India Votes - and How!

Ajay, who is many years senior to me at the place that I work, declared with a grin early yesterday morning that if the NDA got less than 230, he would treat everyone in the office to biriyani and drinks. Diya Mehra, another colleague of mine, would treat us all “just as long as the BJP was defeated”, she said. Quraishy used a particularly pungent Bengali phrase to indicate that with the current result, far from a mere daaru-and-biriyani treat, Ajay would have to “throw all that he owns in the air with sheer joy”.

We’re happy. Really kicked. None of us had dared to hope that the Congress would form the government as a matter of course… at best, we thought, with a fractured verdict and the tenuous support of pound-of-flesh regional allies, they might be able to cobble together a shaky government that the BJP would have little trouble in shattering at it’s pleasure. To think that the BJP would NOT be the largest party was far more than anyone, the Congress included, had expected.

I’ve followed almost all the news channels for the entire day (primarily the Hindi-language NDTV one); here are a few points that I think are interesting, in rough order.

1. Gujarat. Wow. While “Chhote Sardar” has been just fantastic at conducting a pogrom and raking muck about the “foreign origin” of Sonia Gandhi, it seems that he sucks at predicting the results of elections in his own state. Far from the “maybe one seat” that he said the Congress would get, its got 12 out of 26, up from zero! What’s really important however is that the Congress has made major gains in riot-affected areas and has even managed to win in Godhra. I don’t know how much one should give to a comment on a TV station but one psephologist and pollster talked about how people in Gujarat were scared (with good reason) to tell pollsters that they supported anyone apart from the BJP in the elections. Modi-ji has refused to meet the press so far. So sad. Soooo sad.

2. The Left parties have managed to get more than 60 seats in this election. This is their best ever performance. If they agree to join the government (which I hope they do) or even if they support the government from outside, it should mean that the unthinking sale of even profitable public sector undertakings at the altar of the IMF / World Bank should slow down at least.

3. Puratchi Thalaivi (Revolutionary Leader) Dr Jaya Jayalalitha, (or “Amma” as she is better known) the imperious, allegedly corrupt and high-handed satrap of Tamil Nadu has had to suffer a total wipeout of her party – possible factors being the arrogance and venom in her treatment of striking government employees, the press and her political rivals.

4. In Andhra Pradesh, major BJP ally Telugu Desam has suffered a heavy defeat. The only state where an ally of the BJP has made any major gains are the seven extra seats with the Shiromani Akali Dal in Punjab.

5. Murli Manohar Joshi, hardline Hindutva hawk and *former* minister in charge of Education had been hard at work saffronising and communalising school syllabi and had recently been attempting destroy the autonomy of India’s famous Institutes of Technology and Management. Not only is there no chance of his being put in charge of education, the sod has, thankfully, managed to lose his election!

6. Delhi, where the BJP had earlier managed to win 7 out of 7 Parliament seats has seen an almost total reversal with the Congress wresting 6 from them.

7. Ram Naik, Union Petroleum Minister and five-time winner from Mumbai North has been defeated by … Govinda!

8. Malabar Hill, a constituency in Mumbai with the highest per capita income in India has returned a Congress candidate – a possible indictment of “India Shining” from people who would, it is thought, benefit the most from it.

9. Mulayam Singh Yadav, back in the days when it was thought that the Congress would have to rely on his party to form the government, was quoted as saying that nothing less than the post of Deputy Prime Minister would be his price for supporting the Congress. After the unexpectedly strong showing of the Congress and the Left, (which had already promised it’s support to the Congress) party bigwig Amar Singh when questioned about his party’s differences with the Left Front replied “But we’re also part of the Left!” Made me grin, that. Echoes of the Samsung ad “Hum bhi hain team mein!”

What ticked me off in the coverage of NDTV 24/7 (the English version) was their constant reversion to the stock markets and their precious economic reforms. Seriously, markets ko maathey pe chadha diya hai unhone. It’s quite obscene, the contrast between the attention given in the media to disinvestment, stock splits and listings on the NYSE and the attention given to stuff like housing, potable water and food for every Indian.

I’m not a hardcore supporter of the left – their disregard of gender and sexuality for example are quite upsetting. What’s more problematic is the left’s attachment to the idea of the nation state, a concept that I have lots of trouble with. And I’m not a Congress supporter either. I hate the concept of a political dynasty (although, considering that Sonia was the sole national-level campaigner for the Congress – her children only campaigned in “safe” seats – it seems that the rest of India has no problem with dynasty) and I’m uncomfortable with a foreign-born prime minister…. It’d be better if she could speak Hindi passably or articulate publicly without having a script in front of her. Plus, it’s not like the Congress wasn’t responsible for the riots in ’84 or the Emergency. Or Bofors for that matter.

But. And this is a big but. BJP is out. Unequivocally. Praise be for that at least. It’s a lot to be thankful for.

The only dark lining of this anti-right wing silver cloud is the fact that if the government even burps in the direction of Pakistan, let alone make any serious concessions on Kashmir (without which the issue will not be solved) the right wing will scream seven shades of murder and allege that “videshi kutti ne hum sab ki maa bech di”. And don’t think that the government will be able to reduce the size of the army or deny it the toys that the boys from www.bharatrakshak.com salivate over without similar shrieks of betrayal from the right.