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Showing posts with label kerala politics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label kerala politics. Show all posts

Thursday, November 25

A few privileged gentlemen... and ladies

The earth rotates at over 1600 km/hr, and jeez thats fast! Supersonic. It's quite amazing how fast horoscopes change and caricatures collapse within that small capsule of time. The pejorative called democracy, especially in India is a great pedagogue, for us citizens, because it constantly evolve, epiphanize and epitomize in the way it do things.


In the 2 months of forced-hibernation from this small web-space, mother Earth continued its loop around the sun at 1,07,000 km/hr, Commonwealth Games began (!) and ended (!!!!) without major embarrassments to the host as feared, and then its main organizer-cum-benificiary-cum-perpetrator's head rolled, befittingly, the US President came, danced a bit, buttered a lot, secured work-placements for his countrymen (including for Ms. Pam An) and left, the lady-of-small-things twisted her tongue aimed at usual publicity stunt via misguided anti-nationalism, one CM leads the way in the most infamous of India's BIMARU states, on way teaching a prolific young 'G' that exuberance alone won't always work, 2 Chief ministers got the boot; one for skulduggery and another in default politricks, yet another one getting his butt kicked for land-grab, 2 prolific 'newsmakers' made it into the news for wrong reasons and are in the red-hot seats themselves, and LIC, of all companies, making it into the one-scam-a-day list, all this while the lady-boss and the apprentice play the inert puppet-show roles to perfection.

Yes, the Earth is oblique spheroid; that means what goes around comes around...

First things first, a pack of lions if led by a mule will be as ineffective and sterile as the leader itself. Compounding the conundrum, this mule is destined to steer a bunch of hyenas instead of lions. That makes things worse, doesn't it?

One thing is sure. Our leaders and netas know very well how to step it up. Else, when our stock markets rise and fall as any ordinary nation's, our poverty levels are reduced only by a few percentage every decade, our percapita incomes are painstakingly increasing in single digits whereas the scams involving our babus & netas tend to multiply in geometric proportions.

Not kidding, the latest scam involving some 'G's fused my brain with regard to the no: of zeros involved in it.
17,63,90,00,00,000 to be precise, or 1.76 lakh crore to make it easy. Yes, 1.76 lakh crore! As filmi Thampuran Jagannathan famously said, we can buy the whole Kerala state for 250 crores. But for some people the world is not enough.

Least of all bothers, come, in our own malluland, the vivacious party leader who takes pride in using the law to hunt down extremely dangerous cyber-criminals, to be exact netizens who are satiric with their humour sense. This portraits the real face of the "people's" party, as it is in Cuba, China or Korea, which apocryphally subjects to inject elements of its malignant autocratic character into our democracy; as if that's the only attribute our system lacks!

I present the objectionable, incriminating criminal evidence.


Image courtesy: Janakeeya Aikyavedi

Extremely important Disclaimer: The author of this blog does not endorse the viewpoints presented in the above snap-shot of the 'evidence' and I swear I haven't e-mailed, faxed, laughed, giggled, smiled or talked to my mother, brother, friends, wife, neighbours or to my pet dog about it. I present this evidence just for better understanding of the 'case' and I protest against the unlawful use of the sense-of-humour and hereby request the think-tanks to draft out something on the lines of the legendary 'vetti-nirathal samaram' be advocated against bourgeois neo-media outlets like blogs, twitter, facebook and such anit-social'ist' sites.

Oh, the original version of the "crime", if you havent already seen it. From this I understand that the smear-campaign began way back in 1991! Kudos to Cyber-cell for cracking an age-old case.



This, even after the people of Kerala have pulled down those red knickers to exhibit the nobleness of the people's party. We're moving onto become the original Police State, where, "if you can't beat them, then beat them up" is the motto.

The difference is that the law takes a hypocritical passive stance when it comes to cyber-space. Try the iron fist on any of our traditional media folks and you'll be butchered. Webspace, for our misery, isn't organized or protected by a PTI, and the www doesn't have a union to lock-down the streets, cry their hearts out on the tv and paper and bring the state to a standstill until the politicos come out, apologize, and echo the 'free press' 'free press' mantra after them.

But as I said earlier, the Earth is very very very round. Remember Cheytanya Kunte? He must be a happy chap that his adversary has learned it the hard way :-)

How befitting, the holier than thou 4th estate has finally been blown apart by the cheekiest of scams. Talk about the hunter being hunted, the #mediagate scandal has proven a theory we always suspected. But the pawns in the tale turn out to be lead roles and India see first-hand evidence of how the unholy alliance of the politicians- media- businessmen have inflicted devastating cracks at the heart of what we used to call the 4th pillar of democracy.

Not finished, the media kept the matters well in the black, from exposure to public so that self-made statues of remain so. Except for a few media houses, possible because of their own interests, all major channels chose not to run the story. But elementary gold-plating can't prevent the mucky odour from leaking into the public air. If not for Twitter, the #mediagate would've remained a 'not to be made public' tale.

Real story behind the stories we're shown, told and made to believe everyday, how a few privileged ones pull the chords in the South Delhi puppet-play and how tax-payers' hard earned money end up in Mauritius, cricket teams, oil wells, Jaguars and where not?

Because these are the creme de la creme of our nation; the priviledged ones who can, and will get away with blue murder.

PS: Remembering another 26/11 on way. A moment to remember all the lives lost, including the brave soldiers who laid down their lives, so that we and Kasab could live a bit more longer.
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Sunday, June 20

Claim-game lolz

Story: Bakery Junction flyover inaugurated in Trivandrum early this week.

The ubiquitous no of street-smart cyber-journos in Trivandrum makes sure that the event is covered well and published like instant coffee! Full set of pictures at Ajay's Trivandrum Rising as usual. 

Credits: This one belongs to whom? The picture below may help, courtesy @jlusujith. The flexboard on the left heralds the Right stalwarts as the 'architects' of the Capital Road Improvement Project in 2003 and the board on right featuring the happy Left CM claims credits for 'finishing' the job. Confused?


Dedication: To all people of Kerala, especially the people of Trivandrum. this one also claims that Kerala and Trivandrum are in a development-dash. Ok, thanks! :-)


image courtesy Sujith. T. John

Factfile: Half a kilometer long, 2 laned flyover. 5 years in making. 

Juxtapose: Bangalore and Hyderabad completed nearly 2 dozen flyovers and underpasses in the last decade. Not bringing in Chennai or Delhi here for comparison because it'll be an insult. Apart from the Bakery Flyover only two similar projects were fructified in Kerala, one being the Palayam underpass, an extended appendage of the Bakery flyover and the other, the Arayidathupalam Flyover in Calicut.

Background: The TRDCL project was initiated by the Antony Govt in 2003 after public pressure against the zero-development in infrastructure in Trivandrum. A total of 42 km of roads were to be developed including one underpass and 2 flyovers.

Total project cost: 250 crore (including cost of land acquisition)
Time frame: 3 years (was to be completed in Nov 2006)

The idea was that the total project amount will be dispensed in 3 installments through allocations in the state budget. Punj Lloyd won the bid, commenced the work. But the global conglomerate had to fill hours scrapping the rust off their heavyweight machinery because the authorities failed to acquire and handover the land required for road works. So they packed up and left North.

Enter the LDF Govt. Minister Vijayakumar took interest, most of the land issues were sorted out. Work recommenced and hurray! We can fly-over Bakery at last!! :-)

Hold on...This is not the end of it all. There is another one proposed over the MG Road connecting Power House Road to Thakarapparambu Road. The Minister joked that the works will be over by 2011 October, ya, in another year!  lolz, this one involves relocation of scores of big businesses including the Big Bazzar shopping center and major shifting of utilities. The 3-year Capital Development Project is going to spill over into the hands of the 3rd successive Government! Given the 5-year plan we saw with Bakery Jn project,  there is no guarantee that a motorcycle would cross over the Powerhouse Road flyover in 2016, unless its equipped with jetwings.

A lot of good works have been done, we have to appreciate that. Even though there have been ZERO new projects to develop any new roads within the rapidly developing cities. Even though Mr. Vijayakumar is heralded as the patron-saint for Trivandrum the other road development works outside TRDCL are still stuck exactly where he took over in 2006.

Did he think that there was nothing else to look after apart from the 42km stretches included in CRIP?
 
In 2001, Trivandrum had 3000 souls working at Technopark. 10 years down it is touching 30,000. The NH Bypass which was a dream track for race-freaks, now see bumper-to-bumper traffic at peak hours. The Ulloor- Sreekaryam Road is just unbelievable! Still a modest 2 lane road holding 6 lane traffic, this is the lone way to reach the Medical College for ambulances and emergency vehicles. Widening of a 5km road connecting Ulloor- Akkulam with NH Bypass, which commenced in 1999, still hasn't gone one step further. Everyone forgot the MC Road works until Nalanchira for 4 years but suddenly some people got a brainwave from nowhere.


The only other project which appear promising is the 6-laning of the Karamana- Kaliyikkavila stretch of NH47. Here again, the onus of land acquisition falls on the State Govt. One of the busiest and congested stretches of highways in Kerala; its anyone's guess when the actual road-works would commence.

The reason I hear is that 'we are special'. Special in what sense? Be it highway development, city roads development, flyovers and underpasses, IT Parks or SEZs, the excuse is that 'Kerala is a special case'.

Special in population density, they say.  A mere glance at figures from elsewhere cripples that argument.

Bangalore planned and built a 4 lane 9.5km  Electronics City Flyover in 4 years. The 11.6km P.V.Narasimha Roa Expressway in Hyderabad passes over the most congested parts of the huge metropolis. Chennai and Delhi puts us to shame with the no of flyovers, underpasses and roads they build every year. Bangalore's population density is twice as that of any Kerala city, so that's not where the shoe pinches us.

Bangalore Elevated Tollway

When you look at the rehabilitation packages for evictees things become clear. People are sent packing by paying them a small fraction of the existing market rates and this embroils down to agitations, political foulplays, court litigation and so on. How many times have we seen this happen.

 Look at the Trivandrum International Airport and things become more clear. The landmark terminal is ready for commissioning, but the land needed for the next phases of development is yet to be acquired. There appears to be no honest efforts to get the land in Govt's possession and hand it over to AAI. This is extremely crucial for furthur expansion of the Airport and also for the crucial Cargo Complex. But our leaders appear to act napping whenever someone mentions it.

Vote bank...cold feet.

The same reason why we see 'all-party delegations' leave for New Delhi to bring in collateral damage.

Perhaps we must look back at history to see how the volatile issues related to land acquisition of VSSC in Thumba were sorted out diplomatically, including St. Martin's Church on the 600 acre grounds. A few tombstones are in the way of Airport Road in Pattoor for a Jupiter-year now, and the living souls pay the price. We know what we lack: a clever futuristic leader with a straight spine who genuinely cares for the future of our state.

In 2020 Chandigarh, Pune, Mangalore, Surat and Mysore would've had their infrastructure issues sorted out in a big way. Trivandrum, Cochin, Calicut and Trichur will still be crawling its way through, consuming decades building half-mile bridges.

Kerala is a 'special' case, so be it.

Bakery Flyover image courtesy www.yentha.com
BETL image courtesy skyscrapercity
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Sunday, June 13

Granites galore!

Attention Keralaites! The year of the 'stone' has begun in Kerala. Just after the celebration of an unprecedented 4 years in office, Chief Minister Comrade Achuthanandan and collegues have kick started a nomadic state-trotting with a spree of inaugurations and foundation stone laying pan-Kerala. Yakkooo...At this rate the busybody ministers will be totally exasperated and the sculptors will have blisters on their palms by early 2011.


Not funny, but the CM's driver is on a well-deserved sickness leave, courtesy H1N1.

Comrade Achuthanandan and his PR Dept surely must've had a real hard time formatting the media ads to herald the 'achievements' of the Govt. Apart from the CM's smiling face, the artifact commie symbol and the corresponding Minister-in-charge, there was nothing significant to fill the page for many portfolios.

Minister Vijayakumar laid the second foundation stone (on top of the one he laid in 2001) for the development of Kesavadasapuram- Nalanchira Road in the capital just the other day. This was just after taking a breath from Technocity foundation stone, Infopark Phase II foundation stone (remember, the Smart City stone which VS laid in 2006 is still somewhere around hidden beneath bushes), Vytilla Mobility hub stone, Cyberpark stone, and a plethora of other tactics fabricated to fool the public. I won't be surprised if a fresh granite is carved for Smart City, guessing by some of the recent statements from the CM. And as TRDCL works in the Capital near completion, the city may well be choked with a plethora of inaugurations very soon.

What has this Govt given the young and unemployed ever since V.S. over-ceremoniously took over from Chandy?

It's and easy, single-word: n-o-t-h-i-n-g!

A mere look back at the promises V.S made just after assuming the power now is all set to bite the man back. From naming the V.I.P in Kilirur case, locking up all criminals and goondas within 2 months, to claiming the Govt land back from land-grabbers, anything which V.S touched scalded his own hands and burned the butt of his party, be it the Munnar fiasco which he himself admitted as a flop, the Smart City or any other project which he initiated. VS must be a modern day Midas because anything he himself involved in, as well as the other ministers touched also seem to freeze instantaneously. Look at Shobha Hi-Tech City, Salarpuria Knowledge City, HDIL Cyber City, Kinaloor and whatever, they're all dead ducks.

Four years have gone by and the Govt is still at sea with the socially crucial Private Professional College issue. Every year we hear some announcements and statements from the minister-in-charge which turn out to be mere lines drawn on water.

Lately, the Centrally-sponsored multi-million project of developing the TS Canal and connecting it to the National Waterway in Kollam has lapsed because those concerned never bothered to do their work. I don't see any minister or official worried about it, a project which could have hugely beneficial to thousands of ordinary people, apart from giving a major boost to the economy of the state. The national and local media reported the incessant lapse of funds many times, and in the end 2000 crores went unutilised. Who is responsible? 

The less we speak about the Highway Development saga unfolding, the better. We have lost 4 years purely due to the tomfoolery of V.S and his party ideologies, and it is almost certain that the ongoing 30m-45m dilly-dally will see the crucial project won't begin this year. And if the Congress Govt assumes power next time, the Commies are sure to let out the goons and gangs loose against land acquisition. I'd bet my house on that.

3.75 crore Keralites will lose out but why bother? Everyday 7 precious lives are lost on our highway alters, 2 dozens mutilated or handicapped but who cares? The rotten teeter-board politics we practice in this state will take us to the dooms.

CPM's backpedal on the ADB loan, Coca-cola, Expressway project, Smart City,  Professional College issue etc has underlined one fact. The Communist parties infest Kerala only to fudge out their slow poison into this land. Nobody at AKG Center or AKG Bhavan is genuinely bothered about the development or future of the state, they're ready to play any dirty games in the name of pseudo-socialism, just to gain political mileage.

Industrial development has almost come to a standstill in the state. That's not surprising at all. The Govt still speaks about PSUs and traditional industries like coir, fisheries and co as saviours. Oh c'mon, you want all the graduated, unemployed youth out of those colleges go out to open sea and start fishing?  The only other viable option I see (apart from escaping to Bangalore or Gelf) is joining the 'Quotation Gangs' which have expanded into thriving livelihood options even in small towns and villages. May be this is what Darwin meant by 'survival of the fittest'.

The major initiatives like the Brahmos, BEML etc have purely been Central Govt initiatives. Same with the case of premier institutions like IIST, National Maritime University or IISER. Other major projects like Vallarpadom Container Terminal and the LNG Terminal are heading towards commissioning, also nothing for the LDF Govt to lay hands on. Achuthanandan Govt has little to claim when it comes to new initiatives in any front in the state. Though the regime has been working honest and hard to get Vizhinjam Port off the mark, it is still some time away from realization. But I'd bet again that the granite will be up vertical in Vizhinjam with all the names on it.

And in the coming few months we will see more and more heavyweight 'stones' being laid, my strong guesses lie with International Airports of Kannur, Aranmula, Kottayam and Idukki. Also spare a few granites for the IT Parks planned in all 200 taluks of the state, also please don't forget to put one for Cochin Metro before you leave. Shall I also suggest some stones and ribbon-cutting for some bridges, roads, parks, sulabh toilets, health centers, bus shelters, traffic signals and fish markets. Anyone with a  knows that it will be all like stones in the water. The ship will go down.

How strikingly different has been the CM Achutanandan from the robust and revolting Opposition Leader we all knew! Pinarayi and team managed to tame the wild lion into a pussycat. But V.S has managed to hang on, we should give him that. He has manged what he always yearned for: to sit in that reverent chair on the III floor, North Block, Secretariat. But the important question is how did it benefit us Keralites?

Our politicians may not realize, or may not want to accept that the sand is slowly draining from under our feet. With virtually no sources of income being found for day-to-day chores, how long can Kerala afford to crawl? When other states are marching ahead with hundreds of job opportunities created every month, we're still boasting about the cliched Kerala-model. Migration and associated remittances from abroad have ensured that Kerala society doesn't crumble and fall into a state of civil-unrest. GoK plans to suck dry the NRI tits for its survival and has no back-up plans to set the foundations strong and straight.

This leaves us in a very precarious situation where Kerala State doesn't have a penny for social welfare, road works, water supply or poverty eradication projects without the burden of loans from foreign banks or begging in front of the Center. Remember the situation in 2001 when E.K Nayanar left the chair to A.K.Antony without a nickel in the treasury. Well, Achumama may well step down leaving us deep and buried.

For me the biggest achievements of the current LDF regime was that both Kairali TV and Deshabhimani  could build their multi-crore headquarters in the prime-most locales of Trivandrum city.


Kairali Towers, close to MLA Quarters, Trivandrum

So even for the staunchest commie supporter the previous 4 years will not have much to dance around about. Perhaps we will see the CM laugh again after the 2011 Assembly polls the same way he famously laughed after the 2009 Parliament results. Its not long away dear CM, you may better get all your stones carved out and set before the Code of Conduct is formally in place. Good luck! :-)

Images courtesy Keralatv.com, www.tribiz.in, fotolia.
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Monday, April 19

Odd man out

Shashi Tharoor resigns.

Winners:

Congress
BJP
Left

And the lone loser...

Shashi Thaoor.  And the millions of men and women including yourselves and myself who rejoiced a bit too much (and a bit early) to see someone enter our political scenario who could clear a bit of stagnation and odour from it. Sad, the system is rigid and primeval than we thought, so are the ones who control it.

But why just Tharoor? Because the greenhorn didn't learn the ubiquitous hide n seek ploy? In politics they say, if you get a chance to strike down an opponent, grab it with both hands. That's exactly what the BJP did, credits to them. Moreover its their duty and obligation to come out tooth-n-nails, especially when it was their darling boy Lalit Modi who was in a corner. They played the politics well, and Congress caved in without a fight.

If our national party is honest about fighting the so-called 'corruption' then perhaps Kaangress should open up the knickers of some of their own men, co-alition partners and friends and peep inside. How about Sharad Pawar and A. Raja for a start?

Any citizen of this country would like to know how our politicians amass wealth in hundreds of crores whichever way you do the math with their salaries and perks.

Ah, you need balls mate. A political neophyte like Tharoor made a perfect sitting duck for the party's double standards. The whole of Maharashtra and Tamilakam will come crashing down if you dare touch the above mentioned boys. The equation: politics= business= money has become the anthem in those parts, not so much in Kerala.

Not to mention our great leaders from Kerala keeping their tongues securely zipped up inside the buccal cavity. Characteristic, wonder if the old Kerala crab tale is a bare fact afterall. May be a blackberry yielding, handsome, educated and trendy politician has given some serious mediocrity feelings to some of our khadar-clad netas.

But someone raised a very valid question. A successful UN diplomat who served nearly 3 decades in high ranking positions without ruffling a single feather has been such a glaring misfit in our system. May be the odd Tharoor-cynic is right afterall. Indian politics is not for the likes of him, give us more Pappu Yadavs, Shibu Sorens and Mayavatis.

The latter folks have got a glossy CV full dotted with exemplary qualities befitting an Indian politician. Murder, arson, rape, corruption...you name it. And they've learned the fine art of  feathering one's nest without even God Almightly getting a wave of it. Tharoor may have been a touch injudicious in flaunting his lady friend who just had a major gain from something he was involved. Right or wrong, but certainly skulduggery and favouritism didn't reach India with Tharoor.

Make no mistake, this is not the end of the road for him in any sense. Relieved of the duties of MEA may be a blessing in disguise for the suave diplomat-turned-politician. Now he will have apt time on his hand to sweat it out for his constituency and state. In fact, 4 years from now when he returns to the voters he would've been least judged by what he did at his MEA desk.

Talking about his constituency, Trivandrum may not have yet got a Burj Trivandrum or a Palm Island or a Mag-lev but steps for some realistic projects have surely been taken. My party has been spoiled in a sense, but nevertheless a folder of  Tharoor: The MP will be published here in a short while.
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