Podcast: Run-up to B'lore polls

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Keywords: Bangalore Problems, Elections

In the run-up to the first phase of elections, H R Venkatesh spoke to two Bangaloreans - one who chose to return from Canada and a former DGP of Gujarat who divides his time between Bangalore and the US. They talked about Bangalore's biggest problems and on whether reservation for Kannadigas in IT companies is a good idea.

H R Venkatesh: Hello and welcome to the News Junkie Podcast. We are in Bangalore getting in views from different Bangaloreans in the run-up to the first phase of elections in Karnataka, slated for the 10th of May. I have with me two interesting people - one is a senior citizen and one who has just finished studies and started working in Bangalore...Mr Ramchandran, former DGP of Gujarat he doesn’t live in Bangalore anymore. Thanks very much for coming on the show.

G Ramachandran: Nice being here with you, all my children are abroad, I lost my wife five years back. I have the best of both the worlds, I migrate to the states in summer and then I escape the winter there and spend five months here!

H R Venkatesh: And I also have Arjun Rao who did his Masters' in Canada and instead of taking up a job there, chose to come back to Bangalore, Arjun thanks very much for joining me.

Arjun Rao: Hi, it is nice to be here, I chose to come back because I am a Bangalorean at heart though I liked living in Canada. I always wanted to settle down in Bangalorean and was able to find a good job, so I am really happy to be here.

H R Venkatesh: Alright. Elections all over the place really but is it really something you think about Mr Ramachandran?

G Ramachandran: Yeah I do because we have been 6 months without a popular government. We don't know what the policy of the government is because there is no representative government. There is no responsibility, no accountability, corruption is flourishing all over the place and people voices are not heard and the democratic process is suffering. I mean Governor's rule, the governor is not the elected representative of the people. We must have representation, we must have to respond to the anxieties of the people, people who understand the needs of the people, anxieties of the people, their future, their budgeting priorities to be fixed...this is possible only in the popular form of government.

H R Venkatesh: Okay, Arjun you have come back after two and a half-three years. It must have been a bit of a shock looking at Bangalore? I am asking this because infrastructure is probably one of Bangalore's biggest problems.

Arjun Rao: Yeah way back in '97 it was still a small town and then we had the whole software explosion and just before I left it was expanding, but three years down the line it's really grown out of proportion since I've been back. I do ride a two wheeler I can definitely say that we have lot of issues about infrastructure.

H R Venkatesh: If there was one thing you would like to change about Bangalore what would it be?