04-24-2007, 07:55 AM
Anybody doing a total of the polls or just the phases?
Deccan chronicle, 24 April, 2007
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->All eyes on UP elections
By K. Natwar Singh
When the politicians complain that TV turns their proceedings into a circus, it should be made plain that their circus was already there, and that TV has merely demonstrated that not all the performers are well trained.
Ed Murrow (1908-1965)
American broadcaster
Four rounds of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections are over, and the guessing game is on in full swing. Only three parties are relevant, the Samajwadi Party, the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Bharatiya Janata Party. <b>The Congress and the Ajit Singh organisation are on the margins, if not altogether marginalised.</b>
The elections are being conducted on terra firma, but equally on the television, which is now ubiquitous. Not all performers are well trained. All politicians seek publicity. So long as your name is mentioned in the print media and your mug shown on the television screen, you consider yourself in business.
I keep asking myself how Mahatma Gandhi, Lenin, Churchill, Mao Zedong and Franklin D. Roosevelt have survived the assaults of a multiplicity of television channels. I venture to suggest that these worthies would have been put off by the staggering sanctification of triviality, which the television often ensures.
On television, no mercy is shown to those given to eternal pauses, to those dedicated to deep thought, introspection or reflection. Additionally, if you are not accomplished in decently and instantly camouflaging your inadequacies you are well and truly done for. Television does not respect verbal restraint.
I have been campaigning in these elections for over three weeks. Television crews are ever present, good, bad and even unprofessional. I have, broadly speaking, dodged their assaults. Mercifully, most are not interested in international affairs. Here the local, and not the global, matters. Uttar Pradesh is the most politicised state in the country. Political culture and counter culture have deep roots in the UP soil.
The stateâs record in our Freedom Movement continues to inspire. 1857 began in Meerut, in the blistering month of May. UP elects 80 Lok Sabha MPs. It elects 403 MLAs. It plays a decisive role in the elections of the Vice-President and President of India. In terms of population it comes after China, the United States and Indonesia. More people live in UP than in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Brazil and Japan.
Eight Indian Prime Ministers have come from UP â Jawaharlal Nehru, Lal Bahadur Shastri, Indira Gandhi, Charan Singh, Rajiv Gandhi, V.P. Singh, Chandra Shekhar and Atal Behari Vajpayee.
UP also provides the drama of the politics we have and not the drama of the politics we need. The level of the electoral discourse, with some laudable exceptions, is not uplifting. Debate is rare, not denunciation. The UP voter is also an instant poet. The most catchy slogans are created on the spot. Rhyme and rhythm are appreciated and coined with alacrity and joy. Astrology and mythology are omnipresent and taken seriously. In temperatures above 40 degrees Celsius, thousands attend public meetings to hear boring speeches from politicians who seem to believe the "lies they are telling."
And yet, the voter turnout in the first four phases has been disappointing. In many constituencies the turnout has been between 35 and 40 per cent. Democracy is about numbers. Voter fatigue is not confined to India alone. It is a worldwide phenomenon. Voter turnout is down in most democracies except Australia where voting is compulsory. Why this is so, I keep asking myself. The answer I give myself is not a cheerful one. The adamantine truth is that we politicians have, by and large, given politics a bad name. "All politicians are corrupt" is a chant one hears all the time. This is a terrible indictment.
Why have faith and trust almost disappeared? Why are shared national goals and virtues missing? I do not, however, subscribe to the extreme view that a point of no return has been reached. The eyes of the country are on UP. The outcome will decide the fate of the Manmohan Singh government and also who the next Rashtrapati of India will be for the next five years.
From the local I now turn to the global. Some weeks ago, the Premier of the Peopleâs Republic of China, Mr Wen Jiabao paid a visit to Japan. Relations between China and Japan need expert and deft handling on both sides. Premier Wen Jiabao made a deep impression on his Japanese hosts. I have had the good fortune to have met him half a dozen times, one to one. He is a statesman in the Zhou Enlai (1898-1976) mould, but without Zhouâs structural charm and the Long March background.
In Tokyo, he made two vital points. Good relations between China and Japan are of importance not only to the two countries but have wider and deeper ramifications. He thanked Japan for the generous development aid given to his country. More importantly, this is what he said about the significance of his passage to Japan: "This is the most important task since I took office." He put China-Japan relations several notches above Sino-Indian relations.
K. Natwar Singh is a former minister for external affairs
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Deccan chronicle, 24 April, 2007
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->All eyes on UP elections
By K. Natwar Singh
When the politicians complain that TV turns their proceedings into a circus, it should be made plain that their circus was already there, and that TV has merely demonstrated that not all the performers are well trained.
Ed Murrow (1908-1965)
American broadcaster
Four rounds of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections are over, and the guessing game is on in full swing. Only three parties are relevant, the Samajwadi Party, the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Bharatiya Janata Party. <b>The Congress and the Ajit Singh organisation are on the margins, if not altogether marginalised.</b>
The elections are being conducted on terra firma, but equally on the television, which is now ubiquitous. Not all performers are well trained. All politicians seek publicity. So long as your name is mentioned in the print media and your mug shown on the television screen, you consider yourself in business.
I keep asking myself how Mahatma Gandhi, Lenin, Churchill, Mao Zedong and Franklin D. Roosevelt have survived the assaults of a multiplicity of television channels. I venture to suggest that these worthies would have been put off by the staggering sanctification of triviality, which the television often ensures.
On television, no mercy is shown to those given to eternal pauses, to those dedicated to deep thought, introspection or reflection. Additionally, if you are not accomplished in decently and instantly camouflaging your inadequacies you are well and truly done for. Television does not respect verbal restraint.
I have been campaigning in these elections for over three weeks. Television crews are ever present, good, bad and even unprofessional. I have, broadly speaking, dodged their assaults. Mercifully, most are not interested in international affairs. Here the local, and not the global, matters. Uttar Pradesh is the most politicised state in the country. Political culture and counter culture have deep roots in the UP soil.
The stateâs record in our Freedom Movement continues to inspire. 1857 began in Meerut, in the blistering month of May. UP elects 80 Lok Sabha MPs. It elects 403 MLAs. It plays a decisive role in the elections of the Vice-President and President of India. In terms of population it comes after China, the United States and Indonesia. More people live in UP than in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Brazil and Japan.
Eight Indian Prime Ministers have come from UP â Jawaharlal Nehru, Lal Bahadur Shastri, Indira Gandhi, Charan Singh, Rajiv Gandhi, V.P. Singh, Chandra Shekhar and Atal Behari Vajpayee.
UP also provides the drama of the politics we have and not the drama of the politics we need. The level of the electoral discourse, with some laudable exceptions, is not uplifting. Debate is rare, not denunciation. The UP voter is also an instant poet. The most catchy slogans are created on the spot. Rhyme and rhythm are appreciated and coined with alacrity and joy. Astrology and mythology are omnipresent and taken seriously. In temperatures above 40 degrees Celsius, thousands attend public meetings to hear boring speeches from politicians who seem to believe the "lies they are telling."
And yet, the voter turnout in the first four phases has been disappointing. In many constituencies the turnout has been between 35 and 40 per cent. Democracy is about numbers. Voter fatigue is not confined to India alone. It is a worldwide phenomenon. Voter turnout is down in most democracies except Australia where voting is compulsory. Why this is so, I keep asking myself. The answer I give myself is not a cheerful one. The adamantine truth is that we politicians have, by and large, given politics a bad name. "All politicians are corrupt" is a chant one hears all the time. This is a terrible indictment.
Why have faith and trust almost disappeared? Why are shared national goals and virtues missing? I do not, however, subscribe to the extreme view that a point of no return has been reached. The eyes of the country are on UP. The outcome will decide the fate of the Manmohan Singh government and also who the next Rashtrapati of India will be for the next five years.
From the local I now turn to the global. Some weeks ago, the Premier of the Peopleâs Republic of China, Mr Wen Jiabao paid a visit to Japan. Relations between China and Japan need expert and deft handling on both sides. Premier Wen Jiabao made a deep impression on his Japanese hosts. I have had the good fortune to have met him half a dozen times, one to one. He is a statesman in the Zhou Enlai (1898-1976) mould, but without Zhouâs structural charm and the Long March background.
In Tokyo, he made two vital points. Good relations between China and Japan are of importance not only to the two countries but have wider and deeper ramifications. He thanked Japan for the generous development aid given to his country. More importantly, this is what he said about the significance of his passage to Japan: "This is the most important task since I took office." He put China-Japan relations several notches above Sino-Indian relations.
K. Natwar Singh is a former minister for external affairs
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