Indian elections

For a few days now, I have been toying with the idea of starting a blog. I suppose its mostly out of a bloated sense of self-importance! At any rate, the recent Indian elections seemed like a good excuse to web-ify my rants from time to time. So here goes ...

The dance of democracy in India has certainly thrown up more than its fair share of surprises. Firstly, the defeat of the BJP-led coalition shocked and surprised most political pundits. The I-told-you-so'ers like Swaminathan Aiyar in the Times of India were a minority. Whether people had an issue with BJP's policies or not, everybody was sad to see Mr. Vajpayee leave. His holding out the olive branch to Pakistan, in spite of Musharaf's backstabbing etc., will probably be his crowning achievement in the history books to come. Jim Hoagland, in his column in the Washington Post thinks the increasing closeness of Vajpayee administration with the US cost the incumbents dearly. Likening Brajesh Mishra, the national security advisor, to Star Wars' Yoda, Hoagland bemoans the defeat of the NDA government.

Congress, under Sonia Gandhi seems to have gone the Madonna way - by reinventing itself. Rather, it has gone back to its time-tested campaign tactics - the dynasty and food, water, power slogan. In one of her speeches, Ms. Gandhi says it was time "to do something for the poor". How wonderfully vague! What's more, it seems to satisfy the Indian voter! It was certain that Sonia Gandhi's foreign origin would become an issue now that she had a real shot at the top job.

The communist parties (yup, they're still around!) were suddenly thrust into the national limelight. With the support of the Left a necessity for minority Congress to survive in the Parliament, people had to take notice of what the Left parties had to say. And boy, they fired some serious shots at the business community. Demolish the privatization ministry, they said. The issue Sonia Gandhi's foreign origin and now the left parties' shenanigans. This one-two punch was too much for the markets and the indices tumbled. Brokers must've been saying, 'gravity sucks!' And then began a day or two of "will she? won't she?" suspense. Will Sonia Gandhi lead the next Indian government? Many of the major newspaper editorials pooh-poohing BJP's criticism's of the foreign issue used big words like inclusiveness, plural ethos etc. in supporting Ms. Gandhi's bid. Some like the Pioneer didn't share those sentiments. Finally, following her "inner voice," she declined the PM post. The die-hard Congress loyalists were aghast. Many others breathed a collective sigh of relief. And a few like Mike Marqusee in the Guardian cannot resist using the "R" word. He thinks Indian Hindus are racists. Hmm.. I wonder black men and women Britain or the United States has elected to serve in the highest offices?! That might be too much to ask for, given that in America's centuries old democratic traditions, the first Catholic President was JFK!

As the dust settles down, Dr. Manmohan Singh, best known for starting the economic reforms in '91, is set to take over as the Prime Minister. Like Mr. Vajpayee, Dr. Singh is well-respected man both in India and abroad. Congratulations, Mr. Prime Minister!

On a related note, in the Andhra Pradesh (AP) assembly elections, the cyber savvy Chief Minister, Chandrababu Naidu was voted out of office. George Manbiot, in his column in the Guardian has an interesting note about it. According to him, Naidu's defeat amounts to Tony Blair's defeat since all those programs that were so doggedly pursued in AP were planned out by the US consultancy agency, McKinsey and financed partly by Blair's government.