- India: Poor country, Rich Politicians
Rajesh Shukla of the NCAER and Sunil Jain find in their analysis of wealth declared by Indian politicians that MLAs from poorer states such as Bihar, U.P. and Madhya Pradesh are not as poor as their fellow state citizens…
Topic: Indiaelections2009, Corruption | Read more
- A simpleguide to 30 best Hindi films on politics in India
In the words of Amartya Sen, "Indians like to debate". If that were true, then it would be safe to say that along with cricket, cinema and corruption, we love talking about politics. As the general elections of 2009 dr…
Topic: Films, Indiaelections2009, India, Simpleguide | Read more
- Stop playing pied piper to the youth of India
I do not have the data but I say for sure that average age of our elected M.P.s must be 45+. That is more than twice the required age for voting. However, it is more than that.
The reality is it takes that much time t…
Topic: Indiaelections2009, Youthpower | Read more
- Do political parties and the news media think voters are stupid?
According to a IMRB survey, 59% of the voters feel that the primary motive of most politicians is to make money. This is no surprise. But what pisses one off is, and one is pissed easily these days, is this: do the parti…
Topic: Indiaelections2009, Vote, Marketing | Read more
- Why it is hard to vote in the elections in India
Westerners call the Indian General Elections "a carnival". The unsexed version of Rio, is this what they are thinkingTruth is, there are so few good candidates and so many hurdles for good candidates to spread the word t…
Topic: Indiaelections2009, Vote | Read more
- On Indian journalists with political affiliations
In truth, few media outlets are really unbiased. In fact, a media house betrays its leanings right when it plays safe with regards to the establishment. Many media houses have made their names siding with whoever is in p…
Topic: Media, Indiaelections2009, Journalists | Read more
- The 13 most overrated people in India right now
Chirag Chamoli comes up with an interesting list of Indians who hog the mindspace for being famous than doing something famous, the nine overrated people in India, which this writer has expaned to 13. [the notes alongsi…
Topic: Indiaelections2009, Celebrity | Read more
- Is Nitish Kumar really the development man for Bihar?
Many things in politics are 'managed'. One of the current 'managed' successes is the perception that Nitish Kumar is doing wonders in Bihar. If you compare his work with the Lalloo Yadav regime, then of course there is n…
Topic: Indiaelections2009, Caste | Read more
- Every neta has a fixer
The two big parties, the BJP and Congress have multiple fixers and money arrangers. In the last decade, Sitaram Kesari was the quintessential money manager at Congress. During this decade, the fixer has become savvy. He …
Topic: Indiaelections2009 | Read more
- Mere paas film star hai: how useless film stars are for democracy
Apart from Sunil Dutt (Congress), Shatrughan Sinha (BJP) and to some extent Vinod Khanna (BJP), NTR and MGR in South few film stars have managed to translate their popularity to a lasting political career.
In 20…
Topic: Films, Indiaelections2009, Celebrity | Read more
- Cometh the elections, cometh the slogans
Those who write the slogans on the walls (may God have mercy on them]) and on the posters and whose words are repeated through loudspeakers during campaigning season are the unsung micro-Haiku poet/heroof modern India.
…
Topic: Indiaelections2009, Slogans | Read more
- Brahmins in Indian Politics
We have had quite a few Brahmin Prime Ministers, starting with Nehru and then his descendents. Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the last Brahmin minister and looking at the existing political candidates and the trends, there wil…
Topic: Indiaelections2009, Caste, Trends | Read more
- What may happen after these elections
These are early times for a democracy. If America is our template, as it is in most things for the educated middle class, then a two-party system, one party slightly left-of-centre, one-slightly right, will be best, but …
Topic: Indiaelections2009, Predictions | Read more
- Predictions for the 2009 general elections from Arun Nehru
During every major election, Arun Nehru, who was a Minister during Rajiv Gandhi's time does his predictions. His predictions for 2009 elections are in. The Deccan Chronicle carries the table, from which this image has …
Topic: Indiaelections2009, Predictions | Read more
- Predictions: No clear front-runner in the 2009 elections so far
The Hindu reports that both AC Nielsen and CSDS polls are inconclusive. Moreover, it is worth keeping in mind that opinion polls are not what they used to be. People might say one thing to pollsters and do the opposite…
Topic: Indiaelections2009, Predictions, Survey | Read more
- Fan Clubs ijn South India and Elections
These are excerpts from an older blog post written by Gopala Ravindran, but worth reading if you are interested to know what is it about the numerous fan clubs and exotic sycophancy in South India:
Fan clubs in Tamil Na…
Topic: Films, Electionsindia2009, Tamil politics, Fan clubs | Read more
- Using Tata Nano for election posturing
This blogger says the success (?) of Tata Nano is yet another slap for Mamata Banerjee's posturing at Singur which drove Tata out of West Bengal:
The blogger writes,
In the end, the market prevailed. Tata built…
Topic: Tata nano, Policy, Indiaelections2009 | Read more
- A simpleguide to General Elections 2009 in India
The 15th Lok Sabha Elections 2009 will take place in 5 phases, on April 16, 23, 30, May 7 and 13, and the new Central government will take office in New Delhi on June 2, 2009.
There are four major political groups vyi…
Topic: Indiaelections2009, Simpleguide, India | Read more
- A Roundup of online presence of indian politicians and political parties
One place where the BJP does fulfill its self-given mandate of being the party with a difference is the online media. The party and its politicians are way ahead of other Indian politicians in using online media to sprea…
Topic: Internet and Websites, Indiaelections2009 | Read more
- A Roundup of Digital Marketing Campaigns during the elections so far
More than 10,000 crore Rupees will be spent by politicians during the General Elections 2009. That is $ 2 billion. One thing is sure though: the public may not benefit in the long run, marketers, mobile companies, tv cha…
Topic: Indiaelections2009, Marketing | Read more
