Biggest theft in Indian History: How Western India has lost!

Care to guess the most valuable item in independent India?

Gold - Nope. Folks have tons (if not Kgs at home!)

Water - Getting close. But inspite of the perennial Cauvery, Krishna, Ganga water fights, it isn't Water.

Giving up?

The answer: MP seat. Yup. Do you disagree?

When the Lok Sabha was created, the founding fathers divided the kitty to states by their population representation assuming that each of these states will have near-equal status in various parameters like Growth, wealth, HDI etc. And why not? If the Gangetic & Indus plain was good for agriculture, the south had their own Godavari, Krishna & Cauvery basins. States that lacked good agricultural area had natural resources wealth - Jharkhand, Orissa, Rajasthan.  However, the last 20 years has shown how there is a huge North-South divide in terms of revenue generation. So, i wonder - why should we still use population as the only criteria for allocating MP seats. Why not use more progressive elements as well - GDP & HDI came to my mind.

So, i did a quick calculation. Let me not bore you with the gory details but the weightage for Population, GDP & HDI were equal. If you need more clarification, revert back to me. 

The results are startling. I wasn't expecting what i saw. Check for yourselves.

What was i expecting? Southern states to be the victims of the system while UP & Bihar were the major beneficieries. But, i was astounded to see that Maharastra (16 lost seats), Gujarat (6 seats), Delhi (5 seats) and Harayana (4 seats) have been the losers. The only Southern Indian state that can harbour a grudge - Karnataka (robbed of 3 seats). AP & TN have a long way to catch up on HDI & GDP parameters with the rest of the country. 

What's more - UP & Bihar have been the greatest robbers. UP deserves no more than 66 seats while Bihar should receive only 29 seats. That's a reduction of 25 seats or 20.8% of their current quota.

Will our politicians agree to such an excercise, where the MP seats are decided by factors other than plain population? I am not going to hold my breath for that to happen.

Till then, let us enjoy the next episode of "Greatest robbery show"

We have our priorities all right

We have our priorities all right .. thank you very much!

One more parliament session has passed and there seems to be an orphan left un-heeded on the road. Nope, make it two.

The Whistleblower's protection bill and the Women's Reservation Bill have not been passed. What a country!

A brief History: The Whistleblower's protection bill is the country's reflection, memories and respects to the late Satyendra Dubey - who lost his life due to the stupidity (at best or perverse at worst!) of officers in the PM's office. Three years later, the bill introduced in March '06 has not been passed yet.

It is surprising that the bill was not passed when 20 bills were cleared in the winter session of parliament on a single day!

Women's Reservation Bill was suggested in 1997. 9 years later, the country is still waiting. However, Arjun Singh (while i have worse names for him, you need to contact me to hear them!) had enough time to do a hotch-potch of a study for advancing reservations to OBCs.

While the OBC reservation bill awarded the communities seats in higher education & employment, the women's reservation bill does affect the way the parliament will be structured. No wonder, the male parliamentarians are up in arms to schuttle any of the feeble attempts made by the NDA and the UPA governments.

Now the parliament minister promises women's reservation bill in the budget session!

and we hope that these orphans can survive the harsh delhi winter cold and its muddy politics!

Some 'random' interesting links:
Home minister paying lip service to Women's reservation bill
Left wants it ... does not want it ... sorry, i dont know ... they just cant make up their mind.
Culprit 1A - Laloo (1B being Mulayam) now says that he will consider WRB. Did Rabri force this change, at home?
I am sorry that a person like Manmohan cannot aid us in this. All he can do, is to make promises that he cannot keep
One more Prime Minister - Vajpayee, one more promise. Once again unkept.
And the grand madam of all - her promise.

A sad day for India!

A real sad day ....

While the government had no shame in ramming through the OBC Reservation Bill, there is still no word of the Whistleblowers Protection Bill - a fallout of Satyendra Dubey's assasination. More shameful, was that the reservation bill had the full support of all parties. To add insult to the judiciary, the bill does not exclude the 'creamy layer' from the benefits - making it all the more likely that the bill will be highly misused in the end.

Even worse, it was a Red Day - the Left parties (or to be appropriately called - the LOST parties) called for a nationwide strike to protest the central government economic policies when they have no qualms of allowing a Tata Car Factory in their own backyard. I am all for a tata factory, but against the hypocrisy of the Left Parties

To future generations who will criticize us for these mistakes, i offer my apologies.