India's chances at Rio

Rio Olympics begins this week and We have 119 athletes participating in the RIO Olympics. The largest contingents that we have ever sent to Olympics. It is good that we are able to send such a large contingent and I am sure the more we participate the more the chances we get in terms of winning medals at the Games. 

The recent Narsingh Yadav doping controversy and the earlier case between him and Sushil will definitely impact the wrestling contingent. 

Here is the breakdown of the 119 

Archery - we have the 3 member women's team and Atanu Das in men's
Athletics - we have 18 men and 17 women
Badminton - Men 3 and women 4
Boxing 3 Men
Golf - 2 Men and 1 woman
Gymnastics - 1 woman
Judo - 1 man
Rowing - 1 man
Shooting - 9 men and 3 women
Swimming - 1 man and 1 woman
Weightlifting - 1 man and 1 woman
Table Tennis - 2 men and 2 women
Wrestling - 5 men and 3 women
Tennis - 2 men and 2 women
Hockey - 16 men and 16 women

Let us look at each individual sport and what chances we will have

Hockey Team - The men's team did finish second in the champions Trophy recently but after that they did nothing great in the 4 nation's trophy and the test against Spain which were held after that. We have Germany, Netherlands in our group. We should get into the Quarters and from there on its how we play on the given day. Let's hope we make it to the semis. Women's team has qualified for the first time, let's hope they enjoy the stay at the Games. In case they make it till the quarters that should be a good achievement. 

Expectations of medals - 0

Tennis - There is the Men's doubles, Women's doubles and Mixed Doubles. Mixed doubles team of Sania and Rohan might get a chance but I am not betting on it. 

Expectations of medals - 0

Swimming - We are there because of the quota that the country gets to send to send 2 athletes. 

Expectations of medals - 0

Table Tennis - Sharat Kamal, Soumyajit Ghose in men's and Mouma Das, Manik Batra in women's singles event will find it very tough against the other Asian players. 

Expectations of medals - 0

Judo - Avtar Singh is the lone athlete in Judo. He is not a top ranked athlete in his weight category. 

Expectations of medals - 0

Golf - Anirban Lahiri is being talked about highly as a possible medal hope, I am not so sure. Maybe he will have an outside chance as most of the top golfers pulled out due to the Zika Virus. There are Aditi Ashok and Shivsankar Chawrasia who have also qualified. 

Expectations of medals - 0

Athletics - We have 35 athletes (excluding the banned shot putter) who have qualified for the games. This is a pretty large contingent but are we going to get our first Track and Field medal at Rio? Sadly the answer will be a NO. 

However, there can be a few who can go beyond the initial rounds (mind you not win medals)

Women's 4x400 Relay team - I will be very happy if they make it to the finals 
Women Steeplechase - Lalita Babar and Sudha Singh
Dutee Chand (women's 100m) - I really want her to make it to the semis for all the troubles she had to go through 
Men's discuss - Vikas Gowda. He is definitely a top 10 ranked discuss thrower but definitely not a top 3 who can win you a medal
Women's discuss - Seema Punia might make the finals
Marathon, Walking - I will be very happy if Indians finish in the top 20. Last time at London, KT Irfan finished 10th in 20km walk. 
Then there is this guy Renjith Maheswary - I had him in my outside chance list for London but he fouled out. He has the third best jump in the world this year but I don't expect anything from him. 

Expectations of medals - 0

Rowing - We have one athlete, Bhokanlal Dattu, in rowing. We have never won medals at Asian level itself, so don't expect anything. 

Expectations of medals - 0

Badminton - Saina will face Li Xuerui in quarters and that's where her games will end. Sindhu will face Tai Tsu Yin in the pre-quarters and it will be tough for her to go beyond that and if she does she will face Yihan Wang in quarters. Jwala and Ashwini will find it difficult to go beyond the group stage. Srikanth Kidambi will face Lin Dan if he gets to the quarters and he will not go beyond that for sure. Manu Atthri and Sumeet Reddy will also find it difficult to go beyond the group stage

Expectations of medals - 0

Effectively 89 of the 119 athletes do not have any chance of winning medals. Does that mean the other 30 have chances of medals? - not really. It is just that we have chances in the sports that the 30 athletes participate in - Archery, Boxing, Wrestling, Shooting, Gymnastics and weightlifting we have chances of winning medals. Let us look at each of them. 

Archery - From the time of Limba Ram we had some leading archers get to Olympics but get nervous at the Games. Last time we had Deepika who was the world # 1 going into the games but she didn't get anywhere. Let us hope that it doesn't happen this time also. We should at least get 1 medal from Archery if not 2. 

Boxing - Shiva Thapa, Vikas Krishan and Manoj Kumar all have realistic chances of winning a medal. Actually they were in my list for 2012 also. Hope they do well. I expect at least 1 medal in Boxing from Shiva Thapa. 

Wrestling - Yogeshwar, the Phogat Sisters (or cousins) Vinesh and Babita should have a good chance of making it good. Narsingh could have done well if not for the doping scandal. We have generally been doing well in the freestyle with not much success in Greco Roman, I believe that will continue in this Olympics also. Expect at least 2 medals one each in men's and women's section. 

Gymnastics - Dipa has an outside chance of winning a medal if she does well in the Vault. That's her main event. 

Weightlifting - The Commonwealth Gold medalist Satish Kumar and Mira Bhai Chanu in women's might have an outside chance of winning a medal. I will be happy if we get a medal in weightlifting. 

That leaves us with the sport where we have been doing well (against India's standards) since 2004 Olympics - Shooting. It all depends on the day but we have a pretty large contingent and the following people should realistically win us a medel

Jitu Rai - The Golden man. He should come back with 2 medals in both 50m and 10m pistol events. 

Gagan Narang or Bhindra should win a medal in 10m rifle event

Apurvi(10m rifle), Ayonika Paul(10m rifle) and Heena Sidhu(10m pistol) can win a medal in their day. 

Manavjit Singh Sandhu might have an outside chance in Trap event. 

Expectations of medals - 3 (best case - 6) 

Total Medal that I expect - is minimum 8 and max 15. I definitely hope this will be our best Olympics in terms of medals crossing the 6 we had in London.

I will be very Happy if the following happens

1) We cross double digit in terms of medals

2) Win a medal in men's hockey 

First may happen second very difficult. Let's see how much of my predictions come true when the Games ends on 22nd August. 

To All my Nationalist Friends

This post is dedicated to all my nationalist friends (or the so called BJP supporters). 

What exactly happened is that few people shouted slogans supporting Afzal Guru and Maqbool Bhat (that they were martyrs, they were wrongly killed, etc.) and that Kashmir has a right to self determination. 

Afzal Guru - even though he was hanged on circumstantial evidence, I trust the decision of the SC. 

The main anti-national slogans were 

“Bharat ki barbaadi tak, jung rahegi, jung rahegi!”

“India, Go Back” 

These were made by Kashmiri students - But aren't these things that are heard in Kashmir on a daily basis? Your ally in J&K says much worser things and are more aligned to separatists views. Didn't we as a nation agree in UN that we will allow self determination in the entire Kashmir (this includes what is occupied by Pakistan)? 

Scotland voted on whether they can be separated from Great Britain? - Should all those who voted yes be jailed for sedition? Catalunya also wants to separate from Spain - can we jail everyone for sedition? Oxford University union took a pledge that they will never fight for the King - even though they were termed as anti-nationals no one was booked on sedition. 

We as a nation are not ready to listen to these kind of statements made in public - we are not ready for such a democracy. 

We are however, ok with people saying things like this country is useless, this country is going down the drains, I cannot live here within our living rooms. I have many of my friends who live outside India (still Indian citizens) who have said worser things. Can we book all of them under sedition? 

The main issue to me is why was Kanhaiya Kumar, JNU students union president, arrested on charges including sedition? Did he shout slogans against India? It seems that police have learnt that he was no way connected to the slogan shouting, so would they tell the courts that he can be released? I hope some sense prevails. 

What is nationalism in letting someone getting arrested on sedition charges for no fault of his? When you can ally with a party which mostly aligns with the views of separatists what right does BJP has to give gyan on nationalism to everyone? 

Do we need a law on which "No One" has ever been convicted but it is most abused by all politicians? My simple answer is NO. 

Scams - Released in the last one month

The NDA government happily mentioned at the end of the first anniversary of them having assumed office in May 2014 that there were no scams in the one year after their assuming office. 

Not even a month passed and we have multiple scams that has cropped up - Sushma Swaraj and Vasundhara Raje connection with Lalit Modi, Vyapam Scam, Pankaja Munde scam, PDS Rice Scam in Chattisgarh. BJP can still say that these are issues (except in the case of Swaraj) all are not related to the central government, but the perception that these scams create in the people's mind in very bad. 

Let us go over one by one 

Sushma Swaraj

She got the British government issue travel document for Lalit Modi so that he can be with his wife who was supposed to undergo treatment in Portugal. She did that without involving her ministry or checking with the Finance Ministry (under whom the ED comes) which had a case against Lalit Modi. Her defence was that she did this on humanitarian consideration. She has a personal relationship with Lalit Modi and her husband and daughter were working for him - with those in mind she should have recused herself from this issue and let her bureaucrats handle the issue. The best option would have been to have him promise to get back to India in lieu of the travel document. The defense that there is money involved doesn't cut ice. 

She didn't involve her ministry, talked to her England counterpart directly, didn't get inputs from Finance ministry and didn't recuse herself from a case of a close friend doesn't warrant her to continue in the Government. 

Vasundhara Raje

Vasundhara issued an affidavit to support Modi being issued travel document and stating that the case against him are politically motivated and she explicitly stated that her giving this affidavit should not be revealed to the Indian authorities. There is a money angle also to this where Lalit Modi has invested money in her son's firm. It is debatable whether this is quid pro quo but there is proof that money has changed hands in lieu of some shares in his company. 

Vasundhara is a strong regional leader and she can even bring down the Rajasthan government or start a party on her own if she is asked to resign. That will definitely play in the mind of the BJP leadership. Her giving an affidavit to an accused with a disclaimer that her affidavit should not be known to the Indian authorities is in itself a reason for her to go. 

Vyapam Scam

I am scared to write about it. This is a bit old as it is about the irregularities in recruitment and entrance exams (munnabhai style) which happened between 2008 and 2013 (not sure if it is still continuing). The issue has come up to limelight because many of the witness/accused are dying under mysterious circumstances. We have had maybe one or two witness being killed but so many dying is a cause of concern. We still don't really know the whole truth about this but with SC hearing a bunch of petitions requiring CBI probe has made the CM extremely vulnerable. As the central government is led someone who is not very close to him. 

Chattisgarh PDS Scam

As far as scams goes this is pretty simple one - Increase the number of PDS ration cards on record and pocket the money that was supposed to go to providing PDS to these cards. There was an huge increase in the BPL cards issued and there was cash found in ACB raid in March of this year to the tune of 4 crores. This is also early days for this scam and it has to be thoroughly investigated as to who are the real beneficiaries of the scam. 

Pankaja Munde Scam

The issue being raised is that there were orders issued by her to persons known to her family without following due tender process. This is a case of probity - in case the orders were issued to anyone other than the people known to her family there wouldn't have been any case as it could be explained as executive decision and as long as there were no money involved that explanation would have been accepted (same as the 2G case - the 1.76Lakh scam can easily be explained as executive decision but the 200 crore money trail to Kalaignar TV cannot be explained). 

Congress is Happy

Congress must be very happy having so many scams to go against the ruling NDA government. However, there seems to be no clear strategy on how to handle these which was clear from their going on about the palaces and losing focus. It is clear that the monsoon session will go for a toss if no action is taken on these scams especially the Lalitgate where they will not relent till they get the blood of both Vasundhara and Sushma. Surprising that Media has moved on to Vyapam scam having forgotten the Lalitgate from this week - Congress cannot afford to do that. This is the best opportunity for them to make a come back. 

The Prime minister has kept quite and it is his prerogative on when he wants to speak. As Swapan Das mentioned in his article today I remember the interview where Rajdeep kept asking about riot and he didn't utter a word about it and kept staring in the distant and Rajdeep was forced to move on. There is no necessity for him to speak also. 

What's Next

Sushma and Vasundhara have to resign and there should be a thorough probe on the other three scams. Why is it that the BJP has not pressed them to resign yet? - It is simple this will set the benchmark for all other scams. BJP would not want to yield so soon. July 21st is when the Monsoon session is going to start and it is going to be interesting to see whether they wait till the Monsoon session is completely washed out or act before that. 

Excellent Job by the Armed Forces but???

The army suffered huge damage in Manipur on 4th of June when the militants of the NSCN(K) group attacked them and we lost 18 army men. 

On 9th morning Indian army with intelligence attacked back and took out around 50 militants. It was a well executed operation with no casualties on the Indian side. 

The Army issued a statement which was a bit vague in details. The statement did mention just that the operation was in the border and that President of Myanmar said they don't want to allow any militants operating out of their land and that they were not involved in the operation. Everything was perfect till then. 

Then the government stepped in and the MOS of I&B Col Rathore shot off stating that we entered the Myanmar and the army of Myanmar was informed. This led the Myanmar government to issue a denial that this happened, this put them in an embarrassing position. 

The Minister also went on to state that we wanted to send a message and we will repeat such operations in future against any country. He added to good measure that we will take out militants at any place of our choosing. This is plain immaturity on the part of the minister. The Ambassador has been called to explain the statements and the NSA is rushing to Myanmar also. Minister also tweeted with 56InchRocks which is plain chest thumping. 

Covert operations has to stay covert and always the message will go out in a subtle way to the people who has to get the message. 

First and foremost people of this generation who are jumping in joy have to understand that this is not the first time we have our army enter other country and take out militants. Those who have read Kaoboys of RAW will know that we had a covert operations wing under RAW which ensured every militant actions had a retaliation. IK Gujral government wound down the covert operations wing of the RAW. 

There are many more such operations, in 2003 we entered Bhutan and with the help of their army took out northeastern militants. Also heard on the TV that during the Narasimha Rao government an entire Battalion entered Myanmar and took out some of the militants.  Myanmar and Bangladesh government headed by Sheikh Hasina allowed us to conduct such operations. 

Secondly this has caused huge embarrassment to the Myanmar government. They will think twice before agreeing to a similar operation request. 

Thirdly there are political reasons for this and I am sure the army action in itself (without the statements by the Government) would have proved a point that the government was decisive in acting against the militants. 

Hope the government learns from this episode and don't go about chest thumping. Read that the PM and EAM are upset with this and I hope that is true. 

Uttama Villain - A Movie Review

Cast - Kamal has continued with Andrea and Pooja Kumar in this movie as well. You also have Urvashi, Parvathi Menon, Jayaraman, K Bhalachader, Nasser, K Viswanath, MS Bhaskar. 

Movie is about a star who is about to die and his last wish. Manoranjan(played by Kamal) is a superstar. He is married to Urvashi and has a son. He is a superstar and movie starts with a release of a new movie. Kamal plays the typical hero (hiding his drinking from public, etc.) and his manager played by MS Bhaskar ensures that the superstar image is well managed. 

Manoranjan comes to know that he is going to die due to brain cancer and wants to do a final movie with his mentor (played his real mentor KB) and that too a period comedy. Some niceties - KB plays Margadarshi and Manoranjan plays a character in the movie who is immortal. 

K Viswanath plays his father-in-law who also produces most of his movies. Jayaraman plays the step father of Parvathi Menon who plays the daughter of Kamal from his yester year love affair. Andrea plays his personal physician who is also his mistress. Pooja Kumar is the heroine in his movies(within movie). With so many affairs you are left wondering if it is a bit biographical. Nasser plays the villain in the movie being made. 

The film goes back and forth between what happens in the life of the star and the movie that is being made. Whether Kamal is able to complete the movie before his imminent end makes the rest of the story. 

Even though he wanted to do a comedy as his last movie - you were left wondering where the comedy was?  

KB keeps praising Kamal during the making of the movie - which beyond a point gets very irritating. 

There is a tiger animation and it was very amateurish. 

Songs - I personally liked the fast paced Single Kiss-kae.. But the dancing by both Kamal and Pooja Kumar was a huge let down. Other than that no other song was anything to write about. 

Urvashi has acted well as Kamal's wife and so has Parvathi has his daughter (even though she still claims that Jayaram is more her father than Kamal). Andrea looks beautiful as always and Pooja kumar - not sure why she was there in the movie. The scene when Kamal comes to know about Parvathi and his meeting her were beautifully enacted by Kamal. 

The sets are good in the period part. 

Neither the comedy nor the serious part of the travails of an actor who is facing death makes an impact on you. 

Oh Kadhal Kanmani - A Movie Review

Watched OKK yesterday night. Cast - Dulquer Salman, Nithya Menon, Prakash Raj and Leela Samson. 

Movie is a romantic love story. The hero and heroine meets in Mumbai station. Next they meet at a friend's wedding and then get to know each other, don't want to get married but stay together and then get influenced by the relationship between Prakash Raj and Leela Samson and finally get married. 

There is lot of resemblance to Alaipayuthey and Ayudha Ezhuthu (Siddharth and Trisha story). Here also the hero wants to go to US and heroine to Paris.  

Dulquer's second tamil movie and he has done a good job and this being a sync sound he has done a good job in dialogue delivery also. However, you get a feeling that there is a bit of Madhavan from Aalipayuthey in the initial scenes. He plays the role of a video game designer who wants to become the next Bill Gates or Mark Zuckerberg. 

Nithya Menon - Especially in the church scene looks beautiful. Uses are big eyes to good extent and acted beautifully. She is an Architect and want to pursue her Architecture studies in Paris. 

The best part of the movie is the pair of Prakash Raj and Leela Samson - They play the hosts for Dulquer initially and then Nithya Menon when they start living together. Very subtle acting not going overboard. Leela Samson is a very good find as an actress, she plays an character with Alzheimer's.  

What is with Mani Ratnam and having a song or dialogue sequence of the hero and heroine under a bed sheet. You have seen it from Bombay days. Also as he explained when a movie is made in Mumbai how can you not have the trains. 

Songs - Mental Manadhil - I personally liked the picturasization of that song. Fast paced and beautifully done. 

Initial part of the movie meanders and then picks up speed just before intermission and then you know what is going to happen in a typical tamil movie and that's how it ends with the hero and heroine getting married - but still continue to go about their individual careers. 

There is no separate comedy track and there are some scenes and dialogues which make you laugh - Overall a light romantic movie and good entertainer. I didn't watch Kadal, but this movie is much better that Raavan. 

OKK is definitely more than OK. 

Operation Raahat - Successful Evacuation of People from Yemen

Operation Raahat - The operation to evacuate Indians from Yemen has been successful. We have successfully evacuated nearly 4000 Indians and few more from other countries. 

Excellent job done by Ministry of External Affairs in coordination with the Airforce, Navy, Ministry of Home Affairs and Air India in this Operation. 

Good part is that we have received requests from 26 other nations to help evacuate their nationals also and Government is responding to the same. 

Way to go. Nice to see us taking a lead on this humanitarian initiative. 

India had deployed 3 Naval Ships and the C17 globemaster from IAF in the evacuation. Air India has also been flying out people from the country. 

MoS of External Affairs, VK Singh was on the ground coordinating the entire operation. The Indian Army has many experience of evacuating people from natural disasters and other situation, this experience would have definitely helped VK Singh, who was a former Army chief, in coordinating the entire operation. 

Sushma Swaraj, External Affairs Minister was also actively involved. Finally nice to see her getting to do some work as EAM, as till date PMO was taking over most of the EAM's activities. 

Heard that Twitter and other social media was also used by people affected to reach out to the Indian embassy officials, which shows us how the social media is getting more and more integrated and useful in our lives. 

Lastly the controversy about VK Singh's tweets about the media. Having been a chief of Indian Army, he would have got used to people taking orders from him and not questioning anything he said. However, now that he has become a politician and that too a Minster, he has to understand that he has to be a bit more diplomatic. His tweet after visiting the Pakistan Embassy for their national day celebrations was also not in good taste. That doesn't justify what Times Now try to do with VKDisaster hashtag. 

This operation is a success and us helping in evacuation of nationals of other countries shows how to exhibit our soft power.