Skyward Fire

The Lok Sabha elections have been going on in India right now, and today was the third phase of the elections. I voted for the first time earlier today. As far as news reports suggest, the turn-out has been a measly 12% until 12 noon. Despite all the voter motivation and public service announcement gigs, the turn-out has been disturbingly depressing. In India, voting in elections is considered to be a duty, not a compulsion, which I believe, needs to change. And the whole machinery of the procedure needs to be oiled and improvised accordingly. You can’t really blame the people in general. Considering what I saw with my own eyes, people did indeed turn up in massive numbers at various booths. But it was disgraceful to see them return when their names were missing from the voter list, despite them being eligible and possessing all the documents required for the voting process.

The administration has promised of adequate information kiosks and help-lines in abundance to help those out in need, but the ground reality was something completely different. Even at the booths themselves, including the one where I voted, the officials didn’t seem to know much beyond the bare minimum you’d expect them to know in reference to conducting the elections. The Election Commission appoints observers, and special observers, preferably IAS officers, who answer to no one but the EC itself. You expect them to show courtesy and sincerity towards what they are supposed to do, but the scene here was completely adverse.

Change must come to India, particularly to how the system works. Flow of information needs to be more transparent, and in much higher bandwidth. What could possibly be the reason that people don’t have their names on the voter list? What could have caused confusion regarding the fact that, even if their names are on the voter list, which booth out of 12-13 booths in the vicinity they’re supposed to approach. There is no database, there is no voter help-line, and when you take an initiative to reach the ‘higher order’ for an enquiry, they laugh at you and turn you back.

I don’t have a voter ID card. I ran around multiple places to get the same made, but no avail. The officer who is supposed to register new people and make voter IDs dealt with me really rudely, but I still didn’t loose patience until I had scored my voter ID. In the end, this clerk at the registrar’s office approached me with and offered me a deal. He asked me to pay Rs. 2000 and said my voter ID card would be handed to me in a couple of hours after I paid. There was no point in taking that conversation further. Anyway, I decided to use my PAN card instead and somehow managed to secure my vote. I asked some of my friends whether they voted, and to a sad surprise, I was the only one. They had their reasons. Some didn’t think there was a point choosing between Lucifer & another fallen angel. Some thought there is just no point venturing out in this heat. Some went to the booth and came back with a clean finger saying their name was not on the list at the booth they went to, and they believed it wasn’t worth running around and finding out why. I couldn’t go on with any of these conversations either.

For me, I personally feel voting for the first time feels like an achievement. By the end of the day, it would be good to know that I am amongst the 12%-15% who are desperate to decide the fate of the country and try their level best to put the country into relatively better hands. The day at the opera for me has officially come to an end.

With the election dates in India closing in, we’ve seen the Election Commission tighten up the rope around the necks of the various arrogant so called leaders of the masses, but that hasn’t done enough to deter the ego and lunacy of these folks one bit. Be it any political party, we’ve seen an inhumane amount of accusations and personal attacks have gone to a whole new level this time. Also, a sudden surge of ‘Young-people-should-vote’, ‘Voting-is-your-duty’, ‘Vote-or-shut-up’, ‘Vote-now-or-never’ and so on kind of messages has come up on the television through public service ads, internet campaigns, and what not. But is that sufficient? No. Is that the answer to all the questions the people of this country have in their minds? No. Is the consequence of such campaigns going to be positive at all? May be, to some extent.

What exactly is the point of crying over spilled milk? The primary objective, and the very fundamental theme of these campaigns is to promote the free spirit of democracy, through the expression of casting the vote. But what are you supposed to do when all the parties and their candidates are equally a black mark on the forehead of the so called Free India? It’s like choosing whether you want to jump in a well, or a trench. It’s like choosing whether you want to be killed by an electric shock, or get shot in the heart. No matter what you choose, sudden death is what you’re going to get. My thoughts reek of pessimism, but that isn’t it. There is that glimmer of hope present, but only if we act now, and act fast. Citizens on a whole do not directly participate in the selection of candidates for their respective constituencies. And if you think your opinion is just a phone call away, it isn’t. The political parties don’t ever dare to look beyond personal interests. Seats are sold off to the highest bidder. Partiality & the fear factor of a particular person and his fear-factor dominance over his/her region is highly considered. Your one phone call to the party office voicing your opinion regarding who should be contesting and representing you is going to do absolutely nothing.

So what are we left with? A reboot. A drastic rebuttal in the political party, with no aspects being overlooked. For quite some time now, in the name of the nation being represented by the youth, we have a huge number of old hags representing and leading us. And how exactly is that done? In the name of experience in the field. It’s been more than 6 decades since India’s independence. Haven’t we learnt our lessons yet? Agendas for elections are still based off upon casteism, groupism, protectionism, banking on easily fabricated mutual communal hatred, why the other party sucks more, and delusional & never-to-be-fulfilled propositions in the manifestos. We have honest men, but that isn’t enough. The number of honest folks up against the termites is very, very low. And the determination and objectives of the good guys is very often deterred by the manipulative termites who forge the nastiest and the most unexpected alliances and do other things you just wont see coming. A new low is hit everyday. By any means feasible, these parasites need to be weeded out once and for all. The youth needs to get directly involved into politics. For a long time now, the phrase ‘getting your hands dirty’ has been associated to politics. Every time some one criticizes the government and the politicians, they’re instantly plastered with the tag of a drawing room strategist, or an arm chair expert, or something like that. People consider that as unwillingness to ‘get their hands dirty’, that’s what that is.

Why exactly does it have to be thought of that way? Why does getting into politics have to mean getting yourself in a dirty mess? It’s the same old crude thoughts that force such an expression. Politics can be neat and clean if you want it to be. If all the selfish & arrogant bastards are cropped out, you’ll have one heck of a clean situation. But we aren’t ready to accept that fact. Our ‘leaders’ are still dictating things by their terms, and there is no hope until we get that through in to our heads. Candle light walks, parceling underwear, protest rallies and other forms of passive aggressive expressionism has never helped and will never help in the long run. A will to get things done immediately needs to sprout up and the air needs to be cleared up. The community as a whole needs to get done with the ‘chalta hai’ attitude and expect the best for themselves. You live in a free nation, being treated equally by fellow human beings is your right, having access to the best is your right. And respecting everyone else’s rights in your duty.

Now is when you fight. Now is when you decide how you want things to be around yourself. It’s been 60 years since the nation has been facing this calamity, and only you can do something about it.

At the New Delhi Pragati Maidan Auto Expo 2008, history was written. There came a car that is as promising as anything has ever been. The all new Tato Nano, a venture of Tata under it’s leader Mr. Ratan Tata, was finally shown off at the Expo. And not so surprisingly, the car has been welcomed by the people all across the world. Be it the common man, or the automobile industries’ most eminent names or the global media, this conceptual venture has been gladly talked about by everyone. Although it is too early to pass on a verdict on the whole deal as of now, because the car would be launched in the market no early than September 2008, I really want to have my say.

In the words of Barack Obama, and now, Mr. Ratan Tata himself, “They said this day would never come”. In an interview put up on the Tata Group’s official website and the Auto Expo PC, Mr. Ratan Tata has made a lot of promises. But I see no reason why I shouldn’t question the authenticity of his words. There are going to be many drawbacks with this vehicle. To begin with, there is no way the car’s price is going to settle at Rs. 100,000 (approximately 2600$). The price everyone’s talking about does not include the controversial VAT and Road taxes. And with the constant rise in the prices of raw materials used in the vehicle industry, there’s no telling what heights the price would get to by September 2008. It’ll be quite enough a challenge for Mr. Ratan Tata to stick to his promise and keep the price as he’s always talked about. In a country with a population of almost 1,200,000,000, how many can really afford a 1 lac rupee car? And once bought, how many can really keep up with maintenance and the rising prices of the fuel? A vehicle can never be a one time investment, people will regularly have to shake up their pockets no matter how hard they try to avoid it.

There’s been a word around at Mr. Ratan Tata’s press conference that the vehicle is environment friendly. Are you thinking what I am thinking? A car with a price tag of Rs. 100,000 is bound to sell like hot cakes at first because of the comparatively low price than the other vehicles available in the range (the Maruti Suzuki 800). Even a general auto-rickshaw that can be seen on almost anywhere in India has a price much more than that of the Tata Nano. So can we expect the Nano to exchange places with the auto-rickshaw and other smaller commercial public transport media? Yes, why not. And this is certainly not going to make things any merrier. Tata Nano will run on petrol and/or diesel. Anything that runs on petrol or diesel is bound to harass the environment. And the more the Nanos sell, things aren’t going to get any better. In a nut shell, a huge number of Tata Nanos with improper emission systems will prove very destructive.

Now, let’s take a look at the issue regarding safety norms. With the kind of roads here in India (which ensure tremendous wear and tear) & the driving mentality of the people here, and most importantly, the number of people here, no amount of detailing is good enough to make the vehicle safe enough. As far as personal opinions are concerned, I will have to say the design looks really weak to me. The tyres are comparatively small, the ground clearance is hardly 19 centimeters (not apt enough for Indians roads), and for a price tag of Rs. 100,000, what can we really expect out of the vehicle’s outer body and the safety equipment fit inside to make your driving sessions secure? Although the low top-speed levels, the engine at the back and the smaller tyres make the vehicle terribly slow, Tata could have done a lot better than this to ensure rugged safety norms.

For a price tag of 2600$, the car doesn’t have much features to offer. It’s like two scooters joined in the middle with a metal rooftop pulled over it. To summarize, the Tata Nano is over hyped. The common man will NOT buy it. They’d rather go for a Maruti Suzuki 800 or cars priced beyond that. May be they’ll just stick to the two-wheelers they’ve been using all these years. The only scope for this car selling is the commercial transport category. This is bound to take the place of the yellow-black or the yellow green auto-rickshaws you see on the streets. But then again, with the prices of non-renewable fuels going up and even beyond, I am not hopeful enough. Even if it sells well at first, we’re bound to see some terrible traffic jams, more air pollution, and people on the streets hurling abuses at each other for exchanging some paint.

My verdict on this car .. flop-mania’s coming!

PS: Is it just me or every one has forgotten the Apple iPod nano? Shouldn’t the Tatas be worried about a lawsuit coming there way?