Indian Diary:

Of newsmakers, lavish wedding, cricket and much more

Bhartendu Sood

News maker of the week: Babubhai Katar, a Member of Parliament (MP) belonging to the main opposition party

 Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) arrested at the international airport in Delhi on impersonation and suspected human trafficking charges, has emerged as the news maker of the week.

Babubhai was detained trying to smuggle a woman and her son to Canada by posing them as his wife and son on his wife and son’s passport. Interestingly, the MP who had taken Rs 30 lakhs (almost Rs 75 lakhs in Sri Lankan currency) has admitted that he is a serial offender operating as part of a human smuggling gang and is alleged to have smuggled several people across to UK, Canada and US in the last few years.

We have MPs undergoing jail term on the murder charges but Babubhai’s act has added a new dimension to the standards of political morality in India.

Those who feel that the political morality in India has touched its nadir are simply underestimating the potential of our present breed of MPs.

Like the genius Murali, they have the ability to produce something new to fox even the best equipped crime preventive agencies to leave the common men shaking their heads in disbelief.

The country is divided in to 560 segments, each segment with an average population of around two million, sends one elected representative to the Lower House called LOK SABHA and the elected member is called a Member of Parliament. Similarly each State has a Legislative Assembly whose members are separately elected by the people of the state. In all there are 26 states.

This news has another dimension. We have people in India’s most prosperous state Punjab (Panjab is bordering Pakistan near Jammu and Kashmir) prepared to spend even Rs 50 lakhs to move abroad. Well, for them, reasons are other than the urge for greener pastures.

Historically, people from Panjab are adventurous and fun loving who enjoy moving places and there exists a Diaspora of about 10 million Panjabis in different parts of the world, all very hardworking and prosperous. It is no wonder that hundreds of such cases come to light every year and duped by travel agents, thousands of Panjabi youth are lodged in jails in different countries.

NATIONAL POLITICS: Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, the most populous state in India with a population exceeding 120 million, continue to be at the centre stage of the national politics.

How extensively the electioneering process has been criminalised over the years can be gauged from the fact that to ensure fair and free elections, the Elections Commission is conducting elections in six phases and it will take more than a month for the process to be completed in one state.

All political parties including Congress have fielded candidates with criminal background which has tremendously increased the work load of the Elections Commission. In a state where caste politics takes

 precedence over national issues, the turn out in the first three phases has been as low as 47 per cent, perhaps a pointer to people’s disenchantment with the present system which appears to be heavily loaded in favour of goons, musclemen and people with money bags.

With expenditure of a candidate on campaigning running in to millions/crores, it is just not possible for a man with modest means to contest elections in India which was not the case until a few years back.

The prospects of Congress making some gains continue to be bleak in the backdrop of high inflation which has made the life of a common man difficult and the absence of a charismatic leader in the party.

According to exit polls by different agencies, the state will see a hung assembly with BSP, a political outfit of Mayawati who has successfully rallied lower castes behind her, emerging as the front runner. Despite Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul going all out to woo the voters, the Congress tally is expected to be below 10 percent of the total 400 seats for which elections are being held.

LAVISH MARRIAGES: Marriage still holds a pride of place in Indian ethos, the more pomp and show and ostentatious, the better. Traditions and rituals add to the merrymaking and fun. People like to spend the bulk of their savings on the marriages of their children as it is considered as the mirror of their standing in the public.

For upper five per cent income group, the average expenditure on celebrations is more than Rs 10 millions (in Indian currency) but then there is another class of rich whose bill on such occasions runs into crores and it is no wonder that marriages performed of late in India, have made news not only in India but across the globe and many Non-resident Indians and even foreigners are choosing India for their marriage ceremonies.

Such marriages become a mega event when the couple happens to be a celebrity. Marriage of Aishwarya Rai,

considered as the most beautiful woman in the world with Abhishek Bachchan, a Bollywood star in his own right, made waves not only in every nook and corner of the country but evoked considerable interest in Pakistan too.

With the media going on a feeding frenzy over the event, people remained glued to their televisions. It remained a top story for several days on television Channels. Even the print media splashed various events and rituals related with the marriage for a week or so. Yes, to create stars and to worship them is a passion with Indians.

Former Australian captain Steve Waugh was very right when he said that if reborn a cricketer, it should be in India. During my brief stay in Sri Lanka, I had noted that Aishwarya has quite a good number of fans there also though I can’t say this about Abhishek and Amitabh Bachchan, a super star and Abhishek’s father.

CRICKET: Advertisers and marketers in India who had pumped in Rs 5,000 million into the cricket World Cup, may end up losing Rs 1,500 million because of India’s early exit, courtesy their neighbours Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

Such is the impact of a world cup defeat in the hands of Bangladesh that selection of each and every player for the forthcoming tour to Bangladesh is being debated in the national press. Best available talent has been inducted in both ODI and test teams. Bangladesh skipper Habibul Bashar should be happy to know that his country may be a minnow for Ponting but when it comes to India that tag is removed for ever.

In my opinion, there is no evidence of some extra ordinary talent emerging on the cricketing scene of the country and there is not even a single player who on the strength of his present form can walk into the

 Australian side, a yardstick for acquiring the label of a world class player.

Irrespective of who wins the World Cup, the matches played up to Semi Final stage have shown that Australia is way ahead of other teams and there are only four players from other sides who can walk into the present Australian side and they are genius Muralidharan of Sri Lanka , Pietersen of England, Bond of New Zealand and Kallis of South Africa.

SAARC Summit in Delhi: The recently concluded SAARC Summit in Delhi has some good news for the people of both countries. As an immediate step, India will liberalise visas for students, teachers, professors and journalists and patients. Then there is a proposal to establish a World class Institution of learning which will be an important platform to create connectivity amongst the youth.

But, the best of all the proposals is to have a rail corridor connecting Chennai and Colombo. It will not only push up the trade between the two countries which at present is abysmally low at less than two per cent of the GDP but will give a big fillip to the movement of people of both the countries who at present have to rely upon costly air travel not within the reach of a common man.

More and more Buddhist population of Sri Lanka will be able to visit Sarnath (Varanasi), Gaya and Kapila Vastu and of course Taj Mahal, one of the eight wonders.

An average Indian will be able to visit Nuwara Eliya. The breath taking scenic beauty has more attraction than the highly commercialised and congested hill stations of India, to take respite from the scorching summer of India.

It is worth mentioning that Seetha Eliya, eight KMs from Nuwara Eliya has a special significance for 800 million Hindus. It is believed that it was in (Ashok Vatika) Seetha Eliya, a king by the name of Ravana had kept Seeta, the wife of Lord Rama who is considered as an incarnation of Vishnu, in captivity for almost for a year, before his annihilation at the hands of Rama.

Today, Indians are as ignorant about the place as Sri Lankans are, and if the Sri Lankan government takes some initiative, this place can attract lakhs of tourists from India every year. I think the implementation of this proposal should receive President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s special attention as it has a potential to diminish the clout of the LTTE to a great extent.

India’s 15 per cent middle class and English Language: India with an average literacy rate of 64 per cent may be far behind Sri Lanka and her other neighbours but its educated urban middle class who constitutes 15 per cent of the population is far ahead of its peers when it comes to enterprise, tapping opportunities, global vision , quality of education and using knowledge.

It is this middle class which has made India an economic power and the new Indians who have made to the list of richest billionaires in the world and whose companies have found a place in the Fortune 500 list happen to be from this middle class. One factor which has contributed significantly is their fondness for English language without any inhibitions.

There is a great thrust on acquiring proficiency in English language even at the expense of local language. The two most circulated English dailies of the country have a combined circulation of 1.5 million in Delhi alone which gives enough indication of the importance people are attaching to the learning of this Universal language.

Again, it is this exposure to English language at the school level, which has put India at the top in IT Software segment.