Kusum Choppra

Elections 2014 Issues Amidst all the noise over the order banning a pulp and actually going ahead to pulp the copies (what were the publishers who agreed and the judge who ordered, thinking off?,) wonder how many will consider another violation of democracy. Newspapers report on the humongous amounts spent trucking people in for massive rallies with other tech attractions the prime-minister-in-the-running of the opposition party. Favorable publicity, true or false, is another must. Security concerns demand packing off of everyone in the vicinity, locals, hawkers, transport – everyone to make room for security sanitization of the rally premises!! (Will this mean news of an incident to garner sympathy and support!) Issues in this exercise by the opposition party, to protect the candidate: =       what was the need to select a candidate believed to be favorite target practice for trigger happy terrorists? =     ...

It is the most unlikely and distasteful of matches, IPL versus India; a contest between the primary essence of democracy, elections which have made India the envy of many democratic and autocratic countries, especially our neighbors, and a game spectacle. Should we begin to suspect that there is a suspicious ‘foreign hand’ in the vigorous efforts being made to field the IPL against the elections, using the security issue as an excuse? Regular, free and fair elections are what sets India apart in the world community today; that we are able to move ahead, carrying forward the entire disparate segments of our society is the biggest achievement of the Republic of India to date. But does that status or constitutional niceties matter to the likes of the Modis, the Ambanis and the Mallyas etc the stakeholders in the IPL? The security issue is an obvious concern and a very valid one. Recent happenings in Mumbai and Lahore are pointers. There is also the consideration that the authorities w...