Pakistan - an election that never was!

It is that time of the year when all the crazies come out of the closet and one of them just happens to be called Musharraf. The recent events has left no one in doubts as to the veracity of the current election, that said, It does make one wonder why on earth is Musharraf conducting an election that is bound to be derided from all corners of the world.

Pakistani politics does always leave one to wonder 'when is the other shoe going to drop'. Well, it is the very query that is bound to go through Musharraf's head more now than later. His position in the country as one of the most hated person’s right after General Zia is not something to be proud of, but then again, that is the bitter truth, one that Musharraf may well have to come to terms with.

With the United States all eager to prove to the rest of the world that Pakistan is a democratic country, one that no one in his or her right mind would accept, has sent in three senators to act as observers. Yeah, right! They are probably observing all that is taking place right from their hotel rooms since it is not safe for them to walk in the streets.

With one of Musharraf's chief allay lagging behind in the polls; Musharraf seems to be at a loss of words as to what is happening. I think that Musharraf must have harbored a secret desire to be crowned as king at the end of the election. I think that we can all say that is not going to happen anytime soon and even if it did, it would probably be as a result of all the rigging.

This is one election that is turning out to be something else altogether. After all the times that Musharraf had commented on the Kashmir polls, as to how unfair they were, the current situation must indeed be galling for him to say the least. India has since its independence, proved to the rest of the world that the spirit of democracy is vibrant at all corners of the nation. And, today just as Pakistan has finished with the election business, maybe Musharaff may take a page from the India book and make sure that at least the next time around, true democracy takes the place of Musharraf's autocracy. In the end, that is what this is all about, power and who acquires it.

The day that Musharraf got rid off the Supreme Court under false charges, the spirit of democracy fled Pakistan. Just hosting an election that is all in name only will not bring it back. It is high time that Musharraf went into exile; maybe he could ask the Indian leaders for refuge status as they have been accepting refugees since time immemorial. Either way, with Musharraf out of the way, may be we can hold a real election!

Pakistani polls, a futile exercise?

Will the music of democracy ever play in Pakistan ever again? With the Human rights indicating that it is standing by its stand that one of the top officials in Pakistan had indicated that there is going to be an 'all out' rigging so that Musharraf's party wins the polls, more and more doubts are being cast on an election which no one believes will ever take place.
And even if it did take place, no one in Pakistan is willing to lay any bets on it being fair and square. With the United States willing to rubber stamp the 'elections' by sending three U.S senators to over see it. What are they here to oversee, the rigging?
They may as well announce the winners as Musharraf's party right now and get done with it. Why bother going to the extent of holding an election when we all know that it is an exercise in imagination and one that does not exercise the people's mandate?

The fight over the Bharat Ratna!

It seems that nothing is sacrosanct in this country and the Bharat Ratna is no exception to this as the politics have already started seeping into this as well. If there were no politics and no politicians, the world would indeed be a much better place. But sadly though we all cannot have all we want, all the time. The BJP fired the first salvo, requesting that the Congress party award the Bharat Ratna for former PM AB Vajpayee. Now, the BSP party has joined this bandwagon as well by requesting the same for her party founder, Kanshi Ram.
This is indeed a sad state of affairs, to see the highest civilian award in the nation to be used as a political whip of sorts. This is exactly the kind of attitude that we do not expect to see from our 'lawmakers; but then again these are the same people who go about breaking all the laws that they see fit to break, so what else can we really expect from them?

India and Myanmar - no more weapons!

India, it seems has finally given in to world opinion and it has decided to no longer sell any more arms to the military Junta. This news broke out in the Washington post and it has been independently confirmed by them as well.
Of course, as to the veracity of this news, one can be sure of it, at least until the government here does a turnaround and start selling arms to the Junta all over again.
But this action taken by one of the Junta's closest allies, is bound to send a stern message to the Junta that they cannot do business in the way that they have been doing all these years. It is high time that the Junta realise that anything attempted by force does not last for long and that the reconciliation process between the Junta and the democratically elected leader of Myanmar,Aung San Suu Kyi should be put on the fast track!

The end of days for the Indian government!

It seems that the current Indian government may face elections sooner than ever, it is caught between a rock and a very immovable hard Left. Whichever decision it undertakes vis-a-vis the Nuclear deal, it has to alienate some of its so called allies.
Lets all take a breather and take a look at this deal, first of all, is this deal good for India - although most of the educated populace may say no at the first time as I was of the same opinion the ground reality is that India is not going to get any deal better than this. That is the nub of the matter, no one is going to step forward and say that India is a nuclear power and we are okay with India building up its nuclear arsenal. So in the long run of things, this deal is the best thing that has happened to India seeing that we do not have that many deals knocking on our front door.

The Russians had offered a similar deal but without the 'yea' of the NSG group so even if the prime minister had gone ahead and signed that deal with the Russians, the NSG group would have blocked it. The Russians would not have lost anything much by that deal getting blocked but our credibility would have hit rock bottom and we may as well forget getting that clearance in the near future.
The Left parties, the allies of the current government seem to be only good at one thing and that is sowing destruction wherever they go to. Take the case of Nandigram, we all know that they were behind the whole dastardly affair, but did the CPI[m] leader have the courtesy to even offer a simple apology, NO, he did not. All he said was that the nandigram villagers were paid with the same coin and this comment came from the chief minister ruling that state. This should tell you about the mentality of the Left parties. Currently they are busy blackmailing the current Congress government and they have warned the Congress party publicly that if they do not toe the Left's line regarding the Americans and the Indo - U.S nuclear deal, then they, the Left parties will withdraw support to the current government and that they would have to face general elections sooner than later.

The Left parties seem to think that they can get away with anything, and now they are trying to impress their ideology of hating anything to do with the west on the entire nation. The Congress party is under pressure to put up with the Left but there is a limit and it has been reached a long time ago. No one with backbone would put up with the antics of the Left parties and the time has come to show the Left parties to take the road. Of course, it would mean that we all would have to face general elections again but that is okay if it means that the left will have no more say in the running of this country.
The Congress party has to realise that the longer they put up with the left parties, they are only tarnishing their own image and it is high time that they stood up for what they believe in.

kremlin,manmohan singh,congress party,sonia gandhi,george bush,nandigram,Buddhadeb,nuclear deal,

Karnataka assembly gets dissolved!

The president of India dissolved the Karnataka assembly today and reinstated the presidents rule in the state. I have to say that for all those who are majoring in civics and matters of the state, what is happening in Karnataka must be great news to them as they get to see first hand the inner workings of the Government.
It is sad that the results of the last democratic elections have to be all swept under the rug like this, and this happened, all because a father and son duo got too power hungry. But you know what they say, behave like an ass and you will get treated like one.
The people of Karnataka as well as the people of India are not going to forget this, after all it is their hard earned money that is being washed down the drain like waster water. Every time the elections are held, be they local or general elections cores of rupees are spent and all this comes from the pockets of the common man. And now, with both assemblies being dissolved and the presidents rule back in force in the state, the people of Karnataka will have to wait another 6 months before another democratically elected government can take over!

India,Karnataka,politics,elections,

Emergency to be lifted on Dec 16th?

Musharraf seems to be intent on throwing everyone off balance and that is what he did with the latest announcement that the emergency is to be lifted on December the 16th. Of course the rest of the world will rather wait and see what Musharraf does and truth be told, one cannot blame them for wanting to take whatever Musharraf says with a rather heavy dose of salt. As for the rivals for power in Pakistan, Nawaz sharif and Benazir bhutto, it seems that one of them has decided to boycott the elections where as the other one is under undue pressure from the Americans to contest the elections.

What am I talking about? Well the game for power in Pakistan has began and the Americans as well as Musharraf realise that the Pakistan that accepted military rule in the past will not do so in the current atmosphere, therefore some semblance of democracy should be restored to Pakistan. The Americans would very much prefer that Pakistan be jointly ruled by both the 'Dictatorial' Musharraf and the versatile Bhutto. Even Musharraf realises that Bhutto is the key to his survival in this game for the ultimate power since both he and Sharif detest each other, therefore they would not support one other. Bhutto is fast becoming the most wanted person in Pakistan, one one hand, the entire opposition would like for her to boycott the elections altogether and since the integrity of the current election commission is not all that great, any current elections held under them can be easily overturned by the Supreme court. That said, on the other hand I am sure that Benazir Bhutto realises that the current election could very well see to her becoming the Prime minister again.l Things are very turbulent at the very least in Pakistani politics and I am sure that a few years from now, someone would make a very good soap opera about the whole thing!

Pakistan,politics,Musharraf,emergency,Martial law,

Karnataka waiting with baited breath for its new leader!

Karnataka politics has all been about personal gain on the part of the last chief minister H.D Kumaraswamy and his father Deva gowda. Having seen that neither the Congress party nor the BJP were willing to allow the father and son duo to control the reins of power in Karnataka, they had no choice but to support the BJP for the position of the Chief Minister of Karnataka. But as things heated up within the JD[S], the Deva Gowda party for having supported the BJP, Deva gowda issued a letter or a proclamation of sorts, telling the BJP in no uncertain terms that the JD[S] would support them only if they act according to the will and the wishes of the JD[S]. In simple terms, the JD[S] want to control the power behind the throne.
Anyway the politicians have all given letters of support, supporting BJP's claim to the position of the chief minister, to the Governor of Karnataka. The Governor is coming under enormous pressure to take a decision on this matter right away. All eyes are on the Governor's next move as well as on the president of India, Pratibha Patel!

politics,india,karnataka,governor,

BJP will support the U.S-India nuke deal?

The BJP party is redefining its stand on the Indo-U.S nuclear deal. As the Left parties, the coalition partners of the ruling Congress party is opposed firmly to anything American, the BJP party which has already been pro-US may just well support the deal.
This puts the BJP, the opposition in the Parliament, in a kind of a quandary.
They are the opposition, and the deal has been finalised by their arch rivals, the Congress party and now, should they oppose the deal on principle or support the deal because it is in the national interest to do so.
Well, today the BJP answered this interesting question in not so many words and it seems that they may well support this deal, provided the Congress party clarifies their queries and makes a firm commitment that this deal will not cap India's development.
The Indian public, by and large realise that Communism as an ideology and as a principle has no place in the modern era. What is more, the Indian public is extremely annoyed by the Left parties with their antiquated logic and worthless policy decisions. As such, the BJP parties may realise that the anger of the people against the Left parties is growing and they may want to score some 'brownie points' by appearing as the good guys who managed to save the day. So this may be why the BJP is softening to the Indo-U.S nuke deal!
india,united states,nuclear deal,politics,

Burns increasing the pressure on India!

Burns, the US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, is increasing the pressure on India as the ruling Congress party is mulling its options. I for one would not fancy being in the Prime Minister's shoes at the moment, not with the pressure that he is currently facing. Nicholas Burns, is slowly but surely turning the screws on India so as to ensure that the Nuclear deal does go through. George Bush needs at least one successful policy decision in his kitty and this is it.

If the Nuke deal falls flat, then Georgie boy will have nothing top show for this presidency except war,loss,debt and death. That's quite an achievement even for George Bush anyway he wants this deal to go through and he has indicated that he is not going to hold back as far as this deal goes.

Politically the Americans understand that if this deal does fall flat then the Russians who are waiting in the wings will just swoop in and then the U.S will be out of the picture as far as Asia goes. So for all the right reasons and the wrong reasons, both the democrats and the republicans in the United states want this deal to go through at all cost . The deal will happen, it is just a matter of timing but for George Bush, it is fast running out as the presidential elections are fast approaching the United states!

politics,manmohan singh,george bush,Nicholas Burns,

A climbdown on the Nuclear deal??

Today at a public meeting the prime minister of India,dr.Manmohan singh said that the nuclear deal is important to India and that he would like it to be finalised.but in the event that it did not do so,he would be disappointed,but life would go on.this is quite a climbdown for the ruling Congress party which had been gung-ho about this deal until now.
What is even more intriguing is that the position of the government had come at a time when the IAEA chief was in India.there are many rumors doing the rounds that the Congress party is just trying to placate its partners in the coalition government and that they are just bidding for time.all said and done,no where had the Congress party mentioned that they are giving up the deal.as the parliament closes for the winter,that would be a ripe time for the current government,that is the congress party to move ahead with the deal.since once the parliament shuts down,there is little that this government's coalition partners can do to enforce their point of view!there is a shady game going on over here,how it will end,we will be able to know that in a couple of months!

india,nuclear deal,iaea,energy,

Supreme court versus the Government!

At times like this i for one am quite happy for a bit of judicial activism.it all started with the State government of Tamilnadu,the DMK announcing a total bandh and they did this because they were unhappy with the central government.naturally the opposition AIADMK party cried foul and most of the citizens of Tamilnadu was with the opposition as no one wanted the bandh in the first place.a bandh means total cessation of work,all shops and places of business to be closed as well as total lock down on all means of transportation.in other words,whenever a bandh takes place,it is the common man who faces the brunt!anyway the AIADMK party went to the Supreme court and the court ended up holding a special hearing on a Sunday,an event that has not taken place before in the history of the Supreme court,well at least not until now.anyway they had the special hearing and in that hearing they forbidded the DMK party from going ahead with the Bandh and they had also issued a warning that if the political party went ahead and did that,they would well face serious consequences.
Since it is a well documented fAct that politicians normally only worry about their own benefit and rarely worry about the man on the street,it came as no surprise to any that an unofficial Bandh took place yesterday.what happened is that the DMK party,on hearing the Supreme court's orders immediately announced a hunger strike instead of a bandh but also told its followers as well as the various trade unions to enforce an unofficial bandh.and this took place along with incidents of violence.passengers who came to Chennai had to lug their own luggage to their hotels as there was no transportation and since there was no work to be done all the daily wage workers suffered.all in all this took place in spite of the apex courts rulings.and to add insult to injury,some of the union ministers belonging to the DMK party went and gave a speech implying that the Supreme court judges are infallible and are prone to commit mistakes and that they must all be corrupt.the media covered all of this and have been playing the denigrating statements made by a cabinet minister as well as the chief minister against the Supreme court of India.as things stand,the Supreme court has directed the opposition party,the AIADMK to file a contempt petition before the apex court and it is being done,tomorrow.and it seems that the Supreme court will not take this lying down and will definitely make the DMK party an example to all the other political parties.what most of the politicians do not realise is that they are servants of the people who have been elected by the people.and that the supreme court has every right to be judicially active so as to safeguard the constitution and to make sure that all citizens of India do not suffer just because a select few want to protest for their own selfish ends!it seems that tomorrow may well be the beginning of the end for the DMK party.the showdown has been set for tomorrow!

The Congress 'much ado about nothing'?

With the Congress leader Sonia Gandhi in the Untied states for the UN meeting,seems not to be to worried about the hard stance of her allies in India vis-a-vis the nuclear deal.but most of the official circles seem to say that the Congress party is determined to see this deal through irrespective of the allies protest against having 'truck' with the United states.
As things stand the left parties who are strongly entrenched in their Communist ideals and principles are determined to see to it that India does not become a partner of the west.but they should realise that such ideals ad principles belong solely in the history books and that today's world has no room whatsoever for any Communist ideals or Socialistic principles.the fact is that even though such values may have been propounded by great leaders like Tagore and all that the fact of the matter is that the whole wide world is becoming quite capitalistic in every way possible.so to hold on to such antiquated ideals only serves to hurt the country and does not help it in any way.as for Sonia Gandhi,she does not seem too worried that the left parties are getting quite strident in their demands on the Congress party.many people believe that it only indicates two things,that this nuclear deal will go through and that there may well be mid term elections!

Shame,shame,shame on you!

The left parties should be ashamed that it is holding the government hostage.many believe that the Left parties are actually the agents of China.whether that is true or not,the left's position on so many issues correspond to the position of China itself.this is indeed very worrying that the government of India could be held hostage and stopped from carrying out its duties because of certain foreign Powers.
what is more,most of the educated citizens of India are of the opinion that the Nuclear deal between India and the United stats is in the national interest and that it is essential.and with the Left's threat of withdrawing support if the government goes ahead with the Nuclear deal is only being seen as many as the left is against any development for India as large and that they are interested in foisting another national election on the people!
What is really galling is that these people are doing it under the guise of 'national interest'.it is more likely a case of self interest.the left have shown their true colors and the people of India will never forgive them if they try to foist another general election on such grounds and under the guise of 'national interest'.it is the tax payers money that is being spent every election and we the tax payers most certainly do not want another election right away.the left parties can be assured that come next election they will most definitely not get our votes and that is the truth!

The Left bringing down the house??

As we all know that the Left parties have always opposed anything to do with the United States and they justify this as saying that it is against their ideology.they even oppose the opening of U.S market chains in Calcutta.personally i believe in 'live and let live'.but i think that the Left parties should wake up to the reality that communism as an ideology is no longer viable in this ever changing world and that they should keep up with the times.
It is the age of capitalism world over and that the sun has truly set on Communism as an Ideology and even as a way of life.take China for example,the Chinese government have imposed the Communism way of life on its people but this is done by brute force and not by free choice!capitalism is the way of life now.so it would be better for all of us in India is the left parties would change and change for the better and soon at that!today,the left have given the government of India an ultimatum of sorts-postpone the U.S-India deal or they will topple the government.had the same nuclear deal been proposed by say the Russians or the Chinese,they would have whole heartedly supported it.the Left parties need to 'live and let live' and not oppose anyone just because their ideology demands it!

Madam president or Mr. president??

The race to Raisina hill has heated up in a very surprising way.the newly formed third front had nominated the current incumbent president Dr.abdul.j.kalam as their nominee.this could of course be just mere political posturing but consider the other two candidates,mr.shekawat[the current vice president] and Ms Pratibha Patil,the congress nominee.compared to dr.Kalam,these two just fade away into the background.Dr kalam has done much more for the nation than either of these two put together and that is not all.the current president dr.Kalam has shown more often than not that he has principles and will not be just a rubber stamp of any political party and what is more,is truly well liked and loved by the entire nation.Dr kalam if you are reading this,please do accept the third front's proposal and stand for the election,sir.the entire nation of India wants you to do so.the politicians may not but we as citizens of India want you to be the next president as well,sir.
It is indeed sad that most political parties are seeking to nominate someone they can control to the Rashtrapati bhavan,in effect making the next president of India a rubber stamp.this should not happen.it is high time that the executive was given more powers and the election of the president should be one where the people of india can actively participate in.i do not have any faith in the politicians as most of them are corrupt.so i do hope that the third front's nominee does win because this country does need someone like Dr.Kalam at the helm of things!