Penny wise,Pound foolish

The phrase could be apt for the buffoons running the country/congress.About a couple of months ago there was a bit of chatter on how Mrs. Meera Shankar, India's envoy to the US, during a summit had referred to Sonia Gandhi as a catholic.Mrs.Gandhi 's religion has been the subject of deep speculation.Though she herself refrains from making statements on the subject, babble emerging from her party calls her a Hindu.

The aforementioned article read:

  Just how sensitive an issue it is was revealed last month when the official representative of the UPA Government in Washington, Ambassador Meera Shankar, delivered a speech at a US university referring to Sonia Gandhi being a Christian as a testament to India’s pluralism and diversity. However, that reference was later quickly deleted.

So  i found it highly amusing to find the same references being made in the akshay kumar movie Nameste London .A paraphrase of his words would read-

India is a country where a Catholic woman stepped aside so that a Sikh could ascend to the post of the prime minister's country.

Now putting aside all those lovely disclaimers which appear before the movie, i would imagine this hypothetical situation aping reality would irk more than a refernce on the MEA's website, which people rarely bother to visit.

Especially in India, where there is no better propaganda vehicle in India.

Glamour is a magnet

Glamour.The one magnet which attracts one and all.One which possesses the ability to asphyxiate your brain.Its almost synonymous to putting blinkers onto horse.Though it is a deeply mystifying situation, it isn't a new phenomena.You witness it in all walks of life.From the inherent racism we as Indians display towards our countrymen at the scent of a foreigner to even the minute matter of being one of the many to buy an iPhone (just coz it's cool).

                  So why all this babble?Well, recently the new Pakistani foreign minister Mrs.Hina Rabbani Khar took the pains to visit India for another round of 'Lie To Me' with her Indian counterpart.As expected the media when overboard,twitter was busy discussing her handbags and comparing her looks with that of the duchess of Cambridge( another prime example of Indians getting blind sighted by glamour) and news anchors couldn't help but use the potent but cliched 'beauty with brains'.Now there is nothing wrong in taking such a deep interest in our relations with our friend/foe neighbour Pakistan.  

                  But a there's a certain extract in a Times of India article which could give us far more insight on Pakistan's latest and probably the most cunning crook.

She apparently loves her Birkins, which can cost as much as $100,000. Hina belongs to one of Pakistan's landed elite, is enormously wealthy, and owns Polo Lounge, an upscale restaurant in Lahore. In 2010, though, she - along with 25 other ministers of Yousaf Gilani's cabinet - didn't pay income tax. Over the past few years, she has paid agriculture tax of (Pakistani) Rs 7,500 but nothing under the head of income tax.      

                But why bother to read the complete article when the first paragraph gives a rosy picture.Here is a woman who is probably among the most wealthiest in Pakistan but hasn't paid tax since years.She pays a pittance in the name of agricultural tax.And this is the same woman we hope will help and participate in the eradication of terror from South Asia.Same one, we  hope will act on the evidence from the countless terrorist activity the notorious ISI has perpetrated in India.

               The point is that the veil of glamour is opaque .We never manage to see beyond that.Style quotient has become the substitute for lack of character.Glamour is such a powerful drug that it manages to even negate the obvious anti-Pakistan bias which exists in a major portion of the media and a part of the Indian population.

              The way we are going we might end up being a PR representative's dream audience.If people after being made aware of her unique achievements still wish to fawn over her then that's a personal choice.But i wouldn't hold my breath.


UPDATE: There's a nice article up over at first post titled
'

Hina Rabbani’s face may be new, but her lies are old'