According to Telegraph:
Propaganda films obtained by The Sunday Telegraph in Peshawar, the capital of North West Frontier Province, show boys of 14 or 15 recording farewell messages before climbing into vehicles filled with explosives.
...

One film which Pakistanis have been watching with horrified fascination shows a boy of about 15, named in the video as Arshad Ali from Swat, who attacked a polling station after the Taliban banned voting last year.

Sitting with an AK-47 cradled in his lap and fiddling with prayer beads, he stares into the camera. Speaking calmly, he said that the people of Swat were living in evil times and that sacrifice was called for.

"Some hypocrites say that we are doing this for money - or because of brainwashing - but we are told by Allah to target these pagans," he said, in a reference to government claims that the families of suicide bombers were paid after the attacks.

He said: "I invite my fellows to sacrifice themselves".

The moving story about the tactics used by Taliban can be found by clicking this.

The Indian National Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) swept the 2009 elections in India. Dreams and ambitions of some people who expected to be power-players and kingmakers were ruthlessly crushed in this Congress wave, while others received votes for their good developmental records. The pattern evident from the election results is that people want good governance, and I am not making this cliched statement for no reason. Here are examples to support my argument:

1) Gujarat
Narendra Modi of the BJP is wildly popular in Gujarat due to various developmental projects he has initiated. In the past eight years, he has brought a lot of jobs and investment into Gujarat, at the same time, providing the state with a reasonably high degree of shield from terrorist attacks. BJP won 15 of the 26 seats, one more than what it had won last time. Modi had also swept the assembly elections a couple of years ago, and remains poised to do so the next time around, one reason also being absence of any strong opposition leader in Gujarat.

2) Madhya Pradesh
Chief Minister Shivraj Chauhan of the BJP has also initiated several developmental projects in the state. Although devoid of industrial investments and economic prosperity, the CM has popular schemes targeted towards women and the girl child. The state also has initiatives geared towards water and electric supply, procuring farmers produces and health of the population. Although not as flamboyant as Narendra Modi, he is well respected and is popular in a state largely consisting of rural areas. And as he rightly realises, the next elections are going to be about "development"

3) Andhra Pradesh
YSR Reddy of the Congress, the CM of Andhra Pradesh has reached out to the rural areas. While his predecessor Chandrababu Naidu of the TDP put Hyderabad on the world stage as a popular BPO destination, Reddy has paid more attention to the non-urban areas, from where most of the vote comes. As a result, the Congress not only won a comfortable number of Parliamentary seats from the state, but also swept the assembly elections held concurrent to the national elections.

4) Uttar Pradesh
Mayawati of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) ruled Uttar Pradesh as a queen, and she desperately hoped and truly believed to be the kingmaker, even being the Queen of India herself. But her politics of caste and corruption, alongwith the rise of the Gandhi scion, put a huge dent in her Prime Ministerial ambitions. After the elections, in which she won just 21 seats while hoping for more than 40, she fired hundreds of people appointed by her in state-run agencies and transferred several IPS and IAS officers. Just today, she warned the remaining and the newly appointed officials that if they dont work on her developmental schemes, they'd have to face action. She also said:

"I will verify from the state intelligence department about this and if any irregularity is found, action will be taken against the officers first and accountability of ministers concerned will also be fixed"

It was heartening to see the state which has been a hotbed of communalism, casteism and corruption vote for developmental issues for a change. The wake-up call from Uttar Pradesh for the politicians has been the most impactful call in a long time. Hope this trend stays on.

5) Bihar
Lalu Prasad Yadav of the RJD ruled Bihar from 1990 to 2004 in a tenure marked with scandals, rise of powerful mafia politicians and extremely dirty politics. In 2004, The Economist said:

"Bihar [had] become a byword for the worst of India, of widespread and inescapable poverty, of corrupt politicians indistinguishable from mafia-dons they patronise, caste-ridden social order that has retained the worst feudal cruelties"

The World Bank believed that

"The issues faced by the state was "enormous" because of "persistent poverty, complex social stratification, unsatisfactory infrastructure and weak governance"

Nitish Kumar of the Janata Dal, accompanied by the BJP, came to power in 2005, and since then the political landscape has drastically changed. The CM launched a big crackdown on corruption and paid an emphasis on education and development. His initiatives were rewarded by the voters who came out in mass numbers to vote for the NDA, which secured 32 of the 40 seats from Bihar. Again, this example suggests that people are now becoming more confident in rejecting the criminal parties of yesterday

6) Orissa
One of the most downtrodden, poverty-stricken states of the country, largely tribal in nature. Severly neglected by the previous administration of the past 50 years for their own greed and self-interest. Naveen Patnaik, the CM of Orissa won 14 of the 21 seats this time around in national elections and 103 of the 147 assembly seats, finally retaining power in the state. He, like the CMs mentioned above, has also paid good attention to developmental projects in the state.

7) Chattisgarh
Raman Singh, the BJP CM from Chattisgarh, is also hailed as a development icon. He has had a mixed success in dealing with the Naxalite movement, which affects his state the most in the Red Belt. His most popular scheme was rice at Rs. 3/kg for downtrodden people, and he largely was successful in implementing it. However, still a lot needs to be done in this central state to develop it further.

All of these examples suggest quite convincingly that given a chance and the proof that their vote would not go in vain, Indian voters would vote for the better candidate and the better party. The Indian voter in this election has made full use of this very rare chance. Dr. Manmohan Singh's government, on the other hand, has also reciprocated by appointing trusted, respected and reliable ministers in the cabinet. All of these ministers have been asked to provide a report at the end of 100 days of the administration and a quarterly review. Rahul Gandhi also has been talking a lot more about good governance lately.

I'd want to hope that this state lasts and India gets a long period of good governance, governance that can raise the quality of living of almost one-sixth of the world's population staying within the Indian borders. But I am also quite sure that 2013 is going to be a very different battlefield. If someone thought that Indian politics is moving towards being bipolar, they are being short-sighted. Evolution is pretty fast in politics, one must know.

More thoughts about that coming soon....

The elections in India just concluded and the results bet all expectations. Polling pundits had predicted a severely fractured mandate with the leading parties - The Congress Party led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) and the Bharatiya Janata Party led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) getting almost equal number of seats. The exit polls had predicted that the Third Front and Fourth Front, comprising of self-serving regional parties, would have a greater sway in forming the next government and would be king-makers. But the electorate made the poll pundits bite the dirt once again, as in 2004.

The UPA gave a very strong performance with 262 seats, just 10 short of a majority of 272 needed to form the government. The Third Front - dominated by the Left wing and communist parties - and the Fourth Front - of regional parties in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh were relegated to insignificant numbers. The NDA, on the other hand, could not accomplish its mission of unseating the UPA in this elections.

The BJP is now in an introspection mode. It should realise that it had no chances of forming the government in the first place. BJP rode to power in 1997 and 1998 due to the Vajpayee wave. The whole BJP machinery was synchronised and moving in one direction. BJP had a vision for India. There were tall leaders in the party - Vajpayee, Advani, Pramod Mahajan, Arun Jaitley, Sushma Swaraj. Their leaders were honest and clean and educated. The urban population identified with these leaders and voted largely in favor of the BJP.

In 1998, BJP had good relations with the RSS. While the slick urban leaders galvanised the urban voters, the identification of RSS with BJP consolidated its rural vote. Then was also the honeymoon period of the Hindutva movement, which struck a deep chord in certain sections of the Hindu community who came out in numbers to campaign for the BJP.

1998 was also the birth year of coalition politics. The various regional parties part of the NDA were getting their first taste of national politics. It was probably easier then, than now, to get those parties together in a coalition. In the past ten years, politics has evolved and so have the political agendas. The parties have learnt how to bargain and get an unfair share of power.

Moreover, the Congress did not have a leader then. Sonia Gandhi had just entered politics and grabbed the helms of the Congress Party ruined by Sitaram Kesari. She did not know how to speak Hindi and it was easy to convince voters that she was an outsider. The Congress Party had only Sonia Gandhi to project as the Prime Ministerial candidate. In the past ten years, things have changed. Sonia Gandhi is considered more of an Indian than some of the Indian born people themselves. She is well respected and is admired within the Indian public. BJP's victory ten years ago was because Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the only tall leader in national politics then. BJP didnt have that luxury in 2009.

BJP also faltered on several issues in this poll campaign. They couldnt make enough alliances. They projected L.K. Advani as the leader, who despite being an intelligent and worthy politician, had the age factor against him. The BJP also failed in acting like a united party. Its machinery was in shambles and there were internal squabbles. Its campaign was lacklustre and it failed to raise the quality of the debate. BJP was not driving the debate; infact there was no debate at all in this elections.
It failed to guage the impact of several regional parties and the influence of the Congress at the grassroots level. BJP also failed to stem the vote loss from previously saffron states like Rajasthan and states like Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh. The party will need to focus on these states for 2013.

In short, 2009 was a completely different battleground than 1998. And so will be 2013. Next time, the number of allies are going to decrease. BJP may have to go on its own, and it is better to assume that while planning for 2013. BJP needs a coherant strategy for 2013 which shouldnt be based solely on giving tickets to the right candidates. The party needs to go in an entire new direction. Here are some ways the party might think of evolving now:

1) Abandon the Babri Masjid issue. It has lost all relevance now. Do not talk about it at all.
2) Form a shadow cabinet and wherever required, start a logical debate on policy issues. Make the people realise that BJP stands for policy and it can provide better policies than the Congress.
3) Do not raise arguments for argument's sake. Support the government wherever required and be vocal about it. Let the people know that BJP stands for good governance and better politics. People seem to have realised that the Indian Opposition Parties oppose for the sake of opposition. This does not fit into what we hold ideal in our day-to-day lives. This contrast makes the opposition parties look even more detestable. Support good policies and attack the wrong policies with civility. Indian politics will also gain a new direction that way.
5) Make the CMs of the BJP-ruled states push the development plank like never before. Modi is prefered as a leader in Gujarat because of his development initiatives. Make all the other Chief Ministers revolutionise their own states.
6) Use new means of technology to reach a wider audience. Do it right from Day 1 and not 3 months before the elections. Do not try to just reach the Indian audience but the audience aborad as well.
7) Find new means to attract sections of the Indian public. Organise events targeted towards vote banks. Attract Muslims, media persons, highly skilled graduates, scientists and professionals, farmers and daily wage workers into the party fold. Only then would the organisation be strengthened.
8) Find an acceptable leader. In an article written in 2004, I had predicted Sushma Swaraj as the leader after Lal Krishna Advani. That is now coming true. Sushma Swaraj is best suited for this role, given the deeply polarising nature of Narendra Modi.

Politics need not be dirty and vile and wily. A party can only achieve power NOT JUST if it is worthy of doing so, but if it successfully convinces the public that it is indeed worthy. In the coming days, the BJP needs to work towards attaining this goal.

As the results for India's elections wait to be tallied and released on May 16th, one reporter from TIME noted,
"As impressive as the scale of of India's exercise in democracy may be, so is it notable for its almost complete lack of debate over real issues."
Rightly so. This has been primarily because of the extensive domination of the dozens of regional parties in the Indian politics. There are almost 2-3 regional parties in every state, other than the main BJP and Congress. The national elections have been trivialized to hundreds of local elections, with really no substantive issues in the picture. A vast majority of the voters will have voted either because:

1) They were offered money or non-vegetarian food by the local candidate OR
2) They liked the candidate or the party, not bothering to read their manifestos and question their stand on various issues OR
3) They were frustrated with one or more candidate from the other party OR
4) Their village leader/caste leader/community leader TOLD them to go and vote for a particular candidate OR
5) They were forced to vote by a particular candidate at gunpoint

Very few, and that includes very few urban voters, did actually take time to sit and think about who would be a better party at the center. And that is exactly why we are seeing all this mess in Indian politics right now. Nobody cares.

The influence of the regional parties has grown beyond acceptable limits. A nation is like the human body. There is the brain, which is the government, which directs the nation in a particular direction. All other body-parts are needed to OBEY the orders of the brain. In this case, all other organs are tremendously influencing the functioning of the brain and that gives rise to serious disorders, as we are seeing in the Indian polity right now.

In the last 4 years, the Left parties (Communist Party of India etc) won around 60 seats, and were quite influential in implementing their ideology in the functioning of the government. All the progress initiated by the BJP-led government in privatization, deregulation, free markets etc was halted and in some cases, reversed. Small parties like the Samajwadi Party with its 30-odd MPs was capable of bringing down the government (they didnt, but were capable, and they threatened). Coalition politics has acted as a super-barrier in the progress of the nation as a whole.

In the 2014 elections (if not earlier), we may see a rising influence of Mayawati's BSP, Laloo Yadav's RJD, Mulayam's SP and Sharad Pawar's NCP. Unless, something is done about it. Lets hope Narendra Modi and Rahul Gandhi can manage to pull of the nationalisation of Indian politics

I came across this innovative social program in India being implemented around Mumbai and Pune in the field of education.

India is a country with over a billion people. However, in terms of the Human Development Index, it ranks a measly 132nd. One major factor behind such a low rank is the literacy rate - which stands at 61%. Several Indians have made it big in the world - Sunil Mittal, Vinod Khosla, Indra Nooyi to name a few. All of them and several millions more, however, were fortunate enough to not have to worry about their early education. People like me went to schools, colleges, earned our degrees and arrived at this stage in our life. All this while, we took the facility of education for granted.

However, a huge number of families across India cannot afford basic educational necessities like books and instruments. Estimates suggest that almost 80% of the Indian population lives on a daily pay of $1.50 or less. Although the Government of India has subsidized education for the lower income groups, there is still a lot of scope for improvement, and several NGOs are thus working in the field of education in India.

Sewa Sahayog, an affiliate of the Sewa International group, is an NGO working for the education of children of the low income groups through several year-round activities. In one such program, Sewa Sahayog is distributing school kits worth Rs. 200 ($5) to several needy children. The school kit comprises of basic necessities like notebooks, a bag and writing and geometry instruments. More information about the program can be found in the poster attached and their websites:
1) http://www.schoolkit.in/
2) http://www.sewausa.org/
You can get a list of last year's beneficiaries here:
http://www.schoolkit.in/beneficiaries

Donors are invited to give atleast $5 towards this program and bring smiles on the faces of the under-privileged children in India. Every $5 donated goes towards purchase of a school kit, and one can donate in multiples of $5.

Donations can be made online here. Donations are through Google Checkout and PayPal and are secure.
http://www.sewausa.org/contribute-sewa-usa

Note:
After donating, please send a quick email to sevasahayog@yahoo.in so that the personnel back in India come to know immediately of the donation. Please mention in the email that the contribution is for "Sevasahayog India Mumbai/Pune Chapter School Kit Drive 09".

Online donations, for now, are possible only for individuals not residing in India (NRIs/PIOs/Indian students studying abroad/Non-Indians etc). Residents of India who wish to donate would need to send a cheque, the information for which is available here:
http://www.schoolkit.in/donate

I have always liked the roles played by Zoeey Deschanel. Here's one I'm eagerly looking forward to.

500 days of Summer

The crisis in Nepal is getting worse. Reports today morning said that the Nepali Maoist PM Pushpa Kamal Dahal, better known as Prachanda, had resigned. This was after his government's decision to fire the current Army chief Gen Rukmangad Katawal was rejected by the President Ram Baran Yadav.

There have been conflicts between the army chief, who under the rule of King Gyanendra two years earlier, had waged a war against the Maoists, before they laid down their arms and decided to enter the mainstream politics. After the Maoists came to power in 2008, they sacked several generals whom they felt were anti-Maoists. They also started recruitment of the Maoists into the army. All this was frustrating the army, which was resisting all these moves by the Maoist government. In the past few months, Gen Katawal had started reinstatement of some of the generals sacked by the Maoist government, and had continued recruitment for the Army despite orders against it by the government. The Army even pulled out of the National Games where they had to participate alongside the Maoists. It was also reported that the Army was planning a "soft coup" to overthrow the government. All this was irking Prachanda even more. He wanted to replace Katawal with the Maoist friendly Kul Bahadur Khadka. Similarly, he wanted the members of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) who held officer-ranks in PLA to be integrated and have appropriate ranks in the Nepalese Army. This manipulation of the Army was being resisted by the Army chief

The Army chief had retained his position despite the above due to aggressive public lobbying by India, and also some by the United States. Gen. Katawal is an alumnus of the prestigious Indian Military Academy (IMA) and he is seen as pro-India. India had concerns that the rise of communism in Nepal, its northern neighbour, may lead to an increased influence of China in the region as well as provide safe havens for Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) to operate. The integration of the 19,000 strong PLA Army into the Nepalese Army would have accelerated the process of the rise of communism. India and the US did not want that. Prachanda was resisting this lobbying effort very hard. The sacking of the army chief was being seen as a very big failure for Indian diplomacy.

But reports today say that the Prime Minister has resigned. Experts were worried about the rise of dictatorship in Nepal, but that has seemingly not happened. The Maoists have said that they will continue a peaceful struggle against the President and come to power again this time with a good majority. Not surprisingly, they have also blamed India for the debacle. If the Maoists come to power now, which they will soon, the dynamics between the two countries would change drastically. Nepal would move more closer to China and Myanmar. China has been propping up the Maoist struggle for a long time, not just because of the ideological equivalence, but also Nepal's proximity to India and Tibet. China's success in Tibet and South Asia depends to some extent on it securing Nepal for itself.

This is very bad news for India, for whom Nepal has been a very friendly country till now. The Army chief was due to retire anyways in three months. India's strategy in Nepal may have been beneficial in the short term, but it runs the risk of isolating the people of Nepal, who wouldnt want a foreign country meddling in their internal affairs.

India now faces four unstable neighbors - Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. It remains to be seen that in this rapidly changing world of geo-politics, what will happen next in the region...!

Further Readings:
1) South block screwed up big Times of India
2) China support spurs power grab by Maoists in Nepal UPI Asia