Election India 2009: Congress is India

Prices of daily commodities may have soared, the story of contained inflation may be something ridiculous, the farmers may have died in hordes due to the country's new neo-liberal economic policies, but the people have voted the Congress to power. Reason? I've yet to find out. The one thing I suspect is that the people hate L.K.Advani and his party BJP, who have shredded the secular fabric of the country.
So you have no other choice but to see Manmohon Singh, Sonia's most obedient man, as the king for next five years.

I'm happy Advani's dream of being PM has been dashed for ever. Did you notice that he had inserted "Advani as PM" ads pervasively all across the net? Another upside of the election result is that Sharad Powar, another asshole who aspired to become PM, has also been screwed.

But the debacle of the fake Marxists' party CPM in Bengal has really given me a high. It has got only 15 seats while TMC and ally have bagged 26 seats. It's very likely the so-called Marxists would be totally wiped out in coming Bidhan Sabha election.

I had a very good impression of Prakash Karat. But he's a renegade, and is devoid of any principles. He's going to pay a heavy price for his misdeeds.

Election India 2009: Last Round of Polling

Woke up in the morning to a soft music being played out somewhere in the vicinity. It was as serene as a Mahalaya morning. I was a voter today.

Our booth was at Promodamoyee school. A govt primary school-now-turning-into a -community-hall on its final morph into an apartment.

My wife stood in the short line of females. My line was way long. Some innocent looking personnel was around. But no CRPF men. No part goons to bully the voters. I found a very sick and handicapped woman entering the booth with a crutch, and an attendant. The polling was peaceful.

What really marred my enthusiasm was a lady in my adjacent line. I saw her after about thirty years, but I spotted her without any mistake. But she did not seem to recognize me. What an ugly woman she had turned into after all these years! I was relieved when she went inside for voting, and exited without so much as casting a glance around.

Finally, I pressed my vote button. This is the first time in my life that I gave my vote for a non-left candidate. I don’t claim I’ve much rationale for this action. The non-left candidate, though educated, soft-spoken and logical compared to his counterpart,is, sure, not going to deliver a plethora of goodies if elected. It's very likely that he would perform as badly as the Left, if not in a worse way. But I can no longer put up with the Buddha-Biman propagated lies. I want an end to it.

Voter turnout in this phase is more that 71%. Little violence. Now, wait for the result.

Election India 2009: Election boycott

This is round 3, but phase 1 in West Bengal. For the first time you see disgruntled people boycotting the election from Dooars' tea-gardens down to tribals in Jhargram, Purulia and Bankura. There was no voter in 96 booths across the state. It was a great challenge for the Bengal Government as well as the Election Commission to ensure a good and peaceful election at tribal-dominated Lalgarh. They must be disappointed by the voters' response to various arrangements by them. People did not show any interest, for whatever reasons, in casting their votes. According to an estimate, just about 15% of the voters turned out.

The Maoists' call for election boycott is , sure, a reason for this low turnout. But people's disenchantment is another definitive cause.

But the election boycott is actually going to help the ruling leftists, and increase the odds of the Trinamul-Congress alliance.

Election India 2009: Phase 2

An average 55 per cent voter turnout in 140 Lok Sabha seats across 12 states and Union Territories. The prevailing heat wave may be a reason for the low turnout.

Barring some Maoist violence reported from Jharkhand and Bihar, it was peaceful compared to the first phase.

But the interesting thing about the election at this point is that politicos, unsure of the electorates' mood, are singing in different tunes now. Lalu Prasad has already pipped the Congress by commenting that the Prime Minster would be decided by all members of UPA after the election. Lalu, Paswan, Pawar - all primeminister- wannabes - show their leanings towards the Left. Even the Congress has publicly pronounced that the Left are not untouchable to them, and if necessary, it would seek help from them to form the government. Left Supremo Praksh Karat, still smarting under the blow dealt during Anti-nuclear deal, states that the Left would under no circumstances join the Congrss.

All these are of course crap. The fact is that these persons would move anywhich direction that would suit their purpose. It is all about power as well as Indian democracy.

Election India 2009: The show begins

The biggest reality show of the biggest democracy begins today. Today is the first phase of Loksabha election 2009.

So, how has it been so far? Mostly bloody. Five states - among them Jharkhand and Chhatisgrh and Bihar- face Maoists attack. Eighteen deaths so far. Security personnel, election workers, one common man. But no leader or political person as such.

No Maoist has been arrested so far. On the contrary, in a polling booth some policemen were so scared that they all fled to a Border Security Force camp for their life. Yet another proof that the Maoists are a formidable force, and can take on the administration any time in a lot of areas in India.

No doubt there would be more paramilitary force in sensitive areas in next four phases of the election. Especially in West Bengal. In Lalgarh, an adivasi belt, there's already a face-off between the tribals and the Government. People over there, recently victims of police atrocities, have driven the police out of the area, and would not let them in even during the election. Maoists are backing them. Since the administration seems to teach them a lesson, it would take this election time to enter the area with the election commissioner's blessings. Ther's going to be another bloodbath as in Nandigram.

Election India 2009: Slanging match intensifies

For me, it's more shocking than amusing.

I've never imagined India's top leaders could get to attack one another in such a lowly manner. Manmohon Singh, PM, usually regarded as a decent and dignified man, has also participated in this slanging match.

While the media - especially the electronic media - reports them all with glee, I hate to even hear or read them. It's sad that Indian politicos' electioneering speech does not have any real issue the country faces today. Which tells us about the exact status of Indian democracy and its custodians.

I liked L.K.Advani's proposal of a live debate on TV like we've seen it in US. Manmohon Singh dimissed it on the ground that that would amount to admitting Advani as a prime ministerial candidate. If Advani is not a candidate for prime minister, who is?

Though, to be fair, the way his party BJP has inserted ads everywhere, especially on the web, decaring Advani as PM, is ghastly, to say the least.

The truth is, neither Manmohon nor Advani has any quality for being India's PM.

Election India 2009: It's time to be pro-poor

Rahul Gandhi, the redoubtable Congressman and India's Prime-Minister-in-waiting by his birthright, said in a meeting yesterday that the Congress is pro-poor. He could have come closer to the truth if he said the congress is pro-rich.

During the past five years of UPA rule - where the Congress was the dominant party - the country's poor people have slid further down into the abyss. Today, eighty per cent of more than one billion people, earn less than a dollar a day. They have been robbed of small things they possessed - a slice of land, for example- systematically by the Government's neo-liberal policies. They have not been provided any jobs even under the the 100-day employment scheme, promised during the last election. Manmohan Singh, the PM, has never really cared about the poor(remember the suicide of farmers in Nasik? He never did anything to get them out of their abysmal poverty).

It's not that the Bharatiya Janata Party has better track record. In terms of economic policy, it pursued the same neo-liberal line dictated by the World Bank during its rule, and is tied to Us of America in an abominable way.

Interestingly, both parties are now shouting for the cause of the poor. They are vowing to provide rice to the poor at Rs 2/3 a kg. Nothing can be more ludicrous.

Election India 2009: Charges against Mulayam Singh Yadav

As the election days draw nearer, you find more and more candidates brazenly violate the moral code of conduct laid down by the Election Commission. The most recent example is Mulayam singh Yadav, the Samajbadi Party supremo. He has threatened the lady district magistrate and state election officer-in-charge with dire consequences in an open meeting. The EC has filed an FIR against the leader, and also slaps a criminal charge against him.

Now, Yadav is a senior leader, and some years ago was the defence minister at the centre. Does he really care about any law anyway? And do you think the Election commission has the clout to take any action against him? On the "Holi" day, Mulayam freely distributed hundred rupee notes to his potential voters and got away with it without even a warning by the commission.

Rest assured the EC would more or less behave the same way in this case too. This is indian democracy at the Election Commission level!

Election India 2009: Hate speech

Despite records of bloody communal riots, India has a discernible secular attitude. This is the reason why Varun Gandhi, a scion of the high-profile Indira Gandhi family, no less, is in trouble for his recent hate speech in his election meeting. Unlike other members of the Gandhi family, he's not a Congressman, and is fighting election from Pilibhit on a BJP ticket.

The Election Commission has gone overboard to file a criminal case against this greenhorn and is all set to award him punishment. The other political parties including the Congress and the leftists have already started clamouring for cancelling his candidature.

Varun, as expected, is citing crap in his defence (victim of political conspiracy, the voice in the CD is not his etc}. All of which show he's a very inexperienced guy, and not savvy enough. How could the BJP field him as a candidate? This is another downside of Indian democracy: as long as you have right connections, you need not be bothered about your qualification.

But the thing I would like to see how the Election Commission finally deals with the issue. Would it punish Varun Gandhi for violation of its model code of conduct?

Election India 2009: The Leftists

Leftists who were part of the UPA government for the better part of its tenure are in an unenviable position in Election India in 2009. While they are far far way from the masses because of their anti-people policies, their top leader Prakash Karat is busy cobbling a hotchpotch Third Front.

The leftists are morally bankrupt so much so that they have hardly an electoral issue this year except that cliched, over-trumpeted reforms. People are no longer buying this reform thing. In Kerala, the party is sharply divided over ideological issue. In West Bengal, the leaders are visibly nervous, and are uttering nonsense in public meetings. Buddhadeb Bhattachaya looks like a clown on screen. The so-called Marxists have to pay back the price for their betrayal of the masses.

Interstingly, they now fall back heavily on Jyoti Basu, the once-charismatic leader who is in the throes of death so to speak. How sad and cruel that the leftists are dragging the frail and wobbling nonagenarian on to the dais, and make him appeal to the masses for their mandate in elction 2009 in India!

Election India2009: Vote for cash

Many Indians like to tout it as the greatest democracy on earth, but it's just a quantitative statement. Qualitatively, this democracy glitters mostly on paper, and in our rulers' rhetoric. The truth is, most political parties routinely violate the norms that are at the core of a democracy.

One such glaring example is the vote for cash policy of some parties.

Electronic media has recently shown footage of Mulayam Singh Yadav of The Samajbadi Party, a senior politician of the country, distributing hundred-rupee notes to people who gathered at his residence on the occasion of the Holi.

In another incident, Amitava Nandy, a Left candidate for Lok Sabha election this year from Bengal, gives away cheques to workers from the dias of a workers' meeting.

The concerned parties have of course lodged complaints against these two leaders to the Election Commission, but there are little chances the latter would take any action against them.

Political leaders are kind of immune as far as any electoral law is concerned. This is again another downside of Indian democracy.

Vote for cash is not entirely a new thing. It was here in surreptitious way so long. Only this year it happens in the open.

Election India 2009

India is going to polls - Lok Sabha polls, to be more specific.

But do you feel any wind blowing?

Has this election any issue at all? Note that the Indira Congress, India's No 1 party, is this time trying to ride over a crappy film's "Joi Ho" slogan to victory. Another premier party, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has only to show "Advani as PM" ad everywhere.

Is there any compelling choice for voters in respect of parties or leaders? Not really.

Does any body really care who will be the PM except the contenders?

From all indications, Lok Sabha election 2009 is going to be the drabbest election. But make no mistake about it: it's going to be a nasty election too, with all sorts name-calling, gimmick, and violence. Indian democracy will be made to dance in world's biggest reality show.