Mr EC, who fudged my gender?

Names of many voters were misspelt, while some were missing altogether

They responded to the ‘Let’s Vote’ and ‘Shut up and vote’ campaigns and eagerly appeared at the polling booths to cast their votes for the 15th Lok Sabha.
But they were faced with a whole range of problems that prevented them from voting. They returned without exercising their franchise — a basic constitutional right.
A significant number of voters in the city returned to their homes without voting, since their names did not figure in the voters’ list.
The election commission received a complaint from Yarab Nagar, saying that about 400 names of people wanting to vote from that area were missing from the list.
While some never found their names on the electoral rolls, others found their names changed. Some even found their genders changed, making it almost impossible for polling officers to allow them to vote. Some also found their names and genders changed, giving their desperation a comical twist.
A senior journalist with a leading newspaper found to her shock that her name in the rolls was completely changed. When she went to St Joseph’s Indian High School, where her polling booth was to be, she was told that her name was not in the rolls. On inquiring thoroughly, she was told that her name could have appeared in the rolls in Frazer Town, where she lived earlier.
On reaching the polling station in Frazer Town, she found her name changed and her age a good decade-and-a-half more than what it actually is. The rolls also showed her as wife of one KS Appaiah, a person she has never come across in her life. She could not vote despite the voter’s slip given to her, as her authentic identification documents did not match with the error-ridden details appearing in the rolls.
RS Grover, a deputy general manager of a private media company, is livid. He has the voter ID card, which he used for voting in the 2004 general elections. But this time round, though the card was valid, he went without voting as his name was not there in the list. “I have not changed my residence since the time I voted in 2004. So the name should have remained in the rolls, but it has vanished,” he lamented.
When he went to his polling station (no. 154) in Bangalore Rural and checked the electoral rolls there, he was shocked to learn that a stranger, Ashwathanarayana, has been “living” in his residential address.
Grover was not the only who faced this problem at polling station 154. There were at least five others who also found out that they were “not staying” where they have been living for long.
All of them returned without voting despite arguing with poll officials about the erroneous manner in which the rolls were made, omitting their names to make way for non-existent names.
This was a strange case, considering that chief electoral officer MN Vidyashankar saying in the evening that: “Those who have EPIC cards and their names in voters list have not faced problems.”
Grover has the EPIC. His name was there in the 2004 voters list, but not now.
Vidyashankar explained the missing names stating, “We published the revised list (post delimitation, this is the first general election which needed revision of the list). We conducted the elections based on this list that we published. But political parties haven’t incorporated the revisions.”
But in Bangalore North constituency, polling station number 90 saw a woman’s name, M Anuja, changed to M Aniya. Worse, her gender appeared as ‘male’, prompting poll counter volunteers giving out the voting slips to ask her husband who reached much earlier: “When is your younger brother coming?”

Manifesto for youth

Young people must not retreat into cynicism or despair. India’s soul longs for change and its own ‘yes, we can’ generation, says Deepak Chopra

Every society is like a ragged army, with some parts running ahead and others lagging behind. In the case of India, a handful of farsighted leaders broke the socialist, isolationist mould to allow India to join the free market. But much lags behind.

The opening for a young people’s movement cannot be denied. The question is how to take advantage of this opening.

What I see is idealism tempered by caution. Young people are restless, but they also realize that the old kind of activism (angry protests, labour stoppages, class warfare, etc) does not work in the long run. Moral outrage is still rage. In Cambodia and Burma, Asia has witnessed the horrendous results of morally certain leaders losing their humanity.

On a positive note, the young people I meet are eager to accept that a shift in consciousness is possible. What better country than India to foster such a belief ? Alone in the world, India has been a society where shifts in collective consciousness created enormous change without mass violence. It would be a betrayal of our heritage to add more anger to what already exists in the world.

How, then, can the future be shaped on the basis of consciousness? Several realizations must occur before it can happen:

A shift in consciousness is the most powerful way to create change: This realization will guide a new leadership to first seek personal transformation. The current leadership’s stagnation is rooted in routine, habit, inertia, and class pride. These are all the result of a stagnant consciousness. No one can hope to bring about change with reform or revolution applied from the outside. If we want new wine in new bottles, the consciousness of aspiring leaders must shift.

The role of a leader is to guide a shift that is already occurring: No one is being asked to invent a new Indian identity — it is already being born. We don’t need a new ideology. That route was tragically tested in the 20th century by communism, fascism, Maoism and other toxic isms. Instead, the young people who will lead are the ones with sensitive antennae, the ones who can sense where the collective consciousness wants to go. That has been Barack Obama’s secret and the need he sensed — for more freedom, democratic participation, idealism, and hope for the future – applies everywhere.

A new type of activism is needed: Sacred activism is love in action. Love without action is irrelevant. Action without love is meaningless.

Our youth must galvanize into leaders who turn love into its most practical products: relationship-building, creative problem-solving and service.

India gained independence under the guidance and inspiration of statesmen, visionaries and philosophers — Nehru, Vallabhai Patel, Gandhi, Radhakrishnan, Tagore, Aurobindo and many others. They were luminaries who considered themselves servants and stewards of civil society. British colonialism was the impetus.

Today, the impetus is harder to label and nowhere as visible as a foreign occupation. We must be motivated by looking at ourselves. Jiddu Krishnamurti used to say that the violence in every person was the cause of war. He underlined the words ‘every person’ because he meant each one of us, not just those who openly foment violence. As we are, so is the world.

This spiritual dictum cannot be ignored. Therefore, youth must not retreat to the arrogance of youth, just as it must not retreat into the despair or the cynicism of youth. Instead, the most basic questions must be asked in the privacy of one’s awareness:

• What in me is the cause of the problems I see in the world?
• What change in me can bring about the change I want to see?

We need a revival of true leadership based on self-awareness. People are tired of powermongering, influence-peddling, cronyism, corruption and bureaucracy. India is regrettably mired in all of these things.
The soul of India is longing for change and the rise of our own “Yes we can” generation.

Votes for a written promise

Hubli: People of Havasiand Shakara villages in Haveri district, who are living in near primitive conditions, with no bus facilities and only basket-like boats to cross the river with, are saying no to politicians with empty promises these elections.

The villagers have made up their minds that unless the candidates give them in writing that they will work for the development of Havasi and Shakara, they will not vote for them in the Lok Sabha elections.

“The written promise to fulfil our basic needs will help us confront the politicians in future. We have been victims of grave neglect in the past which has forced us to take this step now,” says Havasi gram panchayat vice president Channaveerappa Naduvinahalli.

Politicians hardly visit these villages with their 1,800 voters, on the fringes of the Haveri Lok Sabha constituency even to seek their support during elections. Those who bother to come make promises they soon choose to forget, much to the anger of the villagers who live under the shadow of floods and have long wanted a barrage to be built across the river to Havanur.

With no KSRTC bus service at their disposal even six decades after Independence, students walk 10 km every day to their schools in the adjacent Holalu village in Bellary district. Veterinarians of Holalu refuse to treat their livestock as the villages are in Haveri district.

“We are not able to buy foodgrains from the fair price shop in Hanshi during the monsoons as our village is usually flooded during the season,” says a farmer Goudappa Patil, who, like the others, feels the time for change has come.

How does voter decide whom to vote for?

The question is a critical one. We therefore decided to do a study of the voter decision-making matrix.

The sample size had to be small. Anything that you do as primary market research in India is bound to be small sample-size anyway. Remember, we are a nation of 1.3 billion people! The sample size: 11,450 voters across 18 cities. Big cities such as Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru, and smaller tier 2 towns such as an Agra, Tiruchy and Trivandrum, and smaller towns such as a Peddapuram and Hoshiarpur.

The question: What goes into that one decision of whom to vote for? The answers have just come in. Here go the logic patterns that seem to dominate the decision-making.

The negative weeding out: This is where the voter is sitting in judgment. Here, she looks at anything negative that has come to the fore in the last five years with respect to a candidate or a party in question. Most of the time (82 per cent) this is party-based. Here, groups such as the Ram Sene have done damage to the image of the BJP in Karnataka. Moral policing is a positive and a negative. In the bigger cities, it is seen as a negative. In the smaller towns and villages, it is seen as a positive. The BJP therefore gains from it in the smaller towns, and loses precious votes because of it in the big cities. Raj Thackeray has similarly done damage to the voter sentiment in favour of the Shiv Sena in the bigger cities of Maharashtra, and a positive impact on voter sentiment in the smaller towns.

Positive work by candidate: This figures high (43 per cent) on the radar of decision-making. Voters want to first quickly assess their voting constituency and then want to know the names of candidates.

Once that is done, a quick and irrational decision even, is made. What counts at the forefront of decision-making is the immediate good or bad work done by the candidate in question. History does not matter. The last 14-18 months are important. The voter’s memory is reasonably short on this count.

The Issues-based pattern: These are macro issues that fashion quick voter judgments. These are about the big phrases such as “Secularism”, “Nationalism”, “Patriotic” and “People-centric” semantics.

Religion-based pattern: This is a big one in itself.

A lot of association is built up by the person standing out there asking for your vote. If there are two candidates of the same religious tag, other details will be gone into. Otherwise, and sadly so, this counts a lot. Even today.

Caste-based pattern: Caste plays a major role.

Is the candidate a Kamma? A Reddy? A Vokkaliga? A Lingayat? A Brahmin? 31 percentile points here.

Touch-based factors: Have I seen the candidate at all in print, television or in person? Has he come to my door for canvassing? Have I seen him in the field addressing a gathering? This counts. Never mind whether the candidate caused goose-flesh in me or not, this is important. It could swing a vote.

Positive work by party: Sadly, the positive work done by a particular party comes relatively low down in the decision-making matrix. Parties and their overall work seem to boil down to a very lowest-common denominator status.

All parties are meant to do good work. This is not a differentiator, it seems. Parties gain precious little out here, just as long as they have not been debarred from political activity or just as long as they have not harboured terrorists with anti-India intent.

The anti-incumbency factor: I gave him or her a chance for five years.

Time to pick the other party candidate and give him or her a chance. As many as 6 per cent of voters want to do this.

This is a tough game.

Many things go into that one decision on the vote.

This is a science. An art.

A philosophy on its own.

As told to Neena Gopal (Harish Bijoor is a Brand and Political strategy specialist)

Heli-hopping bill: Rs 1,000 cr

Nataraju V | TNN

A jaw-dropping Rs 1,000 crore will be spent by political parties on heli-canvassing for Elections 2009. Hundreds of choppers and small aircraft are dotting the sky, ferrying candidates to cut time and also to reach areas inaccessible by road.

According to Deccan Charters COO John Kuruvilla, both national and regional parties are booking copters though the rental — Rs 45,000 to Rs 1 lakh per hour — is seemingly deterrent. Hiring a copter for 2-3 hours costs up to Rs 3 lakh. Smaller craft are used for long haul, and helicopters for areas where there is no standard landing infrastructure. Demand for helicopters this time has doubled over the previous election — each political party will spend an average of Rs 10 lakh a day for heli-hopping.
Source said the Congress and BJP are said to have hired about 20 copters each. Chief minister B S Yeddyurappa is touring the state only by helicopter to save on time and also to make maximum impact.

India has no less than 55 aviation service companies, and some corporates have their own helicopters that are sometimes given on hire. Individuals, too, rent out their craft. For instance, Bellary alone has five helicopters owned by individuals.
A positive spin off is poll time copter hiring has shored up the aviation companies’ dwindling bottomline by up to 10%, an analyst said.

ON A HIGH: Hiring a copter for 2-3 hours costs up to Rs 3 lakh

EPIC cards a daunting task for citizens

The initial euphoria about how easy it has become to get one’s name on the voter’s list is turning into disappointment. At the Election Commission’s latest innovation — the Voter Facilitation Centres (VFC) — there is now an EPIC battle being fought between citizens keen to vote and government officials.

The VFCs were meant to be one-stop enablers for voter registration, but the idea has been defeated by apathetic officials, complain citizens, who are increasingly joining hands under Residents’ Welfare Association (RWA) banners and are up in arms against the “cold attitude” of the officials at VFCs across the city.

N.S. Mukunda, president of Citizen Action Forum (CAF) complained that officials at VFC centres have deleted names in the voter lists arbitrarily. “Though the Election Commission says it has set up VFCs to help people get EPIC cards so that they can exercise their franchise freely and fairly, officials at VFCs aren’t people-friendly,” he says. Members of the CAF have been offering support to the officials by bringing in people in organised batches, but the VFCs are short-staffed and lack skilled workers who can process requests quickly.

“When my wife and daughter approached the special tahsildar who is in charge of issuing EPIC cards at Padmanabhanagar, they were rudely told they could go out of the centre and complain to anyone they thought fit,” Mukunda said. Banashankari 2nd stage RWA president said that considering the scale of the operation that they were entrusted with, the VFC officials were ill-equipped.

“Serpentine queues and inadequate facilities reign supreme. People in the queues fight among themselves and with officials all the time”, he added.

India politicians seen as corrupt, inefficient: survey

NEW DELHI (AFP) — A majority of Indians believe their politicians are inefficient, corrupt and in politics only to make money, according to a survey published Tuesday, a day after elections were announced.

The poll by the Times of India found 83 percent of respondents felt politicians were corrupt while 59 percent believed the main motive of most politicians in the world’s biggest democracy was financial gain.

Another 72 percent believed most Indian politicians are inefficient, said the survey which interviewed an unspecified number of people in 10 major cities nationwide.

“The bad news for the politicians is their own ratings are uniformly poor,” said the Times report, which appeared a day after authorities announced general elections would be held in stages over a month from April 16.

The survey “shows how all-pervasive the revulsion with the political class is and how much the leaders are regarded as a venal lot,” the newspaper said.

Some 44 percent of respondents predicted politicians would remain corrupt.

But the survey found just over half of voters optimistic they would have no choice but to improve if faced with electoral defeat or being disciplined by regulatory bodies like the Election Commission because of corruption.

Some “voters are convinced that they can force the politicians to mend their ways by voting out non-performing candidates in the coming elections,” the Times report said.

Sixty percent of those surveyed blamed politicians for the problems confronting the country of more than 1.1 billion people.

More than 710 million people are eligible to vote in the upcoming polls.

Many politicians elected to parliament routinely face criminal charges ranging from rape and kidnap to murder.

About a quarter of the 543 members elected to India’s lower house in 2004 faced criminal charges, including murder, kidnap, rape and murder.

India bans only convicted criminals from seeking public office.

The Value of Manifestos

As momentum to the 15th Lok Sabha elections builds up, it’s easy to be overwhelmed by cynicism. Informed sources say that it will cost around Rs20 crore for a serious candidate. Assume three serious contenders for each seat or a round figure of Rs50 crore per Lok Sabha constituency, the national bill comes to about Rs25,000 crore. With all this money being disbursed in a concentrated burst of two-three weeks, the elections promise to do much more for jump-starting the economy than any monetary or fiscal stimulus plan.

There’s an old aphorism—“Anything that can be said of India, the opposite is also true”. Many Indians see our political system as rotten, broken and getting worse—and the account above would certainly justify that view. But there are millions who see the glass as half-full: Our state is accountable, our democracy is a remarkable exercise in adult franchise, and our political process is getting better.

Don’t hold your breath for this debate to end. But it’s this very debate that is improving the overall system, like a self-correcting feedback loop. The process of change in a democracy creeps up on its people, almost like the invisible hand of the market finds coherence in apparent chaos.

One example of the half-full/half-empty dispute—campaign manifestos. Most candidates standing for elections wouldn’t know a word of what’s in their own party manifesto. But they are useful documents and can help to hold parties accountable if they get to run the government.

Changes in campaign promises and manifestos can highlight changing national sentiments. Indira Gandhi’s famous “Roti, kapda, makaan” (bread, cloth, house) promise was a trailblazer in the early 1970s. Similarly, the more recent “bijli, sadak, pani” (power, roads, water) promise of the Bahujan Samaj Party became so evocative that it was adopted by most parties. Over three decades, the distance between these two political views highlights the change in the role of the Indian state: from “provider” to “enabler”, from being big brother in our lives to becoming the supporting actor in the story of our lives that we must each script.

Two major parties have released their manifestos: the Communist Party of India (Marxist), or CPM, and the Indian National Congress. These are available at cpim.org/manifesto.pdf and www.aicc.org.in/new/manifesto.doc. A confession: I had made up my mind to write a cynical piece on manifestos. So, I began reading 2009’s manifestos with a critical eye, seeking only inconsistencies and half-truths. But as I read the documents, I couldn’t help being reminded of the enormous challenges in running our country, as well as the magical possibility of India.

For anyone interested in public change, a manifesto is a great starting point to understand the full canvas of national issues, and the relative importance of one’s pet peeve (environment, women’s rights, education, you name it, it’s all there).

A manifesto clarifies the positions of a party. You can often find yourself agreeing with some views of a party while disagreeing with others. For example, the CPM manifesto makes a commitment to pass a law that prevents criminals from contesting elections.

Similarly, the Congress manifesto makes an important commitment to police reforms. The National Police Commission suggested reforms in 1977, a Supreme Court ruling in 2006 mandated their implementation, but there has been little political will to take action so far.

Manifestos are also informative because of what’s missing. The Congress manifesto says that “regulations will be made to ensure good corporate governance, ethical business practices and accountability to all stakeholders.”

No question, the bar for corporate governance needs to be high. But what about political parties themselves? Not one political party has made any commitment to improving the functioning of their own party.

There’s an old Greek saying, “Who will guard the guards?” In 1999, a Law Commission report on electoral reforms stated, “Whether by design or by omission, our Constitution does not provide for the constitution and working of political parties.” So, we are going to need new laws. Unfortunately, the same politicians whose work is to be governed are the ones who need to set the rules. Imagine the kind of market regulator we would have got if the corporate sector were to establish the Securities and Exchange Board of India.

We need external pressure to get change, and shouldn’t expect much from our political parties. But it’s the height of hypocrisy for parties to cry hoarse about corporate accountability, when they run scot-free themselves. Even if legislation takes time, nothing stops a committed party from voluntarily setting a standard in political accountability in its manifesto. If not, the next time a political leader—even if it’s the prime minister—chastises the corporate sector, it could gently be suggested that true leadership comes from fixing one’s own house first. Manifestos can sometimes bite the hands that write them. For this reason alone, they could be the half-full facets of Indian politics.

Vote for any party, BUT NOT for Congress

Dear all Indian Husbands and their Family Members,

Nowadays more than 57000 Indian Husbands are ending their lives in suicide every year due to the anti-husband, anti-family and anti-child biased and lopsided marital laws like Section 498A / Domestic Violence Act / CRPC125 / Adultery law / four different maintenance laws, all passed by the Congress. The entire family of Husbands has been converted into a Free ATM machine and they are being treated worse than an animal in this country due to all biased and lopsided law and policy by the Congress party.

Inspite of The Honorable Supreme Court terming the Misuse of Section 498A as “Unleashing of a new Legal Terrorism on innocent husband’s family” and Domestic Violence Act as “one of the most clumsy drafted law”, the Congress led UPA government has not taken any corrective action and the entire family of husbands is suffering today because of that.

Whether the allegations are true or false, it’s merely on the basis of the verbal allegation of the wife (read married woman), that the entire family of husbands including his mother, sister (again read married women) are thrown out of their house under the Domestic Violence Act. Through this Domestic Violence Act, the Congress party has incited a woman vs. woman war and the price is paid by Indian men.

Just the wives need to say that, “I am anticipating Domestic Violence” from my partner (Men), be it a friend or any one and the man is thrown out of his own house and lands up in Railway Platform; as also the bank accounts will be frozen.

Now it is up to the accused to prove her allegations are wrong in the court and she need not prove anything as her verbal allegations are construed as evidence, since the Congress led UPA Government thinks that all the wives / Daughter-in-law are born in Raja Harish Chandra’s Family, and hence can’t lie.

• Do you know who has given wholesale free License to your wife to commit adultery and at the same time go scot free? – Congress.
• Do you know who has given wholesale free license to your wife to abuse your age old parents and sisters and at the same time go scot free? – Congress.
• Do you know who has given wholesale free license to your wife to throw out you and your old parents from their own home? – Congress.
• Do you know who has given wholesale free license to your wife to kill your un-born child and go scot free? – Congress.
• Do you know who has given wholesale free license to your wife to refuse to visit your own child once in a week at least? – Congress.
• Do you know even a terrorist have right to stay in his own home, but Indian husbands do not have any right to stay in his own home , if wife demand the same under Domestic Violence act and who has made such a law ? – Congress.
• Do you know who has given wholesale free license to your wife to beat, abuse, and refuse food to your child and you can’t even ask her a single question, as it will be termed as verbal abuse? – Congress.
• Do you know if your wife demand 1000 rupees for her kitty party and you give 800, it is a crime by you as per law and who made such law? – Congress.

This is the state of the present Justice system in India and Gender Equality in India, a feat achieved by the Congress Government in the last 60 years.

For a wife even adultery is not a crime (it is a rewarding option and tax free money earning business for the whole life), but for a man even an allegation of “Name-calling” is crime and not only the man, his mother/sister/old father also can be put behind the bars under 498A or Domestic Violence Act. And such laws are made with the tax-payer’s hard-earned money, 82% of which comes from men.

Well educated, working and healthy women (read wives) are rushing to the courts to demand aristocratic maintenance from their husbands to maintain their lavish lifestyles, by leveling false allegations as is evident from court records and at the same time do not miss a chance (provided by the Congress led UPA Government) to file false criminal cases under Section 498A, Domestic Violence Act, mentioning that their husband is ill-treating them and demanding money from them. However, the wives themselves openly demand money as a legal extortion and blackmailing and the police, the media and the courts are mute spectators or at time active participants in squandering husband’s money. And all this drama happens under the nose of the Congress led UPA Government which sits on the abuse of Indian men, especially husbands and is hell bent on passing one after another anti-male extortionary laws.

On the contrary, if a husband is not able to earn money due to some reason or falls terminally ill, and his wife is earning money, yet he is not eligible for maintenance from his wife, irrespective of the fact that he had earned lacks of rupees and given to his wife prior to becoming disabled and such a man is told to either sell his body organs or go and commit suicide. Such a biased attitude is being meted out to Indian men under the Congress led UPA Government.

So the question arises: Is Indian Husband is a Free ATM Machine for Indian wives? As per Congress the answer is: Yes.

It is pertinent to mention here that, presently a wife can claim maintenance from four different Laws, like Section 24 Hindu Marriage Act, Section 125 CrPC, Section 18 Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act and Domestic Violence act. This is abuse and wastage of resources for the Indian Judiciary System (which always cries foul of being overburdened), since for the same purpose, three to four different cases are filed in different courts sometimes across states. It not only wastes the Judiciary’s man Power, but is also a violation of Indian constitution, wherein it is clearly mentioned in Article 20, that for the same offence a person can’t be punished/tried more than once. Then why do we have four different maintenance cases against a Husband for the same alleged cause of action?

• Crime Bureau data 2005: Married Men Suicide: 52k vs. Married Women Suicide 28K.Still there is no LAW to Protect Men why?
• 2006 Crime Bureau Data: Married Men Suicide: 55452 vs. Married Women Suicide: 29869.
• 2007 Crime Bureau Data: Married Men Suicide: 57593 vs. Married Women Suicide: 30064.

Will Our LAW Maker change the section 304B of the IPC related to dowry deaths to section 304C (Sowry Death) and Section 498A (harassment to wife) to 498B (Sowry harassment by wife)?

We have repeatedly requested the Congress led UPA Government by providing all the data and official statistics of suffering of Indian men in general and husbands in particular and demanded that all Gender Biased LAW should immediately be made crime based void of any assumption that women never lie and men are born as Criminals. “MEN/WOMEN” word to be replaced by word “PERSON” and word wife/husband to be replaced with the word “SPOUSE”.

But it has fallen on deaf ears of the Congress led UPA Government and in return the Union minister for Women and Child Development makes the following derogatory statements against Indian men while being in office:

• It’s turn to suffer the Indian men, as women suffered for long. (Like as Muslim Kings had destroyed a lot of temple, so let’s demolish the entire Mosque in India).
• Don’t trust Your Men; trust Condom in the name of reducing AIDS. (Forgetting the fact that the AIDS spreads by multiple partner sex and a condom is used for multiple partner sex, not for single partner sex, which we term as married couple)
• It’s Diwali Gift to Indian women. (Within two weeks, four women sent behind the bars under first DV act case in Pune and one age old women left her own house as her daughter-in-law walk in her house with her all friends and parents)

Readers may choose to vote for Congress and ensure that more and more suffering follows for Indian men. Since it’s not only Congress, but all political parties believe that increasing the suffering of Husbands and their family members is termed as Social Service in the country since Indian Husbands and their family members cannot ensure their defeat or a reduction in their vote share. So making more and more anti-husband, anti-family, anti-child and anti-men biased and lopsided law in the country is not going to harm them.

The Choice is with you and do not forget that only the crying baby gets the milk.

Congress government has converted the Indian Criminal Justice system into a wholesale free money earning business through Legal Extortion from Husbands and their family members.

Vote for any party, but not for congress and give a clear message that anti-husband, anti-men, anti-family and anti-child law and policy will not be accepted in this country by political party.

Disclaimer: These are totally writer’s personal views. Readers may have a different opinion. The name and place has been changed to protect the Person’s Identity.

Stand up for your rights

Kaizad Bhamgara’s group Rise UP educates youngsters on why they need to vote

When the bombs went off in the Mumbai trains in 2007, Kaizad Bhamgarawas ‘too young to really do anything’. But post 26/11/08, he rounded up a core committee consisting of students from engineering, medical and law colleges, enlisted the support of schools, junior colleges and young working professionals and ‘Rise Up’ took shape.

Starting with email forwards and social networking sites, four months in, unlike many terrorreaction initiatives of the time, Rise Up not only maintains its momentum, their ranks swell every day. They now have cells in some colleges. They go to educational institutions to teach first aid, disaster management, CPR, educate them about the RTI and the Nagaraj Bill and of course, their right and duty to vote.

Simultaneously, Rise Up has joined hands with Shobha De against moral policing with the Seeti Bajao/Sita Sena campaign.

Most recently, Rise Up has been trying to organise meetings between candidates and their potential constituencies in an attempt to counter apathy and create a platform for debate between parties, basic accountability to the voters and a discussion of issues.

They have achieved limited success. “A majority of politicians seem to be afraid to step up to the mike and be asked uncomfortable questions,” admits Bhamgara.

“There can be no accountability expected when the people we elect have criminal records and fraud cases registered against them. It is our duty to elect the right candidates for better governance.

Apathetic communities have grown due to decades of abuse and neglect.” Rise Up is planning to counter this, and partnering with the ‘group of groups’, is introducing citizen candidates to the masses. “The general masses are made aware of the common people who have decided to join the election fray this time and hopefully garner support for them.

The people have found these sessions to be highly informative. For once a level of accountability has been offered. Whatremains to be seen is how many of these citizens will be able to beat the major political parties.” Bhamgara himself is contemplating joining politics once he turns 25. For him, his priorities would be supporting implementation of the Nagaraj Bill and police reforms as Rise Up is doing today. His to-do list includes ‘security, emphasis on employment opportunities, healthcare’ but it is the offering of ‘transparent account to members of the common public, complete accountability, a quarterly progress report highlighting work’ that sparkles with idealism – that though cynical of, one is still tempted to believe in.

This group of idealistic youngsters continues to work tirelessly, honestly and with great commitment. Bhamgara reels off a list of core members and others, “Our website was made for free by senior members, others have contributed to spreading the word, working odd hours, with tight deadlines… this is the reason behind our phenomenal growth as an organisation.” In the aftermath of 26/11, shocked and numbed, everyone asked each other, ‘but what can we do?’ Bhamgara signs off with an answer to that question, “We realise that the word ‘change’ is currently the most overused and abused word around. We offer a way for everyone to work with us, whichever way they feel comfortable. Visit our site, www.riseupindia.in., to start with.”