Fortunate to have India’s democracy

My friends know I was clearly excited on the day the votes in India’s parliamentary elections were counted. I was very nervous that voters might return a fractured verdict. Voters proved all the pundits wrong by voting for stability with a clear preference for the leading coalitions UPA and NDA and rejecting the “parking lots.” and showed how smart they were. Rural voters thrashing NDA’s India Shining campaign is still fresh in memory. India’s voters have come of age. This is a great time for India’s democracy. It makes me so proud to be an Indian.

We just have to look at our neighbors to understand how lucky we are — Burma, Sri Lanka and Pakistan. I was watching Fareed Zakaria interviewing Pervez Musharraf on CNN and startled to hear this exchange.

ZAKARIA: Do you believe that the Pakistani military is a professional military, in control of the nuclear weapons, dedicated to fighting the Taliban? Or is there a need for some transition? Is there a need for a strategic mind shift?

MUSHARRAF: Five hundred percent, there is no need of any mind shift. These aspersions are caused by those who want to weaken Pakistan. Pakistan’s strength is its army. And anyone who wants to weaken Pakistan attacks the Pakistan army and the ISI. And unfortunately, I…

ZAKARIA: And you stand by both, the ISI and the army?

MUSHARRAF: Yes, yes. Yes, indeed. So, I personally think that there is some vicious campaign going on against Pakistan. Because if anyone wants to weaken Pakistan, attack these two institutions …

Musharraf is indeed correct. Pakistan’s strength is its army. I feel bad for our neighbors. And I feel so fortunate to be able to say my country’s strength is its democracy.

My thoughts on India’s elections

Great job India. In the land of elephants and cell phones, India’s Election Commission has done an outstanding job conducting fair elections and with prompt results (I’m looking at you Minnesota).

Overall result I wanted a clear mandate and I was not too concerned which party won. I favored the UPA over NDA. Glad that they won. Surprised at the resounding positive verdict in favor of UPA.

The left’s rout has been the sweetest part of this elections. I view them pretty much like Republicans in the US now. In the latter part of the previous Lok Sabha, all they did was oppose. Their policies hurt the poor people they claim to stand for. Dead because of their brain-dead opposition to the nuclear deal and their screw up in Nandigram. Good riddance.

Hindutva seems to have been kept at bay, at least for now. The BJP ran stupid personal attacks against Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Did you know that building a temple at Ayodhya was a part of their manifesto? And throw in Varun Gandhi. Thank Lord Rama, they failed.

Nice tweet by thecomicproject

@b50 I believe in pulling out all stops to win, but BJP whined..and whined. I guess a country wants winners not whiners.

The incumbents won. Looks like India is rewarding NREGA, farmer loan waiver, “inclusive growth”, and a clean leader in Dr. Singh. I like the clear message from India. Congress by itself has 200 seats, the highest by any single party since 1991.

Karunanidhi has come out on top yet again. This man is shrewd. Some thanks should go to Captain Vijayakanth for taking votes from AIADMK. PMK is fully routed. Sweet :)

3 for the price of 4 Laloo Prasad Yadav offered Congress only three seats as part of its seat-sharing. Congress went alone in Bihar. Laloo’s RJD now has only 4 seats in all. And, two of these are won by Laloo himself. He has to give up one. “3 for the price of 4″ heard on NDTV.

ECI’s website is down on this day :(

My endorsement: The party that has promised a time machine

It is election time in India. There are so many parties and factions and coming up with whom I want to endorse has been an intense though exercise. I have finally found a winner. My support goes to the Samajwadi Party (SP) led by Mulayam Singh Yadav.

Parties promise free electricity for farmers, free rice and so on. No party has managed to match SP’s vision. SP promises to invent a time machine and will take us all to a future time where things will be dramatically different. People will no longer be divided on the basis of religion or caste. They will no longer die of old age. There will be no more unemployment. Every one will be employed in hunting and gathering.

More from the party manifesto:

The Samajwadi Party has vowed to work against the use of English in education. [...] Wherever work can be done by hand, computers would be abolished. [...] The SP has also come out against mechanized farming [...]

It’s ‘buy election’ time in Tamil Nadu

Rediff.com has an interesting piece on the bye-election in Thirumangalam. It presents tidbits about the role played by caste, money and star power.

I never thought voters would be paid this high:

One voter admits to rediff.com that he received Rs 3000 for his vote. He expects more money to come his way, as there is still a week to go before the votes are cast.

The most interesting part was about independents contesting elections.

“Each candidate is allowed five agents in the counting centres and one agent inside every polling booth. So parties put up five to six independents. Thus they can have six of their own agents in every booth and 30 people inside the counting centres. Thus they are prepared for any disturbance inside. Moreover, every candidate gets a vehicle pass for three vehicles only. Six independents means 18 vehicle passes, do you see now?”

Whenever I ponder and talk to people about why India is the way it is, I end up concluding that people (as a group) get what they want, and what they deserve. This article strengthened that view.

PS: I stole their headline