Loksabha Election Results 2009 - My Analysis

The results of India's Loksabha Elections are out, and were beyond anybody's expectation, neither the party that won, nor the parties that lost. Cong has won with this large margin almost after 2 decades, this has almost brought Cong rule like it was after independence. All other parties like Left, SP, LJP, MNS and main opposition parties lost very badly.
Some of the reasons of the results could be:
1. Global Financial Situation: With the financial situations globally very bad, Indian may have felt, its better to play safe and country run by a party who is headed by a economist, who looked more liable then BJP's Advani who didn't came up with any strong solution for this. And with such financial situation, 3rd/4th etc front getting elected was never possible.
2. Terrorism: Terrorism could have been the reason to get current govt out of power, but the irresponsible statements by opposition parties may have lost the chance for them. Besides past record of BJP was not good to prove their point to tackle terrorism.
3. Leader: What ever number of persons aiming for post of PM, there were only 2 people capable for the post. Manmohan Singh & L K Advani. Singh though termed as weak PM by opposition parties, he had respect from public, besides he never let his image drop from minds of people, while Advani has changed his image several times. From hardliner to soft stance secular. But still people may not willing to accept the change of image of Advani causing low response to his party.
4. Leaders of 2nd rank: 2nd rank leaders from both Cong & BJP were fully involved in campaign. Cong used Rahul, Priyanka, Milind Deora, Sachin Pilot, J Schindia. Rahul may appear dumb at present, but his father & Grand-mother also had same reputation when they joined politics, but later became centre of power. Rahul could also become centre of power. On other BJP's 2nd rank leaders were never in sync. Spat between Rajnath & Arun Jaitley was well-known. Narendra Modi campaigned mostly, but may be his magic was not acceptable outside Gujarat. So Cong also scored on its 2nd rank leader's image.
5: Media Support: The credit of victory of Cong should also given to media. Major media groups constantly put news/articles against BJP, but never uttered any criticism towards Cong. Media project negative image of BJP heavily which may have resulted soft-minded voters turning their back to BJP.

What next: For Cong its celebration time, before they settle to form new cabinet. Now that it has majority it will not have problem of giving ministries to worthless people from their earlier alliance.
But for BJP, it would be tough time. BJP had crumbled completely after 2004 defeat. This defeat is even bigger. Although BJP operates in democratic manner, it needs central authority person heading (like Sonia for Cong) to keep control on 2nd rank leaders. Senior leaders like Advani should step down and party should strengthen 2nd rank leadership, for that party should lead by younger leaders with mass appeal. It should also create leadership at state level in most of states where it has to depend on alliance partners (who could not always be trusted, like BJD & JD(U) & perhaps Shivsena).

Its good that India gets stable govt for next 5 years, and lets hope India comes out of financial crisis strongly and continues to progress.

Test Cricket becoming extinct?

The sad news about test crciket is coming from most traditional cricketing nation - England, where for 2nd test between England & West Indies only 3000 tickets were sold in the stadium of 16000 capacity. Its contrasting to situation of T20 & IPL response. T20 is pulling crowd every where, and even IPL (India's domestic tournament) proving crowd puller in foreign nation (South Africa) after it was shifted there for security reasons. Even ICC getting aware of it by arranging T20 world cup immediately after 2 years where as ODI worldcup which is arranged after 4 years. But nothing is done for Test Cricket's revival.
Testing time at Riverside with tickets hard to sell

The full house is far from assured, especially for the first day’s play, for which only 3,000 tickets have been sold. At a ground with a capacity of just under 16,000, fewer than 30,000 seats have been sold for the match as a whole, around half of which are for the third day on Saturday. For the television cameramen charged with picking out densely populated areas of the ground, it could be a challenging few days.

Now it would be interesting how Ashes 2009 gets the response from the English public & viewers worldwide on Television. If Ashes also fails to make its mark, Test Cricket is soon on verge of being extinct...

Indians, please beware of AIR FRANCE if travelling abroad

I have heard from some of my friends who travel abroad about ill-treatment they received at Paris airport while flying by 'Air France'. But recent new (if true) has brought the the misbehaviour by Air France towards Indian travellers.
Indian passengers flying Air France ill-treated

Over 50 Indian passengers flying Air France had a "harrowing" time at Paris airport after their aircraft developed a technical problem and complained on reaching here that they were victims of "racial" profiling.
The passengers, who spent 28 hours in Paris, said they were confined to a lounge at the airport there from 10 pm on Saturday till 7 am the next morning and given "hardly any food and water".
The passengers, on their way to Mumbai from the US via Paris, said while the foreigners were taken to hotels shortly after their plane returned to the Paris airport due to apparent technical problem following a four-hour flight, they were taken to the lounge and given just a bottle of water and a sandwich.
Giving details of their "harrowing" time after landing late on Monday night, one of the travellers, Vineeta Sengupta said, "No foreigner would have been treated like the way we were treated. People were lying down on the floor over there (at a place at the airport) where immigration takes place".
Accusing Air France of "racial" profiling, a girl passenger said that the officials there even had threatened that they would be handed over to the police if they did not stop protesting.
Sengupta said the 53 to 54 Indian passengers were later "huddled out" of the airport on a "group visa", which the authorities could have provided "much earlier", and taken to a hotel.
No reason has officially been given for the delay.
The passengers, who were in transit and did not have a visa for Paris, said the flight--AF 218--took off from the French capital with 169 passengers and 12 crew on board but returned to the airport after just about four hours in flight.
"The sandwich was so bad that one could not eat it," complained one of the travellers. "We had to beg for water. There was no information, no facility to even ring up".
Sengupta said the pilot had initially aborted take off at Paris airport due to some "switch" trouble. After a two-hour wait, the plane took off but after four hours of flying, the captain announced that the aircraft was returning to Paris due to operational reasons, she said.
After going back to the airport, the officials claimed that the police was not giving visa although the other foreigners left for the hotels within half-an-hour of reaching there, the passengers said.

So next time if travelling to Europe/US or even Paris, please rethink about travelling by AIR FRANCE

Radio on DTH, will we get it in India?

Radio on DTH splits broadcasters

Should radio be a part of the direct-to-home (DTH) broadcasting bouquet? The question has the country's media industry sharply divided.
Though some DTH platforms offer radio (mainly state-owned All India Radio and satellite radio WorldSpace), the government is yet to take a decision on whether to allow such a service.
One of the issues raised by some media players is that FM radio licences are city or town specific, and that offering FM stations on DTH could be a violation of government norms.
Replying to a consultation paper floated by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) on the matter, WorldSpace has said that carriage of radio channels as part of DTH TV service is well-accepted in most parts of the world, including the US, Europe and the Middle East. According to WorldSpace, radio channels that are approved by the competent authorities to offer national level services may be permitted to provide content to DTH operators in India.
FM radio player Entertainment Network India Ltd (ENIL) wants radio on the DTH platforms for greater reach. Unlike TV signals, radio requires lower bandwidth. "So, there won't be much additional burden on carrier capacity and on transponder bandwidth," ENIL has said.
On the other hand, Radio Mid-Day, another private FM radio player, has said that DTH service providers "cannot provide our Mumbai radio stations to their customers outside Mumbai." Also, any service by DTH "to provide our channels should be after taking our prior consent and after paying requisite fee," it said.
Dish TV, the first DTH operator, has said that DTH operators should not be allowed to provide radio channels as it may be a violation of the licensing conditions and uplinking/ downlinking guidelines. If DTH operators are allowed to offer radio stations, many government norms need to be reviewed and changed, Dish TV has said.
The Zee Turner Alliance, too, has opposed the idea. "DTH platform owners should not be permitted to carry radio channels as the licensing for the radio services is separate and distinct," it has said. It has argued permitting radio channels on DTH would result in infringing of territorial limits specified by the existing radio licences.
Other DTH service providers, including TataSky, Reliance Big TV, and Sun Direct, have however, stand in favour.
TataSky has stated that it is a common practice in many other countries to offer radio on DTH and even on cable. There is no conflict of business interest with an existing radio system as DTH is a paid service, it has said.
Reliance has compared this scenario with the telecom sector. "Like in the case of telecom service providers, which can provide mobile TV in addition to traditional voice and data, DTH operators can carry TV signals containing audio and video, and also audio signals of a radio channel," Reliance has argued.

I believe TRAI should provide satellite license to radio channels along with some regulation for the content. Also the radio channels should be asked to produce a seperate beam/signal for DTH targeting whole nation unlike Region/City specific which radio channels has. Lets see what happens.

Maharashtra gets it own Maharashtra Premier League

Maharashtra Cricket Association (MCA)has launched its own T20 league Maharashtra Premier League (MPL). The format is same as IPL with 8 teams owned by 8 Companies. Teams named as Devgiri Emperors, Sinhgad Supremos, Sindhudurg Sailors, Torna Tigers, Panhala Panthers, Raigad Royals, Pratapgad Warriors and Shivneri Lions.
Pune’s very own MPL begins with a bang from today

Cricket and Music -- a heady combo, brought thousands of Puneites together to witness the launch of Maharashtra Premier League (MPL) at the S P College Ground on Sunday. Needless to say, the response was outstanding!

A joint venture between the Sakal Group and Maharashtra Cricket Association, the MPL kicks off on Monday. Sunday’s event served as a trailer to the excitement that people can experience all through the tournament till May 14.

Would this local cricket league find spectators would be interesting to know in future