Elections 2005 – Haryana state goes to the polls

I would have blogged about this earlier, but having been unwell for the last couple of weeks, just didn’t feel up to sitting on the computer and writing. Well, lets get to it shall we.

As I had mentioned in an earlier post, I was out of town all of January, campaigning for my uncle’s re-election to the Haryana state legislative assembly. He was contesting on an Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) party ticket, and though I have little regard for the policies (or the lack thereof) of the INLD, it was a matter of family comes first – irrespective of the party! It was my uncle who was contesting and the entire extended family (me included) quickly rallied behind him.

Unfortunately we lost the election 🙁 But quite frankly the result came as no surprise; during the Parliamentary elections in 2004 the voters in Haryana had already given an indication of things to come; when, for the first time ever, the INLD could not even secure a single seat. It was a rout in 2004 and the results of the state elections in
2005 were expected to be little different. By the time the dust had settled, the Congress party was sitting pretty with an overwhelming 3/4ths majority in the Haryana State Legislative Assembly.

Political analysts (people who admittedly are much more qualified than I am to comment on this) have had differing takes on this unusual (Haryana voters are not known to give such one sided verdicts) result. Many have called it a clear rejection (by voters) of “Family” politics, a rejection of the Devi Lal-Chautala clan’s propensity towards dynastic politics.

Considering that the Congress party is hardly free of dynastic politics this analysis would seem a little simplistic. Even the Congress party president, Mrs. Sonia Gandhi’s sole claim to party leadership is that she is married into India’s political first family (the Nehru-Gandhi clan). Dynastic politics is not a major issue for the Indian voter; in fact it is not an issue at all, apart from maybe with some political analysts & champagne socialists.

Other analysts have more accurately pointed towards the Haryana voters’ consistent rejection of incumbents in favour of change. Historically in almost every election the voters in Haryana have voted for change. This has been attributed to the fact that Haryana is a prosperous state with a high literacy rate, which somehow seems to translate into very high expectations from the government, expectations which are never completely met, hence the voters’ propensity to vote against incumbents.

This anti-incumbency theory while explaining the Congress party’s win, does not completely explain the scale of their victory.

A look at the voting pattern in the state reveals that even though compared to the last elections the INLD lost only about 3% of its vote share, voters who had previously voted for other parties consolidated behind the Congress. The INLD did marginally loose votes from amongst its traditional vote bank of Jats but managed to increase its vote share amongst Punjabi voters, however voters belonging to other communities voted for the Congress in a big way. The Harijan / Dalit voters, who had been divided amongst the Congress and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) last time, completely deserted the BSP and overwhelmingly voted for the Congress this time. Similarly the Congress increased its vote share amongst the Bhramins, Banias as well as other communities.

This consolidation of non-Jat votes against the INLD combined with the marginal increase of Jat votes in favour of the Congress seems to have done the trick.

The reason why I describe the vote as against the INLD as opposed to in favour of the Congress is simply because that’s how the voters seem to have felt. Voters rallied behind the Congress as an alternative to the INLD; the attractiveness of the Congress stemmed from the fact that they were the only party which seemed capable of defeating the INLD, so the majority of voters who were voting against the INLD decided to go with the Congress.

Through this entire analysis the question that remains unanswered though is the reason for the anti-INLD wave. Well, the voters quite simply seem to have been fed up with the centralisation of power in the hands of Mr. O.P Chautala & his two sons. Everything and I mean EVERYTHING required the blessings of either Mr. Chautala or his sons. This centralisation of power meant that other elected representatives could make NO decisions whatsoever, neither could civil servants.

Almost all the voters I spoke with readily agreed that the INLD under Mr. Chautala had done more development work for the state than any previous administration, BUT and this is a big “but” all the works to be carried out were decided directly by the Chautala clan. This meant that more often than not local priorities were not considered – priorities that could have easily been made clear if the local elected representatives had been consulted. Voters complained that often work which benefited relatively fewer people was cleared, while other activities which could have positively affected a far greater number were not considered at all.

Voters were willing to overlook even this lopsided development work; after all much more development work was done by this administration than any other. In fact in all pre-election and post-election polls conducted by research agencies Mr. Chautala ranked as the overwhelming first choice of voters as the most able Chief Ministerial candidate.

What they were NOT willing to forgive was the imperial attitude of the Chautala clan. The sharpest reaction against the INLD seems to have come from the manner in which the Chautala clan ran the administration of the state, more like a fiefdom than a democratic state. This was something that was (rightly so) simply beyond the tolerance of voters.

It seems that power simply went to their (the Chautala clans’) head. Such arrogance & blatant misuse of power might be the norm in banana republics but the Chautala clan will do well to remember that such behaviour is political suicide in a staunchly democratic nation like India. The voters seem to have been driven by a desire to teach Mr. Chautala a lesson, a lesson he would be well advised not to forget in a hurry.

The citizens of the state of Haryana have spoken.

Some pictures

Here are some pictures of the Jeep I’d built (a few years back) – yep it’s the same one that caught fire! 😉

For those who care to know – It was built on a CJ-3B Jeep (right-hand drive) clone manufactured in India by Mahindra & Mahindra to Indian Army specs. The engine used was a 4 cylinder, 2500cc Isuzu diesel (with matched 4 speed gearbox and 4WD transfer case). Both pictures were taken sometime in 2000.

me and my old Jeep
That’s me at our house in the village, had just gotten back from a shoot…

Trying to get it going again
My cousin (standing) & me (crawling under the beast) – trying to get it moving again! 😉

Birthday

It’s been a long standing Birthday tradition at home that each year Dad and I go out and distribute blankets to the poor. Since this is pretty much the coldest part of the year… it isn’t hard to find people huddled on the pavements that could use an extra blanket (or more).  Quite frankly I’ve always been a bit skeptical of the entire practice – most of the guys on the pavement seem like junkies and in all probability will go and sell the damn things for an extra fix or two 😛  But charity of any description seems to please Dad and I learnt long ago that arguing with him is a fruitless exercise… so I just go along with it each year – dutifully going through the motions of helping out the “needy”… Not that I’m some unfeeling cold hearted person, it’s just that giving hand-outs isn’t my first choice of how to practice charity.

I’d much rather contribute to a cause which helps people help themselves… Just giving alms to ease your guilt doesn’t quite cut it for me.

Anyway, spent my Birthday (this past Friday) in Hisar and did not have much time for anything in the way of celebrations, just cut the cake and ordered in Chinese – some very forgettable food indeed! Hisar is a gourmet disaster… but no surprises there!!

Am currently back in Delhi for a couple of meetings and will probably be leaving again (for Hisar) on Friday. So Dad & I picked tonight as the night for the “blanket distribution” event and it was decided that we would not go to the slums this time, we’d hand them out to the poor chowkidars (watchmen) on duty in our own locality instead.

The reactions of the watchmen towards us handing out these (unexpected) “gifts” spanned the entire range from surprise & quiet gratitude all the way to greed (quite a few asked for “more” – Dickens would approve). In the slums usually it’s less surprise and more greed, but then I guess they are used to this sort of thing in those places…

We just got back and I thought I’d blog some of it, especially since I’m not sure when I’ll get time to log in again.

On the Campaign Trail

In the next couple of hours I’ll be leaving for Hisar – again! This time though the motives are much nobler. I’ll be spending the next one month there, on the campaign trail for one of my uncle’s re-election to the state (Haryana) legislature. By the looks of it, this is going to be one tough fight!

His constituency is one of the few “all rural” constituencies in Haryana with about 42 odd villages. So in all probability will not be blogging for a while – hell I might not even be checking my mail!

That’ll be a new experience, no e-mail for a month! 😉

The Great Mouse Hunt

Returned home on Monday to find everyone in a tizzy about what seemed to be a rodent infestation. Everything had been tried (mouse traps, sprays etc.) and failed; so (as always) I was chosen to FIX IT!! Having just come back from my trip to Hisar, it seemed to be a bit of a let down to be designated the official “Mouse Hunter” 😛  – but no one was willing to enter the kitchen and I was hungry as hell! So I grudgingly got down to figuring out where the little buggers were holed up… A little bit of investigation revealed that the back side of the refrigerator was the most likely candidate.

So I dragged out the blasted machine, opened up the rear cover and started poking a mop handle into its dark innards. After much prodding a nice sized brown mouse jumped out from behind and was easily swatted, a little later his smaller brother met a similar fate. Once I’d satisfied myself that there weren’t any more of them in there, I vacuumed the damn thing. The stuff that came out could have easily fed a Somali family for a year (OK OK lousy joke)! But really, those little fellas had a pretty decent sized cache in there. No wonder the mouse traps had failed, they were baited with crusty old rotis (unleavened bread made Indian style, for the uninitiated) and from a close examination of their hoard it seemed like they were living almost exclusively on salted biscuits – talk about a food fetish!

Anyway, I finally got my dinner, may their souls rest in peace! BTW anyone have an idea if those ultrasonic rodent repellents work as advertised?

I’d rather not have to go through all this trouble again… 😛

Trip to Hisar

Just got back from a 3 day trip to Hisar (also spelt Hissar). Had promised a few friends that I’d take them for some clay pigeon shooting but the timings never seemed to work out… So this trip had been due for quite some time now (sorry for the delay guys).

We departed from Delhi on Saturday around 2 PM. We were to leave a bit earlier but one of the guys got “the runs” (I won’t say which one) – I guess too much partying on New Year’s Eve 😉 We reached after dusk (it’s a four hour drive) dumped our bags at my uncle’s place and went straight to the fields. The next two days were spent shooting clays and off-roading. I didn’t shoot much myself, but I quite enjoyed myself being the designated off road driver. Off-roading is another passion of mine but one that I don’t get much opportunity to pursue, living as I do in the city 😛

The tally of those who made it for the trip was Anand, Christopher, Dennis and Prashant. Christopher had shot a bit earlier, but the rest were all first timers. That said I was truly impressed by the maturity, restraint and diligent observance of gun safety shown by all four. I have taken many newbies shooting but none have impressed as much as this bunch!  Great going guys!!

We took some time off on Sunday and decided to visit the ruins of an ancient city (dated about 3000 to 5000 years old depending on who you believe) at a place called Agroha. I’d mistakenly told the guys that these were the ruins of an ancient Harappan city (thanks for clearing that one up Dennis & Prashant).  Frankly, the ruins were less than impressive, partly due to the lousy restoration work done by the ASI (Archaeological Survey of India) but mainly because they haven’t even excavated 2% of the ruins! This in spite of the fact that the ruins were discovered way back in 1888-1889! We have so much of history in this country that I guess we just take our heritage for granted, not even caring about such priceless monuments.

We returned on Monday night, dog tired and dirty but I think I can safely say that everyone came away fans of the sport, and would want to do it again! 🙂

India begins privatisation of defense industry

Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd has obtained a licence from the government
to produce small arms and associated ammunition. This, according to
sources in the company, has been done in anticipation of a large order
from the armed forces. This is the first licence handed out for making
arms and ammo in the private sector. Even though the stated goal of
M&M is to supply to the Indian armed forces, one can always hope
that the highly lucrative civilian market will not escape their
attention. Finally we might get to buy some quality Indian made guns
& ammo. Something to look forward to…

You can read the original article at Rediff here.

I’m in "The New Gun Week"

The following article by yours truly was published in “The New Gun
Week” 10 Dec 2004 issue: “Gun Rights in Modern India: Colonial Roots of
Gun Control”. The original was posted by me here in October 2004.

The article can also be viewed in the Gun Week archives. Edit: The New Gun Week ceased publication in December 2011 and has been succeeded by The Gun Mag, archives are no longer available online.

Corporate Web Presence – An Indian Perspective

corporate internet

Much has been written, rewritten – ad infinitum, about the Internet as a medium of the future. Despite a variety of views being expressed on this subject, almost all analysts agree that the Internet’s true power stems from its inherent (two-way) interactive nature. From a company’s perspective, the Internet is the single largest (worldwide) community of consumers talking – talking to each other, talking about their various interests, experiences – talking to an organisation/ company or its competition – the list is endless.

Continue reading Corporate Web Presence – An Indian Perspective

The end of TV as we know it?

(This article was published in The Economic Times (Networked section), 23rd November 2000 issue)
End of tv graphic
“Societies have always been shaped more by the nature of the media by which men communicate than by the content of the communication…. Innumerable confusions and a profound feeling of despair invariably emerge in periods of great technological and cultural transitions. Our “Age of Anxiety” is, in great part, the result of trying to do today’s job with yesterday’s tools – with yesterday’s concept’s.”
Marshall McLuhan, The Medium is the Message, 1967

With the Indian government’s recent decision to allow private companies to own and operate their own gateways to the Internet, it wont be long before we start seeing broadband Internet access making inroads into the Indian market. Whether this is in the form of DSL, cable access, Wireless (3G etc.), Direct to Home Satellite based (DirecPC etc.), or any other technology its impact on the traditional broadcasting industry (amongst others) is inescapable. Content will be the main driver for mass-market broadband penetration, with users migrating to broadband seeking a better Web experience despite the stiff initial price. Although later price cuts will help push up the number of subscribers to double (or more), compelling new content will be the key to attracting the average person to broadband.
Continue reading The end of TV as we know it?

Gun rights in India, Internet Business, shooting sports