Verdict 2009: Good Governace Wins, Bad Looses

As I expected the changed voters turned the elections and the predictions heads on. The new age voter opted to vote for good governance and voted on the quality of local governance. Starting from Jammu and Kashmir to Tamil Nadu good local governance reaped rewards from voters. I am not aware of the profiles of seven sisters of east, but from rest of the country I could see that people voted to make a difference. They voted their intent, and as UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi commented, they made correct choice. Now it is left to the representatives to make the difference.

In J&K people voted for Congress and NC combine. Considering the feedback of this combine since their victory in assembly elections, it was no surprise. In nearby HP people voted for good governance of BJP government, while they rejected the SAD-BJP combine in nearby Punjab and BJP government in Uttrakhand. Some experts and Congress loyales may try to link Punjab verdict to Congress' PM candidate being Sikh but I still have faith in the people's conscience that they have not voted on negative issues.

Even in Haryana, my home state the things went per script for the first time in my entire voting career. For the first time I saw people voting on the local governance rather than going by customery pattern of voting on personal relations, caste or communal lines. Instead there was a strict shift to vote on the basis of the performance criteria, "The CM has worked for us, so we would vote for him." I saw the pattern on the polling day and was wondering on the exit poll declarations of Congress winning only 6 seats in Haryana.

I really don't have access to resources to comment on the verdict from Uttar Pradesh, but nearby Bihar finally decided to show way to Mr. Lalu Yadav his combine for good governance from CM Mr. Nitish Kumar. Red bastion West Bengal shifted from left to centre with Mamta Benerjee led central alliance pulling off the biggest surprise. There people voted against the Singur farce caused by left cadres.

In nearby Orrisa, BJD continued its dominance of state politics with good performance post Kandhamal riots, while BJP consolidated itself in Chhatisgarh once again. Rajashthan and Gujarat again proved that good governance is key to win elections. People are trying to prove that the good governance did not pay-off in MP, but I feel good governance has still won there. The spicy factor there is that repeated non-performing candidates have been removed from the field.

Like UP, Maharashtra is too vast and varied to be commented upon. But the good governance wave continued to southern states with AP, TN and Karnataka gaining for it and Kerala ruling party loosing for the lack of it.

Personally I still don't feel this is the kind of democracy we should be looking at. I would still bet for the system where people vote for candidate's performance and punish him for his and his party's misdeeds. But this is very acceptable state of democracy then which we used to see, when people would vote on various misleading political lines hurting our social and economic systems.

General Elections 2009 - Different Elections

First things first, I am a great supporter for "Vote Pappu Movement", so I commit myself to vote yet again these elections and commit to persuade any Pappu looking to miss out voting to vote!!

Coming back to the topic, I really feel that this election is different. None of the political parties look convincing to win the elections, so everyone is playing safe regarding the plans for post-election alliances. This proves my comment during the vote of confidence won by PM Dr. Manmohan Singh that the vote of confidence makes every political party weak, and hence will make voters stronger. I again assert that I used the term 'voter' instead of people because every election the voters are the ones whose opinion matters and not the Pappu's who do not vote.

A lot of things have changed since last General Elections: economy boosted and busted, political equations spun and swung, but the most important thing I see is that people's awareness of political system has increased. For the first time I am seeing a movement to compell people to vote. Earlier I just used to see political parties pushing their voters to vote, now there are people and institutions trying to make people aware of their voting right. This make me hope that these elections are going to be different. More people are going to vote. More votes being polled means lesser manipulation on the basis of traditional tools of religion, cast, community. I makes populist manipulation of votes a better candidate for winning as it means candidates who used to get 15-20% votes, wont be able to win the election.

Further, just like young generation of politicians, we have a young savvy generation of voters as well. This vote-pool is not going to vote on the basis of traditional criteria, since they themselves are unorthodox, smart and aware. They are going to play significant role as traditional political analysts can not predict their behaviour, leading to more uncertainty in predictions and ultimately the results, Hence making political parties and candidates more uncertain of their positions.

People reading the blog may be wondering if I am writing in dreams or fantasy, but every bit of my comments is true for all the urban constituencies. If my coments look unconvincing take feedback from any candidate rnning from urban constituencies. I am expecting the rural areas to still vote on traditional pattern, but the variation wil start from this election itself. This feeling makes me feel that these are certainly going to be different elections.

Happy Voting 2009!

PS: I would certainly like to post more on these elections. So, keep on looking for this space for more comments.

Toll Free Numbers in India.

As contributed by my friend Deepak. Thanks to him!!!

Airlines
Indian Airlines - 1800 180 1407
Jet Airways - 1800 22 5522
Spice Jet - 1800 180 3333
Air India -- 1800 22 7722
Kingfisher - 1800 180 0101

Banks
ABN AMRO - 1800 11 2224
Canara Bank - 1800 44 6000
Citibank - 1800 44 2265
Corporation Bank - 1800 443 555
Development Credit Bank - 1800 22 5769
HDFC Bank - 1800 227 227
ICICI Bank - 1800 333 499
ICICI Bank NRI - 1800 22 4848
IDBI Bank - 1800 11 6999
Indian Bank - 1800 425 1400
ING Vysya - 1800 44 9900
Kotak Mahindra Bank - 1800 22 6022
Lord Krishna Bank - 1800 11 2300
Punjab National Bank - 1800 122 222
State Bank of India - 1800 44 1955
Syndicate Bank - 1800 44 6655

Automobiles
Mahindra Scorpio - 1800 22 6006
Maruti - 1800 111 515
Tata Motors - 1800 22 5552
Windshield Experts - 1800 11 3636


Computers/IT
Adrenalin - 1800 444 445
AMD - 1800 425 6664
Apple Computers - 1800 444 683
Canon - 1800 333 366
Cisco Systems - 1800 221 777
Compaq - HP - 1800 444 999
Data One Broadband - 1800 424 1800
Dell - 1800 444 026
Epson - 1800 44 0011
eSys - 3970 0011
Genesis Tally Academy - 1800 444 888
HCL - 1800 180 8080
IBM - 1800 443 333
Lexmark - 1800 22 4477
Marshal's Point - 1800 33 4488
Microsoft - 1800 111 100
Microsoft Virus Update - 1901 333 334
Seagate - 1800 180 1104
Symantec - 1800 44 5533
TVS Electronics - 1800 444 566
WeP Peripherals - 1800 44 6446
Wipro - 1800 333 312
Xerox - 1800 180 1225
Zenith - 1800 222 004


Indian Railways
General Enquiry 131
Central Enquiry 131
Reservation 131
Railway Reservation Enquiry 1345,1335,1330
Centralised Railway Enquiry 1330/1/2/3/4/5/6/7/8/9

Couriers/Packers & Movers
ABT Courier - 1800 44 8585
AFL Wizz - 1800 22 9696
Agarwal Packers & Movers - 1800 11 4321
Associated Packers P Ltd - 1800 21 4560
DHL - 1800 111 345
FedEx - 1800 22 6161
Goel Packers & Movers - 1800 11 3456
UPS - 1800 22 7171

Home Appliances
Aiwa/Sony - 1800 11 1188
Anchor Switches - 1800 22 7979
Blue Star - 1800 22 2200
Bose Audio - 1800 11 2673
Bru Coffee Vending Machines - 1800 44 7171
Daikin Air Conditioners - 1800 444 222
DishTV - 1800 12 3474
Faber Chimneys - 1800 21 4595
Godrej - 1800 22 5511
Grundfos Pumps - 1800 33 4555
LG - 1901 180 9999
Philips - 1800 22 4422
Samsung - 1800 113 444
Sanyo - 1800 11 0101
Voltas - 1800 33 4546
WorldSpace Satellite Radio - 1800 44 5432

Investments/ Finance
CAMS - 1800 44 2267
Chola Mutual Fund - 1800 22 2300
Easy IPO's - 3030 5757
Fidelity Investments - 1800 180 8000
Franklin Templeton Fund - 1800 425 4255
J M Morgan Stanley - 1800 22 0004
Kotak Mutual Fund - 1800 222 626
LIC Housing Finance - 1800 44 0005
SBI Mutual Fund - 1800 22 3040
Sharekhan - 1800 22 7500
Tata Mutual Fund - 1800 22 0101

Travel
Club Mahindra Holidays - 1800 33 4539
Cox & Kings - 1800 22 1235
God TV Tours - 1800 442 777
Kerala Tourism - 1800 444 747
Kumarakom Lake Resort - 1800 44 5030
Raj Travels & Tours - 1800 22 9900
Sita Tours - 1800 111 911
SOTC Tours - 1800 22 3344


Healthcare
Best on Health - 1800 11 8899
Dr Batras - 1800 11 6767
GlaxoSmithKline - 1800 22 8797
Johnson & Johnson - 1800 22 8111
Kaya Skin Clinic - 1800 22 5292
LifeCell - 1800 44 5323
Manmar Technologies - 1800 33 4420
Pfizer - 1800 442 442
Roche Accu-Chek - 1800 11 45 46
Rudraksha - 1800 21 4708
Varilux Lenses - 1800 44 8383
VLCC - 1800 33 1262


Insurance
AMP Sanmar - 1800 44 2200
Aviva - 1800 33 2244
Bajaj Allianz - 1800 22 5858
Chola MS General Insurance - 1800 44 5544
HDFC Standard Life - 1800 227 227
LIC - 1800 33 4433
Max New York Life - 1800 33 5577
Royal Sundaram - 1800 33 8899
SBI Life Insurance - 1800 22 9090

Hotel Reservations
GRT Grand - 1800 44 5500
InterContinental Hotels Group - 1800 111 000
Marriott - 1800 22 0044
Sarovar Park Plaza - 1800 111 222
Taj Holidays - 1800 111 825

Teleshopping
Asian Sky Shop - 1800 22 1800
Jaipan Teleshoppe - 1800 11 5225
Tele Brands - 1800 11 8000
VMI Teleshopping - 1800 447 777
WWS Teleshopping - 1800 220 777

Others
Domino's Pizza - 1800 111 123

Cell Phones
BenQ - 1800 22 08 08
Bird CellPhones - 1800 11 7700
Motorola MotoAssist - 1800 11 1211
Nokia - 3030 3838
Sony Ericsson - 3901 1111

Caution: This list is not verified, but I hope it is compiled in good spirit.

UPA Government Survives

As a citizen of the Indian Union, I am happy to see the UPA government survive the trust vote yesterday. As for the way it survive could indicate lots of trouble for democracy in India, but I still am happy to see it survive for quite a few reasons:
1. One of the two demons standing against Indian economy for last 6 months dies with this trust vote. The fear of left intervention in the economic policy decisions (rather halting of decisions) was killing the economic growth. This trust vote fixes this. However, the bigger demon of inflation still lies, but I am hopeful that with more clearer policy and a same economics coalition at helm with be able to take care of the same, given that election year is about to come, so government will by no means would like this demon to survive till then.
2. We survive early election, which would have led to higher inflation, and poorer economy.
3. Manmohan Singh finally was able to prove that he is not weak (err... weakest) Prime Minister. Instead his defiance to the largest coalition partition gives us the proof of how strong the character of the man is.
4. The strongest of the reason is that it has made every polical party weaker. This will mean that people will benefit. Congress is in survival mode for last couple of years, it will continue to do so till the elections.

Why I Want To See ICL Succeed Over IPL

Now that IPL is about to be launched and ICL is about to reach the concluding phase of its second successful edition, I find this an opportunity to express my feelings toward both of the leagues.
At present ICL seem to be my favourite, even though I have been able to witness just one match in the ground (Delhi Giants v/s Hyderabad Heroes at TDL Stadium Gurgaon), it seem to have inspired enough confidence in me to state on a public blog that I want this league to be successful.
IPL on the other hand is in news for quite a while now. It has got enough star power. But it is yet to be launched in front of public.
Coming to the reasons why I prefer ICL over IPL. The first and the foremost reason is that while ICL is the original idea, IPL is a reaction to ICL from the most influencial organization of the Cricket world (read BCCI). Their intentions are destructive as their actions regarding the people associated with ICL indicate, while ICL represents creativity and dare-devilness (with all apologies to Delhi IPL team.)
Second reason is that ICL despite all the blockage and hooliganisms from ICC and its super-boss BCCI has maintained the dignity and remained humble in the war of words, while the IPL team (captained by Mr. Lalit Modi) seem to indicate that they want to ruin their opponents at every cost.
The third and the foremost reason is that despite maintaining the flavor of T20 and glamour ICL has been able to keep the focus on the main thing - cricket. They have played cricket with passion, shown adaptability to whatever kind of wickets that were on offer. On the other hand IPL has already gone overboard with glamor factor. At the launch of each and every team it was obvious that glamor what the boss and cricket (or read cricketers) was just a slave to them. So obviously any cricket lover would opt for ICL over IPL. However, people wanting to look for beautiful faces may opt for IPL.

Compilation 1: Drivers of Delhi

As suggested by Delhi LG Mr. Khanna, North Indians seem to be enjoying while breaking laws on Delhi roads. His statement does not seems to be amusing me being a North Indian, being a regular commuter. If he seems to feel that it is North Indians who take pride in breaking laws on Delhi roads, I feel he could have even narrowed down the culprit group - the real culprits are the family members of influential people in North India. The group contains:
1. Relatives of all politician leaders of North India.
2. Relatives of all rich businessmen of North India.
3. Relatives of all bureaucrats working in North India, this group may contain people from other parts of India.
4. Relatives of all Delhi Police and Delhi Traffic Police personnel.
5. Relatives of all people having social/business links with either of the above, this group may contain people from other parts of India.
6. DTC and influential Transport vendors vehicles drivers.

The group does not contains the people who are forced to bribe the traffic police, when caught because 90% of time they commit mistakes because they don't have proper traffic signs visible, rest 10% are due to ignorance. And once they suffer, they never repeat it.

The group does not contains the North Indian people who pay challans, which they have to pay because they don't have any link with influntial Delhites.

And Mr. LG, the group even comprise of your relatives. I have witnessed lots of time, when you have got challaned for the same offense and people with same offense got away with just one call to people like you.

The list of reasons a lot of people seem to be committing traffic offenses in Delhi is as follows:
1. Improper/ Invisible traffic signs.
2. Improper Road designs, a lot of places you have to break the law or stand stranded on road.
3. Encroachments on Roads by civic authorities sans Delhi Metro, e.g. you will see their hoardings on roads even after they have completed their work.
4. Buses from DTC and other influential transport vendors, who block most of the roads at the Bus Stops.


You drive one day on Inner Ring road as anonymous person and you will find everything I have written here.

Its very easy to give a problem statement, but very difficult to solve it. I have taken resolution to drive as per rules several times, but failed miserably. None of the stints could last a day. And I am ashamed of that and not proud as you have suggested.

No Bharat Ratna this year

Very understandably to its nature the UPA govt has decided not to confer the 'Bharat Ratna' to anybody. This was their political weakness that led to this scenario, because if they choose a Congressman for the award, their UPA colleagues will cause turmoil to the life of poor Manmohan Singh. If they give it to any of their non-left allies, they face the music from comrades. Even comrade Jyoti Basu would have caused a stir in their own ranks. The main opposition party played their own cards by suggesting the name of Mr. Vajpayee.
As a citizen of the Indian Republic, I am more than happy to see the award being not conferred, rather than being conferred to somebody who is not deserving. I would have been more than happy to see the award being not conferred to Sachin Tendulkar, than it being conferred to somebody like Karpuri Thakur or Kansi Ram or even Comrade Basu. Even though my choice would have been Sachin, with Mr. Vajpayee being a distant second.
People may treat my opinion to be negative, but even though I prefer to choose the options positively, here it is more than a choice. In fact the moment you discuss any award associated with the pride of the country the choice should be restrictive rather than the inclusive. The reason is that it is not just an award, but it reflects how a nation wants it icon to look like. Whether he should be a originator or supporter of divisive politics like Kansi Ram, Vajpayee; or whether he should be a man whose integrity lifts the mood of whole nation, even at a time when they are on a low (If anybody has any doubts see the smile on the face of a stock trader, having suffered in market this week, after Sachin's century at Adelaide).