[Reader-list] Indian elections: how to woo Muslims to vote for you

[Rajendra Bhat Uppinangadi]

Dear Taha,

    did you miss the news item about the NIC that this special project on
"experimental basis" will be starting from Karnataka state, in two districts
, one in north Karnataka and other in south Karnataka.? This news appeared
in DNA and Times of India, please note.

  Karnataka has the unique distiction of having voters , about 3.7 crores,
out of estimated population of about 5.67 crores, and according to election
commisssion, EPIC are facilitated most "successfully" to 90 percent of the
voters. ! But at the time of elections just in three constituencies of
bangalore, north, south and Central, more than 3 lakh voters had to use
other forms of ids, like driving license, pssport, etc( in all 21 items of
positive identification.)and in each constituency the total voters were
about 12 lakhs, of which 57 percent voted.One of the reasons was the faulty
lists of the booth allottment, non-inclusion in the list with photos from
the old list, and worst, spelling and gender mentioned wrongly in the list
as well as voter id cards.! Tenders for this job is under finalisation and
this is a multi crore project , efforts to get details are being stone
walled even under RTI.!

Regards,

Rajen.

On Mon, May 25, 2009 at 4:52 PM, Taha Mehmood
<2tahamehmood at googlemail.com>wrote:

> If we assume that the elections posters were intended to appeal to
> Muslims of North India, then a survey of posters throws up some
> questions-
>
> 1. Do all Muslims of North India know how to read Urdu? If no, then-
> 2. Why do political parties equate Muslims=Urdu speaking?
> 3. Do all Muslims of North India always think of Gujarat as an assault
> on their collective religious identity all the time, especially when
> they are about to vote?
> 4. Just like in earlier times, Imam Bukhari's fatwa to vote for
> erstwhile Janta dal was assumed to be the ultimate clarion call to
> North Indian Muslims, this time too, it appears, as if, the stereotype
> of Indian voters who happen to follow Islam, robs them from any agency
> to think and act on their own. I wonder why is an appeal from
> authority is such a big deal in political communication?
> 5. I wonder if posters issued by political parties to appeal to
> followers of other religions like Sikhism, Jainism, Buddhism or those
> Indian voters who constitute a strategic vote bank follow a similar
> trend?
>
> Regards
>
> Taha
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-- 
Rajen.