Mama Mia! We just voted!

It is surprising how the International TV channels suddenly changed their tone the very next day.

They were suddenly talking about the farmers, or how only 15% of the population had benefitted from the recent growth, or how few hundred million still lived below the poverty line.

The BJP Government had indeed succesfully conveyed its message and had convinced most of the ordinary TV viewers like us about its achievements.

But Dost-Mitter and Farzana did once in while give us a peep into the other side of the story.

Re : nazarhayatkhan # 1

I think the TV channels still have it wrong. Its just a swing of 2% of votes that changed the results in India. The biggest blow was the loss in AP. As much as I hate the BJP I must say that they did great things for the Indian economy. The Indian per capita income has grown over 20% under BJP rule.


Regards,

Faruk

Re : Article

“Post Nehru, India has produced no statesman”

Do you seriously believe that …..


Faruk

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Rise of the illiterate,

At last the election has shown the dark side of india, the role of the illiterate, the role of the cow belt. The illiterate of india who have no idea of any objective reality have elected a party that believes in heriditory. The people who voted are the ones who beleive that the leadership qualities are heriditary, in this case they ahev gone to the extend that heriditory is not through the genes, it can even be transferred through marriage.

The pathetic illiterates and their leaders who cannot stake any claim for leadership, who have no leadership qualities have given to the widow of a once leader. This is the darkest day for india, return of the days when the UP and bihar decided the ruling party, the days when the leader came from allahabd.

This is the rise of the illiterate who supported indira gandhi who created dictaorshi because of a court ruling. No wonder pakistanis who celebrated mushys take over are overjoyed by the rise of sonia. It is the same mindset, where greatness has to be heriditory, like YLH claiming that his geesis can be traced to the prophet himself. Despite the education, like pakistanis, the ones who voted sonia to power, has to claim the hereditory reasons as the supreme.

BJP honoured the courts, respected the independance of the election commission and above all put to practice electronicn voting which many of the so called developed countries are still struggling with.

There is talk of sonia as PM and her son as the congress party president. There are times when one is ashamed to be an indian, and this is one of them. Rise of the illiterate. I do hopw that this govt collapses soon, and I hope the maexists from kerala will do that.

Can`t we have something less drab than this article??

I wouldnt worry about it nazarhayatkhan #1. Veereesh/arjun_m and farzy_gal/dost_dude are just two sides of the same coin. Flip them you get to see the same story or different stories. But the unerlying facts/themes are the same.

India is steaming ahead and this change is an attempt to get the people lagging behind up to steam.

As they say full steam ahead - congress/left, BJP/right are the two hands of the country and they are both needed to hear the GREAT CLAP OF THUNDER from India.

Breaking news:

Sonia refuses to be PM

This entire argument about Sonia being a foreigner is spurious.

If she holds an Indian passport and resides in India, she is Indian. Birth is an accident - nobody here chose to be born Indian. But once you have the ability to choose, you should be respected for having made that choice. When we start talking about her foreign origin, what we are saying at a very basic level is that all Indians are not equal. Some are more equal than others. How Orwellian can one get ?

Once we start making distinctions between natural Indians and naturalized Indians, we essentially are creating first class and second class categories. And that is a fundamental violation of the constitution which says that all Indians are equal regardless of religion, race, caste or creed.

If we have such a problem with foreigners and we are so insecure as a nation, we should never have given her Indian citizenship in the first place. Just grant her a permanent residence permit or something. But once she has acquired Indian citizenship, nobody has any business to go about this first class/second class Indian nonsense. How soon before you start saying that the guys from the north east are not eligible because of their asiatic race or the guys from the south are not truly Indian because they are darker and so on.

Sonia plays the other Gandhi?

Mahatma Gandhi could have chosen any post in independent India. He chose not to. Instead he preferred to remain a king maker.

Sonia’s decision to recommend Manmohan Singh and Pranab Mukherjee appears as a well thought out decision. By retaining full control of Congress she would be a king-maker, groom rahul and priyanka, and deflect any political difficulties and ward of criticism against her foreign-ness.

Smart choice or forced upon her by the stock market debacle?

temporal:
``Smart choice or forced upon her by the stock market debacle?``
If knowing one`s weaknesses means being smart, then Sonia Gandhi is indeed smart. I think that Sonia does not believe that she is qualified for the job of the PM. And she is probably right. A PM has to perform in the Lok Sabha. Her performance in the Lok Sabha as the Leader of the Opposition was pathetic. Imagine how she would have performed as the PM. Prepared texts do not work in that cruel theatre of the absurd. People like Vajpayee and Advani would have made a mince-meat of her during the question hour. Being a prime minister would have meant daily humiliation for Sonia.

But I have mixed feelings about anyone else being the PM. Anyone else would know that he is really there at the mercy of Sonia Gandhi and can be removed if he acted independently or tried to develop a power base of his own, instead of just keeping the gaddi warm for Rahul or Priyanka to be ready.

I am afraid that we may not end up with a Jamali in India?

Nazar ji . . . don`t write off the BJP in India that easily, please. Or the economic programmes, either.

Message, or image portrayed, in India, is not just what the political arm of Governance wishes to portray. To quite an extent, the message or image portrayed is closer to what ground realities are, it is just we who choose to see what we wish to see.

There are so many pillars of governance in India where nothing has changed.

And there is, believe me, an inevitable march upwards in India. Especially in the West and the South, but not restricted to it either.

dost:

baat tOO theek kehtay haiN...

laikin

did lal bahadur know;)... but even if true i suspect there would be many who would give anything to be a jamali there!

temporal:
``did lal bahadur know;)... ``
Very much so. He was a very successful and competent minister - Railways, Home (?) before he became the PM. He had performed quite well in the Parliament.
It`s not just a question of lack of communications skills; Sonia does not have sufficient overall grasp of the issues to be able to hold her own in a debate.

``but even if true i suspect there would be many who would give anything to be a jamali there!``

Do you really believe that we have different DNAs?

Sonia would have been fine if not from Gandhi dynasty and her lack of any experience in govt. All other arguments against her being not really an Indian are emotional knee jerks...

Manmohan would be a wise president...but not a strong one. He will be on mercy of Gandhi family or being a nice guy he is will be indebited to this karm of the big aaka. This will make very hard for him to perform as HIMSELF...he would be under pressures from 3 Gandhis and 60 leftists.:-)

One more point.....Manmohan`s PMship will do miracles in integrating the alientated sections of Sikhs. Respect and pride for Manmohan singh is universal amongst sikhs...I can`t imagine how Akalis would not give their vote of confidence in favour of Manmohan singh if he really needs it to keep his government going.

Jay,

Its not the cow belt which propelled congress to power. In UP and Bihar congress is placed 2nd and 3rd respectively, with very few seats. Check the numbers from AP, Delhi and other places.

Adios

Re : jay # 5
“At last the election has shown the dark side of india, the role of the illiterate, the role of the cow belt. The illiterate of india who have no idea of any objective reality have elected a party that believes in heriditory”

First of all the cow belt did not vote for the congress the south Indians did. Take a look
http://www.eci.gov.in/images/Maps/English/India.jpg

Other than that there is just a 2% swing in votes that changes the party in power. So I think trying to analyze the results is futile.

Faruk

DM
//...I am afraid that we may not end up with a Jamali in India? ...//

Well - not really. If Manmohan Singh becomes PM - he will be OK ( even though there will a leash of some sort around his neck) because he is already so well-known and well-respected politician. Unlike Jamali - Singh is a leader of his own standing.

But - only time will tell.

Lakshdweep has 39,003 voters. 15,597 voted for the winner, 15,526 voted for PM Sayeed.

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Looks like we may have all spoken too soon and that we may be having our first Sikh Prime Minister instead

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sadna,
you are right with the figures... i am sorry for the mistake

author

hi all,
i must admit that the context in which this article had been written has significantly changed...
sonia would no longer be the PM...the piece was a wee bit early...

author

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mohar11:
``Well - not really. If Manmohan Singh becomes PM - he will be OK ( even though there will a leash of some sort around his neck) because he is already so well-known and well-respected politician.``

Unfortunately, we have been through this exercise before. When Rajiv died, the Congress people wanted to make Sonia their leader. She chose instead a family faithful, Narsimha Rao, to be the PM. He was chosen over stronger candidates like Pawar and Arjun Singh because he was thought not to have any power base of his own, even in his native Andhra. And soon, there were manipulations with Rao trying to act independently and Sonia supporting people like Arjun Singh. This was the backdrop to the Hawala scandal. Rao and Sonia hardly spoke to each other until recently.
Back then, Sonia was merely a widow. Now, she has established herself as the party president as well as winning an election for the party. So, she is much stronger now than she was before.

kaurasach#22:
``It is doubtful that his PMship will bring any good or justice to the anti sikh riots.``
It should not make any difference to the Sikhs. He should be expected to bring justice to people for the anti-sikh and Gujarat riots not because he is a sikh but because he will be the PM.

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DM
//.... Now, she has established herself as the party president as well as winning an election for the party...//

Yes - and hence she has more confidence. So my feeling is - she would NOT seek to meddle too much in the gov`t affairs. I mean - she has proved to be NOT power-hungry - otherwise she wouldn`t give up the PMship.

Singh being a family loyalist also makes her more comfortable. Like she said - her primary concern is preserving secularism. And at this point I will take her word for it. In that case - she wouldn`t meddle too much in economic policies of the gov`t. And that`s all we want - that Singh, the PM gets a wide berth for implementing an effective economic agenda.

SOmehow I am optimistic that Sonia would a play a constructive role.

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``Unfortunately, we have been through this exercise before. When Rajiv died, the Congress people wanted to make Sonia their leader. She chose instead a family faithful, Narsimha Rao, to be the PM. He was chosen over stronger candidates like Pawar and Arjun Singh because he was thought not to have any power base of his own, even in his native Andhra. And soon, there were manipulations with Rao trying to act independently and Sonia supporting people like Arjun Singh. This was the backdrop to the Hawala scandal. Rao and Sonia hardly spoke to each other until recently.
Back then, Sonia was merely a widow. Now, she has established herself as the party president as well as winning an election for the party. So, she is much stronger now than she was before. ``

Isn`t it ironic that a person who served the country for some odd 40 yrs had to be chosen by Sonia just because she is the widow of Rajiv Gandhi instead of the Congress MP`s. Congress walas never had a spine and will never have one. All they need is some one from Gandhi family to lead them no matter how stupid and inexperienced they are. Time will come when these shameless Congress MPs who are in their 60`s and 70`s touching the feet of Rahul/Priyanka Gandhi.

In my opinion PVNR is the best thing happened to India in the last 30yrs though there was lot of corruption along with Vajpayee. He is the one who brought Manmohan Singh into cabinet and gave green light for economic liberalization which spawned the current growth rates. Peace came to Assam and Punjab only during his time. Today no congress wala acknowledges his contribuitions. Alas, if only he is PVNG (PVN Gandhi).
Anyday i will have a PVNR as PM than the incompetent yet honest VP Singh.

We should have inherited rather Laloo Prasad Yadav like the prime minister? It is apparent cosí to all looking at the television that the tongue of body of Sounds Gandhi and its children changed absolutely after the visit to the President. Now we will do in Indian siede and it looks at the return of the storm of chivalry of soldiers like the Congress of Youth goes about its common business.

silly
//...Isn`t it ironic that a person who served the country for some odd 40 yrs had to be chosen by Sonia just because she is the widow of Rajiv Gandhi instead of the Congress MP`s. ..//

Yep - that`s how congress party works. Performance doesn`t matter - all that matters is the family. Remember - sheila dikshit was an outcast even after winning the assembly election?

Thousands of loosers are crying themselves silly when Sonia took the right decision. And there are a bunch in chowk too - who will blindly follow her anywhere even if she has not demonstrated any real competency in anything. It`s sick.

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