Two more nails in the coffin

It has been a show of woman power at the recent Indian state elections, with Jayalalitha and Mamata Banerjee sweeping the polls.

Many thought that with the court case hanging over her head like a Damocles Sword, Jayalalitha didn’t stand much of a chance. She proved them all wrong, winning with a considerable margin. The exit polls predicted return of DMK but they too were proved wrong yet again. 

The biggest winner in this election is Mamata Banerjee. With the gloom of Sharada Ponzi scam clouds hanging over its head, detractors predicted doom for TMC. They expected return of Left parties with their allies. They could not have been more wrong. She retained power with a massive lead sweeping all opposition aside. After this massive win, some political experts are projecting Mamata Banerjee as a national leader, a PM material. Yeah, why not!

There seems to be some kind of secret pact between LDF and UDF for ruling the state by taking turns. Accordingly, this time it was LDF's turn. In the melee of wins and losses from these two parties, a lone lotus bloomed. One single win against a prediction of 70+. Perhaps, a resounding echo of "Po Mone".

The lone single win was by the 86 years old veteran, O. Rajagopal. With the kind of following he has, he would have anyway won even if he had represented some vague unknown party. Wonder whose great idea it was from BJP think tanks to field Sreesanth as their candidate. Perhaps, they should have sent him to Harbhajan Sing to validate his eligibility.

Victory for BJP in Assam was very much expected. May be "assam chai" ploy got sold after all! Actually, it hardly mattered whether Assam people fell for it or not. After three long terms of Tarun Gogoi, people would have naturally wanted change. It could well be a strategic mistake by Congress Party. Old guard should have made way for a new younger face.

It is a great personal victory for Sarbananda Sonowal, the new CM elect of Assam. However, it is just the beginning of tough times ahead. Incessant natural calamities aside, there are many sticky issues that have been plaguing Assam,  the issue of migrants of Bangladesh origin for one.

Even though the performance of BJP was deplorable in west and south (Tamil Nadu: 0, Puducherry:  0, Kerala: 1, West Bengal: 3), the BJP is wallowing in apparent success and jubilation at Assam triumph. Tumultuous celebrations were witnessed at BJP office with rose petals showered from balconies on PM Modi, Amit Shah and other BJP ministers and party members.  It looked as though victorious warriors were being welcomed from the battlefield. More than the win of Assam,  the loss of two more states by Congress Party could have made them so ecstatic, so euphoric.

It has become quite evident again that displacing regional parties in the states is next to impossible. The only thing that may work is by becoming an ally to get a foothold and understand how the local mechanics work.

Now that “Decision 2016” is settled, could it be time for the “gaadi” to change gear from “election” mode or “Gandhi Bashing” mode into “drive” mode! May be not, for other state elections are just around the corner. More strategy, more speeches, more rhetoric’s, more mudslinging, more character assassinations needed, lots to be planned.

With the Assam win, will BJP come out of the Congress/Gandhi phobia? Perhaps not. Their fear appears to be too deep rooted. It may not be a bad idea to get some counseling to redeem themselves of the fear.

Meanwhile, Subramaniam Swamy is busy with his usual antics. He had turned the Rajya Sabha into his personal Twitter handle, saying anything he fancied, using his stupid acronyms and innuendos, throwing allegations at anyone he fancied. 

This time he is after the RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan. He is either aiming for the RBI Governor post or just doing somebody’s bidding, it is anybody’s guess. The time is not far when he will become an uncontrollable liability. It won’t be a surprise even if his loose cannons are aimed at BJP politicians. History will show, how good he is at changing color like a chameleon.

As for Congress Party, it is two more nails in the coffin. Their situation is like the cricket team facing a do or die match to qualify for play offs. If they do not take corrective, realistic, positive actions now, if they continue with the same complacency as witnessed in the last two years, it is “game over”.

The Final Countdown May 2016

The day of reckoning is again just round the corner, this time the day to decide who wins and who loses in the political battle for the conquest of the north east, the west and the south. 

Tomorrow is the day when the results of Indian state elections of Assam, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and Kerala will be revealed.

One can well imagine how busy the God’s will be tomorrow with prayers on the lips and hearts of most of  1.26 billion Indians. I am pretty sure that the God’s must be getting prepared by increasing the bandwidth of communication channels to cope with the heavy incoming data traffic.

It has been reported that different parties have as usual ordered for firecrackers and thousands of kilos of sweets. It will be interesting to see who will burst the crackers and who will take it home for next Diwali.

The guys involved with exit polls are at it again, as usual predicting wins and losses for various parties. They are just doing their duty, just going through motions, for they too know how the predictions went for a toss in the previous Delhi and Bihar elections. Not one so called "expert" got it right. Cannot blame them for it is not easy to fathom the psyche of the Indian electorate. Election after election, they have surprised the pundits and political analysts. 

Our PM was again busy with hectic election campaigning. He told the people of Assam how he used to sell tea, not just any tea, it was “Assam Tea”. Did they believe him, did that inspire them? Well, we will know very soon.

Our PM went to Tamil Nadu and told the people a nonexistent story of “helicopter ka chori”. Perhaps, he thought “Augusta Westland Chopper Scam” was too complicated for the people to understand.

He went to Kerala and raised a storm in a tea cup. His criticism of things in Kerala being much worse than in Somalia didn’t go very well with the people. It created such a storm on social media that some people decided to convey their displeasure on Twitter through hashtag #PoMoneModi which according to Shashi Tharoor translates into “get lost, kid”.

The cricketer turned politician Sreesanth claims BJP will get more than 75 seats. Interesting how BJP put their faith in this guy who to me sounds very immature in his conduct and very irresponsible with his tongue. Perhaps, in the words of journalist Sabin Iqbal, "he has been washed and sanitized in saffron water”. Perhaps, he has a large fan following, perhaps he may even end up garnering votes.

BJP has even managed to rope in big names from film industry, like Suresh Gopi. More than that, we have seen in the past how BJP has had major wins, more because of wrong doings of other parties than its own merit. Who knows, it could happen again, BJP may triumph in these state elections too.

Perhaps, it could be a welcome change for Tamil Nadu and Kerala. It would be a very amusing sight, with lots of Hindi speaking politicians going around, asking “nariyal ka pani lao”.

There was a time when, with the very mention of the word “Hindi”, the people in Tamil Nadu would go on the rampage. But things seem to have changed in the last couple of years. More and more people are drawn towards politicians from the north. The time may be right, they may welcome Hindi language and Hindi speaking politicians. They may even be inspired to learn Hindi and even listen to "Mann ki Baat" to get first hand information rather than reading translations. The same could apply to Kerala.

Will the change happen? Well, it is just a matter of another day, we will know for sure if people have been swayed by rhetoric or they have been smart enough to see things through for what they really are.

Tomorrow is going to be an exciting day, a day of another landmark, another milestone for many Indians. It could even be very interesting for people from Somalia, they may also be watching the results with interest. By that, I mean the people of real Somalia, the real country.

Who will lift WT20 2016 trophy?

World Twenty20 2016 will be over in a couple of hours after the finals between West Indies and England. As far as millions of Indians are concerned, the tournament was over on Thursday itself at the end of the second semi finals match at Wankhede Stadium. 

Considering the way India played in this tournament, it was quite surprising that they even reached semi finals. Most of the matches were won with very close contest, sometimes due to mistakes of the opposition, sometimes due to some fine performances from one or two individual batsmen and bowlers. But above all, the wins were due to the “Lone Warrior, Virat Kohli” and some power hitting by Dhoni in the death overs. The closely won matches were exciting but not impressive or convincing. The top and middle order batsmen hardly fired or even gave a glimpse of form.

There was a ray of hope when finally the top order batsmen fired in the semi finals. As usual, Virat contributed the highest. Just when I thought this match may turn out to be a team victory, the bowlers decided to give the match away. Which team can afford three lives to a single batsman, that too through no balls! One of the mysteries that I can never comprehend is, how does a spin bowler manage to overstep the line. Simmons literally lived the life of a cat with so many lives. Every time they got him, he was popping right back like a jack in the box.

It was frustrating and painful to watch the Indian bowlers struggling and being hit all over the ground and over the rope at free will. Surprisingly, the usually outspoken Indian commentators were quite circumspect. Perhaps, the mouthful, or rather tweetful, from Big Brother has had effect on them, when he grumbled how the Indian commentators, while quite generous in praising foreign players, were too hard on the Indian boys.

Virat Kohli was the only saving grace for India.  True to his name, he had a grand tournament. All through the tournament, his form was so awesome that, one blogger tweeted “the new Bahubali of India” with a photoshopped picture of Virat carrying the Indian team on his shoulder. Virat was focused, skillful and tactical, especially the way he handled the death overs. Above all, I liked the way he was enjoying the game. His game in the match with Australia was a special treat. Yuvraj Singh too showed some hope, but unfortunate for him, his injury spoiled his game.

Coming back to today’s finals, I wonder how crowded Eden Gardens is going to be tonight considering that people of Kolkata are reeling from the shocking and unfortunate flyover accident. It could turn out to be a low key affair, or maybe not. People must have already bought the tickets for the event. Such is the power of cricket that nothing can deter people from enjoying a game of cricket.

Now, the question, who will be the champion of WT20 2016? 

West Indies team has performed well all through this tournament, they bat deep and they have a good bowling lineup. But so did New Zealand. They had consistently outperformed other teams. But in the end, when it came to the crunch game, they choked. It is not the first time that a team choked in the crunch games. How many times we saw that happen to South Africa!

On the other hand, the English team is on a roll, riding high on their resurgence after the poor performances in the initial round matches. Everyone, the experts and the laymen, all had written them off. One expert even bewailed “what can we expect when a team has young inexperienced players”. Such a sentiment was strengthened further when South Africa put up a huge total of 229 in the group match. At the end of that first innings, most experts thought that it was all over for the English team. But, it was not to be!

The top order batsmen, Roy, Hales, Stokes and Root, came out with all guns blazing, doing a “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” stuff. It was a sudden transformation that nobody expected. I am pretty sure that win of England must have left many mouths wide open in wonder and disbelief. After that innings, the English team never looked back.

So, here is my prediction. English team will take the cup! 

But then again, cricket is such a funny game, you can never say what will happen until the last ball is bowled. May the best team win!

Dhoni does it, yet again.

Dhoni does it again, pulling a rabbit out of the hat in the WT20 cricket match between India and Bangladesh.

The game, which was surely and steadily inching towards a Bangladesh victory, turned out to be a thriller in the end, a pot boiler. The victory pointer gave nearly 80% chance to Bangladesh. And then, the madness happened. 

Bangladesh was cruising nicely towards the winning post until they started their "hara-kiri" in the last few overs. They could have easily achieved the target with 2's and safe boundaries. But they threw it all away by going for risky shots, showing unnecessary aggression and foolhardiness, losing the match by just 2 runs. Even if they had hung on and scored 1 run, the game could have gone for a super over. Unfortunate for Bangladesh, it was not to be. India won the match, that too after many dropped catches.

Dhoni yet again took a gamble by giving the crucial last over to a maverick. This lad, Hardik Pandya, is a very exciting player, always busy in the field, making his presence felt, either bowling, fielding, batting or taking incredible catches. It was quite amusing to see him, with his ever lingering boyish grin, trying his best to carry out the responsibility given to him. I couldn't help feeling sorry for the quandary he was put in. Even the umpire had to chip in with a pat on his shoulders. 

What an exciting, thrilling and nerve racking last over it turned out to be. Just 11 runs was needed for Bangladesh for a win. But, the over ended up with three wickets and a win for India.

Cricket is a funny game, you cannot be sure of the results until the last ball is bowled. In the end it all comes down to who wilts and buckles under pressure and who holds on with nerves of steel. That is where our man Dhoni comes in. He has proved it time and again. 

In the end, it turned out to be the difference between men versus boys, maturity versus inexperience, keeping cool versus getting carried away by euphoria.

In the event of a win, credit must go to every player in the team but what stays in the mind is the last exciting moments. In all the excitement, people forgot the penultimate over bowled by Bumrah. He was hit all over the park in his previous overs, and then he comes back and gives that peach of an over, conceding just six runs. 

All said and done, Pandya's heroics and Dhoni's calculated risk taking coolness will be remembered and talked over for quite sometime to come.