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Tuesday, April 7, 2009

"Shoe-cide attack"

Well guess you people would have already seen it and spoken about it - I am talking about the 'Great Indian Shoe Trick' ;) or you can call it 'shoe-cide attack' as my title goes! In fact I was one of the thousands watching the live telecast of the Home Minister's speech when this incident happened.

Incident: The Indian Home Minister P. Chidambadam was delivering the Congress's promise of effective handling of terrorism if they win the elections. Immediately after this addressing there was the Q&A session, and this is when the shameful act took place. A journalist named Jarnail Singh staged a protest regarding the 'Jagadish Tytler issue' and about the CBI giving him a clean chit. To this the home minister replied back that this was not a political forum to raise such issues, and Jarnail singh in an emotional outburst hurled his shoe at the home minister! The reply from the home minister was commendable in the fact that he didn't get aggitated rather he calmly asked the security to escort Jarnail Singh out of the conference gently!

Well all said and done, there are many questions that come to a common man's mind:
  • Was Jarnail Singh in that conference only to raise the issue of jagadish tytler?
  • Was this a plot to spoil the decorum of the Congress's press meeting?
Repercursion:
  • Jarnail Singh was immediately taken to prison but released a short while later. He then expressed his regret to what he had done. He even said that being a journalist it was not right on his part to behave that way, and that the mode of protest was wrong but he still requests the issue of the 1984 riots not be politicised.
  • There was news about Akali Dal deciding to felicitate Jarnail Singh with money for this act of his.
  • The media made a nice issue out of it by showing the video a hundred times throughout the day and started raising their own questions on whether this act would affect the voting pattern and whether Jarnail Singh shoed away the congress in this election.
On the lighter side, A Comparison between the Chidambaram shoe-attack and Bush shoe-attack
  • Journalist involved in both cases
  • The Bush attack was done with a formal leather shoe, whereas the Chidambaram attack was done with a jogger
  • The Bush-attacker was sentenced to 3 years in jail whereas the Chidamabaram-attacker was released in less thatn 3 hours!
  • Bush responded with humour whereas Chidamabaram responded calmly!


Friday, April 3, 2009

Your new 11-digit cellphone number is _______!


Guess its time for Indians to start sharpening their memory coz from Jan 2010 Indian's are going to have 11-digit cellphone numbers. Its official and DoT have also confirmed that all the 10-digit numbers would exhaust by August this year.
Think about it, the different numbers possible in 10digits are 10^10 = 10billion different combinations of cellphone numbers. Which is more than 10times the Indian population(theoretically speaking it means every Indian already has 10different numbers.. lol.. :P) !!! But even that is not enough to cater to the Indian communication needs, thereby needing an extra digit from Jan 2010.
A little bit of mathematics here using simple combinations would tell you that the total number of extra numbers as a result of adding that 1 extra digit is 15937424601 (thats a little over 15billion different new numbers)!!! Phew...
Guess its goina be pretty long before we talk about 12digits...!! :)

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Is Election 2009 any different?

Many of you would surely wonder that every election has these controversies and issues, so whats special about elections '09? Well people this is not a time to stereotype the elections coz there are quiet a few changes from all the previous elections:
  • TV ads by both the Congress & BJP in popular TV channels such as Mtv, Star Network etc to reach to a greater audience
  • Ads on social networking sites, such as Orkut!
  • Parties launching websites to reach the Indian Netizen Segment. Seems like Web Advertising firms are cashing-in big time during these elections
  • Initiative taken by Jagore.com launched by the TATA Group and Janaagraha to ensure that there is a increase in the number of people who exercise their right to vote. Their vision is to have all the 1billion voters in India exercise their right to vote
  • All news channels making innovative ads and slogans to ensure that the people prefer them to get regular news updates. As of now CNN-IBN seems to be doing the best among the lot, with its Ad that shows how CNN-IBN has been the first to bring all previous controversies to light and that it would continue doing so during Elections '09 with its positioning 'Elections 2009=CNN IBN'
Well i'm sure there are more surprises in store both with respect to the elections and the other factors associated to the elections... Before I sign off this post, just thought of reminding all my readers to make sure that all of you people exercise your VOTING right! Happy electing! :)

Elections 2009 Update - March Madness!


Well the last month (March '09) has been an eventful one when you talk about Elections '09! It has had its rightful share of controversies, issues etc etc. So here's a quick recap for those of you who've missed it:
  • L K Advani the prime ministerial candidate for the BJP and NDA, launches his website. Well you enter the website and you have an mp3 file which has Advani addressing the so -called netizens of the country himself
  • Congress and the UPA looks like its loosing its alliances(PMK from Tamil Nadu, Lalu Prasad Yadav & Ram Vilas Paswan deciding to pitch in for each other in their respective states) as the elections come closer, but they still seem confident that these are just baseless rumors and that post-election it would have many more alliances. Well with the comendable efforts taken by the Congress during its 5-year tenure from handling terrorist attacks to making the railways a profitable PSU to waving-off a Rs. 60,000 crore loan of farmers to even running the country effectively during Global Recession, Congress's confidence seems justified.
  • Varun Gandhi comes into the spotlight with what many call a publicity stunt by giving his hatred speech in UP, in which he proclaimed to be the so-called saviour of the Hindus and an anti-muslim!
  • Election Commission(EC) of India issues a warning to BJP to defer fielding Varun Gandhi as its candidate from UP. Later Varun Gandhi is jailed for potential threat to communal harmony
  • Then it was time for sports to play its part with the Elections. The Indian Premier League(IPL), which was supposed to by played from the 14th April 2009 onwards, doesn't get clearance from the Home Minister P. Chidambaram: This was owing to the various state government's refusal to be able to provide security during the month of April owing to elections. The IPL schedule was changed twice before the IPL Board decided to shift the IPL this year to South Africa. Opposition party BJP hits on Congress, proclaiming that this would send wrong signals to the world. But with all the terror threats and the recent attack on the Sri Lankan cricket players in Pakistan, it seemed a very sensible but a difficult decision by the Home Minister.
  • Meanwhile, actor Sanjay Dutt is named as the Samajwadi Party's(SP) candidate at Uttar Pradesh(UP). But sadly for him just a day after naming him as their candidate the Supreme Court(SC) refused to stay his conviction(for possesion of Arms during the 1993 Mumbai blasts). Hence he is not allowed to contest for the seat of a MP from UP. But surprisingly both the major parties(Congress & BJP) felt that the decision by the SC is just
  • When one thought that March has finished having its share of issues for Elections '09, on the last day of March a group Supari killers (said to have connections with Chotta Shakeel) are arrested in Bangalore. The Intelligence Bureau(IB) then say that this group of killers (called the D-gang) had intentions of killing Varun Gandhi and Pramod Mutalik. Now if this is a real threat or just another publicity stunt to divert media attention from Varun Gandhi's hatred speech is for us to wait and watch
On the whole elections '09 has already had its share issues. But it surely has a lot more to come as we have only seen the Tip of the Ice-berg. :)
But everything said and done, one thing I am sure off is that all the parties contesting this year would surely have a good amount of their manifesto dedicated to providing 'Better Internal Security'. In fact, its going to be the key proposition by all the parties in Elections '09!!!