"Indians Deserve Their Politicians"

Atanu Dey quotes this Financial Times article, and sums up that the Indian people deserve the Congress. An auto walla told me something similar yesterday evening. I was taking an auto rickshaw from Secretariat to Domalguda, hardly 1.5 km distance. Most auto wallas either do not come, or demand Rs 20-30 (way above the usual minimum fare of Rs 12).

This man was an exception, he smiled, and even politely enquired me about the elections. I told him about Loksatta the new party, and how it could win a few seats in Hyderabad. He nodded saying, "Well there are few educated people who will vote for them, especially in the Jubilee Hills constituency". When I suggested most other politicians are crooks, this young man (all of twenty years) concurred but added, "It is the Indian public that is to blame, we vote for them after taking money, we accept their biryani feasts and liquor packets and vote for them. We deserve their rule as we break the rules of civic engagement. We are the bigger thieves!". "Why, the other auto wallas demand Rs 20 for the same ride, isn't that too thievery?", he asked.

I came home feeling good about meeting one man with clarity of thought. He aptly summarised, what took an IIM professor a full book.

Voting in the Indian Elections 2009

Much has been written about the Indian Elections 2009 and turns out that the voting turnout in 2009 has been higher than the previous ones in 2004. More significantly the urban, educated class which has hitherto been apathetic has turned out in significant numbers to vote. I had written about this before the elections started and the hunch turned out to be true. What caused this change?

• New generation parties like Loksatta have emerged on the political scene - these seek to mirror the aspirations of the first time voters seeking change, and have enhanced the voter turnout.
  
• Movements such as Letsvote.in have added to this momentum, the turnout at the Hyderabad walk was large and showed the enthu among the IT crowd.
  
• Not to mention Jaagore which caused quite a stir in mobilising voter registrations. I was impressed with their CRM like approach to voter databases; however THE missing part was ensuring voters confirmed their names in the electoral rolls - this alone could have saved a few lakh votes, given the scale of their campaign targeting One Billion Votes.

After the election day, I checked with my friends on their voting experience - many confirmed that they indeed voted and proudly showed their index fingers embossed with the indelible voter ink (apparently in Maharashtra they smeared the middle finger, leading to a comic sight with voters showing it up). However a fairly large number also reported that their names were missing from the electoral rolls. All these cases could have been avoided if only the prospective voters had leveraged one of the many web resources available:

• http://www.pollingbooth.in/ - check your name in the rolls 3-4 weeks before the election data, if it is missing, immediately raise a request to the election office in your jurisdiction. In my case, I found my name but failed to notice the change in the polling booth; so on the election day, had to rush to the new booth i was assigned, some 4 kms away from my home.
• http://www.ceo.ap.gov.in/ - same as above, or the local equivalent
  
• http://www.ceoandhra.nic.in/Final_erolls_2009_II.html - same as above
• http://myneta.info/ - a wonderful tool comparing the profiles of the candidates in your constituency. This link showed me the picture for Secunderabad before i voted.

Hopefully the next election (which one fears, may not be too far away with the expected hung mandates) will see these trends intensify and the lessons learnt implemented. Technology would then have really helped influence change in the polity!

Potential Post Election Scenarios

The election fever is surely on in India and people are hotly debating potential scenarios after what could very well be the most closely fought election so far. No one's got a clue of who will win at the country level, or in states like Andhra Pradesh. The pendulum could swing any way making the results highly unpredictable. 

My hunch though is that the BJP may just be able to pull ahead as the single largest party in Parliament. The reason is that the Congress may cede ground in AP, Karnataka, Tamilnadu, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Delhi (though they just won the state elections) and Maharashtra. Orissa and WB may not make up for the loss. A BJP government in an era of failing and strife torn neighbor states (Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka) is slightly better than having Congress steer foreign policy.

Elections 2009 - Technology & Youth Make It a Turning Point In India's History

The election scene for 2009 is slowly unfolding and though i was unusually aloof in the beginning, the excitement is catching up and i now find myself scanning news and even volunteering for a new political party. A significant development this time has been that people instead of shrugging their shoulders at the dirty political landscape, are actually wanting to do something. Baby steps abound, examples include:

• Leveraging the Net to share information on criminal backgrounds of politicians (http://www.nocriminals.org/)
• Professionals like Meera Sanyal (a banker in South Mumbai) contesting the elections
• Professionals across cities launching the Pledge to Vote campaign (http://letsvote.in), the Hyderabad event just happened today morning near the Hussain Sagar lake with thousands participating
• The Jaagore campaign titled One Billion Votes India, which has been running for several months now and supported by leaders like NRN of Infosys
• Eminent entrepreneurs like Rajesh Jain forming support groups such as Friends of BJP (that can also act as pressure groups) with leading political parties. 
• Hectic usage of Orkut for canvassing which is perhaps the Social Network with the largest penetration in India.

But the most impressive of all developments is the launch of Lok Satta Party as a political movement. Launched by a former IAS office, Jayaprakhas Narayan this is the only party with clear cut plans on removing poverty rapidly in 5 years, building infrastructure etc. Obviously they are not promising dole outs that make beggars out of voters. Loksatta has picked up momentum with several professionals joining them and supporting them as volunteers. You can check their web site and Twitter site to know more about what they are doing.

Other events that have fanned these embers include Obama's election in the US last year, demonstrating that nothing is impossible in politics. The 26/11 attacks in Mumbai too have stirred people into taking some action. 

These steps will only pick up momentum and I clearly see a strong working alternative emerge that will capture 8 to 10% of the popular vote next time around. Our politicians, smart as they are will soon start to appeal to this voter base which will mean a true change in politics. The virtual circle will progress leading to a more mature polity in 10-15 years from now.

Mumbai Attacks: A Diehard Optimist's View

Much has been broadcast, blogged, twittered about the dastardly acts in Mumbai. And much has this been depressing, i am trying to see the silver lining in the dark clouds that hand over us. Heroism: by the army, NSG in particular and the valiant Tatas and their dignified staff in the Taj who demonstrated professionalism of the highest order. There is more than a faint hope that Indian political establishment will wake up. If not a deeply concerned Obama who is focusing on the Afghan-Pakistan situation will surely help. These attacks are surely a spill over.

The terrorists (AlQaeda, LeT, JeM etc) are deeply concerned that their cup of hate will get empty if India and Pakistan continue to get friendly (leading to a potential Kashmir solution). They are scared by the elections this month which have had a big turn out in Kashmir. If things get normal on Kashmir, who will get recruited? And if the benefits of India's growing economy get to all its people, then who is left to get alienated? Hence the carnage. 

Interested neighbours that seek strategic depth in India for their own reasons have fueled such carnage (read China, Saudi Arabia). Pakistan was assertive in fanning fires before but has hollowed out now as its Frankenstein monsters are now fully unleashed. Most big attacks in India have always been in the backdrop of an improving peace situation. We now have to hope that our venal and geriatric politicians do not play into the terrorists' hands by fanning violence or blaming the Pakistani people. Though the perpetrators originated in Pakistan, the situation is delicate in Pakistan which itself has violence on a daily basis.

Hopefully smarter people in Indian establishment will emerge to handle this. No wonder Home Minister Shivraj Patil is seen nowhere! Absolutely nowhere! Instead we have the old Pranab Mukherjee addressing the press, mouthing nonsense. We need to create a department of Homeland Security. Station more commandos in all major cities. Young people like us have to get into politics and get rid of this geriatric muck that rules our country - not a single leader under 50!

Interesting Times.. and somewhat empty roads!

The times are surely interesting since I last posted on this blog! The government is close to running a very tight trust motion in Parliament two days from now. The ostensible reason is the nuclear deal with US which has kind of 'polarized' the Commies in India onto one side. Other smaller parties are busy trying to fish in troubled waters. My intuition and hope is that the governments gets the nuclear deal through. After that even if it falls a few months later, no sweat!

Oil has sky rocketed leading to numerous consequences for various people and governments, and the above is surely one of them. Nuclear energy even if it comes several years later, will reduce dependence on Middle East oil which will be good for us. Meanwhile there are supply cuts leading to queues at the fuel stations, and to somewhat empty roads. Not an entirely bad prospect for the traffic weary Hyderabadi!

India: 60 yrs old or 16 yrs young?

India celebrates its sixtieth year of Independence today. While the first few decades were kind if sleepy, India really took off post 1991 when the then Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao launched key reforms that liberated the economy. PVNR in that aspect held fort for give good years and did more good for India than any other Prime Minister before him.

For those whose youth has coincided with this phase, the experience of India is vastly different from their parents' who witnessed a youth of shortages, high unemployment and denial of basic goodies in life - telephones, cars, air conditioners etc all due to the government wanting to regulate supply. Governance and politics is still not very good but hopefully with the new generation knocking on the doors, things will change soon. Business Standard has a nice editorial today, aptly titled Chak De India.

I wistfully imagine what would have been possible if India had not undergone partition. A freedom struggle that was by and large non-violent thanks to Gandhi culminate in gruesome murders of five million Indians. A more assertive freedom struggle early on would have perhaps taken a far lesser toll of lives, and realised freedom faster. And in the process the manipulations of the British to divide India would not have succeeded. A United India could have emerged faster sans the Kashmir, Bangladesh turmoils. Enough has been said about the personalities and egos of Nehru and Jinnah, the chief players at the time of Partition and Independence.

Anyway the story of India's growth is now sixteen years young and holds as much promise as our last tryst with destiny in 1947. I will any day prefer this sweet sixteen to sixty!

India Gets A Slavish President

Indian legislators elected a lady as its President for the first time last week. While this should have been good news, the unfortunate reality is that this was perhaps the first President elect who had several cases of impropriety raised against her. And she replaces a man who set one of the highest standards of honesty and propriety in public life. What a contrast!

All because the ruling establishment wants a spineless character doing their bidding when election time comes two years from now. It feels really sad to see a great man leave Rashtrapati Bhavan.