The Great Indian Elections of 2009. Four phases down. Voter turnout in the fourth phase topped 50%. Last phase coming up this week, and a lot of political manipulation coming thereafter as the results are announced towards the end of this month. Some analysis of phase 3 and 4 over at offstumped.
Good news for Indian politics. Of the over 6700 nominees contesting the elections in the first four phases, almost 5700 don’t have a criminal background. Just 1042 of the candidates are known criminals.
We have always felt that the media plays to its prejudices. BS Shantanu writes on how we must take anything the media says with a pinch of salt. WSJ’s story on how smaller news outfits will accept money to promote candidates was shocking, though not too surprising.
Mulayam Singh has made his political ideology clear. Others may go crazy over secularism or economic policy, but he will go with any government that will dismiss the Mayawati government in UP. Because that’s what happens in a democracy – elected governments getting dismissed on the whims of politicians.
Pakistan continues to face problems. The truce with Taliban in the Swat valley is over and the army has begun operations against the Taliban. Pakistan is claiming that over 700 militants have been killed, but there are claims that it is the common people who are being killed, not the Taliban (via Global Voices). Another aspect of this violence is the 1.3 million people who have been displaced from their homes, leading to a potential humanitarian crisis.
Rahul Gandhi has begun sending out feelers to the left for a post poll alliance, but so far the left has been ignoring his overtures. Here’s some analysis on how the NDA seems to be gaining ground as the elections have progressed.
Meanwhile, border trade between India and China resumed at the Nathu La pass, located at a cool 14,000ft.
Now that the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) is getting closer to induction in the Indian Air Force, India is drawing plans for a heavier fighter – the creatively named Medium Combat Aircraft (MCA). Hopefully it will be developed a bit faster than the LCA.
Netherlands released four postage stamps in honor of Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, founder of the Art of Living movement and one of the rare people in the world to use the same title before his name twice.
NRIs are a maligned lot, but they sure contribute their bit towards the cause of their homeland and culture. UK based Indian origin factory worker Nidar Singh Nihang has been working on reviving Shastar Vidya, a form of Sikh martial arts that was banned during the British times for being too deadly.
A feather in the cap for Jamia Milia as a three member student team the university won a prestigious world photography award at Cannes.
In sports, India won the team event in the Archery world cup stage 2 at Poland, helped by Jayanta Talukdar’s win in the men’s individual recurve event.
Twitter may have caught the whole world’s fancy, but here’s an Indian start-up that has built up a huge user base. SMSGupShup is a twitter-like service in India, and hold your breath, this service already has 20 million users. That number even beats the number of amreekandesi readers.
From the blogs.
Rashmi Bansal writes about the success story of Sanjay Aakhade, son of a porter in Nashik, who cracked the civil services exam this year defying all odds that life threw at him.
An interesting compilation of the top impressions of India on first time travelers. This post on Kashmir by Nita stoked a lot of emotions, going by the discussions going on in the comments section. Poonam’s post on the politics of slum fires was an eye opener on how low politics (and politicians) can stoop to build their vote banks.
For those of you who have doubts on the relevance of Indian democracy, do check out Smitha’s post that will help reinforce your belief in the Indian democratic system. Also read about the fastest murder trial in India – a court took 10 days to pronounce judgment in a murder trial. Heartening news for the people whose cases run into years, if not decades.
Fareed Zakaria was on Jon Stewart’s Daily show this week. Zakaria is one of the most famous journalists in the world. He is editor of Newsweek, host of CNN’s Fareed Zakaria GPS, author of The Post American World, and winner of 2008 India Abroad person of the year award. He presents some interesting insights about Pakistan, Taliban, India, and America. Pretty much a no holds barred commentary on the hypocrisy of Pakistan, and America’s failure to see what Pakistan has been upto.
Watch this clip from his interview. Husain Haqqani, the Pakistani ambassador to the US, is going to be on the show this Wednesday. Should be an interesting watch.
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ah, great round up. I think i wont mind paying you some money when your website will go paid. So much info in such a small space
I just wish that none of the 1042 criminals contesting elections will win. The real horse trading will start post May 16th. It would be great fun then. I think i will be glued to the news channels.
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AD, this is a nice way to summarize the events of the week! Written clearly and concisely!
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AD, you are becoming Prannoy Roy of Web.
Whoa, that must have taken some patience to aggregate all that amount of news. But v useful for people like me. I painstaking read every link. And thanks for the link back!
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@Philip – Just when i was wondering if the many hours i spend creating these news roundups are worth the effort, you make my day by saying that! Thanks
I too wish these criminals didn’t get elected, but unfortunately that doesn’t seem likely. And yes, looks like we are heading towards a hung parliament, and loads of switched allegiances once the results start coming in.
@Nita – Thanks. As always, good to see you here!
@Poonam – Gee..Thanks! Its good to know that you find these roundups useful. I was thinking of putting up a poll to check with the readers if i should continue with these posts or discontinue the series.
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I am a first timer to your blog, but if you promise to do this regularly, I will keep visiting
!
Thx for the updates
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Fantastic round up ! I actually wait for your weekly round ups ! Media taking money bit is a little shocking – to say the least..
And thanks a lot for the mention!
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please don’t discontinue…I lurk and read though comment only sometimes…will do so regularly from now on
and yes agree with every word of Poonam’s
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@Chikki – Welcome to Amreekandesi! If you promise to keep visiting, i will keep this series going
It’s been going strong for over two months already!
@Smitha – Thanks! And i am flattered! You’re welcome – that was a great post you wrote!
@Indyeah – Now that i know people actually read (and like) this, no reason for me to discontinue! Thanks for the comment and feedback
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It will be interesting to know how many of the candidates with criminal records win.
The video at the end was very interesting.
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@Amit – I guess there will be some for sure!
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