GUNTHROAT

My tryst with beer started when I was in 11th. Life was busy with action shifting from one coaching centre to the other in search of tablets which would arm me to face entrance examination. At this point I got intrigued by this drink which was known for its bitter taste. A friend of mine invited me to his home to have a sip. It tasted the same way as I expected, very bitter. But it had a heat which gave profound sense of elation. The next thing I did was run to my physics tuition class. I remember myself seated in the back bench as a grown up among my class mates when they smelled the thick aroma of beer.

Then I got into my college and was a teetotaller throughout my first year except for two occasions. A place for drinking beer is as important as the place where we drink it. This is called ambience. The setting, the light, the waiter, the music, even the pickles have its unique impact on me. My first entry to a bar was initiated by my cousin in fort kochi. Ranjith and I went to fort kochi in an afternoon. When we reached near the Dutch cemetery we saw a film unit shooting a rain sequence. We also heard tamil being spoken by the crew members. We ran to the entrance of cemetery expecting to catch a glimpse of the rain song with a sari clad heroine dancing with an ugly hero. But we saw indrajit and prithviraj (at that time the worst rated actors) holding gun on some north Indian villain. The disillusionment prompted by that took us to a local bar, where I had my first drink in a bar. We still have doubts on whether that bar was a brothel, because we saw silhouettes of some women passing by in the top floor.

The next occasion was the night when the first company visited our college for placements. I didn’t make it through interview. I was shattered and went with Nipun to the famous bar in kalamassery. Interestingly we were a bit high when Nipun started lecturing me on the importance of cutting moustache when you are facing an interview. After making sure that I overcame the trauma, Nipun drove me back to college.

Those were the early days, then drinking became a routine (I don’t consider it as a case of moral depravity as seen by some virtuous teetotallers. History proves a testament to the fact that teetotallers have done more damage to world than drunkards. Examples are many). Beer gave me some of the memorable nights in my life. The night when Vinu hit the car to a post in the act of cleaning the glass while driving, when I got Ranees to show his true self (those who know him will understand) by calling him names, when I got drunk I and got myself into a giant wheel in shivarathri manappuram which stood on three cycle wheels (I swear I wouldn’t have got into that diabolical creation of human whims if I was sober) and cried “I don’t want to die before getting my first salary” (Interestingly that remains a dream and I did not get myself into that killer machine when I went to manappuram on this shivarathri, but Vishal being the devil he is took another friend of mine who cried out “I want to see her one more time before I die”) to name a few.

But when I look back it was not actually the drink called beer that gave me the high. It was actually the amazing people to whom I said cheers who made my day. My cousins with whom I had the best moments of my life in Goa (where poor Appu blacked out in bathroom with door locked), Varkala (where we knocked every shutter before finding a case of beer on a dry day) and my dear friends especially Nipun. Yes as the title says beer can get you laid even if you are super ugly, but it also gives you friends and moments that otherwise would have passed like the other mundane ones. So cheers to beer which has been helping people have fun since 1861.

Its election time again. Infact elections in India creates more interest in me than any blockbuster premiere or cricket match. I have been closely following all the elections from 1996. So I am fascinated by the idea of nearly 20 to 30 crore people going to polling booth (when in some so called fastest growing countries people are barred from typing democracy and freedom in internet). The appreciation truly goes to the founding fathers of our country, most notably Panditji. With all his shortcomings in the form of adopting a pro USSR stand and failure to prevent chinese aggression, I love him for building the nation into what it is today. Panditji's greatest strength was his education and ability to find the right people for institution building in a young country.

This brings me to another question. I must confess that it is a very sensitive topic which has invited innumerable lawsuits to the people who wrote about this topic. What are the educational qualifications of the so called prime ministerial aspirants in our country? Before getting into detail I should add here that a lot of people who are not graduates have become chief ministers in our country. But frankly they should not be judged by that. Most of them including Karunanidhi and Achutanandan had to drop out because of poverty. But they were able to come up in political battle field due to their extraordinary organizational capabilities.

But people who were affluent enough to have good education but still came out with poor grades should be seen as nothing but incompetent for atleast the top spot. I say this because when the question of who should become the first prime minister of our country came up, Panditji was given preference over Sardar because he was a better mascot to the world compared to Sardar. My case study is basically about one person who has dubious educational record as claimed by various websites and individuals. I should confess I dont have any resource to do my personal research on this issue, which is why I am quoting from various websites and individuals.

CPM in their website clearly states the educational qualifications of their leaders which is highly commendable. Prakash Karat has a Post-Graduate degree M.Sc (Politics) from University of Edinburgh, Britain.Sitaram yechury completed Higher Secondary (one Year Course) standing first in the All India merit list. In 1973, he completed B.A.(Hons) in Economics, first class, from St. Stephen's College, Delhi University.In 1975, he completed M.A., first class, in Economics, from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), Delhi. Subsequently, he joined JNU for a Ph.D. degree which he could not complete due to his arrest during Emergency.

BJP has two leaders at the top. Vajpayee took M.A. (Political Science) Educated at Victoria (now Laxmibai) College, Gwalior (Madhya Pradesh) and D.A.V. College, Kanpur (Uttar Pradesh)post graduate in political science while Advani is a law graduate. Rajnath Singh completed Msc in physics from Gorakhpur university. Arun Jaitely graduated in Commerce from Shri Ram College of Commerce, New Delhi in 1973. He passed his Law degree from the Faculty of Law, University of Delhi in 1977.

Now comes the fact file of the grand old party

Manmohan Singh- Stood first in BA (Hons), Economics, Panjab University , Chandigarh ,Stood first in MA (Economics), Panjab University , Chandigarh, Wright's Prize for distinguished performance at St John's College , Cambridge , 1955 and 1957 Wrenbury scholar, University of Cambridge, DPhil ( Oxford ), DLitt (Honoris Causa); PhD thesis on India 's export competitiveness

Sonia Gandhi- Three years course in foreign language (English and french) from Turin( I cant ascertain whether this is graduation), Certificate in English from Lennox Cook School, University of cambridge

Rahul Gandhi- Here starts the contentious issue. His admission to St Stephen's College was controversial as he was admitted on the basis of his abilities as a competitive pistol shooter, which was disputed. He left the school in 1990, after one year of education. Subramanyan Swamy says this was because he failed in Hindi. Subramanyan Swamy who happens to have taken a Phd from Harvard at the age of 26 says Rahul Gandhi got into Harvard medical school in payment quota (Swamy claims $11 mn was spent for this). But he discontinued due to incompetence as claimed by Swamy. But various other sites say he discontinued due to security concerns. He then went on to study in Rollins college, Florida. What extra security he got there is not clear. As a matter of fact both Florida and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts are in US. Then his election affidavit shows he completed his Mphil from Trinity college, Cambridge in development economics. It is interesting to note that LTTE,( from whom Rahul Gandhi has a security threat) had a larger presence in UK than in US at that time. Now is the interesting part many say that Trinity College does not have a programme in Development Economics. These people claim that Rahul misrepresented Development studies as development economics. The site named Offstumped had the following to say "Offstumped obtained 3 official copies (2 physical and 1 electronic) of Raul Vinci a.k.a Rahul Gandhi?s Transcripts from Cambridge University and it is clear that his election affidavit mis-represents facts.
Misrepresentation #1 - The official copy of Raul Vinci?s transcript states that he read for an MPhil in ?Development Studies? and not in ?Development Economcis?.

It is significant because these are two different programs. MPhil in Development Studies is administered by the Development Studies Committee at Cambridge. There is no MPhil in Development Economics at Cambridge.? There is a MPhil in Economics In fact Offstumped confirmed with the Faculty of Economics at Cambridge University that Raul Vinci?s MPhil was not administered by that department.

Now this is no small error. One normally doesnt forget what one?s graduation is in be it a BA in Political Science or a B.Tech in Chemical Engineering.

So is it carelessness, amnesia or a freudian slip that Rahul Gandhi was so casual about providing the details of what exactly his MPhil was at Cambridge ?Or perhaps it was a freudian slip which leads us to Misrepresentation #2 - All 3 official copies of his transcript (2 physical and electronic) state that his MPhil was during the years 2004-2005.This inconsistency between the transcript and the election affidavit may or may not be significant. It was unclear from enquiries conducted by Offstumped if Raul Vinci's MPhil was not completed in 1995 and if as stated in the transcript he went on to complete it in 2004-2005 in the wake of the controversy that errupted during the Lok Sabha election.Its a mystery that can only be cleared up by Raul Vinci a.k.a. Rahul Gandhi and the University of Cambridge.But here is the rub on the question of competency. The transcript details Raul Vinci's academic performance which raises pertinent questions on his fitness to be a candidate for the office of Prime Minister.The MPhil Development Studies program requires 4 full papers to be completed and it lists 60% as a pass, 65% as eligible for an entry to PhD and 75% as a Distinction.Raul Vinci a.k.a Rahul Gandhi while not earning any distinctions in any of the 4 papers barely managed an overall pass percentage of 62.8%.But the real shocker is in the Paper on National Economic Planning & Policy, he scored 58% which is not even considered a Pass. "


This is exclusively the finding of the the site. I believe Rahul Gandhi and the sycophants around him have a responsibility to clear his name. Being incompetent is OK but telling a lie when you are aspiring to be athe head of the world's largest democracy is abominable.