The wheel of democracy moves on...

Newton (Hindi; 2017)

This movie is interesting because it is set in Chattisgarh, a state not usually featured in mainstream films.  Chattisgarh is located in the East-Central part of India and is a place with a very long history. It is mentioned in the Ramayana and Mahabharata and has seen many kingdoms rise and fall. The film's area is supposed to have been shot is Dakshina Kosala, the very jungle where Rama, Laxmana and Sita had undergone 14 years of exile in the wilderness.

Now that jungle is said to be filled with various minerals,  everyone wants to lay their dirty hands. The Naxalites are roaming around with rifles while the ruling government want to appear to be doing the democratic thing. Come elections, all political candidates promise a new dawn of affluence and prosperity. In reality, what the politicians are really eyeing is the deal to get businessmen to mine the fortune in their land and get their cut of the whole transaction.

Towards this end, the whole machinery is oiled; the local clerk to the armed forces to the local chief and the occasional election officers who drop by. The world gets a very conflicting view of what happens on the ground - a polished version from the ruling party and a picture of anarchy from the defeated. The final losers are the local dwellers. Whoever comes to power, their position, for the people of this story, poverty and melancholy remains the flavour of their day.

India's entry to Oscar's foreign film category in 2017 is a light drama depicting Nutan Kumar, a conscientious government clerk, who is sent to a communist-insurgent infested region to oversee a balloting station. Nutan who is embarrassed by his given name christians himself Newton. He tries as far as he can to be an honest servant. Faced with a disgruntled army officer who is assigned to protect him and his team of ballot officers, he tries, against all odds, to oversee an election centre in the middle of nowhere where the last political leader was assassinated by communist terrorists. The electorate list comprises Adavaasis (aborigines) who are least bothered of voting.

All these for just 76 voters? Everyone says that every vote matters. Can a single vote actually make a difference? Apparently, it does. In 2008 Rajasthan Assembly elections, the Union Minister, CP Joshi was defeated by a single vote by opponent Kalyan Singh Chouhan (62,215 vs 62,216). Chouhan's wife later was found to have cast her vote twice. It was a disappointing blow to Joshi as he was a candidate for the Chief Minister's post. A petition was filed, but the verdict in favour of Joshi only came four years later; almost time for the next election.

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Cows, BS and mule!

Now that the news of the forthcoming 13th general elections is on every body's mind, it is only appropriate to mention something on Malaysian politics.

Some people talk passionately about politics. Now, with the dissolution of the Parliament, politics is at the tip of every body's tongue. People of all ethnicity and social class, as it appears to me, seem more courteous to each other as though have teamed together to fight for the betterment of the country at large.

One particularly peculiar observation that I realised is that whenever you are embroiled in heated political discussion, say in a social function - birthday, wedding reception, dinner etcetera, the person who leads the conversation with much passion, offering intricate inside information would invariably not be registered as a voter with the Election Council!

Of course, you have to ask him point blank on the face to skewer this information. And you have to indulge in a lot of face reading to authenticate the truth of his statement. Be prepared too for lashing if the storyteller is the easily offended type or is a bona fide voter! 

9/10 you would get a sheepish smile with the reply he had not registered for the flimsiest of reasons and justifications. At the end of the day, he would emphasise that he only feeds on the crumbs of the droppings of the present day leaders, whosoever holds the helm. One devil would not be more righteous than the other. He may add that "Cows may come and cows may go, but this bull here (obviously referring to himself as a muscular alpha male type and not referring to his words that fall from his mouth like droppings, i.e. BS!) stays forever! But lest he forgot that cows are sensitive words in Malaysian politics that can lead him to trouble.

Come 5th of May 2013, these big talkers cannot complain much if the rest of the voting community decides to elect a mule as their leaders! These whiners just have to pick up their crumbs or droppings and move on....bray, bray, bray...