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It's election time in my state and there's a lot of funny stuff going on. After observing the political parties campaigning, I've come up with the two main tactics used to win an election.
(Before that, here's a bit of background on the two major political parties. The two prominent political parties in the state are the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AIADMK" )
Tactic 1: Promise to give away a lot of freebies.
For example, the DMK has promised free colour television to all families that do not own one , free gas stoves, computer training and electricity
, if voted into power[1]. The landless (Oh, about 6 million[2]) are being promised two acres of land, each. Note that the population of the state is roughly 60 million.
Not to be outdone, the AIADMK has promised "four grams of gold to every poor woman who gets married"
and 10 kg of free rice per month. [3]
The whole lot, if actually given out, would cost more than 10 billion rupees. As Sir Humphrey said, that's buying people's votes... with people's money.
Tactic 2: Find a lot of movie stars to campaign for you
The leader of the AIADMK and the current chief minister Jayalalitha, was a movie actress. The leader of the opposition party (the DMK), was also a movie actor. In fact, the AIADMK party was itself founded by yet another actor. (No wonder politicians here are such skilled liars!)
Another movie actor Vijaykanth, has started a new political party called ... the DMDK (no surprises there
).
Almost every other film actor in Tamil Nadu has spent the last week campaigning for one party or another.
For more on how the people in power campaign, there's this nice article written by the BBCs Soutik Biswas.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/3689173.stm"
The sad part is that, with one exception, I've never heard of any proposed polices on how to tackle the problems like the provision of clean drinking water, health care, unemployment and shelter. There's also the caste and religion based politics and staunch support to reservations (ie, quotas) to minorities.
And people criticize me for not wanting to vote
http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/2006/03/30/stories/2006033017600100.htm"
http://www.census.tn.nic.in/framers.asp?id=27"
http://www.aiadmkindia.org/manifesto%202006/Election%20Manifesto-%20English%20Tamil%20Nadu.pdf"
(Before that, here's a bit of background on the two major political parties. The two prominent political parties in the state are the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AIADMK" )
Tactic 1: Promise to give away a lot of freebies.
For example, the DMK has promised free colour television to all families that do not own one , free gas stoves, computer training and electricity
, if voted into power[1]. The landless (Oh, about 6 million[2]) are being promised two acres of land, each. Note that the population of the state is roughly 60 million.Not to be outdone, the AIADMK has promised "four grams of gold to every poor woman who gets married"
and 10 kg of free rice per month. [3]The whole lot, if actually given out, would cost more than 10 billion rupees. As Sir Humphrey said, that's buying people's votes... with people's money.
Tactic 2: Find a lot of movie stars to campaign for you
The leader of the AIADMK and the current chief minister Jayalalitha, was a movie actress. The leader of the opposition party (the DMK), was also a movie actor. In fact, the AIADMK party was itself founded by yet another actor. (No wonder politicians here are such skilled liars!)
Another movie actor Vijaykanth, has started a new political party called ... the DMDK (no surprises there
). Almost every other film actor in Tamil Nadu has spent the last week campaigning for one party or another.
For more on how the people in power campaign, there's this nice article written by the BBCs Soutik Biswas.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/3689173.stm"
The sad part is that, with one exception, I've never heard of any proposed polices on how to tackle the problems like the provision of clean drinking water, health care, unemployment and shelter. There's also the caste and religion based politics and staunch support to reservations (ie, quotas) to minorities.
And people criticize me for not wanting to vote
http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/2006/03/30/stories/2006033017600100.htm"
http://www.census.tn.nic.in/framers.asp?id=27"
http://www.aiadmkindia.org/manifesto%202006/Election%20Manifesto-%20English%20Tamil%20Nadu.pdf"
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