Saturday's results as I would put it is a WIN-WIN situation for Indian democracy. The so-called 'weak' PM of India Manmohan Singh, was smiling and greeting people at 7, Race Course Road, while the self acclaimed strong PM candidate L.K. Advani was hiding and considering retirement. Indian voters displayed remarkable maturity and smartness in keeping both the Left and Right at bay and handing UPA (Congress) a resounding electoral win. As expected, all the election pundits and psephologists failed to read and understand the mind of voters and were way off the mark. Shobha De rightly states in her column -- "Gyaan givers should now go into hiding and hang up their brains."
The resurgence of UPA/Congress back into the power without the support of the left will expedite various economic reforms & policies such as opening up insurance sector for foreign investment and establishing Pension Regulatory and Development Authority to name a few. Authority. The importance and euphoria of having a stable UPA government w/o the support of opportunists Left can be fathomed from the fact that the stock trading was halted at upper circuit one minute after it began on Monday (a first timer in the history of Indian stock markets). Congress's victory proved that their two-pronged strategy of bringing in modern economic reforms and programmes such as nuclear deal, National Rural Employment Act worked well in their favor with both the urbal and rural class voting for them.
Congress turned to be the biggest winner, while BJP the biggest loser in these elections. BJP needs to understand that the pragmatic Indian Junta can't be won anymore by making hate speeches and hollow hindutva ideology. I can't agree more with MJ Akbar that "India is not a secular country just because Indian Muslims want it be secular, but because Indian Hindus want it to be secular." India needs leaders who can prevent Talibanisation of our culture and not create a Taliban.
Kudos to Indian voters for clipping the wings of leaders like Karat, Laloo, Mayawati, Mulayam, Jayalalitha, and Advani and showing that they care for good governance and not religion and caste based politics. By backing the good governance in states of Bihar, Orissa, and Tamil Nadu, Indian voters have shown that they have a come a long way and will only vote for people/party committed to India's development.
India has reinstated its faith in Manmohan Singh and with a few opportunist coalition partners around, economic reforms agenda should be pushed with a big thrust and India should be firmly placed on the path of economic prosperity and growth in the years to come. That said, it's now in the hands of the government to consolidate voter's faith that a stable government (with few partners) is indeed a strong government.
-Kartavya Jain
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2 comments:
psephology .. where on earth do you get these words? :)
Credit goes to Somya. She used to consistently pester me (in a +ve way) for having mediocre verbal skills....now you know how much effort did I put in to please her ;)
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