Feeling Proud

Blame it on too much time on my hand but I follow quite regularly a Pakistani newspaper, and for the past few days there has been effusive praise for Indian Polls and high drama following them in both the readers' letters and op-ed columns. A few excerpts, (hoping I don't get sued for reproducing these)

"India has a Muslim president (nominated to the post by a Hindu prime minister) while its new prime minister is a Sikh. In a country in which the majority belongs to the Hindu faith, this marks an extraordinary success for secularism."

"Mr Vajpayee, who belongs to the BJP (known for its extremist views in South Asia), accepted his defeat with good grace without taking shelter behind the excuse of rigging. In this way he proved the stability of democracy in India. It indicates not only the democratic spirit prevailing in that country, but also establishes an example of tolerance vital for the strength and sustainability of the democratic system."

"India has voted for secularism. A Christian woman of foreign birth having won the election lays down the robes of the highest elected position to a Sikh, who will be administered the solemn oath of office by a Muslim, in a country which is 85 per cent Hindu. Three cheers for secular India!"

I honestly cannot take pride in all these words of high praise as I didn't exercise my franchise in this huge electoral process which receives such admiration from our neighbours. But the state of our Politics is not too rosy to heave a sigh of relief. The idea of idealogy and ideals seems to have taken a backseat. How can NCP be part of the government and agree to Sonia Gandhi's candidature to Prime Minister's post when the idea of their very existence was to oppose it? Height of Hipocricy! And where is the sanctity of the people's verdict when JD(S) brought Congress back to power, which was 'rejected' by the populace? And the mercurial alliances the parties make and break, a la BJP-DMK and DMK-Congress at the drop of a hat? Just like mobile phone rates and David Beckham's (if u r gonna say hairstyle, sorry dood!) alleged affairs, party affiliations are subject to perpetual change.

But this makes me wonder if the conclusions drawn from the results are all too obvious. Disregarding the final tally of seats for a second, if we look at the vote share percent, BJP+ got 34.83% while Congress+ got 34.59% and others fill the remaining 27.14%. If just votes are counted, BJP, with help from some of the 'others', might have formed the government! In AP's assembly elections, despite the fatal beating it received from Congress, TDP got 37.33% against Congress's 38.25%. Doesn't that put all the sweeping conclusions -- like people outrightly rejecting BJP (or to be more general, Hindu Fundamentalism), or Sonia Gandhi winning the mandate for becoming PM, into perspective? Probably it is all, as some psephologist called, 'Electoral Maths', though I'd put my money on 'Sheer Cosmic Coincidence (SCC)'. I mean, how the hell did the Congress candidates manage to sneak ahead with that small margin in so many of the constituencies if not for the SCC?

Oh boy, I've shat shitloads and with an attention span that seems to be getting shorter and shorter, I can't remember what prompted me to blither ('write' is too high a word) thus. And to prepare myself for the next two years, I'm acknowledging my sources -- Loksabha figures taken from http://www.indian-elections.com and AP assembly figures from http://electionresults.indiainfo.com/ap.html. Now, there. Phew!