Bypolls in India should be banned. A By-poll (occasionally also spelled ‘bye-election’, and known in the United States as a special election) is an election held to fill a political office that has become vacant between regularly scheduled elections.

Our politicians give up with elected seat with absolutely no respect to the voters who voted them in. In Dec 2008 Karnataka held bypolls as many sitting MLAs from Congress switched over to BJP (Operation Lotus). Rumours said the bypoll costed each candidate about Rs 25 crore. The Election Commission (EC) allows you to spend Rs 25 lakh officially. It is high time EC increases the official budget to Rs 25 crore directly.

India will hold its General Election in Apr/May 2009. Reports say candidates in popular constituencies will need to spend a whopping Rs 50 crore.

EC should ban bypoll. If a candidate surrenders his/her seat then the runner up should be declared the winner provided the winner doesn’t join the party to which the runner up belongs to. To explain it in clear terms, if Congress had won the seat and BJP candidate was the runner up, then the BJP candidate can be declared the winner provided the victorious candidate (Congress) is not joining BJP.

EC should not allow candidates standing from multiple constituencies. If they win from both constituencies then a bypoll needs to held in one at govt’s expense. If the EC cannot enforce this rule, the runner up of the seat they are surrendering should be declared the winner. This way candidates will think twice before standing from multiple constituencies.

We see few sitting MLAs contesting for a MP seat (or vice versa). If they win, then they will surrender the MLA seat. Preferably the EC shouldn’t allow a sitting MLA to contest for a MP seat. If they cannot enforce this rule, the runner up of the seat they are surrendering should be declared the winner.

In India, you need to be an elected member (MP – from Lok Sabha or Rajya Sabha) to be a cabinet minister. In the US it is contrary, a sitting Senate Member is not in the cabinet.

After Hillary Clinton was sworn in as the Secretary of State in Obama’s cabinet her Senate seat (New York) fell vacant. The New York Governor, David Paterson, had the power to select the replacement of Hillary Clinton. So, if we had this rule in India, the Governor of the state in which the seat fell vacant, would have had the power to choose the replacement of the MP.

First published in Oneindia.in

The IPL just moved it’s venue outside India. Undecided as of now, but it’s between England and South Africa.

It was supposedly due to the police not being able to provide adequate security to the players because of the election period. But the statements from police ranks, even a written statement from the Mumbai Police Commissioner Hassan Gaffoor speak otherwise. It’s being hinted that it had to do with the Congress – NCP fallout over a seat sharing issue. The revised schedule of the IPL was approved by the Home ministry only to be reversed later. Some say it’s a pressure tactic against the Sharad Pawar led NCP to give in to the Congress demands.

It’s definitely a big loss for India as everyone’s going to take the hit, from the team owners themselves who get some of their revenue from the local stadium ticket sales, to the common shop owners, to the fans. It just won’t be IPL anymore as the energy will be missed this time around. The league owners remain unaffected though, as the major chunk of revenue (around 95% or more) comes from television and other broadcasting rights.

TORCH

For a penny less
My heart I have sold
I burn my friend
and call myself bold
I say I have faith
but still I do not believe
Bcoz all around I find
God has become blind
Yet I walked with a torch
as my eyes begged,
a bit of happiness to see.
My torch was extinguished
peace wasn’t meant to be
And all this time I wondered,
In the light…
How much i craved to be,

Now,

For an hour in the dark,

I wish, would be forever for me.

Religion is a way of LIFE, not of DEATH.

We are literate, its time we learnt.

Shridhar – Indian by religion.
15th April 2002

“See you in an hour”
She said smiling.
Anticipation her
new love gifted.
“Will you marry me?”
He said. Sipping
wine she was
from her glass
“Let’s not let
this moment pass”

And it did not.
The hour never ended.
It was a Wednesday.

Shridhar – 28-11-2008