How that Other Democracy (India) Differs

harimau various

i think sonia-pawar duking it out is normal politics as it should be. udhav-raj thakre stuff is pure mughal .. considering shivsena makes a big deal of gandhi-family hereditary gaddi it gets really rich.

you got to give some credit so the ghati politicians (and all the congress and ncp are mostly upper-cast marathas), they have been pretty good over last 40 yrs in comparison to other states in one single indicator (besides gdp-fdi-literacy and all other crap stats). you will rarely see a ghati slumming it out in other states. only ghatis in other states are babus in employ of previous princely outfits such as hydrabad nizam, arcot guy, scindias and holkars and gaikawad principalities etc. so, that means all the maratha politicians were more or less able to find gainful employment to their constituents, who share the barren deccan plateu with andhras and tamils and kannadas. go to any construction site, and you see telanganas slumming-it. tamil brahmins slum it in every govt colony anywhere in india. mallu nurses and typist stink-up offices from abudhabi to ahmedabad with coconut oil and then there are the bhaiyyas and bengalis..

ghatis seem plain happy to do their amature plays, keep bothering FV with supersize ganapatis, and play carrom and bridge in their own homeland.

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``The lower caste hindus and muslims together constitute 65% of the electorate in any Indian state.``

``hindus and muslims together`` -- what a delicious syrupy phrase indeed -- read it after a long long time -- good to know that they are still together -- thank you saint baba -- God bless you...u r indeed a Saint.......:-)

#32 by arjun_m #32

[Another good thing about the sena`s loss is that it will bring out into the open, the infighting between Raj and Uddhav...blood should flow on the streets outside matoshree...they`re both goondas..]

But even before that Pawar and Sonia are fighting it out for which party will get the CM`s job. Sonia claims that with the support of CPI(M) and Independents, she has 74 seats and so the larger number of members in the Assembly. Of course Pawar`s NCP has more seats than Sonia`s Congress and he is asking for the CM`s job for his own party. What is going to happen, no matter who gets the CM`s job, is that the CPI(M) with 3 (yes, that is THREE) seats will have the government by the ba!!s and will squeeze hard. Just like they did in the Planning Commission fiasco.

What we need is to ban anti-National parties such as the Congress, the CPI(M), etc., for the next 100 years if you want India to advance. And immediately abolish quotas for OBCs, BCs, SC/ST.... they take away any chance for merit to be considered in selection of people for jobs. With the result that air force fighters costing $50-$100 million apiece are falling out of the sky because of poor maintenance.

To add to my previous post, any politician advocating free electricity for anybody should be given a jolt of free electricity at 22,000 volts.

Ref mumbaikar #26

You quoted

[Making sense of Maharashtra election —V Krishna Ananth

......The task ahead is, however, not as simple as what has been accomplished. It is imperative for the Congress and the NCP leaders to consolidate upon this victory and commit themselves to this tradition — of social transformation and cooperatives — rather than persist with the attitude during the recent years when they allowed these institutions to sink. If the institutions sink any further their own parties will be decimated in Maharashtra. The Maharashtra experience can also help the Congress reinvent itself elsewhere.

VK Ananth, a former affiliate of The Hindu, is now a freelance writer]

Social transformation and cooperatives means that the government will buy khadi (handwoven) garments that has no market because Mahatma Gandhi wanted us to wear khadi. That means subsidizing dinosaurs who need to die out and would have no chance of survival against modern mills. Gandhi was against the dumping of cloth made in the mills of Lancashire. Right now, the mills in Lancashire have been shuttered and a few function as museums. But does anybody care to think through the consequences of subsidizing dinosaurs? No. The foremost among these are articulate idiots who write for ``The Anti-Hindu`` or ``The Times of India`` and newspapers like that quoting Gandhi and ``Gram (village) Raj``.

Manmohan Singh the Neutered has promised to turn Bombay in to Shanghai. Ha, ha, ha. In Shanghai, the Chinese cleared out the slums with 3 days` notice and no compensation. In Bombay, the Mee Mumbaikar group is demanding title for the slums that they occupy illegally on government land. They will get it; if they don`t, they will at least be allowed to remain unmolested for the next 10,000 years until Bombay chokes on its own garbage. I had to run away from that city after 3 days; I was getting sick.

Shanghai? They would be turning Bombay into Laloo Prsad Yadav`s version of some small village in Bihar. The other city builders who have reduced Calcutta to the world`s largest garbage dump, namely, the CPI(M), will happily assist.

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How that other democracy differs? Well - more I see of american democracy, the more it resembles (to me) the cr@p we call democracy in India. Actually in some ways the Indian affairs looks better than what I see in US these days.

I mean - irregularities in voter registration, non-standard voting methods, vote fraud, voter intimidation - these are supposed to be stuff right out of Indian elections, right?? But now we see it all right here in US - the greatest democracy on the face of the planet!!! What`s up with the hundred different methods of voting - can`t americans all have same type of voting machines - like they do in India??

And then what`s up with this media partisanship? Sinclair running anti-kerry films all over the place? I mean why should it matter to sinclair if bush wins or kerry wins? And then we have Michel moore trying to run his anti-bush sh!t on pay-for-view and geting turned down by the TV stations??? ....... Indian media is probably the cr@ppiest in entire democratic world - but I haven`t seen this level of partisanship there.....and Indians fight bitter elections all the time.

The most bizzare of all is this : any country who has gone through the most horrible terrorist attack in human history would actually strive to bury the hatchets and band together and take on the enemy with a single-mided focus. One would certainly expect the Americans to do so. One would expect americans to show the rest of the world (as they do many other aspects of life ) how to rise to the occassion and how to handle things in the best possible manner. One thing we all expect from americans is that when the crunch comes, these folks stand up and do the right thing.

But what we see these days is completely out of whack. The level of partisanship is unprecedented. The quality of politics is at the lowest level. Catholics have declared that vote for Kerry is a ``sin``!! All sorts of religious dogma is on the rise. Cheney says vote for kerry is a vote for terrorists!! Democrats bleating that Cheney`s daughter is gay!!

And in the mean time - everybody have forgotten the fact the real enemy is still living in suburbs of Karachi, planing his next big attack. Ameicans have completely lost their balance, to say the least. For 50% of them Kerry is the enemy, for other 50% it`s bush. The fact is - it`s neither of these two. It`s Osama bin Laden and his band and they are still alive!! But nobody seem to care!!

I mean - fractitious and bitterly divided that the Indians are - even they don`t stoop to this level of partisanship when the crunch comes. Remember Kargil? The way the entire nation stood together to fight the paki terrorists!!

So what`s going on here?

this gottobe good news for the ghatis. they will have pawar the strong-man sitting in centre and being remote control for the state. he is bound to bring-in much development moolah for the state. bal thakre is jumping mad and has already blamed muslims and backward castes. his ``khokha`` calculation went wrong. he sold tickets to some of the shivsena safe seats for large khokhas, thinking he will need that in post-election horse-trading. but now out of power, he does not need the money, so at least he is fiscally shrewd. considering anti-incumbancy wave, this is indeed a big win for congress/ncp no matter what the popular vote says.

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#7 by Mantolives

[Ofcourse to Veeresh who is blinded by delusions of greatness , your logic will not make any sense.]

Just as you are blinded by delusions of the greatness of that TNTist Jinnah? Well, well, we are all blind some way or the other. Just that we refuse to acknowledge our blindness.

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