THE VALLEY OF THE KINGS: CURSE OF THE PHAROHS

The King began to dig his grave the day he was crowned. The digging continued throughout his reign. His grave – rather, tomb – had to be completed within 70 days of his death: that was the time required to mummify his body and put it in the casket in his tomb.

The ‘tomb’ was a sloping-down corridor cut into the limestone hills in two valleys (‘wadis’) on the west bank of Nile, opposite Luxor. This was the tradition in ancient Egypt for 500 years (16 to 11 BC). Mummies of the Kings, and powerful nobles were placed in the tombs. Till date, 63 tombs have been discovered in the valley.

Hence the name of the valley: the Valley of the Kings.

If the King’s reign was long - depicted by the king shown with a straight beard - then his tomb was long and grand - “fully finished” -  with a wide entrance, long sloping corridor, large antechamber decorated with brightly painted animals, serpents and demons from the Book of the Dead, a pillared hall and short hallway before the burial chamber.

If the King’s reign was short - depicted by the king shown with an up-turned beard - then the tomb was short and “Unfinished” because 70 days was too short a time to finish it.

For example, tomb of Ramses II, one of Egypt’s longest-reigning (67 years) pharaohs is one of the biggest; tomb of Ramses III (reign: 31 years) is one of the longest, 125 m; tomb of Amenhotep II (reign: 26 years), is one of the deepest, more than 90 steps down; but tomb of Ramses VII ((reign: 07 years) is one of the shortest, only 44.3m long.

The King was buried with many of his valuables. Almost all the tombs have been ransacked and valuables removed. However from the Tomb of Tutankhamun – King Tut - 5,398 items were found, even though it had been robbed twice. The items included a solid gold coffin, face mask, thrones and other items. The discoverer of the tomb in 1922, Howard Carter, took 10 years to catalog the items. King Tut’s tomb is the most famous of the tombs because exhibits and artifacts from it have traveled the world. Tutankhamun's death mask, made of gold in the image of the deceased, now in Cairo Museum, remains the most popular symbol of this tomb.

King Tut’s tomb is also associated with the myth of the Curse of the Pharaohs. The fina-

ncial backer of the excavation team who was present at the tomb's opening, Lord Carnarvon, died mysteriously 4 months and 7 days after the opening of the tomb. Ten other, associated with the tomb’s discovery, also died mysteriously.

Carter presented to his friend, Sir Bruce Ingram, a paperweight composed of a mummified hand with its wrist adorned with a scarab bracelet marked with, "Cursed be he who moves my body. To him shall come fire, water and pestilence."  Soon after receiving the gift, Ingram's house burned down, followed by a flood when it was rebuilt.

Curse of the Pharaohs has captured the popular imagination though it has been proved that it has no scientific basis.

A memorable visit; a memorable peep into a minuscule part of ancient Egypt’s history.

TODAY’S PRITHVIRAJ CAHUHAN

A blind Prithviraj Chauhan shot the arrow at the voice of Mohd. Gauri and killed him!

But the blind Kejri, today’s Prithviraj Cahuhan, doesn’t even need a voice to fire at. He fires the arrow blindly because it is bound to hit a ‘corrupt’ since all except him and his cohorts are corrupt.

And so it is that he faces a Defamation Suit.

Defamation is almost impossible to prove; or, at the very least, very, very, difficult to prove. In seeking legal redress, the victim runs the risk of his reputation being sullied beyond repair. A person without reputation (fame) cannot be defamed: calling a person convicted of rape or murder a rapist or a murderer does not defame him. So the Defamer’s best defence is to prove that the Defamed was indeed a villain.

Arun Jaitly, Sr advocate of the Supreme Court, an eagle eyed lawyer, knows this well. Yet he has sued Kejri and his five cohorts for criminal and civil defamation asking for a jail term and for Rs 10 crores compensation. Jaitly says he will not accept an apology.

Kejri’s allegation against Jaitly is that irregularities were committed in the renovation of Kotla Stadium and in other matters when he was at the helm of DDCA for about 13 years (1999 – 2013). Jaitly’s defence is that he was not involved in day to day running of DDCA.

DDCA supports jaitly saying that “all powers rest with EC and president never had separate powers.” It gave a point by point rebuttal of Kejri’s allegations and said that these were completely baseless and without any substance; that the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) report pointed out only procedural lapses and DDCA paid fine for that; that no criminal complaints were filed during Jaitly’s Presidency; that SFIO report was in 2012 when the Congress was in power.

Jaitly adds: “A stadium [of] a capacity of 42,000 was made for Rs 114 crore. When [Congress] was in power, the renovation of Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium was done at Rs 900 crore. [And] the renovation of Dhyanchand National Stadium — with a capacity of 14,000 — was done at Rs 600 crore. Here, a brand new stadium got made at just Rs 114 crore and they think that this is wrong.”

However, it is more than likely that family and friends were helped - that’s part of Indian culture; that financial bungling, favouritism, and misappropriation of funds – at whatever miniscule scale – occurred. Since it occurred during Jaitly’s watch, he is morally responsible for the lapses.  But his criminal responsibility has to be proved in the court. He is a man of impeccable probity and is wealthy and therefore is unlikely to waver for a few lakh rupees. But all this and much more dirt will be washed in public and Jaitly will not escape unsullied even if he wins the defamation case.

To buttress his case, Kejri has appointed a one man Inquiry Commission under his favourite lawyer, Gopal Subramanium, former Solicitor General of India. The criticism is that Gopal is not a judge. But the SC found him fit to be a SC judge. His appointment was scuttled by the BJP govt and it is argued that this will affect his evaluation of evidence because, after all, he is human.

Gopal said that he will refuse the assignment unless it was constitutional. But the Notification for his appointment has been issued without the LG’s sanction. And that is, prima facie, unconstitutional. Will Gopal accept the appointment?

Does Kejri have the power to appoint a commission of Inquiry into DDCA affairs? DDCA says NO: “Delhi government has no locus standi to investigate the DDCA issue.” Clearly, the Constitutional validity of Kejri’s Notification will be tested in the courts. That will delay the start of the work of the Commission.

In the criminal defamation case filed against him by Gadkari, the Court jailed Kejri for refusing to file the bail bond. He was released 14 days later on filing the bail. The SC has stopped the proceedings in the case while it examines the constitutional validity of criminal defamation.

There is little doubt that in times to come the Jaitly’s Defamation suits and the DDCA issue will see many twists and turns - legal, administrative and political.

WONDEREST OF WONDERS

At the age of 4,600 years, it is the oldest but the only one of the Seven Wonders of Ancient World that still stands; initially at 146.5 meters (481 feet), it remained the tallest man-made structure in the world for more than 3,300 years, that is, till the 160-meter (520 feet)-tall  spire of Lincoln Cathedral was completed CE 1300; at  5.9 million tonnes mass, it remains till date the most massive structure in the world; accuracy of its workmanship is such that the four sides of the base have an average error of only 58 mm (2.3 in) in length,  the base is horizontal and flat to within ±15 mm (0.6 in), the sides of the square base are closely aligned to the four cardinal compass points (within four minutes of arc) based on true north, and the finished base is a near perfect square (a mean corner error of only 12 seconds of arc); the ratio of perimeter to height is 2π + 0.05%; the conclusion is that “although the ancient Egyptians could not precisely define the value of π, in practice they used it"; its dimensions are within 0.025% of the Golden Ratio, phi; - all in all, it truly is the wonderest of wonders.

It is the Great Pyramid at Giza, Egypt.

There is more.

The pyramid used about 2.3 million blocks. The granite blocks weighing three to fifteen tons were brought from the quarries in Aswan, 934 km to the south. How were these brought and how were these lifted up?

Originally, the pyramid had an outer-most layer of white, highly polished, Tura limestone – the “casing stones” – that shone in reflected sunlight.  The “casing

stones” were cut with a precision of 1/100^th of an inch to give a smooth slope to the pyramid. Each stone weighed 40 tons before the face angle was cut and 15 tons after that. In 1303 CE, a massive earthquake loosened many of the outer casing stones, which were then carted away for building mosques and other structures. The pyramids today have the outer stones forming very large “steps”.

The great pyramid has three known chambers inside. The lowest chamber is cut into the bedrock upon which the pyramid was built and was unfinished. The Queen's Chamber and the King's Chamber are higher up within the pyramid structure. To go to these chambers one has to be fit – climb for about 30 minutes half-bent – and free from claustrophobia. I didn’t try it but my daughter did.

All in all, visit to the Pyramids at Giza, Egypt, is awe inspiring.

THE NUBIANS

THE NUBIANS

"Where do you go for the best bread in the world?

To a Nubian home." - saying in Aswan, Egypt

The bread, Aish-shamshi, a tinge of sour in it, served with Halwa, Mish (fresh cheesecake) and Honey (rab of sugarcane) is an assay the foodies will love.

Don't be alarmed if you see a few Nile crocodiles around the home. They are pets. Though I think they are there as tourist attraction. Be pleased, nonetheless: you will not see Nile crocodiles in the Nile anywhere in Egypt.  Since the building of the Aswan High Dam, the crocodiles are confined to the huge lake formed by the dam. In the lake, the crocks can be seen in the hundreds.

But don't get close to the pet crock even if it seems to be in deep slumber: even in that state, it is aware of the living-beings in its vicinity; and it strikes real fast - scientifically proven facts. 

Most Nubians today live on the fringes of society in Egypt, subsisting on small farms, and handicrafts like ear rings.

But they are one of the oldest civilizations in the world. Once rich and powerful, they ruled Egypt for a hundred years (746 BC to 653 BC under Nubian Pharaohs (Kings) of 25th dynasty. In the modern times they have produced some notable personalities: Anwar Sadat, third President of Egypt and the first Muslim Noble Laurette; Gaffar Nimeiry, former President of Sudan; Field Marshal Hussein_Tantawi_Soliman, de facto Head of State of Egypt;  Abdallah_Khalil,  former PM of Sudan; and many others.

Their villages were submerged in the lake after the Aswan High Dam was built. They were relocated in villages in twelve islands in the Nile in Aswan. Inheritors of a rich language and culture that is reflected in their brightly painted houses with curved roofs.

Visit to a Nubian village is a must for  a tourist.

NOT A PAPPU BUT A WIZARD

“Petitions are dismissed,” with that Justice Sunil Gaur of Delhi High Court set the stage for Sonia, RaGa and their five cohorts to appear in the trial court in Delhi today as accused in National Herald ‘cheating’criminal-complaint (CC) filed against them by the irrepressible Dr Subramanian Swamy, former Union Cabinet Minister, a five-term MP, Harvard Ph.D in Economics and Harvard Professor.

“I give as good as I get,” Swamy tweeted immediately after the HC order.

A seething Congress is rushing to the Supreme Court against the HC order. “A person with no locus, Dr Subramanian Swamy alleges [that] though he himself has not been cheated, an offence of cheating has occurred. So, we are raising the issue of locus standi in a very big way," Abhishek Singhvi, MP, Congress spokesperson and a Sr. SC advocate said.(A tape of Dr. Singhvi in compromising positions with a woman was circulated some time ago. Following this he resigned from Congress and as a Rajya Sabha member. But he was rehabilitated as soon as the tapes slipped from public conciousness.)

Note that the principal point the Congress is to rake-up is “locus," not cheating: since Swamy has no locus, therefore the cheating CC ought to be dismissed whether or not cheating was done!

Can the Gandhis "hide" from law and stop "the law from taking its own course?" Is the law different to Gandhis and to commoners?

Fortunately wisdom dawned on Gandhis and instead of going to SC they went to the trial court and said they will appear there and sought a later date. The court then asked them to appear on 19 December.

Swamy’s petition said, inter alia, that:

The assets of National Herald, ₹ 5000 crores, including Herald House, a six-storey building with around 1,00,000 sq feet office space, was transferred to Young Indian a private company limited by guarantee. Young Indian was incorporated on 23 November 2010 with a paid up capital of ₹5 lakh. Sonia and RaGa are its owners because they hold 76% of its shares; the remaining 24% is held by Congressmen Motilal Vora and Oscar Fernandes.
Congress gave an interest-free, unsecured, loan of Rs 90.25 crore to AJPL, the original owners of National Herald (NH). This loan was transferred to Young Indians along with the assets and income, Rs 60 lakhs a month, of NH. The loan was never repaid; or was paid back in cash which is illegal.

Also, it is illegal for any political party to lend money for commercial purposes as per "Section 29A to C of the RPA (1951) and Section 13A of IT Act (1961)."
Sonia and RaGa and their five musketeers cheated and misappropriated funds in acquiring ownership of now-defunct daily National Herald for "a pittance," and in ousting AJPL's 5000 shareholders.

Are the profits of NH being camouflaged as hefty salary and other expenses?
In 2012 RaGa said that he will sue for defamation. Three years down the line he has yet to approach the courts.

Sonia and RaGa's company with a capital of Rs 05 lakh acquired assets of Rs 5000 crores!
Boeski, Miliken, Harshad Mehta, Ketan Parikh and other assorted scammers are watching in wonderment the finesse with which the legerdemain was performed by the master wizard - Pappu.

LUCIFER BY ANY OTHER NAME

Even hardened Kejri loyalists were startled by his sudden declaration of the Mantra, “First declare than prepare” about use of odd/even number vehicles on alternate days.  The traffic police, who are to enforce Kejri diktat, were taken by total surprise: they hadn’t heard even a whisper of this assay, their intelligence sources notwithstanding. What were they to do with the offenders, fine them or take them to the gaol or hang them on the spot? No law or guidelines told them what to do.

‘Aam Aadmi was shocked. How was he to drop the kids to the school in the morning, collect his womenfolk from bus/metro stations at night - safety of women in Delhi being what it is - take his critically sick to the hospital and so on.  We are working on it, assured Kejri. We have solved the problem for the ‘Aam Aadmi’ in the Assembly. He gets Rs. 12 lakhs with which he can buy two cars. For the remaining ‘Aam Aadmi,’ we still have 25 days to get the suggestions from him and from the stake holders: traffic police, Metro/bus companies, scooter-rickshaw and taxi walahs . . .  For example how are the weak and the aged and the women and the children to get into a bus or a Metro which even the strapping 20-year olds find hard to manage? Bear it for 7-10 days starting Jan 01, said Kejri, and then the scheme will be discarded.

The Aam Aami who is asking, “if that be so, couldn’t it have been First prepare then declare,” i.e. start the scheme after the “preparation” was complete - is missing the wood for the trees.

Let me explain.

Kejri avowed from the rampart of Delhi Assembly that ‘Aam Aadmi’ had sent the ‘Aam Aadmi’ to the Assembly. Kejri had vowed to bring prosperity to the ‘Aam Aadmi.’ And he did. He hiked the pay of the  ‘Aam Aadmi’ in Delhi Assembly fourfold, to Rs 2.5 lakhs a month, making him the second highest paid  ‘Aam Aadmi’ in the country, second only to the  ‘Aam Aadmi’ in Assam Assembly.  And Kejri has vowed to make Delhi the number one very soon. [Heh, heh, they already are if you factor in the benefits]. He will now work to bring prosperity to the rest of the ‘Aam Aadmi’ ASAP. And the commoner knows what ASAP means.

But the  ‘Aam Aadmi’ being  ‘Aam Aadmi’ would have missed the nuances and would have created a furore about only a select few ‘Aam Aadmi’ benefiting at the cost of the vast majority of the  ‘Aam Aadmi.’

What better way to divert his attention than to threaten his very sustenance: to get him to worry about the safety of his women and children rather than about the largesse the select few ‘Aam Aadmi’ received.

Not for nothing is Kejri called the Lucifer of the 21^st century.

THE ART OF BEING INTOLERANT OF INTOLERANCE

I admire Ameer. A super hero.  A superb film maker. The moment he hinted that the thought of emigrating had crossed his mind, or more precisely Kiran’s mind, I began a search for the land of honey and milk that he could emigrate to.

Europe, it had to be. But after the minor incident of 13/11 killing 130 and injuring 360 in Paris, and the French saying that since 2000 they had 16 terror attacks and incidents – 63 since 1973 - all of them by persons of a certain religious descent – politically incorrect to name the ‘descent’ here though the French did not hesitate to do that – and the small matter of terrorist attacks in Brussels and UK and elsewhere in Europe by the persons of same ‘descent,’ and the hunt in Belgium  for terrorist of same ‘d . . . – Europe option is foreclosed.

Then how about the land of total freedom, the US of A? But the would-be-President Donald Trump wants a registry for Muslims [An NBC reporter repeatedly asked Trump what the difference is between a registry for Muslims and the registry for Jews under Nazi Germany, to which Trump only replied, "You tell me."]

And immigration laws of US of A are tough. But US of A does give citizenship to people of eminence. They did to Einstein a mere university-teacher. And in 1986 they gave political asylum to Shin Sang-ok, a South Korean film producer and director. Surely they will grab the super-hero and the superb film-maker Ameer, far more eminent than Sang-ok that the Indian people haven’t even heard of.

The problem is if you were to ask Donald, or even the Indophile Hillary the other Presidential aspirant, about Ameer, they would commit blasphemy:  “Ameer, who?” they will ask and thus create a storm in the India-teacup like of which has not been seen since the time Maria Sharapova asked, “Sachin, who?”

And then it came to me. Why not Saudi Arabia? That land of extraordinary Wahhabi kindness and freedom.

Then Kiran could blissfully watch from behind her Niqāb (veil) men and women being executed for blasphemy and apostasy after the religious police had extracted ‘confession’ from them through severe torture.

And Ameer will have all sorts of freedom except that of making a film like PK that mocks the majority religion. The intolerant Indians not only did not ban or censor the movie, but they made it the highest-grossing Indian film of all time raking-in INR 7 billion. The Wahhabi, unfortunately, are not that tolerant of the mocking of their brand of religion.

But so what? Ameer may be intolerant of intolerance but certain type of intolerance is acceptable to him.

What is intriguing though is that on 11 November 2015 Ameer said on NDTV’s ‘Walk the Talk’ show that things were looking positive. He has not revealed what happened in just 12 days after that to make him change his mind and perceive that intolerance which is not in evidence.

BJP’s BIHAR DEBACLE

Modi and Shah are being hanged for losing Bihar. But no one is saying what they could have done to avert the debacle?

In my Post/Blog of 09 Nov I said, “No one foresaw that the Maha-Gath-Bandhan (MGB) partners’ individual vote-shares will coalesce into one big number. Nitish and Lalu managed to retain the loyalty of their supporters to the extent that even MSY and Asaduddin Owaisi failed to steal from Nitish-Lalu vote banks. In that scenario, what the BJP did, or did not do, was immaterial. One could argue that this or that would have made a difference. Perhaps yes. But only a marginal difference; the net result would have remained the same: a landslide for MGB.”

I stand by that statement.

UP election is in 2017. Now imagine that SP, BSP and Congress form an MGB. Let us assume that such an MGB is able to transfer their vote shares so that their votes coalesce into a big number, as they did for the Bihar MGB. The UP MGB will then have 66.85% of votes and win 332/403 seats, going by their 2012 results.  What can BJP do to steal the election from such an MGB?

Can it prevent formation of such an MGB?  By itself forming a coalition with either SP or BSP? But will either of them agree to such a coalition?

BJP can only hope that the bitter rivals SP and BSP will not come together – but they once did to form the govt in UP, 1993 to mid-1995. Nitish and Lalu, bitter enemies once, came together in Bihar, notwithstanding Nitin grabbing power from Lalu by denouncing Lalu’s ‘Jungle Raj,’ and Lalu saying of Nitin, “aisa koi saga nahin, jis ko usne thaga nahin.”

BJP should not make the mistake of assuming, hoping - just as it wrongly did in Bihar – that the UP MGB partners’ votes will not coalesce.

Can the people hanging Modi and Shah suggest a winning strategy in UP in the face of a Bihar like MGB? What can BJP do in the next one year to improve its chances of success against the possible UP MGB?

UP election is still more than 15 months away. And as Harold Wilson, former British PM said, “A week is a long time in politics.”

DIPAVALI: THE DEEPOTSAVA (दीपोत्सव)

DIPAVALI

तमसो मा ज्योतिर् गमय

 From the Darkness of Ignorance towards the Light of Spiritual Knowledge

Dipavali, a Sanskrit fusion word from dīpa (दीप, "light" or "lamp") and āvalī (आवली, "series, line, row”), means a "series of lights." It is also a festival of lights: Deepotsava (दीपोत्सव).

It is the celebration of the victory of the inner light of ‘Atma’ over spiritual darkness, knowledge over ignorance, right over wrong, good over evil; a celebration of the awareness of the oneness of all things, an awakening of compassion and tolerance.

In ancient times Dipavali perhaps marked the summer harvest in the Hindu calendar month of Kartika. But later many legends became associated with it. The best known is the one about Lord Rama returning to Ayodhya after vanquishing demon king Ravana. It was on the darkest of all nights, “Amavsya,” and to celebrate their return and to illuminate their path, villagers lit Diyas.

But ten other mythical/historical events happened on the Dipavali Day:

1. Goddess Lakshmi. The Goddess of wealth, incarnated on Dipavali from the churning of cosmic ocean of milk  (samudra-manthan) by the gods and the demons; also the day Lakshmi chose Vishnu as her husband and they were married.

2. Vishnu Rescued Lakshmi. Lord Vishnu, in his fifth incarnation as Vaman-avtaara, rescued Lakshmi from the prison of King Bali.

3. Krishna Killed Narakaasur. On the day preceding Diwali, Lord Krishna killed the demon king Narakaasur and rescued 16,000 women from his captivity.

4. The Return of the Pandavas. People loved the Pandavas and celebrated their return from exile by lighting diyas.

5. Coronation of Vikramaditya. One of the greatest Hindu Kings, Vikramaditya, was coroneted.

6. Yama and Nachiketa. Yama, the Lord of Death, taught Nachiketa Self-knowledge, the separation of soul (the supreme Self) from the body.

7. Special Day for the Buddhist. Emperor Asoka converted to Buddhism.

8. Special Day for the Arya Samaj. Maharshi Dayananda, one of the greatest reformers of Hinduism and the founder of Arya Semaj, attained nirvana.

9. Special Day for the Jains. Mahavir Tirthankar, the founder of modern Jainism, attained nirvana.

10. Special Day for the Sikhs. The third Sikh Guru Amar Das institutionalized Dipavali as the day when all Sikhs would gather to receive the Gurus blessings. Foundation stone of the Golden Temple at Amritsar was laid on Dipavali in 1577. In 1619, the sixth Sikh Guru Hargobind, who was held by the Mughal Emperor Jahengir, was released from the Gwalior fort along with 52 kings.

Dipavali is 2-3000 years old festival. Lord Yama and Nachiketa’s story is in the Katha Upanishad composed in 1st millennium BCE. Dipavali is mentioned in the Padma Purana and the Skanda Purana the Sanskrit scriptures that were completed in second half of 1st millennium AD but are believed to have been expanded from a core text from an earlier era. King Harsha in the 7^th century Sanskrit play Nagananda mentions Deepavali as Deepapratipadutsava, where lamps were lit and newly engaged brides and grooms were given gifts. Rajasekhara referred to Deepavali as Dipamalika in his 9^th century Kavyamimamsa, wherein he mentions the tradition of homes being whitewashed and oil lamps decorating homes, streets and markets in the night. The Persian traveller and historian Al Biruni, in his 11th century memoir on India, wrote that Deepavali was celebrated by Hindus on New Moon day of the month of Kartika.

Let the Dipavali be a festival of spiritual enlightenment, and awakening of compassion and tolerance.

No one foresaw that the Maha-Gath-Bandhan (MGB) partners’ individual vote-shares will coalesce into one big number. Nitish and Lalu managed to retain the loyalty of their supporters to the extent that even MSY and Asaduddin Owaisi failed to steal from Nitish-Lalu vote banks. In that scenario, what the BJP did, or did not do, was immaterial. One could argue that this or that would have made a difference. Perhaps yes. But only a marginal difference; the net result would have remained the same: a landslide for MGB.

All the exit polls and surveys - except AXIS-IBN Exit Poll which gave BJP/MGB 64/176 with which AXIS-IBN were so taken aback with that they withheld publishing the Poll – got it wrong.  All the Pundits got it wrong. Little surprise then that BJP strategist got it wrong too. My question is: what strategy could BJP have followed to negate the coalescing of caste and communal votes in favour of MGB?

Every party puts its best foot forward in elections. Modi and Shah were BJP’s best bet and no one should be surprised that they took the lead in electioneering. Out of about 850 BJP rallies, PM addressed about 22, Shah about 80 and Raj Nath Singh about 53. So, 700 rallies were addressed by other leaders from Bihar. It is wrong therefore to argue that the local leaders had little role in electioneering.

BJP with 53 MLAs emerged as the largest single party in terms of vote-share: 25%. But that is not significant because it contested 157 seats. What is significant is that BJP’s MLA tally in the 20 years, 1980-2000, was 21-41 seats. In coalition with JDU, in 2005, it won nearly as many seats (55) as now (53); and in 2010, it won 91. It could be argued that in 2015 it has won the number of seats that have been its share historically.

The hype about BJP going alone and winning a landslide was because of its performance in General Election 2014, when it won 22/40 MP seats on its own and 31/40 seats in coalition with its allies; and because the of the Modi magic. It is well known that electorate votes differently in Lok Sabha and Assembly and local-bodies election. So the fact that it has voted differently should come as no surprise. As for Modi magic, the response to him at his rallies shows that it has not waned. But it was not enough to change the electorate’s traditional voting pattern.

But after all is said and done it cannot but be argued that the election result is a set back to the BJP, to the Shah image as a strategist, and to the Modi image as a charmer who can charm the birds off the trees.

BREAST CANCER 1

My previous Blog continued.
Five photos: the White house bathed in pink; Delta Airlines cabin-crew dressed in pink; Toronto CN Tower; and another monument  – all to mark the Breast Cancer (BC) Awareness month, October, that came to an end yesterday, 31 October.

The criticism is that:

-- the Pink Ribbon begun 25 years ago - by American Charlotte Harley whose sister, daughter and granddaughter had breast cancer – to signify BC awareness, has become nothing more than feel good catch all marketing opportunity.
-- the incidence of BC has not reduced: 1.7 million new cases world-wide in 2012, that is, 12% of all new cancer cases and 25% of all cancers in women; that BC remains second most common cancer overall.
-- screening like Mammogram has led to over-diagnosis, false positive results, and over- treatment, that is, treating cancers that would never have become life threatening .
-- research funding for BC, $600 million a year in the US, and $31 m in UK, is minuscule
-- no significant research on BC prevention (vaccine) and metastasis prevention

In short, the time for ‘Awareness’ is over; time for ‘action’ is upon us.