OLD POLITICIANS......NEW POLITICS

From last few days, you must have noticed a hyperlink following you wherever you go (like a Hutch network) on a newspaper sites, or even on gmail. This hyperlink is a portal created by the BJP Prime Minister candidate Sri Lal Krisna Advani, www.lkadvani.in. This is a way to establish a connect with the youth and is on the same lines as of Barack Obama.

This website exhibits the benefits of voting to BJP, conditions prevailing in Assam, his own career and life. It also contains blogs to pour the bitterness against Congress, enemies of secularism and the nation as a whole. These days, on eve of women’s week the home page says “I salute the women of India and the world”—LK Advani.

This is quite clearly a great innovation from a person who is neither a marketer nor has done a MBA degree, but he is just a politician serving his country from past so many years. This is actually a counter attack against all the existing ways of campaigning by other political parties and a unique way to create a sustainable competitive advantage in this election.

He is actually doing things differently to attract the largest youth population in the world. He was seen in a gym lifting dumbles, clearly illustrating the fact that he wants to remain fit to serve the people of the country as against many politicians who are of the age of retirement (Advani is older than many of those).

Congress tried to gauge this youth by introducing many faces....obviously young ones and giving them tickets to contest elections against the old heroes. So to fight this experience v/s youth trade-off, they, especially Advani has found innovative and unconventional way of marketing BJP to the hearts of younger generation of India.

But they have to understand that it’s not just about reach. Though internet will be a great medium for penetration of his and his party’s thoughts; but message is more important than medium. They must understand that the youth wants to know about employment, social security, poverty, economic conditions, and foreign affairs and the one who will be able to provide this to them and satisfy them on these issues will be the one who will form the government.

Batsmen, Bowlers and Bullets

Indians are obsessed with Cricket, but after the terrorist attacks at Mumbai, Ahmadabad, Bangalore, and Jaipur, they are obsessed with terror. The recent attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore can be interpreted as a clash between two of the greatest passions of the subcontinent – Cricket and Religion. Will this attack act as the dead end for the improving Indo-Pak relationship, which became better after a hiatus of 18 years in 1978???

Now the main question is what will happen to Pakistan cricket??? Already countries like England, New Zealand and Australia have refused to play in Pakistan. Now, after this incident which exposed the abysmal security situation in Pakistan, no country will be willing to send their precious gems there, only to get shot or injured and increase the ever growing pie of their problems.

The thing is, it will not only affect cricket in Pakistan, rather it will affect the entire subcontinent as a whole. The question: “How safe is India then???” remains unanswered. Hence, the shrapnel wounded Sri Lankan players would give a sound reason to tell everyone that IPL and World Cup and other major tours to the subcontinent are in jeopardy. The officials of IPL almost confirmed that the “clash of titans” will take place definitely but at a later time. The reason for this procrastination of the event is two fold: a need to beef up security; and Elections, which are scheduled at the same time as IPL.

This will be a setback to the cricket fans back home. This may bring a sort of exile to the game being played here. The situation may become more or less same as it was in South Africa which faced isolation from world cricket, but the passion towards the game kept Cricket alive there and they came back strongly.