A Strip of Road, a Bulb of Light, a Bucketful of Water

btw suppose in addition to current CMs
Vasundhara Raje in Rajasthan
Uma Bharati in MP
Rabri Devi in Bihar
Sheila Dikshit in Delhi
Jayalalitha J in TN

we also had as CMs

Gowri amma in Kerala
Ambika Soni in Haryana
Rajinder Kaur in Punjab
Vidya Stokes in Himachal
Mehbooba Mufti in J&K
Mayawati in UP
Mamata Banerjee in WB

That would be 12 women CMs. Add one woman PM and stir :).

ah, farzana, that was so predictable...saw it a mile away....haha

I do not care much about any one`s ``evaluation`` of political personalities- whatever the hidden agenda of any political party- I am happy to see the issues of BSP i.e. infrastructure and the State government`s contributions becoming significant in the political front.
Nobody can deny that BSP was the reason for the downfall of Diggy raja.
Shiela has always come out as a supporter of infrastructural upgradation in Delhi -she wants to make Delhi`s infrastructure ``world-class``. Her bhagidari scheme is great. Best of luck to her.

Some good progress has been made by the new breed of technologically savvy bureaucrats many of them are from IIT-s- there are laudable e-governance projects taken upo by states like AP, Maharastra, TN, Gujrat- and now J&K. I can predict that within 4 years, most of the State government secreteriats , including the Central Government ministries would be ONLINE with their paperless offices and complete automation of their workflows. India would be a greater force than what it is now- It would have a very powerful and efficient bureaucracy - all because of automation of their complex workflows- which would prune their work flows - do a BPR of the processes- expedite governmental processes- create online citizen interface - reduce manual interaction with the citizens- cut down corruption- improve efficiency- and hence the ECONOMY-
Just wait and see guys- the enemies would invest more on trying to sabotage the governmental networks than setting up their own house in order- but they would not succeed. India IS going to have Europe for breakfast!!!

IMO, BJP would have won in MP whoever they put up.

One major issue in MP was roads. Ask anyone from MP and they will tell you that there were virtually no roads left, only potholes. Apparently when Clinton visited MP(I forget as President or as ex-President), the govt. paved only one side of the road, the one on which he was to travel !

Digvijay Singh seems to have been absolutely oblivious to the state of the roads, which is amazing.

The thing to see is what BJP does different. BJP has been in power in MP before, and was dispatched by Digvijay who stayed 2 terms.

#3 by kaurasach
//..the witch and whore Indra Gandhi was a woman ...//

Indira had many faults and I am no fan of hers. But why do u call her a ``whore`` !!! That was totally uncalled for.

#4 by plats8
//..If they feel appropriate, I can completely foresee hard-Hindutva used in 2004...//

I agree. if people respond to Hindutva - BJP will use it, you can bet on that.

The bottom line is - it is upto the eloctorate to grow up and show complete disdain for stupid gimmicks like ban on cow killing and other assorted pet-ideas propagated by the parivar. This election has shown that might be happening. Hopefully this trend will continue.

Unless of course, another bunch of hot-head muslims burn a train load of VHP activists. Then, I don`t know.

It is an exaggeration to call the recent election a sign of women power in India. It is true that half of the country is now governed by women and it could have been two-thirds if Mayawati was still there. The Congress was expected to win Delhi and the BJP Madhya Pradesh regardless of who was their leader. Indeed, dissident Congress people in Delhi were suggesting that Dixit would be replaced if Congress won.
Uma Bharti must be given the credit where credit is due because she is a self-made woman and has exploited her OBC status rather well. It`s a pity though that she has won over a sensible politician like Digvijay Singh, despite his silly attempts to win on a soft-hindutva platform. I dont think that Uma`s win is a victory of the hindutva forces; despite her background and the ostentatious display of religiousity during her swearing-in ceremony, she steered clear of the hindutva agenda during the election. It was, indeed, Digvijay who tried to malign the Vajpayee govt. for not banning cow slaughter.
Above all, it was a victory of better election management and a Congress party which was probably lulled into complacency by favourable opinion poll results.

Harish:
I would not start applauding just yet. Sheila Dikshit did not win because of the metro rail; she won because she had no competition. Uma Bharti may promise bijli, paani etc, but in MP it was a clear case of who would protect the cow better. Digvijay Singh`s party president eats cows, the BJP`s does not. As for Vasundhara Raje, despite the belief that Ashok Gehlot`s efforts to develop Rajasthan were not hollow, she won because she played the maharani to the hilt; in a feudal society it works. Pramod Mahajan in a recent TV interview was talking about how ``Vasu`` reminds him of rajmata (Vijayaraje Scindia) and he waxed eloquent about her, ``large eyes, her lips, just like the Rajmata``.

The US may talk about how “women are moving up in India”, but the toiling women in the villages and shanties in cities, by doing what they do, are sturdy enough to survive political shifts.

Btw, your reference to Uma Bharti`s celibacy was quite unnecessary.

Regards,
Farzana

pmishra2 #1,

You are right. Hindutva is very much there - the ``bijli, sadak, paani`` ploy was
just to get to the takht. However, it seems that there is some poetic justice in
that non-performance does get punished in Indian elections. If Uma Bharati
doesn`t deliver, she will hopefully be gone in 5 years.

The BJP is basically hunting for election issues for next year. If they feel
appropriate, I can completely foresee hard-Hindutva used in 2004.

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Its a pity that Uma Bharti is celibate...... must have been chikni in her early years.

I wish I could be real positive but I am not ready yet. Hindutva is still in the back pocket waiting to be unleashed. Demagogue Advani is still blaming every bus accident on the ISI.

Uma Bharati converted the MP swearing-in process to a massive hindu puja. How would the muslims, Christians and plain old ``secular`` hindus of MP felt? Are all those swamis going to generate more bijli or build real sadak`s?

It is a good thing that women were elected. Uma Bharati herself comes from an extremely simple background (she is a high school dropout but has educated herself reasonably well). Women power could start to make a big difference, especially as panchayats now have a women quota.