ജനം എന്തു പറയുന്നു..

Coverage of India's chaotic and colorful election process is largely focused on familiar issues such as communal tensions and the environment for investment. But when a television interviewer recently asked Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh what his priority area for reform would be if his party is elected to power again, his reply was as unambiguous as it was surprising. "Judicial reform. That will be topmost on our agenda," he said......

വാള്‍ സ്റ്റ്രീറ്റ് ജേര്‍ണല്‍ തുടര്‍ന്ന് വായിയ്ക്കുക


As polling officials began announcing the results of an election in which 428 million people cast their votes, jubilant Congress supporters celebrated their party's sweeping win by dancing in the streets and hailing Mr Gandhi as their "new leader".

Emerging from her residence, his mother Sonia Gandhi, the party's leader, thanked the people of India for "reposing their faith in the Congress Party". At her side, Manmohan Singh, the prime minister, thanked voters and said he hoped Mr Gandhi, 38, the party's rising star, would agree to become a member of his government.

ഇത് ഇന്ന് ടെലിഗ്രാഫ്..തുടര്‍ന്നു വായിയ്ക്കുക


NEW DELHI — India’s monthlong nationwide election is often called the world’s largest exercise in democracy. It could also be regarded as a big economic stimulus engine.
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For sale: posters of Kumari Mayawati, center, a candidate, and the late B. R. Ambedkar, who helped write India’s constitution.

Candidates and parties spent $3 billion on everything, including transportation, advertising, celebrity endorsements and cash bribes over the course of the campaign, according to economists and political analysts. In comparison, the last United Statespresidential campaign cost an estimated $2.4 billion.

The campaign, which will wrap up Saturday with a final tally of the votes, is trickling through the economy and plumping earnings at television stations, advertising agencies, florists, airlines, car companies and gas stations. It is adding to the business for sweets manufacturers, priests and astrologers.

The programs are so extensive that the amount of money spent in India will give a 0.5 percent boost to the country’s gross domestic product for two quarters of this year, says Kotak Securities, a brokerage firm.

“Every candidate spent money on pujas and rituals,” said K. N. Somayaji, an astrologer and Brahman priest in Bangalore. He says more than 200 candidates called him for his services, which include invoking Kali, the goddess of victory. The most elaborate ritual he performed during this election involved 350 priests from Kerala and cost more than $300,000, he said.

ന്യൂ യോര്‍ക് ടൈംസ് തുടര്‍ന്ന് വായിയ്ക്കുക.....

"The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) and the Left parties have suffered a major setback in these elections. This necessitates a serious examination of the reasons for the Party's poor performance," CPI-M general secretary Prakash Karat said.

The Left Front is likely to get below 25 seats in the 543-seat Lok Sabha, or lower house of parliament.

The Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) has won a near landslide victory in the general elections by grasping more than 250 seats.

The CPI-M politburo is likely to meet in New Delhi to discuss the reasons behind the bad performance of the Left, particularly in its traditional strongholds -- West Bengal and Kerala...

ചൈനാ‍ വ്യൂ തുടര്‍ന്ന് വായിയ്ക്കുക


വെള്ളായിയുടെ മൊത്തത്തിലുള്ള അവലോകനം ഒന്നു കണ്ടാല്‍ പത്തറുപത് കൊല്ലമായി നമ്മളു തല്ലിയും പിരിഞ്ഞുമാണെങ്കിലും ഡെമോക്രസിയായി നില്‍ക്കുന്നത് അവന്മാര്‍ക്കത്ര പിടിയ്ക്കുന്നില്ലെന്ന് തോന്നും.പരിണാമ വൃക്ഷത്തിന്റെ തളിരിട്ട കിനാക്കളായാണല്ലോ അവനമാരെ അവന്മാര്‍ തന്നെ കാണുന്നത്.