All indications are that the country's people are ready for a change. A change from the usual way of doing business and politics, which, as they currently are, is riddled with favoritism and corruption, and with the average Indian feeling weakened both economically and politically.
The prevailing sentiment appears to be a combination of two recent successful Democratic slogans, "It's the economy, stupid" and "Yes, we can." The "yes, we can." however, increasingly reflects a nationalistic spirit that is worried about India beginning to fall behind the world's larger economies, and particularly behind China. India and China became politically the countries that they are now almost at the same time--India in 1947 and China in 1949. For the first three decades, both these countries experienced slow economic growth rates and their respective populations lived seemingly comparable lives in material terms, with the Chinese having a lot less freedom than what was enjoyed by the Indians.
The prevailing sentiment appears to be a combination of two recent successful Democratic slogans, "It's the economy, stupid" and "Yes, we can." The "yes, we can." however, increasingly reflects a nationalistic spirit that is worried about India beginning to fall behind the world's larger economies, and particularly behind China. India and China became politically the countries that they are now almost at the same time--India in 1947 and China in 1949. For the first three decades, both these countries experienced slow economic growth rates and their respective populations lived seemingly comparable lives in material terms, with the Chinese having a lot less freedom than what was enjoyed by the Indians.
The economic balance started shifting in China's favor ever since Deng Xiaoping opened up the Chinese economy and openly stated that it was good to get rich. India opened up its partially closed economy a decade later, and has found it to be quite a challenge to catch up with China's economic achievement. India's economic growth rate has slowed down to about 4.8 percent, which is considerably less than China's 7.7 percent. Interestingly, and ironically, the two countries even seem to be on a race for whose capital city is the smoggiest--Beijing or New Delhi!
Meanwhile, India's politics, from the federal government and Parliament down to the local levels, is increasingly corrupt, and with a bureaucracy that is as inflexible and antiquated as it ever has been. Thus, to employ that famous phrase from the Hollywood hit "Network," it is no surprise that millions of Indians appear to be shouting in unison "I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!"
So, who will the voters choose? That is the six billion dollar question. The campaign expenses are expected to exceed five billion dollars, and the government estimates the election logistics will cost slightly less than a billion dollars.
Odds are looking highly favorable for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its leader, Narendra Modi. Both the BJP and Modi have cultivated a nationalistic spirit, bordering on jingoism. The party and Modi also have strong associations with Hindu nationalist groups. Modi is alleged to have had a hand in the anti-Muslim riots in 2002, though subsequent government inquiries have cleared him of those charges. It is for these reasons that the US State Department has also denied Modi a visa to visit this country. If Modi gets elected Prime Minister, I suppose we here would have an interesting and controversial political question to resolve.
It certainly appears that India will be in for yet another major transformation, which began with the first general elections that were held in the end of 1951 and early 1952. During those elections, my father, who is now 84 years old, was a newly minted civil engineer and had started on his first post-college job in the public works department. Like many government officials, he too was posted as a presiding officer to oversee the elections. His assignment was in a remote village deep in the southern part of India.
It certainly appears that India will be in for yet another major transformation, which began with the first general elections that were held in the end of 1951 and early 1952. During those elections, my father, who is now 84 years old, was a newly minted civil engineer and had started on his first post-college job in the public works department. Like many government officials, he too was posted as a presiding officer to oversee the elections. His assignment was in a remote village deep in the southern part of India.
When I talked with father, he recalled the emotions in the country where the educated and the illiterate, males and females, the rich and the poor, were all equally excited about self-governance and selecting their representatives. Father is of the older generation who are alive and who can personally relate it all to having been under the British rule, and witnessing as youngsters the struggle to free India and its peoples. He is convinced that now the political system is broken, and is not what he imagined it would be when he oversaw the elections in that remote village 62 years ago. But, at least he is free to criticize the system without worrying about any overlords--something that is not easy to do in China.
I wish him many more opportunities to exercise his political preferences, and wish him and his fellow citizens a corruption-free and prosperous future they deserve.
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