B-Log

Irom Sharmila rebadges her strike and many are left holding the baby! In the Oscar winning movie 'Forrest Gump' of Tom Hanks, in which he plays a simpleton who happens to do good, there is an interesting scene. The hero who was on a running 'campaign' spree through the United  States of America has kicked up lot of public and media interest. It has grabbed lots of eyeballs and he is co-run by groups of people in different stretches. Differing interpretations are attributed to the run by the man who has managed to bring in a scholastic feel to the effort with the long beard which has grown on its own. But at one point, he just stops running for no reason. That is not true, actually he says he stopped because he was 'tired'. This jaw dropping act was embarrassing for the public and the media which were left wth their mouths and microphones open. Because, how can this be? (How)can someone deactivate a 'social movement' and walk off just like that? In a

Why should Pinarayi Vijayan Smile? The media has gone berserk because the new Chief Minister of Kerala is smiling. There is widespread feel of comfort that Mr. Pinarayi Vijayan has begun to smile. The 9 Pm TV debate appreciated the efforts taken by the new CM to keep smiling. Even the friendly visits around too are credited to the same smile account, with a broader lip spread. Somehow everyone seems to be coming around to the fact that he can smile and he is doing a good smiling job. Pinarayi Vijayan has been trending for a while on the media space ever since it was clear that  is he who will be at the helm of Kerala's affairs. Now the focus seems to have shifted to his face. Now, what has smile got to do with administration and governance? Didn't smiling ministers of the earlier dispensation tell us that they are clean? Didn't we see smiling rulers assert that their globally advertised 24 hour surveillance cameras conked out when certain people walked into their offi

V pat V pat is a hit, the media reported. There has been all round appreciation for the effort on the part of the Election Commission to address a concern on the part of the electorate to ensure their vote through the machine has been rightly recorded. The lone beep and flash of tiny bulb of the electronic voting seemed insufficient to those who have the inherent distrust of the system. Now the printed paper in the form of the vpat has allayed those fears. The paper which displays for seven seconds the truth of their vote is a kind of a pat on their back on the job well done and in their hearts, the voters, could be patting the system on its back too. My interest here is focussed not on the electorate's worries or the machine's performance.  Rather it is the name they have chosen for the system.  Voter- verified paper audit trail. This is what vpat stand for. This is the paper which assures the voter that he or she can verify whether his or her vote has been  (rightly) ca