Friday, December 05, 2003

Psephologists, anti-incumberency and other excessive hyphenations
Words that would otherwise test my primary-school cousin�s spelling-skills have become household lingo. This election�s media coverage has been very interesting (as always). India prides itself on being a very successful democracy and these are opportune moments to show off our unmatched skills in running and analysing these huge exercises. I have been following only NDTV�s coverage. Our liberal press tried to fool itself (again) by thinking that the Congress is the liberal-socialist-secular flagbearer of our nation simply because it happens to be the only longstanding opposition to the apparently �rightwing� BJP. Opinion polls showed what we wanted to see for the sake of preserving our constitutional fabric: 3:1 Congress to BJP.
But now it is 3:1 BJP to Congress.
The BJP has won. We have to necessarily force ourselves to accept it, but we still want to assert that this time it has not been hindutva. Should the liberal press accept BJP when even Murli Manohar �Astrology� Joshi seems to talk about �other� issues?
So we do the �grapes are after all sweet� thing. These elections have been advertised as landmark in terms of technology; in terms of professional management; and for its feminist successes. Another thing we should realise is that the Congress party deserved what it got. The only thing that seems to go in its way with the intellectuals is its supposed liberal credential. But with the BJP seen as moving away from its traditional exclusivist-rightwing mould, the congress has lost even that credibility (if it ever genuinely possessed it).
So did the Hindu-Nationalist BJP win and the Liberal-Secular Congress loose? According to our TV experts, good governance, professional management, young blood and grassroots power won; while neo-feudal, personality-centric, non-performing, ivory-tower-leader politics lost. Hmmm... Good for the country.
BTW the electronic voting machines seem to work like a dream. Years ago I remember Prannoy Roy starting his result analysis programmes in the late afternoon on the counting day(s). This time it started by morning and it was all over by late afternoon. Quick: considering the scale at which voting and counting takes place in our populous country.

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