Laloo/Sonia/Mulayam/Rabri/Pawar???

Today I found myself asking this question. Who is standing for elections in my hometown? And that brought me to my next question. Why dont I know much about the elections in India? And then followed the saga of questions...

How many of us have never cared about the elections? Why was I so bothered and mattered with the American Elections but not so much concerned about the one thats going in my own country? How have I exercised my right to vote and rightfully so? Why do we just blindly say that I support the Congress or I support the Sena or I support the BJP and so no matter what I'll vote for their candidate?

I have done exactly that in the last 2 times I have voted. I didnt care who the candidate was, I looked at the party and voted. Actually since the time I have been eligible to vote, I have voted 2 times out of 3. First time I voted for a young independent educated candidate who I thought is the glimpse of the future of politics in the country. I was greatly wrong. I can see that poor kid would not have survived the Indian Politic Scenario now. He would not have been able to achieve one bit of the promises he had made. But, and a very strong But, he was educated, idealistic, had the right idea, the right direction and he personified what that one half of me that is hidden inside would have done. Taken a stand and acted on the sad state of affairs in the country. he had the courage to do so. And for that I voted for him. I dont remember his name now, and I'm not sure if he is still in the politic scenario, and even if he is, I am definitely not sure whether his determination and strongwill would not succumbed to the political aspect of the wrong in Indian government. The second time, taking a cue from the failure of my first vote, I decided to vote for a party, thereby increasing the chances of my vote actually causing a change. My vote did cause the change. The party that I voted for did win. Or rather the candidate that represented the party that I felt had the matching ideals to my demands won.

Any change? Nope. Nada. Zilch. Life stayed the same. It didnt matter whether it was an orange flag besides the tricolor or whether it was congress flag or whether it was the blue flag. Government still performed the same.

The last elections I wasnt even in India. And I followed that closely trying to urge my mother to vote for the right party. But she is of the older generation, and easily convinced by some of the political agenda around.

Why did I care which party she voted for? What did it matter? Indian elections are really nothing but about a handful few that rule the party that rolls out their plans to attack certain issues, which never even come up to the table for discussion once the party wins. The Indian elections are not where I have a choice in saying who would be my Prime Minister. or who would be my President. Because I have no authority on selecting either. Absolutely none whatsoever. The Prime Minister is appointed by the party that wins the majority of the votes. The President is appointed by an election in the Parliament.

The main reason of my post for today is this. To all fellow Indians who have the opportunity to vote and elect their representative. Please research each candidate thoroughly. Dont vote because the candidate belongs to your party of choice. Vote because the candidate is absolutely the best choice for the development of your constituency.

For more information go to:
Googles tool to your constituency:
http://www.google.co.in/intl/en/landing/loksabha2009/
ADR's website to checkout more info about your candidate:
http://www.nationalelectionwatch.org/
Phone Number to dial to know more about your candidates:
1-800-110-440
or even better... volunteer to work for ADR or any such organization that educates people.
and another good thing you can do... spread the word.

Be wise!

The "un"Holy Wars

Many a thing has been said about the recent terrorist attacks in Mumbai. Many a things have been done after that. People have reacted to it in the best possible manner they deemed. Some came out with profanity, some came out with fear and while others including me expressed anger. 

S kept on reminding, we are not there, what right do we have to say anything? I kept on saying, it doesn't matter where I am, there are some things that are so wrong at the core root that they need to be addressed.

What do I mean by wrong to the core? Fight over religion. That is wrong. I don't think any religion preaches violence. No religion can do that, its the wrong misguided uninformed interpretation that is wrong. This misinterpretation of religion is abused by some and absolved by some. This is wrong.There are a lot of things that are correlated to this but I dont think I need to delve into something thats being anlyzed a million ways already. There is no right analysis to why this happened.

But I will say my final two words and keep it simple. If you remove discrimination based on race, sex, caste, religion, color, ethnicity, physical attributes, diseases and all other man made measuring tools and the person right besides you is nothing a but a human being, Just the same as you, a living breathing human being. So respect them the same way you would respect yourself and life can move on.

CA M.R. Venkatesh

My friend saw this video and asked me to take a look at it. Its a whole one hour long video where Mr. M.R. Venkatesh (let me call him CA) talks about "Globalization/Globalisation" (shoot even Mozilla is recommending the American spelling).

His take on it is this: the US debt is huge (nowadays a known fact) but the US is a consuming economy and Asian economies are Saving economies. He mentions some really cool facts such as the fact that on a average every 1 unit of currency earned by an Asian and hence the Asian governments, they save about 20% of it. Whereas every $1 earned by the US, it spends $1.07.

He got almost everything right, and he totally convinced me with his agenda except for his last observation. With a Swadeshi movement background and a India bias that we as Indians always have to an extent, he mentions, that the Indian economy will save because of the Indian housewife.

Sir, times are-a-changing, the Indian wife exists, but in rural India, the cities portrait a different view. Independent woman, single moms, etc are all concepts that you can greatly see in the cities of India. But thats not my point. It is not the institution of family that will save an economy. It is the importance of the domestic market that relies on the domestic product at the same time exporting some product out.

That will save economies. The 20th century to an extent saw some biased economies of scale, but the truth was one commodity was produced in one nation and traded for a different commodity with another nation. But slowly that has changed. UK, is about 80 - 95 % reliant on imports for all needs and necessities. This is where you start going wrong. Service Industry in India, Manufacturing Unit in China, Sales unit in US, Banking Unit in UK. Do you see something wrong here? We are headed in a direction where if you want to do a particular type of job you may want to change the country you live in. So if China produces and US buys, what does US do to provide money to buy what China sells?

I feel that its complicated, yet, at the cost of sounding conservative, I feel, that each nation should have its balance of jobs. Each nation should have its riches and its poor. And the world will have Rich and Poor economies. Because that is the balance. If we dont have extremes and are all at par, there wont be any motivation, innovation, excellence, aspiration,determination and all such -ations. No nation is by choice a poor or a rich nation, each nation that understands the rules, plays the game, plays it smart and excels will be a rich nation. And boy I can start off bashing any Indian with an Indian-Pride to a point that he admits, we as a nation havent yet figured it out. Well, enough of this, I need to get to my sleep. But if you have time and want to listen to some facts, watch his video. Do keep an open mind and dont be biased in a total agreement/disagreement attitude.

I do get a lot of time over the weekends.