Mockery of Democracy

A common phrase that people so proudly use when talking about India society is “The world’s largest democracy”. Yes, we do have elections, we select are representatives. But are we really a functioning democracy?

“Democracy”

1 a form of government in which the people have a voice in the exercise of power, typically through elected representatives. 2 a state governed in such a way. 3 control of a group by the majority of its members.

This is the oxford definition of the word of Greek origin. Of the three definitions, in the Indian context, only the 3^rd one makes some sense. Fine, we do elect our representatives, but do these representatives actually represent our voice? NO. I have a lot of issues concerning the type of democracy that we have in our country. But my concern for now is about the representation of voice.

Elections are around the corner in this part of the country (hmm.. who knows we could also have general elections soon). This is the time when political parties start making promises, and release manifestos. For most public, these promises and manifestoes form a significant factor that help them to decide whom to vote for. Obviously there are many other issues – caste, money, liquor, etc., that could have even more effect on certain sections of the society. When I say most public, I mean to refer to citizens for who development issues rather than other issues form the basis while selecting their representatives.

In most cases the public’s voice is what, which forms the part of the political promises and manifestos. Like poverty eradication, electricity, education, social security, infrastructure, etc. The parties promise many things in their public meetings and manifestos, depending on which people decide which party to vote for. But once these parties are in power, do they care to implement these promises? Forget implementing these promises, many times the governments do exactly the opposite.

Don’t we need a proper mechanism where political parties are penalized if their election promises are not implemented? Not implementing these policies certainly amounts to cheating the society. Is this not a criminal offense? A party wining an election and not honoring its promises is a breach of mutual agreement between the representatives and the society. There cannot be a greater crime that this in a democracy. There is an urgent need for some regulatory mechanism to over see this; this will not only deter the political parties from making false and opportunistic promises and duping the public.

Nandigram – this is the reason I am writing this. I would be surprised if any of the pro capitalist governments would even think of trying to do something that the communists did there. They did the exact opposite of what they were preaching for the last 30 years there. All of a sudden they woke up to development and decided that they had to give land to capitalists.

Karnataka – how can I forget this? As long as they had power it didn’t matter to them about any of the promises to the public. All they wanted was power. It was the dirtiest dance of democracy anybody could have witnessed. How a hand full of people played their games with the hopes of 50 million people of this state. Bond papers and ministries were more important to them, than the interest of the general public.

What ever democracy that we have at present is the worst form of democracy. People are displaced from the ancestral lands without proper compensations, women are striped and beaten brutally because someone does not like what she asks for, another lady is made to run from city to city because someone did like what she writes, natural resources are illegally mined and exported to other countries, the list goes on and on….

Do we have any hope? The only thing that can force a government to do its job rightfully is the civil society. But how strong is this society whose stake holders are me, you and every citizen? We are more concerned about our self well being, than about the collective good.

Do we have a solution? Is our system the worst form of democracy?

Turkeys in "Frying Pan Park"

Thanksgiving day is celebrated on the 4th Thursday of November in US, is similar to the Sankranthi festival celebrated in India - thanking god for a good harvest.

For this day more than 50 million turkeys are slaughtered and processed to fed America. But there is one lucky turkey (hmm..). Every year the the National Turkey Federation presents the US president with a turkey (specially trained to interact with him and the other VIPs) as a thanksgiving gesture. As a show of kindness, this turkey is granted the presidential pardoned and sent to (oops!!!) "Frying Pan Park" or to (wow!!!) Disneyland to spend the rest of its life.

I guess the fate of this bird is much better than the people of Iraq and Afghanistan where every day his army kills countless number of innocent people.

Krishi Mela - 2007

Krishi Mela, is an annual farmer fest organized at the sprawling 1400 acer GKVK campus on Bellary road. It is organized by GKVK itself. They showcase all the latest developments in agriculture field in this 4 day mela. Buses to his mela is arranged by the government from all over the state.



The students and faculty of GKVK did an excellent job explaining the new technologies to all the visitors. Expecting this fair to be like most dull government events, i was in for a pleasant surprise. The students at the stall were very warm and outreaching to everyone. I was happy to see them explain everything to the farmers with same intensity with which they talked to well dressed city people.

There were also private companies exhibiting their latest agriculture products - machinery, seeds, pesticides, etc. This years mela had special focus to organic farming. Looking at the numbers farmers who attended the mela, it was big success. They are expecting close to 200 thousand people to visit this year.



There are (i think) 7 agriculture colleges spread through out the state. Very few young people have the knowledge of these colleges or about the graduate programs they offer. With the advent of organized retailing (read contract farming) in this country, career opportunities are bound to grow for graduates of these colleges.



For a country like India to prosper, the real growth should come from the agriculture sector. Depending on the monsoons, the growth in this sector has been a dismal 2-4% (sometimes even -ve growth). The 9% growth in GDP that we have now is mainly because of the services sector (the contribution from the manufacturing sector is also not significant). No doubt that this is doing wonders, but this affects less than 15% of the population. For India to really grow,

the growth should come from sectors like agriculture (and manufacturing) on which more than 50% of our population depends. For this government should spend more on agriculture research rather than giving out power and fertilizer subsidies.

One aspect i hope the organizers realize, is that they should localize such melas. Instead of having a mela for the full state at Bangalore, they should organize them in different regions. By doing so they can also concentrate on the crops and techniques that are suite for that particular region. Like for example South-East Karnataka (Bangalore, Kolar, Chikballapur, Tumkur) is predominantly dry region, will less than adequate rainfall. Telling them how to grow rise is certainly of know use to them. Providing people with what they need specifically, will help the achieve better results.




You can find more pictures here.

Force India Pictures

Pictures of "Force India" Formula One team (formerly Spyker) owned by Vijay Mallya.

A well designed crisp logo. I hope the government does not raise any objects for using the tri-color. Nice to see the Indian flag on a formula one car.

Random Pictures

An ad somewhere along the ring road :) I guess he was jumping over crocodile infested tank :P

The Shining

Of late I have been seeing a lot of old movies. “The Shining” has been one of the finest movie I have seen to date. The movie is an adaptation on Stephen King’s novel. Though I have not seen all the movies of Jack Nicholson, but I guess this should be one of his best performances.

The plot: Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) agrees to take care of a remote hotel over the winter months, when it is completely closed to visitors. It is virtually cut off from the rest of the world of 5 months. Jack looking for solitude to write his new book, thinks this is the most suitable places and decides to move in with his family. The hotel is haunted by the family of the previous caretaker. The movie revolves around the breakdown of Jack in this environment.

It is a horror movie, released in 1980, in the pre animation/pre special effects era. The movie starts off with a long drive to the remote hotel. The images are truly breathtaking. This movie is considered to be one of the scariest movies ever to be made and what makes it so scary – not gory images or special effects. It’s the surrounding, the cold and dark winter, the loneliness of the place, the amazing cinematography, the settings, and the sheer acting skills of Jack Nicholson, Danny Lloyd (his son) and Shelley Duvall (his wife). The music of the film is like the icing on the cake – truly brilliant. The claustrophobic nature of the movie gave me goose bumps more than ones.. may be more than 10 times. The set is flawless – those huge hotel rooms, kitchens, the maze everything is perfect – just amazing.

Danny’s tricycle rides around the hotel and his run in the Maze are the best parts of the movie. Jacks facial expression and the depth in his role impresses at lot.

I would rate this movie 10/10 and if you haven’t seen the movie yet – rush to you DVD rental guy and get one today, or else download it like me :) .

But I wouldn’t say that this is the scariest movie. My choice is “Exorcist”. I used to stay in hostel when I watched this movie. For weeks after I saw that movie, I wouldn’t walk in the hostel corridors without lights and used to sleep with my room lights on :( .

Deepavalli Celebrations!!!

From Deepavali

The ultimate survival tips for a software coolie :)

Found his very interesting slide show... created by someone at iim Kolkata..

India’s Biggest Gambling Industry!!!!

It was November 1^st, a public holiday in this part of the country. After much research – spent a couple of hours reading about the company, recommendations from various traders, blogs, I decided to invest in the public offer of a company.

Not having the form I decided to go to a near by stock trader – Geojit. I was there by 9:45. It was not a national holiday, so the stock markets were open. As I sit there filling up that form (filling those ipo forms are really a nightmare), people started to coming. By around 9:50 there were around 20-25 people in the office. People of all ages were there. A young guy – undoubtedly a software coolie, a middle aged woman, an old man – well past his retirement age, all of them. Each one of them glued to one of the 4 huge TFT monitors (trading terminals).

As the clock turns 9:55 (opening bells!!) each one starts making notes, shouting to get to know the prices of the stocks and deeply following those blue and red blocks on the black screen. Each one, ordering the guy operating the computer, to buy some stock or the other. By then a few more people had started coming to add to the chaos. It was nothing short of a fish market. A few were shouting, about the killer they made from a stock and I could see a few dejected faces.

If you were to visit the Bangalore Turf club, trust me you will find a similar behavior, but each one shouting the horses name instead of the stock names. I was told that since it was holiday, there were more men than women. On a normal trading day, there would be more women (all middle aged house wives) than men (which would mainly consist of retired men).

I am sure none of them would have done much research on the stocks they trade in, relying excessively on the stock tips by their stock traders or on the news flashes on the plasma TV in the room. In my view it is nothing more than gambling. Luckily the markets are doing well for the last 2-3 years, and most of them would have made some good profit. Also 2/3^rd of this would be day trading. You never know when you will be in for a big shock.

With the advent of online/phone trading, more and more of these software coolies are getting involved in the markets. I know a few people who spend more time on this during their work hours than on their work.

After seeing people around me (and some out of my own experience), I would suggest a few trading tips J :

• Stock markets are highly addictive, just like gambling, the more the profits you start making, the more you start to bet, and then on the D day, you will have it.
• Never ever get involved in day trading, unless of course you have some reliable information that by the end of the day India’s economy is going to double.
• If you want to trade in stocks, maintain a small but diversified portfolio, and track your companies in detail. Another golden rule – don’t take the “buy” advice/tips, but always consider the “sell” advice/tip from your agent.
• Entering the markets via the primary market (IPO) is a good option (again get to know about the company before you actually invest).
• Exit from non performing stocks. A very common mistake done my most investors is, holding on to underperforming stocks in the hope of them doing well. If you have invested in such stocks you have already made a mistake, exit it from them at the earliest and invest else where.
• Don’t invest too much of your wealth into stocks. Have a fine balance. Even if you were to loose it, it shouldn’t affect you much.
• Don’t get emotionally attached to the gains and losses.
• Invest in Mutual Funds (this too is tricky, will write in detail about this soon). Any day a better option.