Why Rahul Gandhi was a dropout from college

The mystery has now been clarified. Rumours that the college authorities had asked Rahul Gandhi to drop out of college in view of his poor performance have now been trashed.

Rahulji has clarified that the RSS prevented him from completing his studies. "That is the way the BJP government is functioning. The mischief came from PMO. 100% I have no doubt. We will not accept this. I will continue to question."

Do Indians lack perceptiveness?

How perceptive are Indians? Not very. Ipsos MORI’s latest version of the Perils of Perception survey (2015)  highlights how wrong the public across 33 countries are about some key issues and features of the population in their country. The gap between perception and reality shown as 'Index of Ignorance' paints India in poor light. Among the countries surveyed, India exhibits the second largest 'perception - reality gap'. 

The Ipsos 'Index of Ignorance' table
Ranking	Country
1	Mexico	Least accurate
2	India
3	Brazil
4	Peru
5	New Zealand
6	Colombia
7	Belgium
8	South Africa
9	Argentina
10	Italy
11	Russia
12	Chile
13	Great Britain
14	Israel
15	Australia
16	Japan
17	Canada
18	Germany
19	Netherlands
20	Spain
21	Norway
22	France
23	Sweden
24	United States
25	China
26	Poland
27	Ireland
28	South Korea	Most accurate

Indians think 41% of us are obese / overweight whereas the reality is 30%

We think 21% of us are immigrants though only 0.4% is.

We opine that 33% of us are atheist / agnostic / non-religious, but the actual figure is as low as 0.1%

Average age of Indians is 27 whereas we think it is 49.

The most surprising finding is that we assume 60% of homes are connected to the net whereas in reality it is only 19%

What does all this mean? Is it an indication that we are very creative?

Relief for the unhappy

A report in The Telegraph dt.12 Dec. comes as a huge relief for the perennially perturbed. Worry does not kill or cause ill-health. It is ill-health that causes worry. So if you are usually grumpy, figure out if there is any underlying physiological or psychological cause. In case there is, go all out to cure the cause. If no such problem has been diagnosed, continue to be happy by being unhappy!

Being unhappy won't kill you, study finds

A study of one million women says poor health makes people unhappy - not the other way round

By Laura Donnelly, Health Editor

Being unhappy or stressed does not increase the risk of ill-health and happy souls are no more likely to live longer, a major study has found.

The research on one million women, published in the Lancet, said the widespread belief that stress causes ill-health came from studies that had confused cause and effect.

The new study found that those in poor health were more likely to be unhappy – but that this was because of the illness they were suffering.

The 10 year project found no evidence that stress or unhappiness in themselves had any impact on mortality.

Study lead author Dr Bette Liu, of the University of New South Wales in Australia, said: "Illness makes you unhappy, but unhappiness itself doesn't make you ill.

"We found no direct effect of unhappiness or stress on mortality, even in a 10-year study of a million women."

The research, published in The Lancet, tracked the women over three years and then asked to rate their happiness.

Five out of six of the women surveyed said they were generally happy.

The women who were least happy were those who smoked, didn't do enough exercise and didn't live with a partner.

The strongest associations, however, were that the women who were already in poor health tended to say that they were unhappy, stressed, not in control, and not relaxed. This was true for overall mortality, for cancer mortality, and for heart disease mortality.

Researchers said other studies had that unhappiness decreased life-expectancy, when in fact it did not.

"It's good news for grumpy people because they don't have to add to their misery the fact that they might be killing themselves"

Professor Sir Richard Peto, Oxford University

However behaviours linked to unhappiness –such as smoking, bingeing on unhealthy foods, and lack of exercise – still increase the risk of an early death.

Co-author Professor Sir Richard Peto, of Oxford University, said: "It's good news for grumpy people because they don't have to add to their misery the fact that they might be killing themselves.

"If stress makes you do something that's destructive then that leads to problems. Of itself it's not damaging.”

The main analyses included 700 000 women, with an average age of 59 years, who were tracked during a decade, during which time 30 000 died.

After allowing for any differences already present in health and lifestyle, the overall death rate among those who were unhappy was the same as the death rate among those who were generally happy.

The study is so large that it rules out unhappiness being a direct cause of any material increase in overall mortality, in women, researchers said.

He said the study was important because people often blamed themselves for illness, thinking that a positive attitude could have saved them

"There are a lot of urban myths,” he said. “People need to know that getting ill is not your fault, but illness can make you unhappy.”

Previous studies which linked happiness and low stress to lower mortality had not allowed properly for the strong effect of ill health on unhappiness and on stress, researcher said.

Prof Peto said: "Of course people who are ill tend to be unhappier than those who are well, but the UK Million Women Study shows that happiness and unhappiness do not themselves have any direct effect on death rate."

Driverless car and liquorless bar

The Bombay High Court has not quashed the allegation that a person was killed and five were wounded. (I don't know why this allegation was not trashed by the Honourable Court.) What reinforces my faith in our judiciary is the legal finding that Salman Khan was possibly not drunk though he was returning from a bar and that the alleged vehicle which allegedly claimed a victim's life and wounded some was possibly driverless. It matters little that the actor was probably intoxicated and it matters even less that a person was killed because he was after all a poor person.

We normally hear about a victimless crime. This is possibly a criminalless crime. 

Sonia Gandhi's golden opportunity

There is a school of thought that Sonia Gandhi denied herself the opportunity of becoming India's prime minister. In other words, she is supposed to have sacrificed what was within her reach. There are also people who say that she could not have become the prime minister and anyway MMS was only her proxy. That is, she gained authority without responsibility.

The Delhi High Court order in the National Herald case has given an opportunity to Sonia Gandhi to prove which view is correct. If she goes through the processes of law and gets investigated without demur, people will accept her bonafides. On the other hand, if she is bent on creating a ruckus, stalling the parliament and continuing her non-cooperation with the government, the contrary signal will be sent.

Till now, her reaction has been peevish. She says she has nothing to fear because "she is Indira Gandhi's daughter-in-law." She does not say that she has nothing to fear because she has committed no wrong.

National Herald case

Delhi High Court has refused to cancel the summons issued by the Trial Court to Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and others to appear before the Trial Court. The petition in the trial court filed by Subramanian Swamy alleges that the Gandhis have unlawfully enriched themselves by acquiring Associated Journals Ltd. by dubious means. Evidence seems to support Swamy's contention. Therefore Justice Sunil Gaur of the Delhi High Court rejected the petition of Gandhis.

Text of the order is available here:

http://lobis.nic.in/ddir/dhc/SUG/judgement/07-12-2015/SUG07122015CRLMM33322014.pdf

It is a pity that the Gandhis have such a stranglehold over Congress that the party members respect them more than the party. Some extracts from the order:

"It has to be kept in mind that AJL was a Public Limited Company, which had immovable assets having

value of crores of rupees. It is matter of record that Congress Party had

assigned the huge debt of `90 crores to a Section 25 Company i.e. Young Indian on receiving a paltry amount of `50 lacs only. For this, the Congress Party owes an explanation to its supporters, donors, etc.."

"Considering the fact that AJL has sizeable assets of `2000 crores, it

needs to be explained by petitioners as to what was the need to assign the

huge debt of `90 crores when this debt could have been easily liquidated

by AJL from its sizeable assets. Even writing off such a huge debt by the

Congress Party can legitimately attract allegations of cheating, fraud, etc..

Petitioners had gone step further in conspiring to get this huge debt

assigned to a Special Purpose Vehicle i.e. Y.I. and thereafter, to hijack

AJL via Y.I.. Such grave allegations levelled against petitioners cannot

be brushed aside lightly by relying upon judicial precedents cited, to

conclude that the ingredients of the criminal offences alleged are lacking.

To say the least, to do so would be preposterous. Such a prima facie view

is being taken in view of the fact that the assignment of the huge debt by

Congress Party to Y.I. was for a paltry sum of `50 lacs. This is certainly

questionable and justifiably attracts the allegations of cheating,

misappropriation, criminal breach of trust, etc.. Such a view is being

taken as it needs to be explained before the trial court as to how the net

worth of AJL can be negative when it has assets worth crores of rupees. It

also crops up in the mind of a prudent person as to why interest free loan

was assigned and why it was not written off. In any case, writing off

such a huge debt by a legendry Political Party is indeed questionable.

Instead of adopting such a questionable course, what was done by the

Congress Party is more questionable. It also needs to be answered as to

why the genuine shareholders were marginalized in the Extraordinary

General Meeting, which was attended by just seven shareholders. Such a

questionable conduct of petitioners certainly invites allegations of

committing the offences for which petitioners have been summoned. Is it

not criminal misappropriation of Congress Party’s funds? This aspect

needs to be addressed after respondent-complainant is cross-examined at

the pre-charge stage. It also needs to be examined at pre-charge stage as

to whether lacs of citizens who had donated to the Congress Party felt

cheated by assignment of such a huge debt to Y.I. who was managed by

none others than petitioners, who were Office Bearers of Congress Party

as well as Directors of Y.I.. Not only this, the main persons, who were

instrumental in allegedly siphoning off political funds were the recipients

of the assignment of the huge debt by the Congress Party and they were

the same persons, who had clandestinely acquired the control of AJL. All

this smacks of criminality. What species of criminal offence is made out

is not required to be seen at this initial stage."

 "Upon reading the complaint as a whole,

it emerges that the transactions of the Congress Party with AJL via Y.I.

are not a mere commercial transactions as these transactions legitimately

attract the allegations of cheating, fraud, breach of trust,

misappropriation, etc. "

"This Court is of the considered view that the gravity of the

allegations levelled against petitioners has a fraudulent flavour involving

a national Political Party and so, serious imputations smacking of

criminality levelled against petitioners need to be properly looked into.

39. After having considered the entire case in its proper perspective,

this Court finds no hesitation to put it on record that the modus operandi

adopted by petitioners in taking control of AJL via Special Purpose

Vehicle i.e. Y.I., particularly, when the main persons in Congress Party,

AJL and Y.I. are the same, evidences a criminal intent. Whether it is

cheating, criminal misappropriation or criminal breach of trust is not

required to be spelt out at this nascent stage. In any case, by no stretch of

imagination, it can be said that no case for summoning petitioners as

accused in the complaint in question is made out. Questionable conduct

of petitioners needs to be properly examined at the charge stage to find

out the truth and so, these criminal proceedings cannot be thwarted at this

initial stage. Such a view is being formed on a bird’s eye view of the

whole case and the observations in the impugned order of there being a

prima facie case have to be read in the context of there being sufficient

grounds for summoning petitioners."

Chennai city collapses

 Denied electricity, newspapers, milk and net connectivity for three days, I have learnt that we can live without them. One unintended benefit was that I could sleep more peacefully probably because TV and computer were not allowed to distract me from diurnal rhythms.

The tragedy that struck Chennai was immense. Reports are that the city faced such a mess last only in 1906. Torrential rains in 1906 and now are liberally compared. One wonders how such elaborate notes were maintained in 1906.

Collapse of the ICU system in MIOT Hospital was shocking. It is similar to the Fukushima nuclear power plant failure which was also caused and aggravated by sudden deluge of water in the generator location. There should always be a back-up (called as redundancy in risk management) for such crucial functions.

Government authorities obviously were not able to cope with the challenge. It was funny to hear the Chief Secretary claim that "We take pride in managing the unprecedented situation successfully under the able guidance of the Honourable Chief Minister". Perhaps he did not mean what he said.