Reflections of Passions

The 2014 General Elections have been unique in several ways. With the highest number of first time voters, campaigns that focussed on personalities, with elections being fought for the first time on the plank of an economic slowdown, there is little doubt that these general elections have been the most interesting and analysed general elections of recent times. In more ways than one, democracy has triumphed again, though this time with a new accent. In the massive victory of Narendra Modi in 2014, we see the triumphant emergence of a single party rule for the first time after 1984. The past five years were marked with corruption, inflation, policy paralysis, bad governance and supreme arrogance which were seen as the hallmarks of the UPA-2 regime. In what was clearly a mandate for hope and change, the voice of India's democracy spoke again in a new accent. The BJP-led NDA became the first government to cross the majority mark of 272 seats in the Parliament since 1984. Thus, it b...

The past few months have witnessed several "intellectuals" writing petitions on how India's next government is likely to be. With exit polls predicting a victory for the BJP-led NDA, the discourse has largely revolved around protection of India's "secular" ethos and the projection of Narendra Modi, the Chief Minister of Gujarat and his administration's alleged role in failing to control the distressing communal riots of 2002. Since then, there have been many manufactured debates on the road ahead and the supposed polarisation of India's electorate. Editorials and columns that routinely warn about the manufactured dangers of having Narendra Modi as the Prime Minister have grown even as the general populace eagerly awaits relief from a scam ridden government which presided over unbridled inflation, ensured policy paralysis and a list of unending factors which contributed to an economic morass. There is little doubt that India's intellectual narr...