Across the USA, people have been welcoming and celebrating the landslide win of Narendra Modi led Bharatiya Janata Party in the Indian general elections held this month only. I am one of those who would love to participate in the joyous festivities but I do strongly feel that we should rather be celebrating the resilience of Indian democracy, the openness of its society, and the materiality of its electorate, many of whom are illiterate.
It can easily be dubbed as the most unique General Election held in any part of the world. An unparalleled 400 million people voted in a most democratic way in the course of six weeks time without any untoward incident or violence. There were no bomb blasts or killing of the candidates. And there was no curb on freedom of speech or expression. It was an eye opener to the world that a change in the government can be brought about not by bamboozling by radical groups or party or military couples but in a civilized way that the right thinking people across the globe could be proud of.
The Indian electorate showed a rare degree of maturity. Fed up with day in and day out of scandals, endemic corruption, indifference to people complaints, systematic effort to foist immature and puppet rulers as well as dynasty rule by pushing immature candidates to the fore, the Indian electorate by overwhelming majority booted out those in power.
There were concerted efforts to put one group of people against other – the divide and rule policy of the British was masterly domesticated. To the dismay of the ruling class, even a good number of those from minority groups also voted for Modi and his party.
And that speaks of high level of maturity shown by Indian electorate and masses.
This is what needs to be celebrated not only by NRIs but also by all who pitch for spreading democracy across the world.
BG Dhake
(CEO Dhake Industries
Pvt Ltd Plymouth MI)
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