Hopefully in the next decade, every Indian will have a political party representing his or her region, religion, caste, sex etcetera unless a political restructuring for consolidation happens. While everybody is aware of this as a problem with our politics, only very few is aware of a practical solution. Today's Hindu has an interesting article by Pran Chopra, which explains what does constitutional experts say about this. Here are the excerpts: "A candidate should be declared elected to Parliament only when he has obtained the votes of at least half the people who have voted. And if no such candidate emerges in the first round of polling there should be a second and last round in which the leader and the runner-up in the first round should be the only candidates. The House chosen in this way should then choose its leader in the same way, in two rounds at most.
The government formed by him should be open to challenge but only by a challenger who has demonstrated, in the same manner, that he has the support of at least half the House.
This single reform can achieve at least three objectives. The House will always have the support of at least half the concerned voters, the government will always have the confidence of at least half the House, and candidates at both levels, knowing that one day they may need the support of at least half the voters will, even in the first round, refrain from casting their appeal on narrow and sectarian lines.
The merits of the scheme are not in doubt. The mystery is why we do not adopt it."
There have been instances when the entire politicians of the country united on a subject, increasing the salary of parliamentary members or overriding the supreme court law on the (dis)qualifications of an election candidate being some of them. Having seen on these political dramas live on the news channels, I doubt how many Indians will really find this one as mysterious as the author finds it!
Should IIMs and IITs increase the reservation quota is the latest controversy! There are arguments for and against, I am with those who see this as another political gimmick to mobilise some votes during this election season. And yes, this is another decision without a foresight or ignoring it, about the long term impacts this would create on our education system; the backbone of the present 'shining' state of India Inc. The reservations for the backward classes to be ended within 10 years of independence continue to be the best tool to manipulate a voter's decision, Gandhiji must have foreseen this while he protested against its initial implementation itself! While this remains to be the hottest issue around, another political drama is being enacted by mallu filmdom. The film industry in the state had become officially political with the creation of associations for actors, directors and other technicians. But now, they seem to be playing a different ball game, to capitalise on the divisive arena created by the politicians of the state.
It is said that actor Mohanlal has more fans in the southern part of Kerala while Mammotty has more fans in Malabar area. The first movie which tried to openly take advantage of this fact was Harikrishnans, in which both heroes acted together, the film had a different climax depending on the region it was shown, the hero with more popularity in the region got the heroin! Where do the people from central Kerala belong? The Star of the Masses, Dileep would have thought about this while he came with a movie titled Kochirajav which was meant to make him more popular in central Kerala. The fact that he has played an auto driver and he hails from this part of Kerala would have added to the advantage of churning out such a film.
Usually, in mallu movies people speak the Kottayam dialect which is very close to the print language. But for sometime now there has been some changes to this! In the Mammooty starrer Rajamanikyam the hero spoke the northern mallu aka thirondoram dialect, the film became the biggest hit in the region. Mammooty then acted in another film named Bus Conductor in which he played the role of a member of minority guy from Malabar, the film was well received in the region. And in the latest movie Thuruppugulan Mammooty speaks the central Kerala aka Cochin dialect, with that he almost covered the entire Kerala!
Mohanlal has already tried playing the role of a Muslim guy in Kilichundan Mambazham speaking Malabar dialect, but the film was not well received with the audience. I am not sure about his forth coming films, but it seems like the trend will continue. The fact that heroes like Jayaram and Suresh Gopi who continued with their tried and tested formulae are struggling to give a hit film, also makes this the perfect alternative. I am wondering when will be the time these heroes will start speaking in a gulf-returned-mallu or a US-returned-mallu accent? For long, the Mallus have been happy judging the politicians to find out who is a better actor, the time have come for them to name the actor who is a better politician!
