A State of Denial All Over December 4, 2008
Posted by Vishal Nayak in Uncategorized.Tags: india pakistan relations
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The terror attacks in Mumbai have thrown up tons of literature in the form commentaries, allegations, refusals, advices and what not. It is once again clear that everyone is using this tragedy as a platform to reinforce their own point of views.
India is trying hard to come across as the patient yet assertive victim but finding absolutely no takers. China’s newspapers are lambasting Indian administration and security, calling them fragile and trying to catch the ears of international investors, telling them India is not a safe place for their dollars. Fox news, through one of their member blogs, is calling India to “choose sides” in the global war on terror.
And of course, Pakistan is in a denial mode.. denying the existence of terror camps in their backyard, denying they had anything to do with it and sometimes also denying that India’s latest tragedy is an actual tragedy.
In fact, everybody seems to be in a denial mode. One of the best commentaries about the current issue is by Foqia Sadiq Khan writing in the Jang newspaper’s online edition. Khan also says both India and Pakistan are living in denial.
Pakistan’s denial are out in the open for all to see. Best was Urdu newspaper Nawa-i-Waqt, who alleged that whatever is happening is part of a “great game” by America, India and Israel against Pakistan.
India’s living in denial is much more complex and multifaceted. Khan talks in brief about India’s denial of the atrocities of the army in Kashmir and the denial of ill-treatment of Muslims living in India. According to Khan, Indian Muslims are in a the state of extreme poverty and deprivation.
It’s the latter observation that stuck a cord. Whilst Khan has got the picture slightly skewed with the comment about Indian Muslims living in abject poverty and deprivation, Khan is nonetheless correct if the situation is seen from ‘empowerment’ point-of-view.
There is nothing that India can claim to have done for the empowerment of the Muslim masses in India. Sure, there are special concessions by the government and the like but has it really helped the community in truly empowering themselves?
With such concessions and special status, why is there no progressive Muslim leadership even after so many years of Independence? The blame lies on India’s political divide, which over the years has not only declined to encourage such a leadership but also prevented it from developing.
Hasan Suroor, noted writer, comments in The Hindu that Indian political system has produced a class of Muslim “leaders” who, by mobilising them around issues that have nothing to do with their daily lives, have put the community in a terrible situation where they are easy targets for both Hindu fundamentalists and Jihad preaching Islamic fundamentalists.
There is no doubt that at the present moment, a Muslim finds himself consciously and unconsciously vulnerable to 2 disparate forces, each feeding the purpose of existence of the other. Yet no one seems to be acknowledging the plight. Living in denial.
The best course of action would be for everyone to wake up from their states of denials and indulge in some progressive activities.
Media on both sides have a huge role to play. Media needs to find some time from playing into the hands of certain sections who have a perpetual mistrust against the other country and help to spread it and intensify it between the 2 countries. Then media can then do a heck of a good job in setting the stage for some progressive activities.
India: In Search of an Iron Hand December 2, 2008
Posted by Vishal Nayak in Uncategorized.Tags: mumbai terror attacks
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First of all, deepest condolences to the families of the Mumbai terror attack victims. The entire nation, without caste, creed and religion is with you, brothers and sisters, in this hour of tragedy.
That said, there is an important part of India that are not with the bereaved families of the victims, indeed, they are not with any of the Indians. They are the politicians and leaders of our great country. The ones who stood by and allowed such a travesty to happen in Mumbai. The ones who had the power to stop this mess our country has fallen into but have done nothing.
There is no use including intelligence agencies in the blame for the failure to stop attacks. They did their job very well, especially Research and Analysis Wing. What more can you ask from the intelligence guys: they intercepted calls, predicted the landings on boat and set the stage clear for a counter attack. One cannot expect intelligence guys to do all the above AND fight the terrorists on field.
The latter is the responsibility of the homeland security department. Between the intelligence gathering and the NSG commandos arriving to counter attack, something has happened and what went in between is something every Indian has a right to know.
There are many incidents that point towards the ineptness of the politicians. Incidents that sometimes leave the realms of ineptness and hover closely on the borders of suspicion of political integrity.
Take for instance, the hijacking of Kuber, the boat that carried the terrorists into Mumbai. It is impossible to conceive that the Coast Gaurd of India could be so careless after the intellegence from RAW. Either they did not receive it in time or were ordered not to take notice of it. The probabilty of the former is more likely.
A theory to support this is that is almost absurd for the coast guards to be fooled by the terrorists’ use of red Hindu religious arm bands to pass of as Indian fishermen. If the coast guard had the knowledge of the RAW intelligence it is probable that they would have been a bit more cautious in their monitoring of the site. Apparently, there was no prediction of a great threat that warrants additional patroling and monitoring.
Once the attack began, the holes in the Indian security system were wide open for the world to view. It took NSG commandos, numbering in hundreds, over 40 hours to get a handful of terrorists.
Is this because of the lack of motivation on the part of NSG commandos? ABSOLUTELY NOT! Those brave chaps went ahead to do their duty even with the pathetic infrastructure and system that our politicians have handed to them over the years. They knew they needed better technological and weaponry support, they also knew they did not have it, but that did not stop our brave NSG commandos to answer the call of national duty.
I real standing salute to all the NSG, ATS and Maharashtra Police personnel who were involved in the counter attack.
Deepest condolences to the family of the brave duty minded soldiers who laid their lives down for the country.
On one side, the intelligence is being sat on until last moment has long passed by. On the other, security personnel go ahead with their duty even with sub-standard weapons, tactics and infrastructure at hand. What are the politicians doing during all this while?
Throwing blames at each other. As if verbal wars were not enough they have brought their filthy wars in the media and dragged the upcoming elections into the midst. IBNLive said this:
…both sides of the political divide were seen using the Mumbai attacks for their own ends before state polls in Delhi on Saturday.
The BJP said in a full-page newspaper advertisement, “Brutal terror strikes at will. Weak government. Unwilling and incapable. Fight terror – Vote BJP.”
Congress, under fire from the BJP about national security during the 20 days of campaigning in Delhi shot back, “20 days of false campaigning cannot replace 10 years of development. Your decision”.
How absolutely pathetic!
Nothing reflects my thoughts about politicians at this moment than the words of Columnist Vir Sanghvi in the Hindustan Times, “We are fed up of politicians who use terrorism as an excuse to win votes. We are fed up of their incompetence. As far as we’re concerned, they are all the same.”
With these sick guys leading the country, do you think our great nation will ever have an Iron Hand to tackle the terrorism and injustice looming from all sides of our country?
New updates.. and a Website! November 14, 2008
Posted by Vishal Nayak in Uncategorized.add a comment
Yup.. long time no see.. it’s been, what, almost 4 months since I wrote something?
Time flies by and it just keeps getting better and better. When you got a lot to do and you remember your other commitments sometime you do say “that’s OK”
In the past 4 months many things have happened not only in Mangalore but world over. Seems like the entire world is gripped in a financial crisis, banks went to bankruptcies, we have a new commander-in-chief of the world’s strongest nation and Google Chrome debuted.
On a city level note, there was a lot happening internally; some of the incidents were talked about outside the city, indeed, it caused even central government to comment: the church stoning incidents.
Another nationally talked about event where our city is featured is the Mangalore-born Aravind Adiga winning the Booker prize for his debut work The White Tiger. Congratulations Mr. Adiga
Right now, there is a boiling issue of KSRTC buses being proposed to run alongside private buses in Mangalore. I feel this is a welcome decision, as the monopoly (and the subsequent arrogance) of private bus owners and operators has to come to an end.
That said, I must also confess that, nationwide, there is no bus service that matches the quality and service mindedness of Mangalore private buses. It’d be a shame to strip the city of the vibrant and multi-coloured private buses and place dull, colourless and “one look and feel fits all” modelled KSRTC buses.
State Minister in-charge of the District, J Krishna Palemar, has been vocal in his support to plying KSRTC buses in the city for local transport. I agree with him, to some extent. But replacing private buses with KSRTC entirely is a recipe for dissent and doom. We who have been in Bangalore and used Bangalore BMTC local service and the operator’s “mentality”. Public transport in Bangalore is horrible and I attribute it solely to BMTC. The same situation must not develop in Mangalore.
On a personal level, I just launched my website www.vishal-nayak.com. Do have a look and let me know your thoughts. Don’t forget to check out my Confessions of a Freelance Copywriter in 2nd Tier Indian City on the website
Indian Railways Website: Can They Get More Stupid? July 21, 2008
Posted by Vishal Nayak in Uncategorized.Tags: indian railways reservation, indian railways website, indianrail
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I just got off Indian Railway Passenger Reservation Enquiry website (www.indianrail.gov.in) and my experience on that site was breathtakingly horrifying!
I mean, how could any website, the flagship website of one of the world’s biggest railway networks, be in such pathetic state?
I’m talking about the user-friendliness of the website and only a hardcore supporter of the people who’re maintaining it can say their experience has been good.
You won’t believe, it took me half an hour to find out the schedule of a Sampark Kranthi express and the fare from Mangalore to Delhi on sleeper class.
Half a frigging hour!!
I’ll explain why this stupid delay was caused and how it can be avoided.
I really don’t understand who in their right minds would include a mandatory column for the ‘date of journey’ while enquiring for train schedules and fares.
Do the makers of the website believe that the same train runs on different time schedules on different days?
Or does the same train have different fares on different days?
Date of journey – yeah right!!
Also, I don’t understand how are we – the time strapped, impatient passengers of India – supposed to remember the station codes of railway stations?
Ok, I know Mangalore is MAQ and Kankanadi is KNKD but why the heck should I even know the station code of New Delhi? Or Hazrat Nizamuddin? Or Balia? Or Jhumri Tallaya for that matter?
Just because I feel like traveling to these places once in 2-3 years?
Apparently that seems to be the reasoning for the makers of indianrail.gov.in. While searching for schedules and fares I had to include station codes for boarding and destination stations.
Like I have a desire to perpetually remember the station code of New Delhi!
And horrors of horrors, there’s no drop down menu to select your destination and boarding stations. No provision to enter the city names. No popup window: ‘find your station code’ – you have to enter station code.
Nothing! It’s only station code. Take it or leave it. Period!
It reminded me so much of the attitude of the Indian bureaucracy and the babus in the government officials. Anyone who’s had to deal with them once will advice ‘be patient’. I’m no different. I knew I cant ‘leave it’ so I went back to the main page found the station codes.
Alas! My misfortune had not ended as I had expected.
I got a message saying, “the train does not run on the selected date”
Ok, the train does not run on that day, but can you not suggest me which is the nearest date that the train DOES run on, you morons!!!
And why in the blue hell do you need dates to tell me what time the train arrives and departs; and how much I need to pay for a ticket. Isn’t the name of the train enough for that, you blithing, goofing fools!
Half a friggin hour – I will never forgive you for that!
I know it’s a waste saying this, but I’ll try: whoever is maintaining the site please please take note, there are cost effective and better ways to provide good service on the site. Contact me I’ll advice you for free.
Who am I to talk so much about website usability? I’m a website info architecture and usability specialist so contact me I’LL DO IT FOR FREE. I’ll need better service from that website and am sure many others also will be echoing my thoughts.
Mangalore has an overdose of Sridevi June 10, 2008
Posted by Vishal Nayak in Uncategorized.Tags: joy alukkas, mangalore marketing campaign
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She’s everywhere.. almost
She might not be ruling bollywood charts like she once did. Apart from an occasional glimpse in an award function or a big-shot’s party, you might not get to see yesteryear actor Sridevi too much these days.
But come to Mangalore and you will find Sridevi smiling at you from all corners of the city.
She’s on billboards, road divider ad spots, daily newspapers and even on local TV ads. Sridevi is the brand ambassador of Joy Alukkas jewellery and they have a decent marketing campaign launched with Sri as the face of their jewelery.
Gorgeous as ever
Most billboards feature Sridevi wearing more jewellery than she can handle and flashing her stunning smile in a gorgeous maroon saree. Ads on the dividers have Sridevi alternatively in a plain white (silk?) saree, and a black sleeveless top and a gold and green costume.
Needless to say, she looks amazing in all these pictures. It’s quite evident that she’s been taking good care of herself. One look at her and instantly you’ll remark, “I believe age doth not wither nor custom stale her infinite charm.” Although it must be admitted that her age is a bit more evident on TV ads.
Campaign Effectiveness
I have no data on the effectiveness of this campaign but going by the fact that Sridevi is still smiling at us from all corners of the city, even after so many months, might mean that Joy Alukkas is finding good ROI from the campaign.
The campaign featuring Sri in gorgeous costumes caught the imagination of most Mangaloreans when it was launched long back.
But Mangaloreans are becoming weary of seeing Sridevi everywhere. Majority of the ads have remained the same being since launched. Most people have become apathetic to her smiling face and the jewelery she sports. There’s also a small handful of people who opine that it’s time for her to go.
Refreshingly, the newest billboard from Joy has Sridevi alongside a cute looking chick, both wearing the best of the finery Joy Alukkas has to offer. This move seems like Joy is planning to pass the proverbial torch from Sri to newer and younger chicks.
Personally, I’m of the opinion that Joy Alukkas shift the focus from Sridevi and bring in more cute chicks who can carry off the jewelery just as good as Sridevi did. Sridevi can be featured occasionally to remind people of the original face that made this campaign a huge success.
Kundapura: Haladi Srinivas Shetty’s Victory Dance May 27, 2008
Posted by Vishal Nayak in Uncategorized.Tags: haladi srinivas shetty, kundapura bjp victory, kundapura elections
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Kundapura constituency witnessed an interesting contest this time. It was made even more interesting by the fact that both main contestants were last time’s winners: erstwhile Brahmavara MLA Jaiprakash Hedge and Kundapura MLA Haladi Srinivas Shetty.
The equations were a bit different this time and that was a huge factor in the voters’ decision making process.
Last 2 elections Jaiprakash Hegde contested, and won, from Brahmavar as an independent candidate. This time around Brahmavara constituency was dissolved for Elections 2008 and included into Kundapur and Congress roped Hedge in to take on Haladi Srinivas Shetty.
Congress calculated that Hedge’s personal charisma, congress loyalists and the fishing community where Hedge is quite popular would garner enough votes to defeat Shetty. However, Congress calculations failed to take one important factor into consideration.
Shetty’s formidable record and the developmental work that he has performed over the past years.
According to Rohan, Shetty’s nephew and someone who has seen his uncle quite closely over the years, people adore him because he has an ear and a helping hand for anyone who’s in need. Also Shetty’s character and charisma has endeared him more to the constituency’s voters.
The increase in the number of votes over 3 elections corroborates this statement.
Shetty’s first time win was over Congress MLA Pratap Chandra Shetty, a contest he won by just over a 1000 votes. Shetty’s second MLA stint came in the last elections where he defeated Congress candidate Ashok Kumar Hegde by 19,000 votes and retained the seat he wrested from Pratap Vhandra Shetty. In 2008, Jaiprakash Hegde was the one to bite the dust.
A not so insignificant factor can also be that Hegde lost quite a bit of public support by joining Congress ranks and this is said to have put a dent in his vote bank, especially the fishing community.
But the bottomline is Shetty has proved a much more formidable opponent than Congress imagined. Something that the voters displayed in Karnataka Assembly Elections 2008.
Coastal Karnataka: Twists and Turns in 2008 Elections May 26, 2008
Posted by Vishal Nayak in Uncategorized.Tags: bjp government, bjp victory, coastal karnataka
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Usually this side of the Karnataka coast is considered a BJP stronghold. Every election, it’s only 2 seconds away from being taken for granted as the silver platter for BJP in the assembly elections.
Not so much this time.
Last elections saw the saffron party take 11 of the 15 assembly seats in this area. That is a 73% wrap up. This time around BJP, even though rocking the entire state as well as the coast, managed to bag 8 out of 13 seats up for grabs i.e. 61% in 2008.
That’s a decline of 12% from the last elections.
And this decline has proved to be a mighty factor in BJP led government formation. BJP needs only 3 seats to form a majority government and Karavali area has declined 2 seats to the BJP this time.
Interestingly, Congress has grabbed 4 out of the 13 seats, an increase of 2 seats from the previous elections.
This election has been full of twists and turns and some highly unexpected results. This is also one from the same basket. BJP thought leaders will do much good to themselves if they figure out the answers to these turn of events as soon as possible.
Meanwhile, if the readers have any opinion please feel free to post them here.
No Ninth Time for Dharam Singh May 26, 2008
Posted by Vishal Nayak in Uncategorized.Tags: dharam singh, dharam singh congress, jewargi
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“I do not feel it is my success. It belongs to the people of Jewargi, they have great confidence in me and elected me eight times.”
These were the words former chief minister N Dharam Singh uttered not so long ago about the people he represents in Jewargi, in the northern district of Gulbarga
Dharam Singh first won the Jewargi seat in the 1972 election, defeating a three time MP Mahadevappa Banpurs. Since then, he had been winning the elections eight times in a row — 1972, 1978, 1983, 1985, 1989, 1994,1999 and 2004.
Not any more. Eight time winner Dharam Singh missed creating a world record of winning nine consecutive times from the same constituency. He was beaten by Doddappa Gowda Patil of the BJP.
As Congress does a postmortem of the party’s lackluster performance in the state it ruled not so long ago, Dharam Singh has his own defeat to digest and find answers for.
If the attempted suicide of 9 sugarcane farmers last year and the ferocious agitation of sugarcane growers against rising prices and false promises wasn’t an indication for Mr. Singh that not everything is all right in his constituency then at least now he has ample time to look into what went wrong.
Interestingly, not everything is against Mr. Singh in his constituency. He is still known for his development of the area in the past few years. However, even today Jewargi isn’t what one would call a former chief minister’s constituency. Maybe the voters thought the same too.
Saffron Rocks Undivided South Canara May 25, 2008
Posted by Vishal Nayak in Uncategorized.Tags: dakshin kannada, mangalore election results, udupi election results
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The areas encompassed by Udupi and Dakshin Kannada, previously known as the undivided South Canara, is being rocked by the saffron surge.
As Congress and JDS take a backseat for the time being and BJP state heads think new strategies for government formation, the undivided South Canara is being drowned in a saffron tinge.
Here are the constituencies bagged by BJP:
- Mangalore North
- Mangalore City
- Kaup
- Udupi
- Kundapur
- Puttur
- Sullia
Belthangady and Bantwal and Moodbidri have gone to Congress.
BJP State President and Mangalore MP, Mr. Sadananda Gowda, who was an instrumental figure in brining BJP very close to the Soudha gates, expressed his satisfaction at his party’s splendid performance not only in the coastal region but also across the state.
As the counting ended, BJP is in close vicinity of the first government in this side of Vindhyas with 110 out of 224 seats. Congress is at 80 and JDS returning with a very poor performance with 27 seats.
