The English learned TWO dogs were foregone with scooter, rickshaws, bicycles and bullock carts…………….

Professor Arvind Panagariya article published in The Economic Times (23 April 2009) was a beam beat which came after the Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav who announced if his party voted he will ban the English in Uttar Pradesh “ this is brilliant idea” said Prof Panagairya but ‘worse yet’ the article begun by quoting the below lines: 

They said Ned Ludd was an idiot boy

That all he could do was wreck and destroy 

He turned to his workmates and said:’ Death to Machines’

They tread on our future and they stamp on our dreams. 

(Poet and performer Robert Calvert from his 1985 album Freq) 

Why I am taking note of this article meant this article was not posted in online before the election. 

There is quite interesting lines in his article: 

• “In the early 19th century, great Luddites, so named after the fictive Ned Ludd, fought against the Industrial Revolution that introduced wide-framed automated looms. Protesting the job losses, the Luddites destroyed many of these looms and even clashed with the British Army. 
  
• But unappreciative, British government subjected them to a mass trial, eventually executing some of them. With the IT revolution unleashing the computer, history may now be poised to repeat itself. The Mulayamites have declared war against the computer. Will the electorate reward them? Or will it give them the same treatment the British government gave the Luddites in the early 19th century? ” 
  

And he has written another article in today’s The Economic Times in which he says: 

• “…a dog that did not bark but for a reason, just as in the famous Sherlock Holmes tale Silver Blaze by Arthur Canon Doyle, and the other of a dog that did bark but no one noticed.  
  
• It needs reminding that in social sciences, usually no single theory explains everything. Especially when three or more candidates contest for the same seat, even minor alternative factors can tip the balance. Therefore, counter-examples showing the victory of non-performers and defeat of performers can scarcely invalidate the anti-incumbency hypothesis.  
  
• So meticulous was the Election Commission that in Banej village of Junagarh constituency in Gujarat, it established a polling station for a lone voter! With some exceptions, polling stations carried voter lists that included photos of voters to prevent impersonation. On top, voters were required to bring their photo identifications. Polling was spread over four weeks and carried out in five phases. 
  
• Finally, thanks to electronic voting machines, counting of the results was completed within a day. Even recounting in closely fought elections was completed amicably within the same day and, unlike in the United States, actual votes rather than judiciary decided the outcome! “