IPL in South Africa

Cricket, many say, is a religion in India and cricketing stars, gods. Even detractors of cricket agree that no nation is as crazy about cricket as India is. Now something unusual is visible. The biggest antithesis to the cricket-as-religion idea is the fact that the much-made-of IPL-II had to be shifted out of India, to South Africa.

Many a patriotic Indian has raised a voice against this 'cruel' move. There have been criticisms against half-filled stadiums and the lack of festivities in this IPL season unlike the earlier one.

Personally, I am cruel enough to derive vicarious pleasure from the fact that the IPL has lost its sheen and flavour and elections, for example, have overshadowed this perennial crowd-puller to such an extent that questions are being raised about the kind of gimmicks the BCCI has resorted to in order to improve TV ratings. Why did the cash-rich arrogant BCCI refuse ICC's offer of expertise on tackling match-fixing issues? What is the truth behind the Rajasthan-Kolkata match ending in a tie from nowhere and concluding with super-overs? This match, for example, had all trappings of a 'saas-bahu' serial or shall I say, top-rated reality shows, so well stage-managed.

I am glad the Indian Political League has paled the Indian Premier League this time and the former has turned out to contain all the 'masala' of a Bollywood blockbuster and has managed to sustain interest for so long. Only long after May 16, when election results will start appearing, does the latter IPL have any chance.

Mr.Lalit Modi has been reprimanded by a court for leaving India without taking its permission. Now who will reprimand him for taking the IPL out of India without the people's permission?

Elections in India

I had never been able to come to terms with the hypocrisy and drama of politics ever before this election season. Having studied at the Jawaharlal Nehru university, where politics seeps into every nook and cranny and anybody with half a discerning eye can see through the farce of how students with no deep knowledge of a particular party's ideology meander into it so casually and become its vehement proponents or how staunch supporters of parties go to any extent to malign the opponents and where, yet the profound principles of democracy are so zealously guarded across the political spectrum, I had become deeply cynical about the humdrum and hullabaloo of elections in India and its attached hypocrisies and brazen divorce from principles, and any talk of Indian politics or elections only brought wry smiles on my face signaling the sense of despair at the futility of it all.

However, the 2009 elections have helped me get over this cynicism and this is in no small measure ascribable to the extremely nosy and noisy media and the high sense of awareness that the Indian electorate has now displayed. This is shown right from the fact that 'leaders' have become wary of shoe-hurling media men or members of the audience, to the fact that the public (janta) has become king (janardhan) in the true sense now. Having taken the people so seriously during elections under full media glare this time, the vote-seeking politician can hardly hibernate after the elections. People, both urban and rural, have joined hands with the media to grill the 'neta' like never before. The rough and tumble of the rigmarole of elections have led to many a politician across the spectrum being caught on the wrong foot and being forced to retract from casual politically-wrong utterances.

Democracy has truly arrived in the world's largest democracy and this 2009 festival of democracy is greatest proof of this.

I truly regret being unable to vote this time!