It is time for the Lok Sabha elections and it is time for the politics of calculators.
Yes, One the largest democracies in the world is going to polls in a month. And the calculators, the king makers, the alliance makers and the bookies are busy again.
Indeed, a democracy is a funny board of game where the ones who are able to accumulate the most numbers wins.
This is precisely what is happening in Indian politics these days. Till about a few days back there were two main fronts in the fray - the UPA and the NDA. One calling itself secular and the other the non-secular. So there were a few other parties that joined one of these alliances based on what their ideologies were (if you are wondering what idealogies mean, then these parties can explain it better). But all of a sudden the small parties that formed part of the big alliances broke-off due to a seat sharing debate and new equations began to fall in place.
Consider this - Lok Janshakti party leader Ram Vilas Paswan and Rastriya Janata Dal leader Laloo Prasad Yadav were the worst of enemies till a few days back swearing at each other, throwing dirt at each other and doing what not. All of a sudden they are together, embracing each other, praising each other and agreeing to a lok sabha poll aliance in Bihar. I, for sure am still not able to figure out what their idealogies were.
Trinamool Congress and Nationalist Congress Party were two factions headed by Mamta Banerjee and Sharad Pawar that were break-aways from the Congress. The reason why they broke away - difference of opinion and idealogy. They have agreed to form an alliance with the Congress Party. No wonder if you are guessing - then why the different factions if there is no difference of ideology when they can form a pre-poll alliance.
The answers to these questions are the trumps to winning this board game. Keep your calculators out and keep calculating because there would be many more such calculations when it comes to forming the government at the center.

Blogging has been an excellent medium for interaction between businesses and its customers and clients. Now blogging has reached new heights with even ministers taking to blogging.

So here is our "blogger minister". It won't be surorising to know that this blogger minister is none other than our very own "Management minister", Shri. Laloo Prasad Yadav. This effort of his is worth appreciating because his first blog itself has generated quite a huge response and has a lot of readers commenting upon aspects of the railways that require improvement and attention. In a way this blog would help our railway minister, to gather feedback from the general public, who till a few days back had no means of approaching our dear railway minister.

All said and done, what is worth wondering is the fact that this "blogger minister", Shri Lalu Prasad Yadav, had once made the famous comment 'yeh IT-YT kya hota hai', meaning 'What does this IT-YT mean?'.

But as it is, Lalu is a politician and all politicians and ministers have the right to take a U-turn from what they said. They have the right to refuse, deny and accept. They have the right to say that they were misquoted and misinterpreted. Let Lalu be one of them. Yes, my minister.

A very homely cheif minister of the state of Bihar was Smt. Rabri devi, wife of Shri Laloo Prasad Yadav. She had no knowledge of politics but in order to save her husband's self-respect she entered into politics and her first achievement - she became the chief minister of the state. I am sure this could happen only in India.

Now this very homely chief minister was given a residence 1, Anne Marg. As homely as she could be, she planted a few trees in the courtyard of this house which was the government's property. The trees grew big and gave fruits. But because our chief minister was homely she could not survive after her 5 year term in the office and she had to consequently quit her residence.

But our ex-chief minister could not forget the trees that she had planted but could not eat the fruits from. So what would you do if you were in her place. You would forget about the whole episode and move on with life.

If you though this is what our homely chief minister did, then you are mistaken. She has ensured that she pester the life of the new chief minister living in this house for the fruits borne by the trees she had planted and our new chief minister had no choice but to heed to her demands and send her a basket full of "litchis" and "mangoes".

There is a very good dialogue in a good hindi movie, where the villian politician asked the hero of the film, "Have you heard about a politician being convicted in our country for any crime till today?" The hero of the movie doesn't have an answer. This is particularly true in India, where our ministers are out of the purview of the law. They can murder, threaten, extort money and do what ever they want and still get away.
About a decade back the favorite minister of India, Mr. Laloo Prasad Yadav was involved in a "fodder scam". The scam shook the country and from the little that I still remember, because I was very young to understand these things then, the scam was such that the money spent on the fodder for poultry was so much so as to feed a hen about 1.5 kgs of fodder daily. So that meant that Lalooji had such huge hens that ate more than their weight, in one day. That would sound strange to anyone. So if the money was not spent on the fodder, then where did it go?
Lalooji was framed for the scam but our brave hero came out scratchless, only to become the railway minister. Then there was a change in story.
Railways became a profit making organization from a loss bearing organization that it was before our dear Lalooji came into it. And our hero, Lalooji became the most talked about manager in the country who could even turn the world upside down. He would any day beat the best management gurus in the world, hands down. Such was the fame of Lalooji that many b-schools from the world called Lalooji to deliver lectures and teach their students. A few students from Harvard University even came down to India to have a conversation with Lalooji.
I am not surprised at all this. Because I know what Lalooji would have done. He would have taken a few points from what he did in the fodder scam and would have implemented it in the railways. What else could a corrupt minister do?
Or, are there a few brains behind the success who are being denied of their due share just because Lalooji has claimed all the limelight? No one knows.