General Elections 2009: Indian Political Bazaar

The counting of votes for Indian General Elections 2009 will begin today at 0800 hours.

And the leaders of various National and Regional Political Parties have already negotiated with each other, against their parties support to form the Government at the Centre. Still few hours are left before any trend / results come out but these people have already heated up this political market, where governments are not only formed by the peoples’ votes but also by horse trading.

Similar to Cricket IPL, here to the regional parties which are believe to win more seats are commanding better prices and portfolios in the cabinet ministry. JDU leader, Nitish Kumar wants special status for the state of Bihar, Naveen Patnaik of BJD wants to become the Chief Minister of Orissa while Mulayam Singh and Amar Singh of SP , and BSP Supremo Mayawati wants best portfolios for themselves and their party MPs’.

Even this is not enough, politicians like Mulayam Singh, Mayawati and also Sharad Pawar of NCP , who all belong to Regional Parties and their parties have major presence mainly in their respective states, have ambitions to become the Prime Minister of India after these elections. I’m not saying that being ambitious is wrong; but the problem is that anyone of them can only become the PM, only when all of them come together, with many other parties to form the Third Front and form the Government at the Centre. And this to me seems to be a major problem and distant possibility for a stable government.

Anyways let’s wait for tomorrow and days to come to see the final outcome of this Political Bazaar, which is currently going on in New Delhi. And also at the same time let’s hope that any government which comes into the power does something good for the country and its people…

Do VOTE !!!

On the eve of the third phase of voting for General Elections 2009 in India, I request all my readers and the voters of this country to Vote…

Yesterday I watched a video on YouTube, Kuch Nahin Ho Sakta... This well-edited video, starring lot of young Bollywood actors and actresses, conveys the message to vote in a classical way…

Mumbai: The Battleground

After 24 hours of the ongoing War against Terrorism as I walk on the streets of Mumbai, the life here seemed to be somewhat normal. People were seen moving in and out of the bars & restaurant, enjoying the delicacies like vada pav & chat, youths roaming around; even the buses were running almost full. Nothing as such has changed except for the mental peace of the common man or the common Mumbaikar…

Last night, Terrorists attacked our Financial Capital, the city of Dreams – Mumbai at 10 different locations… But the attacks were different in terms of the modus operandi this time. Till now, bombs were placed secretly and terrorists never attacked from the front but this time they came out openly to spread the terror amongst the innocent citizens, using AK-47 guns and Grenades. They opened gun fires at many places. The second unique thing about these attacks were that the places like temples, trains, airport where common Mumbaikar would have been, weren’t targeted; but terrorists have chosen places which people might not have thought off, even in their nightmares. The terrorists attacked 5 star hotels – Taj Mahal Palace and Oberoi Trident, Café Leopold and peace loving people living in Colaba, etc. The attacks in the hotels and café were done at the time when various foreign tourists would have come back to the hotels and while corporates were having seminars and meetings.

As of now, the death toll has risen to 155 including atleats 14 policemen, 2 NSG commandos and some foreigners, while approximately 327 people have been injured in these Terror attacks. The dead also include Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad chief Hemant Karkare, Additional Commissioner of Police Ashok Kamte and encounter specialist Vijay Salaskar. It’s a really sad day when so many people have lost their lives but our politicians are only making false claims or as usual playing the blame game. My heartfelt condolences to the family of the all the people who died in these attacks… And I would like to salute the NSG commandos, army men, navy men and policemen for fighting bravely, continuously for almost 2 days now.

The titles like “War on Mumbai” or “Warzone Mumbai” can easily be justified after viewing the various footages available on Internet / TV. It simply reminds me of the Kargil War that time infiltrators captured Tiger Hill and other points; while this time they captured Taj, Trident and Nariman House. The only differences between the two were that it was in J&K while this in Mumbai; in Kargil War the terrorist might have taken months to capture those points while this time it took only few minutes for them to enter the targeted places and make hostages. Only thing which have changed that the attacks now are more planned, organised intensified and more terrifying…

A lot have been spoken about the spirit of Mumbai and Mumbaikars, whenever any such calamity had happened, but I would like to ask that till when this spirit will continue? If the people of this city or may be our country have good fighting spirits, this doesn’t mean that they should suffer from such attacks, blasts, etc. The government or the authorities should not take as an excuse for treating such matters lightly. Let me warn the government that these spirits of Mumbai could dampen too, if something concrete is not done. And let me clarify that alongwith the spirits, the common man is full of anger against these terrorists, terror groups and also against the government.

Something more disappointing was to watch our politicians giving interviews about Islamic & Hindutava terror, their election meetings, vote banks, etc. They’re saying that we need Federal investigation agency and police reforms but why do we only realize these necessities after something of such a magnitude had already happened? Why can’t be more pro-active or be more prepared? Where was our Intelligence agency when the recent attacks were being planned or was it an Intelligence failure? Or are the govt and the agencies were more than happy after catching few terrorist from so called Indian Mujahedeen or Sadhvi???

I would also like to ask Mr. Raj Thackeray that these attacks are on Aamchi Mumbai and after almost 2 days of these attacks, we hadn't heard any statment from you, pacifying the Mumbaikars. And just for your information, the NSG commandos who have been fighting here with the terrorist, have come from North and all of them may not be Marathi’s. Shouldn't the principles of MNS for a common man in Mumbai, i.e. not allowing North Indians, should have also been applied on the NSG commandos? Sir, this is a time for our country when we should be unite to fight against these Terrorist groups and not against our own countrymen.

Honourable Mr. Prime Minister and the Cabinet Ministers, I think this is a high time to take some concrete steps and not just make speeches. They have entered almost everywhere in our country and it’s really difficult for an ordinary citizen to live peacefully in his / her own motherland.

(PS: The blog was originally written on 27/11/08 but was updated on 28/11/2008)

Qualified Politicians required...

Blogathon today’s topic “How do we change the focus of politics from caste/religion to grassroot issues?” is both provocative and controversial…

If you ask my opinion to the question mentioned above, my answer is very simple: there is no way to change the focus of our politicians, till they are ready to change themselves, their focus and way of thinking…

I might be sounding as a pessimist, although I’m not; but according to me, changing politics and the politicians is a difficult thing, especially in a country like India.

Recently, I was reading somewhere that according to the World Bank data, the condition of Primary Education is even worse than most of the African countries. Arjun Singh, Hon. HRD Minister, who should address the issues of primary education, etc in the country. But he had done nothing except for creating caste differences amongst the people by introducing the quota for OBC’s… I don’t know, why he can’t understand that if the children have proper education (both primary & secondary), most of them won’t require any sort of Quotas for getting into any college of higher education.

Although the conditions of these Politicians or Netas, as we call them in India are not good but then too we may try changing their focus from the caste and religion based issues (actually their vote bank politics since decades) to some other important ones… Few things which we may try doing are:-

· The most important thing for any citizen in India is to exercise our Voting Rights. Whenever election happens in our country, we always find that voting percentage in most of the constituencies is not more than 50%; this simply means that atleast 50% percent of us don’t vote. By voting, we may choose the right candidate, who may actually do something concrete for us.

· We should strictly avoid listening to and voting for Political Parties and Leaders who encourage or are involved in caste based or religion based politics. If we, the people of this country ignore them, then they will have to think on alternate issues for continuing their presence in politics…

· We must also introduce some guidelines to become a Politician such as minimum educational qualificatio background check, etc.

· According to me, more & more young and qualified people should be encouraged to come into politics. Young people will definitely think over issues related to our country and our people and not just about caste or religion vote banks. I also think a retirement age for them is also necessary, may not be 60 but it should be there. If our Constitution also allows young politician then why is it necessary for a person to have grey hairs before becoming a politician?

Why don’t these Politicians don’t understand that the most important need of the common people are proper education for their children, adequate healthcare facilities for their families at cheap rates, good infrastructure in the country, low inflation, food and items of daily usage at low rates etc and not the admission for some of the backward class people in some prestigious institutes…

It’s high time that we all should become more responsible towards our country and discourages these types of politicians, who have the history of taking advantage of common people on the basis of caste or religion… We are proud to be living in a Democratic country and let’s behave like that…

Political Marketing

I’m back from the state of hibernation, which lasted for more than two months and now onwards I’ll try to write more frequently…

Last month, Mumbai celebrated the Ganpati Festival. Actually this festival was celebrated all over the country but it has a special place in the lives and hearts of all Mumbaikars…

Ganpati Festival - is celebrated in one of the most grandiose manner’s in Mumbai… What I’ve felt in the past two years was that many people actually wait for the whole year, just for Ganpati to return back… People celebrate this festival at their own homes or in common pandals…

One may find lot of Ganpati pandals of all sizes and statures, everywhere… These pandals are open for common public and organized by a committee / team of people. They manage everything by the help of the sponsorship and also the donation they get from various political parties, residents and shopkeepers of the adjoining area and also from the devotees…

Outside most of these pandals you’ll find a big board or hoarding with the name of the Ganpati’s Pandal name, etc. Out of which, most of them will also have the name, flag and the photos of the leaders of these communalist secular political parties… I truly don’t understand that what Bal Thackeray, Udbhav Thackeray, Raj Thackeray or for that matter any other local leader’s photo is doing on these Ganpati pandal’s hoarding??? Is this a festival or some political gathering???

According to Marketing Principles, if some individual or company sponsors some event then they may like to see their name and logo on the hoardings… I agree that if we can have the name of “Reliance Communication” or “Airtel” on any Ganpati pandal hoarding, then why not the name of any political party; they have also donated money from their accounts but is it justified to cover the 75-80% of the hoarding by sponsor related details? Some of these hoardings have photos of these leaders, which are bigger than actual size of that leader… I’ve even seen few hoardings where these photos covered almost 90% of the area and the Ganpati picture was merely covering 5-7% of the hoarding… Till date, I may not have seen many events or such festivals but from what I’ve seen, I always found that not more than 10-20% of the total space of the main hoardings or backdrops was covered by the sponsors…

During this festive season if you go out anywhere in Mumbai (I’m not talking about any other city because I’ve not see the Ganpati Festival there), you’ll always find lot of such hoardings on roadside and actually they help you to locate the Ganpati pandals… When I came to Mumbai first time, it was Ganpati time; initially I thought that some sort of elections must be round the corner that’s why so many political hoardings are present everywhere… But on close observation, I realized that these were not the political hoardings but they were the Ganpati Pandals’ hoardings… This is what I call “Political Marketing…”

Are we ready for it ???

Believe it or not - We’ll soon be able to watch the adult content on TV, yes you read it correctly, I’m also talking about viewing Adult Content (including A or U/A rated stuff) on our own TVs’ but only from 11 p.m. in the night to 5 a.m. in the morning. Government is planning to bring a Broadcast Bill in the winter session, after which TV channels will be allowed to show the adult stuff between the specific timings.

It may be a good news for some while others may be worried that what effect will it leave on our children? In the land of Kama Sutra, the debate over the topic had already begun. Don’t be surprised to see activists opposing this bill, when we can oppose sex education in schools then how can we allow this? People might argue that it will have a bad effect on our children, but I just want to ask them that is this only medium where adult content will be available? How are they planning to stop the children from watching Porn Videos, MMSs’, accessing Internets or reading adult stuffs?

Anyways there is still enough time left and lots of drama to be seen, before Government finalizes this bill and we see the outcome of it.

Click here to read The Economic Times report.

And please don't forget to tell me that are you in favor of this bill or you'll oppose it? But the question, for which I'm unable to find an answer is that, Are we ready for it ???

Mandal II

So now there are fresh reservations to get into IITs and IIMs. Premier institutes forced to compromise on their meritocracy. I do not understand why we are so socialist. Shouldn't the best survive and let others perish?

If there has to be reservation for anyone than it should be done on the basis of their economic position not on the basis of their caste. Initially when the constitution was drafted, this reservation system was proposed only for 10 years but it has been extended to 55 years, even now not giving any sign to terminate. I agree that reservations were a necessity in early years after our independence but now, in the global economy, there should be no place for reservations.

Caste system is evil practice because then people from a particular caste could be deprived from getting into a particular organization. However, reservation is also bad because of same reasons; It denies the general public who are more able, an entry into these organizations just because they do not belong to particular castes.

By making reservations up to 50%, we ourselves are creating a difference amongst the society. Students, who joined on merit basis in these colleges, will treat the other group, who came there on the basis of reservations, as inferiors.

Even after having reservations in some of the top notch colleges, these students are unable to perform. At IITs they have preparatory classes for the student community, who come through these quotas. These classes are given to them just to bring them to the level of the other students and also to the level of studies which they have to do at these colleges. In spite of all this many of them become drop-outs in between of the course coz they are unable to cope up with pressure there.

A real meritorious student is never deprived; he comes up in life whichever field he chooses and which ever college, industry he joins. Even I know one person who belonged to these minority classes but then too he got the admission in IIT through the general category, just to prove that he doesn’t want any quota to be there.

We all know the kind of extraordinary talent, which is needed to get into the India's best institutes like IIT's & IIM's. Students start their preparations for these exams; years before they actually appear for them, with a hope that one day they will be IITians or IIM grads, they face a cut throat competition in these exams, which selects 1 student out of thousands. Every year competition is becoming tougher n tougher and instead of reducing the reservation and increasing number of seats, government is restricting the general class to get into premier institutes.

Now what exactly is the government trying to do? It’s playing with the future of thousands of students belonging to the General Category. Instead of giving them economic support, fee waivers and scholarships it wants to appease them with something that will cost students their future. Reservation aimed at more than 50%. Approximately 1330 seats going to be out of question for general candidates in IITs and 210 in each IIMs. Half the passouts from these esteemed institutions will be those who never fought for their careers. If the government is so interested in their development, then let them open new colleges for these so called underprivileged backward classes.

Children of poor labourers’, anywhere in India, who has been discriminated for generations, will never benefit from these reservations. Since reservation never permeates to that level. The only ones who actually benefit are well-settled city folks who are under the "Creamy layer" category of SC/STs and so called backward classes.
The reservation does not ensure social respect for anyone. On the contrary it prejudices minds of those merit based candidates who have been at the receiving end of reservations. And also it is not good for our economy.

These reservations are made by the politicians just for their vote banks and not for the welfare of the common citizen. The major vote banks for these political parties have always been these minority classes and other backward classes. Since We, (the general category) never vote. And the Politicians want their votes... Therefore, we have to face all these crap. So, it’s high time that we should be aware of our rights and should vote.

India is now becoming a superpower, economic growth is on fast lane, more and more Multinational's are investing in India just because of 1991 reforms and the strategy "Open For All", but at the same time, making the education closed, restricted to few. It slaps the face of education in India...

Whatever is the reason, vote bank or up gradation of backward castes, it is injustice to the deserving candidates. Apropos to the government's recent decision to increase the reservation quota up to 50% for the reserved castes, we the "General Society" strongly oppose this government's authoritarian step.