Review of the 2013 Assembly Elections and Expectations from AAP

This is a long overdue post on the review of the assembly elections. 

Madhya Pradesh : The result was as expected where Shivraj Chauhan has won the elections. BJP won 22 more seats than 2008. Fact that projection of Scindia was delayed was one of the main reason for Congress not able to make much of the anti-incumbency factor. This win should help BJP consolidate their position in the Lok Sabha elections. I had predicted that BJP and Congress will win 19 and 10 tickets in the Lok Sabha elections. I will stick with that position. 

Chattisgarh : To me personally this was also an expected result with Raman Singh winning the elections for BJP. BJP won 49 seats which was 1 lesser than 2008. Congress should feel bad they couldn't convert the sympathy after the Bastar incident into votes. This was a much closer election of the lot. I had predicted an 8/3 for BJP and Congress in the Lok Sabha elections. I would go ahead and change that to 7/4 for BJP and Congress

Mizoram : Lal Thanhawla won the election for the Congress. This was a consolation victory for Congress. As usual no one bothered about this election which is a shame. 

Rajasthan : More than anything this was a huge loss that would have hurted Congress the most. Not for the loss as such but for the margin. Congress won only 21 of the 199 seats. Everyone expected the Congress to lose even thought Gehlot had opened up the government coffers for populist measure in the last 2/2.5 years of his rule. Even that did not help him. I had predicted 13/12 for Congress and BJP but don't think that will happen. It will more like 8/17 for Congress and BJP. 

Delhi : This was a huge surprise to me. The Delhi Rape case and the Anna Hazare fast and the handling of these two by the government let to the frustration of the people. Delhi has one of the best infrastructure in the entire country which was thanks largely to Shiela Dixit but the above two incidents led to her loss. People wanted a change and AAP was able to convert those to votes for them. It is a while since we had any party form a government after their first elections. This was more of a vote against the central government than the state government. Congress should win 2 and BJP 2 and AAP 3 seats in the Delhi Lok Sabha elections. 

Expectations from AAP : Now that they have won the election and formed the government the expectations has risen a lot. They have to deliver on their promises. I hope they are not like Mamata Banerjee who has been useless as a Chief Minister. Binny issue will be closely watched but that seem to have been handled for now. Also there was huge difference between their election manifesto and the first speech that Kejriwal made after taking oath as CM. There were some tall promises made by AAP also like the 50% reduction in electricity charges, have to wait and watch how they deliver. Also they have taken a moral high ground on every issue but every action of theirs will be scrutinized. 

The Illicit Happiness of Other People - Review of Manu Joseph's second book

I read Serious Man, Manu Joseph's first book after nearly 3 years after it was published. It was an excellent comedy. I just loved that book, so was expecting a lot when I bought his second book. I had not read any reviews of the book. However, I knew it was on the short list for the Hindu Lit prize. 

However, I realized that this book was not a comedy in the first few pages itself. This book is about drunkard father's search for his son's suicide. This book starts off dry but it slowly grows on you.
Plot - Ousep Chacko is a drunkard journalist who lives with his wive Mariamma Chacko and sons Unni and Thoma Chacko in Chennai. 

As I had mentioned, the story is about Ousep's search for reasons for Unni's death. Unni is a cartoonist and he is kills himself. Ousep gives up his search for a while and 3 years after Unni's death he gets the copy of Unnni's last caroon. He thinks that the book will give him some clues and starts his sarch again.  

He goes around meeting different people who could provide some reasons for his son's death. There are various characters he meets - Unni's classmates Sai, Somen(he struggles to get to meet this guy), Balki, a Schizophernia expert (supposed to be a mental disorder), his neighbors daugher, a gay teacher, a nun who has vowed to silence, etc. 

Towards the end I was desperate hoping that Ousep really finds the reason and that was a success of the author. 

What I didn't like in the book - I somehow felt that the Schizophrenic expert character was introduced just to give the author some credentials to write about the mental issues. Also there was one page in the book which was added for no particular reason which calls MGR as silly and confused and ridicules JJ. There is absolutely no connection to the book and Manu Joseph probably wanted to express his view, isn't that the purpose of writing books? Also saying all malayalees are drunkards, not sure what was the necessity to typecast... 

Overall a very good book and I won't be surprised if N Ram gives the Hindu Lit prize to Manu Joseph for that one page :)

Biriyani - A Movie Review

Watched Biriyani yesterday night. This was my first movie at the PVR Cinemas. It was a decent experience. 

Movie is the 5th directorial venture of Venkat Prabhu. It is a typical Venkat Prabhu movie where some innocent guys gets into some trouble and how they come out of it. We have seen it in Saroja, Goa, etc. 

This movie was important for Karthi who has been having a string of flops. 

Cast includes Karthi, Hansika, Premji (a must have in all VP's movies), Nasser, Sampath, Subbu Panju, Madhumita, Ramki, Jayaprakash, and the typical VP gang of friends. We also have Uma Riyaz who has a good role. 

Karthi and Premji work in a tractor dealership after completing their engineering (that is a surprise - Mahindra probably induced that decision with lots of in movie ad placements). Karthi has a sister played by Madhumita and whose marriage is fixed with Subbu (manager of the dealership). Shamugasundaram(regular in VP movies) plays Karthi's father. Hansika Motwani plays a reporter and Badava Gopi (another regular in VP movies) plays a cameraman. Nasser plays a business tycoon and Ramki is son-in-law. Jayaprakash plays the role of an AC who is a side kick for Ramki and Sampath plays the role of a CBI officer. 

Karthi is a Casanova who is in love with Hansika. However, that doesn't stop his flirtatious ways. He is a doting brother for his sister played by Madhumita (sadly delegated to sister roles so soon). Premji always is shown as someone running behind girls in all VP movies. Not sure why. In this movie also he is shown falling for every girl he sees but sadly to have Karthi have them fall for him. The sad part about all VP movies is that girls are shown as objects. 

Story - Karthi and Premji go to Ambur for their branch inauguration and at the end of the party they go out for a plate of Biriyani. There they meet Mandy Thakkar (who plays Maya) and when they wake up next day with the dead body of Nasser with no clue what happened the previous night. How they get out of the mess forms the rest of the movie. First half is filled booze, bikinis, and typical VP fun. Second half is a decent thriller where the director will make you believe that the villain is one person but the twist in the tale at the end is interesting. 

Acting - Karthi has done a decent role but in certain scenes he doesn't emote well. Like when he realizes that he is in such a big trouble there is absolutely no paraprappu in his face (which is done well by Premji). Hansika doesn't have much to do. Premji is irritating at times but mostly has underplayed so is ok. Uma Riyaz has a decent role as a hit woman but her reaction (supposedly anger) in the station scene is pathetic. She should have played it more subtle. Mandy Thakkar is HOT as a seductress. 

Some scenes have no logic - Karthi going around everywhere (after his face was published in all papers and TV) with just a cap and not being recognized mostly. Karthi with a singham mustache being called as Surya by Hansika. The van in which Karthi's sister is kidnapped coming back just for a fight. Uma Riyaz shooting in the construction area and being a hit woman she is a pathetic shooter.  Premji is disguised as Nasser.  

Some scenes are good - Where VP in his typical style acknowledges that the movie has taken some inspiration from Hangover or the scene which imitates the Naduvula konjam Pakatha kanom or Nasser saying evalavo panittom edha panna mattoma? Nice to see a good fight scene between the hero and a lady (even though there is a typical tamil movie dialogue - "evalavu neram ponnunu pathaen before fighting with more force"). 

There are some double entendres which are typical in VP movies. 

All in all this Biriyani tastes good. 

ID Cards & Safety

One of the things that we all get used to from the school days is wearing the ID card. This continues even into the corporate world. Some have it with a long rope around the neck and some have it just with the pin. Some buy those rollers with which you can pull out the cards and these rollers are hung on the pant loops.

I personally prefer to wear whatever is offered by the organization. In most corporate organizations it is the long rope (you are sometimes reminded off the leash but we aren't we all controlled that way?).

The main aspect that I wanted to discuss was the safety aspect of the ID card. The ID cards are required in office premises to ensure that no strangers don't come into work places. Every one who enters an office are checked if they are wearing the ID cards. This is the required especially in offices were thousands of people work.

There is another benefit also, in case you want to know the name of someone who you like you can always look at the ID card to find their names. :) You don't have to use any detectives to find names.

There are many girls that I see don't remove their ID cards even when they get out of offices. I haven't seen that many boys wear IDs outside work. There are a few things that I want to highlight

1) You don't want to give an opportunity to everyone on the road to know your name

2) People who work in large companies will definitely be carrying a few cards, decent amount of money. The ID card that you wear around your neck is a clear give away for the thieves.

Do we really need this? The first thing that I remove when I get on to the car or bike is my ID. Not that I work in a lousy company (which I don't want people to know about). ID cards are for work & you should use them only there. 

Which Other Sportsmen/women deserve a Bharat Ratna?

Sachin Tendulkar became the first sportsperson in India to win Bharat Ratna when the Government of India announced the award on day he retired from competitive cricket. Sachin Tendulkar has been one of the top sportsmen that the country has produced and he truly deserves the top honor of the country. However, there are quite a few other sports persons who deserve it equally. 

Dhyan Chand 

The Wizard, as he was called for his superb ball control skills, has scored over 400 international goals. He has won 3 Olympic goals (1928, 32 & 36) during the Indian dominance (partly to do with the presence of players from the current Pakistan) of Hockey before independence. How many of us know the following

1)     August 29th is celebrated as the National Sports Day - It is Dhyan Chand's birthday

2)     The Government of India has an award named Dhyan Chand Award for the Lifetime achievement in sports

3)     The hockey Stadium in Delhi is called the Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium 

4)     There are stories that he turned down German citizenship offered by Hitler during the Berlin Olympics

I have read that sadly when he fell ill in 1979 before his death he was admitted in the general ward of AIIMS (it is not only now that sportsmen other than cricketers suffer). He was shifted to a room only after a news article. 

Viswanathan Anand

Anand was the first Grand Master from India. The number of grand masters has grown from 1 in 1988 to 36 now thanks to the popularity of Anand. Some reasons why Anand should be the awarded Bharat Ratna

1)     He is a 5 time world champion (don't think the way the current match is going he will become a 6 time champion, at least not this year)

2)     One of the 6 players in the world to cross 2800 mark in the Elo ratings

3)     He has been a world # 1 for a considerable period

4)     There is not one tournament in the world of Chess that he has not won

Do you know that Anand is one of the youngest to win the Padma Shri (won it at the age of 18) and also the first to win Rajiv Ratna Khel Ratna award. 

Mary Kom

Mary Kom is another 5 time world champion and the only boxer to have won a model in all the 6 world championships held so far. She also won us a medal in the London Olympics. However, she has not won the Padma Vibhushan which is the second top civilian honor in the country. Not sure if that is a criteria for getting a Bharat Ratna

Cricketers 

There are two cricketers who I think defined Indian cricket in the last 30-40 years are Sunil Gavaskar and Kapil Dev. Sunil Gavaskar was the first to score 10,000 runs in Tests and those were the days when 10,000 was a huge number and it took years for Border to reach that number. He also went on to score 34 test centuries and that stayed on for a long time as the most number of hundreds till the Sachins and Dravids and Laras went past that. Kapil Dev was the Indian cricketer of the century. He was at a time the leading wicket taker in ODI and Tests and also the one of the best all-rounders that the game has produced. He also helped us win the world cup. (Dhoni got a Khel Ratna for leading India to World T20 championships.) However, like Mary Kom both have not won a Padma Vibhushan. 

Leander Paes

1)     One of the best Tennis players India has ever produced.

2)     He was second Indian to win an individual medal in Olympics when he won the bronze in 1996 Atlanta Games.

3)     He has a phenomenal record in Davis cup having defeated some of the top players like Goran Ivanisevic.

4)     He has the longest winning streak with Mahesh Bhupathi in Davis cup doubles.

5)     He has won 14 grand slam titles and is regarded as one of the best ever Doubles Player.

Sadly, Leander has not even won a Padma Bhushan so don't think they will even consider him for a Bharat Ratna. At least not in the near future. He also happens to share by birthday and was my classmate for 5 years (don't think those are reasons to win an award, unless I become the PM of the country :)) 

Isolation of Vaiko and the AAP phenomenon

I have successfully reached post # 50.

There is a Mullivaikal memorial that has been constructed near Thanjavur and there is a statue of Prabhakaran and his son in it. I am totally surprised that people have the guts to put up statues and posters of global terrorists. People should differentiate between support for Tamils in Sri Lanka and the LTTE. LTTE was and is a banned organization. It was responsible for the killing of many Tamil leaders even in Sri Lanka.

The TN government demolished the compound wall as it had encroached on the National Highways. Vaiko was very harsh on the TN Government. He said people will spit on Jayalalitha for destroying the wall. Was really surprised with the words that were used. With this he has completely ruled out the possibility of any alliance with ADMK. 

Vaiko has been very vocal in his support of the BJP in the last few days as I have mentioned in my earlier post. Knowing JJ it would be interesting to see what kind of pressure that she exerts on BJP to isolate Vaiko further. To BJP JJ is more valuable than a Vaiko, so they might give in and isolate him completely. He is already become a spent force in TN. Only advantage of anyone including Vaiko is the tireless campaign that he will do for the alliance. He is a great orator which will be useful in drawing crowds. However those have not translated to votes in the recent elections. Even if JJ doesn't exert any pressure on BJP or if BJP ignores her pressure, BJP & MDMK will not win any seats unless they form a very large alliance. With this election MDMK and Vaiko will head towards extinction. Same can be said about PMK also. 

Coming to the second item of discussion. Aam Admi Party. To me personally any party to come to power will need at least 4-5 elections. However, all opinion polls are claiming that AAP can even become a single largest party in their first election (It is completely another issue that no psephologist have a scientific method to translate the support to number of seats). Which is highly impossible. Once people start taking you seriously they will throw all kind of muck on you, which is what the Congress and BJP are doing now. Be it the funding issue or the abusive words used in a rally, everything is coming out because people are taking AAP seriously. How AAP will react to all this will reflect on the true character of this party. They abstained from television debates on the funding issue. That doesn't reflect well on them. 

The art of translating crowd in rallies to votes is not easy. You need to ensure every supporter of yours gets to the polling booth and votes. With AAP the support is mostly the higher middle class and middle class. The upper middle class and upper class are the people who generally don't get to the election booth to vote. Even if the opinion polls are really reflecting the true picture, the AAP will find it really difficult to get support translated to votes. That is my view. 

I will be very surprised if AAP wins more than 10 seats in AAP. 

Possible Test Team for the South Africa Series

Let us first start with the team that we have for the West Indies series

MS Dhoni, Dhawan, Vijay, Pujara, Sachin, Kohli, Rohit, Rahane, Ashwin, Ojha, Mishra, Bhuvaneshwar, Shami, Umesh and Ishant

Now that Sachin is retiring we can safely presume that Rahane will take his place in XI. 

The following members should be a shoo in into the team. 

MS Dhoni, Dhawan, Vijay, Pujara, Kohli, Rohit, Rahane, Ashwin, Bhuvaneshwar, Shami, Umesh, Ojha(not sure if he will get a chance to play in the XI)

Mishra - Don't think he will get selected. We don't need more than 1 spinner for the 2 test matches at Durban and Jo'burg.  The second spinner will definitely be Ojha. 

Ishant - He is lucky to be in the team for this series. 

That leaves either 3 members - 1 Fast Bowler, 1 Batsman and 1 backup keeper or backup opener

Fast Bowler - Do we go with Zaheer Khan or blood some youngster like Jaydev Unadkat or Ishwar Pandey? Zak did decently well in the first match of this season but not much in the second. I would personally prefer someone like Ishwar Pandey. He was the top wicket taker of the last ranji season and has started decently with 12 wickets in the first 2 matches this season. 

Batsman - This could be tricky, do we go with someone like Raina (who himself tweets that he has to be in the test team) or blood some youngster. Let us look at some of the top scorers of last season - CM Gautam, Jiwanjot Singh, Parthiv Patel & Abhishek Nayar. Except for Parthiv(who has scored a couple of 50s this season) others have not done much this season in both Duleep Trophy and in the first 2 rounds of Ranji. That leaves us with the option of the guys who are currently doing well. There are 2 youngsters who are doing exceedingly well - Baba Aparajith(2 double centuries and 1 century) and Sanju Samson(1 double century and 1 century). We can also add Vijay Zol to the list.  All three are very young and not sure if the selectors will select any of them. 

Parthiv patel or a Wridhiman Saha could be the back up keeper. In case the selectors chose to pick a back up keeper. In case they go in for a back up opener then it could be Gambhir (they will not select him unless he will be in the XI, which I dont think will happen) or a Jiwanjot Singh. The other option of a Abhinav Mukund has not done much for a while now. I would probably go with Saha. 

The 3 members for me would be Ishwar Pandey, Baba Aparajith and Wridhiman Saha. 

My 15 will be MS Dhoni, Dhawan, Vijay, Pujara, Kohli, Rohit, Rahane, Ashwin, Bhuvaneshwar, Shami, Umesh, Ojha, IC Pandey, Baba Aparajith and Saha

Review of the 1st Test of the Sachin (India vs West Indies) Series

The first test of the series which was scheduled to have Sachin finish his test career in India (OK, we also had another reason of having some additional revenue from the broadcast rights) ended in 3 days. Here is the review of this game. 

West Indies started off with winning the toss and brought in Sheldon Cottrell for Kemar Roach and India giving Rohit Sharma and Shami Mohammed their test caps. I was personally surprised that Shami got the nod ahead of Umesh Yadav (I even mentioned in my post about the 15 that Umesh was a default selection in the playing XI), but it turned out to be a brilliant move. Rohit Sharma ahead of Ajinkya Rahane was also not a surprise with the form Rohit has been this year and scoring a century and double century in the recently concluded ODI series against the Aussies. 

Dhoni before the match was cribbing about missing out Ravindra Jadeja, but didn't mention anything about Ashwin. Ashwin has been performing better with the bat than Jadeja especially in the tests. In the Australia test series Ashwin did fabulously well with the ball also. He is currently ranked # 1 in the ICC all rounder rankings in the world and still our captain doesn't recognize him as an all rounder. 

West Indies started off well scoring at around 3.5 runs an over for the first 10 overs. Bhuvaneshwar got rid of Gayle in the 11th Over with little bit of away movement and Shami picked up his first wicket with a bouncer to Powell. The 3rd wicket partnership between Bravo and Samuels took windies well past the 100 mark. Shami started reversing the ball and got Samuels bowled who had scored 65 runs at a pretty quick pace. What followed was West Indies' gift to India with Bravo being run out, Ramdin being bowled (tempted to say Speak now nah Dinesh) and Sammy hitting it straight to the only person on the boundary (I was so reminded of Srikanth's wicket in the 92 world cup match against New Zealand, early days of field restrictions when he hit Deepak Patel straight down the throat of the long on fielder). Tendulkar brought on for the last over before tea (he picked his last test wicket in 2010) picked up the wicket of Shillingford in his 5th ball. Ashwin and Shami finished the rest. West Indies ended up with 234. Dhoni dropped couple of catches which was a surprise. 

India started off cautiously with Dhawan and Vijay and India finishing day 1 at 37/0. On day 2 Shillingford started spinning the web around the openers. Dhawan was unfortunate with the ball keeping very low which bowled him but he could have been out the previous ball also which almost carried back to Shillingford. Vijay didn't want to keep the Eden crowd waiting for long for the moment they were waiting for and completely missed the ball when he stepped out and got stumped. Sachin came and he stuck two beautiful boundaries (was he trying to do what a normal player who is tensed will do, start hitting out? don't think so as both were beautiful strokes and not slogs). Was surprised to see Pujara trying to play the bouncer over the keeper's head and ended up giving an easy catch to Ramdin and Cottrell picked up his first wicket. Nigel Llong put an end to Sachin's innings with a poor decision but Tendulkar was completely beaten by the doosra from Shillingford. Kohli followed immediately to Shillingford again defending with hard hands. Dhoni started attacking Shillingford immediately and things started changing a bit from then on. India went into lunch at 120/5 and in deep trouble. Dhoni went after a few overs nicking one to Ramdin of Best and India were in deep trouble with India at 156/6. Then came a beautiful partnership between Rohit and Ashwin. Rohit taking his good form into the tests too. Ashwin clearly telling everyone that he is far better a batsman than other so called all rounders. Rohit went onto make a century and Ashwin ended up at 92 at stumps. Sammy could have tried bowling Samuels or Gayle. India ended day 2 at 354/6 a lead of 120 runs. 

Day 3 - India would have wanted to build a pretty huge lead and take the score past 500 runs but that was not to be. India were all out for 453 around lunch. Rohit out at 177 and Ashwin at 124 and Bhuvaneshwar and Shami not troubling the scorers much. Ramdin dropped two catches returning the favor to Dhoni. 

West Indies started cautiously and Gayle was the first to go trying to pull a bouncer and giving an easy catch to Kohli of Bhuvaneshwar. Windies were 33/1 and Powell and extras were zero then. The second wicket partnership added 68 runs and after that only person to show some resilience was as usual Chanderpaul. Samuels was probably a bit unlucky to be given leg before when the ball hit him on the back thigh pad. You can give someone leg before when the ball hits the thigh pad only when the batsman is squatting or they are pretty short like Mushfiqur Rahim or Sachin Tendulkar but definitely not Marlon Samuels who is well over 6 feet :) Shami bowled beautifully reversing and Ashwin also picked away 3 wickets. Shami ended the second innings with a 5-for and the match with a 9 wickets. Windies were all out for 168 and India won by innings and 51 runs. They collapsed from 101/1 to 168 all out. 

Rohit Sharma was the man of the match. I would have personally preferred either Shami or Ashwin. 

Shami and Rohit had dream debuts and Ashwin (5 wickets and 124 runs) had a great match. Other than these 3 not much contributions from others. Read a stat that bulk of Bhuvaneshwar's wicket has come in the first 15 overs, that is a definite cause of worry. Ojha was a bit unlucky in the first innings as Dhoni dropped a couple of catches but didn't have much to do in the second innings.  

What to look forward to Match # 200

India should be a bit worried about the top order's batting against Shillingford. Windies don't have it in them to fight and I don't see much chance for them in the next match either. 

The match # 199 didn't really go the way the fans would have wanted it with Sachin ending up with 10 runs and 1 wicket. Fans would be loving to see Sachin score more at Wankhade. However, as Geoffrey Boycott mentioned in his Bowl at Boycs there is just too much pressure on Sachin and like what happened to Bradman don't think we can expect a big score from Sachin. I would prefer the way Rahul and VVS left through press conferences and not with such hoopla. 

Some records from this match

1)     Shami's bowling figures was the best by an Indian fast bowler in a match on debut and second best by a indian bowler after Narendra Hirwanis 16 wicket 

2)     Rohit's 177 was the second best by an Indian batsman on debut after Dhawan's 187

3)     280 run 7th wicket partnership between Ashwin and Rohit was the best for India for the 7th wicket and 2nd best for all wickets against west indies. 

Some funny things from this match 

·        CAB got its timing completely wrong, they had ordered 199 kgs of rose petals to be air dropped and got permission from air traffic control also but they had planned it for day 4 & 5. Windies messed up the plans. 

·        I was hearing the commentary on radio when heading to work on the 3 days and some real good gems from the commentary

1)     First slip thoda peechae hain, second slip kuch agae hain and third slip kuch our agae hain(First slip is bit back, second slip is a bit forward and third slip is bit more forward)... Anyone who has watched a bit of cricket would know how the slips are positioned. Do they have to talk something to fill time?

2)     Rohit is nearing the score of Dhawan and cricket is a game of great statistics and permutations and combinations.. ok there are statistics in cricket and permutations and combinations are there in statistics but permutations and combinations and cricket? Doesn't make sense. 

3) Tino Best's pace would not trouble the Indian batsman, he is bowling gentle medium - He was bowling well over 140 consistently :)

Who creates the posters that come up on the medians?

I have always wondered who creates the posters that come up on the road medians during the visit of any leader. I have had personal experience when a minister who was invited for a function specifically asked that such posters be put up on the median of the roads. This trend of putting up small posters on the medians is relatively new in Chennai. It has been in prevalence for the last 5-6 years.

The funny part is the wordings that people use on these posters like Vidi velliyae(morning star), nayaganae(hero), suriyanae(sun), bharathamae(india), edhayamae(heart) and what not. Earlier we used to have meaningful ones like the former Dy CM being addressed as Kurunji malar nayaganae (Hero of Kurunji flower) because he acted as the hero of a serial called Kurunji malar.

Now a days the wordings on these median posters don't have any meaning like Nalayae(tomorrow), etc. What does that even mean?

Some are outright false. Like what was put up when Narendra Modi came to Chennai. There were posters which claimed that he was the Eelam's saviour and Katchatheevu retriever. I am not sure when Modi retrieved Katchatheevu or saved eelam? To my knowledge he has not even uttered a single word on these subjects.

The other major issue for me is the safety of the road users, who is in charge of ensuring these posters put up on the medians stay there? Many times they are dangling on the road or fallen on the road. Already the roads are blocked by the barricades and some more is being taken up by the fallen posters. Shouldn't the parties be held responsible for ensuring the safety for these?  

Views about the Indian Test Squad for the West Indies Series

Selected Squad: MS Dhoni (capt), Shikhar Dhawan, M Vijay, Cheteshwar Pujara, Sachin Tendulkar, Virat Kohli, R Ashwin, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Pragyan Ojha, Amit Mishra, Ajinkya Rahane, Umesh Yadav, Shami Ahmed, Rohit Sharma, Ishant Sharma.

Default Selection

1) MS Dhoni

2) Sachin Tendulkar (this series is held for him)

3) Virat Kohli

4) Cheteshwar Pujara

5) Shikhar Dhawan

6) Murali Vijay (I do hear views of lots of people that he shouldn't be selected, but in the last test series that India played he scored two - 150+ score and one 50+ score. He was the top scorer of that series)

7) R Ashwin (he was the leading wicket taker in the last series)

8) Umesh Yadav

The above 8 will definitely make the playing XI. That leaves only 3 slots open 1 Fast bowler, 1 Spinner and batsman/all rounder at 6. 

No 6 Slot

Jadeja is rested because of injury so the # 6 will definitely go to a batsman. The toss up is between Ajinkya Rahane and Rohit Sharma. Both are selected in the 15 and it will be MSD's decision to choose who gets into the playing XI. I would personally like to see Jinx get his chance. Anyone as talented as him should get at the minimum the chances that Rohit Sharma got in ODIs (Rohit has still not played a test match)

Fast Bowler

Ishant Sharma, Bhuvaneshwar Sharma and Shami are selected in the 15. Bhuvaneshwar Sharma had a great start to his career but he has plateaued now. Do we persist with him? I would say Yes. Shami - Not sure if he will get a chance but is one of the best options we have had. Ishant Sharma should have been dropped for sure. MSD had to defend his selection for the ODIs itself. I would have loved to have Zak back in the side. He had a decent outing in Mumbai's first ranji match which ended yesterday. 

Spinners

Ojha and Mishra are selected in the 15. That is an easy decision and Bhajji is the other option we have. Ojha and Mishra have not done anything wrong. So the choice was easy. 

Except for Zak for Ishant I would have selected the same team. 

I have a very basic question - Why do we need a 15 member squad for the 2 test home series? There is no way we will play more than 2 fast bowlers then why select 4 fast bowlers? 

CHOGM & Maldives - What India should do

CHOGM

The opposition from the Tamil Nadu political parties has literally forced the PM to take a decision. This is not a great multilateral forum that PM has to attend. However, with the resolution passed by the TN assembly, the PM has to attend the CHOGM meeting. Otherwise it will look like he has let the regional parties decide the foreign policy. What I would suggest is PM to attend the meeting and must also visit Jaffna. That will ensure that the regional parties keep quite. 

When it comes to Sri Lanka, we need to force them to implement the so called 13+ that Mahinda Rajapaksa said he will do. As mentioned in my earlier post about going back on promises he made (http://dailykaruthu.blogspot.in/2013/08/from-13-to-diluted-13-feeling-cheated.html), Rajapaksa has been getting away with whatever he wants to do. Unless we have a relationship with them, we will not be able to force him to act. In case the PM decides not to attend this meeting we will have no clout with Rajapaksa. The sad part is the opposition party in Sri Lanka led by Ranil Wikramasinghe is also in tatters that also gives Rajapaksa the room to do what he wants. 

Every party knows that Indian fisherman has been going deep into Sri Lankan territory to catch fish. When LTTE was active, Sri Lankan fisherman were not allowed to fish which also helped the Indian fisherman to catch fish in Sri Lankan territory. Now that LTTE is finished the Sri Lankan fisherman are also back in the ocean and they don’t want Indian fisherman fishing in their territory. This is what is forcing the Sri Lankan Navy to act. However, all that they should do is take the Indian Fisherman into custody for crossing into Sri Lankan territory and not fire at them. India needs to be engaged with the Sri Lankan government, even to force them not to fire at our fisherman.

The other worry is that China card is played beautifully by Rajapaksa. We are being naive to fall into that trap. We should have never allowed him to use the China card. When India is not even allowed to get near South China Sea how in the hell did India allow China to get well entrenched in Sri Lanka? 

Maldives

I had written about 20 days back about what's happening in Maldives (Maldives' tryst with democracy) and what India should do. Sujatha Singh the Foreign secretary had visited Maldives after that. But things have taken a turn for the worst. Elections were supposed to have been held by 20th of October is now postponed to 9th of November and if there is a second round it will be held on 16th of November. That will leave a 5 day gap of the country not having a President. 

Gayoom is still having a strong say in the country. India which has helped Gayoom many times, is not able to influence him now. This is really surprising and unbelievable as India even helped him thwart an attempt by LTTE to take over Maldives. 

Mohammed Waheed, the current President has decided not to contest the elections, which was the wise thing to do. He received only 5% votes in the annulled elections held on 7^th September.

Election commission has clearly stated that it will not hold elections before the 9th of November. India should ensure that the elections are held without any further delay. India should talk to Gayoom and reign him in. China has a huge consulate in Male and bulk of the tourists coming to Maldives are now from China. India need to ensure that Maldives also doesn’t start playing the China card. 

Response to the Open Page article by Dr Sheila Balakrishnan in The Hindu titled Civic Sense, last on our list

This is in response to the Open Page Article published in today's Hindu titled Civic Sense, last on our list by Dr Sheila Balakrishnan from Trivandrum(http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-features/tp-openpage/civic-sense-last-on-our-list/article5276987.ece). 

It is always easy to find fault with our country and this is another such article. I would like point out a few things and in no way am I saying that civic sense is not required. 

Coming to dog poop, I have lived in the US and seen everyone pick up the dogs poop and drop it in the bins. I also thought this was great and then realized that its by law that people are required to pick up their dog's poop. I would suggest that the doctor watches the beautiful movie called Milk where Sean Penn plays the first elected gay activist Harvey Milk and how he championed the law to force dog owners to pick up their dog's poop. In UK also its a law. I also feel bad when I see dog poop, cow dung and what not on the road and when I have jump around on the road to avoid stepping on them. I have also felt that we should have a law like in the west to force but when I realize that many human beings today defecate in the open as they don't have toilets at home we are asking for too much (at least for now). 

Road usage is an issue that I agree with the doctor on. However, you should drive in New York city to realize that there is nothing different from what happens in India. 

Public place behavior again I would request the doctor to read this beautiful article in New York Times titled The Good Men of India (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/20/opinion/sunday/the-good-men-of-india.html), we definitely need outsiders to tell how good people are in India. Also how many times have we had strangers take the kids on buses and keep them on their laps? In which other country would you see that? Everyone is so selfish about what they do and what not do. 

Mobile Phones, agreed but this is an issue across the world. Case in point the ex-NSA chiefs telephonic interviews being posted live on twitter. 

In end I would have been happy if the article was note just addressed to us Indians. All things that the doctor has raised happen across the world and not just in India. That being the case why would she point out about India alone? 

Civic sense is required for everyone period. Not just Indians. 

New developments

Very short post, there are some suggestions that I had mentioned that BJP and Congress should do in the part 5 of my series on 2014 elections things are starting to fall in place. 

I had suggested that BJP should ally with JDS but apparently Deve Gowda is pitching his tent with the third front. The other alternative is for BJP to get back Yeddy into the team in Karnataka. Not sure how much positive effect it will have, have to watch out.. He was sent out of the party for his corruption and in desperation they are trying to bring him back, which can be exploited by the Congress. 

Congress and both are desperately wooing JJ in TN. She is playing hard to get. Apparently PC has spoken to her and Modi was desperate to meet her during his last visit to Chennai. JJ also has sent her ministers to attend a meeting which had PC heading it. She has clearly stated that she is going to wait till the elections are over before supporting anyone. Her ambitions are big for the two national parties to manage. 

There are lots of opinion polls which are predicting that AAP will do exceedingly well in Delhi, I would be surprised if they win more an handful of seats. Probably Yogeshwar Yadav conducting these surveys explains the reason for such high projections. 

The other interesting development is the 10 party alliance that has been formed in North East, will have to wait and see if they all fight the elections together. That will be a huge setback for BJP which would have been hoping to have AGP and NPF in their alliance. 

YSRC, even though there are statements that they might be open to both Congress and BJP, I would be surprised if they move wth BJP. Congress' best hopes in AP is to merge TRS with them and also get YSRC into an alliance post the elections. 

The semi finals as the 5 state assembly elections is touted will be keenly watched. Interesting times ahead. 

Government and PSU - When will they learn? - Part 1

This is a serious of frustrating things that I have experienced in various Government and PSU interactions

1) Online Grievance redressal with Chennai Corporation - Was very happy that the Chennai Corporation has a facility to raise any issues online. I raised a concern about the newly constructed storm water drains one night. The next day morning the ticket was closed and I received an SMS for the same. I was very happy with the speed of the response. Went to see what actually they have done, to see that nothing has changed. I was confused and logged in online to see an update "Action will be taken" and the ticket closed. They have strict SLAs I believe not for fixing the issue but only to close the tickets.

2) Property Tax Payment with Chennai Corporation - I had paid the property tax regularly and they started tracking the payment data online. I was happy with the digitization. However, they missed one of my payments that I made few years back. Went to the zonal office and gave them a letter with a copy of the bill. They said we will send the letter to Rippon building office and not sure when it will be acted on. They said don't pay the property tax till the issue is resolved as the system will take any payments that I make for that period which they claim was missed out. I have an outstanding of 3 years and I have sent a reminder also still no response. Second issue is why are there charges for paying the property taxes online? Aren't we saving their effort by paying online? Shouldn't they be giving a discount, which actually BSNL does for online payments. They give a 1% discount on the bill if either you pay online or

3) Indian Bank - My mom still uses the services of Indian Bank. The bank opens at 10 am daily, so we cannot go before we get to work on weekdays. Saturday is the only day we can go. Every time I go there for getting entries in the pass book, the teller says don't come on Saturdays. If you send an statement in mail why will I come to the bank regularly? They also shout at us if we don't get the passbook updated frequently. I have a joint account with my mom and we finally decided to apply for a debit card for my mom. The debit card came in my name I went to the bank to complain. The teller say it is ok to use the debit card even if it's in my name. What security!!! Then I explained, what will happen if my mom uses a debit card in my name in a shop. Then they agreed to change the card and reissue one in my mother's name. After waiting for a couple of weeks got an SMS that the card is ready. Went to the bank to see that it's again in my name. Decided that there is no point in complaining again. Next decided to apply for internet banking so that I don't run into such issues. Applied in my name this time but this time the PINs came in my mother's name. Bottom line in case of joint accounts, if you apply one thing in one holders name you will get it for the other holder :)

Not all instances are bad, let me share some experiences where they have learnt

1) Ration card - Addition of my son's name - I just googled what has to be done and went to the zonal office and gave a form. They said it will take 1 month to get the addition done and asked us to come after a month. Exactly after a month's time went and got the ration card with the addition done. Even though 1 month is a long time, was happy that the work got done without multiple follow ups

2) Experiences at RTO - Went for a few things like change of address in DL, RC and cancellation of hypothecation in RC. Every time as long as we follow the process that is laid out, everything got done with just one visit. Also happy that the money spent was very low than what we will do when we go through the agents. 

Vanakkam Chennai - A Movie Review

Watched Vanakkam Chennai yesterday. The multi-plex which has 4 screens had other new releases like Nayyandi and Kayavan and this was the only movie which was house full. It is another story this screen was not even 1/4th in terms seating capacity to the other three screens.

Debut for Kiruthiga Udhayanidhi, daughter-in-law of the former first family of the state. It's the first time that a lady from their family is getting into movies/entertainment industry. She sticks to the tried and tested romantic genre.

Cast includes Siva, Priya Anand, Urvaasi, Santhanam, Nizhalgal Ravi, Nasser, Rahul Ravindran, Renuka.

The story is pretty simple, the lead pair are forced to share an apartment and in the process fall in love. Cut to flash back, the girl is already engaged. Finally the lovers unite. The handling is nothing new. Songs are loud. Comedy is pathetic. Too many characters who are wasted, Urvaasi(who comes as a cop and a neighbor to the lead pair) a class actress is hardly used. Nasser comes in one scene, Santhanam (who now a days comes from the first scene till the climax in all such movies) makes his presence only during the interval. Rosy aunty & uncle - irritating to the core. Nizhalgal ravi(heroines father), nothing much to do. America mapillai (sorry London mapillai) another character added for the sake of showing a possible villain to the love story. Renuka (Siva's mother) has something to do. Aarthi, Swaminathan, Mano Bala all come in single scenes.

Santhanam even though comes only half of the movie, does the same thing that he has done in many other movies. Trying to help the lovers. Some scenes are good - How the heroine handles a driver on landing in Chennai(by acting as if calling her dad and giving full details of the car and the driver to ensure the driver behaves),  Siva mentioning about ring removal gel(when he actually uses saliva to remove the ring from the heroine) . Why do we need a holi scene in a tamil movie?

Siva is his usual self. Same poker faced look. Cannot dance. Priya Anand is good with her expressions.

Songs are ok but the RR is bad. The last song which comes when the credits roll is good.

Overall the movie has nothing new, comedy is also not good. Overall a very average movie. 

Maldives' tryst with democracy

Maldives had it's first multi party elections in 2008 after 30 years of rule by Maumoom Abdul Gayoom. Gayoom ruled Maldives from 1978 to 2008. Finally in 2008 he decided to allow multiparty elections. Mohamed Nasheed won the election in the second round. Maldives allows a run off between the top two candidates if no one secures more than 50%. In the first round Nasheed was placed behind Gayoom. However, he formed alliances with other losing first round candidates and won the second round.

Maldives had it first elected President and Nasheed assumed office in November 2008. In what was a short lived tenure, he was sacked in February 2012. This was in culmination of opposition protests which started against serving of pork and liquor in Maldives, which is a predominantly Muslim state. He initially said he resigned as he didn't want the people to suffer and later said he was forced to resign at gun point. Gayoom was said to be behind the whole thing. The army and police also joined hands with the opposition in forcing Nasheed out. His deputy Mohammed Waheed Hassan became the President. Waheed went onto induct Gayoom's party members in his cabinet which only strengthened the argument that Gayoom was behind the coup.

Nasheed kept protesting and in April 2012 Waheed announced that the elections will be held by June 2013. Nasheed in the interim took refuge in the Indian High Commission to avoid arrest. India tried to mediate between Nasheed and Waheed. Nasheed was arrested for misuse of power. (He had a judge arrested during his presidency).

The June 2013 date was pushed to September 2013. Finally on 7th September Maldives had its second elections. Four participants contested and Nasheed was placed first with 45% votes. As no one got more than 50% the run off was scheduled for 28th September. Waheed was placed a lowly 4th in the elections. Gayoom's brother Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom was placed second in the elections with 25% votes. The run off which was scheduled for 28th was to have been between Abdulla Yameen and Nasheed.

The election was overseen my many external observers including former Chief Election Commissioner from India. 3rd placed Qasim Ibrahim filed a complaint with the Supreme Court, which asked the Election commission to delay the run off till it decides on the complaint. The Supreme court on 7th October annulled the elections based on some "secret" police report which claimed the elections were rigged. Even though none of the external observers had anything but praise for the way elections were conducted. The people also did not raise any complaints.

The elections are now scheduled for 20th of October. Not really sure if the Supreme Court is taking revenge for Nasheed arresting a judge or Gayoom has well entrenched people in all parts of governance who won't allow Nasheed to win the elections. The people of Maldives should also give a decisive mandate to in the 20th October election to ensure there is no need for a run off.

India, which wields lot of power in the region, should ensure democracy is upheld in Maldives. India during the 2012 crisis pushed back US from direct involvement and all US actions were routed through India. Now is the time for India to really stand up for the people of Maldives and not allow the courts to derail the democracy. 

Section 8(4) of the Representation of People's Act - Ordinance and The Nonsense

Section 8 of the RP act lists down the conditions when the people's representative can be disqualified. Sub section 1 & 2 the representative can be disqualified for a period of 6 years even if the punishment is fine for certain offences like rape, sati, untouchability, etc. Sub section 3 talks about conviction for other crimes and when the representative is punished for 2 years at least. The sub section 4 talks about the exceptions to the above three sub sections. Basically all that the representative has to do is appeal against the judgement within a period of 3 months. This applies only for a sitting MP/MLA. The section 8(4) clearly distinguishes between a sitting MP/MLA and a contesting MP/MLA.

The Constitution bench of the Supreme court in a case in January 2005 clearly said section 8(4) is an exception and was held that the provision was not unreasonable. The division bench of the Supreme court in its ruling in July this year held that the section 8(4) is unconstitutional. Not sure if it is right for a division bench to override the constitution bench's verdict.

The government moved a bill in the parliament to change the section 8(4) and the changes were convicted MP/MLA can continue to be a representative as long he appeals and gets a stay on the verdict. However, they cannot vote on any legislature or draw any salary. This is contradiction to the constitution as the constitution gives the right to the MP/MLA to draw salary and vote on legislatures. The Rajya sabha has sent this bill to the standing commission where it is supposed to be discussed in detail before reintroduced.

In the interim the government moved a review petition in the Supreme court to reconsider the decision but the same has been rejected. The government moved an ordinance (basically an interim law which will hold good for 90 days till it is either approved/rejected in the parliament). The ordinance had the same language as the bill which is in the standing commission now.

Many parties reached out to the President asking him not to sign the ordinance (every law has to be signed by the President before it gets into effect, even after they are passed by the Parliament). President has asked for clarifications wanting to know what is the urgency for moving an ordinance.

Last Friday Rahul Gandhi came to a congress press conference and said that what the government is doing is wrong and the ordinance is utter nonsense and has to be thrown away. The cabinet is likely to discuss the ordinance and the fall out of Rahul Gandhi's outburst.

Questions

1) Can the division bench override what was already approved by the constitution bench?
2) What is the urgency to move the ordinance?
3) Even if government wants to negate the ruling of the Supreme court, it has to amend the constitution. There is no way the government could have passed the constitution amendment with their current number of MPs. That being the case couldn't the opposition, which is claiming that it is not right for the government to try and override the Supreme Court, defeated the constitution amendment? What is the necessity to send this to standing commission?
4) Going by the SC verdict, when a lower court convicts a representative they will be disqualified. What will happen if the conviction is overturned in the higher court?
5) Agreed that the courts in this country are independent. When the government can change the Public prosecutor isn't the government circumventing the independence?

There is a sub-plot, on the July 11th the Supreme court also ruled that the people who are in jail(not necessarily convicted)  cannot contest polls. The reasoning was that only people who can vote, can be elected. People in jail cannot vote and hence cannot contest elections. The government filed a review petition in the Supreme court. Without waiting for the review petition to be heard government moved an amendment to allow people in jails to contest polls. This has been passed in the parliament and approved by the President also. The amendment was the right thing to do, as there are many instances where cases are filed against opposition party  members and arrest are made. 

NOTA - None of the Above

Supreme court in the ruling on 27th of September has asked Election commission to introduce a button in the EVM for None of the Above option. Earlier the voters have to chose to use 49-O and they have fill in a paper form and express their view that they don't want to vote for any of the candidates.

This is a good move by the Supreme court for the following reasons

1) The Booth officers are known to discourage people from exercising the option of 49-O, that will no longer happen
2) The voters can exercise their preference in complete confidentiality and they don't have to answer unnecessary questions

Points to ponder

1) There will be a question on legitimacy of the election process if there are considerable number of NOTA votes.
2) The number of votes that the independents will receive will go down. Many votes that the independents receive is because the voters don't like the party candidates and they just vote for someone. In the long term, this will be a positive as only serious candidates will contest elections.
3) Many people feel that this might increase the voting percentage, but I personally don't agree to this. Voters don't vote because they don't want to go and stand line and exercise their franchise. NOTA button is not going to change that

Likewise, when a voter goes to the polling booth to exercise his/her franchise if they find that their vote has already been exercised by someone else they have to use a paper ballot to vote. This paper ballot is just folded and kept in a cover. Where is the confidentiality of such votes?

What is surprising is that some of the changes in the election process are coming from the Supreme court and not the parliament.  

Views about the Indian Team selected for the series against Australia

The Indian team for the T20 and first 3 ODIs of the series against Australia has been announced today and the team is

MS Dhoni (capt & wk), Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, Ravindra Jadeja, R Ashwin, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Ishant Sharma, Vinay Kumar, Amit Mishra, Ambati Rayudu, Mohammed Shami, Jaydev Unadkat

 

Out of the above the following are a definite selection

 

1) MS Dhoni

2) Shikhar Dhawan

3) Virat Kohli

4) Suresh raina

5) Ravichandran Ashwin

6) Bhuvaneshwar Kumar

 

From the last tour of Zimbabwe the following miss out

 

1) Parvez Rasool - He didn't even get a game against Zimbabwe, so there was no way he could have got selected

2) Cheteshwar Pujara - Pujara is a definite in the play XI of the test team. One of the best talents that we have, however he is not being seen as a One day player. He scored 13 runs in the 2 matches that he played against Zimbabwe

3) Ajinkya Rahane - Jinx has been great player in the domestic and IPL. However, he has not done much in the ODI chances he has got. He got only 1 match against Zimbabwe which is unfortunate and he score a 50 in that match. He will probably have to continue to score well in the up coming domestic season and try to stake a claim again.

4) Dinesh karthik - Karthik has been doing reasonably well in the last few series. So he must feel really unfortunate to have missed out. He scored couple of 50's in the last 3 series he played.

5) Mohit Sharma - He picked up 3 wickets in the 2 matches that he got. It is not right to make a judgment purely based on the series against Zimbabwe.

 

This team was more of a second string team so let us look at who all missed out from the tournament before that the West Indies Tri Series & Champions trophy, both of which India won

 

1) Murali Vijay - He was dropped for the Zimbabwe tour itself. So there was not much hope for him in ODIs at least for now.

2) Umesh Yadav - This is just plain crazy to drop him. He is one of the genuine quick bowlers we have, if we cannot get to use him it is the fault of the head coach and bowling coach.

3) Irfan Pathan - He is injured so not considered

4) Dinesh Karthik - Detailed my views above on him

 

On the other 9 people in the team

 

1) Rohit Sharma - He has played 102 ODIs and scored 2558 runs at an average of 32. Nothing great for a top order batsman. After moving to the top of the order in the England series in India, he has scored 6 fifties in the 16 matches. He has somewhat playing to his potential after moving to the top. I would still hold my judgment for a while as Rohit is known to throw things away.  

2) Yuvraj Singh - A fit Yuvi is a definite in ODI team. He has played well in the A games against WI and the Challenger series. Good to see him back.

3) Ravindra Jadeja - With Yuvi back and Ashwin being the #1. Not sure what he will do? He has also not played well in the champions league so far.

4) Ishant Sharma - I don't know what is keeping him in the team. Don't think he has ever been effective in India.

5) Vinay Kumar - Vinay has not done anything of significance. He has picked up 30 wickets in the 26 matches that he has played at an average of around 36.

6) Amit Mishra - Mishra was selected purely for his 18 wickets in Zimbabwe. Do we have a place for him in the playing XI is a big question.

7) Ambati Rayadu - Got 3 matches in the Zimbabwe series and scored a 50. Good to see that they want to give more opportunity, we cannot say the same about Mohit Sharma.

8) Mohammed Shami - Shami has picked 9 wickets in the 11 matches that he has played at an average of 42. I would have preferred to go with Umesh Yadav any day to Mohammed Shami.

9) Jaydev Unadkat - He got to play all 5 matches against Zimbabwe and picked up a 4for in one of the matches against Zimbabwe. It is always nice to have a left hand seamer. Still early days to make a judgment on him.  

 

My 11 would have been

 

1) MS Dhoni - captain

2) Virat Kohli - vice captain

3) Shikhar Dhawan

4) Rohit Sharma

5) Suresh Raina

6) Yuvraj Singh

7) Ambati Rayadu

8) Ravichandran Ashwin

9) Jaydev Unadkat

10) Umesh Yadav

11) Bhuvaneshwar Kumar

 

Other 4 in the team

 

1) Ravindra Jadeja

2) Amit Mishra

3) Mohammed Shami

4) Dinesh Karthik

 

However the actual playing XI will be

 

 1) MS Dhoni

2) Virat Kohli

3) Shikhar Dhawan

4) Rohit Sharma

5) Suresh Raina

6) Yuvraj Singh

7) Ravindra Jadeja

8) Ravichandran Ashwin

9) Jaydev Unadkat/Shami

10) Ishant Sharma

11) Bhuvaneshwar Kumar

 

Of the 15 selected only change would have are Umesh Yadav instead of Ishant Sharma and Dinesh Karthik instead of Vinay Kumar.

Technical Services division

Allegations

1) Technical Services division was set up to illegally by Former chief of army General VK Singh
2) He had spied on Defence ministry officials using interceptors
3) He had bribed J&K Minister Ghulam Hassan Mir
4) He had tried to over throw the Omar Abdullah Government
5) Misuse of funds
6) A report submitted by the DGMO in March lists the above and also that he tried to change the line of succession

General's Response

1) There was a Technical Services division but it was not a technical but only a Human Intelligence organization
2) Army has paid not just Ghulam Hassan Mir but many ministers and NGOs who are working for maintaining peace in the state
3) Army has also carried out 8 covert operations outside the country
4) He has denied that interceptors were used to spy on defence ministry officials. Even though he has accepted that 2 of them were sold to a Singapore firm after they were found not worthy(there are reports that 2 interceptors were actually thrown in a river and typically army destroys everything and not sell to others to avoid security issues)
5) He has nothing to do with politics of throwing out the Omar Abdullah Government
6) The 2010 summer stone throwing was stopped purely by the Army
7) The whole controversy has erupted because of him sharing the platform with Modi

Political Parties Response

1) BJP claims that General Singh is targeted because of him sharing platform with Modi and questions why the Government has not acted on the DGMO report which was submitted in March
2) J&K Government has asked Congress to ask the Minister Mir to step down and there has been no response after Singh's interview that almost all ministers are paid and CM knows about it
3) Farooq Abdullah has asked for a CBI enquiry
4) Home Minister has asked General Singh to name the ministers who were bribed

Questions

1) Who gave the authority for General Singh to create such a division? Did he get the approval from Defence Minister/Prime Minister/Cabinet? Isn't the government responsible for approving such new divisions?
2) When RAW has been asking for the covert operations division to be re-started (this was shut down by IK Gujaral) who gave permission to the army to set up a covert operations division?
3) Does it make sense for the army to directly get involved in covert operations in other countries or shouldn't it be left to the RAW ?
4) Shouldn't IB be in-charge of working on internal intelligence and also working with NGOs etc. to ensure peace is maintained? Why was the army directly involved?
5) Why is there no clear demarcation of responsibilities?
6) Is it right for the army to bribe ministers to ensure peace is maintained? Don't the ministers take oath to stand by the constitution of this country? Do they have to be bribed to do that?
7) Understand that there are security implications, shouldn't the Government have acted swiftly and at least released officially what actions were taken? If the report is still being studied, shouldn't the government have reached out to the opposition and appraised them of the situation?
8) When General VK Singh is accused to have done some mischief is it right on the part of BJP to entertain him? Isn't national security of paramount importance to all parties?
9) As usual the Defence minister, is silent... Where is he? I think after the Augusta Westland bribery scandal, he is too shocked to even react to anything (how can a ministry under Mr Clean be accused of corruption? - that's why he is probably thinking)
10) Interceptors - What exactly happened, should come out.
11) Government leaks - Crazy timing.. everyone leaks information, but can't you be a bit more strategic and not leak information just when General Singh shares platform with Modi?
12) What was the armies counter intelligence division doing when all these were happening?