Rejoicing at 50 percent voter turnout…!!!

Around the polls this was what going through my mind, which i happened to capture in 140 character sentence on Twitter and its developed form is here as follows:

This year, there has been massive campaigning for making the indian voter come out of their homes and cast their votes on the polling dates. Important people from different walks of life came out to campaign for this noble cause; but what was the result. Just above fifty per cent voting has been recorded in most of the parts of the country, though the rurals areas had fared better.

But the celebration or rather euphoria surrounding this 50% voter turnout has been so, as if there has been a 100% turnout ( especially the farce played out by television anchors to radio jocketys regarding the higher turnout in Delhi than in Mumbai or Bangalore). The elections will be successful only when the left out percent of voters also come out and cast their vote. Because it may be the chance that those fifty or forty percent don't want the person/party elected by these sixty/fifty percent. So their vote can actually bring someone from majority to minority. Celebrations should be saved for those times when we have a 70-90% voter turnout and in the meant time efforts should be in place to bring those absentee voters to the polling booth.

TERRORISTS: STILL FINE AND KICKING

Post 9/11 leaders of the US (and the rest of developed world), had been busy waging war against terrorism, mainly the Taliban. In name of finishing terrorism, a nation, which probably had little to do with terrorism, was attacked and destroyed. Lots of public money and human resource of the country( of which the leaders belonged to) had been squandered to nab those who were behind the 9/11 tragedy, but even after eight years no concrete result has come out as of yet.



Instead the bad news is that the terrorists have just shifted their base. Earlier they were illegally operating from parts of India's immediate neighbour in the west, Pakistan; now they have, sort of, legally occupied a part of that country- the Swat Valley- to carry on their missions and operation. This is bad news for India which had terrorists moving one more inch closer to its backyard.

The billion dollar question is, what happened to 'mission infinite justice' of the US, which was meant to nab the masterminds of 9/11 and destroy the roots of terrorism from the world? May be it has prevented another terrorist assault on its soil, but it has made the rest of the world vulnerable to the attacks of the terrorists. Will the US administration care to answer this; whether Democrats or Republicans doesn't matter, as terrorism is still a reality. The terrorists are still fine and kicking (while we are facing bad time with recession); probably laughing while listening to the rhetorics of the world leaders in the past.

IMPOSING BAN ON BAJRANG DAL

India National Congress today said that there are enough evidences to impose ban on Bajrang Dal which has been disturbing public peace and communal harmony in the country by attacking religious minority communities. The Congress spokesperson Manish Tiwari today addressing a press confrence in the capital gave details of the unlawful activities that Bajrang Dal had been involved in since 1984 till date. He also asked all parties to think above the communal lines.

It is amazing that the party took it so long to come out with idea in public( which i wanted to ask but as an intern i can't afford to ask such a question). Various other parties like RJD which are part of the UPA coalition had already called for the banning the Bajrang Dal. The Congress called for an outright ban on organizations like the Bajrang Dal and SIMI which the spokesperson called " two sides of the same coin". Hope that the sentiments of the party also reaches the mind of the government, which has to finally bring about the ban and save lives of people.

Can Obama bring the promised ‘change’?

let's hope for the best.

Unlike any American citizen my concerns were entirely different while listening to Barack Obama at the Democratic Convention, this morning. Over the years, especially under President George Bush’s term in the White House, has convinced me that the United States of America democratically elects the biggest dictator in every four years to rule the world.

In a speech perfectly blended with prose and poetry, Obama scathingly analyzed the policies of the Bush administration in the two terms and also tried to realistically pin-point the agendas he have, which he is terming as ‘change’.

Certain points which he made, the American people are in strict need of, especially creating jobs in America for the people living there instead of allowing companies to outsource jobs and at the same time getting tax benefits. Democrats in this session of the run-up to the elections have raised concerns about gender equality and quality college education. Being a father of two daughters himself, Obama vowed to ensure equal wages for women, creating better opportunities for quality education, not allowing privatization of social security and tax cuts.

The last two points needs to be noted by our economic policy makers which need to be implemented in the Indian context as well. Better get it done before the Americans do it and set an example.

When he moved on to criticize the Republican policy about giving benefits to those who already have the surplus and hope that prosperity trickles down the social order, it simply brought the thought back that human misery, its causes, is similar and universal. Isn’t it the common belief in India as well that our government too functions in this manner? Obama didn’t stop there, he went on to explain it briefly that the policy basically means that ‘you are on your own’. Isn’t it was the situation in India as suggested by the news reports on 27th August 2008 or when the inflation figures rises northwards every Friday or when there is some terrorist attack?

But what struck me as most worthy of all, was his pledging to decrease America’s dependence on oil from the middle-east. Definitely Obama has hit the nail on the head. If he wins the election and gets this vision of his rolling then half the problems round the globe would be over. Another war like that of Iraq based on false premises could be avoided in future. There would be no silly diplomatic games played by big countries, especially the USA for oil’s sake.

However, so far Obama’s speeches and those made in support of his candidature has been more messiah like, though steeped in idealism, sounds convincing. He definitely has delivered some of the best speeches of the present times. And on the 45th anniversary of Martin Luther king jr.’s ‘I have a dream speech’, as the first African-American Democratic Presidential nominee, Obama has already made history and his speech though steeped in high prose, sounding idealistic wasn’t blind to the reality.

Come this November, the world would get to know whether his speeches have been able to convince America or not, that he is the best man for the White House. And good news is that so far he seems immune to the dictator bug.

27th August 2008 nine o’clock news: most shocking ever

Today’s nine O’ clock news was the saddest things that I have ever seen, except the post-9/11 days. It seemed as if a chaos like situation from pandemonium has suddenly hijacked our nation. Law and order, peace, natural harmony, suddenly has gone missing. And both god and the government have forgotten about its subjects.

So many unnatural stories were reported today, but the reaction, both verbal and physical was nowhere to be found from the people vested with the duty and power to protect us. Neither god nor the government was answering the prayers of the hostages in Jammu or flood affected people in Bihar or the people affected by communal violence in Orissa.

The violence in Jammu and Kashmir is refusing to die down. For more than two months now the state has been in news because of the protests because of the Amarnath land Transfer issue. And for few days the Kashmir valley is trying to cope up with the curfew imposed there. And midst of all these, one also gets to hear ceasefire violations and militants trying to cross the Line of Control. Political parties try to do nothing other than playing electoral politics as the elections are inching closer. When will the normalcy return in the ‘Paradise on earth’? One after another problem is gripping the state but the government and the respective agencies aren’t even able to figure out even produce a gimmick of peace.

It’s not been long, the state of Gujarat has not yet recovered, and another terror attack takes place. Three militants cross the line of control holds 7 people hostage including women and children in a home in Jammu. It took almost 17-hrs for the security forces to gun down the terrorists.

Bihar’s ‘river of sorrow’ Kosi has again changed its course flooding several districts. Over thousands are stranded in submerged houses without food or water, with hope of being rescued. The chief minister has announced for complete evacuation but with the resources available with the administration at the ground zero is telling that such a task is a Herculean one, as the officials are falling short of rescue boats.

Meanwhile a communal clash is in progress Orissa, where Christians are being targeted after a local Hindu leader was killed. Christians there are fleeing to the Phulbani Hills to take refuge.

Why are the concerned authorities not being able to take steps to curb the violence or the problems at stage? Why things are allowed to spiral out of control? Aren’t we alert enough? Probably the militants were right when they mockingly called our Intelligence Bureau, ‘Ignorance Bureau’. It seems like the people in the country are living on the mercy of the god, who is also not been kind these days. Probably the authorities are thinking people will get used to living to this as they have with bad roads, without regular water supplies, irritatingly irregular long power-cuts.

Few days back one editor mentioned in his column that whining is our national obsession. After the situation around us is not at all rosy or perfect. And if you stop making the authorities know that you are not satisfied with the present circumstances then even the ‘late reactions’ that one is getting in form of some compensations from the authorities will also vanish.

All protests in India are heading to national highway

Highways have become a favorite stage for the protestors in the recent times, to stage demonstration. In just about three month’s time, the national highways in India have witnessed to agitation by protestors of diverse groups. The recent one is the blocking of NH1A off Jammu by the Shri Amarnath Sangharsh Samiti, which is protesting against the revocation of Amaranth land transfer order.

Holding the city at ransom by agitators by means of strikes, halting traffic is not new. But withholding the economy of a state by blocking the highways to register protest is something new, which the state administration in India is not equipped with to handle yet. The trend was started by the Gujjars while protesting for a Scheduled Tribe status. It caught the attention of the entire nation when they blocked two arterial highways connecting Rajasthan, for a week in May-June 2007, halting the supply of essential goods to the state. And this year too, they blocked the NH11 from 23 May to 27 June, thus, paralyzing the state’s economy. The protests destroyed public poverty worth crores and also affected the revenue earning that comes from the toll charges. At the end, they reached an agreement with the State Government of Rajasthan, which met their demand.

Taking a cue from the success of the agitation of the gujjars, other protestors also are leading their protests to the highways. Gorkha Janmukti Morcha too blocked the NH13 in June. Later in the month, Sikh- Dera Sacha Sauda row also resulted in blocking of NH10 and NH1A near Sirsa and Jammu respectively.
And the recent one is the blocking of NH1A by the Shri Amarnath Sangharsh Samiti from the beginning of August till date.

The recent one is proving to be very costly to the economy of the valley. This blockade has great political ramification as well. Immediate steps needs to be taken by the government, so that separatist and communal forces are not able to come to their true colors. But there seems to be a lack of political will to find a solution to the problem immediately as the government is loosing its night’s sleep over getting the Nuke deal with the US cleared than resolving this issue.

The Supreme Court bench recently made this remark regarding government’s response to the amendment of the law to prosecute those illegally occupying government accommodations: “Even God will not be able to save this country”. The bench headed by B N Agarwal added that “they (government) don’t have the guts to differ with opinion of the clerks.” This remark perfectly reflects the will of the political bosses in this country. They take decisions, make or undo amendments to please those who resort to hooliganism to get their demands sanctioned and thus, will be a vote bank for the future. Whether these decisions will be good for the country is not their concern, but creating vote banks surely is.

Ramadoss’s take on Article 377

Union Health Minister, Anbumani Ramadoss speaking at the 17th International AIDS Conference in the Mexico city, advocated for the scrapping of the article 377, which criminalizes homosexuality. He expressed that “Structural discrimination against those who are vulnerable to HIV such as sex workers and men having sex with men must be removed if our prevention, care and treatment programmes are to succeed”.

Though the health minister has said it keeping in mind the “stabilization of the HIV epidemic” that India is currently witnessing but this is something which is never imagined of being spoken by a minister. With changing times society needs to change its perception, but barely nine months before the general elections, when the UPA government is trying to be politically safe, such a comment indeed seems bravado. Because, this may upset a huge section of conservatives. The concern of the health minister was totally medical in asking for deleting Article 377, but it has social ramification as well.

Whatever may be the concern and ramification of this suggestion, it clearly indicates that some of the bravest and futuristic comments by Indian leaders can come on foreign soil. Like opposition leader, L.K.Adavni’s comments on Jinnah’s secularism, also came during his visit to Pakistan in 2005. Advani’s comments created unwanted controversy. Hope that Ramdoss’s does not meet the same fate.

SO WHEN IS INDIA GOING FOR GENERAL ELECTION?

Will the UPA be able to reach the magic figure of 271 in the Indian parliament or the country will see an early election? Are the measures taken by the Congress to save the government gonna tarnish its image? How come after years of rivalry, SP and Congress have become best buddies? So many questions seem to rise in the mind about this interesting political scenario in the country. Does any one has the specific answers to the questions?