Two phases of bihar polls over and most people predict a second term for Nitish Kumar...
Some facts that i found interesting...
The quitest assembly elections it seems media have not covered the usual stuff like "in the campaign trail wit so n so" etc..
Lalu has run out of steam and all his so called charm is not to be seen
The brother in laws have deserted him
Rabri is contesting from two seats as there is a real chance that she might lose from the one tome bastion Raghopur
Polling percentage over 50 pc inspite of naxal boycott plan... Alas Metro citizens will talk a lot but only 36 pc vote...
Only thing that still stands put is the 4 phase month long festival.... I think we can conduct the same in 15 days as well...
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Raktha charitra.....
We have a habit in India... All so called educated people will give Bihar as example for something bad....criminals in politics,bihar;bad transport, bihar; violence, bihar; etc etc... But many people hardly realise that there are far worse places than bihar. But we dont quote them because those places are in so called developed states...let me quote some examples...the state election commissioner of TN remarked during one of the by-elections in a Madurai constituency that conducting elections in bihar is easy than conducting one in Madurai due to the level of irregularities and violence....but Chennai overshadows whatever that happens elsewhere in the state..
Similar is the story of Andhra... Cyberabad aka Hyderabad overshadows the violent power struggle that happen in the once naxal dominated hinterland of Rayalaseema.... Andhra is often referred to as Vishala Andhra and has three sectors, telengana that comprises of the erstwhile nizam territory, Rayalaseema and coastal andhra... Rayalaseema is said to be a Reddy landlord dominated area. Most people rarely know that the violence that region has seen is far greater than what the media reports show as happening in bihar UP...
RGV has come with a gory story from the rayalaseema land... Before saying that tjis movie is too violent let us make a note that the director has attempted to show a two decade story in 2 hours and all the dedcade long violence has to be compressed:-)
the movie tells the meteroic rise and the eventual fall of Paritala Ravindra, a naxalite turned politician. The story is straigjt from the masala potboilers of yesteryear Tamil and Telugu films that south indians are used too.. A lower rung mass leaderr is murdered by all mighty political rivals. The eldest son seeks revenge and is killed too, then rises the younger son who avenges the deaths of father and brother, then goes on to become the saviour for many, eventually teaming up with a matinee icon turned political boss and reaching the upper echelons of power.... The movie has portrayed the rise in part one and the eventual death would be portrayed in the yet to be released se ond version...
Part 1 is excellent in terms of narration... The lead actors vovek oberoi who portrays paritala ravi, shatrugan sinha who portrays NTR garu and the main villain Abhimanyu Singh have thrown in stellar performances... The only dampener is that a whole bunch of decent actors have been reduced to nondescript cameo roles....the background score though loud adds a lot of power to the storyline... One of the main features is the dialogue... There are very few of them and all of them are very powerful... The movie shows the real democracy as it happens....
The movie showcases the hyper emotions that are common place in south india and at times rare to see in the north....
I would say that the movie would look even better in Telugu..... Overall one of the best from RGV.... 4 stars out of 5 from me....
Similar is the story of Andhra... Cyberabad aka Hyderabad overshadows the violent power struggle that happen in the once naxal dominated hinterland of Rayalaseema.... Andhra is often referred to as Vishala Andhra and has three sectors, telengana that comprises of the erstwhile nizam territory, Rayalaseema and coastal andhra... Rayalaseema is said to be a Reddy landlord dominated area. Most people rarely know that the violence that region has seen is far greater than what the media reports show as happening in bihar UP...
RGV has come with a gory story from the rayalaseema land... Before saying that tjis movie is too violent let us make a note that the director has attempted to show a two decade story in 2 hours and all the dedcade long violence has to be compressed:-)
the movie tells the meteroic rise and the eventual fall of Paritala Ravindra, a naxalite turned politician. The story is straigjt from the masala potboilers of yesteryear Tamil and Telugu films that south indians are used too.. A lower rung mass leaderr is murdered by all mighty political rivals. The eldest son seeks revenge and is killed too, then rises the younger son who avenges the deaths of father and brother, then goes on to become the saviour for many, eventually teaming up with a matinee icon turned political boss and reaching the upper echelons of power.... The movie has portrayed the rise in part one and the eventual death would be portrayed in the yet to be released se ond version...
Part 1 is excellent in terms of narration... The lead actors vovek oberoi who portrays paritala ravi, shatrugan sinha who portrays NTR garu and the main villain Abhimanyu Singh have thrown in stellar performances... The only dampener is that a whole bunch of decent actors have been reduced to nondescript cameo roles....the background score though loud adds a lot of power to the storyline... One of the main features is the dialogue... There are very few of them and all of them are very powerful... The movie shows the real democracy as it happens....
The movie showcases the hyper emotions that are common place in south india and at times rare to see in the north....
I would say that the movie would look even better in Telugu..... Overall one of the best from RGV.... 4 stars out of 5 from me....
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Party Leadership
In my last post, I just said that we should focus on improving ourselves and not succumb to :"Learn from X" syndrome...
Well I am actually trying to think on how can we do it by just observing others and not try to copy.
In the meantime, i was following the UK Labour Party Leadership election in which Ed Miliband pipped his much known sibling David..
Well David was UK secretary of State under Gordon Brown and a protege of Tony Blair.. He is the same man who went on poverty tourism with Rahul baba and had his foot in mouth when he offered an unsolicited advice on kashmir, which had drawn flak from all quarters and Brown had to refute it as the minister's personal opinion..
Well the election to party leadership in UK is an interesting one.. while the tories elect from MPs and the party members, Labour have an extended electoral college comprising of even trade unions as well..
As with other elections, every candidate is expected to set out policies and win votes... Seems interesting ...
In the UK the leader of the party is the leader of the government/opposition as well..
In the US of A, both the parties are run by National committees, the DNC and RNC respectively for the democrats and republicans...
The chairperson of the committee is the party head... and that person is responsible for the party alone... The government / opposition is run by senators/representatives and the head of the government is the president. The nomination for president is a separate race at the time of elections.. i would say that this is a bit complicated.. Well what else can you expect from US..
COming back to India, well talking about the two major parties.. lets take BJP first.. The BJP is a mixture of both US and UK as per my view.. The party president is elected for a fixed term of 3 years and the term is considered religiously.. Much like US the party president is responsible for party only and the government / opposition head is elected by the parliamentary party..
Much like labour party, the root organization (RSS) has a say in the party leadership.. I feel that this is a good system.. If only the BJP could win more hearts to form a government... The party seems more disciplined than any other in the country...
Another party which follows a set system is the commie group.. both CPI and CPM have politburos and religiously( or rather atheistically ;) ) elect general secretaries and so on...
Congress was a disciplined organization with a party leadership different from government before madam G.. but after madam G, the party leadership is the same as government or usually a puppet heads the party dancing to the tune of the dynasty... Off late the leadership has turned powerful after 2004.. and the government dances to the tune of the party now.. But there is no leadership contest .. only one person is nominated and elected unanimously without even alternate opinion.. well how democratic is that? People can predict who the next party president is going to be.. hmm
Same is the case with most regional parties... all being run as fiefdoms..
I dont want us to emulate anyone but atleast have some system in place and make the leadership selection more visible...
Well I am actually trying to think on how can we do it by just observing others and not try to copy.
In the meantime, i was following the UK Labour Party Leadership election in which Ed Miliband pipped his much known sibling David..
Well David was UK secretary of State under Gordon Brown and a protege of Tony Blair.. He is the same man who went on poverty tourism with Rahul baba and had his foot in mouth when he offered an unsolicited advice on kashmir, which had drawn flak from all quarters and Brown had to refute it as the minister's personal opinion..
Well the election to party leadership in UK is an interesting one.. while the tories elect from MPs and the party members, Labour have an extended electoral college comprising of even trade unions as well..
As with other elections, every candidate is expected to set out policies and win votes... Seems interesting ...
In the UK the leader of the party is the leader of the government/opposition as well..
In the US of A, both the parties are run by National committees, the DNC and RNC respectively for the democrats and republicans...
The chairperson of the committee is the party head... and that person is responsible for the party alone... The government / opposition is run by senators/representatives and the head of the government is the president. The nomination for president is a separate race at the time of elections.. i would say that this is a bit complicated.. Well what else can you expect from US..
COming back to India, well talking about the two major parties.. lets take BJP first.. The BJP is a mixture of both US and UK as per my view.. The party president is elected for a fixed term of 3 years and the term is considered religiously.. Much like US the party president is responsible for party only and the government / opposition head is elected by the parliamentary party..
Much like labour party, the root organization (RSS) has a say in the party leadership.. I feel that this is a good system.. If only the BJP could win more hearts to form a government... The party seems more disciplined than any other in the country...
Another party which follows a set system is the commie group.. both CPI and CPM have politburos and religiously( or rather atheistically ;) ) elect general secretaries and so on...
Congress was a disciplined organization with a party leadership different from government before madam G.. but after madam G, the party leadership is the same as government or usually a puppet heads the party dancing to the tune of the dynasty... Off late the leadership has turned powerful after 2004.. and the government dances to the tune of the party now.. But there is no leadership contest .. only one person is nominated and elected unanimously without even alternate opinion.. well how democratic is that? People can predict who the next party president is going to be.. hmm
Same is the case with most regional parties... all being run as fiefdoms..
I dont want us to emulate anyone but atleast have some system in place and make the leadership selection more visible...
Saturday, September 25, 2010
China China
I think we are badly obsessed with emulating China in whatever we do.
In Military, in industry, in conducting events so on and so forth...
But lets really give a thought for a second... Is china really that great and worth emulating? I have no doubt that China has grown tremendously and is a major power an hats off to her for the achievement. But that doesnt make me a fan of china..
Some of her policies make me nauseatic. The brutality in which lands were cleared and people oppressed to stage 2008 Beijing olympics is well known.. There were reports of how child gymnasts were trained under inhuman conditions to win medals. There were even reports of some malpractcies in other events as well.. Lets answer one question .. Does not conducting an olympics mean that a country is not great?
We tried to copy china by conducting CWG, planning for an Asiad bid and so on..
Though the intent was right in conducting an event, was it necessary to allot Rs 70K Crores?Did we at all think that the same money could be used elsewhere?
Did we monitor the progress throughout? Our media just kept mum for almost 4 years and suddenly started raking up the issue just 3 months prior the games.. Now after a whole lot of fuss suddenly everyone seems happy. Thats because everyone wants to make India happy just because they want Indian money.. What did we achieve as a country in trying to emulate china here? Loads of bad publicity and hell a lot of money that could have been channeled elsewhere..
Another of China's policies that I am not a fan of is the one child norm and the brutality in implementing that. Though one can argue about the stress that a huge population puts on a nation's resources, one cannot go on controlling births with a stick in a hand.. Lets not assume a statistical trend of growth, we should also think about the declining fertility rates before implementing a program like this.
Thank God we are not yet trying to follow China in this...
Another of China's biggest problems is that She's trying to be a US in this part of the globe or who knows she might want to see itself as the next US.. Hence all that plans to build bases in Lanka , trying to intimidate India, the main perceived rival... Lets not again emulate china in this aspect. In the pretext of trying to strengthen ourselves, lets not increase our defence budgets further...
Our biggest flaw as a nation is that we always ant to learn from others. Be its US, CHina or whoever. Why not we focus on things and make them better in our own way rather that "Learn From X" phenomenon?
I want India to be better but lets focus on the basics like agriculture, proper food distribution.. lets try to bridge the economic gap before we proclaim ourselves a superpower and show off our ability in many non essential things..
Jai Hind....
In Military, in industry, in conducting events so on and so forth...
But lets really give a thought for a second... Is china really that great and worth emulating? I have no doubt that China has grown tremendously and is a major power an hats off to her for the achievement. But that doesnt make me a fan of china..
Some of her policies make me nauseatic. The brutality in which lands were cleared and people oppressed to stage 2008 Beijing olympics is well known.. There were reports of how child gymnasts were trained under inhuman conditions to win medals. There were even reports of some malpractcies in other events as well.. Lets answer one question .. Does not conducting an olympics mean that a country is not great?
We tried to copy china by conducting CWG, planning for an Asiad bid and so on..
Though the intent was right in conducting an event, was it necessary to allot Rs 70K Crores?Did we at all think that the same money could be used elsewhere?
Did we monitor the progress throughout? Our media just kept mum for almost 4 years and suddenly started raking up the issue just 3 months prior the games.. Now after a whole lot of fuss suddenly everyone seems happy. Thats because everyone wants to make India happy just because they want Indian money.. What did we achieve as a country in trying to emulate china here? Loads of bad publicity and hell a lot of money that could have been channeled elsewhere..
Another of China's policies that I am not a fan of is the one child norm and the brutality in implementing that. Though one can argue about the stress that a huge population puts on a nation's resources, one cannot go on controlling births with a stick in a hand.. Lets not assume a statistical trend of growth, we should also think about the declining fertility rates before implementing a program like this.
Thank God we are not yet trying to follow China in this...
Another of China's biggest problems is that She's trying to be a US in this part of the globe or who knows she might want to see itself as the next US.. Hence all that plans to build bases in Lanka , trying to intimidate India, the main perceived rival... Lets not again emulate china in this aspect. In the pretext of trying to strengthen ourselves, lets not increase our defence budgets further...
Our biggest flaw as a nation is that we always ant to learn from others. Be its US, CHina or whoever. Why not we focus on things and make them better in our own way rather that "Learn From X" phenomenon?
I want India to be better but lets focus on the basics like agriculture, proper food distribution.. lets try to bridge the economic gap before we proclaim ourselves a superpower and show off our ability in many non essential things..
Jai Hind....
Friday, May 07, 2010
Latest on nivas
Finally the man had made it to the civil slervices, hes 45 on the all india merit list.... Way to go man.....
Saturday, April 17, 2010
Hey Ram – Part 2
I was never a fan or an ardent critic of Rahul Gandhi. Till about a few hours ago I didn't really know much details about his education and so on. I happened to see his wikipedia page and browse some other links in the net just out of curiosity.
There has been a deluge of links, blogs videos which make claims and counter claims about his qualifications, original citizenship details etc. It is not obviously possible to discuss everything here. But yes, it is disturbing trend that more the number of hits to a video, the sooner it disappears with the website citing usage violation. Ignoring everything that his being said regarding credentials,I just could not help laughing at a certain video(The Video). Naah the video isn’t about someone making a ridiculous claim about him. The video has the congress general secretary speaking on the geographical size of Gujarat and then India. He says Gujarat is bigger than UK. Well we can excuse him for that faux pas as it might have just come in the moment. The next thing is just off the roof… He says India is bigger than the US and Europe put together.. Now this is the best that one can come up with. It would have been easier to accept had it come from some son of some politician. But from the Gandhi scion !!!!! That too he has been educated in the UK @Cambridge and seems has worked in Michael Porter’s firm. Such a gaffe from him… hey raam our PM in waiting is worse than George Bush…
Saturday, April 10, 2010
Secular or Appeasing?
Well, I have always had a doubt when the media, some so called intellectuals, social workers all cry secularism and denounce fundamentalism… I have had a feeling that most of the times only the hindu right wingers are being targeted for being fundamentalist. In our country, we somehow ignore certain things if its done by certain people… I have a few instances to point out as to what I am coming at.
1) Instance No 1 IPS Officer testifies against Advani; Modi’s appearance at SIT
All the media was gung ho about the IPS officer testifying against Advani. What did she say? Did she say that she heard Advani ordered the demolition. NO she just said he was in an upbeat mood etc etc.
So She becomes a heroine and we now need to prove secular credentials…. Eh… some say the darkest day of India is Dec 6 1992.. Oh is it really…
For the starters, the worst riot that India has ever seen was at Delhi in 1984 which was supposedly orchestrated by some congressmen to avenge the death of Indira… well what the hell did all sikhs do to face such a wrath?.. And Rajiv’s comments on that riot, far from sympathizing actually hurt even more… The quote attributed to him is “When a giant tree falls, the earth below shakes”… Is this attitude any different from what Anju has testified about Advani?
Well I dont think so… then why are we behind just BJP & Advani folks?
Same goes with with social worker teesta setalvad.. who just believes that 2002 Gujrat was the first ever riot in this country and that Modi is equivalent to Hitler… Well go get a life lady. He has done fairly well in the last 8 years and the state has been not only peaceful but developing.. If you can ignore Rajiv’s comments and ignore the perpetrators of 1984 why go after modi alone… If he is guilty let the law punish him.. why a media trial?
And the parliament attacker Afzal Guru gets support from some human rights groups ... he is still not hanged... then why do u want a speedy justice for dec 6 and 2002 gujrat only
2) Recent drama in TN regarding a sleaze video of a Swami
Well here in the case of godmen we again apply different rules…
A channel close to the ruling party in TN showed the video on prime time and denounced the fake godmen, superstitions etc etc …
I have a question for them. If showing the truth was their only intention, it could have been done in a decent way.Couldn’t it?
And there is a case of a paedophile catholic priest which the Tamil media has ignored altogether? why this oversight? Didn’t you guys find this news worth reporting at a large scale?
3) The phone nikah controversy involving shoaib malik
Well in this case, a leading newspaper in India has published an article that seem to say phone nikahs are not valid and so on and so forth (http://www.thehindu.com/2010/04/07/stories/2010040766082200.htm)
BBC on the other hand has done a thorough research and has come up with a more concrete article (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/low/south_asia/8608878.stm)
Why are we so much defensive when it comes to a so called minority community and why are so so aggressive about taking on hindu fundamentalism? Why are we sol guilty about hinduism?
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