Thoughts on Elections 2004

I am compelled to write and share with everyone(if anybody bothers) my thoughts as India went through a remarkable week ranging from rediculous to sublime. First came the mother of all surprises: The verdict of people voting Congress into the largest individual party and its Alliance as the largest pre-poll coallation. No pundit in his right mind would have called it so a week ago. Even the Andhra Pradesh results were taken as mere abberation.

This is a miracle since in 1998 when Sonia Ghandi entered the scene, the Congress was well and truly in wilderness. There were 3 States which has Congress Chief Mininsters. There were no clear leader in sight for the congress. Today it has the largest number of seats in the parliment. It is running 15 state governments. What led to this transformation? Has BJP lost its glamour? Has Sonia brought life back into Grand Ol'Party? Is it people needed a change? Or India really hasn't shined in the last 5 years? Has the largest votebank for BJP, the Urban Middleclass deserted BJP when BJP needed them most? Has Hindutva failed to make an impact?

Looking back, in hindsight (what a wonderful gift the hindsight is!), it seems more like a combination of all these factors. Some more than others. The most important of these being that "India Shining" campaingn targetted at the urban middleclass succeeded well ( maybe too well and isolated it from the rural masses). And the urban middleclass has the most apathy towards, the democratic process of forming the Govt, elections. So their turnout was minimal in the election day(s). So one painful lesson any party should learn is that in India is "Support is not equal to vote".

Second was the curious fact that this is the first election that BJP has moved away from the Hindutva theme and tried to come back to power on the economic achievements and foreign policy accomplishments. This is a sure fire strategy to fail with the masses. Can you give any Indian citizen who would say "I am happy with what government has done for me economically"? Always an average Indian would be ruled by his heart than his mind. This is a proven fact for all the previous elections, and this election is no exception. I wonder if the lesson the BJP will conclude from this fisco will be "Win=Communal Politics"? It would be very unfortunate if it does so. It also portends a grim future for indian secularism if BJP & RSS decide to inflame issues which should not have been there in the first place.

Third would be the tireless efforts of Sonia coupled with the anti-incumbancy factor has turned the direction in which winds were blowing. She has grown in stature and experiance in the past 5 or 6 years. By killing the "foreign origin" issue she has proven to be a leader with great political accumen even if it might cast aspersions on her fortitude. Couple of observations on her actions. One: she is more of a person to hold fort until Rahul or priyanka vies for the top post. Two: All through the election campaign her manthra was simple, "I am your bahu. Vote for Congress because it will keep the Nehru-Ghandi tradition alive". This shows that she might be lacking in clear ecenomic/foriegn policy issues. She was banking more on the de-merits of the other party , than the strengths of her own party. This might be a good tactics to get to power but what good is the power without a clear vision. India is on the threshold of a great oppurtunity to be a great power in the world. We need leaders who will take us there. Does Sonia have enough guts to do this. Looking at Mr. Singh's announcements it seems like the stronger allies would prevail.

This is not to say the industries are the only consideration that a govt should have, but dont sacrifice reforms and thereby tremendous industrial growth in the last decade by catering populist measures. This assuredly makes recipe for an imbalanced growth, where some strata of the society would be growing at a faster pace than others, but there are certain things to balance them out (like huge education drives whereby everyone gets a decent start - more than which one should not expect from the government) than by giving subsidies. Like one communist leader said, "It is better to teach how to fish than giving him the fish itself".


More on this later........

A Trip to Coorg

Last weekend I went to Madikera, capital of Coorg District in Karnataka for a trip. I was feeling caged in my daily routine and had to get out of here for a while. I needed to see green around me. But these days Bangalore is fast becomming an concrete jungle. So on the friday evening decided enough was enough and packed my camera and some stuff and took off to Madikeri.

Madikeri is the capital of Coorg district, formarly called Kodanadu - one of the very few places in India which was not under british control. In recognition of their status these kodagu people are still legally allowed to carry weapons publically. These days the natives do wear them only on special occations like the religious ceremonies and marriages. The people speak kodava language which is a mixture of Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam and a bit of Telugu. They are fiercly proud of their culture but are very helpful to the visitors.

Back to the trip: I got a ticket to Madikeri in a bus that started @ 11:30pm on the friday. The assigned bus seemed to have broke down and so the KSRTC replaced it with a Passenger Bus. There were a kodava couple seated beside me and the man seems to know almost everyone in the bus. And there was a sense of familiarity among the people travelling. I was thinking about it and thought that these people are regular travellers to their native place, but it turned out that everyone was travelling to attend a marriage and these people were a marriage party :). The guy was friendly and we fell into a conversation about their traditions and culture. I read somewhere that kodavas are fiercely protective of their women folks. This was proven true when a commotion broke out because a guy was brushing against a lady in one of the back seats. The bus was immediately stopped and every male went into the malee bashing up this guy. Finally they dumped the offender in middle of nowhere in Bangalore-Mysore Road. Right after that people started to go back to their sleep.

The place I first wanted to trek was Iruppu falls near Koneguppa. So I got down in Koneguppa at 5:30am and the bus stand was busling with activity. Since Coorg was famous for its Tea/Coffee I tried out a coffee in a stand but was disappointed with it. Maybe tea next time. I got a bus that goes to Kutta via Srimangala (trek starts 3 kms after Srimangala).

I got down at the startof the trekking trail by 8:30am. So armed with a couple of waterbottles, some snacks and my camera I started walking along the road. There were a bunch of estate workers got down with me and were going to their daily routine. They were very curious about me and esp about the fact that I had come alone. They dont usually see loner trekkers in the trail, it seemed. I also met a beautiful girl who must be studying in college in Kutta(my guess) on the path. It seems all my guesses in this trip were destined to go wrong(but more on that later). I passed her resisting the urge to ask her to pose for a photo(The incident in the previous night was still fresh in my memory ;)). Soon the people with me left the path for their work places.

The road that I was walking was winding with tall trees on both sides and a a sense of green pervading your senses. I felt as if I got my moneys and troubles worth was paid back in full within the half hour of my walk. I was fortunate that the whole of the week, it was raining and on the day I reached there was glorious sunshine. But due to the greenary on the sides, one does not feel the heat. The road was well laid, winding and undulating with the hills and slopes of the hills it crossed. There were estates on both sides of the roads. One common feature was their gates was in front and a path that leads into the main house, which could not be seen from outside leading to various imagenings in my mind. It was very tempting just to take a stroll inside to find out if the images i pictures in my mind were close to reality. But I decided to postpone such a temptation until my return trip.

After about 90 minutes's walk I finally reached the foothills of the Brahmagiri Peak which has Iruppu Falls. The falls is actually located inside a reserve forest(Rajiv Gandhi National Park). At the base of the hills is Rameshwara Temple which is very serene and beatiful. It is low roofed(probably influence of keralite style of buidings). There were no one there when I reached the Temple as it was between two pooja timings. I washed my hands and feet and went in to sit for a while inside the temple compound. It was a very peaceful feeling.

The walk between the temple and the falls take about 15/20 minutes and there is a toll fee of Rs 5 to enter the reserve park. There were a couple of groups who were already there taking a bath. I took a couple of photos of the falls and turned back to the start of the trail. On the way down I went into one of the estates for a small stroll and the path was very narrow with tea plants on both sides. It was a heavenly feeling. I really envy the people who stay there for their entire lives. (Well may be not when I think about the Bangalore/Bombay nightlife) :).

I reached the base and picked up by a bus that was going back to Koneguppa. Surprise! Surprise! there was my Beauty again. I figured out she was doing a course in computers. It seems that the centers are populated heavily with girls (most of them very alluring ;) ) because guys want to get out of the place and come to Bangalore for their higher studies and girls are more content to stay near home and work if required. Mine Beauty is one of them.

After my lunch in Koneguppa I took a bus to Madikeri and from there took a bus to Abbey Falls. This journey is about an hour long. The falls had plenty of water, thanks to the recent rains, making it a beatiful sight to behold. After that it was packup time and I came back to Madikeri-Mysore-Bangalore-My home in that order. All in all a satisfying journey.


Note: A word of caution to travellers in Buses: Beware of the bedbugs in your seats. They were crawling all over my jacket when I reached home so I had to undergo a couple of hours of painful task of killing them by soaking every cloth in hotwater and quarenting every item I carried back for inspection and cleaning.

Why these ramlings?

"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that every man has atleast one good tale to tell."

- Jane Austen. (Well may be not!!)

So here goes my humble attempt.....