Size is disadvantageous in Real Politik

So the spoils of the cabinet have been shared by the UPA. Apparently the DMK are pretty upset with the election and have decided not to join office. If I do that in my office,they want miss me and replace the post in a weeks time and I will receive a pink slip. But this is not the case for the DMK, they are the much needed ally for the congress. So eventually, Mr. Singh will have to bow down to their demands. That's how co-alition politics work, the smaller party get a bigger deal than the larger ones!!! Nature tells us otherwise, but hey.. who said politics is naturtal or logical. The phrase used for all of this is "real - politik", a phrase used regularly by the ex-deputy prime minister, Mr. L.K.Advani. He made real -politik into an art form, making stange bed-fellows like Jayalalitha or even Karunanidhi (both of them don't come close to BJP ideology, but both have allied). Real Politik does not accept ideology, history, policy, beliefs or common sense as necessary arguement points. It just asks one question i.e. "Today, do I need him/her or do they need me?". If it is the former, you ally, else leave. That is the logic based on which BJP unceremonioulsy let the DMK and gang leave the NDA. Unfortunately for them, the voters were in no mood to accept Jaya Amma. So DMK has become a very powerful group who is needed by everybody today. So Mr.Manmohan Singh will have to bow down.

On the other, the communists with 60 seats cannot draw such bargain. Simply beacuse the congress knows they won't ally with the BJP. They don't understand real politik.They are stuck with terms such as ideology and principle. This is very important to note as this makes the government stable.

Mob Vigilantes of Thane

Heard a news today from a friend that a bus driver in Thane was beaten to death for he accidently hit a 3 year old girl. According to newssites, the driver ws beaten and 2 gus have been arrested for the same. I have noticed over a period , people have become vigilates in the wrong reasons, especially in case of road accidents. Violence is very common in case of accidents and I have myself witnessed the stronger person or the one who can get a crowd, beats the other one up. Generally, the auto rickshaw drivers, who are notorious for horrible driving, get their oyals up and beat the other party, who in most cases are innocent. Like in the above case, apparently the girl came under the rear tyre of the bus, indicating that the driver could not be at fault.

One tries to understand where this violence comes from in country where accidents are so common. The primary causes could be frustration (with the law, which can be very cumbersome in case of accident reporting) and mob psychology. The general feeling that in a group one can get away with this kind of crime.

After the bloodshed....

The morning was perhaps the most gloomy morning for quite sometime in Mumbai. It was very cloudy and has been intermittently raining. Almost filmy, after the bloodshed of yesterday, there was rains today. Like had mentioned earlier in my blog, stock markets have a very paranoid and unpredictable mind. For no particular reason there was a meltdown yesterday. Of course the commies did not help. Must admit, the CPI(M) have a great website, in terms and information and propaganda. On the other, hand BJP site is slick but not good on content ( I guess the sites are a mirror of the party!). I was expecting the markets to fall, though not as dramatic as yesterday, today too. The reason was plain, nothing has changed overnight for FII's and hedge funds to hold now. But no!!! Again wrong. The market rebounded today......
The lesson is simple for a small investor....DO NOT INVEST ON EVENTS, ONLY ON STOCKS. Always invest long term.

If one thought stock markets and weather in Mumbai have gone crazy.... just look at our politicians. The BJP has again started their "foreign origin" issue. I guess they are being just sore losers! A wonderful article in Times of India about the foreign origin issue.The CPM,DMK and SP will not join the government but support from outside.... that basically means they want the credit but not the responsibilities of governance.
But the cake goes to Ram Vilas Paswan . He was minister in the UF govt., then the NDA govt. and now in the Congress govt. Is there any side he has not been there?

Life in TITA.
So the exercise of govcernment formation has started. The usual suspects of Harkishan Singh Surjeet, V.P Singh, Amar Singh, Ambika Soni etc. are back on TV giving sound bites and saying absolutely nothing important. But our Media has no alternative as the real decision makers are in closed rooms, conspiring for the new government. The above mentioned souls rarely contest elections and that too only the safe Rajya Sabha ones. The most irritating according to me is "commie" Surjeet and the Soni lady. Commie Surjeet comes out of hibernation every 5 years (less than that if he succeeds in forming "his chosen" government) and wrecks havoc to our polity and peace. Ambika Soni must be the undisputed leader of non-sense speaking. These are the people who make it a TITA (Terrible Is The Alternative). Terms like supporting the government from outside are being used. Apparently, very few parties want to be in the government but want to support it from outside.

For an newcomer to Indian Politics, this might sound like these parties are indulging in a noble cause of not being power hungry and letting Congress rule in peace. But that is far from the truth. "Supporting from outside" means basically all the power of government (as no bill can pass in Parliament without their support) without the responsibilities of actual governance. This is what "Commie" Surjeet is good at, he has made it into an art form. He has distroyed the careers of Deva gowda and Gujral with this formula and now Mrs. Gandhi might be next. The difference this time around is, congress nows this guy and they will be careful with him.
The stocks market plunged yesterday, causing huge losses for yours truely and many a small investor. The FII's seems to have caught cold feet thinking that Disinvestment and reforms are out. Something I can't understand is how can new government not reform.The forces that will force reforms (in reverse order) are ;
i) Fiscal deficit,
ii)WTO and rest of the globalisation crap.
iii) Industrial lobbies (CII, FICCI, NASSCOM),and
iv) TITA (of course, really, does anybody have any other idea ).

Lastly, a glowing tribute has to be paid to the Election Commission of India for the humungous task which the exercised with very few glitches. Though I myself could not register to vote despite having tried to register myself 4 times, I cannot imagine the difficulty of the task the commission has execised. The commission has provided some trivia and lots of data on their site. Hats off to one of the best conducted election in World history.

The Indomitable Indian
They said the glitz and gloss of the media, the carpet bombing, the opinion/exit polls will influence him/her. NO CHANCE. The true Indian voter says "SHOW ME RESULTS".
Most of the people elected are new comers. Except in some places in North India, caste has not worked either, for Jaya Amma in Tamil Nadu was supposed to have played the Thevar card very well but came out with a naught.

The only people who were fooled by the media bewildery was the urban middle class like yours truly. If one had asked me even today morning about the outcome, I would have said NDA 260+. But they have not even got 200!!!

So we are going to have a Italian born PM it seems.... nothing wrong there... Except she will have the buffoons from Left and Yadavs for company.

CEO of AP down... but not out.
Post-mortems will start soon about why the man known to be the best CM in India mr. Chandra babu Naidu has been thrown out of the electorate. So here is my share of thoughts on the same topic. Heard a comment a few weeks back one of the TV chat shows, that when AP farmers were commiting suicide due to drought, Mr. Naidu was trying to get F1 to Hyderabad. Well for most of the educated well off people and F1 fans (including yours truely), this was great news and farmers suicides were alien news. But the problem is the ppl who vote are farmers and not s/w engineers and F1 enthusiats (who account to less than 0.1% of all India population).
Secondly, in India electorates (especially in south-India) go for change. They have high expectations and their politcians are not even close to mark. Anti - incumbency is huge is South-India , so Mr. NAidu must consider himself lucky (or was he so good) that he managed to stay in power for 9 years. His neighbours in TN, Kerala and Karnataka have'nt been so lucky.
So Mr. Naidu can take heart from this and expect to be back in power for 5 years.

The stock market is in a crisis mode. Just viewed my portfolio to find that I have lost 3000 bucks in a single day!!! Ofcourse this is a notional loss and we will recover. Why?? well nothing has changed u see. I am firm beleiver the central government cannot do much harm to the private companies. So stock markets are panicking without any reason.

So now even Blair has appologised for his troops misdeeds. As if that will help!!! The difference between what Sadaam did to his people and what US/UK troops are doing is ... in the former case it was Iraqis harming Iraqis... now it is some white foreigner harming them.
The last thing US and UK now want is true democracy in Iraq, as no democratically elected government can support them after what they have done.

UNUSUAL RAINS and TITA

So it rained and my first experience with my new bike in. It was pouring and visibilty was low, but that did not stop people from zipping and sciding. Had my first accident too... hit the side of a cab, it was kind of my mistake (oops...).
Like had earlier mentioned in this blog, unseasonal rains in India this time around, and the popuilar media is not concerned. I did not see any mention of it in newspapers today. I guess it is election season and far too many wierd things are happening there for ppl to notice that the rains are a month early!
So it is too close to call in Indian election this time around. My gut feel is NDA will come to power comfortably. Every body said that b4 the election started because of that wonderfully lady TINA. For those not used to democratic processes, TINA is There Is No Alternative.It is like having autocrats in democracies. Now here a new wonderful term used by NDA'ites... TITA (Terrible Is The Alternative).
Must confess.. that is true. If it is not Atal Bihari then who? I am not against Mrs. Gandhi coming to power because of her foreign origin ..as I feel she is as much a citizen of India as Aishwariya Rai !!!It is just that she has never held any professional or administrative post ever in her life. Being head of a Congress party does not qualify as no body opposes or disagrees with her there. I am not going to venture to talk about the Yadav's becoming PM (no offence to the community per se). So that has what over democracy has come too... vibrant certainly......... but TITA!!!!!

It's Raining in Mumbai!!!

I take my new Motorbike for the first time to office on a weekday, and it rains in Mumbai!!!. Just heard it is raining in May....that must be a first.
It has been raining in all parts of India especailly the northern parts. These are unseasonal rains, which are becoming normal year over year. A couple of years back it rained till November though officially it stops in Mumbai by september middle.
Is this because of global warming and othe climate changing phenomenons !!!
It could just be that things are shifting in the overall universe. Climatic conditions are something that can never be accurately studied. Climate ahs been changing for billions of years and over knowledge of this planet is very limited. How can we assume and make predictions with such huge difference. This is the reason why the science of Astronomy is so much confused with astrology.