electoral system

the first past the post electoral system needs a serious re-thinking... people with less than 30% of the vote are becoming MPs and pass laws that dont have a majority backing.. this leads to law breaches and endless debates....

Reasons for the faults

1) People not voting

we cannot entrely blame the people for low turn outs.. in many a case people who went out to vote found their names missing.. kamal hassan was missing from voter list ridiculous... in delhi many cent govt babus found their names missing... what a pity.... also there should be a provision to allow absentee ballots applicable for even common citizens.. people may not necesarily register to vote in the place they stay .. they may prefer to vote in their home cities just because of the fact that they might have moved into the new place pretty recently.. the voter list should be carefuly revised and ensured that all appropriate names are included. With the technological advances we should also ensure online registration and verification...( Govt enabled and not thru some NGOs as was the case this time)

2) Voting Pattern

why do we need first past the post? why cant we use a proportional system..

this would ensure that to win a person needs atleast some percentage of votes..

we could also try for a primary and a run off system to eliminate people..

we should declare eceltions void if we have less that 55% voter turnout....

lets push for it.....

Secular

when BJP lost we are so happy to say that Secularism won.. is that a reality? We have thus far failed to define what secular means and give it conextual meanings.. One cannot digest the fact that demanding a uniform civil code is not secular... if BJP is really communal it could have said make manusmiriti the code ( Sharia is a code in many islamic countries).. The fact is we still want to appease muslims... Muslims are very much part of this country and we need not go out of the way to please them. Our media is happy to say that the muslims have voted in a block to congress.. thats all fine. when some one asks the same to hindus its regarded communal and fundamental...In kerala and tamil nadu, parties named muslim league and Muslim munnetra kazhagam become part of a secular formation.. I am sorry we need to change this outlook...

Prophecy Comes true

Just 2 yrs before, before oz won the 2k7 wc , i made a prophecy that a day will come when oz will be screwed badly and knocked outta world tournament in the first round... i dint know that it would happen in 2k9 T20 WC... Gayle n Sanga ensured that they did just that to OZ... go ponting rub your face in some mud :) yeow.. the oz are out Ireland is thru to round 2.........
someone please do the same to them in 2k11 WC ... May eng screw themin the ashes due in a month's time... let everyone crush OZ... Amen...

OZ crushed yet again

Gayle is for sure the most exciting cricketer of our times... lovely... his innings made sure that oz idiots bit the dust again...!!! pray lanka defat oz on monday and kick em outta t20 wc....

how foolish

i cant fathom why the INC did not decide on the speaker post along with the ministry.. they make meira kumar a minister, then ask her to resign and then make her a speaker... media as usual is gaga abt it first woman n dalit speaker... well they express this dalit word so much that it creates a sort of awkward situation.. they harped so much abt the first dalit prez kr narayanan so much that a french newspaper published his profile as untouchable something like that... then everyone got offended... but Mr narayanan said that the fault was that of the Indian media which just highlighted his caste credentials so much that his other genuine qualifications ( he was a career diplomat) got shadowed...hope they dont create such situation for Meira.. guys we all know that now in India anybody can reach any post :-)... no need to harp....as a matter of fact Meira is also an ex IFS officer....lets see what more the INC has got...now they will have a reshuffle once in 8-9 months as usual... at times its just too boring .....but as and when the assemble elections keep happening we are bound to see more and more drama...

Heir apparent

So the race to succession on tam land has been decided… it all started with a survey that claimed 2-3 lives… now settled… the general from south tam land is in delhi and the Chennai man is in chef de mission in the state… DYNASTIC POLITICS!!!!!!!

Ij it.. what abt Nehru clan ( they r in opposition party too.. crap), Abdullah clan , badal clan, chavan clan deora clan, karunakaran clan, nandamuri clan, chautala clan, hooda clan, scindias, pilots, patnaik clan wowwie the list is never ending… the only people whose sons n dughters are not in politics are lalu, paswasn n Nitish…. ( well they’ll come soon I guess).
So it’s a proven fact .. you got to have some connection high up else your likelihood to succeed in indian politics is very less…
But one thing is for sure .. quite unlike the Nehru or some other clan. Karuna’s sons have had to try and test themselves out.. at least the younger one stalin has been in politics quite long.. his stint in politics is roughly my age … but these guys are all the same…

But still the fiefdoms are rotated in a democratic way.. we have ensured that we give turns to these dynasties… hardly theres one state in India without a political family…Sikkim may be? Arunachal ?

Luckily mayawati n jaya are kumaris.. jaya also has disowned her ex foster son whose wedding bash was bigger than the mittal wedding at versailles.
Whats the solution to all these.. one thing is regardless of dynasties, we should put a cap on the terms of a chief minister and a PM… max 3. Then lets see atlest we will get to see new faces atleast once in 15 yrs J .. that’s if a man or woman becomes a CM or PM at say 50 ( he/she might have an offspiring at roughly 20-25).. by the time of his/her term expiry, the child wud still be 35-40 ish but will have competition from others.. the dynasty transition might not be this blatant…and even that happens, it will not go on for generation after generation……its high time we took interest in politics of our nation..

Cicuit break - Record break

approx 20% rise in just abt 5minutes trading.. 10% in 30 secs and 10% aftera break.
wow ahs something changed in India so drastic??? whos manipulated such a rise... good thattrading was halted.. else these guys wud have bloated sensex to 20K and then let it go for a free fall....good that we have a stable govt.. doesnt mean that things change overnight .. let them have a yr or two to turn around the economy... lets not be impatient... Jai Hind

Pray this is not False

Velupillai Pirapaharan ( thats how they spell it back in so called eezham).... Is dead... Lovely.... This is probably the first time I am rejoicing for a death and praying that the news be true...this man back in 2002 said that Rajiv's death was a tragic incident... his death has not been comic at all.... साला कुत्ते की मौत मारा गया ...Let peace become a reality in SL.. let tamils n sinhalas live in peace... now that Rajpaksa & brothers have had their objective, let them relax the oppression on media... reconcile with all citizens... failing which he might well match the fate of other similar people.....

vishesh tippnis

Now that congress has won we hear a lot of vishesh tippnis some interesting ones ive heard are
1) New Age sycophancy - the so called royal of gwalior scnidia says Rahul shud be PM ( boss MMS was projected as PM b4.. whats the fun inthis now.. we anyways know that RG is PM in waiting and u will get a cabinet birth.. same as ur dad who was a side kick of Rajiv)
2) Sycophancy of the Old age - Prithviraj Chavan says Rahul can claim the PMs chair wheneverhe wants..... PM MMS says he would like Rahul to be a min .. RG says if PM likes he wud be amin ( he bhagwan... is this a price for a stable govt?)
3) Rahul's so callec coming of age- he won in UP ( 20 seats boss, if it was coming ofage it shud have been 30 or 40) .. alsohis decision was to go alone in Bihar and UP.. in biharthey managed only 2... so lets take this vicory with pinch of salt....
4) Victory of secula forces - Lets see how they work and how many more sops to minorit they offer... there is no dearth of festivals and elections in India lets waitand watch how congress manages its show and the BJP reoups...
5) The MNS factor - last time BJP-SS was unlucky tohave lost mumbai, this time they have themselves to blame... political pundits thoughtRaj Thackeray was a joker but he setoutto achieve whathe planned.. he never wantd any MP seat .. he just spolt the party of BJP-SS.. treat him with respect in assembly election guys... he will be a factor worth considering...
6) On Meera Sanyal - B4 elections ppl were really jittery abt the south mumbai corporate candiate Meera, as tey thought she cud spoil the chances of INCs Milnd... but afterhe won , Shekar something Gupta of Indian xpress said that the 6000 odd votes got by Meerawas from her cocktail party members... As if Milind never had cocktail parties......these hypocrites... self proclaimed righteous fellas.... Meera had every right to stand in elections and had she won considerable votes, these guys wud have been silent or rather praising her...

7) Loss of criminals - Is it?? how can the media be so naive... as per them only in UP and Bihar do crimanals contest and if all of them lose, its a great sign... there are many criminals who have won, they are not clean just because they have not been chargesheeted or vindicated or whatever... its not a court where u say ure innocent until proved guilty.... Tam land itself has so many criminals who are MPs now..... cmon...

MMS cabinet part 2

So how should the cabnt look like a wild guess

MMS - PM (some other useless ministires)
Rahul Baba - Deputy PM?? ( can hold any other portfolio as well)
Pranab Dadu - Fin Min
P C ( If hs victory conroversy is not blown up) - Home Min
Sashi Tharoor - Foreign Min
Kamal Nath - Environment or commerce
Murli Deora - Petroleum
Mulayam ( Assuming he pitches hs 22 odd seats t cover the 10 needed) - Defence
La Loo shud this guy be given a ministry at all? Kick him off i say
Farooq - Some minstry
Pawar - Agri
Mamata - Suitable for Railways
Ok enough guesses on portfolios
Praful - Aviaion again to ruin the NACIL
Some guess on who else will me mins
Some 6-8 odd MPs from Andhra ( man they gave UPA and cong a big boost)
some 5-6 from UP ( cong won 20+ alone)
some 3-4 from Rajasthan
the clan - MK Azhagiri , Dayanidhi & Kanimozhi from tamland
sibbal and one more from delhi....
Soren will get another term...

then who else....

Elections

Finally elections are over and seems congress has kind of managed to win... but theywould still be short abput 30 seats and mayawati or mulayam may have to pitch in.. coconut headed lalu is decimated... CPM demolished in WB & Kerala.. COng has sprung a surise mainly due to goos howing in Rajasthan, MP , Punjab, kind of better in UP .. In TN though they've lost AMMA hasn't lived up to her billing.. lets see in assembly 2k11 ... BJD sweeps in orissa shows Navin has carried forward the Patnaik clan to new heights.... whats wrong wth BJP, good in Guj, Kar, Bihar with JDU, its nowhere in Delhi...it still has got another 5 years to rebuild and rebound...
Lets hope this time also congress manages to run 5 years in power.......... In the end we managed to pull it off amidst security threats etc etc...

Fasting fasting

he he the SL issue took a nice turn with the TN CM and his so called indefinite fast... well , having had breakfast, he sat on a fast and by lunch time he was back :).. no offence intended but everyones does this fast :-)fortunately for him, the Lankan government had announced something, which is definitely not a ceasefire...not sure what else we'll get to see as the poll scene unfolds further..

Back to Lankan Crisis

Lanka this time around is creating so much flutter that its not gonna die down soon.. Many people have attempted self immolation in tam land..( emotionally charged eh) .. many saying that SL Army is committing a genocide and that they should stop the fight... well i am pained to see that no one n TAMLAND is empathising with scores of kasmiris wo have been affected by the J&K issue with such a fervour evenhough the nationalty is same... here its just the language that takes precendence.. if you they say that hey show empathy beyond boundaries, do they empathise so much for afghanis who are sufferring for decades or do they empathise with people n darfur ( many in tamland will ask "is darfur a sweet dish?").. Well hell no... these people are just creating political noise based on language and some students and hopeless people have joined in the agitation...If these guys have an iota of genuine iterest in tamil welfare that they show off, did they try anything to stop the real genocide thats happening in tamland??? I'm referring to the scores of rameshwaram fishermen shot down by lankan navy while they were verymuch fishing in Indian waters..... Did the CM who calls himelf tahimzh ina thalaivar ( Head of tamil race) ever protest against this? DId mr Vaiko who claims he will carry weapons to aid LTTE ever raise a voice against this?.. Wake up tamil men... this is a farce....i do agree that people insri lanka suffer but if we try to intervene beyond a certain limit, pakistan might do the same in kashmir citing the same reasons.. here we say language , there they'll use relegion....just realise what we have been upto...

PS: Many of my tamil acquaintences have pointed out that iam heartless toward fellow tamils and my caste is a prime reason for that... To ye all mortals... me being a so and so has nothing to do with my stand on such issues... I see myself as an Indian and first and foremost I tend to see things from an Indian perspective ... I will emptahise as much with Kashmiris , north eastern fellow citizens as i do with fellow tamils in India.. as far as e SL Crisis is concerned.. it pains e but so do the crises in Afghanistan and many other places...

IPL2 - Damp Squib

Really with so much rain it has been a damp squib.
Also no match is interesting.. only one match betn CSK and DD has gone down the wire till the 19th over of 2nd innings...........
The only interesting aspect of IPL2 has been the fakeiplplayer blog. The author is a good writer and keeps his posts interesting.. Many may find the language and nick names obscene.. But whateverhe does say seems to have atleast some bit of truth.... My fav nick names are Appam Chu***a and vinnie d**do .... lets see what happens to this guy...
As faras my last post goes i got another first hand experience about my own rotten luck..... though i dont wish to say the incident....

naseeb

One of my colleagues and I were discussing the effects of naseeb or fate or luck... our conclsion was neither of us had a good outing with fateand both of our naseebs were "pandu" a mumbaiyya slang for a flop show..... Though i said th, i did not realise how true it was unil i went to Mumbai last week.... The offices in mumbai were so nice and one of them was stunning.. wish i worked in such a place... the place where i work is nothing short of a garbage dumping ground :-).... anyways you will have to take these things with a pinch of salt...

IPL Out

Finally after too many meetings and press bites, IPL is out of India....
Sensible decision by the unioin home ministry... Why to stretch our central forces, without hwom this cannot happen... the central forces will anyways have a tough time during elections with the personnel having theirleaves cancelled for a prolonged period... add to this the IPL festival, we risk at stressing them to break point levels.. IPL is an instrument whereby very few people earn hell a lotof money and we should not allow central security to be wasted even though they pay for it.. Increase the security bill 10 tims, and check whether BCCI is sill willing... in the end common sense has prevailed and whatever might be theventual reason, its better that IPL is out of the way.....

hey raam

Well, something bizzare always happens in India so one is never short of surprises...
But the latest surprise or shock was to see Kiran Bedi endorsing a beauty cream!!!! hey raam
when the debates are on bashing beauty cream adverts and calls to ban them ... we see the iron lady endorsing one...eesh.. cmon India's first lady IPS, magasaysay award winner, a lady who demosntarted her pride by quitting when her seniority was overlooked for Delhi Commssioner's job now endorses beauty creams... that too she uses slogans that point to her flawless reputation as a police officer to sell a cream????Hey raam

Slashin Sachin

Sachin these days seems to be playin to set some of his records straight. Last yr he made is first ever odi century in oz land, in the process enabling india to capture the last ever CB tri series ... today he has made a grand first century in NZ land... nz land especially auckland established slashin sachin as the opener, butit was at SL on vinayak chaturti 1994 that he made a century....43 now in 15 is awesome.... so sachin, the next one i expect is hangon until the next tour to enger land and score a test hundred at lords.... i wanna see ur name on that borad at lords.....

Weekend movie

In college days, my good friend Thilak Obla had a fantasy( dream, vision, aim what ever). He wanted to watch 4 shows of different movies back to back in different theatres. I first heard this during the 7th Semester exams ( late 2002) at the canteen. At first, I thought it was madness, but later I took a liking to it and wanted to do something similar but in a multiplex so that travel hassle is reduced. I was never ready to try 4 movies in a day. Two back to back sounded okish but again 2 bollywood or kollywood movies back to back was difficult due to
a) selecting watch-worthy movies back to back and arranging tickets
b) How good the movie may be but standing 12-13 songs in 4 hours is a bit tiresome..
My first trial at two back to back movies was during 2005 on my birthday. Both were English movies, each of about 90 minutes long. Not a big deal.

After 4 years, he experiment was on again but this time an English movie of 120 minutes and a hindi on of around 150 minutes..

The english one was about a plot to kill Hitler that failed and the aftermath of it. Though it dos not sound as exciting as the movies on the holocaust, this one (Valkyrie) was a very neat one. Well planned script and narration, good acting and above all, a plot that makes one sit for 2 hours without moving. Theres not much to go gaga about, still its worth a watch.

Now on to the second one; The much hyped Delhi-6. Swades in anew bottle. The directey rakesh mehra seems to have joined a gang of other film makers who just preach. The portrayal of delhi is clichéd and some the theme for some sequeneces are no different than the ones seen in many other movies… The movie is way too long and boring.
This is one of the movies towing the neo-secular line. Some common aspecs of Indian tradition is mocked at and so called superstitions are questioned. The minority angle is also thrown in. There is nothing new or interesting in the movie. Had it been shorter, it would have been at least a good entertainer. Whatever the makers have tried to do, they have not come out clear and have failed… But many may still like the movie ..

The thamizh feeling

Ideally, i should have posted this one in thamizh but considering the fact that it takes way too much of my time, i chose the queen's english.......
All of a sudden, the sinhala- thamizh problem in SL has come to haunt Indian thamizhs... somebody commits suicide by burning himself, some one fasts until death, some rougues aka lawyers create a ruckus and get a nice thrashing frm police and cry foul, some morons jam the roads, a CM threatens the use of force and threatens criminal proceedings to stop some rhetoric, an external affairs minister is involved .. wow thats a big list.....
Well well well.. i really dont care much about what happens in SL... It is really unfortunate that an ethnic problem has ruined many generations of peace...but shud i cry just because the victims speak the same language as i do? nay i have seen the same thing hapen in the very country i live and no one cares a damn...they just go on as normal... Afghanistan is still eing ravaged by petty war mongering does anyone care either? .. almost 40% of the world's population is in the same plight.. so lets not talk about all these... coming back to he SL question... The brits have a knack of leaving things they started in a disaray... be it India Pak partition animosity or the other issues elsewhere... Ceylon when the brtis left was a fairly peaceful land... the protestant Dons were prominent in politics be it stephen senanayake or hs cousin dudley... no issues,... enter the convert SWRD ( yep they are part of his name) Bandaranayake.... B'nayaka was a protestant but converted budhist .. he tried to drive sinhalese as a prominent language etc... which was not taken well by tamils.. he tred to moderate but was shot in cold blood... hence started the issue.. things were okish until about the late 70s and 80s when LTTE started gainig prominence and a full blwn war started....refugees went from Jaffna to India, and all over the world.. the war was on and off and LTTE became internationally noticed when they mastered the assassination of Rajiv, the Gandhifamily Scion and for sure the PM of India had he survived....Lankan Tamils from all over the world kept funding LTTE. and no one cared until about 2002, when Norway thought something should be done abt it.. btw why did norway give a hoot? bcos as norwegian s thought that the SL refugees were too much for them now... so Eric Solheim became the peace negotiator , Pirabakaran ( thats how they spell it) and Anton Flashed all over world's TV and in answerto Srinivasan Jain's (NDTV Guy) question on Rajiv's murder, they replied that it was a "TRAGIC INCIDENT" ... and ask for pardon from India.. what crap??? Luckily the NDA govt said that it will not be a party in the peace process and whatever the outcome be Pirabaharan is still a wanted crimial in India and LTTE is still a banned org until things changed.... now during the peace time, which saw an economic boom, the LTTE had no dearth of funds and built an airforce.. things changed again and in the full blown war that ensued, LTTE has lost...
suddenly after 2 decades, poiliticos in main tam land have something to shout at...
External Affairs minister as said that the tams in srilanka are a trotured gang, the gov pounds them and so do the LTTE.. hes right.. but his remark drew protests from some MPs.. cant beleive some MPs of Lok Sabha have the guts to supprt the terrorists instead of their own minister... and thats how India is... many members of the film fraternity also have jumped in for LTTE.. guys wake up... LTTE orchestrated the murder of any alternate tamil opinion against pirabakaran.. they shot padmanaha of EPLF at Chennai ... they killed kadiramar and many Tamil MPs from SL... they are using civilians as their shield from army.. still you have the naivity of supporting them.. One long tme MP vaiko has the audacity to say that he will carry arms for them... now he should be banned from politics... freedom of expression cant be taken for granted...one simple logic is , if u support LTTE as martyrs then whats wrong with some ppl in Pak supporting LeT or Jaish or what not? they can give the same reasons as you.. but do you really bother abt that...nay.. cos Kashmiris dont spk tamil do they?.. any form ofterrorism should be condemed and LTTE isno better that LeT cos LTTE's act of building up force when peace was declared is heniuos.....
All tamil students who tow the line of politicos are wating their time.. guys do something worthwhile....
Some lawyers pelted eggson Dr Swamy( a long time anti-LTTE man in India).. Dr Swamy may be a polictical misfit but he is an eminent lawyer of the supreme court and an academic par excellence. you as awyers should have respected him.. for he is one of your seniors... Nay.. we just wanna show our "tamil ness".. Acts like these are not going to help any tamil person and beware, everyone is watching your antics...
the government of India's stance of non interference n SL affairs is a very good one.. we gain credeibility as a nation fighting against terror.. Thanks Pranab and all others... True Tamils are behind your decision...