Right to Reject - What the SC and the EC doesnt want you to know

The Right to Reject is akin to a toothless tiger. There are many who think it is a great thing BUT in reality the net effect of you pushing the "none of the above" button has the same effect as an invalid vote. The votes the none of the above button garners is also not to be counted! Hence the person who gets the majority of the votes will still win!!

The basic point of the democratic process is a positive vote. So unless and until the "none of the above" votes are counted and if it garners more than the second placed person in that contest then there has to be a reelection wherein if the previous winner again gets the maximum votes then he is to be elected. Unless this "positive" process is incorporated in the election process this recent judgment by the SC  is nothing more than a smoke screen.

My suspicion is that this was timed to coincide with the "drama" of Rahul G "trashing" his own governments ordinance on allowing convicted politicians to vote. Unfortunately the reaction that the spin doctors in the Congress got from the public and the press was not what they expected and as such the story that was to have been spun around the SC verdict never happened.

I invite constitutional experts to comment on whether the Election commission has the powers to take the SC judgment to its logical conclusion ie give teeth to the judgment by making the "none of the above" a potent tool in the hands of the population and thereby heralding a new era in politics of the nation.

The point to ponder is when many people dont vote when their vote counts will they even bother with the "none of the above" option when it doesnt count at all?

Incompetence or just chidu's stooge?

The government of India published the composite development index of states a couple of days back and this is a very crucial piece of economic projection of development that cannot be allowed to be manipulated as it serves the following very important functions:

1. politically it can categorise a state as developed/ under developed (some politicians love to be called under developed (Bihar/ UP etc) as they get a higher share of central govt funds - while other politicians have the pride to be called developed (gujarat, tamilnadu etc) )

2. economically the index will, based on the above classification, allocate the central resources - namely the less developed states will get more funds and more developed states less funds.

the entire report can be accessed here http://finmin.nic.in/reports/Report_CompDevState.pdf

the interesting dissent note of Dr. Shaibal Gupta is most illuminating and revealing and perhaps shows up the true colours of Dr Rajan? Is he in the end just a stooge of the Congress and has no pride in the various degrees he has accumulated in an otherwise illustrious career?

the report has used the following 10 basic variables
1) Monthly per capita consumption expenditure
2) education
3) health
4) household amenities
5) poverty rate
6) Female literacy
7) percent of SC/St in population
8) Urbanisation
9) Financial Inclusion
10) connectivity

As a layman the measure of development should be income and not expenditure and therein lies the most explosive part of the report.

A. The Congress govt has in its 58+ years of misrule kept the population of the country ignorant (education is still in vernacular when we all know the power of an english medium in upgrading ones economic and social status - ask anybody in the private sector, which job pays more? - knowing english or not knowing it!!)
B. The Congress has kept the people dependent on the govt by so called subsidies - in exchange for votes - they never empowered the people to earn their own bread. (heard the adage - do charity and feed the guy for a day BUT teach him to fish and he will forever feed himself)

point B mentioned above is the reason why the first variable of the report is consumption based and not income based - BECAUSE that is what the congress government can lay claim to after 58 years of misrule - we have 90% of the population living on charity, they have no place to go and no means of upgrading themselves socially/ economically or otherwise.

for a moment when Dr Rajan raised repo rates I thought we had an ideal successor  for Dr Y V Reddy to bring pride back to the Institution of the Central Bank BUT this report shows him as either incompetent or just a political lackey of the Congress.

One is willing to give him the benefit of doubt that this report was written when he was in the economic advisory team of the Congress and as such you dont have the option of doing things which are not allowed in the political spiel of things of the ruling dispensation BUT now that he is the RBI governor he can accept the report is flawed set things right.

The ball is truly and rightly in your court Dr Rajan.

the NDA still doesnt get IT (elected in 2014)

the NDA claims they created more jobs than the UPA. still the NDA lost the previous elections. When will the NDA understand that the people dont want jobs - they just want money in their accounts WITHOUT work!!

the "aam admi party" has got IT correctly - hence they are going around claiming that they will reduce electricity tariffs, water bills etc etc. the people who dont want to work will vote them in and rob the country of a stable govt in the 2014 elections as a lot of these new age "anti corruption" parties are mushrooming across the length and breadth of the country which promise the people a magical wand of price reduction and freedom from corruption.

for this experiment itself it would be interesting to see the "aam admi party" win in delhi - the BJP chances of forming a stable govt in 2014 be damned !!

Your turn Mr President

After Mr Rajan declared his independence from the shackles of the Finance ministry by upholding the Independence of the Institution he now heads viz. the RBI, it is now the turn of the president to break free from the partisan shackles he is viewed with being a former congressman by not signing the Ordinance being formulated by the UPA on allowing convicted people to stand for elections.

This single act of kindness towards the polity will save the institution of the president which had fallen in disrepute and slander with the previous occupant (another congress stooge).

So Mr President it does not matter what good you have done all these years that you were rewarded by the congress with the post of the Presidency BUT this single act of signing or not signing the Ordinance is what you will be remembered for.