The Way Out

It is a bit obvious that the BJP and its senior leadership are in a bit of a bind in opposing the nuclear deal given the fact that the deal is popular in the upper middle class of citizenry (and basically thats the only class which will make any political decision based on the deal). And currently, the argument of the BJP - is unequal partnership. I am suggesting that the BJP follows a more n position on this. Here is what i think BJP should argue.

• Concede that the deal is overall good in 'letter and spirit', but could have been better. as in specifically the deal is good in 'spirit' but bad in 'letter'. And while with the next govts in both countries, the 'spirit' will be gone, India will be stuck with the 'letter' and thus with a bad deal
• The congress should have made a concerted effort to take the mainstream parties (NDA) on board for a foregn policy deal (remind people that foreign policy deals should be consenus based)
• The failure of congress to coordinate with NDA also led to a bad deal as in the UPA failed to put in opposition from NDA as a hindrance to score a better deal

The Overreach

While it has become the established CW among the cognoscenti that this time Prakash karat overplayed his hand and thus lost his considerable influence on the polity. While i mostly agree (Mostly- cause, this close to election, and Manmohan reneging on his word, he hardly had any option). The point i want to make is, the considerable influence of karat was mostly due to the political incompetence of Mr Manmohan Singh and the congress party. In a coalition, if you are small..but vital..you get cabinet berths..but here what congress did was instead of cabinet posts, gave CPM control over the economic agenda. That was never wise as fringe ideology based party can only harm you if you allow them to set up the agenda.

So, overall it was the incompetence rather than anything else that allowed CPM to have so much influence, cause as you can see in the murky world of poltics, for political compulsions, a high brow person like Prakash karat has to anoint Mayawati as a natural PM. (That should lay to rest btw, any concept of intellectual honesty among CPM leaders....just as we have for other parties)

The Obama Model

It seems from the recent statements of Rahul Gandhi that the congress strategists are trying to use a customised Obama model of attracting votes on demographics (as in youth in this case) rather than identity (Caste or religion) or ideology (Communism etc). Add for all the failures of Rahul Gandhi as a politician, i wish that this strategy of Rahul Gandhi succeeds. I dont think the Indian polity is mature enough to arrive at the long term winning formula (ie a centrist ideology)..but the politicians are sure smart enough to copy a winning formula. So if Rahul Gandhi is successful, even though entrenched identity leaders like Mayawati or Mulayam may not change their strategy, an upstart can probably adopt the new strategy to make gains.

So best of luck Mr Gandhi.

P.S - Maybe calling this strategy ' The Obama Model' is giving Mr Obama too much credit. But i think, the success of Obama has something to do with this new strategy hence the title heading

Boycotting Pepsi

Given this news item, i think the only option left for me is to boycott pepsi. this will teach the buggers a lesson

The Perils of Outsourcing

You sort of become overly dependent, the kind of work that you want to do suffers a bit and you lose the sorta high ground that you are on..

Moral of the Story: Be a little less lazy and get to work