The mess called Indian democracy

Horse trading will begin in full fervor on May 16. That is only a couple of days away. So what ails Indian democracy? What needs to be done to strengthen it?

Here are a few problems and suggestions for the CEC:

• Encourage participation of voters: Voters are keeping away to exhibit their disgust and/or apathy towards Indian democracy. By all means, this is a terrible thing for the nation. This has to change. Making voting compulsory will not help. Democracy needs to be strengthened at the grass root level. Edicts and mandates to vote do to a democracy make. Sowing seeds of democracy at the grassroot levels will be needed. So how do you do that? A few simple ideas:
  
• Make people aware of issues India faces. Too many Indians think the world starts and ends with India. Jingoistic patriotism gets in the way of objective criticism. This has to change. It has to happen in classrooms around the country. Projects at school level should focus on challenges India faces (there are many and need not be listed here). Aware citizens are caring citizens.
  
• Get citizens involved with democracy. Media is so in your face these days that people develop apathy quickly. Sensationalism replaces performance. Create alliances in the media that help track performance of governments objectively. Create performance trackers for each MP and each union minister. Put pressure on them to perform. Make a game out of it. Media can play a big role here.
  
• Development can be sexy and cool. In fact, it should be. Development oriented leaders should be the superstars, because unlike Bollywood stars, they do not just show dreams on a silver screen, they can actually make those dreams come true. Media again has a role to play.
  
• Parents and teachers have a role to play as well. Passion for democracy is passion for development. Such passion and enthusiasm has to be infused at a young age. Business alone is not enought for a nation's growth. Sound social policies are more important. India is a nation of excesses that remains poor due to lack of public involvement in social policies. Politicians take us for a ride because we don't care and let them. This has to change. For this, education of one's rights is key.

More ideas to follow.

Rahul Gandhi: NDA Finished: Perfect Prophecy or Famous Last Words?

Rahul brings to attention the fact that NDA does not exist in several states. The condition of the UPA is not very different. They have no pre-poll alliances in even states like UP and Bihar. Where is UPA in these states?

Our take is that in order to strengthen Indian democracy, the CEC should usher in the following changes:

• Pre-poll alliances should be encouraged. The way to do that is to make a constitutional amendment that the party with the pre-poll alliance (not single largest party) that will have the highest number of votes should be invited to form the government.
• Such an alliance will be required to choose their PM candidate at least one month before the first phase of polling. The alliance that projects a PM candidate within the stipulated timeframe will be considered ahead of the alliance that does not when the President decides who to invite to form the government.

Mallika Sarabhai: Are some people born this way?

Check this video of Mallika Sarabhai. Some may think she is arrogant and stupid. Others may find her confident. What is your take? Can she connect with the common man? Can she take on someone with experience serving the people for years that equal her age?

Arun Jaitley on BJP's chances

See what Mr. Jaitley's thinks of BJP's chances in these elections. He takes on english media for raking the Modi issue consistently.

Navjot Sidhu: What a shot!

Navjot Sidhu of BJP is a master of the spoken word. Check out his videos:

Northwest Delhi: Straight Fight: But where are the contestants?

Watch the straight fight in Rohini, Northwest Delhi.

Typical issues being discussed:

• Terrorism (Kandahar versus Afzal Guru)
• Ram Mandir
• Religious Discrimination

What about development?
Also, where are the contestants? The crowd gets rowdy.

Individual High Profile Candidates

Here are victory predictions of individual high profile candidates (victory margin in brackets):

• Varun Gandhi - Pilibhit (100,000-150,000)
• Sonia Gandhi - Rae Bareilly (350,000-400,000)
• Rahul Gandhi - Amethi (300,000)
• Sumitra Mahajan - Indore (30,000-60,000)
• Kireet Somaiyya - Northeast Mumbai (50,000)
• Supriya Sule (Pawar) - Baramati (300,000+)
• LK Advani - Gandhinagar (200,000)
• Sharad Pawar - Madha (250,000)
• Jyotiraditya Scindia (200,000-250,000)

Close contests (Predicted winners):

• Lalji Tandon - Lucknow (15,000)
• Anil Shirole - Pune (12,000-20,000)
• Ram Naik - North Mumbai (25,000)
• Shatrughan Sinha - Patnasahib (30,000)

Prominent Losers (Predicted):

• Jayaprada - Rampur
• Shekhar Suman - Patnasahib
• George Fernandes - Muzaffarpur
• Kamal Nath - Chhindwara
• Suresh Kalmadi - Pune

Who will form the next government in India? Which party will come to power?

Who will form the next government is the million dollar question. There are only 17 more days for the results of the polls to come out. After that, the horse trading will begin. Here are our predictions:

• NDA will emerge as the single largest party.
• BJP will not get a majority, so they will not be able to stake a claim to form the government.
• NDA will, by itself, not be able to gain simple majority either.
• Neither will the UPA.
• Regional parties will play a big role in forming the next government.
• The mandate will be clearly against the Congress party. The anti-incumbency factor will be the biggest determinant. Mandate against non-performance by Congress party will be clear.
• Regional parties will ride the anti-incumbency wave and support the NDA.
• Anti-Congress-DMK wave will sweep Tamil Nadu due to the way the LTTE issue has been handled. Jayalalitha will have crucial numbers to bring majority to the AIADMK party in Tamil Nadu.
• BJP will sweep MP, Gujarat and Himachal.
• BJP-SS will have unprecedented gains in Maharashtra. See earlier post in this blog.
• BJP-SS will come to power in Maharashtra later in the year.
• BJP will have unprecedented gains in Punjab, Rajasthan, Orissa and Delhi.
• UP will produce a fractured mandate. SP will face major losses in UP from last elections. Amar Singh and Kalyan Singh will be shown the door unceremoniously. BJP and Ajit Singh's RLD will experience major gains.
• Andhra Pradesh will also have a fractured mandate. Congress will have setbacks in AP.
• The left will suffer setbacks in West Bengal and Kerala. Congress will make inroads in these states for the first time.
• Bihar will face a huge anti-Laloo wave. JD(U) and BJP will experience major gains.
• LK Advani will become PM of India.
• Jayalalitha will become Deputy PM.

Sonia Gandhi exposed; UPA not coming to power again

Two recent headlines have made it clear that UPA is on its way out. They clearly signal a sign of desperation from Sonia Gandhi:

• Quattrocchi was given a clean chit by the CBI. Sonia Gandhi clearly wants all the dirt to go away before she is done.
• Supreme Court has asked a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe Narendra Modi's role in the 2002 Gujarat riots.

These two recent events show that:

1. UPA government is getting desperate to make some last breath moves to hang on to power.
2. In case they are not so lucky, which by all indications seems correct, then at least some of the cases against the Gandhi family (Bofors) will go away.

This is a no win situation for the Congress. It is clear that they have nowhere to go from here but down.

While all this happens, the stupid pseudo-secular media continues to put its spin on the happenings.

Bhopal: BJP vs. Congress: Straight Fight

Kailash Joshi of BJP takes on Surendra Singh Thakur of Congress. The public keeps getting in the way. Check out the Bhopal debate:

Indore Contest: Debate

Sumitra Mahajan makes sense. बेटा भगोड़ा हैं। यह क्या हो रहा हैं?

Check it out:

South Mumbai: Interesting contest

Mohan Rawale of Shiv Sena, Milind Deora Congress and Meera Sanyal (independent) make an interesting contest. Meera Sanyal will take away votes from Milind Deora. Nice three way fight.