Amit Trivedi: On terrorism ...

Amit Trivedi: On terrorism ...: Who is responsible for maintenance of world peace? How are they performing their duty? Are they performing the right actions? The five p...

On terrorism ...

Who is responsible for maintenance of world peace? How are they performing their duty? Are they performing the right actions?

The five permanent members of the UN Security Council are: China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the USA. The members represent the five great powers considered to be the victors of the World War II.

United Nations Security Council is one of the five principal organs of the United Nations and is charged with the maintenance of international peace and security. Its powers include the establishment of peacekeeping operations, the establishment of international sanctions, and the authorization of military action through Security Council resolutions. It is the inly UN body with the authority to issue binding resolutions to member states.

Like the UN as a whole, the Security Council was created following the World War II to address the failings of another international organization, the League of Nations, in maintaining world peace.

(Source: www.wikipedia.org)

In light of the above, look at the list of the top arms exporter countries. According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, the world’s largest arms exporters in 2014 were:

Rank	Nation
1	United States
2	Russia
3	China
4	France
5	Germany
6	United Kingdom

Of the top six nations, five happen to be the permanent members of UN Security Council, whose primary responsibility is to maintain international peace and security.

How are these countries maintaining world peace? Through export of arms? Do any of these arms end up with terrorists? Who would ask these questions? Who is answerable?

I am sure that the world leaders are aware of these points. There is nothing new that I have mentioned above. The question is: if they know, what are they doing about it?

I feel it is my duty to ask these questions, as an Indian. It is important to understand that India features among the top on the wrong side – actually, the wronged side. India is the largest importer of arms and yet the sixth largest victim of terrorism.

Karma yogis of Mumbai

19^th June 2015 – exactly a year ago, Mumbai witnessed heavy rains and there was waterlogging in many low-lying areas. Matunga are King’s Circle are among the first areas to get affected and sometimes severely. Last year, too, many parts of our area were badly affected.

I had a training program at Goa and had to take the early morning flight from Mumbai to Goa. I had called for a Meru cab at 3:45 in the morning. At around 3:30 AM, I got a call from the taxi driver from Meru that he cannot come due to waterlogging. I was angry as I could not see any waterlogging from my window (incidentally, the part I can see from my window is not low-lying and the other side is not visible). A lot of discussion followed between me and the cab driver, who refused to come inside our complex and finally said, if you want to go to the airport, you will have to come to the cab.

I had no choice. I went out of the house with my travel bag, my laptop bag and an umbrella. The cab driver was right about the waterlogging, which I could not see from my window.

The moment I was out of our complex, the water touched my ankles. A little distance and my knees were under water. I kept wading my way through. I walked some more distance and now the water was almost touching my wallet that I keep in my pant’s front pocket. It was just a little short of waist-high. I could finally manage to reach the cab and make it to the airport in time.

This is not about me. This is about some other people.

Now let us see what had happened. It rained heavily during the night. Mumbai received equivalent of 10 days’ rain in 24 hours. Of course, many areas, especially the low-lying ones, were under water. Near my house, a big tree had fallen on the road, further blocking the traffic.

However, at 3:50 in the morning, there were police and BMC workers were present at the situation diverting the traffic (whatever littler there was at that hour) and clearing the mess created by the fallen tree as well as the water.

The driver from Meru cab was present to pick me up.

The next day I received messages from some friends complaining about the conditions. There were so many messages on social media cribbing about what the BMC should have done.

I think some of those who sat in their houses and complained had no idea about what the BMC and police staff were actually doing on the ground. I am sure many of the commentators did not venture out due to the rains and hence did not know that the ones whom they were criticizing were actually out working to clean up the mess.

My head bowed down to those silent workers carrying out their thankless duty at an unearthly hour. I missed the opportunity to publicly acknowledge this earlier, but thought the anniversary of the incident may be the best time to do so.

I would also like to mention about the cab driver, who was there in spite of the rains.

These are the true Karmayogis.

Some interesting statistical facts about India v/s Pakistan match, Asia Cup on 27th Feb, 2016

On 27th Feb, 2016, India met Pakistan for Asia Cup T20 match at Dhaka. India beat Pakistan by 5 wickets with 

We found some interesting statistical facts about the match.
Most of these numbers suggest something extraordinary. Let us discuss these facts:

1. India scored 85/5 against Pak's 83 all out, but 3 Indian batsmen got out for a duck; none for Pak.
• Seems like Virat Kohli was the only difference between the two teams. Or was it Yuvi's luck? Whatever it is, with Virat Kohli steering the Indian innings with such finesses, it seems quite natural to believe that he could (and probably only he could) do it. There are no doubts about Kohli's abilities, but it could have been some other batsman, too. Once Amir completed his spell, no other bowler looked threatening. 
2. In a low scoring match, India's best bowler Ashwin was the worst of all Indian bowlers 3-0-21-0. Only Wahab Riaz was worse than him in the match. Easy (but completely unfair) to conclude from a single match that Ashwin was the worst bowler 
• Easy to conclude based on one match. Unfair and incorrect - the only words that I can think of for such a conclusion. And the analysts and pundits would agree.
3. The second highest score in both teams was "extras". If we total up the runs in both innings, "extras" was second highest score after Virat. "Extras" accounted for more than 17% of total runs scored n the match. 
• It talks only about the pitch and weather conditions. 19 wides is the proof that the bowl swung so much that neither the batsman nor the wicketkeeper could touch the ball.
4. Only 18 boundaries were scored in the entire match. Virat hit 7 of those, just one less than the entire Pakistan team's 8. Not a single six in the whole match.
• Once again, the swinging ball was not coming onto the bat and the batsman were busy saving their wickets than scoring boundaries.

Points 3 and 4 do not suggest anything about the quality of batting. It was high quality bowling assisted by the pitch and the weather.