ELECTON 2009

POLLING
=======

58 to 62 % polling in first phase of Lok Sabha elections: Election Commission
Thu, 16 Apr 2009
ANI

New Delhi, April 16 (ANI): The Election Commission of India on Thursday expressed satisfaction on the first phase of polls held in 15 States and two Union Territories by describing it 'more or less peaceful'.

In the first phase, 58 to 62 per cent of 143 million voters exercised their right to vote.

Releasing the tentative figures about the total voter turnout, the Election Commission stated Bihar witnessed 46 per cent voting, Jharkhand (50 %), Chhattisgarh (51%), Jammu and Kashmir (48%), Orissa (53%), Mahrashtra (54%), Kerala (60%), Meghalaya (65%) Andhra Pradesh (65%), Uttar Pradesh (48%), Assam and Arunachal Pradesh (62 %), and Lakshadweep (86%).

However, in the Naxalite affected States of Jharkhand, Orissa, Bihar, Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra, Naxals struck at 14 places and killed 16 people in the poll-related violence on Thursday. (ANI)



ELECTION BASICS
===============

To begin with, the Legislation of the government has the power to mak e laws upon a specific subject. And these powers are separated in India by means of three lis t's - the union list, the state list and the concurrent list. These powers are then divided o r rather shared between the central government, the parliament and the state government. The state government is also known as the state legislature (bet you didn't know that).



1
Functions of union government

* The subjects in this list includes subjects of national importance like defense, foreign affairs, atomic energy, banking, post, telegraph, custom duties, inter- state and national highways, railroads and taxation of income.

2
Functions of state government

* The state list contains 66 subjects of state importance on which the state governments can make laws.
* These subjects include police, local governments, trade, commerce and agriculture. In times of national and state emergency, the power to make laws on these subjects is transferred to the Parliament.
* The concurrent list contains 47 subjects on which both the Parliament and the state legislatures can make laws. It includes criminal and civil procedure, marriage and divorce, education, economic planning, labor welfare, social security and trade unions.
* However, in case of a conflict between a law made by the central government and a law made by the state legislatures, the law made by the central government will obviously prevail.
* The local governments allow further decentralization or distribution of power and allow people to participate in the functioning of the Government.


3
Importance of local government

* India is a vast country. It is not efficient to go to the Union or State government for every decision or issue. Therefore in addition to Union and State we have local governments that are closer to the people.
* The government at the Centre of the State may not understand the local problems. The local people.s leader best represent the people in the city or in the village.
* The residents of a city are better acquainted with and have easier access to their local representatives; this makes the leader more accountable.
* It is more economical to have decisions made locally to suit the local needs and conditions.
* In a sense, when you decentralize power you also decentralize corruption.

4
What does local government do?

* Local governments are institutions of self government.
* They have political, functional and economic power for good governance.
* They provide basic services and infrastructure that are indispensable to our well being.


5
Type of local governments

* The rural governments are Village Panchayats.
* The Urban local governments are either Municipal councils or Municipal Corporation.


6
Functions of urban local governments

* Water supply for domestic, industrial and commercial purposes
* Public health, sanitation and solid waste management
* Fire services
* Public amenities including streetlights, parking lots and bus stops
* Urban amenities and facilities such as parks, gardens and playgrounds
* Roads and bridges
* Slum improvement, urban poverty alleviation
* Maintenance of burial grounds
* Registration of births and deaths
* Regulation of slaughter houses and tanneries
* Urban planning including town planning
* Regulation of land use and construction of buildings

7
Functions of village local governments

* Look after street lights, construction and repair work of the roads in the villages and also the village markets, fairs, festivals and celebrations.
* Keep a record of birth, deaths and marriages in the village.
* Look after public health and hygiene by providing facilities for sanitation and drinking water.
* Provide for education.
* Implement development schemes for agriculture and animal husbandry.

As urban citizens, we sometimes fail to recognize the crucial role the government plays in providing us a better quality of life. Compared to union or state elections, the local elections have the least voter turnout.
Content courtesy: www.jaagore.com


REVIEW
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Left moves protected India from financial meltdown: Bardhan
Thu, 16 Apr 2009

Chennai, April 16 (IANS) The United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government wanted to privatise nationalised banks, insurance companies and Navratna companies, but was stopped by the Left parties, which has helped protect the Indian economy from the financial meltdown, Communist Party of India (CPI) leader A.B. Bardhan said Thursday.

'The economic policies pursued by the central government has not benefitted Dalits, Adivasis, Muslims. Only a handful of people have become affluent,' Bardhan said at the AIADMK-led five party poll campaign.

He said the liberalisation, privatisation and globalisation policy has failed in the US, the country where the policy originated.

According to him, the Left parties, which were then supporting the UPA government from outside, stopped the central government from going ahead with privatisation of nationalised banks, insurance companies and Navratnas.

He said more than 20 lakh people have lost their jobs in recent times and the number is expected to increase.

Earlier, launching the poll campaign, Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) Prakash Karat said the Congress and the DMK have divided among themselves two sectors - defence and telecom - for scams.

'The central government has declined to order an investigation into the allotment of spectrum to mobile phone companies as the government has lost around Rs.100,000 crore (Rs.1 trillion) revenue.'

He said, two days before the announcement of the poll schedule, the government signed defence deals worth Rs.10,000 crore with an Israeli company which involves six percent commission that works out to Rs.600 crore (Rs.6 billion).

'The central government declined to order an enquiry despite our letters.'

'We have seen five years of United Progressive Alliance and six years of National Democratic Alliance (NDA) rule. The country is prepared for a non-Congress and non-BJP rule.'

Citing Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Assam, Orissa and Andhra Pradesh, he said the regional parties have formed an alternative to the BJP and Congress.





Building grand Ram temple would be real secularism: Advani
Thu, 16 Apr 2009

Bhopal, April 16 (IANS) Condemning what he terms as pseudo-secularism, the Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial candidate L.K. Advani here Thursday said that its pledge to build a grand Ram temple in Ayodhya was real secularism.

'We have taken everything on (our) agenda. The Somnath Yatra and Swarna Jayanti Yatra were part of our agenda and the Ram temple too has never been off our agenda,' Advani told a rally.

'I have been saying since 1997 that if given a chance, we will show what Surajya (good governance) is and we have shown it when we were in power for six years under the stewardship of Atal Behari Vajpayee. We have also shown it in states of Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh and in other states as well.'

Underlining that welfare of farmers and soldiers besides improving security of the nation would be on the party's priority, he said: 'There would be no shortage of money for these matters as we will bring back the country's 'black money' stacked in Swiss and other banks abroad and make the 21st century the century of India if voted to power.'

The BJP leader, however, warned the workers not to be overconfident about the party's victory. Advani said no power in the country could have stopped the party and its alliance from forming the central government in 2004 but 'we faced reverses only because we were overconfident'.

He said the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance had put the country on the path of progress, but the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government halted every public-welfare scheme NDA had launched.

'During its five-year tenure, the BJP-led NDA did good work for the common man's welfare. And that was the reason behind our overconfidence.'

Referring to the water crisis in several regions of the country, he added: 'Steps will be initiated to implement the erstwhile NDA government's ambitious river-linking Scheme.





Congress stronger than BJP in tackling militancy: Mukherjee
Thu, 16 Apr 2009
ANI

Agartala, Apr.16 (ANI): Senior Congress leader and External Affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee on Thursday refuted the allegation of the BJP that the Congress was 'soft' towards Pakistan and failed to contain terrorism in the country rather he claimed that his party is more strongly dealing with the militancy issue and particularly the Pakistan sponsored cross border terrorism than the BJP.

Talking to mediapersons here Mukherjee said that under the diplomatic pressure from India, 'In the history of 62 years, for the first time Pakistan has admitted and no less a person then Home Secretary, they (Pakistan) are not calling Home Minister his adviser or something like that but his actual rank is of a cabinet minister of Home Interior, he has admitted, yes, the terrorist who attacked Mumbai they are from Pakistan. His admission we (India) got. International opinion has been created, diplomacy has won.'

Apparently responding to Opposition leader Lal Krishan Advani's repeated charge that Congress is weakly dealing on the militancy issue, Mukherjee said: 'Surely the cross border terrorism is the most complex problem and no body denies that but question is how could you define which action is appropriate. When Mr. Advani was Home Minister and Deputy Prime Minister of India our Parliament House was attacked, Red Fort in Delhi was attacked, Jammu Kashmir assembly was attacked, Raghunath temple was attacked and after attack and assault of Parliament which the citadel of the power, which is the symbol sovereignty, the then Prime Minister Vajpayeejee told that this time there will be aar-paar lorai (war), Mr. L K Advani as Home Minister said we will have hot persuade and what was the impact.'

'After attack on Parliament diplomatic relation was not snapped but ambassadors were with-drawned, it was downgraded, no dialogue, no talk, massive mobilization on the border, everybody was having betting blade war is imminent. Thousand and thousand acres of land were taken away from farmers of Jammu and Kashmir and land mines were laid. After ten months there was not even a whimper, not a question of bang' Mukherjee said.

He added, 'In January 2004 Prime Minister Vajpayee visited Pakistan in connection with the SAARC summit he got an assurance from the then President Musharraf that land of Pakistan will not be allowed to be use by the extremist and all these things came to an end. Million and million of rupees were used for the mobilization and when mines are buried in a land they do not remain in the same place and after few months when one de-mine machine do not indicate there is any mine because sometime rats take away the mines to some distance away, high velocity wind on the hill top takes away the mine. Exactly that happened and what were the consequences farmers were dying in Jammu and Kashmir because of mine explosion and almost hundred of innocent farmers lost their life.'

Mukherjee said that in September 2008 Congress led UPA put diplomatic pressure on Pakistan had demanded fulfillment of three commitments made by them. Firstly Pakistan land be not allowed by the terrorist, returning of fugitive under Indian laws including who (Maulana Masood Azhar) was exchanged after the highjacking of India flight to Kandhar and dismantling of the infrastructure being used by the terrorist in the land under Pakistan control.

He said the UPA government would continue its efforts to isolate Pakistan in the international arena and the international community had been successfully convinced by India that the Mumbai attacks had originated from Pakistan which that nation had to but ultimately admit. By Pinaki Das (ANI)



COLOUMNS & ANALYSIS
===================


Richest politicians
Thu, 16 Apr 2009
India Today

A lean bare man on the banks of a river near Champaran, his eyes moist with sadness, letting go of his shawl for a poor woman downstream to cover herself and her child. This poignant moment from Richard Attenborough's biopic on Gandhi is perhaps the most eloquent image of selfless politics.

The gentle giant loved as Bapu and revered as the Mahatma epitomised the philosophy of public service as one who gave up everything to be one among the huddled millions. Nearly a century later there is little evidence in reel or real life of the high moral ground once straddled by that generation.

The brazen parade of the Prada Prado set zipping across cities in cavalcades, appropriating security funded by public money is evidence that politics has since morphed into a largely self-serving enterprise. The pretense of khadi and Gandhian values went out of vogue with the Gandhi cap long before the Gucci generation stormed the political arena in the 1980s.

The transition is best described by Rajiv Gandhi who said at the Congress Centenary in Mumbai in 1985 that politics has been reduced to brokers of power and influence, who dispense patronage to convert mass movement into feudal oligarchy . Yes there are those who enter politics to serve the public cause but they are exceptions rather than the rule. Entering public life is now an investment of time and effort for dividends to be earned from political entrepreneurship. A joint study by INDIA TODAY and EmpoweringIndia.org (an initiative of the Liberty Institute) of the reported assets of our elected representatives reveals a startling contrast between the rulers and the ruled.

In a country where over 77 per cent of the populace, or an estimated 836 million people, earn an income of Rs 20 per day and over 300 million are living below the poverty line, nearly half the Rajya Sabha members and nearly a third of those from the Lok Sabha are worth a crore and more. Just the top ten Rajya Sabha members and the top ten Lok Sabha members have reported a cumulative net asset worth Rs 1,500 crore. The 10 top losers in the last Lok Sabha polls including Nyimthungo of Nagaland who reported total assets of Rs 9,005 crore is Rs 9,329 crore. Members of legislative assemblies seem wealthier than many MPs. The top five MLAs across the 30 states are worth Rs 2,042 crore. Of these 150 crorepati MLAs, 59 don't even have a PAN card.

1. T. Subbarami Reddy

Indian National Congress

Rajya Sabha, Andhra Pradesh

Total Assets: Rs 239.6 cr

2. Jaya Bachchan

Samajwadi Party

Rajya Sabha, Uttar Pradesh

Total Assets: Rs 214.3 cr

3. Rahul Bajaj

Independent

Rajya Sabha, Maharashtra

Total Assets: Rs 190. 6 cr

4. Anil H. Lad

Indian National Congress

Rajya Sabha, Karnataka

Total Assets: Rs 175 cr

5. M. Krishnappa

Indian National Congress

MLA, Vijay Nagar, Karnataka

Total Assets: Rs 136 cr

6. MAM Ramaswamy

Janata Dal (Secular)

Rajya Sabha, Karnataka

Total Assets Rs 107.7 cr

7. Anand Singh

BJP

MLA, Vijayanagara, Karnataka

Total Assets: Rs 239 cr

8. Anil V. Salgaocar

Independent

MLA, Sanvordem, Goa

Total Assets: Rs 91.4 cr

9. N.A. Haris

Indian National Congress

MLA, Shanti Nagar, Karnataka

Total Assets: Rs 85.3 cr

10. Mahendra Mohan

Samajwadi Party

Rajya Sabha, Uttar Pradesh

Total Assets: Rs 85 cr

And don't look for a correlation between the state of the state and the wealth of the legislators. Uttar Pradesh boasts of the largest number of people 59 million or over a third of its population living below the poverty line. Not only is Mayawati the richest chief minister in 30 states, the state also boasts of 113 crorepati MLAs. Similarly, Madhya Pradesh which has over 25 million of the 60 million people living below the poverty line boasts of 80 crorepati MLAs. The Marxists are the stark exception in this study too. The CPI(M) has 301 MLAs across 10 states but has only two MLAs with declared assets of over Rs 1 crore. Of the 537 candidates who contested on a CPI(M) ticket, only seven had assets of over Rs 1 crore, of which five lost in the elections.

As the old maxim goes, power begets power and money attracts riches. Clearly, it pays to be in power. Take the last round of Assembly elections which afforded the study an opportunity to compare the increase in wealth. In Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh where the BJP was in power, the average assets of candidates increased by five times.

In Karnataka too where the Congress ruled in rotation with Deve Gowda's JD(S), Congress candidates reported a fivefold rise in their assets. Mercifully, wealth doesn't always ensure success. In all, 365 crorepatis contested the Lok Sabha elections in 2004; 88 lost their deposits, and 114 came second.

Last December in Delhi the Congress learnt this important lesson again when they found that Congress candidates who lost in Delhi were on an average richer than those who won. But wealth clearly does matter, all other things being constant.

The caveat emptor here, as with all matters concerning transparency in public life, is that we are going by what the political class has chosen to declare. After all, the statement of assets filed by candidates is at best a confession of sorts mandated by two Supreme Court judgements of May 2002 and March 2003.

There are several gaps in the information available. Of the 542 Lok Sabha members, details of assets are available for only 522. Similarly in the Rajya Sabha, only 215 members have filed details of assets.

There is no institutional mechanism to cross-check facts, nor is there a requirement for candidates to declare the source of wealth, or the increase in wealth of candidates in subsequent declarations. In Mizoram for instance, none of the 10 top candidates have reported possessing a PAN card even though their wealth is in excess of Rs 1 crore.

What is worse is that although MPs who are ministers file annual statements of their assets, the information is not available to the public. This virtually negates the concept of scrutiny that would prevent misuse of position of power and enrichment. Indeed, what should be openly available is denied even under the Right to Information Act.

It is tragic that the Office of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh who has been described as integrity personified has been made party to this decision to deny the information. Again, while Central ministers are required to file a statement of assets, there is no such requirement for ministers in states.

The adulterous cohabitation of power and pelf is conspicuous across the political spectrum. The chasm between the declared and perceived reality is all too obvious to be missed. Contrast the wealth reported and wealthy lifestyles of those elected to high office.

Clearly the tip of the benami iceberg has not even been touched. In a country with a stark asymmetry in opportunities and ability, political power enables bending and twisting of policy, converting politics into the elevator politicians ride to reach the pot of gold. Living room conversations in middle and upper middle class homes are dotted with whose son, daughter or son-in-law is raking it in using the benami route to accumulate property and assets.

Television footage of currency notes being waved in Parliament during the last trust vote, the airborne campaigns witnessed during the polls in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, money spent in fielding dummy candidates, funding of party offices, travel in Toyota SUVs costing over Rs 75 lakh each and private charters that politicians avail of to fly within the country are all pointers that are hard to ignore.

Bankers and brokers talk in not so hushed tones about the role of politicians in corporate scams. There is also speculation about the real beneficiary and benami ownership of at least two airlines, several real estate ventures, pharmaceutical units and infrastructure companies. The corporate concept of 'sleeping partner' has a whole new connotation in the political world. As long as the real incomes, wealth and funding of politicians remain opaque, governance will continue to suffer and democracy will be rendered more often on the liability side in the balance sheet of development.

Television footage of currency notes being waved in Parliament during the last trust vote, the airborne campaigns witnessed during the polls in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, money spent in fielding dummy candidates, funding of party offices, travel in Toyota SUVs costing over Rs 75 lakh each and private charters that politicians avail of to fly within the country are all pointers that are hard to ignore.

Bankers and brokers talk in not so hushed tones about the role of politicians in corporate scams. There is also speculation about the real beneficiary and benami ownership of at least two airlines, several real estate ventures, pharmaceutical units and infrastructure companies. The corporate concept of 'sleeping partner' has a whole new connotation in the political world. As long as the real incomes, wealth and funding of politicians remain opaque, governance will continue to suffer and democracy will be rendered more often on the liability side in the balance sheet of development.

with Sangram K. Parhi and Shyamlal Yadav

Empowering India www.EmpoweringIndia.org has diligently tried to compile over 45,000 affidavits of candidates who contested for state assemblies and Lok Sabha seats, in the past five years. In this process of digitisation, there are possibilities of errors. We will greatly appreciate if the readers point out any mistakes that come to their notice. For authentic copies of affidavits, please consult the web site of Election Commission of India.

Content courtesy: www.indiatoday.in/bts
Shankkar Aiyar



Indian middle class mobilised to vote
Fri, 17 Apr 2009

New Delhi, April 17 (IANS) The Indian middle class is being mobilised to vote like never before.

From web sites giving information on criminal records of Lok Sabha candidates to nationwide TV and radio campaigns urging first-time voters to register and exercise their franchise, the middle class is being actively wooed.

Caste remains the main foundation on which politicians are fighting the elections. But development and good governance are high on voters' agenda - over issues like prices, job cuts, growth, roads, education and water.

The idea is to ensure that the 714 million registered voters in India, out of a population of 1.17 billion, take informed decisions while picking their representatives from the thousands of candidates in the fray.

The five-phase balloting for 543 elected Lok Sabha seats started Thursday and ends May 13.

'People are really desperate for a positive change and a cleaner political scenario,' said Guru Murthy, coordinator for the recently launched 'No Criminals' campaign, which seeks to rid politics of criminals.

'It may seem Utopian now, but if people promise not to vote for criminals, then with time even political parties will stop fielding them,' Murty told IANS.

Then there are some professionals who are themselves standing for elections like Captain G.R. Gopinath, who pioneered low-cost flying in the country with his Air Deccan airline.

'I am fighting to win and bring change to society. I am not for any party. Else, I would have joined some known political party. I am joining politics to bring good governance and social harmony,' he said.

And those who campaigned for him in the Bangalore South constituency are friends like Biocon chairperson Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Infosys Technologies director T.V. Mohandas Pai and fashion designer Prasad Bidapa.

Similarly, many educated youths have jumped into the process, either as contestants, or serving as volunteers for like-minded candidates. And some are activists seeking to help voters understand and judge the candidates better.

'While being in the corporate world, one can't serve society completely. Politics is an area where you can do a lot for society,' said Ranjan Kumar, a graduate of the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) in Lucknow contesting from Mohanlalganj on the city's outskirts.

People are also not ready to be hoodwinked by freebees promised in the manifestoes of political parties. Even industry lobbies have spoken against them.

'Political parties are requested to desist from offering free power or supplies of food grains at subsidized prices as these are likely to be detrimental to the growth of the country,' said the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham).

'Experience has shown in the past that whichever political party promised free power and hugely subsidized wheat and rice to poorer sections ultimately landed in problems as it is difficult to keep such promises.'

Even celebrities, industrialists and fashion designers, known otherwise for late night parties and brand endorsements, have become vocal, seeking a better political culture.

'Every Indian citizen should vote, especially youngsters because they are the future of India and to change the system they should exercise their fundamental rights,' said Ritu Kumar, the well-known fashion designer.

'We all have a tendency to sit back and complain; we should change this attitude because it will lead to zero results.'

And Aamir Khan, the Bollowood actor known to make cerebral films, is among those who have no particular party to support but want Indians to get involved in the electoral process.

'We are not endorsing any political party; we are only asking voters to make an informed choice. We are asking them not only to vote but understand the value of their vote,' he said.

(Arvind Padmanabhan can be contacted at arvind.p@ians.in)
Arvind Padmanabhan



The young surge
Thu, 16 Apr 2009
India Today

Those looking for a reflection of India's youth in the gleaming glassfronts of its malls and the dazzling multitude of its multiplexes, be warned. The real Youngistan lies elsewhere, away from the Prados and pub-hops, the Gucci shoes and the GMAT tests, in the no-name villages with bad roads and worse sanitation where 68.9 per cent of youngsters between 12 and 35 live.

With another 18.6 per cent living in small towns, it is clear that big city youth may have the mojo, but they don't necessarily have the majority.

For ageing leaders, who have suddenly discovered the joys of blogs and Facebook, of Flickr and Twitter, this may come as a rude shock as they try to woo young voters with the ostensible tools of the young. But 97 per cent of young India does not have access to the Internet and 41 per cent never watch television. What's more, the urban young population, which has benefited the most from liberalisation's often chaotic choices, has fallen by 4.1 per cent in large and small towns since 2005, signifying the gradual ageing of urban India.

The visible youth are a minority, with just 3.4 per cent of urban youth between 12 and 35 being skilled workers and 0.3 per cent businessmen/industrialists. In the villages, where the silent majority lives, the professions are largely dictated by the accident of birth or coincidence of circumstances.

About 9 per cent are landowners, 7.8 per cent are farm labourers and 7.4 per cent are in jobs other than agriculture, while 25 per cent are studying. Yes, 44.2 per cent contribute to a money-generating activity, but they are caught in a heartbreaking cycle of poverty, says Suresh Nimbalkar, vice-president of Hansa Research, who compiled the data based on IRS 2008 Round 2.

Numbers that count

* 521 million of the population is between 12 and 35, with 268 million men and 253women

* 31.1% live in urban India 12.5%live in big towns and 18.6% in small towns while 68.9% live in villages

* 53.4% of those between 12 and 35 are married. 63% of young women are married compared to 45% of men

* 67.9% are unaware of the Internet

* 86.9% don't go to movie theatres, 76.8%never listen to the radio, 4.1% read English newspapers while 17.9% read Hindi dailies

* 40.9% never watch TV while 44.2% watch it once in seven days

* 25% of those between 12 and 35 are studying, while 7.8% work as agricultural labourers and 7.4% work in jobs other than farming

What does all this mean in an information era that seems to be witnessing unprecedented mobilisation among young people, a realisation that they are not just a passive market for FMCG goods, but participants and indeed kingmakers in the politics of their nation? We may overestimate the exposure or even the access of young people across the nation to mass media, but we should not underestimate their ambitions.

Young people, for long viewed as needing supervision, as sociologist Lata Narayan says, are increasingly asserting themselves against their typecasting. Western accounts of India have made it fashionable to perceive the globalised MTV urban youth as part of a gigantic universal melting pot, whose interest in politics is peripheral.

But as the election of the first rock star President in America has shown this is not true even in the home of MTV. Youth turnout in the US increased to 52 per cent, and voters under 30 accounted for 60 per cent of the overall increase. In India, as these 40 snapshots of Indians under 40 show, young people are not just involved in furthering their own careers, but also their causes as citizens.

And the hunger is in the villages and small towns, where electricity is an infrequent visitor and colleges are hubs of often malefic political activity. No one is content any more to do what his or her parents did. Boxing, labelling, and sorting out by caste, age, gender or ethnicity are giving way to the desire to dream and do unencumbered by old identities.

So Ernakulam district in Kerala has a woman panchayat leader, Susan Thankappan, who has stood against the state's powerful land mafia to protect paddy fields in her area. Ernakulam is also the birthplace of actor Asin, who is at ease in Tamil potboilers as she is on the cover of glossy fashion magazines. Then again Surat in Gujarat has sent a young girl, Prachi Desai, to Balaji Telefilms to become a soap star but Gujarat is also where an MBA from San Fransisco State University, Rahul Gala Shah, has returned to become a successful farmer.

In young India, there is no one truth, this or that, either or. There is one Youngistan that watches MTV Roadies, another has a student leader, P.K. Biju, who wants a paved road to make the 2-km trudge to his school easier. There is one Youngistan that thinks Buddhism is a fashion statement, and another couple, Shruti Nagvanshi and Lenin Raghuvanshi, who embrace the faith as a protest against untouchability. These are men and women who have chosen the rough and tumble of politics, set up unusual businesses, returned from the West to work in India, and used their talents to entertain and amuse. They are a microcosm of the vast young nation they belong to.

And they are citizens at a time when the world is watching how they will exercise their rights in the world's largest democracy. Everyone's eyeing the 180 million people under 35 who are going to vote this year, and the 43 million of them who will be first-time voters. Will they cold-shoulder convention or cave in to it? They are the future of India, but on their decision may well depend the India of the future.

with Purvi Malhotra
Kaveree Bamzai


ELECTION GALLERY
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