Elections 2009

General elections are around the corner and I was wondering about the strategy that various parties would adopt to fight the next election. What I have noticed is that the Congress party has seriously under marketed their achievements. Unless you are a really curious person and wants to know about the achievements of the present government and is willing to spend quite a lot of time searching google or news paper archives for the information, its most likely that one would be clueless about what the present government did(apart from the Indo-US nuclear deal which by the way wont win you any elections any where).  

When the previous government was in power they used to have 100's of ads enlightening the people about their vision for India, India shining, golden quadrilateral etc etc. They had an excellent marketing strategy. They ensured that every single policy they had was highlighted. But after doing all that they lot the elections.  

Thus the question arise, is marketing really necessary for wining elections? I started following various social issues only about 8-10 years ago and hence my knowledge about the stuff that happened before that is limited. I strongly believe that a right marketing strategy would be crucial for winning an election. A huge majority of Indian voters do not have televisions and cables.  One of the main reasons why BJP's strategy did not pay of is that they just concentrated on the small minority of voters(people with TV and stuff, basically the people who belong to the middle class and above), another reason being that the people were appalled with their communal/ hate politics that they had adopted. 

I haven’t seen any ads of the congress government, even if there are its very few. As the cable TV viewing public is a small minority of the Indian voters, even if they don’t come up with any ads it really doesn’t matter. The various debates that happen in TV will get the message through to the urban voter. What really matters is if they are getting their message through to the ruler voter who is going to make or break their election. 6 or 7 months back i would have said that the congress had no chance in hell of winning or even competing in the coming election. Thanks to the various antics of the BJP the congress is back in the running. People in India do not want violence and they certainly wont support any party that is the root cause of this violence.  

Marketing remains the key in this election also. The mantra of marketing is politics is same as in the normal marketing.  Identify your target customers (voters), ensure that your message is received by the loud and clear. I do not think that the congress is going to win this election with a majority no matter what they do now. What they can do now is ensure that their policies and vision publicized in the right places. The congress came into power on the votes of the aam aadmi and they must ensure that the aam aadmi would trust them and believe in their policies once again for coming into power

I had completely ruled out the left from the 2009 elections but thanks to the trinamool unfortunately that is not going to happen. The happenings of the past few months have ensured that a clear winner won’t be there after the elections. What happens in the coming months will be very crucial. History has shown us that Indian elections are unpredictable. This one will be no different.  

I am sooo happy

Today the High Court has termed Raj Thackery and MNS as terrorist. It had a few harsh words for the police and the Maharashtra government. That just made my day. Finally better sense has prevailed. The icing on the cake would be to arrest Raj Thackery on the charge of disruption of peace and inciting communal violence, attempted murder and may be hindrance to national unity as well and put him behind bars for the rest of his sorry life and to that ban MNS as an organization citing national security reasons. Its shame that such creatures as Raj Thackery are allowed to move around freely in India. Gonda rule should not be allowed. People who are affected by his sorry excuse for an ideology should get together and beat the living crap out of these guys. 

The whole purpose of me writing this is, hate politics should be dealt with extreme hate. People who think that they can do whatever they please and get away with it should be taken to task. In fact laws like POTA should be there to deal with such antisocial, antinational excuses of a human being. In a country in which the media is very dominant, where the people will always have the last say such creatures shouldn’t be allow to live freely. We should nip such behaviors in the bud itself. Frankly speaking if the "sorry excuse for a human being" continues to be arrogant and adamant and violates the Indian constitution one more site, a shoot at site order should be given against that "sorry excuse for a human being". This is ridiculous. I really hope next time when I hear about news about any violence caused by the “sorry excuses for a human being” its followed by the news of him being dead in an encounter or a news of his arrest followed by him getting a life sentence

Jai Hind

The Third world war

It has been said or I may have made it up my self that the third world war is going to be fought over resources. With every passing day the thought seems to be coming closer to a reality. In fact we even have instances where battles have been fought for resources. I believe at this point of time humans are the only living creatures that does not follow(at least to a certain extend)Darwin’s "survival of the fittest" theory. When it comes to humans, the weakest are given the at most care. This is soon going to change. Its a fact that the resources in our planet are fast getting depleted. The time is not far from now when humans would have to fight for their survival. We can try and slow the process but it’s going to be inevitable. Too many people competing for too little resources.  

Had humans followed Darwin’s theory of survival of the fittest all the problems that we are facing now would never have occurred. Only the strongest would have survived and there will be plenty of resources for all. I believe all the natural and unnatural calamities are nature’s way to restore balance. As medical science has advanced so much that chances of one dying has been reduced to a great extend the scope of nature’s survival of the fittest policy.  

A time will come when each country would have no choice but to attack other countries to get the resources it needs. That is why people say that the third world war will mark the end of the world. A war for resources will finish only when all the resources are depleted. (at a later stage people will fight against each other for resources).  

Man is known for his resilience and innovations. We have faced all sort of atrocities and invariable have come on top. Since we are known to get going when the going gets tough, our only hope is that before such a situation happens or even after it has happened, man will come up with some innovations which will ensure the supply side shortage is overcome. I do believe that there is a limit to what man can do. Unless human being evolve into something that can live on land, air and water and can adapt to what ever is there in the world even if the world doesn’t end, Homo-sapiens as we know now will get extinct(Technically if man evolves into something else homo-sapiens will end there itself). 

The fall of Lehman Brothers

As I was watching the news i was shocked to hear that Lehman Brothers were going to file for bankruptcy. Even though this has not officially happened yet, its said that its just a matter of time. I am not sure if people saw this coming but I definitely didn’t. It was something like a wake up call for me even though I am in now away (at least directly) affected by the fall of the company. Naturally when a company files for bankruptcy the future of its employees won’t be that bright. That’s one of the reasons for my shock and fear. 

Lehman Brothers is an old and a really big company. It’s a company which is supposedly trusted by many and till now in the wildest of my dreams i never expected this to happen. I have no particular liking for Lehman Brothers but the fall represents a bigger issue. Till today morning I was under the impression that if you have a good education, if you are reasonably smart the chances of you going broke is very little. Even though the people associated with Lehman brothers will or may get settled in various other jobs this is a reminder that anything can happen to any one. I never thought that the employees of the company would ever have to worry about such a situation arising. This shows that no one is safe in this day and age. Even if you are the richest, most established company in the world you could go bankrupt in the blink of an eye(at least form an outsiders point of view). 

I don’t know if the bankruptcy is a part of a greater fraud or anything, but it has opened my eyes. Even though I have always have heard people say always reinvent yourself, innovate, never relax etc, its now that I am getting tangible evidence for the need to do the same. It tells us that we should never let our guard down. 

What will happen to the employees? I don’t know.  This has given me a harsh reminder on how harsh the private sector can be. Other companies have fallen before, but most of the times we always used to see it coming. Even though Lehman Brothers is not the first company to surprise the world by declaring bankruptcy, it’s not going to be the last. The number of such established companies going broke is rising alarmingly. Is this a part of the cycle where after a period of robust economic growth and security the depression starts which in turn will lead to another period of economic growth? I got absolutely no clue. What I know is, the resources in this planet is being used up at a rapid rate, unless there are some big time innovations the situation in the future is going to be very bleak. The concept of survival of the fittest will be taken to a all new level

Singur issue - The big picture

What is happening in Singur is the left getting a taste of their own medicine. It was a kind of project that the left would have opposed any time. The whole Singur issue has given me a new found respect for the left. Its well known that the left often holds various issues for ransom(they hold the country at ransom), but they wind up their agitation in a decent way. Either they would have gone for a compromise formula or they would have got a promise of a compromise formula. Either way the damage they cause compared to what Mamatha Banerjee has caused is insignificant. What she has done in Singur is illogical. If she had done the whole agitation in a proper way, she would have got maximum political mileage from it. Unfortunately for her she overdid it big time. Rite now a part of West Bengal and India is very angry with her. This was a golden opportunity for her to get maximum seats in the coming Lok Sabha elections and other future elections and she blew it in the sense, the kind of advantage she had a couple of months back has reduced. Holding a state for ransom and not even thinking about the notion of a compromise is socially, politically and economically unacceptable. I do agree that the farmers should get a fair deal but what she has done is quite insane. 

Apart form the politicians there are a bunch of environmentalist and social workers who are against this project. I am a person who is deeply concerned with global warming, soil erosion and other environmental issues. But nation has to progress and its far more better economically and environmentally to give farm land instead of forest land for setting up industries. Comparatively a large area in our country consists of farm land and it’s high time that we focused more of intensive agriculture. The environmentalist will always have a rigid stand and they have valid reasons for it, even if some of it is paranoia, we need such people so that we are reminded about the hazards of irresponsible industrialization. I believe any more deforestation is unacceptable and the only way out her is to give farm land.

Now coming to the bigger issue. The seizure of land by the government for development is something that will happen. The entire land belongs to the state and the state has the right to take the land for its citizens for the greater good of the society. The state is expected to pay compensation to the citizens but to expect "fair" compensation is unrealistic simply because the state doesn’t have enough money. "Reasonable" compensation is what should be expected. I agree that when it happens to you one would find it really unfair. Unfortunately for the development of the state such things are required. Without such seizers there wouldn’t be national highways, rail roads, airports etc.  For the greater good of the society such things are bound to happen in the future. To keep on agitating and causing violence each and every time this happens is ridiculous. The only solution to this problem is all political parties coming to a consensus which is something very unrealistic. Hence my only hope is, even if there are agitations it would not be taken as far as what Mamtha Banarjee did. 

PS: When Mamatha Banarjee was the railways minister she has misplaced many people and the kind of compensation that they got was equivalent to pocket change compared to what people in Singur are getting. This incident again proves to us all that politicians are hypocrites

Where are we heading to

Yet another bomb blast in India, that too in the national capital. Is our national security that hopeless that no Indian can feel safe in their own home? For a country which is as big and great as India is the security situation here is pathetic. We compare our selves with China and in this front we lagging far behind. Instead of concentrating on state specific anti terror laws we should spend a major share of resources in counter terrorist units, terrorism prevention etc. As we are facing terror attacks after terror attacks and most of them are not being solved, the terrorist have an invincible feeling and for good reason. I am fed up of hearing politicians condemning these acts. It’s time for action. 

We can solve this problem in two ways. Do the unthinkable, bring in the military into the country and destroy all the naxals, terrorist and various antisocial, anti national pieces of crap. Bringing the army into various parts of the country will have its side effects. The army will be ruthless and the normal life will be affected for sure. This will be very fast and will have political, economic and social fallouts (consider the example of Indira Gandhi and the Sikh issue). This will be a very effective method of solving this problem but is unlikely to be implemented. Military is only called upon if every single possible alternative has been thought about, implemented and failed. 

The second way is a long and permanent way to solve the problem. We got to improve our intelligence system(even though we get intelligence on various bomb threats, we need to have more specific intelligence reports as where the bombs will be detonated), have a system through which each and every person in the country can be identified (some kind of ID card), much more security in our borders and various such steps should be taken. A central agency like the FBI should be there to prevent and investigate such attacks. We need to have experts in this field to ensure that our country becomes much safer. We need to improve our cyber crime prevention unit. There are so many hackers/crackers in this country and the government needs to utilize them in the most productive way possible. We need to intercept various communications so that we can prevent such acts of terror. Unfortunately to implement anything we need funds, which is something we lack.

The Home minister and the government have to take certain portion of the blame for such terror attacks. It seems that every state in India is a soft target. The problem that I have is that the government is not taking any concert steps. Even though I do not think BJP or any other party would have done anything better as the congress is ruling they should take responsibility for these attacks. I remember when I was small my parents used to tell me do not take anything kept on the road (like plastic covers or anything) as they could be bombs. There were various movies which showed various ways in which terrorist plant bombs. When ever we saw a cover or anything a bomb alert would automatically go in our minds. I believe its time that the present generation children got such training. 

Can anything be done to monitor such a vast and diverse country like India? I don’t know the answer. But what the government can do is show the people what it is doing to prevent such acts. Give the people as sense that the government is doing what ever it can to ensure the safety of its citizens. The government needs to prove to the people of the nation that it cares.  Every other week we see news reporters taking bombs into various sensitive areas and exposing the vulnerability of our system, which is very unsettling. 

Another main issue which the government have to watch as a by product of these attacks is communal violence. The terrorist are not doing the Muslims in the country any good by these attacks. All attacks are done in the name of Allah. If the attacks keep on continuing the chances of communal violence in India is really high. Naxal attacks are a totally different issue all together. 

Where do we go from here? I don’t know. What I want is very simple, strong and concrete action from the government. Instead of saying sorry (as the Home minister has just said) I want to know what the government is doing so that terrorist cannot plant bombs as easily as a child plants trees. I agree that all terror attacks cannot be prevented but the frequency with which these attacks are happening in India is alarmingly high. This is a time when the people of the nation are feeling unsafe. In a way these terror attacks are a way through which a nation which is deeply divided can find a common ground through which it can unite. The government, law enforcement agencies and the people of India should unite and tackle this problem together. Mutual cooperation is the only way through which India can get this messes of terrorism under control and move forward

The Nuclear drama

Why on earth is every one in this country concerned over a letter that was circulated in the US rather than the actual 123 agreement which is legally binding internationally. The whole racket made by the opposition is on the issue of our right to test. They are still hung over by their "India Shining" campaign. They see India 10 notches above from what it actually is. Now about the issue, what will happen if we test? There will be sanctions; US might stop supplying after a year of negotiations. Is this something new? 123 agreement or not, if we test there will be serious consequences. Why on earth would the US want to keep on supplying to a country nuclear material to a country which tests nuclear weapons, it goes against the principle of nonproliferation. 

 

At this point of time we are in nuclear isolation. The chances of us moving forward without the deal (wrt nuclear technology) is next to nil. The text of the 123 agreement has been made public and that’s what all of us should be concerned about. India has the right to test and the US has the right to withdraw supplies. I don’t see what is so dastardly about this. I still cant understand (other than simple politics) why the BJP is opposing this deal. It was during their regime that Indo-US relations started to improve. 

 

I really do not believe that India should be concerned by a leaked letter. What is legal between India and the US i the 123 agreement. What happens inside US should not affect India and vice versa. In both countries the deal will be presented in a way which is politically right. There has been a lot of noise made over the nuclear deal by various sections the whole nuclear deal has been blow out of proportion. Majority of the noises about the nuclear deal is very vague. Without a proper understanding of the text, using certain words and phrases certain sections are tiring to make this into a larger issue. The text of the deal is public, stop worrying about some letter which is being circulated in some other country. If you look at it in a purely innocent way, Manmohan Singh is for the deal, APJ Abdul Kalam is for the deal. I would trust these people over Prakash Karat and Yashwant Sinha any day. 

Another reason why there should be no more "left" in India

After the trust vote as the left kind of went into political hibernation, I was getting used to not hearing outrageous/ridiculous statements(from the left). Unfortunately that was to last till today morning. In an interview to a Malayalam news channel, the Industries minister of Kerala was saying that if the industrialist had a realistic approach, no one will encounter any losses as a result of the hartals that prevail in Kerala. They should take into account the possible no of hartals that might occur every year and set targets accordingly. He even enlightened the viewers with an example of KSRTC's profit making mantra:|:|.

It is because of such ridiculous thinking, I feel that for the sake of the nation, the left should never have any say in politics. The left wont do anything for the development of the state and they wont let others do anything either. For the sake of a few the fundamental rights of the majority are violated. Hartals should represent the unity among people not fear. The most ridiculous part of a hartal is that it never produces any outcome. The reason for that is the people who call them have a different agenda. They do not want to find a solution but what they want is popularity. If a hartal is aimed at solving a problem, then instead of working on the fear of people the organizers would try and get the support of the masses. What we see today is disrespectful to the law and the people of the land. The only outcome of a hartal today is the disruption of normal life and loss of millions of rupees.

Most of the communist leaders in kerala are uneducated, unintelligent and more or less useless. Most of them are thugs. Instead of trying to bring peace and normalcy to the state they are trying to ensure that a state whose financial situation is one of the worst in the country becomes even worse. Hartals may or many not be right but for the minister of industries to give such an idiotic solution/explanation is unacceptable. I am not completely against the communist ideology as such, but with the kind of misguided leaders that the left has, who have no clue about what communism is and the party as a whole banking on power and fear to get more supporters it just a matter of time before my sweetest dream come true, THE END OF THE LEFT IN INDIA.