Written on Sunday May 17, 2009
I’m so happy for India…I’d just begun to lose faith in India and the Indian system (especially since reservations on the basis of caste were increased to more than 50%)…when India as a whole bounced back to show what it is capable of…this is the power of India…this is the power of Indian democracy. These are some of the choices that the pan-Indian voter has made (at least for the next 5 years):
1) “No”, to those who opposed the forward-looking Indo-US nuclear deal
2) “No” to right-wing or left-wing politics
3) “Yes” to development and performance – whether on a regional basis (Bihar under Nitish Kumar, Orissa under Patnaik, Delhi under Sheila Dixit or Sikkim under Chamling) or a national basis (Right to Information Act, NREGS, Indo-US nuclear deal)
4) “No” to regional leaders who place class and caste before national interest and greater good (Mayawati’s Bahujan Samajwadi Party, Mulayam’s SP, Lalu’s RJD) and wanted to extract a price for playing king-makers
5) “No” to all wannabe prime-ministers
6) “Yes” to stability and a centrist-policy
7) “Yes” to a greater role for the younger generation and a new mindset in Indian politics