"BSP will play no role. we have always been a two-party state"

Are you going to introduce the Gujarat model of elections in Rajasthan as well?
Every state has a different culture and different needs. One model cannot be perfect for the other. But something we are trying here this time is micro-management of polling booths.

How do you propose to do it?
We have appointed in-charges for each polling booth and assigned them duties. I have got the names and telephone numbers of all 1.70 lakh booths in-charges in my computer. I can reach them whenever I want to. We have also formed a shakti kendra after every three booths, which is supposed to coordinate with them. We organised a maha kumbha (grand assembly) of booth managers on November 6, which was a training session for them. All of this has come from our party chief, Rajnath Singh, whose idea it is to take the BJP to the polling booths.

That is also the CPM model...
Nobody has a copyright over an idea. I don’t know whether they are doing it. But, our idea is to sustain our success rate election after election, and have a constant contact with the electorate. We have also graded the polling booths on the basis of the party’s performance in last election – C grade to the booth we polled less, B to the one we polled moderately and A to the booth we polled well at. Our endeavor is to upgrade all these booths.

Why are you doing it? Don’t you trust the Chief Minister’s development plank?
There is no doubt that genuibe development has taken place under Vasundhara Raje during the last five years. You can see and feel it. I have been asking people in public meetings to vote for her only if they feel she has performed better than her predecessor. But booth management will certainly ensure a better result during the elections.....Continue

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The Sunday Indian

While most of the Indian community is led on by a horoscope check before considering a prospective match, there is yet another pre-marital test – HIV

Another eye opening fact which asks for more than just mandating pre-marital tests is about women “who get infected not at the time of marriage but after the marriage”, reveals Tripti about the kind of cases that have increased in the recent past. She continues, “May be the tests have been conducted at the time of the marriage but what about complacency that sets in after conducting them once.”

It would, of course, be unfair to conclude that such instances have started to occur recently; only, private details are being discussed openly now. Mrs Salvi recalls, “When I got to know of my infection, I completely denied it. I went for the tests again and was frustrated for months. Doctors counselled me. I had to come to terms with it and couldn’t do much apart from getting mad at my husband who died soon thereafter. But slowly, I took control of my life and started working with an NGO. However, I was fortunate to find Mr Salvi who was in love with me from days before my first marriage. Despite knowing my positive status he married me. We take all precautions but still I am scared for him.” Mr Salvi agrees to have taken a risk but feels that the bond of their love transcends their bodies and is prepared for whatever happens.

But not all find such love and support. “Many positive people, to avoid rejection after any such mandate, would obtain a fake certificate which is not at all difficult in a country like India”, asserts Tripti who would rather want awareness to be created about the tests and counselling support from the government so that people get themselves tested voluntarily. Mulling over the intention of such acts she continues, “And why wouldn’t they? Would law guarantee post-test confidentiality? Unless the government can guarantee that, the law may do more harm than good.”....Continue

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The Sunday Indian

Even NATO is shying away from attacking pirates

And due to all this, pirate attacks off the Somalian coast in recent years have increased. This year captures have crossed the 100 mark, with 40 ships still under hijack. Even a warning from the Islamic Courts Union of Somalia, which asked them to leave Harardhere, the Somalian town where the ship is currently anchored, failed to get results. Sirius Star belongs to an Arab nation, and piracy is a capital offence under Islam, but even this doesn’t scare them. So when Sheikh Abdulaahi Osman, a commander of the group in Harardhere warned them by saying, “Saudi Arabia is a Muslim country and it is very serious crime to hold Muslim property. Those holding the ship must free it or face armed intervention." The pirates responded by cutting their ransom demand. Abdi Salan Ahmed, who claimed to represent the pirates, said: “There may be some type of ransom reduction but I can’t confirm it now.” In Malaysia, on November 24, an international association of tanker owners' called for a military blockade along the coast of Somalia,, NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said that the alliance is not considering such a move. Remarkably, noted author Gwynne Dyers has lamented that so far, “with the honourable exception of the Indians and the French, nobody has used force against the pirates of the Horn”....Continue

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The Sunday Indian

Arms and the man

Who is Lt. Col. Srikant Prasad Purohit? In a country where the Military has been as apolitical as it can get, a serving army officer’s involvement in an act of `terror’ is a rare entity. Infact, very rare. But now with Maharashtra's anti-terrorist squad (ATS) linking Purohit to some major bomb blasts - Nanded in 2006, Samjhauta Express and the Hyderabad Mecca Mosque blasts of February and May 2007 and Thane of June 2008 - the critical question being asked is this: is there a rogue element within the military? Are there more Lt. Col. Purohits in the armed forces? If one went by the rarified atmosphere of English TV networks, the answer would have to be yes. The real world, however, could well be different.

Serving officers in the army as well as his former colleagues are mystified at the fast moving chain of events and the plethora of charges that have been levelled against the 36-years old Purohit, a stalwart of the Maratha Light Infantry in Nashik, Maharashtra. A polyglot par excellence, the accused is a master of four languages, including Arabic, which is why he was posted in 2002 with the liaison unit of Military Intelligence (MI) in Jammu and Kashmir so that he could understand terrorists’ intercepts, a vital component of the Indian war on terror in the disturbed Kashmir valley.

Purohit’s swimming coach, Sanjeev Valvalkar, paints a potrait that certainly does not match the one offered by the Maharashtra ATS. Valvalkar, who spent many hours in the pool with Purohit, remembers the army officer as being highly dedicated and cooperative. “He was a nice and soft spoken person who used to help others. He was a fitness freak and was dedicated to sports. It never appeared that he could do anything wrong.” Well neither did it appear to anyone else until investigations of the Malegaon blasts after the arrest of Hindu activist, Pragya Singh, led the trail of the deadly explosions to Purohit and a retired Major, Ramesh Upadhaya, amongst others....Continue

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The Sunday Indian

And Obama it is!

A stunned America is wildly feting the first African-American President-elect in the country's history. From the streets of Brooklyn, New York where people cried and embraced complete strangers, to early morning festivities in the Kenyan village where Barack Obama's father was born, the sense of excitement and pride that a black family will be moving into the White House is palpable. Kenya declared Thursday a public holiday to celebrate the Obama victory. "We, the Kenyan people, are immensely proud of your Kenyan roots," President Mwai Kibaki said in a message. And BBC's Juliet Njeri reported that Obama's step-grandmother was seen dancing and cheering outside her house immediately after the results came in. In Obama's native Chicago well over 100,000 people flocked to hear his victory speech in Grant Park, while millions more watched on television screens across the globe. The 44th US President was flanked on the stage by his wife Michelle and two daughters. The Democratic Party senator achieved decisive majorities in both Congress and the Senate, and grabbed nearly twice as many Electoral College votes as Republican Senator John McCain.

Obama told the story of 106-year-old Ann Nixon Cooper, who cast her ballot in Georgia and would at that very moment be witnessing the momentous change — comparable in its impact to only those other path-breaking moments in United States history: the coming in of women's suffrage, the civil rights triumphs and the conquest of the moon.

Punctuating each example with his campaign slogan Yes We Can Obama credited his spectacular triumph to the millions who donated their time, money and energy to his campaign. Nearly three million people donated $600 million. For their part Obama supporters used his website to get up thousands of phone-banking events and galvanize affinity groups in local neighbourhoods....Continue

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The Sunday Indian

Where's the food mr. zardari?

On the footpath outside Sabir Hotel in Karachi, situated on the proximity of Jamia Cloth Market, off MA Jinnah Road, gather hundreds of poor people every day, anxiously waiting for some philanthropist to order free food for them.

A couple of years ago, only drug addicts would throng the hotel, but with inflation now at 24.5 per cent, large numbers of people from the working class and the lower middleclass, including women, are seen outside Sabir Hotel. Similar crowds can be seen in other parts of the city, where people wait for free food because they are unable to afford it with their meagre incomes.

"The exact figures will be available when the Economic Survey is published, but an estimated five per cent of the population has been added to below the poverty line in Pakistan," Dr Kaiser Bengali, an eminent economist told TSI. According to a UNDP report, 65.5 per cent of the 160 million population of Pakistan earns less than two dollars a day and they are defined as living below the poverty line....Continue

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The Sunday Indian

Dear John, your economy's gone

The second dream of New Zealand’s new multimillionaire Prime Minister elect, John Key, to ride the chariots of power in the country eventually got fulfilled with his campaign ‘Choosing a brighter future’, bagging him a glorious victory over the former premier Helen Clarke.

The National Party led by Key, who has already served as a trader at Merrill Lynch and financial spokesperson of the nation, won 59 seats, over 45.5 per cent majority in the 122-member parliament. Reports suggest that with the support of allies ACT – the centre-right party of New Zealand that advocates free market liberal points of view and United Future, National party will have control over 65 seats. Addressing media soon after the victory, Key said, “We have to re-instill confidence in our economy. We have to get New Zealand going.”

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

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