False equivilences and propogonda

In the aftermath of terrorist attack in Peshawar there has been many Pakistani 'experts' who have been coming on Indian news shows everyday spewing complete nonsense. Whenever they are pointed out how Hafiz Saeed is allowed to spew venom so openly in Pakinstan everywhere including news channels and even a day after Peshawar attack, their retort is same and that is you also have hate mongers spewing venom openly in India. They give examples of Shiv Sena and Bal Thackerrey, RSS, Modi (pronounced Mudi) and amazingly Godse's murder of Gandhi way back in 1948. Amazingly they all give same examples and same arguments which means they are all tutored by somebody to obfuscate facts or these are the things that are commonly talked about everyday in Pakistani media hence everybody knows these examples. The worst thing that Bal Thackrey has done against Pakistan is, in the aftermath of a big terrorist attack, oppose Pakistani artists and sport persons performing in India. The worst thing that he directly did to Pakistan is dig up a pitch in INDIA to not allow Pakistan to play in Mumbai. And this is being compared with Hafiz Saeed who is running the most murderous terror organization in Pakistan training terrorists for attacks on India like Mumbai attack. Are you kidding me?

People only talk about Mumbai but they are continuously attacks in India repeatedly including in Kashmir from terrorists trained in Pakistan and the worst we have done is some ultra right wing politician has talked about attacking Pakistan. Even they don't recommend training terrorists to attack civilians in Pakistan. Imagine if there were Mumbai like terrorist attacks in Pakistan with terrorists talking with their handlers in India. Imagine the reaction in Pakistan. Even the more moderate elements would be talking about giving fitting reply. Everybody feels hurt. Hell even when we don't attack and Taliban attack them still they continuously talk about giving fitting reply to India and attacking and killing us. What has Modi done to Pakistan really? When he was in opposition he talked about Indian govt. being more aggressive towards China and Pakistan and to not let them bully us. What is wrong in that? And since he has been in power he has talked with the most restrain and been most statesman like. What has RSS done to Pakistan? Hell they don't even give statements against Pakistan even after attacks in India as they keep low profile. And to talk about Godse killing Gandhi in 1948 to justify Pakistan support for terror in India? seriously?

Yes these right wing politicians and organizations have lot to answer to Indian minorities, but is Pakistan going to teach us how to treat minorities? seriously? When there is wholesale killing of minorities going on in Pakistan they will lecture us on minority rights? When Ahmedis, Hazaras, Shias, Hindus, Christians are systematically being exterminated in Pakistan they will lecture us on minority rights and that too for something that happened in 2002? Everybody it seems in Pakistan knows about Gujarat riots in 2002 which were a result of Hindus being burnt alive in a train. The very fact that they are still talking about 2002 in 2014 means they don't have much to talk about us. And who gives Pakistan the right to interfere in our domestic affairs. Do we lecture them when Christian colony is burnt down. When minorities are killed in the name of blasphemy or when Hindu girls are abducted and forced to convert and 'marry' someone? 2002 riots are still being talked about because of Indian media and Indian liberals who ensured that we don't forget about it and I  am proud of it.

The only terrorist attack on Pakistan nationals from Indian national was on Indian soil in Samjota express and that too was uncovered by Indian investigators without any pressure from any international country or organization. Because we don't condone or allow terrorist attacks on civilians even after repeatedly being attacked. And after this we are lectured by these 'experts' from Pakistan creating false equivalence and telling complete lies like RAW being behind terror attacks in Pakistan or Baloch struggle. Are we so bloody good in covert operations that we convince hardcore Taliban (who hate us much more than Pakistan btw) terrorists to attack Pakistan and they never find any evidence of Indian involvement? Are you kidding me? I guess if you keep telling lies 1000 times then people start believing them. I guess the whole narrative in Pakistan has been hijacked by hard core elements who tell lies on Pakistan news channels everyday. I cannot stand when they come here and try to do the same hence this rant.

Big Pharma and the lessons for India

I recently read an article about how there has been growing concern in the US about the quality of generic drugs that are made in India. According to the article India supplies 40% of over-the-counter and generic prescription drugs consumed in the US. The article mentioned that "F.D.A. investigators are blitzing Indian drug plants, financing the inspections with some of the roughly $300 million in annual fees from generic drug makers collected as part of a 2012 law requiring increased scrutiny of overseas plants. The agency inspected 160 Indian drug plants last year, three times as many as in 2009. The increased scrutiny has led to a flood of new penalties, including half of the warning letters the agency issued last year to drug makers".

Ranbaxy had to recently pay a fine of $500 million, largest ever for a generic company. In the background of all this I saw a documentary movie called the 'Fire in the Blood' and one of the things I learned from it is that American "Big Pharma" are constantly trying to prove that the generics in India are not safe. They have been running campaigns for decades trying to scare people in the west about how dangerous drugs made in third world are. It is very easy for them to use the stereotype image of the third world countries to scare the patients in America, despite the fact that most of the generic medicine manufacturers in India are world class and follow same safety guidelines as in the US. In fact, even the Big Pharma themselves import lot of their medicines from India. Another noteworthy thing that I learned from the documentary is how much influence the Big Pharma lobby has in the US government.

Combining these two facts it is quite easy to conclude that these recent increase in raids and campaign against Indian drug manufacturers is the result of intense lobbying by the pharmaceutical companies in the US. However, we have to be careful in blaming these conspiracy theories for failings of our regulators. While it is quite possible that at least in part the FDA campaign against the Indian pharma companies could be the result of intense lobbying, it is also true that there are many spurious drug manufacturers in India. The recent deaths in the Bilaspur sterilization program where 18 women died due to rat position contaminated Cipro proves that we have a problem. While we can hide behind conspiracy theories or cry discrimination, it would be in our interest to increase regulation and solve the problem, not only to safeguard our lucrative drugs export industry but also for the sack of millions of Indians'mobile.nytimes.com/2014/02/15/world/asia/medicines-made-in-india-set-off-safety-worries.html?referrer=&_r=0 health.

There are lessons that we can learn from the experience of other developing countries in this regard. Some years ago toys manufactured in China were in news all over the world because they were selling toys which were painted with paint that had lead in it, which is hazardous for the health of the children. The Chinese effectively dealt with it and they are still selling toys all over the world including in the US. In fact, at that time it was the Mattel, an American toy manufacturer which was forced to apologize to Chinese for selling toys laced with lead. Every developing country manufacturing goods on a large scale to the developed world goes through such controversies at least once, but how it is handled by the government of such developing country that makes the difference in the end.

Another lesson that we can learn from the documentary 'Fire in the Blood' is how much US government protects the interest of its corporations that provide jobs and create wealth. It is not just in this case of Big Pharma where US Government intervened on behalf of the American corporations, but we have seen that on number of occasions when big purchases are involved by other government or private corporations US Government at the highest level takes part in some way in pushing for US manufactured goods, from multi-billion dollar defense deals to big tech deals. Now I am not saying that Indian government help Indian corporations in exploiting poor population of other countries as Big Pharma in US did, but there are many occasions when government should be legitimately involved in negotiation in national interest. For example, I recently read that even when Indian oil PSUs like ONGC Videsh bought big oil fields abroad in a multi-billion $ deal involving considerable geopolotical risk Indian Government was not involved in negotiation and these companies were pretty much on their own. According to the article "the lament of firms such as ONGC Videsh (OVL) has been that India’s diplomats weren’t best suited to navigate the technical and financial complexities of acquiring oil and gas assets overseas." Clearly Indian govt. needs to protect Indian business interest abroad, especially when large amount of money is involved.