Social Networks Has arrived in India

I was surprised today to find out that the recently elected Chennai Mayor has a facebook profile(https://www.facebook.com/saidaiduraisamy) and updates it regularly. But the real surprise was that he also has a Google Plus Profile - https://plus.google.com/101033117702722643248

You will know that social networks are in the advanced technology cycle when a TN politician started using the social network. I believe Facebook has entered to "Late Majority" in Technology Adoption Life cycle. Be sure to see soon all the politicians being using one or the other social network. 

Technology Adoption Lifecycle

Fight Against Corruption should be from the bottom

Though I liked what i saw on TV about Anna's fast (i.e. Civil Society winning a battle against the political class), I am not a big fan of Lokpal bill. So in that context, I found this article - It shouldn't pay to pay bribes to be good & a must read. My 2 cents

1. Corruption should be fought from the bottom. i.e. We as a group do things the hard way rather than getting things done easily (but illegally). i.e passing a exam for driving license by studying rather than paying money.  
2. Incentive for an individual to catch corruption should be higher than the value of the corruption itself. Otherwise, the corruption would never be caught. For e.g. if a traffic police gets 100% of the fine laid by him on the violating professional, Actual traffic violations in India would come down drastically. 

War on Mumbai

There are days that define a nation. 9/11, Berlin Wall, etc.. Today is one of them. A Kashmiri-style Attack happening first time inside the real India.... 24-48 hour Terrorist siege - common to every Kashmiri - happening @ the financial capital of India.. 

Terrorism evolving into Urban War... A Sad Day... But also a day of opportunity to resolve this issue for once for all... Personally not knowing what to do, I look up to Government and God to save us from this New Age War. Though I know that the government is as as clueless as me - on how to react and handle this New Age War.

5 reasons for Supporting Hillary Clinton

In India, you rarely vote for a person because you like him. Rather the vote is decided on the basis of whom you hate the most. So, Seeing the plethora of eligible and likable Presidential nominees that an American voter has, makes me jealous. This kicked off an keen interest in nomination elections especially in the close contest between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama for Democratic Party Presidential Nomination.

Right from the early days of the nomination process, i developed a liking for Hillary Clinton and would have signed myself as a volunteer in her campaign if i was in US. Since i belong to 2 groups - Youth and Techie that forms a key supporter base of Obama, I thought i would reason out my logic for being different.

1. Obama Will win the Democratic Presidential nomination

For both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, Becoming the U.S. President is not only a dream but an obsession. But with the relative young age of Obama(46 years), this obsession would not end even if he loses 2008 Democratic Presidential Nomination. But that is not the case with Hillary Clinton. If she loses this nomination, her dreams of becoming the US president would come crashing down.

When you have 2 eligible candidates, whom do you choose?

• Option of having only one of them as a Presidential nominee
• Option of having one now and another later

2. Known Devil is better than Unknown Angel

It is always better to choose a known person who delivers rather than an unknown person who promises the sky. With the relatively lesser time that Barack Obama has spent before the scrutiny of the public and media, I tend to favor Hillary Clinton. Yeah! Barack Obama inspires hope... But Does he really believe in the message? Or Is He using it only as a means to attract voters?

3. Economy

For rest of the world, key issue of the Presidential elections is economy and how the new President is going to ensure that the U.S. economy rebounds from the sub prime crisis and the upcoming recession. Obama if elected, could be expected to push for policies that are populist rather than those that would solve the problem. But from Clinton, you could expect Solutions and not populist measures.

4. Indian Connections:

My Indian Connections means that i prefer Clinton because

• Obama might send troops to Pakistan which would not only destabilize Pakistan but the entire South Asia
• Obama has already opposed outsourcing once and he could be expected to do the same once more if the situation warrants it. Read TOI's editorial on the issue.

5. Underdog

The world loves underdog victories in sports, movies and even in politics. And I am no exception. At present, Hillary Clinton is a underdog in Democratic Presidential nomination where her odds are stacked against her. And How lovely it would be to see her triumph!!!

Indian Parties Need Internal Democracy

We, the Indians take huge pride in the claim that India and USA are the two greatest democracies in the world - one country has the oldest democracy while the other has the largest. But differences between these two democracies have never been this acute, as in recent times.

• In one country, a huge democratic process is going on to select the Presidential candidate. And the whole world media is going gaga about it. Hundreds of Party men are voting to choose the person, who is going to lead them in the elections and every person in the party are given the option to have their say.
• But in the other country, one high powered committee of the party decides the Prime Ministerial Candidate. [Read Indian Party declares PM Candidate.] Even this looks democratic, when it is compared to the selection process of the opposing party, where the Prime Ministerial Candidate is decided in 10, Janpath.
  

In a recent beautiful article 'The Indian Chromosome', Islamabad-based freelance columnist Dr. Farrukh Salem narrows down the reason for the differences between two neighboring nations , sharing the same chromosome and culture, to a single fact - "Democracy or One Nation being able to elect its leaders". Democracy has been India's greatest asset in the last sixty years and it would remain so, even in the future.

But to fully enjoy the benefits of the democracy, it is time Indian parties chose to give voice to their party cadres. Yeah! India is a country with high power distance. But with the changing Indian Culture, changes in the perception of Youth and the advancements in the technology, Indian party leaders are running out of reasons for not being able to give the choice of choosing the prime ministerial candidate to its cadres. Simply by giving a voice, a party would be able to attract much more members to its rank.

Hope Indian parties realize the need of a thriving and healthy internal party democracy. Otherwise they would be wiped away like some of the Indian firms which were never able to adjust itself to globalization.

Rahul Gandhi! Start a Blog!

Today I came across an article in New York Times - 'From Iran's Fiery Leader, a Slightly Tamer Blog' that informed the readers about the blog maintained by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, President of Iran. Was really surprised on hearing that.

If the fiery leader of Iran could maintain a blog, what prevents any of our Indian political leaders to do the same thing? It would provide each of them an opportunity/platform to interact with the public and discuss the rational for their various policies. Also the person's popularity among the youth and IT crowd would go up one or two notches.

It is even acceptable that we can not expect these things from the oldies like Advani(Presidential Candidate, BJP) or Mr. M Karunadhi(CM, Tamilnadu). But what prevents the younger generation leaders like Maran, Rahul Gandhi, etc to use the web/blogging as a medium to interact with the general public. Hope it happens soon.

P.S: Link to Mahoumd Ahmadinejad' Blog - http://www.ahmadinejad.ir/

PMK - Floating New Front for Next Assembly Polls - A Nice Joke

PMK(a regional - Northern Tamilnadu and a 100% casteist party), known for its specific skills to partner with the right party(or winning party) in each election has proudly proclaimed that it will float a new front for the next Assembly Polls. For a second, I believed this news on Hindu - 'PMK will float new front for next Assembly Polls, says Ramadoss' and started smiling that finally Ramadoss would come to know his true support base among the public.

But..

Why would somebody comment this early about the Assembly elections that is four years away?
If somebody is really intent on forming a third front, they would have started their work secretly rather on the public domain.

Then all the topics that i learnt in my negotiation class came to my mind. Ramadoss is just trying to increase his leverage in the future negotiations for the number of contesting seats in the next Assembly and national elections. He is trying to show off to the future partnering parties that his best alternative to a negotiatied agreement(i.e. forming a third front) is not that bad and his party has all the capabilities to do that.

Sorry Dr. Ramadoss! I don't think J Jayalalitha or M Karunanidhi (or Stalin) would fall for such a trick. They also knew that you can never dream of forming a third front since teaming up with Vijayakanath (the present so-called third front) is next to impossible for you. And you don't have the guts for the same.
Who would like to lose his son's cabinet berth for some pipe dream???

Displeasure of D(MK) with Maran

When I read about the tiff between the Maran family & M Karunadhi's, never thought that it was worth a post . But on seeing fellow blogger's coverage of the events - Asif and Badrirag, I also decided to come up with my own version of the events.



Few Key things to know - to understand the whole controversy:-

• Stalin is in firm grasp of the DMK's party structure with very high loyalty to him running among its ranks
• Though Azhagiri claims that he is in charge of the southern part of TamilNadu, the reality is little different. Except for Madurai, it is Stalin's supporters who control the party. [Remember, I belong to southern part of TamilNadu]
• Stalin after the entry of Maran into political picture, started seeing him as his major competitor rather than Azhagiri Especially because of his dynamism and popularity with the common folk

So Stalin used this golden opportunity to get Maran out of the place from which he gets all the attention and fame. His argument was since MK already warned the Maran family not to publish the result, it is their fault. For this reason(not to allow Maran family to rise up as his competitior), he has even patched up with his half-sister Kanimozhi (soon-to-be the Delhi arm of DMK).

Hmm Politics! How exciting it is!!!

My Take on Tamil Nadu Elections

As someone who has keen interest in politics right from my childhood days, if I did not have a post on the recent state elections in TamilNadu it would be so wrong on me. So here are my analysis and opinion:

First of all, hats off to the people who for the first time elected a minority government to the state. Also a strong opposition in the assembly means that whenever the opposition wants to talk something, they won’t be removed (i.e. thrown out) from the assembly. Also it will be interesting to note what strategy that Jayalalithaa follows whether she is going to follow Karunanidhi’s footsteps of zero attendance in the assembly or she is going to be a constructive opposition leader. Let us wait and see.

Since there was no visible wave this time around, small factors in each and every district played a major role. Vijayakanth was a major factor who reduced the victory margin in lots of constituencies with his 8% vote share. Except for the vote from his fans, other votes are from people, who are angry with the inability of both the Dravidian to think constructively and long-term future of the State. What that means is the votes are not transferable to any of the Dravidian parties if his party aligns with them next time around. But his victory in Viruthalacham is commendable since he contested in one of the bastions of the PMK. His party would have got more votes if they had been able to get good people (i.e. people who can and will spend lots of money in elections) to stand for elections. Especially in my constituency, Palayamkottai just looking at the face of the contestant, I changed my decision from voting DMDK to DMK.

Another factor for the strong showing of the DMK in the southern districts is the Karthick factor. The Tamil actor who recently took leadership of the State unit of All India Forward Block (AIFB) stole a lot of votes from the traditional ADMK vote bank (Thevar community) especially from the rural villages. On the other side, the other Tamil actor Sarath Kumar who jumped at the last hour from DMK to ADMK for purely personal reasons, made sure that traditional DMK stronghold Tuticorn district shifted hands to the ADMK fold. He too was able to swing young people from the rural villages of the Nadar community to ADMK.

Voters voting on the basis of caste are causing a lot of shame to Tamil Nadu politics. Is there any way to counter this in our Indian politics? Added to this, Cine actors and actresses who are not even educated holding sway over the Tamilnadu politics is a curse to the State. But the Lok Parithan the party started by IITians polling more than 34,000 votes in 7 constituencies offers hope to me that someday educated people of the next generation won’t shy away from the politics. They have taken the bull by its horns. Hope that they don't allow this hope to die in people’s hearts. If they have contested in my constituency whether I will vote is totally different matter (We will keep that explanation for some other post).

The factor which worked largely in the favor of the DMK was its coalition arithmetic. It benefited largely from the Congress strong pockets as seen in KanyaKumari District. The myth that the PMK commands the Vanniyar community in the northern districts was broken this time around as seen by the poor showing by the PMK whose conversion ratio of the seats contested to seats won was poor compared to its alliance partners. Also the most of the seats for the opposition party, ADMK came from these areas.

The biggest surprise was the fact that Chennai which was a DMK stronghold whichever side the wave may be favored Jayalalithaa to Karunanidhi. Her changed action in the last two years was a major factor in the reversals. If this has been done in the whole of the five years, she would have been invincible in the elections. The factors that lead to her downfall was the fact that 80.000 government employee families voted against her. Their happiness can be seen from the heroic welcome they gave to Karunanidhi while he entered the Secretariat, a thing unheard in the history of TamilNadu.

Will this government last the whole five years?. Mostly ‘yes’ according to my opinion. But let us wait and see. Just remember, “In politics there are no permanent friends or foes”.