Elections in any democracy are about numbers. Indian democracy is different. Our elections are ONLY about numbers.
Astronomical numbers with their googloplex permutations make Indian elections a mathematician's delight, a politician's nightmare and an all elusive mystery.
For starters, 420 million out of 710 million registered voters chose 543 members of the Indian parliament from among nearly 7000 candidates in 5 different phases of polling in around 800,000 polling stations spread across 28 states in a process which spanned over a month!
This is just the macro-political picture! These numbers assume humungous complexity if you start thinking about nearly 500 registered political parties in fray, most of which rake up the religious, regional, caste, linguistic sentiments of a billion people belonging to more than 10 religions with "i cant figure out how many castes" speaking more than 20 languages.
If only elections were an olympic game!! We would never need an occasional Abhinav Bindra to shoot for a lone Gold medal :-)
Gold and riches apart, Indian election game is an awe inspiring drama which makes Bollywood look pedestrian. In the past so many months, while the Indian democracy danced in all its naked splendor to the tunes of the crowds, color, campaigns, slogans, speeches, dynasties, what not, what not, my emotions varied from euphoria to despair and from exasperation to pride.
From the behenji in UP who dreams, begs, pleads and shouts to be the PM to "jab tak rahega samose mein aalu tab tak rahega bihar mein" lalu to the suicidal Jayaprada to the Marathi Manoos Raj Thackeray, Indian politics is full of characters that drive you crazy.
And you thought McCain/Palin vs Obama was exciting to follow!
Healthcare, economy, energy and national security are passe and boring! Keep it simple - "Free Color TV", "Free movie tickets to watch your chief minister dance and fight" and "Free electricity" are so much more fun to hear and talk about!
Its time Obama learnt a few things on governance from Lalu, Karunanidhi, Mulayam and some acting from Chiranjeevi to add some flair to US politics! :-) I wouldnt mind a free house!
Keep watching this space for more on what has been a breathtaking exercise of human will in India!
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