3 Lok Sabha Contests To Look Out For!

 

By Saurabh Gandhi:

Political newbies seem to be the flavor of the election season in India. Be it a Union Territory like Chandigarh or the urban constituencies of Bangalore or the hills of West Bengal, some of the candidates declared by the political parties are generating a lot of interest, and rightly so, because at the end of the day, whoever wins the election at the MP (Member of Parliament)’s level will determine the overall national picture. And the local candidate can very well swing the votes one way or the other. This week, we bring to you a list of 3 Lok Sabha Contests to Look Out For:

1.      Gul Panag v/s Pawan Kumar Bansal (Chandigarh Constituency) – One is a former Miss India. The other is a former Union Railways Minister. One is contesting on a ticket of the newest political kid on the block, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). The other on a ticket of the Grand Old Party (INC).  Let us look at their pluses and minuses:

Gul Panag:

Pluses: A model and an actor, she is literally what you call a ‘fresh face’. She was born in the city and hence has the local connect. Her age (35 years), profession and her known craze for fitness give her the ‘youth connect’. Add to this the fact that she hasn’t been un-opinionated on current issues.

Minuses: It is this trait of being vocal about politics that has raised certain questions about her choice of party. In 2012, she had endorsed Narendra Modi for PM on Twitter. In her defense, she says, "That was when there was no AAP around. You look for no alternative and find the one-eyed in a land of the blind (andhon me kaana raja). It is not a choice. Narendra Modi for PM was something that came from resignation and a sense of fait-accompli.'' Apart from this, the lack of support from the local workers of AAP (many of whom feel she was parachuted as a candidate) could hamper her chances.

(image source: news.oneindia.in)

Pawan Kumar Bansal:

Pluses: He is the sitting MP from the seat. In fact, he has represented the constituency four times in the Lok Sabha. His political experience and the strong organization of the party in the area are his only advantages.

Minuses: His image (along with his party’s) took a hit when he had to resign as Railways Minister after an allegation of bribery involving his nephew (the quintessential “bhanja”) surfaced. Presently, there is no case against him as the CBI cleared him and the same has been accepted by the court.

X-Factor:

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has not yet declared its candidate for this constituency.

[Update] The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has recently declared actress Kirron Kher as its candidate for this constituency. There is widespread discontent in the local party workers regarding her nomination. If she can overcome that, she would be a formidable force.

2.      Nandan Nilekani v/s Ananth Kumar (South Bangalore Constituency) – One is a successful businessman. The other, a full-time politician. South Bangalore will witness a fight to the finish between INC’s Nandan Nilekani, former Infosys technocrat and Head of the Aadhaar initiative of the Government of India (he has already resigned as UIDAI chief) and the five-time sitting MP of the BJP, Ananth Kumar.

Nandan Nilekani:

Pluses: He may be a newbie in electoral politics, but he has had experience in dealing with politicians as UIDAI chief. Apart from the good work done by him and his wife in the field of philanthropy, his clean image, along with administrative acumen (which he highlights by mentioning the fact that he headed the effort which made it possible for 60 million people to get the Aadhaar number) and his positive campaign till now (he has focused on public utilities, transport and employment) are his pluses.

Minuses: His choice of party might be a stumbling block in his victory. Though he is confident of winning and cites his ideological familiarity as the reason for choosing INC, the local connect might be a problem. Although he is a Bangalorean, he tries hard to sound natural while speaking in Kannada. Just today, he conceded in an interview that his hi-tech campaign was not good enough. One still had to go and knock on people's doors and ask for votes, he said.

(image source: news.oneindia.in)

Ananth Kumar:

Pluses: A National Secretary of the BJP, Ananth Kumar is a five-time sitting MP from the constituency. The fact that the INC has not won this seat since the past 25 years speaks volumes in his favour.

Minuses: In comparison to Nilekani, he may fall short in the urban connect. Nilekani has all characteristics that today’s youth look for: he got into an IIT on merit, co-founded an IT company and made it successful with his skill and hard work and even contributed towards building Bangalore’s infrastructure as part of a task force in the past. Kumar, on the other hand, is a full time politician since a young age.

X- Factor:

The good news for Nilekani is that the state of Karnataka has always bucked the trend. Whenever, the people of India choose the INC at the Centre, the people of Karnataka choose the BJP. When INC loses at the central level, Karnataka offers a saving grace to the INC.

3.      Baichung Bhutia v/s S.S. Ahluwalia (Darjeeling Constituency) – This is one constituency which didn’t have a local candidate in 2009 and it won’t have one in 2014. The people of Darjeeling will have to choose between former Indian football team captain Baichung Bhutia fielded by All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) and BJP’s National Vice-President, S. S. Ahluwalia.

Baichung Bhutia:

Pluses: In comparison to his rival, Baichung Bhutia can claim that he is less of an outsider as he hails from the neighboring state of Sikkim. Add to that the fact that he is a well-known footballer with huge fans all over the country, more so in the eastern part of India.

Minuses: Bhutia has shifted the goal posts by entering politics. His lack of political experience can be described as a minus. Other than that, he does not carry any baggage that may go against him.

(image source: indiatvnews.com)

S.S. Ahluwalia:

Pluses: He has been a Lok Sabha MP from both Bihar and Jharkhand. He has also served as a Rajya Sabha member. In short, he is not short of political acumen.

Minuses: He is a complete outsider. Add to that, the fact that the BJP doesn’t have much of a presence in West Bengal.

X- Factor:

The local dominating political party in Darjeeling, the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) has declared its support for the BJP candidate. Even in 2009, the GJM had supported Jaswant Singh (BJP) and he had won. GJM demands a separate state of Gorkhaland and BJP is in favour of creating such a state. But Mamata Banerjee’s AITC cannot be ignored this time as they handled the statehood demand quite strongly and the CM has given special attention to North Bengal.

Author’s Note - That was it for today. If the news in political circles is to be believed, then BJP might declare Narendra Modi’s candidature from Varanasi today itself. AAP leaders have already hinted at Arvind Kejriwal contesting against Modi from the same constituency. Just thinking about it gives me the chills. That would be one hell of a write-up.

About Saurabh Gandhi:

An undergraduate student from Kolkata, Gandhi devours news like anything and is an aspiring Social (Pun intended) Entrepreneur. He can be reached on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and Pinterest. 

How To Get More Than Full Talk Time On Airtel Prepaid?

By: Suraj Lath

All of us who have a prepaid connection are troubled with the fact that when we recharge with Rs. 50 we get only around Rs. 42. We recharge with Rs. 100 and get around Rs. 84. It almost seems like spending too much. Yeah, there are full talk time offers like Rs. 222 and Rs. 333 but not only do they become expensive for many but they often defeat the purpose of a prepaid connection as we tend to spend all the ‘full talk time’ very fast and end up spending more. However, if you are an Airtel prepaid customer, then you have something to be happy about.

If you are using Airtel there are two ways of getting full or more than full talk time:

1.                   Recharging through Airtel’s mobile site.

2.                   More on this later.

1.     Recharging through Airtel’s mobile site:

Airtel is giving away more than full talk time to its customers who recharge their number through Airtel mobile site - m.airtel.in.

Unfortunately, this offer has not been promoted much and it is not available on Airtel’s desktop website. So, you have to use your phone’s browser to get the offer. Here, I am sharing with you the exact steps to be followed in order to get more than full talk time.

You will need:

1.                   A phone with a working internet connection.

2.                   An online payment enabled debit/credit card or a bank account.

3.                   Patience.

Offer:

110 talk time on payment of Rs. 100

220 talk time on payment of Rs. 200

Steps:

1.                   Go to m.airtel.in on your phone’s browser.

2.                   Click on recharge.

3.                   In the next page, click on exclusive offers.

4.                   Next, click on bonus recharge.

5.                   In the page that opens, click on the offer you want to avail (either Rs. 110 talk time on Rs. 100 or Rs.220 talk time on Rs. 200).

6.                   In the following page, enter the mobile number that you wish to recharge and click on proceed.

7.                   Next, choose the payment method – Net banking/ Debit card/ Credit card.

8.                   Select the appropriate type of card from the list if you want to make the payment using a Debit/Credit card. However, if you want to pay using net banking, choose your bank from the list in the next page.

9.                   Enter bank/ card details and the password and press enter.

10.               The next page will inform you the transaction ID and acknowledgement that the recharge is successful.

2.     More on this later:

Wait for the next post to know more about getting full talk time on Airtel prepaid.

Hope that this was useful to some of you out there.

About Suraj Lath:

An undergraduate student, Lath is an e-commerce enthusiast. He can be reached on Facebook, Twitter and Google+. 

Update-Ink on his face, Night in Tihar jail, “Sahara Shri’s” worst nightmare is true!

(image source: www.thehindu.com)

Disclaimer: This is an update to our previous post, “The Sahara Shri Saga – All You Need To Know!”.

The last we know Mr. Roy was in police custody in a forest guest house in Uttar Pradesh. As per the court’s order, he was brought to New Delhi to appear in front of the Supreme Court today. His journey to the court was not uneventful. Just as he was being escorted to the court premises by the police, a man in the crowd threw ink on him. Immediately, the man was detained. Claiming to be a lawyer from Gwalior, the man, Manoj Sharma called Mr. Roy, “gareebon ka chor” (thief of the poor). If news reports are to be believed, Mr. Sharma is not a novice in throwing stuff at people. He also threw a shoe at Mr. Suresh Kalmadi, the man famous for his alleged involvement in the Commonwealth Games scam. In fact, in order to prove the level of corruption in 2005-06 (when the BJP-led NDA was in power), the ink-thrower had got a fake death certificate of Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee, the then Prime Minister of India.

Coming back to the case at hand, in the Supreme Court, Mr. Roy tendered an unconditional apology for failing to appear in the first instance and then promised to pay the entire due amount to the investors, though he wanted some more time. He also offered bank guarantees for the 22,500 crores of rupees and man-power help to SEBI to verify those investors who had already been paid. The Court accepted the apology but didn’t find the proposal to refund money ‘concrete’. It ordered Mr. Roy and two other directors of the Sahara Group to be sent to judicial custody till March 11, 2014, when the next hearing would take place.

 After the court’s order, Mr. Roy was taken to Tihar jail. For those who are wondering that the last time when he was sent to custody, he was in a forest guest house, then why Tihar jail this time, the difference is that last time he was sent to police custody to ensure his appearance in court today. Thus, it was up to the police to decide his place of custody. However, this time he has been sent to judicial custody in connection to the non-payment case.

The only saving grace for Mr. Roy in all this is that the court did not send the woman director Vandana Bhargava to judicial custody. Instead, she is allowed to be in touch with Mr. Roy to come up with a concrete proposal to refund the money. If it works out, then Mr. Roy could be out before March 11, 2014.

The Sahara Shri Saga – All You Need To Know!

(image source: www.firstpost.com)

Many fine mornings, we wake up and open our newspapers to be greeted by full-length ads from the Sahara Group, with an emotional letter or statement from Mr. Subrata Roy. 28^th of February, 2014 was one such morning (or day, for the late risers). Here’s all you need to know about ‘The Sahara Shri Saga’:

Who is Subrata Roy?

An Indian businessman, Subrata Roy likes the world to call him ‘Sahara Shri’. He is the founder and chairman of the ‘Sahara India Pariwar’, which is involved in businesses spanning across many sectors like real estate, media, hospitality, entertainment, healthcare and tourism. To jiggle your memory a little, he is the same person who had threatened to withdraw sponsorship for the Indian Cricket Team after a disagreement with BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India) Chief N. Sreenivasan over the Pune Warriors India franchisee owned by him in the IPL (Indian Premier League). He prefers the title of ‘Chief Managing Worker’ to Chairman or Managing Director.

Why is he in the news?

He is making the headlines because the Supreme Court of India, on 26^th February, 2014, issued a non-bailable warrant against Mr. Roy. The reason was this.  Mr. Roy was supposed to appear before the Supreme Court on the above date in relation to a case but he did not do so, citing the ill-health of his 92 year old mother in Lucknow.

On 27^th February, however, when the UP (Uttar Pradesh) police went to the famous ‘Sahara Saher’ (Sahara City) to arrest him, he could not be found there. The media was filled with reports that he was trying to avoid and run away from the law. But Mr. Roy, in his trademark style, issued full page ads in newspapers all across the country, explaining that he could not be found in his home because he had gone out to Lucknow to meet a few doctors and that he was not absconding.

The next thing we know, on the 28^th of February, he says he surrendered. The police say there is no possibility of surrendering in this case and he was arrested. The following events followed:

1.       After his arrest, he was with the police at “Sahara Saher” for several hours.

2.       At around 5 pm, news came in that he would be produced before the Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) and there would be a special sitting as normally it was a holiday on account of Shivratri.

3.       According to media reports, when he was taken to the court from “his” city, it was in an Audi, flanked by many other high-end cars along with the police cars.

4.       In the courtroom, the media was asked to leave the place.

5.       In his order, the CJM had ordered for Mr. Roy to be kept in police custody and to be produced in front of the Supreme Court on the 4^th of March, 2014. The police decided to keep him in custody at a forest guest house in the state.

What is the case in which he was asked to appear before the Court?

Mr. Roy was asked to be personally present in the Court on 26^th February because two Sahara group companies – Sahara India Real Estate Corporation Limited (SIRECL) and Sahara Housing Investment Corporation Limited - have to return about 19000 crores of money to investors. The total amount was 24000 crore. The group has already returned 5120 crores. The group contends that the SEBI order directing them to return the money was bad. The Supreme Court, then, asked the directors of both the companies along with Mr. Roy, to appear personally before the Court.