Rumi Nations

Although the High Court today agreed with the judgment of the lower court about the death sentence given to Kasab, I'm sure we are still some distance from the final denouement. The Supreme Court is still there. Most likely, it will agree with the opinion of the High Court as it does in most cases. And the villainy in this case was probably perpetrated in a rather public manner making it quite easy for the Court and the prosecutors and quite tough for the defense. Oh, and we should not forget that this is what passes for a fast trial in India. The usual humdrum trial takes far longer than Kasab's trial has taken. After the Supreme Court, there's the appeal to the President of India. The President likes to take a lot of time — historically. All in all, may be by November 26 next, Kasab will still be around and then there will be some hue and cry about why he is still around. Beyond that, I am not sure.

I was thinking if the present system of voting needs to be changed in a country like the United States. After all, people are probably more passionate about their reality TV shows and social networking fora such as Facebook, etc. So, instead of mounting a nationwide voting exercise, perhaps a poll could be set up on Facebook where people could vote for their favorite candidate. Of course, there would be scope for various frauds such as multiple voting ... mechanisms would need to be devised to prevent them. Similarly, people could vote for the President on other online platforms as well. Perhaps, simply put, the idea should be that if someone goes online, there should be around 90 percent chance of that person coming across the Presidential ballot. All the major email providers must host it. The benefit of this method is obvious: people would find it far more convenient to vote for a President this way and therefore would bother to vote. At the end of the day, it might turn out that mo...