From: sundar@indigo1.hsis.uci.edu (M. Sundaramoorthy)
Subject: Re: Situation in Madras
Newsgroups: soc.culture.tamil
Organization: University of California, Irvine
Date: 28 Sep 92 17:09:32 GMT

In article <1992Sep26.151632.23936@samba.oit.unc.edu> Veeramany.Sthanumurthy@bbs.oit.unc.edu (Veeramany Sthanumurthy) writes:
>In article <2AC346A9.27464@news.service.uci.edu> sundar@indigo1.hsis.uci.edu (M. Sundaramoorthy) writes:
>>
>> 	You sound as if all the 850 million people have voting right and  all
>>	of them voted in the last elections against VP Singh. Everyone knows
>>	how the democracy works in India. If there are 100 voters, only
>>	60 vote. If there are four parties contesting (leave the independents)
>>	and the votes distribution, for example, is 20, 17, 13 and 10, the
>>	one with 20 votes is the winner.
>>
>>	VP Singh was kicked out after he tried to implement Mandal Commision
>>	recommendations, thanks to the onslaught of the  upper caste dominated
>>	press, for whome he was Mr. Clean till then.
>>	
>>M. Sundaramoorthy
>>sundar@indigo1.hsis.uci.edu  
>
>I fail to see what all this is supposed to mean. 
	
	If you delete the original comment of another netter to which the  
	quoted lines of mine was a response, it doesn't mean anything.

>I don't think that 
>Sundaramoorthy implies that 850 million (or whatever it is) are not
>of voting age. 

	Yes I do imply. The original comment of the netter, which you have
	deleted in your follow up, was that VP Singh was kicked out by 850 
	million people last year.
	
	850 million is the total population of India in the recent census.
	To my knowledge, the newborn babies do not have voting right in
	India and if they have, it is a news to me.

	As I remember 300 million voted in 1989 elections and even if there
	was 10% increase in the electorate, it would not be more than 350
	million last year.
	 
>As for the voter turnout, it is not much better in
>many other democracies. (Australia has a penalty for not voting and
>how is it there? Perhaps VR Kumar can comment.) 

	I am very well aware of this fact. The arithmatic is only to demonstrate
	not all the '850 million' could have voted to kick VP Singh out, even
	if all were granted voting right. 

	In a multiparty democracy it can work only that way. In a two party
	democracy, the philosophy 'winner takes everything' may be logical,
	because at least one will surely have the 'majority' support. But in a
	multiparty democracy, only 'proportional representation' can be
	more meaningful.

>VP Singh was
>kicked out only because of the press (upper caste)? 

	It may not be the only reason. But what else do you think was the reason
	that made him untouchable to the press within an year? Multi million
	scandal or murders in the name of God?.

>I don't think 
>that these kinds of gratuitous self-serving allegations help anybody's 
>cause.

	You are entitled to have your opinion. 
>
>Sthan.
>
>PS. The Mandal commission recommendations involved much more serious
>differences of opinions than you point out. You are being disngenuous
>to a fault or merely posturing.
>--
	The Commission was appointed in late 70s by the Janata government
	and the report has been put in the cold storage by the successive
	governments of Indira and Rajiv. The 'serious differences of opinions'
	didn't pop up in the press for a decade. Not even during the
	campaign of 1989 elections, when National Front election
	manifesto contained a promise to implement.

M. Sundaramoorthy
sundar@indigo1.hsis.uci.edu