The UPA government succeeded in winning the trust vote in Parliament, but June 22, 2008 would go down in the annals of Indian democratic & parliamentary histories as one of the saddest days. The reason: MPs flaunting crores of Rupees in cash that is claimed to be given to them as a bribe to stay out of the trust vote. Whether these allegations are true or not is a story for another day. The Indian democracy looks like it needs an overhaul, and soon.

Let us take the story back to 1947 when India had just got its Independence, and the founding fathers of our nation were huddled in a room discussing the constitution of our nation. The most important question they had was, how to model a democratic environment in India? At that time there were only two major democracies that were successful, American democracy & the British democracy.

Now the American democratic system is a complex one. The US Congress, which is essentially like the Indian Parliament has senators who are elected representatives of the people. However, the US President is directly elected via a separate electoral process. The President then appoints his (there have been no female presidents in the USA yet) cabinet of secretaries similar to the cabinet of ministers appointed in India. Now this is a complex democratic system, where the President can stay in his post even if his party is out of majority in the congress.

The other democracy was the British democracy. This system had two houses, the House of Commons & the House of Lords. Representatives in the House of Commons are elected representatives of the people and those in the House of Lords are appointed representatives. Then of course, there is the Queen.

As is clear from the above explanation, the Indian democratic system is a spin-off from the British democratic system. We have two houses of Parliament, Lok Sabha & Rajya Sabha. Even their names are plain translations of their British counterparts. But what our founding fathers missed out was, that it is not such a simple model to scale.

India is a diverse country. Even the Indian Constitution acknowledges this diversity of cultures, regions and religions in India. However, it is this diversity that is being exploited by politicians and political parties of the day to their profit.

Let me pull up some statistics from the last general elections held in 2004(data from Election Commission’s report on 2004 elections).

1. Number of participating political parties : 230
2. Size of electorate (eligible voters) : 67,14,87,930
3. Voter turnout : 58.07%
4. Number of candidates : 5435

It gets more interesting now..

Performance(seats contested) :-
1. National Parties - Contested 1351 Won 364 Percentage 26.94%
2. State Parties - Contested 801 Won 159 Percentage 19.85%
3. Registered(unrecognized) Parties - Contested 898 Won 15 Percentage 1.67%

Performance(% of votes polled):-
1. National Parties - 62.89%
2. State Parties - 28.90%
3. Registered(unrecognized) Parties - 3.96%

The one factor I’ve left out here are the independent candidates, as I wanted to focus more on the parties. If you see the percentages of seats won, the numbers of national & regional parties are quite close (26.94% as compared to 19.85%). Now see the number of votes polled in favor of these parties and the huge gap becomes visible - national parties have 35% more votes polled for them as compared to the regional parties!!

Now for some data on the parties who were key players in the confidence vote held yesterday:

1. INC - Our ruling party, the congress that also heads the UPA with the maximum number of seats. Their 2004 elections stats are the best of the lot : Contested 417 Won 145 Votes% 26.53%
2. BJP - The main opposition party, also heads the NDA (now defunct alliance ) that was in power before 2004. Their election stats: Contested 364 Won 138 Votes% 22.16%
3. Left Parties (CPI + CPM) - They were comrades in arms of the UPA till the 123 dance began. Then pulled out support and caused the confidence vote to happen. Their combined stats : Contested 34(CPI) + 69(CPM) Won 53 Votes% 7.07%

So effectively, a set of parties who have polled only 7% of the vote managed to destablize the government. But this has happened before as well, parties that have a small vote share have time and again proven their mettle at destablizing governments.

The question now is, should these parties even be in the parliament?

The stature of a political party (national/state) is decided by its presence in states and also by the number of constituencies where it is fielding it candidates. This is the reason why parties like CPI, CPM and BSP are classified as national parties and not regional/state parties. But if detailed numbers are seen, their voting percentages are strong in only a handful of states and very weak in most others(as also apparent by the overall percentages). A national party, by definition, should be one that represents the interests of the nation and not a particular state. Consider the data for BSP(Bahujan Samaj Party) in this regards:

Classification - National
Stats - Contested 435 Won 19 Win% 4.37% Votes% 5.33%
Seat division by state - Uttar Pradesh - 19

So, all 19 seats that BSP won were in UP. Even though it clearly represents only one state, the 2004 election commission report lists it as a National Party!

Most of the parties sitting in the Parliament today have no concern about the nation. Parties like TRS(demanding a separate Telangana state), BSP(it won all its seats only in one state), JMM(demand for a separate Jharkhand that has now been granted) and so on, are all regional parties. Even the CPI + CPM have won seats only in 5 states. It is the INC(Congress) & BJP who have won seats in more than 10 states & UTs.

For the last 10 years, Indian Parliament has seen one coalition after another. Be it the NDA, UPA or whatever, coalition politics seems to be the way forward for our democracy. But is it a healthy way forward?

The whole point of electing a party to power is that the masses believe in the party’s manifesto, and want it to implement the same. A coalition puts restrictions on parties implementing their manifestos. This was clear during the rule of the BJP led NDA, and now during the Congress led UPA, where smaller parties who have the critical 20 odd seats hold the government to ransom. And if the government does not yield to their demands, they withdraw support from the government, leaving the nation to witness desecration of the holiest institution of democracy, the parliament.

The nations progress will be slowed down if we allow coalition politics to rule the roost. Hence, I propose a radical, yet simple solution.

Only parties that have over 10% of national vote share in an election should be allowed to contest elections for the Parliament. Of course, independent candidates should still be allowed, but parties who have representation of one/few states should be limited to playing at the state level only. This will ensure that India has stable governments who are able to rule by their party’s agenda, and the Indian public has a clear choice when they go to vote at the general elections. As of 2004, there were an average of 10 candidates per constituency. If what I suggest here is implemented, there will be two candidates from national parties, and the others independents. This will make the choice of the electorate much simpler.

What this will also do is give India a clear direction when it comes to issues of foreign policy, financial policy, home affairs & defense policy. Also, it will ensure that a government lasts for its full term, and that parliamentary sessions are productive. With a stable, single party government, Indian democracy will finally be the voice of the nation that it serves.

“MNS Mob fury!!”, “Gujjar agitation in Rajasthan for ST Status”, “BJP workers force down shutters, block highways”

These are just some of the headlines from our newspapers and news channels. Each headline representing some or the other political/social group holding a state or the nation at ransom to have their demands met. So are we turning from a peace loving, democratic nation to one that is ruled by hooligans of political parties?

The MNS rioting in Mumbai is a classical example of a political party deriving valuable vote bank mileage from its violent acts. When Maharashtra goes to elections next, Mr. Raj Thackerey would harp on his successes in making the life of the average Mumbai resident no less than hell. Yet the voting public would cheer, rather than condone, such acts. Who knows, it may even win him a substantial number of votes! After all, we Indians are known to forgive our politicians very quickly. Absolution is very cheap in our country.

The Gujjar agitation was a complete case in contrast. Without any direct political backing, a community led by a retired Army Colonel held the whole of Rajasthan and North India in its grip for a whole month. The reason, they wanted to be given reservation in the ST(Scheduled Tribe) quota. Roads and railways were blocked, with agitators damaging railway tracks to make sure rail traffic was disrupted till their demands were met. The Indian Railways incurred losses to the tune of millions of rupees. Now that the agitation is over, and the Gujjars have been promised of a special reservation quota, will the goverment send the Gujjars and their leaders a bill for the losses they caused? Naa, that won’t happen. Its not the government money, it is the taxpayers money that is laid to spoil. Our leaders sat in silence as several thousands of people had their lives affected with regional and national strikes!! And yet we forgive, forget and move on. What a great nation we are!!!

The most recent case is of the BJP & VHP calling a nation-wide bandh(strike) today. There are reports of protesters blocking road and rail traffic. The nation is being held to ransom again. People who earn their livelihood on a daily basis will go home with no money and no food to feed their families. Yet the political parties will gloat in their success at holding the entire nation at gunpoint!

So I ask, are we turning into a nation of rioters and hooligans?

There is one, and only one way to stop this menace. Make those responsible of such agitations to pay up! Ask MNS to pay up for every taxi its workers destroyed, ask Mr. Bainsla to pay those millions of rupees the Indian Railways lost due to the agitation he led, ask the BJP and VHP to pay up for the destruction and damage it has caused to property across the nation.

And while we are at it, send them bills for the lakhs of man-hours wasted by the police in controlling their crowds. Time that could have been spent in making our roads and our lives safer.

Some political leader, some political party needs to find its spine and take such action. But wait, is there any political party in India that HAS a spine in the first place?

George Lucas, in his movie Star Wars III made a very potent observation, in the form of a dialogue. I find it really apt as a closing quote to this post

So this is how democracy dies, with a thunderous applause

The Indian Blog & New Media Society (www.ibnms.com) is pleased to invite you to a 3-day Blogging workshop at the India Habitat Centre in New Delhi later this month. Following up on last month’s BlogCamp, this is another effort by IBNMS to enable blogging enthusiasts - both rookie and experienced - leverage this medium for both personal and professional reasons.

All sessions will be highly interactive, allowing participants to raise specific queries and also to try their hand at what is being discussed (you will need to carry a laptop and datacard for this).

Schedule: The sessions will take place in the Gulmohar Hall, India Habitat Centre, Lodhi Road, New Delhi from 6.30 - 8.30 pm on the dates given along with sessions below:

Session I, Saturday, June 28
Blogging Technology: How To Set Up And Manage A Blog

What is a blog? How to set it up on platforms like Blogger, Wordpress etc? How do you get your own domain like www.myname.com? Hosting on your own severs. Custom options. Adding photos and videos. Adding subscriber sign up boxes. Using tools like LiveWriter. And more…

Session II, Sunday, June 29
Marketing Your Blog

How do you make your blog more visible? How do you generate greater traffic? How do you get comments on your blog? What is SEO? How do you generate advertising for your blog?

Session III, Monday, June 30
Benefits Of Blogging For Executives, Businesses And Professionals; How To Make Money As A Blogger

Using blogs for personal and corporate branding. Engaging with stakeholders through blogs. Using blogs as a PR and communication tool.

HOW TO REGISTER
There is no attendance or registration fee. You can register on the spot, or in advance by sending a mail to ibnms.in@gmail.com. You may attend one or more sessions.

WANT TO VOLUNTEER / SPEAK?
If you would like to speak at any of the sessions above, do let us know and we will be happy to consider you for the same. And we are always looking for volunteers - call us if you can spare some time.

And do help us by spreading the word around.

CONTACT US
You may contact the following for any queries, clarifications etc:

Ajay Jain, President, +91.99100 44476, ajay@ajayjain.com
Abhishek Kant, General Secretary, +91.9899115375, abhishek@abhishekkant.net
Ashish Chopra, Director (Communication & PR), +91.9891977333, theemptyhead@gmail.com
Amit Gupta, Director (Technology), +91.9868445814, m@amitgupta.in

Greenpeace is known for the tactics they use to save the environment. Be it sailing alongside the Japanese whaling fleet, or performing at the rock concert in Rio, Greenpeace makes a big splash with each of its protest.

The more recent of Greenpeace’s campaigns is to save the home & breeding grounds of Olive Ridley turtles in Orissa. Tatas have an port coming up at Dhamra in Orissa threatens a nesting site that is amongst the last honeymoon suites for the remaining Olive Ridleys, a highly-endangered species that swims all the way here from places as far away as Australia and the Philippines.

Greenpeace has already initiated signature campaigns and a candlelight vigil outside Ratan Tata’s residence in Mumbai to protest against the project. Now they have come up with the idea of subvertising.

Subvertising refers to the practice of making spoofs or parodies of corporate and political advertisements in order to make a statement(courtesy Wikipedia). Take a look for yourself

I hope Mr. Tata hears what Greenpeace is trying to say. After all, he shares the planet with all of us, and is as responsible towards its delicate ecosystems. If you believe in the cause Greenpeace is trying to pursue, visit the Greenpeace Save the Turtles page .

Useful Links:
1. Greenpeace International site - www.greenpeace.org
2. Greenpeace Save the Turtles site - www.greenpeace.org/india/turtles

The Indian ad space seems to have lost its originality. With one after another, ads copied blatantly from global advertising campaings. The Indian advertising firms, who had campaigns like the Amul Butter ads, the Fevicol ad series seem to have lost their original touch. First it was the IPL ad that had an uncanny resemblance to the NFL ads running in the US, with the ink splashes all over the screen. Now it is the Frito Lay ad campaign that is a blatant copy of the very famous Budweiser ad campaign, better known as the “Whazza” campaign. Don’t believe me, then look at both the campaigns and be the judge yourself.

First, the original Budweiser ads:

And now, for the “inspired” Indian Frito Lay ad:

I was wondering if I should do a review of the Lays ad, but its so much of a blatant copy of the Bud Ad, I decided it is not worth. Admakers, find your conscience and stop copying ads. Such blatant imitations will really hurt the reputation of the Indian ad world.

It has happened several times that people come up to me and ask, so how do we start our blog? Is it easy? Well, it is easy. And if an empty head like me can do it, so can you! So here are three simple steps that will get your blog going:

Step #1: Know what you are going to write about

This is an important step most people miss when they are starting up their blogs. The result? Lack of interest in the blog after a few posts, the typical i-don’t-know-what-to-write syndrome etc etc. It is better you know beforehand why you want to start a blog. And if the reason is because you are fresh out of one of those presentations that talk about making money from your blog, wake up! You can only make money if what you write is read. And for that, you need to keep writing regularly. So sit down, think what you are going to write about on your blog before moving to step #2.

Step #2: Get yourself a blog

OK. Now that you know what you are going to write, lets get you a place to write it down. There are several free blog hosts on the internet (a blog host is a site that will host your blog, taking away your worries of hosting etc). The most famous blog hosts worldwide are Blogger.com & Wordpress.com. Most portals like Yahoo, Indiatimes, Rediff, MSN etc also provide blog hosting abilities. Then there are social networking sites like myspace.com, and some prominent Indian social networking sites like BigAdda.com & Instablogs.com who will also let you create your own blog.

Most of these sites have easy to use, step by step guides that will help you to create your blog. For absolute beginners, my advise would be to go to Blogger.com or Wordpress.com. These have really easy to use interfaces and loads of help & support so you wouldn’t get lost easily.

Step #3: Write your first post

Cool. Now you have your own blog! Put up your first post now. And remember, keep writing. That is what having your blog is all about.

This concludes the beginner’s guide to start a blog. Yes, it really is this easy. Let me know if you need further help.

Happy Blogging

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Update<16-Jan-09> : Some readers have posted the question: How to make your blog famous and ensure it gets a lot of hits? Well, here are a few quick tips that can help you with this:

1. Spread word about your blog. Let your friends know you are writing online and ask them to read and comment. Use your yahoo/gtalk IM/facebook/orkut status to let people know when you have put up a new post.
2. Use twitter to publish updates when you update your blog. Also connect to as many people as you can, gain followers and then let them know when you update your blog.
3. Social networking sites (facebook/orkut etc) have plugins that allow you to publish your blog’s RSS feed on your profile.
4. If you need really serious readership on your blog (esp if you want to make money out of it), look at proper marketing options. These include online marketing like google adwords etc, doing Search Engine Optimization(SEO) for you blog and maybe even some offline marketing.
5. Attend blogger meets. Join blogger groups like IBNMS, the Delhi Bloggers etc and attend their meetups. Actively participating in such activities spreads word about your blog.
6. Join local blog aggregators. A good Indian blog aggregators are IndiBlogger. In case you write in hindi or another regional language, you may want to join in some regional blog aggregator. A list of Hindi blog aggregators is available here

I hope these will help you to spread word about your blog. Always remember the bottomline, good content is a must! Without good content, retaining readers may prove to be a tough task.

Gaming enthusiasts who are into playing racing games have been satisfied for several years by Electronic Arts(EA) Need for Speed series. But for those who admire F1 racing, EA also had a brief series of F1 racing simulation games. Back in my college days, I got the chance to play the EA F1 2000, and I must confess I was really impressed with what the game offered in terms of a near complete F1 racing experience.

The EA F1 series spanned over five game versions, the last one to come out in 2005. Sales of these games were always patchy, and for a brief period following 2003, EA had stopped sales of F1 games. This freeze was opened up after 2006, and the games are back in circulation. Last year, EA reportedly signed a deal with McLaren’s rookie driver Lewis Hamilton for a new F1 game series(story on digital spy)

Now it seems the going could get tough for EA. In a recent item on Formula 1’s official site, gaming brand Codemasters, makers of games such as the IGI series, Brian Lara Cricket & Colin McRae Rally series has been awarded exclusive video game rights for Formula 1. This means Codemasters will have exclusive rights to feature all F1 Grand Prix circuits, teams, cars & driver likeness.

This deal could potentially pour cold water on EA’s plans for the next F1 series game, as Codemasters are already planning for an early 2009 launch of their F1 game.

I will be awaiting the launch of this game, to see if Codemasters do as much justice to F1 as EA did in their games.

Author’s Notes:
1. Announcement on F1’s official site here
2. EA Games official site here
3. Codemasters’ official site here

A few years back, YouTube took the online world by storm by offering a unique video sharing service that was previously unheard of. It did not take very long for YouTube to become a culture in itself, much like the social networking sites that mushroomed all around it. And yet the novelty of watching videos online, on demand stayed the USP of YouTube. Another trend started by YouTube was video blogging, which simply put is me sitting in front of a camera, saying what I write down…and uploading it on YouTube for the world to see.

On May 7, 2008(or as YouTube says, 07:05/2008)YouTube launched its local Indian site, www.youtube.co.in to cater to its Indian audience. The site promises to deliver local features such as promoted videos, featured videos, homepage promotions, localized user interface & help center to its visitors. Also, content uploaded by users in India will be shown up in “top favourites” & “recommended content’ on the local YouTube site.

One thing that really sounded music to my years was the NPTEL. This is an initiative taken by the IITs and HRD Ministry, Govt. of India to enhance the quality of technical education imparted. With the large number of engineering colleges mushrooming in India, students at times do not get the best staff to teach them the tougher subjects.

This programme has created web & video based supplements for a large number of engg courses to help teachers and students prepare better in their own fields. The video course lectures are freely available via the websites http://nptel.iitm.ac.in & http://youtube.com/iit

The question now is, will the poor internet infrastructure in India hamper YouTube’s growth plans? Or do they have any plans to overcome this challenge? I put this question to Sakina Arsiwala, International Manager of YouTube, who was present to launch the site and had a one to one with select bloggers(including yours truly). Her reply was quite candid

We are aware that internet speeds in India are slow. But we have seen increased traffic from India in the past year, and the traffic just keeps growing exponentially. We also know that users in India are not able to view our videos seamlessly. If need be, we may look at improving our streaming technology, or adding more local mirrors to improve our users’ experience.

I certainly hope that internet speeds in India improve soon, and faster internet is available to a broader user base sooner. More so, since more students in far away places get access to e-learning programmes like the one being prepared by NPTEL.

YouTube India was announced yesterday, but it has a long journey ahead of it. I wish YouTube.co.in all the best for its journey ahead in India, and may it benefit a lot of people on its way along.

In my case, the Red October is not a nuke powered sub. I am searching for a JD761 series laptop battery to power my Dell Inspiron battery.

I had purchased my laptop when I was in the US last year, and one year later its battery died. Now I am faced with the near impossible task of locating a battery for my laptop. Dell’s India site sells laptops, but I guess they are not really interesting in supplying battery replacements for their laptops. The original 6-cell battery is crappy anyways, to top it now, I cannot find a replacement.

Though I am in contact with some computer dealers in Nehru Place to see if I can get a battery via them. I am still waiting for them to get back to me, but till then, my laptop is pretty much dead. With the amount of powercuts happening in India’s own New York (gurgaon) and the lack of power backup at my place, it gets dangerous to run a laptop without a battery.

As of now, I am waiting. If I get no response in the next few days, I may have to bite the bullet and spend 185$ for a Dell branded battery from the US.

If you know a place to buy Dell Inspiron batteries in India, or have got one yourself, please share the info.

This is a trial post, to test the posting and editing capabilities of Windows Live Writer. This seems to be a very promising web publishing tool.

I thought that the Live Writer would only work with blogs that use Live Spaces, but the seamless integration with my Wordpress based blog proved me wrong instantly.

The Live Writer can be downloaded with the rest of the live utilities pack from http://go.live.com.

I am really impressed with this easy to use blog publishing tool. I still need to find out if I can access the comments posted by readers on my blog via the Live Writer, but even if the facility is not available in the current version, it is worth the download.

Try it. It doesn’t cost a dime and I am sure it’ll leave you pleasantly surprised. Windows products are finally coming around towards being more user friendly, the LiveWriter being a shining example of this trend. Keep it up MS.