Will Pakistan survive Benazir?s killing?
Mood:  accident prone
Now Playing: DIDN'T WE ALL PREDICT THIS TO HAPPEN?
Topic: PAKISTAN'S DILEMMA

When news trickled in at 6:50 pm on December 27 that Pakistani Opposition leader Benazir Bhutto is dead, there was disbelief and a sense of incredulity. Though GEO TV of Pakistan was the first in the media to declare her dead, everyone waited for the rumour to be squashed. The hope dissipated with every second passing until the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) spokesman announced her death standing outside the Rawalpindi general hospital trying hard to sound legible in the midst of overriding emotions.

If people in Pakistan as well as around the world had the wishful thinking that the news about her death would be proved wrong, they had good reasons for their concern. Benazir Bhutto was assassinated in a suicide attack just as she drove away from a campaign rally just minutes after addressing thousands of supporters. According to eye witnesses reports, she was travelling in a bullet-proof car but she had kept the window panes open to touch and shake hands with her supporters along the way. That proved fatal. The assailant first shot five bullets at her with a AK-57 rifle and then blew himself up near to the car.

Tragically, as it always happens at bomb blast sites, for a full ten minutes people did not come to the rescue of their leader from the car fearing another suicide bomb attack. She is reported to have died on the operation table at the hospital.

She was probably the most charismatic leader in Pakistani politics today, though she has never been relenting in her attacks on India and Kashmir. Over the years she had matured from her virulent speeches on army presence in Kashmir just as she was quiet on Pakistani occupation of Kashmir.

Her death has thrown the election campaign for the January 8 elections into chaos and even while going to press there were reports of mass protests and violence. Violence broke out in Lahore, Multan, Peshawar and several other parts of Pakistan. People burnt down banks, state-run grocery stores and private shops. Pakistan’s President Pervez Musharraf promptly blamed Islamic terrorists for the assassination. His words were brave: “This is the work of those terrorists with whom we are engaged in war”. But as Human Rights activist Asma Jehangir sorrowfully noted the culpability of Pakistan army in Bhutto’s killing itself is not far-fetched. The fact of the matter is that in Pakistan there is a thin line, often blurred, between local jehadi groups, army regulars and international terrorist outfits like Al Queda. The army can employ young boys from terrorist organisations to do its dirty job.

Bhutto’s death left a void at the top in her Pakistan People’s Party. US President George Bush’s anxiety at the fast developing events in Pakistan was not ün-noticeable. Speaking to reporters at his ranch in Crawford, Texas, a visibly worried Bush said that, “those who committed this crime must be brought to justice.”. Within an hour of the assassination President Musharraf convened an emergency meeting with his senior staff.

Benazir Bhutto, 54, served two terms as Prime Minister between 1988 and 1996. But in spite of her Kashmir agenda she spoke against militants’ overbearing grip in her country.

The most important question that confronts Pakistan today is: Should the elections be held? And if the elections are postponed what happens to the democratic process? Will the country sink into the quagmire of terrorism, religious fanaticism and anti-progress elements. Nawaz Sharif today is the lone Opposition leader and even he has suggested there is no point in holding elections when there is so much fear and threat to life. There are also experts who point out how Pakistan has survived worse crises, though democracy of any kind is too plaintive a system for a country that is ravaged by Islamic fanaticism. In the ultimate analysis, as Pandit Nehru had said: “It’s never the choice between the good and the evil. It’s always a choice between the evil and the lesser evil”. When it comes to Pakistan’s leaders it’s so true.

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UNEP GEO4 report
Mood:  crushed out
Now Playing: Only Hindu way of life can save the earth

 

The latest UN Environment Programme’s (UNEP) report released last fortnight states unequivocally that man’s development and progress are responsible for the environmental degradation and the fast approaching doom’s day. The Global Environment Outlook 4 (GEO4) report from UNEP says that the factors for “environmental change include population growth, economic activity and scientific and technological discoveries. As these intensify, they exert new pressures on the environment, which have huge effects on human well-being”.

This is probably the best testimony ever to be made by a world body on how progress, technological and otherwise, that we sing paeans to everyday, causes the biggest damage to mother earth and will sooner than later, consume us all.

Years ago the Left had coined the term ‘Hindu rate of growth’ quite derisively to suggest that India in all its past glory of Hindu way of life registered zero growth rate, and for thousands of years had the same standard of life for its people.

For instance, a potter by virtue of his birth in that family would remain a potter just as all his ancestors down the line. This system of society was considered anti-progress, anti-technology and anti-modernism as the western lifestyle propagated furiously by the developed countries was the panacea for all ills. It had such an appeal for the western educated new breed of citizens that today technological progress is considered the only sign of success in the globalised world.

The UNEP report GEO4 though does not condemn progress, states that technological advances should be used to curb further damage to the environment, be it ozone layer hole over the Antarctic region, chemical pollution that now is considered the biggest source for carcinogenic material or various other facets of environmental degradation.

Further, the UNEP report says that the world has changed radically between 1987 and now, economically, socially and politically. “Population has increased by 34 per cent, trade is almost three times greater, and the average income per head has gone up by about 40 per cent”. All this in just 20 years.

To understand the gravity of the situation one has to just go through the 1911 British census conducted in undivided India. The total population then was 31.16 crore. But undivided India included Baluchistan, Burma and Pakistan. After discounting for the people living in these regions in 1911, the population of India at that time would be more or less 30.57 crore (it is difficult to come to a definitive figure for India from 1911 census as places like Punjab, Bengal and several other states have been partitioned).

This essentially means that since time immemorial till 1911 the population of this country didn’t go beyond 30.57 crore, simply because there was little growth, little technological advances and a way of life that was integrated to nature.

A stagnant population growth ensured that the number of births was equal to the number of deaths occurring in the villages. This in spite of the fact that Hindu undivided family was large—with a large number of children per married couple. But low or no growth in population also, most significantly, ensured that there were enough natural resources for people to live on, be it water, food, shelter, land to till and other requirements of life.

Between 1911 and 2000, within a span of 89 years India’s population burgeoned to over 100-crore from 30.57 crore. We might celebrate the largest market status in the world and all its attendant benefits, but will the planet be able to sustain our position and growth rate is the frightening thought.

A few years ago, a report in a leading newsmagazine Outlook said that the human gene pool in India has been considered to be the best in the world by the scientific community. The most important reason for it was stated to be the weeding out of disease-causing/ defective genes from the gene pool during thousands of generations; because only the most fit human beings survived. The Hindu health system assiduously kept away from treating life-threatening diseases like coronary heart ailment, diabetes, hypertension, organ failure, etc. which was prevalent even then. This only helped the following generations to get better and stronger genetically.

It can be argued that before the advent of modern advancements in medical research the situation was the same all over the world, not just in India. But it is undeniable that the Hindu way of life even during its golden period emphasised on a system of life which was closest to nature. The Hindu system of life encompassed almost every aspect of life—education, health and hygiene, music, dance, cuisines, farming and other livelihood, architecture, transport and god, what have you. Almost every sentence of the GEO4 report reaffirms the sustainability and importance of the ancient system of life prevalent in this subcontinent for an unknown number of millennia.

On the other hand, the latest report released by the International Energy Association (IEA) to the world media on Diwali day does not pull the punches. Even President George Bush bluntly put it that the energy crisis is triggered by the growth rate in the two most populous countries in the world — India and China.

“How China and India respond to the rising threats to their energy security will also affect the rest of the world,” said the Paris-based agency in its 2007 World Energy Outlook, which concentrated on the implications of energy developments in the two emerging economies for the rest of the world.

The irony of it all is pointed out by IEA Executive Director Nobuo Tanaka: “the rapid economic growth in China and India was a legitimate aspiration that would improve the quality of life of more than 2-billion people and that needed to be supported by the rest of the world.

“Indeed, most countries stand to benefit economically from China and India’s economic development through international trade”.

The world needs to act now to bring about a radical shift in investment in favour of cleaner, more efficient and more secure energy technologies, according to Mr Tanaka. But R&D in vehicle technology and fuel has often revealed that fuel efficient machines though save on precious petrol and gas, have higher CO2 emissions.

In the midst of the raging oil prices that is all set to cross $100 per barrel breathless analysts on foreign news channels are predicting “abrupt escalation” in oil prices before 2015. The fear is also that the increased demand and shorter oil supply will become more concentrated in a few West Asian countries.

Even as Indian newspapers report everyday about new gas finds the International Energy Association says that “although production capacity at new fields is expected to increase over the next five years, it is very uncertain whether it will be sufficient to compensate for the decline in output at existing fields and meet the projected increase in demand''.

Unsustainable land use and climate change are driving land degradation. This could bring about the biggest economic devastation on mankind, what with water scarcity, soil erosion, nutrient depletion, salinity, desertification and disruption of biological cycles. The per capita availability of freshwater is declining globally, and contaminated water remains the greatest single environmental cause of human sickness and death, the report points out. “If present trends continue, 1.8 billion people will be living in countries or regions with absolute water scarcity by 2025, and two-thirds of the people in the world could be subject to water stress”.

Global marine and fresh water catches showed large-scale decline because of persistent over-fishing. The report does not reveal how much has environmental changes led to drop in the seafood production. But the fact that over-fishing because of increased purchasing capacity of the people leading to bigger markets in fast developing economies should not be lost on global policy-makers.

“These unprecedented changes are due to human activities in an increasingly globalised, industrialised and inter-connected world, driven by expanding flow of goods, services, capital, people, technologies, information, ideas and labour, even affecting isolated populations”. UNEP’s desperation is evident when it says: concerns about global environment may have reached a tipping point of their own, with the growing realisation that for many problems the benefits of early action outweighs the costs.

It might be easy to mock at the Gandhian way of life of self-denial, living for one’s needs rather than one’s greed, wearing handloom clothing, abstinence of every kind, and strengthening the village as a self-sustaining unit, but the consequences of the alternative life-style as propagated by the West is driving us to the end of the world. The high growth of developed economies and industrialisation in the second half of last century itself had such a perilous effect on the fragile ecosystems the world over. Now the new emerging economies — India and China, could hurtle the planet to complete ruination. India and China could have also joined the developed world’s club without having to create so much environmental damage beyond that tipping point only if the two countries had smaller population to bear the burden of development.

If India were to be a developed country by say 2025 then the scenario is not just frightening but also bleak for the survival of the planet. If every family in India were to own a car (many middle-class families after the new-found real estate boom and stock market surge own more than a car each) the number of cars plying on the road would reach the figure of 250 million! The same estimation would extend to other vehicles. Can we develop the infrastructure to accommodate that many vehicles, and does the planet have that much natural resources to provide for the development of India and China to a first world status?

It might sound stupid to suggest that we need to bring down our growth and abjure the western luxuries of life, but the effect of our insatiable quest for more and more resources to fulfill a resplendent consumerism can only be devastating. As Shakespeare once said, “but yet the pity of it, Iago! Yes, the pity of it all”!

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WHY I BELIEVE IN RAM SETHU
Mood:  chatty
Now Playing: RAM IN EXISTENTIAL CRISIS
When the controversy over Rama Sethu became a full-fledged crisis I was very surprised. The RSS weekly Organiser has been carrying a campaign for almost a year and I thought it was just raving and ranting by some English-educated RSS workers. And except for Organiser there was no other mass movement or public outcry. I suspected that the weekly's misplaced enthusiasm would die a natural death. But when the controversy gained front page news and persisted in staying there I actually commended the organisation, its commitment and the people behind the affair. At first sight, for an English-educated citizen, RSS may look like a post-retirement camp of a few men who have some embers left in the belly. My first visit to a RSS shakha at Parla, a northern suburb in Mumbai was such an anti-climax. That I was sounding far more strident than the RSS workers when it came to issues like equality for Hindus. But over time, just as I have, most people will be amazed of what this organisation is capable of, its nationalistic viewpoint, its commitment to nation-building as well as its foot soldiers.

But as I have said earlier in a blog on Ayurveda, most people caught in the vortex of events have no clue of the evolution of Hinduism. Most researchers have not been able to estimate the origin of this way of life. All the same the vedas and puranas belong to an age which would be 5,000 or 10,000 or 15,000 years old. Also, there is no mention of the assorted variety of gods and goddesses in these ancient texts. Except for Indra and elements of nature as the supreme being, there is no Shiva, Ganapathy, Laxmi, Saraswati or any of today's popular gods.

The gods were introduced in the course of millennia after millennia of the way of life which we call today as 'Hindu'. To begin with Hindu, Hindutva, etc are all modern coinage. In ancient times, there was no one called a Hindu, there was only caste recognition. Only when Christian missionaries and Islamic marauders attacked India and started converting the people of this sub-continent did the identity of Hindu get established as a matter of differentiation.

Having said all this, what is the basis of Ram Sethu. If one goes by the millions of gods in Hinduism, it is easy to estimate that almost all the gods in the Hindu pantheon have been real life characters. In my village I came across a number new gods and their temples which are mostly frequented by the lower caste Hindus like me. The joint family I belong to has a temple in Kerala, just as every family has in Kerala, with a lady deity called 'devi' whose story and rituals are different from other gods that we always are used to.

I have come to a conclusion that almost all the gods and the stories revolving around them, including the Hindu epics, are true, only that the writers of various regions have embellished the kathas with super-natural events and powers to make the simple stories sound esoteric and thereby divine.

A few years ago a friend in my village told me about Ram Sethu. He did not know it was called so but he gave me a vivid account of how the rocks would float in water. "If you try to pick them up they would not move an inch but nevertheless they would float on the surface. We can step on them and not fall off". He was giving us an account of his pilgrimage to Rameswaram with his friends. Though we planned to make a trip to Rameswaram it never materialised. My argument then was that neither did Hanuman nor did his vanar sena ever jump across the Palk Strait. They were not even monkeys in the first place. They were probably tribals in the area with distinct south Indian features. Even today if you notice people in Kerala have features akin to monkey. More so like African blacks -- the jaws jut out with large teeth forming the rim of the mouth. Notice people like P.T. Usha. The north Indian army of Ram would have been surprised to see people with such distinctive monkey-like features that they called them vanar sena. Ram would have told them of his wife being abducted by Ravan which would have made Hanuman and his group to gang up against the Sri Lankan king. I also would venture to say that the Ram Sethu might be natural in its origin and no civil engineer amongst Ram's entourage had built it but it was used by Ram and his army to cross over to Lanka.

In all this remember that the event belonged to another era which did not have any kind of communication of transport systems other than the rudimentary bullock cart. When King Shivaji's son Sambhaji in Maharashtra lost the battle to the Mughals it took six months for the news to reach Kerala.

As I have stated in another blog when my grandmother wanted to go on a pilgrimage after my grandfather's death she expressly chose Banares and Ayodhya and not Tirupathy, because Hinduism does not see a north Indian versus south Indian divide, as the Tamil Nadu politicians are wont to. In this regard Jayalalitha is no better than Karunanidhi. I guess if the people of the state are sold on the north versus south divide there is little that politicians can do about it than to rake it up. The whole anti-Hindi racket is based on this premise.

Also, it is indisputable that millennia ago when there was no transport or communication infrastructure a story like Ramayan, Mahabharat, Shakuntala and every other folklore in Hindu scripture could be perfect in locations over thousands of kilometre area. Even today, with all the modern facilities, google map and satellite positioning systems our press reporters and TV channels get it all wrong. There is a village in Haryana (today's DNA report) which claims to be the birthplace of Ravan. And we were always told by DMK that Ravan was Dravidian and a south Indian to boot.

Come to think of it, is there any story in Hindu scriptures which is unbelieve-able, if you discount for the embellishment and chicanery. And I am not even a believer of the faith to blindly follow such claims.

Let me present to you my final argument before I rest my case. There was this college friend who used to mock at all the stories of major wars, valour, bravery and leadership in the past. He was referring to the wars that broke out in the western civilisation. The basis of his argument was that in the absence of technology that is available today even small battles cannot be fought with strategy and planning. Wars in those days, must be a huge commotion, according to him, with everyone killing the other without knowing who he is fighting against. Now, leave alone the leader or the commandor who would salvage a losing battle. "Can you even control a crowd of 1,000 people without a public speaking system. How could Alexander, the great, control 10,000 soldiers through the forest terrain and win battles against larger armies. It might just be his luck", he would argue. And I used to get convinced. Does that mean that all the literature written on true stories of valour and war strategy on great personalities before 19th century were all fake? Let's believe Karunanidhi when he says the sun rises in the west. And call it the benefit of the doubt.

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WHY I BELIEVE IN THE RAM SETHU
Mood:  bright
Now Playing: RAM IN EXISTENTIAL CRISIS
Topic: BJP SHOULD THANK CONGRESS

During the BJP Maha Adhivesan held in Mumbai a few years ago I had a tete-a-tete with L.K. Advani. On the second day of the function it was surprising to see him with just of few hangers-on on the second floor foyer of Hotel Rang Sharada in Bandra. Journalists covering the function were on a wild goose chase to find out a sex scandal that never was. There were rumours of a senior RSS functionary caught in camera in compromising position. Even as I heard of the scandal I had two theories of my own. Someone has employed professionals for the occasion. Or someone in the Congress was trying to cock a snook at RSS high moral ground. Either way, it was a non-starter.

It was in such circumstances that I met Mr Advani. Mr Advani is probably the most influential politician for my generation, especially the Hindu youth. In the college I was a confused Communist, wanting to make this world a perfect place to live. I was a rebel with a hell lot of causes -- from socialism to salvaging the environment to moral rectitude. My moralising on all things sexual could put Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) and Jesus Christ to shame. Medha Patkar and Rustum Tirandas were whom I campaigned for as student activist, both for political as well as social causes.

Tirandas, for the uninitiated, was the most promising politician in Mumbai, with a naïve and reckless agenda to provide clean and orderly administration in Mumbai. We all had got together after a Parsi gentleman's letter to the editor in the Times of India on how we Indians should get on the streets to remove the corrupt Rajiv Gandhi government. This was during the height of the Bofors scandal. Those days I would shake with anger every morning reading Arun Shourie and Ram Jethmalani in the Indian Express. In time I, just as Tirandas and a vanar sena of about 1,000 people, found that people want to discuss the need for US-like perfect systems only at the dinner table. As I said in another blog, we Indians are utterly parochial, whichever class or caste we belong to. For any of us, economic/ development issues don't real matter. Nor does corruption. Nor does reservations.

But I was incredulously enamoured with people who would talk of the perfect world. I once handed over Rs 1,000 to a Narmada Bachao Andolan student activist in college. I used to do a bit of photography in college -- take pictures at Christian marriages and make albums for them. My charges were Rs 3,000 for the day-long event (which at times would not be more than three hours along with the benefit of partaking in the finest liqour that flowed!). My expenses came to about Rs 1,200 and I pocketed about Rs 1,800. It was from this earning that I gave away the money to the activist who was on his way to Gujarat to join Medha Patkar. But soon I started to read about the mega-project and I began to realise my mistake.

The project was supposed to be a natural disaster. The water was supposed to benefit only the rich farmers. Millions were estimated to be uprooted on the banks of the river in MP and Gujarat. Rehabilitation was supposed to be an eye wash. Today, I am older and wiser. On all these charges made by Medha Patkar none has proved right. Rather on the converse, magazines like India Today reported that NBA threatened villagers who took up the rehabilitation package, destroyed their new houses and infrastructure build for the evicted people. I didn't get the opportunity to meet Narendra Modi at the function to apologise for my 'funding' the NBA activities. Never mind the fact that I had supported the NBA a long time before Modi came into Gujarat's political scene.

But let me come back to my encounter with the former deputy prime minister of India. Mr Advani, I am not sure, realises that he has been the biggest influence on Hindu youth. I remember, in my school and college days being Hindu was considered infra dig. Going to temples was a matter of shame and unfashionable. Especially, English-educated children would sneak into a temple and won't let his friends know about it. Only Christians and Muslims took pride in their religion and their rituals. Even an apostate like me found the Hindu origin a little ashaming. We would love to run down Hinduism in public only to gain brownie secular points. I once even wrote an article in the college magazine titled,
'Ramjanmabhoomi Babri Masjid: Last Place God Made'.

Even today I am not a believer, but according to the true Hindu traditions, I am a Hindu just because I am born a Hindu. And I immensely take pride in it, solely for Mr Advani's movement. Mr Advani with his no-holds-barred campaign reinstated the lost self-respect in Hindu youth. I have heard the same experience also from M.V. Kamath. It's only after Sadhvi Rithambara and Uma Bharati coined the war-cry 'Garv se kaho hum Hindu hain' and logically argued over it that the English-educated Hindus youth felt their self-esteem being restored. But Mr Advani was the poster-boy of that Hindutva.

In the 90s, Mr Advani once came to Ghatkopar, a Guju suburb in Mumbai, very close to my college. That one visit changed my outlook -- I was converted from a rabid Leftist spewing fire and brimstone to a logical, reason-based nationalist. Today, I have my head on my shoulders all because of people like Mr Advani, Mr Shourie and Mr Kamath.

Mr Advani at that meeting spoke incredulously well; I consider him to be a better speaker than Atal Bihari Vajpayee or even Narendra Modi. He is under-stated in his speech, logical and cogent. It's hard to beat his argument, including his recent Jinnah comment. Successful politicians are those who can be as effective in arguments as Kapil Sibal or Arun Jaitley, but also poignant in their appeal to the cause. But what struck me hard during Mr Advani's speech at Ghatkopar on that day was that he did not utter a word against the Muslims. The Ghatkopar (east) area is predominantly Guju population. There is no Muslim population in and around Pant Nagar or Garodia Nagar. He could have chosen to go hammer and tongs against Muslims and Islam as that would have been quite impressive on the Guju crowd. Yet he didn't. I had gone there to listen to his fulmination as often reported in the press. He was mature and sophisticated and blue-blood nationalist.

Recently, Narendra Modi talking to Times Now channel, challenged Arnab Goswami to find any footage that has him (Modi) making a communal comment. Having experienced Advani firsthand, I can now believe Modi. Advani's public meeting at Ghatkopar happened at the height of the Ramjanmabhoomi movement.

I am giving you all this back ground because what I asked him on that afternoon at Hotel Rang Sharada might haunt him. The moment I introduced myself as a reporter from Organiser he told me to sit down beside him while the hangers-on kept whispering something into his ear. I have seen hangers-on do this even to George Bush. Wonder what secrets do they keep whispering to the politician's ears. After I introduced myself and exchanged pleasentries, which I am good at,Advani asked me what did I want to ask him. Quickly I told him that on the day Babri Masjid fell I had writen a type-written two-page letter to him supporting his cause, while asking him to get the middle-class involved in the process of nation-building alongside -- by way of promoting excellence, professionalism and sophisticated way of thinking. He dismissively told me he does not remember any such letter. It was then that I asked him the question which visibly stunned him.

"In the Hindu pantheon of gods many have been real-life characters -- be it Shiva, Ram, Krishna or the assorted bigger and smaller gods. It is by their outstanding deeds, character and philosophy that they managed to enter the pantheon. Do you think after thousands of years you, Narendra Modi, Vajpayee, Arun Shourie would all be part of the Hindu club of gods? After all, Mahatma Gandhi is almost there?" Even as I waited for his all-considered opinion three TV reporters had made their way up to the second floor looking for any senior politician for a sound-byte. Advani, sunk further into the thick sofa. But I instinctively knew my exclusive interview was over. Former Union minister for Broadcasting Ravishankar Prasad walked in after the securitymen and stood near another exit in the room at the far end almost as if waiting for Mr Advani to join him. The securitymen herded the TV reporters out of the room just as one black cat commando politely told me it will good if I too followed suit. I looked at Advani to rescue me. He smiled and said: "I will reply to that question on the phone. Call me later".

Thereby hung a tale.

(To be continued)

WHO IS INTERESTED IN ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT?
Mood:  cool
Now Playing: ONLY POLITICIANS WANT TO DEVELOP THIS COUNTRY
When Arun Shourie said the government should not be in the business of running planes and trains and manufacturing bread, we voted him out. And then we also bulldoze anyone who seeks his legitimate right to buy tickets at the counter or travel in fast train. Because we don't have the maturity or the sophistication to understand or resolve national issues. Come to think of it, we don't even have the capability of administering the country the way the first world does.

Look at the recent survey reports emanating from Gujarat. Narendra Modi, inspite of being the most progressive chief minister, getting the largest amount of domestic as well foreign investments for his state (Maharashtra lags far behind) is now panicky over his prospects in the next elections. Minorities are baying for his blood for all the wrong reasons but what is shocking is that Hindus in Gujarat are not impressed with the stupendous economic agenda and the development that has taken place in the last five years in Gujarat. So Modi will now be forced to go back to Hindutva.  Because as NDA and Chandrababu Naidu found out in the last general elections much to their chagrin that developmental issues can never be election issues even among the English-educated, white-collared, Amercanised Mumbai population. Even in Mumbai educated people who travel to the first world for every vacation are not sophisticated enough to put economic development as priority election issue. Can a Maharashtrian, to give an instance, give up the Marathi manus philosophy and vote on the basis of an economic agenda of a party or individual candidate? (Even as I write this standing at Dadar station waiting for a colleague a LIC official walks up to me seeking to enlist me as their agent. The second question he asks me is "are you a Maharashtrian?" Needless to say he is one)

Can someone from minority community vote for Modi on the basis of the economic development that has come about in Gujarat? Can a low caste Hindu vote for a high caste Hindu in BJP/ Congress party or a high caste Hindu vote for a non-BSP/ non-Dalit Panther party on the basis of the party's high economic growth track record. The depressing fact is that in India only the politicians are really interested in economic development and making India into a developed country. As only the politicians take hugely unpopular decisions towards economic development while we voters though make a big deal of economic growth, development and prosperity at the dining table, would ultimately vote for crass non-economic, parochial issues.

I have often noticed that every politician, irespective of the state he belongs, tries his best to take decisions in favour of reforms, disinvestment, privatisation, etc. He could be a Manmohan Singh, a Chidambaram, a Lalu Prasad Yadav, a Buddhadev Bhattacharya, an Arun Shourie, a Narendra Modi, a Chandrababu Naidu, a Jayalalitha, an A.K. Anthony. All of them are miserable failures at the hustings. The prime minister is still a Rajya Sabha member, not elected to the lower house because he still does not have a voter base even with the middle-class in this country, who are the biggest beneficiary of the reforms he initiated in 1991 and which he tries his best to plough on. I wonder if even the professional community of bankers, financial consultants, management top honchos, lawyers, journalists and stock market punters in Nariman Point would support him.

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