Though such principles and practices have been remarkable for their absence from our polity ever since Indira Gandhi's authoritarian regime which culminated in the Emergency, most of our netas have tried to convince us by putting up a show that these considerations - accountability of governance, the pursuit of social and economic justice, etc - are indeed part and parcel of the bori-bistar of our democracy.
Everyone knew, of course, that this was only a show, a tamasha put up for our benefit. Like the clown's routine in a circus, for a while the show was amusing. Then it began to become tedious, like a clown's act which goes on for too long, and finally it became an insult to the citizen's intelligence.
Now, with admirable candour, Manmohan Singh, following the example of Lalu Prasad and Narendra Modi, has brought the curtain down on this theatre of political hypocrisy by telling us in totally unambiguous terms what Indian democracy is all about, shorn of all stage props: it is only about winning power and hanging on to it by any means possible, once you have got it. The prime minister said as much when he brushed aside the opposition's charge of the cash-for-votes episode which occurred during the tenure of UPA-I. Singh's argument was that the fact that the coalition government had won the people's vote and been reborn as UPA-II was enough to absolve its previous avatar of any charge that might be levelled against it. The message of the PM (who himself hasn't won an election) was clear: Indian democracy is about the winning of elections and nothing else. Once you have won at the hustings you can justify anything that you do by claiming that you have the people's mandate to do it. In other words, electoral might is not only right, it is the only right that exists in our democracy.
Lalu Prasad had used a similar argument when, as chief minister of Bihar, he was indicted by a court of law for his involvement in a scam. At that time he had famously proclaimed that the only court he was answerable to was the 'court of the people'. In other words, his winning of an election was absolution for any crimes he might commit, before or after the event.
That same argument has been used by supporters of Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi, who has yet to be cleared of his alleged implication in the post-Godhra riots in the state. That Modi - billed as the architect of 'resurgent Gujarat' - won the subsequent election is seen by his followers as a baptism by ballot which has cleansed him of all taint.
Manmohan, Modi and Lalu - for all their seeming ideological differences - represent the common reality of India's democracy: political power is its own justification. Might is right. Jiski lathi, uski bhains (the owner of the lathi, owns the buffalo). Or, to update the saying: Jiski jeet, uska desh.
Not in the recent past has there been such a buzz over web browsers. The big players -- Internet Explorer, Chrome, Firefox and Opera -- all hit cyberspace last month with significant changes. And this has resulted in everyone -- from the nerd to the average next-door lay-user -- getting into a vociferous compare-and-contrast game pitting one browser against the other.
The first off the block was IE9 on March 14. This was followed by Opera 11.10 Beta on March 17, Firefox 4 on March 22 and Chrome 11 Beta on March 23.
But the most significant upgrade has been done by Microsoft to its Internet Explorer. IE9 is unlike its predecessors. The big flipside, however, is that it will instal only on Windows 7 and Vista.
When you open IE9, what strikes you first is the reduced browser area, which means greater space for the website – an improvement that Microsoft says provides the user “a clean experience”. This is indeed a huge improvement over earlier versions that had too many browser controls occupying the screen.
Earlier versions of IE also suffered from lack of speed, which the upgrade has addressed. “If you look at the industry benchmarks, for Javascript for example, IE9 is the fastest,” claims Brian Hall, general manager, Internet Explorer, who was in Bangalore for last week's three-day Microsoft Tech-Ed. “We have achieved this by drawing power from the graphic processing unit, which is much faster compared to the CPU; the browser is powered by the entire PC not just the CPU, in what is called full hardware acceleration.”
He said IE9 is the only browser that has an integrated malware and antivirus scanner. “We have phishing protection, which means we alert you when you access a site that contains malware or doesn’t have proper security certificate. You will be warned if you try to download a file that has a malware,” he said.
PINNING SITES
In addition to the Favourites (Microsoft’s terminology for bookmarks), IE9 has a new feature called Pinning Sites to Taskbar, similar to what it introduced in Windows 7. You can do that by clicking and pulling the website icon on the address bar to the task bar. The one advantage is you can access pinned sites without opening the browser; and you can also see notifications and updates. By right-clicking the pinned site, the user can also make use of a feature called Jump Lists, wherein he can go directly to a particular section of a website: for example the local news in the news website.
DO NOT TRACK
Tracking of users’ online behaviour (for eg: the type of sites visited, the type of links clicked etc) by websites and third-party content providers have become rampant and have raised issues of individual privacy. Earlier websites used to do this by dropping cookies on the user’s PC, and one could guard against it by blocking cookies. Now, there are more subtle ways of tracking online behaviour.
This has led to the creation of an online ‘tracking protection list’, similar to the ‘do not call’ registry for phone subscribers. “This provides the user a chance to opt out of being tracked. IE9 enables users to add these lists. Once added, Internet Explorer will send a Do Not Track preference or signal to websites visited by the user, and also to third-party content providers on those sites,” said Hall.
DÉJÀ VU FEELING
Another major improvisation in IE9 is the One Box feature, wherein the address bar also functions as a search box. This means the user doesn’t have to open a new browser to go to a search engine, but instead can key in the search words right in the address bar.
Though it is a radical improvement to the earlier versions, regular users of Google’s Chrome aren’t going to be impressed. The minimalist user interface feature was one of the hallmarks of Chrome, which gave it a different look from other browsers. It is one feature that is liked by its fans. The One Box feature is another. Chrome has it; in fact right from day one.
So, has Microsoft been a bit too late in the day? Brian Hall’s answer to it was: “Being first isn’t always the best. Some of our competitors had to pull out some features since they weren’t working. What we are focused on is to give the best web experience to the user. We are not into any sort of browser war.”
Though Microsoft has adopted some features from Chrome, it has improved upon them. For example, One Box gives you options for search engines, unlike Chrome. This means, while on Chrome it’s always Google, on IE9 it’s not just Bing but even Google or any other search engine that the user prefers to add. Also the user can turn off the search option on the address bar: a feature Chrome doesn’t have.
WAR OF WORDS
IE9’s claim of speeding up browsing with “full hardware acceleration” came in for criticism from Mozilla. Robert O’Callahan, who works on Mozilla’s graphics infrastructure, wrote on his blog that IE9’s claims are a myth. Detailing his observations about various commonly-cited benchmarks, he said, “It's true that some graphics benchmarks consistently report better scores for IE9 than for Firefox...but the performance differences are explained by relatively small bugs in Firefox, bugs in IE9, and bugs in the benchmarks, not due to any major architectural issues in Firefox (as Microsoft would have you believe).”
IE9 can be installed only Windows 7 or Vista. This has been a major complaint especially from users who have PCs running on other Windows versions. In fact, Mozilla wondered how IE9 could be the best browser, when it can’t run on Windows XP but only on Windows 7 and Vista.
Brian Hall’s response to that was a browser is only as good as the operating system. “We had to make some sacrifices to ensure the high quality of IE9. The hardware acceleration uses the power of the OS. Besides this, there was no point in tying the browser to a 10-year-old OS, which means tethering the web to the past.”.
WHAT'S NEW IN THE BROWSERS
In a nut-shell here's what the new browsers are offering:
INTERNET EXPLORER 9
-- Full hardware acceleration, wherein the browser is powered by the entire PC rather than the CPU.
-- Pin multiple home pages in a single pinned site on the task bar and open several web pages simultaneously.
-- Look up multiple search engines simultaneously by typing in the key words in the address bar.
MOZILLA FIREFOX 4
-- Six times faster than previous version, with hardware accelerated graphics.
-- Sync bookmarks, web history, open tabs and form data across multiple computers and mobiles.
-- Prevents cross-scripting attacks by allowing sites to tell browser which content is legitimate.
OPERA 11.10 BETA
-- Improved Speed Dial that lets users access favourite sites faster.
-- New layout choices in customization
-- An improved zoom slider that lets user fit a 5-column layout within the monitor.
Downloads flash plugin downloads automatically and installs in the background.
CHROME 11 BETA
-- Voice support for web pages. This means, users can speak into the microphone and dictate text messages and emails, set wakeup alarm, view a map, write a note, go to a website etc.
Netizens have found a new source for their fix of political satire: They get it on Twitter. The recent cabinet reshuffle was a case in point. While rest of India debated over who was going out and who was coming in, those on the microblog service were enjoying a few chuckles. They were lapping up the tweets of Dr Yum Yum Singh and Sonia GaXdhi – satirical profiles of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and UPA Congress chief Sonia Gandhi that lampooned political absurdities.
Just some time before the reshuffle, Yum Yum Singh tweeted “Dear @Sonia-GaXdhi No matter how much I reshuffle, the same jokers turn up!” much to the delight of his followers who number in the thousands.
“Sonia GaXdhi and Dr Yum Yum Singh give me a much-desired laugh about politicians and daily events,” says Gagandeep Sapra, aka The Big Geek, who follows Yum Yum Singh on Twitter. “People feel the need for a responsive government. But despite regulations and despite the RTI, many things happen behind closed doors. Satire is a way to let off steam and makes for interesting and light-hearted conversation.”
But Yum Yum Singh and GaXdhi are not the only faux accounts modelled after desi politicians on Twitter. Apart from the big two, there are several accounts targeted at Rahul Gandhi. And there is one named Raja DiggVijay Singh for, well, Digvijay Singh.
With UPA in power – it seems – most of the spoofs are targeted at its leaders, and for now, at least, BJP leaders have escaped the lampooners.
The account for J_Jayalalitha claims she is “the only hope for TN in 2011” while an account called Muu_Kaa has been created as a spoof for DMK leader K Karunanidhi.
Of course, the quality of satire varies from personality to personality.
“Not all spoof accounts are funny; some of these guys resort to cheap antics. Tweets from Raja DiggVijay’s, and those targeting Rahul Gandhi are bland,” avers Tarun Sreevats, an advertising professional who has been on Twitter since 2008.
“But tweets coming from Dr Yum Yum Singh and Sonia GaXdhi can make for a few good laughs,” he says.
A look at Yum Yum Singh’s Twitter profile – where he claims to be “in her majesty’s service” – reveals how popular he is among his countrymen. Singh is followed by over 6,300 users.
Sonia GaXdhi’s account is followed by over 3,000 members.
But the true significance of the account’s reach is not in the numbers. It’s in the quality of followers and how well connected they are. According to Klout, a website that measures influence of Twitter users, Yum Yum Singh scores 70 point; just one point shy of what Shashi Tharoor, the most widely followed Indian politician, scores.
Besides, Yum Yum Singh has been retweeted over 5,000 times. An impressive figure when you consider that the number of posts on the account are a little over 2,500. This means that – on an average – each of his tweet is retweeted at least twice.
In a country like India where being politically correct always scores over political satire, Twitter characters such as Yum Yum Singh and Sonia GaXdhi are a rarity. But Shrivats fear that as they get more popular, real leaders may not find the antics too amusing.
Gagandeep, however, is confident that Yum Yum Singh and the likes of him are here to stay. “The real leaders can’t do much about it. The internet is dependent on noncensorship… However, anything that is reckless, against the society norms, and hurts public sentiment is avoided and will be shut down by most service providers, but this is just humour… A crackdown on these accounts could also have a bad effect politically,” he says.
“Some leaders may not like it, but they just have to live with it. It’s all for a laugh and people like Yum Yum Singh are doing a great job of it. Now I’d like to see our politicians do their job, which is running the country effectively.”
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