Reflections

I went into reading The Verdict - Decoding India’s Elections with 0 expectations, anticipation, excitement, and a thirst of knowledge alongwith a concomitant increase in my understanding of my India, and its electoral realities. After reading it, I can honestly state that the anticipation, the excitement was worth it; the thirst of knowledge as well as my understanding or at least appreciation of the Indian Electoral realities and the trendlines has been increased by a significant extent. And yes, it does help us decode the elections! THE BOOK This is a book on, primarily, Elections in   India, Predictors, The art of Analysing, Opinion Polls / Pre-Election Polls / Exit Polls more than anything else. It goes deep into the polls, the method that should be adopted, the method/s that is / are in practice, and the analysis of the same. It gives a detailed explanation alongwith a comprehensive statewise analysis in the process. That said, to be completely honest, the book also ...

The recently concluded Elections in Punjab, in particular, returned a surprising result; few people had foreseen such a massive victory for the INC. While even the UP elections were rather of a surprise, the difference was that the UP results were not as suprising, given that on-ground reports from my friends in UP were very gung-ho about the BJPs prospects. But there was nothing in the air regarding Punjab that at least I read, with the result that I got a complete surprise. In my opinion, after studying the entire results data constituency-wise, as well as the history of elections in terms of results, the question that comes to my mind is this : were we guilty of expecting too much? Historically, Punjab has always been a two-way fight between Congress and SAD; and the AAP was a rank newcomer to the scene. This reality has to be kept in the backdrop. Second, the win in New Delhi for AAP was in a different political and ground reality, and the realities in Punjab were slightly di...

TRUMPED! The title says it all : the whole world, it seems, has been trumped, or rather, to be accurate : Trumped. That capital “T” is rather important, you know. And thus it is that one of the most idiotic, amusing, divisive, unfathomable and surprisingly illogically logical elections comes to its conclusion, the swansong of what I can only call “ The Trumpection ”. For this wasn’t a normal event, this beloved “Trumpection”; it was an event unto itself, a roller coaster, amusing and hilarious event. {Sorry, my American friends, but from where I stand, it was, well, Hilarious!} I know that at least I looked up Trumpection at the end of a hard day for a barrel of laughs. I enjoyed it, and will certainly miss the entertainment provided by Trumpection! But, sadly, all good things must come to an end; there are only so many slices you can cut out of a Chocolate Cake, you know. My regular readers will by now have no doubt noted a marked shift from my normal analytical, factual, ...

This is a short and truncated analyses; the full analysis will take time, and will be rather long - and will appear on my main blog, @ Reflections  in the due course of time. I am only covering the main points here. Please follow me if interested.  Before I present the negatives :  Let me state that it is too early to call this Government good or bad ; one year just isnt enough. The following points are indicators that can be used as guides. I am not presenting the positives; there arent very many, as per me. There is far more to worry about, and far more that needs to be explained.  My View : Negative at worst, and Zero at best... { First time I find myself in agreement with the Congress / Rahul Gandhi !} Note : All Block-quotes are from my own articles A lot has been said - and repeated ad nauseum by media and fans alike - way too much of the positives, which may or may not have any bearing with reality. Let me present the other side... the worrying a...

MODI SARKAR : THE ACHILLES HEEL It has taken a long time to manifest itself, but at long last, we see a developing Achilles Heel in our famed Modi Sarkar; a sad development indeed, given that this is the best government we have had in the past several decades. The only good thing is that the Achilles Heel has manifested itself from a totally unexpected direction; not only that, it also holds serious potential of rekindling a genuine opposition on a national scale, which is a needed and vital component of a functioning democracy. It has taken twin developments in two connected areas for the weakness to manifest itself : Farmers’ Suicides, and The Land Bill. Taken together, this has created a situation in which, if properly strategized, the opposition can rebuild itself, while simultaneously undermining the central government. THE CONGRESS : AWAKENING The sad part is that once again,  it is the Congress that has the opportunity to rise from the ashes. This is ...

The astounding 67… a major victory of the Aam Aadmi Party, and an almost seminal event in Indian Politics. Any election that returns 95% successful candidates is an astonishing event, deserving of accolades as well as hopes of genuine change. But let us not go overboard and read too much into this, for a deeper look at the ground realities and figures reveals a slightly different picture. This cuts both ways and has major positives as well as negatives. The positives have been exceedingly well documented and commented upon, including the emergence of the Aam Aadmi Party as a significant player in the consideration set of voters. Once can be a fluke, or euphoria; twice cannot. The AAP now has emerged as an acceptable alternative in front of the people. It is being said that this is a setback for the BJP, and a comment on Narendra Modi and the current Government. That it is – but only up to a point. On this, I agree with the BJP Government, but the reasons are different. A...