Result 2009

i think the MNS action happened when biharis started flexing their political muscle by performing chat pooja. bombay has had bangali durga pujas, gujju garba for ages..but this was different. it was done to organise the bhayya vote. only then the MNS and shivsena were able to get active (not very successfully). then laloo got special trains bringing recruits form bhyyaland to maharashtra for filling gangmen jobs. this was blatant misuse of power which noone from kendriya sarkar challanged. so sanjay nirupam who is a bhayya left shivsena (or was thrown out?) and now is a newly elected MP from bhayya rich bombay north-west beating BJP ex tel-mantri Ram Naik.

numbers do matter.

Harish, Harish, Harish,

But today, when the US is reeling under the impact of recession, Obama threatens to withdraw subsidies to countries outsourcing their work to countries like India

a) Let him actually do it. Even he he does, he'll harm the US in the long run.

b) Indians are not his countrymen. Technically he can screw with us as much as he wants.

Yaar Shoaib, the fact of the matter is that despite all talk of free trade, most countries, including its greatest proponent the US, practice blatant double standards. When India was trying to protect its fledgling industries by not opening up its market, Americans were quick to accuse it of being protectionist. But today, when the US is reeling under the impact of recession, Obama threatens to withdraw subsidies to countries outsourcing their work to countries like India. So you see, free trade is not so free after all.

Yaar Shoaib, the fact of the matter is that despite all talk of free trade, most countries, including its greatest proponent the US, practice blatant double standards. When India was trying to protect its fledgling industries by not opening up its market, Americans were quick to accuse it of being protectionist. But today, when the US is reeling under the impact of recession, Obama threatens to withdraw subsidies to countries outsourcing their work to countries like India. So you see, free trade is not so free after all.

Yaar Shoaib, the fact of the matter is that despite all talk of free trade, most countries, including its greatest proponent the US, practice blatant double standards. When India was trying to protect its fledgling industries by not opening up its market, Americans were quick to accuse it of being protectionist. But today, when the US is reeling under the impact of recession, Obama threatens to withdraw subsidies to countries outsourcing their work to countries like India. So you see, free trade is not so free after all.

sh...
not all biharis...
this is not matter of economy...more of HR and labour management policy....

Even today, most of the non-officer grade recruitments are supposed to be local recruitments in Govt. departments...that was the norm for long time....

NKG,

the people of the state (or state govt.) do not like external workers, then honor it....

I think the people of the state should honour it by being ready to pay higher wages to their co-regionalists. Let's have an economic boycott, shall we? All the Biharis/Bengalis (E&W) would then go back automatically.

Can't have your cake and eat it too, now can you?

Re: # 30
Majumder...
Obama is able to threaten, as US based corporates take loan from US banks with cheap rate, but invests that in elsewhere, specialy in APJ region....If the corporates don't look for unnecessary sops, Obama's threat will carry no meaning, as it is against WTO norm (unlimited migration of skilled manpower)....

Re: # 28
sh...
Allowing uncontrolled migration is not sensibility.
Strength of indian federal structure is by providing enough autonomy to each state. If the people of the state (or state govt.) do not like external workers, then honor it....
Bihari and Waste Bengalee/BD migrants are greatest nuicense everywhere in India...

Nkg moshai,

Agreed that USA and EU do not permit unrestricted immigration but they allow internal migration freely, dont they.

That's what Indians shud do as well. Allow free migration internally but strictly monitor/restrict immigration from outside the country.

Regards

Shoaib bhai,

#26

Of course. That's why Nobama's attempts to restrict outsourcing shud be fought tooth and nail by us as well as US corporates.

Regards

NKG,

entire europe and usa do not facilitate recruitment of blue color workers from countries,outside EU( for europe) and north americas (for USA)...

And I don't give a shit about blue-collar workers coming from outside India. But when you have agreed to constitute a Union let's all behave a bit sensibly shall we?

Re: # 24
entire europe and usa do not facilitate recruitment of blue color workers from countries,outside EU( for europe) and north americas (for USA)...

Majumdarda,

I guess it isn't all that bad that Bihar, UP and Waste Bengal are basket cases

Just as it's not bad that an Indian would be ecstatic with a salary that would be sneered at by a bum in the US and we have grads doing the work that a 5th grade pass-out wouldn’t touch there.

Economic inequalities are a fact. Restricting free trade only exacerbates it.

Re: # 20
Majumder...
Mumbai is a state capital, where the state language is given second priority over Hindi/Urdoo...That is one of the reason, BMC and other Govt. installations recruit more of Biharis/UP wallas than marathis...
I know pretty well, north maharashtra is not devoid of tribal poor people, who can be provided job in Mumbai...but the city culture is groomed in such a way that, even a maharashtrian wants to get a job in Mumbai, have to learn Hindi/Urdoo....This is big issue...

NKG,

in most of the countries, movement of unskilled/semi skilled labour is restricted

And those countires are?

Anyways, the fact remains that it's a two way exchange as all free-trade is, and it benefits everybody. Let's not get all commie, shall we?

Re: # 21
sh....
in most of the countries, movement of unskilled/semi skilled labour is restricted...only gulf countries recruit all type of human resource....

Stuka...
You are right....couple of such MNS and anti bong will enforce the people to kick out their govt., if they fail to perform....I think Mamata Bannerjee made this as one of the election issues....( why West Bengal will be supplier of unskilled/semi skilled labour...)..

Stuka,

Nitish Kumar is asking for special state status for Bihar something which has till now been extended to North East states, HP and JK only mainly to compensate them for geographical hardship. I wonder what wud Nitish babu's ground for that be- that Biharis have thru poor leadership run themselves to the ground.

Shoaib bhai,

I wonder what the rates would be for jhadu-pochha if the bhaiyas were stopped from entering Bombay?

Good point. I guess it isn't all that bad that Bihar, UP and Waste Bengal are basket cases. The richer states wud need an inexhaustible source of cheap, unskilled labour after all.

Regards

Stuka,

Now you know who Golam Azam is..khair

Yes…The poor chap has had a hard time in his home country and so has his party, in recent times.

India needs to put internal movement restrictions in place like China

What’s the use of having a Union then? Let’s dissolve it. Apart from in the integrity of India and all that senti stuff, everybody, not only the weaker states benefit, sir. Free trade helps everyone, as you must know.

I wonder what the rates would be for jhadu-pochha if the bhaiyas were stopped from entering Bombay? And Bangalore’s IT industry would all but collapse if only Kannadigas were allowed to work there.

Daniyal Pai: Now you know who Golam Azam is..khair, I am a proponent of Bhayyas getting a beating in Mumbai. I think we will see an extension of that for the Bangalis as well. India needs to put internal movement restrictions in place like China. Right now you have some states do well in givernance and other states hold the country back.

trina in sanskrit and bangali is grass

Three cheers for India and Manmohan!!!

ext-a-see,

Yes, the mool is okay but trina maane grass?

I did not know that.

The only bong word for grass i know is ghash. Of course, my bong kinda sucks, as u must know by now. :P

@shoaib

Trina-grass; mool-roots. :)

Jang,

yar this trinamool name cracks me up..i mean a literal translation of grassroot?

Trinamool means grassroot? Seriously? How?

jang,

couldn't agree with you more. the name and the insignia both could have been better.

But i guess miss Banerjee targets the masses as the major chunk of her voters, and having such a mundane name, probably reaches out to them better- and as an afterthought, no one cares for a name, its only what your constituency leader is doing in that small sphere that wins votes.

Good job in conducting peaceful elections in India. And even better - the middle-of-the-road party wins!

yar this trinamool name cracks me up..i mean a literal translation of grassroot? could not she come up with something original bangali thingy? the name is a shame for land of tagore.

congrats to our fellow indians, you are heading in the right direction. good luck !!

The biggest winner(s) in the Indian Elections are

(a) The Election Commission of India: huge task, well done, well managed, and the counting of votes absolutely amazing
(b) The Grace of the electorate: peaceful, even the PM was in queue for casting his vote
(c) The grace of the Parties in accepting the verdict of the polls, and the graciousness towards each other


It is for these reasons you have to admire Indian Politics - the politicians are venal lot, maybe corrupt as anyone else around the world and worse, but some basic rules are played out.

Full marks to Sonia Gandhi. She took care of the politics while leaving ManMohan to concentrate on the job of running the country. As a result we had a working government

Ghulam Azam (Bengali: গোলাম আযম) (born 7 November 1922), is a Bangladeshi political leader. The former Ameer of Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh, he opposed the independence of Bangladesh upon its liberation on December 16 1971, and was a permanent resident of England until 1978, and was forced to maintain Pakistani citizenship until 1994 due to the decision by the Bangladeshi government at the time to refuse him citizenship. In 1994, the Supreme Court upheld the decision to restore his citizenship of Bangladesh as a matter of birth-right.[1] He was leader of Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh until 2000.[2]

Thanks wiki. He's one of those people that Hasina would like to see punished as a traitor to the Bengali nation.

Stuka,

Who is Golam Azam?

Kedar,

Yup, the BJP is needed because the Congress, when it gets too much power, can cause more harm than most to the country. Unfortunately, the BJP will have to go for a full-on overhaul for it to positively check the Cong.

Ext-a-see,

Thanks and can't agree with you more on Mamatadi.

BJP is a spent force in the short term. Advani Uncle, the 81 year old should have taken sanyas along with Vajpayee. Khair, it will be a mistake to project Modi. Arun Jaitley is a better person as PM candidate.

Thanks for the article. WRT Bengal, you are right. But you have to remember, the Bengali makes the Bihari look smart. The only time the Bengali would not vote for the worst political partty in the Indian Union would be when a worse party comes along. Not to worry, Mamta Bannerjee will lose when enough Bangladeshis have citizenship and they will vote for Golam Azam.

It was a quite a shock for BJP and they have a bit of reconciliation ahead. I would like to see BJP as a formidable opponent, if not the future governing party itself. As someone said earlier, BJP failed to uphold it's election promises of uniform civil code and article 370 last time and on the economic front it's not that different than congress. I hope that they reinvent themselves as a modern and pragmatic party and induce young blood by, either retiring the old cadre or engaging educated, middle class youth.

Shoaib,

good piece of writing! Political articles have a dangerous tendency to get boring after two paragraphs, but this one is definitely not one among them.

Personally, being from Bengal, I don't quite know what to make out this result..I am glad at the decline of the left front, as it had become a huge stalemate in every sense of the word, but, having said so, Mamata Banerjee isn't exactly a sane person, let alone an astute politician. Till now her and her party's only agenda was opposing the Left Front, and so they have done with success, but now what? saying no to everything is easier than taking the next step, I guess. Furthermore, take away Mamata, and what does the Trinamool congress have left? How does one envision a one-woman government, that too as hot-headed and stubborn like her?


overall, I am really happy that the Indian public didn't choose BJP, which would only have resulted in a more polarised India.