Saudi Arabia look out! Here comes India!

China, Iran and Saudi Arabia. And now India. What hallowed company to join in "freedom of expression" quotient! Yet that is what Kapil Sibal and this Congress government want us to do! I can of course, see where they are coming from. It's vote bank politics.

Certain sections of certain communities have taken offense to criticism by others. Any others. And any criticism, whether valid or not. Appealing to the more radical sections of these communities is what the Congress is trying to do in this desperate attempt at communally divisive politics to divert attention from their horrifyingly corrupt and inept reign thus far.

The economy is in tatters, inflation is alarmingly high, policy is paralyzed and corruption is at highs that haven't been seen since Mugabe's awesome run in Zimbabwe. They can't or rather, don't want to, do anything about these issues, since they enrich them, so they're taking the easier route - communal politics. I wait to see how the media will pitch this. Will they have the bollocks to call the game as it is? Or will the paid minions and stooges of the Congress continue to pitch this as a brave Congress being the secular party here - batting to protect religious sentiments while any opponents - my hopes lie with you, BJP, on this one - are the communal ones?

It's an alarming situation overall. There are several posts one sees that may be objectionable all over cyberspace. But that is the definition of freedom of opinion, speech and expression! How could the Congrress defend MF Hussain and then take this stand here? Simple. Communal politics. I'd like to see anyone try to defend the Congress from that allegation - communal politics by the Congress - again.

Coming as it does - at the same time as the criminally awful Communal Violence Bill - it is quite clear what game the Congress is playing at. That Bill is the most biased, poorly drafted and legally nonsensical Bill I have ever had the misfortune of coming across. I don't see it being passed. In fact, I doubt very much if even the Congress sees it being passed. Drafted as it is by a committee founded and headed by Sonia, it is clearly however, a deeply planned move. So, like I said, it has to have a tie-in with the other things the party is doing...and it does.

Think about the major policy directions taken by the party recently.

1. The Communal Violence Bill

2. Rahul the Oaf's push for reservation on religious lines.

3. The decision to censor "communally sensitive" material on the Net.

If the minority community that has been targeted with these moves does not see this game for what it is and still goes ahead and votes for the Congress, the country is doomed. For that will be the clearest signal ever to the whole political spectrum that a large chunk of the country's population will vote for inept government as long as a certain narrow religious interest is projected as being served. We will then be safely able to abandon all hope of ever seeing real development agendas in politics as all politicians will be falling over themselves to be more "secularly" communal than the next. I fear that's exactly what will happen, but till such time as those fears are proved true, there remains hope. Forlorn, but still, hope.