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Strategies & Market Trends : India Coffee House -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: JPR who wrote (11982)	5/1/2002 8:03:54 AM
From: JPR	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 12475

The Election Extravaganza The turnout was heavy: 25% of the eligible voters. Any ID was accepted, as long as you don't look like an RSS cow or a pig-JPR Teenagers (18 and over) were able to express for the first time their choice in a multi-party democracy. Polling stations were installed in "schools, factories, government offices, bus and railroad stations, shopping centers, bazaars, hotels, airports and gasoline stations." Prisons had their own polling stations. Brothels did not somehow hit and make the list of polling stations. On that site, the voter turnout would have been larger.--JPR It appeared that people who turned out in heaviest numbers were those who felt they had little choice: soldiers, government employees and civil servants who cast their ballots in boxes that had been set up conspicuously at their work places. In Hyderabad, according to a local report, the only crowded polling station was at the Nara Prison, where 3,500 votes were cast (Would the prisoners get a reprieve or release for exercising their civic duty? - JPR) . A civil servant speaks: There is an Urdu word to describe the day's events, the civil servant said: natak. "It means `theater,' " he said. "In one word, it explains everything." I have to take issue with the civil servant on the etymology of the word NATAK. It is NOT URDU; it is a SANSKRIT word for play, drama, acting, dancing; Sanskrit existed before Urdu.---JPR There was entertainment at the polling stations. The spouses of military officers were showered rose petals on their way to the polling stations. Voters' lists were dispensed with, meaning that anyone could vote anywhere and, if they rubbed the ink mark off their fingers, as often as they wished. Almost any form of identification was accepted, including photocopies, letters of recommendation from local officials and the 12 million expired identification cards that remain in circulation. Source: NYTimes with added comments