Vox Populi

When the people of India voice their verdict, the noise is deafening and its echoes can be heard for a long time. Just as well because, sometimes "it takes a loud noise to make the deaf hear". The 2009 election verdict has been sounded by the people of India and it has made people sit up and take notice and the deaf among them too are straining their ears to hear it.

The most fascinating aspect for me of any election is the fact that among all the cacophony of politicians the masses await in silence and then on election day deliver their verdict and finally on the day of results their verdict is sounded to the politicians which finally ends their cacophony and hubris.

This year's verdict was definitely for a stable government hence the total rejection of the third front "spoilers" and a rally for stable central parties which in this case were the UPA and NDA. However as one identified this shift and geared up to take advantage the other was blinded by parochial thought and missed the opportunity. On paper both the UPA and NDA had similar things to offer - same economic, foreign and domestics policies. So why did the UPA succeed in winning the election whereas the NDA lost out?

The primary reason i feel is the approach they took in connecting to the people. The Congress spoke of equitable development and youth oriented policies on the other hand the BJP raked up communal issues (read Varun Gandhi's speech, Kandhamal, Managlore pub fiasco etc) and in a disgusting way tried to make capital on it in the elections. Though the UPA had put up a decent performance it was not spectacular, hence the BJP could have highlighted the UPA's inefficiencies and made it a political issue. But they didn't and went back to regressive identity politics. The voter rejected these regressive issues and backed the Congress's development agenda. The BJP had a similar strategy in 2004 by misusing the Gujarat riots but it failed miserably. They repeated the mistake and the people too repeated the dose and handed them defeat.

Another reason was the fact that Advani knowing that this was his last chance at the top job desperately tried to create a direct match-up with Manmohan Singh and in his desperation made unilateral personal attacks and effected a personality contest. Manmohan Singh in spite of his perceived shortcomings was largely seen as a decent man who heralded the economic resurgence of India and add to the fact that Advani's own contributions to India polity were at best dubious made it a no contest as far as the people were concerned. Also, Indians do not like a decent man humiliated in public, hence this was a major factor in turning the people away from the BJP.

Also significant was the young face projected by the Congress in the form of Rahul Gandhi who inspired the youth not least in UP where the Congress made an astonishing comeback. The BJP did not have any such young face after the octogenarian Advani. Shockingly, the youngest face projected by them as a Prime Ministerial candidate - in the middle of the campaign at that - was a mass murderer!

A tight slap was also reserved to the Left wing comrades who in their zest for their archaic ideology kept India's national interest on the line. Thankfully their deranged adventure did not work. However the Indian people watched all their shenanigans and have now given a fitting reply by reducing them to their smallest tally in decades. One more party given a lesson to learn from the people.

Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. So the winners have to be careful to stay grounded and not to gloat over their victory. Instead its a time for them to get their hands dirty in the task of taking the country ahead. The vanquished too have an obligation to learn the lessons thought by the people and gear themselves to serve the people better.

The Wizard of Oz

The bowler at the top of his mark has donned the sun scream like a war paint. He twitches his flannels a bit , giving the keeper some hint. He keeps tweaking the ball in his hand as if giving it practice before he hurls it at the batsman. He starts his bowling run up - no its just a walk, he gathers himself at the bowling crease , the shoulders rotate like a catapult and finally the wrist cast a spell on the ball which loops in the air landing outside the batsman's leg stump. The batsman turns to counter the spin, but the ball knows better, it beats his defence and turns viciously missing the off-stump by a whisker, the keeper moves swiftly to collect the ball and lets out a war cry that resonates around the ground - 'Bowled Shane!!'. Shane Keith Warne has bowled his first delivery of the morning. Phew. Now get ready for the second ball of a mesmerizing 30-over spell from the Wizard of Oz.

Shane Warne along with Brian Lara are two of the most charismatic cricketer's of our time. He was rated as one of the top five cricketers of the century no less (as some experts jokingly put it, he might still have a shot at the title for this century too!) and at the time of retiring was the highest wicket taker in test cricket and took a whopping 1001 international wickets. But statistics tell only the half truth, they do not tell us the way those wickets were taken, how they inspired his team and thrilled the cricket lovers around the world.

At the start of his career Shane Warne found the art he practised almost extinct. The previous decades of relentless fast bowling mainly by the great West Indian sides of the 70s and 80s had rendered leg spinners unfashionable, a liability even. The leg spinner they said inherently lacked control and consistency which frustrated captains. In stead captains went for the fast bowlers or for spin went back to the good old off-spinners who lacked the leg-spinner's subtlety and variations but made up through consistency. Shane Warne changed all that. This leg spinner could turn the ball a mile , had the variations and more importantly had the consistency. Above all he had personality, his sheer body language could get people out. All these ingredients made Warne almost a force of nature which no one could resist. The best illustration of this was the fact that after Warne burst on to the scene all the fast bowling clinics in Australia started running empty as every kid in Australia was snapping his wrists trying to do a Shane Warne!

Warne was more than a cricketer, he was an aura. He spun the ball a mile , he drifted it and made it bounce and turn sharply. But more than that he used to get the batsman out in the mind. Ask the numerous English and South African players who owe their demises to him, he just psyched them out before bowling a ball. However for all his triumphs, he came unstuck against the Indian batsman time and again, you could attribute that to the fact that he bowled to the Indians when he had undergone major surgeries. Though he redeemed his reputation in the 2004 series, the failure against Indian batsman remain a singular black spot on his career.

There are very few people who change the face of the game they play. Pele in Football, Ayertan Senna in F1 or Rod Laver in Tennis. Similarly Warne changed the face of cricket by bringing Leg spin back into focus, he made it de rigueur so that youngsters around the world got inspired to take up the art. The art though did not become easier it just became more attractive. Like other people around the world I became a part of the Shane Warne fan club after seeing his magic on the field. I keenly followed his cricket right from his early exploits in England, the ball of the century, winning the 1999 world cup in England and until his final bow in early 2007. I personally thought that his best period was between 1993 and 1998, his shoulder was strong, he bowled all the variations - leg spin, googly, top spinner and even the flipper. However during his last few years he showed another dimension to him, like the master who discovers the art of simplicity towards the end of his life he was at his most simplest but as effective as ever. All through i admired his skill and hoped to watch him up close some time.

My wish was realised in the winter of 2004 when the Australian team played a test match in Bangalore. I was there and more importantly Warne was there and the first delivery i saw him bowl he got a wicket, VVS Laxman LBW. It was an amazing co-incidence. As much disappointed as i was some part of me was happy that Warne took the wicket. It was always like that when Australia played India, I hoped Warne took a five-wicket haul but India eventually won!

As Warne retired in 2007 the world thought it had seen all he had to offer. They were wrong. The IPL proved otherwise. It showed the side that the world had not seen before , that of a Captain. The way he went about making an underdog team that had no business aspiring to be among the big boys run away with the trophy was just amazing. He was the only reason to watch an otherwise over-hyped and over-commercialized tournament. He proved the primacy of cricketing instinct over the prevalent high-tech mode that cricket had got into with laptops and all. He also proved once and for all the theory of cricket experts had whispered all along that he along with Keith Miller was the best captain Australia never had.

Probably , we will appreciate the true worth of Warne after he's gone and like the generation that saw Bradman we will tell the people around us then that we were the lucky people who saw the great Shane Warne bowl.