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Karnataka in contrast to Kerala and TN, have not been a host to radical social movements. But, the people of Karnataka have risen up time and again; when the question of existence of Kannada and survival of Kannadiga are questioned. One instance is the Gokak Chaluvali where Dr. Rajkumar and others made a mass uprising to force the Govt. to go back-foot w.r.t status accorded to Kannada language in academics. The Gundu rao government’s policy to favor the linguistic minority was met with fierce opposition and such incidents have happened after his regime too. The opposition to introduction of Urdu news cutting into Kannada news air time is still lingering in memory even though it happened a good 10 years ago. If we take a look at the recent elections in Karnataka, there are some interesting insights.  List of parties which stood election in Karnataka: 32 excluding independents (1) 65% voting was witnessed in Karnataka state elections. (2) Even though Congress secured more votes than...

In the 2009 Indian general elections, the Indian National Congress (Congress) won 206 seats and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won 116 seats out of a total of 543 seats. Five years ago, the Congress and the BJP had won 145 and 138 seats respectively. A jubilant Sonia Gandhi reiterated that Manmohan Singh will be Congress Party’s choice for the prime minister. Manmohan Singh will be the first Prime Minister after Jawaharlal Nehru to return to power after a full five-year term. In short, Indian electorate’s love affair with the Nehru-Gandhi family continued. Most of the poll pundits had predicted a spilt verdict and regional parties would be crucial in forming the government. This was completely dismissed by the “Indian Voter” who chose stability over the change. The rejection of the Left and its brigade would be the best example for the decision made by the Indian electorate. What went wrong for BJP or what clicked for Congress? There is a fundamental truth to political communication:...