The common people of India would like to remind our Prime Minister that there is, however, a limit at which forbearance ceases to be a virtue.

According to the UPA Government under the stranglehold of Sonia Gandhi, governance of India is a 'tamasha'. Indian constitution is a disposable condom. Institutions like Parliament, Judiciary and the Executive are show-piece facades to be erected and dismantled at will according to the whim and caprice of one woman from time to time. The latest farce (tamasha) staged by the Congress is the politically cosmetic celebration which they had in New Delhi to celebrate the 35th anniversary of the liberation of Bangla Desh on December 16, 1971. When the anti-national and degenerate Congress Party wanted to have the function in the premises of the Defence Services Officers' Institute (DSOI) in Dhoula Kuan in New Delhi, Retired Officers' Forum made it clear to the three service chiefs that it was an affront to their dignity to permit a political party to host a political function in the public premises owned collectively by the people of India as a whole. The Congress Party was forced to have the function in one of the premises on Akbar Road. The invitation was issued from the AICC (All India Congress Committee), only to the 71 War veterans. Many distinguished retired officers had not been invited. Approximately 1000 officers from the three services and widows turned up for the function. Many of them wondered how they were tracked down and how their latest phone Numbers and addresses were available to the organizers. A small photo exhibition of about 40 photos was on display along with numerous huge banners of Indira and Rajiv Gandhi. Soon at the appointed hour, Mrs. Sonia Gandhi breezed in, wished everyone by going round and seven minutes later, breezed out. Many senior retired Officers of the three Services strongly felt that Sonia Gandhi ought to have received them if she was the hostess. During this time, a military band played. Later there was a playing of recorded speeches by Mrs. Indira Gandhi. The whole show was over within one hour. Many officers had come with shoulders back, gleaming medals on civilian clothes and a spark of hope in their eyes. Many senior Officers felt that it was a wasted morning!

Under UPA's non-governance, India has become a barren wasteland of the Hollow Men - condemned to a cruel state of desolation. Enlightened and patriotic people are exhausted and are hopelessly gazing upon an equally exhausted India. 'Shape without form, shade without color, paralyzed force, gesture without emotion, men, figures stuffed with straw, gather on stony soil in a valley of dying stars. They are empty without vision; they learn together without thought; their voices whisper meaninglessly, through a land of stone images and death's dream kingdom. Here, a man cannot die even decently. He approaches his shabby end by way of a nursery rhyme'. Here we go round the prickly pear'. It is indeed an ironic litany of complete frustration'.

This is the way India ends
This is the way India ends
This is the way India ends
Not with a bang but a whimper!

As a powerless individual in today's Thuggee Raj in India presided over by Sonia Gandhi and ably abetted by Dr Manmohan Singh, I would like to put this straight question to each of them: 'Are you a politician who says to himself / herself : 'I will use my country for my own benefit'?' ..or are you a devoted patriot, who whispers in the ear of his / her innerself: 'I love to serve my country as a faithful servant.'

Whatever clever answer both of them may jointly contrive to give to the above question, the masses of India from Kashmir to Kanyakumari, from the Rann of Kutch to the Bay of Bengal, are clear and determined in their minds about what they have to do and what they ought to do in the Parliamentary elections to be held in 2009. India is indeed dying in the general mess of imprecision of feeling - undisciplined squads of battling emotions arising from a cruelly divided people. How can I get the better of words to explain the national anguish - particularly for the thing one no longer has to say, or the way in which one is no longer disposed to say it? In this context, it is relevant to point out that the day of great victory of the unarmed Indian people against the savage tyranny of Indira Gandhi in 1977 can never be forgotten or removed from the pages of history!!