The "modi"fication of Indian politics - which way ?

One is the former chief minister of the Southermost state of India. The other the same of the northern most state. Both "former" NDA allies ... and both unusual in their own respects ..

Unusual ? yeah read about Farooq Abdullah - and his family - Among other interesting stuff, he himself is married to a lady of British origin, his Muslim son has married a Sikh girl and one each of his daughters married to a Muslim, an African based black Christian and a Hindu ( son of Rajesh pilot who got ( or was ?) killed in a road accident ) .... Well, not even the Nehru family can beat that "diversity" I guess

and read about the "Amma" of politics - remember the initial period of the 13-month Vajpayee government or the tea-party with MMS ( Madam Maino Sonia ) or the Kanchi Acharya incident ? what defines her more than anything else, when it comes to National politics, is unpredictability ..

At yet, these two were recently in news, in connection with none other that Narendra Modi.... Jayalalitha with a "45- course Pongal lunch" and Farooq for being in the firing line for having praised Modi's victory .. Indeed the media was quick to call both the moves as an attempt to revamp old alliances, and indeed as yet another sign that Modi is planning on entering the National political scene sooner that later.

May be they are right, but to me the more pertinent question is, how far is this going to help the BJP ? True both these parties ( AIADMK and NC ) belong to states where BJP does not have strong allies, and simply cannot hope to win any seat if went alone.. Also true that in 3 big states - MP , Rajasthan ( both due to anti-incumbancy against present state govts) and UP , BJP may not stand to get too many seats, making the "alliance" states all the more important for NDA

But amongst its core voters, would it damage the BJP pre-poll ? allying with some one in the south accused of so many corruption cases, and with some one in the North who was a former JKLF activist ( sure, one can give them some benefit of doubt that they have impoved , but still ....) ! And also, how much of a "headache" they will be post-poll, assuming NDA does win ( which in my opinion is still a 50-50 ) .....

So many assumptions - that the BJP will ally with these, ... that the NDA will win in 2009... and let me add the third assumption , that Modi will indeed enter into National politics.... in such a case perhaps the answer to these questions, the answer to where India would be heading in the next decade, lies in whether the allies will modify the "CM" or the "CM" will "modi"fy them ....
Time alone can tell

India Today, yesterday and tomorrow

As a small child, around my first-second standards I guess, I used to eagerly watch out for the Amarchitrakatha-Mahabharata .... I would know exactly the day it would come out, and as my Father or Mother gets back from work ( I used to get back first from school and wait for them) would be looking into their hands from a distance, if they were indeed carrying the precious possession that I am looking for .....

By the time I was in 5th or 6th and of course by highschool, I could ask for money and buy whatever I wanted .. and by then, what I would look for is "India Today" ! I believe the magazine started becoming popular when they started the regional editions including Malayalam .. and inspite of being an voracious newspaper reader, I would look fwd to the biweekly ( if I remember correctly, at that time biweekly and later it became weekly) magazine

So what was it that may have caught my attention so much ? First may be the magazine had a much more National perspective than any other print media available in Malayalam at that time ( and no, up until my highschool I hardly read English newspapers or not even many childrens books, comics etc) . Secondly, the magazine always had a very "graphic" oriented reporting style... Their pictures, their maps, charts,....... had a quick impression. And finally the reporting style ... it always had an undercurrent of excitement ( I am not calling it sensationalism as I did not feel it was the "cheap" variety ) .. and unlike many media even at that time, I believe not have that much of an anti-right bias

During my undergrad at IIT Chennai, the hostel commonroom would get the English edition, along with many other newspapers and magazines including its rival - The Outlook ( I felt that it was more or less a Congress party mouthpiece from the very first issue that I ever saw ). Somwhere along the line, especially after it was made weekly, and thinner ( but with may be the same amount of ads) , I felt it was perhaps slipping in its quality, but continued to be my favourite among weekly magazines. The Mallu-Christian-Manorama-Congress run "The Week" , the commie run "Frontline" , "Outlook" , where the other major ones thand at I used to browse through

Once in US, I started looking for the online editions, and to my dismay all but India Today were free. Initially I could get around, as I tried some random 4 digit code, and it worked !! I could read India Today online, but not for too long... and slowly, reluctantly, I started reading Outlook more often, or sometimes even frontline !

Looks like the long wait is finally over :-) ... http://indiatoday.digitaltoday.in/ ( I donno from when on it is online, but I saw this only recently) . Now,I am not quite sure in the past 3-4 years how their political bias has changed, if any. Except for "Daily Pioneer" all English Language Media ( E L M) can more or less be classified as pro-left / pro- Congress .... ( see my post on Modi, below) but I am guessing ( or is it just a hope) , atleast not so much "India Today" .. A friend of mine used to say "Smart journalism is if you can write about some one whom you like, in such a way that on the surface it appears a citicism, but is actually a either a positive criticism or even a positive aspect given a negative spin" ... and a BJP supporter that he was, used to say that he used to actually get thrilled reading some of the magazines "criticism" of the party !!

really ? Something like saying "The biggest problem with the show was that it was overbooked and people could not get tickets " ?

Well, may be you can look at the issue before the Gujarat election (dec 17, 2007) on Modi, and decide for yourself http://indiatoday.digitaltoday.in/index.php?latn=1&issueid=31&page=archieve

For now, I am just happy catching up with an old friend of mine :-)

The myth of a "pro-India" Benazir

I do feel sad at the way she was assassinated, however, for all those who continue to believe that Benazir Bhutto was a "friend of India", watch 02:00 to 04:00 minutes of this video ( "The world remained silent" )

At best, she was a friend of Rajiv Gandhi ( well, "at best", I mean for Pakistan)

Really speaking, politically, are there any friends of India at all in Pakistan ? its just a matter of degree in how much they hate India and want Her destroyed .. the so called moderates are also simply terrorists, who have been just a little bit less ruthless than many others .....

"Lesser amongst the evils" is not an option.... we have learned it ( or have we) the hard way ...

Neighbours envy, Owners pride !

It was 11 pm US eastern time. I was checking online the Gujarat election result lead trends... As expected, my friend, a 20 or so years old Ameican born girl of Gujarati origin was online too.. She was the one who posted the article written by B P Singhal in many a group on orkut, including an "anti-modi" group, much to the surprise of her psec-indian counterparts, who repeatedly asked in the group, something like " Are you really an American born girl ? Are you really only 20 years old ?" After seeing a clear margin for BJP, in addition to multiple smileys on the gmail chat box, she send a little note - "Both me and my younger brother are glued to the computer"


That in many ways summed up to me the "how"of Modi's victory.. It is to me, once more a victory of Gujaratis (and I would even dare to say Gujarati women) and victory of youth in addition to vistory for develoment and able leadership and needless to say defeat of insincerity and lies.

So why did I say Gujarati women ? ... For, I many times felt the "ordinary Gujarati lady" - young or old- have been more vocal about their support for BJP that even the men folk ! The other day, I was watching a panel discussion on CNN IBN, and Mallika Sarabhai in her usual nonsense talk, blabbered " This is about a man who defies Indian constituition blah blah... Gujarat has become very unsafe under his rule" When it came to the turn of the audience, a young woman in her twenties countered "I totally disagree. Look at Delhi, look at any other city in India, parents will be concerned if you are out of home after 7 pm. But look at Ahmedabad.. even 10 pm is fine. I feel more safe than ever before". Shall I say more ?

So, what all contributed to the victory ? Oh well, I am not a political analyst, atleast not of the type that I will be talking about soon, but still, I have to point out atleast two factors, that were interesting. One , Congress playing into Modis genius trap. Modi started off on the development plank... Well, the Congress thought, he doesn't want to talk about Hindutva, may be he is scared, so lets rake up the old issue, our pet issue which we have been mouthing like parrots for 6 years now - and there, that gave Modi the clear opening.. "I want to talk develpment... If the Congress doesn't want to take me on that, that shows the BJP upperhand on the issue of development. They forced me to talk about hindutva.. so be it" . Even the most anti-modi fellow can't deny that a poll based on hindutva will anyway help the BJP !

And two, indeed the "help" from ELM - english language media. Oh my God, rajdeep congress-desai, Shekhar Power Theft Gupta, .... and "political analysts" . My favorite of course was "Achyut Yagnik" .... such an idiot, I wonder why the media, especially rediff ( read "Sheela Bhatt") gives him such importance. In 2002, days before the election he wrote -" i don't see any hindutva wave" and we know what happened. In 2007 he said " In 2002 there was a wave. In 2007 there is no such. So there are chances that Modi will lose". Joker - I shall call you Achyut duality Yagnik.. buddy even Physicists are in a better position when it comes to wave-nowave of electrons

The dirty tricks of the ELM - including quoting the fake rascal and criminal who claims to be Puri Shankaracharya with a big heading "Puri shankaracharya wants Modi removed" - has backfired once more... Oh by the way, when was the last time you can remember the "opinion polls" and "exit polls" from these experts were anywhere close ?I remember, as a 10 or 11 year old, when my family first owned a TV, I used to watch Prannoy Roy on Doordarshan , and I still remember him predicting a number, which turned out to be almost exactly the number that the BJP coalition won -- that was the late 80s.... from that what a fall ? The media now is either catering to its editors political agenda, or dancing to the tunes of some body who sponsors them, or simply has lost its mind and don't know what to say. Quite likely the third, as most of the opinion polls predicted something like 90-105 for BJP and 80-95 for Congress, so that even if by chance Congress wins, they can always come back and claim " see we told you there is a chance congress may cross the may 91" ... JOKERS

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As a Malayalee, having seen the devil and deep sea alternately ruin such a beautiful state, I have to admit.... I envy Gujaratis, I envy Modi. I have seen most youth complain about their state's government - and rightly so many times. But a majority of my Gujarati friends, seem so proud of their government. They put youtube videos showcasing Gujarats rapid development on their orkut..... I am sure, some of them, if not most, also hope that what Sardar Patel was denied will be made up by Modi - if not immediately, some day, may be after Advani !

quote of the day

"In your country the system may be corrupt. But in mine there is no system itself"

-Overheard a Pakistani gentleman telling his Indian counter part while both are waiting for a masala dosa in an Indian restaurant nearby

forty percent

counting the number of US states that I have been to ...

NY, NJ, PA, WV, DE, MD,DC, VA, NC, SC, GA, FL,TX,CA,AZ, NV, OH, MI, IN, IL

thats 20 isn't it ? Chetak has been to 11 (with me, donno b4 that )

mayookham

It was accidental, that I hit upon this 2005 Malayalam movie on youtube . ( Link to the first part : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmtaa7yrXw4 and the other parts follow) .

I must say it was a great experience after a long time. And as this reviewer has pointed out it reminded me too of the golden era of Malayalam cinema - the mid and late 80s.. My school days, and the films of those era are etched in my mind, as representative of the good malayalam movies.

And its a classic Hariharan ( in this case not just directed, but written also) , my other favourites of his being Nakhakshatangal ( 1986) and Amrutamgamaya (1987) . In some ways the movie has resemblances to some other Hariharan themes, including the fact that he tried new actor (Saiju Kurup) and actress ( Mamtha Mohandas) , much like he tried a totally new Vineeth and Monisha in Nakhakshatangal - and they have delivered superbly ! Interestingly somehow the actress ( Mamtha ) reminded me on Nadia Moithu in "Nokkethadoorathu kannum nattu", in her looks and the theme

Anyway,watching a good malayalam movie -not withstanding the fact that it many times has an underlying tragic theme - is like having had a nice feast, the malayalam sadhya !

Of birthdays and.....

This week marks two birthdays - if you are wondering who the second one is, thats Chetak.. Oh well, I really don't know when exactly he was "born" but then I do remember that he was "mine" on (or very close to) Nov 4, 2003 ...

At that time, I had thought- oh well I hope he survives for 3 more years... and its been 4 ! apart from some initial hiccups, its been pretty good service also so far... kind of 35-36 mpg on hiways, and once even it hit a 39.8 or something !

It had 87600 miles when I got .. and now its 135100 almost... 4 years 47500 miles.. thats quite close to an average of 1000 miles a month ! and the gladdest part is that I can quite positively assume that atleast 50% of that time, there must have been some one else instead of me in there - as a ride. yeah, off late, that part has reduced... thats when you realize that you have moved on in life, atleast in age !

Anyways, my 2003 birthday self-gift has come of use, so also I think my 2005 self-gift ( the 125$ digicam) .. how would be my 2007 gift in the long run ? ha ha ha what is that ? :-)

So, in advance, happy birthday my best friend and constant companion for the last 4 years !!

youtube and narendra modi

Its cold outside and inside- the former temperature wise and the latter my healthwise, and so this Sunday I have restricted myself withinin the apartment -- with some books , cellphone, the laptop and of course medicines :-)

and so somehow ended up watching some speeches of Narendra Modi online . I must admit, he is an amazing orator in Hindi . In fact , I was curious to know how many youtube videos turn up while I searched for the names of some bigwigs of Indian politics ... and here are the results (as of today)

Manmohan Singh - 88
Narendra Modi - 87
Sonia Gandhi - 27
Atal Vajpayee - 7
L K Advani - 2 (and both are in relation to Modi)

I did not spend time to check each and every one of those to try to see how much relevant they indeed are, but I think this atleast gives a trend - half of Modi's videos might be by the "opponents" but I still get the feeling that this man is born to make a mark....one of those like him or not, can't ignore him chracters - well, time shall tell

stages of life - what do u lose ?

An attempt at some lighter stuff

Dining out with some other family.... at various stages in a guys life

Stage1- student and bachelor

* Likely that your bill will be paid for by them...

* And likely that all the remaining food be sent with u

* :-)

Stage 2 - still bachelor, but no more a student

* Hopefully will get the "packed food" for take home, but bill.. u have to share

* :- o

Stage 3 - no more a bachelor also

* :-(

in mourning

Due to the death ( at an early age) of my uncle, this blog will not be active at least for the next 10 days

NYT ad against Madam Maino Sonia

This was the ad given in New York Times by the forum to save Mahatma Gandhi's heritage

Quite interesting points.... as for thr KBG connection, oh well, of course its a tough bet to guess which agency she is working for, but I am personally convinced that she is one of the most successful sleuths in history.. ( see my previous post on http://drisyadrisya.blogspot.com/2007/04/imagination-or.html ) ... and so succesful that not even 10% of Indians would believe such an accusation, and she seems to have so succesfully either suppressed most proof, or have taken on her side all those who actually knows something or about it

I am still curious to know how Indira-Gandhi, known for her reasonably good promotion of Indian Intelligence, never thought it a danger to admit an Italian bahu into her family and there by so close to the wealth of National secrets ! Or was she handtwisted by the KGB into accepting her ?!

So what is RAW and IB doing ? lol ... quoting from a recent article by Swapan Das Gupta

Apart from reiterating the worst-kept state secret -- that RAW is ineffective and corrupt...

the IB has, in recent decades, squandered away its glorious inheritance and become too much of a private agency for the ruling party.....

As things stand, the IB has been contaminated and RAW is beyond redemption.

and by the way, did u notice -

that the priority of RAW is the self-advancement of its cadre, not national security. There are more RAW operatives posted in North America than in Pakistan.

IAF Platinum Jubilee

Links:

http://www.bharat-rakshak.com/IAF/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Air_Force
http://indianairforce.nic.in/

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Nabha Sparsham Deeptam - Touch the Sky with Glory