Statewide and National runup to 2014 General elections

SaiK · Post by **SaiK** » 23 Apr 2014 20:26

http://www.firstpost.com/politics/arvin ... 93581.html

When Kejriwal arrives in his jeep, he is buoyed by the numbers, the sea of white caps and chants of Vande Mataram.

Kejriwal has visited and campaigned in several Muslim areas.

The two lakh plus votes of the community will in the end go to the person who can show the real appetite to take on Modi’s might.

i'm not sure about he visiting muslim areas and would hear the chants of vande matram.

RamaY · Post by **RamaY** » 23 Apr 2014 20:27

Victor wrote:Any riots that are engineered will initially likely be timed to follow something like UCC or other "communal" bug bear legislation that Modi has put his weight behind and which will threaten "secular" freebies like reservations etc. Spontaneous combustions (rioting for no reason) will not be easy to sell to the foreign press as anything other than sour grapes, goondaism, vandalism and plain terrorism. Most likely, spontaneous combustions will happen later if some of the earlier riots don't produce the desired result. Regardless, we should expect that BJP and Modi have a firm handle on this already since it is such an obvious danger. I expect them to consolidate their iron fist first with police, armed forces, courts, administration and then venture from there. Don't expect any touchy subjects to be disturbed for the first 6-months to a year.

Saar, friendly advise onleee.

First of all, let us focus on getting the right leadership elected.

"Right leadership" knows how to handle riots (of any kind).

RamaY · Post by **RamaY** » 23 Apr 2014 20:29

SaiK wrote: i'm not sure about he visiting muslim areas and would hear the chants of vande matram.

Even the better, If Kejriwal can make Indian Muslims take Vande Mataram slogan!
Lets not forget that Indian Muslims preferred Hindu Bharat to Islamic Pakistan much before the word "Secularism" added to Constitution in 1972 by an emergency Govt.
After these elections we can send Kejriwal to Pakistan so they too can say Vande Mataram!

Bade · Post by **Bade** » 23 Apr 2014 20:30

If NDA/BJP wins do not expect anything other than a focus on the economy for the next 5 years. All other hair brained ideas will be tested only if they get another mandate post 5 years. That is what a sane politician would do. So expect more secularism of the right kind in the first term.

member_28352 · Post by **member_28352** » 23 Apr 2014 20:31

I am pretty sure that any nationalist/India govt will not be given any time to settle down. A crisis will be created to unsettle the govt. The entire 5 years will then be spent being on the defensive. Ultimately the INC crooks and sAAPturds will be in power. I say the the new govt set the tone and tenor and go on the offensive. The Indic govt should be able to set the narrative and others should react. We need to find a low hanging target. Breaking Pakistan is a medium term target and should be a question of when and not if. Any other ideas?

vivek.rao · Post by **vivek.rao** » 23 Apr 2014 20:33

Bade wrote:If NDA/BJP wins do not expect anything other than a focus on the economy for the next 5 years. All other hair brained ideas will be tested only if they get another mandate post 5 years. That is what a sane politician would do. So expect more secularism of the right kind in the first term.

I agree 100%

But they can free up temples from Govt. First step to reduce domination of state over temples

They can also do education and Police reforms.

SaiK · Post by **SaiK** » 23 Apr 2014 20:39

Is there anything they don't have to do? I mean it is a vast phuck-up that kangrez has left it (governance) now. [did i preempt may 16 counts?]

Frederic · Post by **Frederic** » 23 Apr 2014 20:41

Cold calling results from Kanyakumari day before the elections
**********************************************
*Yesterday night called vegetable stores, grocery stores, taxi cab services etc.
*Today morning called hotels exclusively.
*All numbers through JustDial.com. Thus the inherent skew in the BJP supplied list was eliminated.
*It is still a close call.
*Pon.Radhakrishnan, the BJP candidate has tremendous respect across all community lines.
*Hindus overwhelmingly behind Pon.R.
*I have a feeling that the church will issue an edict against him. Ref the joker from St.Xavier. I have a feeling that all the "secular" institutions across the country are in lock-step to block Modi at all costs.
*Some ground level reports tell me that many Christians want to bring a change in the centre and thus want to vote for Modi even at the cost of defying the edict from church.
*BJP cadre in Kanyakumari is super-charged.
*I would give about 60% chance to Pon.R at this point.

parikh · Post by **parikh** » 23 Apr 2014 21:15

Ground report from Visakhapatnam campaign

# Local unit short staffed,well meaning but sub par results
# Could not fill a 500 seat gathering for Namo's 3D rally today
# Very little youth & middle class
# Half the paltry crowd was paid for
# 3D display didnt work
# Hope & a prayer that the cycle guys will deliver
# Jagan and crooks spending a lot of money in the slums

Dhoti Shiver mode , we will loose onlee

Muppalla · Post by **Muppalla** » 23 Apr 2014 21:19

As things stand Vizag is lost to Jagan's mother Vijayamma. It is a 100 cr venture from Jagan.

Dilbu · Post by **Dilbu** » 23 Apr 2014 21:29

I am sending two votes to NaMo in Coimbatore where people are saying BJP has a good chance. I took up work from two coworkers who were not able to go because of work. I may have to pull a alate night on friday and work over the weekend but that is a small contribution from me to desh. Hopefully they will take their family and friends along with them for voting. Ab ki baar modi sarkar. Modi will lose onlee.

Frederic · Post by **Frederic** » 23 Apr 2014 21:33

Dilbu wrote:I am sending two votes to NaMo in Coimbatore where people are saying BJP has a good chance. I took up work from two coworkers who were not able to go because of work. I may have to pull a alate night on friday and work over the weekend but that is a small contribution from me to desh. Hopefully they will take their family and friends along with them for voting. Ab ki baar modi sarkar. Modi will lose onlee.

Dilbu mia, you are awesome as always. Just make sure those kufrs press the Kamal button.

Dilbu · Post by **Dilbu** » 23 Apr 2014 21:36

They are big time Modi fans. So no doubt about that.

Kati · Post by **Kati** » 23 Apr 2014 21:48

A lot of highly educated, ITvity, yuppie, middle/higher middle class chaps (many of them bongs) are very angry now. They are furious to hear anything about NaMo, election, etc etc. The reason is a bit deeper I found out. They invested heavily in sAAP, gave generous lakhs, had starry-eyed dreams of making Bharat as Massland overnight, etc etc.... All those rosy dreams are now turning out to be nightmares. Hence the anger......

pankajs · Post by **pankajs** » 23 Apr 2014 22:20

NitiCentral.com ‏@NitiCentral 45m

Set back for Nitish, Akhtarul Iman withdraws candidature http://www.niticentral.com/2014/04/23/s ... 15518.html …

IBTL ‏@IndiaBTL 5h

Cong spokesperson asks party members to set Giriraj Singh’s house on fire http://m.news18.com/videos/bihar/cong-s ... 45547.html … Priyanka Vadra must cleanse her house first

SaiK · Post by **SaiK** » 23 Apr 2014 22:54

Is junior vikatan biased? or the other two?
http://truthdive.com/2014/04/23/opinion ... 014-2.html

I think not.. I think TN always considers national elections different.. they might consider between Amma and Modi only for which of the party can enable the inter-linking of water come alive.

anchal · Post by **anchal** » 23 Apr 2014 23:07

I am taking the day off tomorrow and be travelling 500 KMs to vote for the man India needs. 6 votes from the home are guaranteed. Have an internal target to affect at least 30 votes...
Ab ki baar..

vivek.rao · Post by **vivek.rao** » 23 Apr 2014 23:08

^^ Sukhibhava

BhairavP · Post by **BhairavP** » 23 Apr 2014 23:50

Atriji,thanks. Ten votes from immediate family guaranteed.
I miss Jaywantiben

Vikas · Post by **Vikas** » 24 Apr 2014 00:11

Too much of Tweeting and re-tweeting for Modi ji is going to get me in the eyes of C B I..
Oh wait, they are busy carrying the files to Vatican..

Bade · Post by **Bade** » 24 Apr 2014 00:23

SaiK wrote:Is junior vikatan biased? or the other two?
http://truthdive.com/2014/04/23/opinion ... 014-2.html

I think not.. I think TN always considers national elections different.. they might consider between Amma and Modi only for which of the party can enable the inter-linking of water come alive.

TN can think of inter-linking water ones it allows for inter-linking of gas pipelines. It is coming across as one-sided so far. Hope the new govt can solve this problem and have the entire south inter-connected with gas lines. Along with bijli, pani, sadak we also need to get rid of chasing the cylinder bizness for making lives easier for housewives.

SaiK · Post by **SaiK** » 24 Apr 2014 00:58

i am for it.. TN is slightly backward solely because of their rigidity in exchanging and bartering. they try to inspect dental hygiene on borrowed cow for milking. lot need to change in the gas pipe, especially linking industrial belts. cochin to salem is anyway on the cards. i'm not sure how easy in desh to provide piped gas to homes.. even it brings to industrial use, it is a big down for gas black money phuckers.

back to waters, back waters doesn't help. they need water.

shyamoo · Post by **shyamoo** » 24 Apr 2014 01:41

VikasRaina wrote:Too much of Tweeting and re-tweeting for Modi ji is going to get me in the eyes of C B I..
Oh wait, they are busy carrying the files to Vatican..

Tweet this!!!

vivek.rao · Post by **vivek.rao** » 24 Apr 2014 01:48

This whole 6 week election schedule is making me sick.

Can't sleep properly. Keep thinking of all these games played by CON media, DIEnasty, Libtards, Minority gangs and loser parties all conspiring together to screw India and Modi. Even Modi's opponents in VHP are trying to screw him at the right time.

Not sure how it is going to affect the election. This long drawn poll took a toll on me.

I still wonder if the forces are going to tamper EVM.

Oh God! 3 more weeks to go!

vivek.rao · Post by **vivek.rao** » 24 Apr 2014 01:58

SC forms committee to prevent govt ads being used to glorify netas

When a shameless criminal enterprise/family mafia takes over executive and makes PM useless, Judiciary intrudes into Governance.

The Supreme Court today set up a committee for framing guidelines to prevent misuse of public funds by the government and its authorities in giving advertisements in newspapers and television to get political mileage.A bench headed by Chief Justice P Sathasivam said that substantive guidelines are needed to regulate such advertisements at the cost of public exchequer and constituted a four-member committee comprising former Director of National Judicial Academy, Bhopal, N R Madhava Menon, former Lok Sabha Secretary T K Viswanathan, senior advocate Ranjit Kumar and Secretary of Information and Broadcasting Ministry.

Rudradev · Post by **Rudradev** » 24 Apr 2014 02:29

pankajs wrote:
niran wrote: hainji!!!? but why don't i see them?? the paper names around 11 NGOs for varanasi if 50 per NGO it should be 550 people
how in the name Mahadev do they hide these 550 distributing phamplets and nukkading etc. me nor any of us poor volunteers
have not seen any one of them or their phamplets or nukkad sabha.
New tricks to fool their foreign donors and make some money in this last leg of election for defending sickularism.

Damn. We should have seized the opportunity... formed an NGO called "Citizens for Communal Harmony and Against Genocide" or something, taken maha-bucks from Sonia Gandhi, Hillary Kilton etc. to oppose Modi... then continued tweeting and posting on BRF as usual

Would have deprived the desperate criminals of some of their ill-gotten money.

Rudradev · Post by **Rudradev** » 24 Apr 2014 02:40

Speaking of Kilton, it is fascinating to see how high up in the US establishment the roots of motivated anti-Modi venom seem to arise from.

http://www.sunday-guardian.com/news/oba ... odi-policy

Obama quietly reverses Hillary’s ‘get Modi’ policy
MADHAV NALAPAT New Delhi | 19th Apr 2014

President Barack Obama has quietly reversed a policy initiated by former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, to "get Narendra Modi" — ostensibly for the 2002 Gujarat riots, but in actuality "for taking stands that may be different from that favoured by the US administration" — in the words of a senior analyst in New York.

"Hillary Clinton likes to operate through NGOs, which are given funding through indirect channels, and which target individuals and countries seen as less than respectful to her views on foreign and domestic policy in the target countries," a retired US official now based in Atlanta said. He claimed that "rather than US NGOs, (the former) Secretary of State Clinton favoured operating through organisations based in the Netherlands, Denmark and the Scandinavian countries, especially Norway" as these were outside the radar of big power politics. These NGOs were active in the agitation against the Russian nuclear power plant at Kudankulam in Tamil Nadu, with "funding coming mainly from a religious organisation based in Europe that has close links with France".

Incidentally, French companies are in direct competition with Russian rivals in seeking to expand the market for nuclear reactors in India. The senior official, now on a visit to India, claimed that "your (i.e. the Manmohan Singh) government has full details of the religious organisation involved in funding the Kudankulam protests, but is keeping this secret as the organisation has high-level backers" in the UPA.

These present and retired officials claimed that "during the tenure in office of Secretary Clinton, several expert teams in the guise of NGOs were sent to Gujarat to try and find mass graves". The purpose was to then take the matter to the Office of the UN Commissioner of Human Rights in Geneva as an example of genocide. "In 2011, some bones were discovered in a Gujarat field by one of the search teams and there was much excitement, but these were later found to be buffalo bones", an official said. The official added that "no evidence whatsoever of mass graves was uncovered in Gujarat despite six years of clandestine searching for them" by undercover experts posing as representatives of NGOs. He added that "five politicians, three from the state and two in Delhi, assisted the search teams, but the information given by them proved unproductive".

Searching for "mass graves"? Anyone remember the search for "weapons of mass destruction"? Moral of the story: India needs ASAP to build several thousand weapons of mass destruction, and the means to deliver them to any point needed at any time.

Finally, "now that Secretary Clinton had stepped down from office, by end-2012 orders were given to stop wasting time on the search for mass graves in Gujarat, much to the dismay of those NGOs who were getting significant funding as a consequence of the search operations". Interestingly, the senior official claimed that because of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's inability to water down the Nuclear Liability Act and Defence Minister A.K. Antony's decision to prefer the French Rafale fighter to its US rival, "orders were given to activate the Khalistan file so as to create embarrassment for Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh".

Another official, now retired, claimed that "since 2011, several search teams have been active in Punjab, seeking human remains in suspected mass graves". According to them, "key politicians in Punjab have assisted these search teams and on occasion even provided logistical facilities for them".

Connected to Sant Chatwal, Hampshire Hotels owner and major Kilton financier who also poured money into the campaigns of anti-Modi electoral candidates?

These officials claim that the recent decision by the US Aviation Authority to ban extra flights into the US by Indian carriers was "directly linked to US displeasure over the strong Indian response to the Devyani Khobragade episode, especially as they had been privately assured by senior officials that the fallout of an arrest would be routine and perfunctory".

Another example of misuse of public interest bodies cited was the recent decision by the UK Automobile Safety Authority to classify five India-produced small car models as unsafe, "or exactly the same models that are offering competition to European and US vehicles in the European market". They said that such steps were "protectionism in the guise of safety" and that "the Manmohan Singh government's passivity in responding to such unilateral measures encouraged more of them to get slapped on India".

Coming back to the BJP's PM candidate Narendra Modi, these sources say that the Obama administration has dialled back on the hectic efforts by Hillary Clinton to paint the Gujarat CM as guilty of mass murder and even genocide. "This is clear from the latest report of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, which has sharply scaled back its criticism of the Modi government as compared to earlier reports". According to a senior official, "President Obama does not share Hillary Clinton's confrontational approach and her preference for Sonia Gandhi, and is looking to establish a pragmatic partnership with India should Modi become the Prime Minister". Hence the search "for a US envoy who would be different from (former ambassador) Nancy Powell's Clinton-style hostile approach to Modi, and to find an individual who could be expected to bond with the new PM and his team". According to these sources, President Obama "is alarmed at the steep downslide in India-US ties caused by Hillary-style crusades, and wants the relationship to be even better than what it was under the Bush presidency".

Recent remarks by Narendra Modi indicate that the BJP's standard bearer is ready to reciprocate the hand of amity proffered by Team Obama to the BJP's PM nominee.

Too early to say whether reports of a more "pragmatic" approach to Modi by Obama are true, or just last-minute damage control.

What is 400% sure is that if Kilton becomes President in 2016... all bets are off. We could very well become the next Syria, Russia, or Sudan... a thickly painted target of US policymaking as well as propaganda-mongering by pro-Kilton Wilsonian media outlets (NYTimes, WaPo, MSNBC etc.)

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 24 Apr 2014 02:41

Or even better funded 543 guy with that 'loot'.

putnanja · Post by **putnanja** » 24 Apr 2014 02:54

vivek.rao wrote:This whole 6 week election schedule is making me sick.

Can't sleep properly. Keep thinking of all these games played by CON media, DIEnasty, Libtards, Minority gangs and loser parties all conspiring together to screw India and Modi. Even Modi's opponents in VHP are trying to screw him at the right time.

Not sure how it is going to affect the election. This long drawn poll took a toll on me.

I still wonder if the forces are going to tamper EVM.

Oh God! 3 more weeks to go!

I hear you! Same thing here.

Why the heck did the EC go in for 11 phase polling? Doesn't make sense, especially there is very little or no violence in many of the states. All the southern states could have easily gone for same day polling, ditto for West, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Delhi and Haryana. NE states, again one day. The only problematic ones would be UP, Bihar, WB, Chattisgarh, Uttarakhand etc, mainly due to history and also due to maoist threats etc.
Could have easily finished it in 5 phases or less. It will cause voter fatigue !

shyamoo · Post by **shyamoo** » 24 Apr 2014 02:56

vivek.rao wrote:SC forms committee to prevent govt ads being used to glorify netas

When a shameless criminal enterprise/family mafia takes over executive and makes PM useless, Judiciary intrudes into Governance.

The Supreme Court today set up a committee for framing guidelines to prevent misuse of public funds by the government and its authorities in giving advertisements in newspapers and television to get political mileage.A bench headed by Chief Justice P Sathasivam said that substantive guidelines are needed to regulate such advertisements at the cost of public exchequer and constituted a four-member committee comprising former Director of National Judicial Academy, Bhopal, N R Madhava Menon, former Lok Sabha Secretary T K Viswanathan, senior advocate Ranjit Kumar and Secretary of Information and Broadcasting Ministry.

Why now? It's because NaMo is going to be the next PM. WTF were they doing all these years?

vivek.rao · Post by **vivek.rao** » 24 Apr 2014 02:58

President Abominable is blaming Kilton now that she is gone. But this is SD pplicy not Kilton's alone. She might have pursued more aggresively bcos she thought the scam Govt is piece of crap

vivek.rao · Post by **vivek.rao** » 24 Apr 2014 03:07

vnmshyam wrote:SC forms committee to prevent govt ads being used to glorify netas

When a shameless criminal enterprise/family mafia takes over executive and makes PM useless, Judiciary intrudes into Governance.

The Supreme Court today set up a committee for framing guidelines to prevent misuse of public funds by the government and its authorities in giving advertisements in newspapers and television to get political mileage.A bench headed by Chief Justice P Sathasivam said that substantive guidelines are needed to regulate such advertisements at the cost of public exchequer and constituted a four-member committee comprising former Director of National Judicial Academy, Bhopal, N R Madhava Menon, former Lok Sabha Secretary T K Viswanathan, senior advocate Ranjit Kumar and Secretary of Information and Broadcasting Ministry.
Why now? It's because NaMo is going to be the next PM. WTF were they doing all these years?

It's OK. Modi doesn't need this crap. He talks to people directly. He will get his message simply and brilliantly.

He should use this opportunity to pass a law to cut off funding for whole media everywhere including every state.

I wonder if there should be a Proprietary committee where every politician and his relatives have to apply for permission before buying stock/land where Govt. is going to announce projects to avoid dangerous criminals like Jagan,Vadra to amass wealth.

I will tweet this to Modiji

Prem · Post by **Prem** » 24 Apr 2014 03:39

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/23/world ... .html?_r=0
Strong Hand Hasn't Fared Well in India
( China Ko yaad Kar Phir Bole)

NEW DELHI — At a dinner party in one of this city’s wealthy enclaves recently, the subject had turned to the Indian election, and the elegant, accomplished woman sitting beside me explained why she had decided to back Narendra Modi. “What India needs right now,” she said, “is a benevolent despot.”It’s not unusual to hear this sentiment in New Delhi drawing rooms these days. These are not necessarily speeches in praise of Mr. Modi, the hard-nosed, pro-business leader of the state of Gujarat. They describe a yearning for restoration of control, and the hope that it will translate into growth. Over the last five years, optimism about India’s future has been replaced by anxiety about slipping behind — in particular, behind China. Blame has settled on the Indian National Congress-led government: its prime minister ineffectual, its parliamentary sessions clamorous and embarrassing. The desire for a strong hand has taken hold among the elites. Mr. Modi has had fortunate timing.
It reminded me of something. In the late 1990s, the same yearning had emerged in Russia, a country I had covered on and off since the Soviet collapse. With the economy in disarray — a situation far more dire than India’s, it should be said — President Boris N. Yeltsin was seen by Russians as a drunken bumbler, allowing oligarchs to plunder the state’s assets while ordinary people suffered.
The cry went up, even among liberals, for some version of Gen. Augusto Pinochet, the former dictator of Chile. Against hat backdrop, Mr. Yeltsin handed off power to a former K.G.B. agent, Vladimir V. Putin.This yearning for an enlightened despot has emerged before in India. When Indira Gandhi introduced the Emergency in 1975, imposing harsh penalties for acts that “cause or tend to cause public disorder,” well-off Indians loved it. Trains ran on time; bureaucrats were more disciplined; the streets felt safer; and, as a New York Times correspondent wrote at the time, “many Indians feel that they are now better off, economically or in some other way.”That time lasted 18 months. Unlike Russia, India has repeatedly proved ill suited to authoritarian rule, a fact that Mr. Modi will surely encounter if he becomes prime minister.Nor is it clear that a consolidation of power can give India economic growth. The 20th century was full of examples of authoritarian leaders, among them Mao and Stalin, who transformed their economies by imposing policies on unruly societies. Since then, though, the correlation has weakened. Globalization has forced leaders to consider external factors like investment and access to private capital, which are drawn to democratic systems.
If Mr. Modi becomes prime minister, there will almost certainly be moments when he glances over with envy at his counterpart in Moscow, but he would be wise to focus on building roads and factories, the accomplishments that have made him popular in Gujarat. He can’t behave like Mr. Putin. For that, you need 10 million barrels of oil per day.

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 24 Apr 2014 03:57

Unlike Yeltsin, The Gandhi Mother and Son are directly linked to corruption. Yeltsin was abumbling fool but still Russian and did stare down the Soviet tanks in Red Square. No suchacto focurage from these 2Gs.
Having failed to demoize Modi, the NYT is trying to paint him as an Indian Putin.

No Modi is Modi!

And dont know what that elegant lady is drinking.
India does not and never needed any despots benevolent or otherwise.
Mrs. Gandhi got thrown out in 1977 when she tried the despot route despite ably supported by the chi-hi crowd in Lootyens.

Can someone tweet these rebuttals to the NYT article.

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 24 Apr 2014 04:07

I got the gist of it that "India doesn't need a despot..."
Retweet or add other parts to my post....

Cosmo_R · Post by **Cosmo_R** » 24 Apr 2014 04:09

^^^NYT

That Ellen Barry woman has inherited the 'Ranee'/'Memsahib' syndrome: drawing room journalism. Meet the 'intelligentsia' over dinner and then dispense advice to the natives:" it's really not good for you know...."

That idiot Gardiner Harrison is of the same pith helmet variety. His very first article was about Modi and he copied and pasted all the Godhra stuff forgetting of course to mention the immolation of the kar sewaks by the Muslim mob.

None of this NYT journo crowd have even vaguely understood or even tried to understand the Country. Barbara Crossette, the old hag was the worst: she wrote about "Indian men being threatened by a confident western woman" (herself presumably), Celia Dugger (nuff said), Barry Bearak (whose son has now appeared in India). Somini Sengupta (less said about the Berkeley Burkhette). The list goes on...

No one has come close to Abe Rosenthal who was a gem and who really got it.

Prem Kumar · Post by **Prem Kumar** » 24 Apr 2014 04:19

I called Computer Dealers in Nagercoil (Kanyakumari constituency) from JustDial yesterday & today. A brief summary (to complement what Frederic wrote):

a) A decent chunk of the people I spoke to (say 40%) were Christians
b) One is definitely pro-Pon R (Pon Radhakrishnan, the BJP candidate) and is going to vote for him. The other is positively inclined but has reservations against BJP's communal image
c) One Muslim I spoke to is voting for BJP. His criteria was local development, power, roads. He said Pon R is local, has a good track record & they can approach him to get things done
d) Pon R has a lot of goodwill amongst all communities. Is clean & did good things in his previous term as MP. One person said that the party that wins Kanyakumari forms govt in Center!
e) Other Christians are voting Congress. ADMK might not have much of a chance. It seems like the Congress candidate Vasanthakumar (Hindu) is spending money like crazy & his biggest achievement so far is in consolidating warring Congress factions in Kanyakumari (by bribing them)
f) Churches play a key role. People vote according to what their church tells them
g) There is Hindu consolidation behind Pon R. Hindus are counting on the fact that Christian votes will get split - as you say, some Christians are defying the Church, some churches prefer DMK etc
h) The voting % is expected to be high 70 - 75%
i) Kanyakumari has had strong Congress presence for a long time. Believe it or not, Sonia has a positive image amongst people there!
j) One Christian I spoke to said that he likes Pon R & also thinks Modi is a good man. But he feels that if BJP comes to power, some local Hindus will use this to intimidate Christians. So, he will vote Congress. There are definitely many Congress stronghold pockets, where mass voting will occur. Voting has always been along religious lines unfortunately
j) As an aside, its interesting how Christianity spread there. LOTS of money - I know for a fact that a lot of it was from Houston/Texas evangelicals. Rs 10000 to convert - Rs 6000 of it goes to the Padre/Church & Rs 4000 goes to the converted person. The fisherfolk were so poor that they would convert for that kind of money. Post Tsunami, there was massive conversion in the name of "humanitarian relief". But they maintain all the Hindu religious symbols/rituals: there is a Dwajasthambam & Hundi in the church, Padres sport sandalwood on their foreheads etc. Of course, its a 2 step deracination process, but that's another topic
k) About 3 people I spoke to yesterday wouldnt divulge who they will vote for. But they were clear about what they wanted: non-corruption & development. Secularism is also a factor. One Hindu said that he supports Modi but said BJP should be careful in managing its image & shouldnt come across as overtly communal
l) We are not the only ones calling. They are getting calls from Gulf also (it could be Muslim vote canvassing for all we know)

Anantha · Post by **Anantha** » 24 Apr 2014 04:59

On that farticle in NYT by Ellen Barry

Some of these reporters just write what the Delhi crowd tells them and these lazys will not go out to remote corners to find the truth. Actually it is a hint to Modi that if you want to stand up you need 10 million barrels of oil. Not really. The 300 million barrels are the 300 million odd youth of India who once educated and channelized in a positive way, will be seen in every nook and corner of the globe running the show and leading.
The standards of NYT has fallen so remarkably in the last 10-15 years. I have seen microfilm of 1971 BD war archives. There is a cartoon by R.K Lakshman from TOI reproduced in NYT. A small kid in half pants (Banglas) has beaten up Yahya Khan in who is in a military uniform while the kid's mom in a Saree (Indira) is watching while Nixon in a superman costume is holding a bruised Yahya Khan saying we will come back for another round . This was when the whole US Gov was against India... Some fall I would say.
Abe Rosenthal indeed was from that generation. Having lived in India in 50's he understood India well. Abe's 1998 piece ""The shout from India" is a must read for every Indian worth his salt. He was forced to retire for taking such positions later.

Anantha · Post by **Anantha** » 24 Apr 2014 05:11

Regarding the appeal by the rascal from Xavier's college
He first gives some fiction about Gujrat Model and then asks people not to vote communal. He had to involve Gujrat to make it clear to people what he meant. If he had said dont vote communal, lot of students would have taken it as not to Vote for Congress and SP. Hence he made that fartwa "in the name of mother son and holy Jijaji"

SwamyG · Post by **SwamyG** » 24 Apr 2014 05:24

It is not wrong for any one to make their opinions or request someone to vote as per their thinking. As long as they do not force the listeners then it is the freedom everyone enjoys. In a fair and just country all should have the same privilege or freedom to speak for or against a politician. He could have openly called out Modi, the frankness would have been appreciated.

It is a irrational decision that EC does not allow open canvassing on religious lines. In a free country, one should have the freedom to ask votes on religion and caste. How can EC decide that it is incorrect, it should be challenged in the SC. Can it be?

Why have religious universities and special privileges for certain religions? It is clear religion is important to people. Let the people decide based on their priorities and interests.