62

62 - Does this number have any relevance with Modern Indian Politics?

Well, we'll come back to that later. For now, I'd like to walk you through this blog - what it intends to be and what really prompted its coming into existence.

A portrait of the current US President - Barack Obama. A man who became popular not only in his own country, but the entire world. Of course, that probably had more to do by virtue of the post he was running for, and not his charisma, that images of the man were found everywhere. Newspapers, TV Channels, Web sites, Magazines and even Discussions on the Dining Table, Obama was truly everywhere. Indians were no exception to the rest of the world. We were there reading more about him, wondering what sort of attitude change would come in US-India relations, and just in general, getting to know more about the 2008 US Presidential Elections. Forgive me for camping all of us as Obama supporters, but the Global Electoral College of The Economist (http://www.economist.com/vote2008/) showed us as a strong Obama supporting state, with 87% of the votes going his way.

But with his election and barring a few incidents like naming Hilary Clinton as his Secretary of State, the election mania has died out. But should it really? Should it really go down, when India's General Elections of 2009 are just around the corner? An election, where its not just 2 people taking part, but in all aspects, anyone and everyone? An election whose result promises to be an absolute whammy - to even the best Indian political analysts.

To give you just a sample, India's history of anti-incumbency election results seems to cast a pessismistic outlook on the Congress' chances, the Left withdrawing its support hurts it even more. The BJP suffers from a lack of leadership (Mahajan and Vajpayee) and by making statements such as intending to build the Ram Temple in Ayodhya if elected,it simply alienates its own middle class urban supporters. The case for the Third Front has never been stronger - the dominance of Mayawati's BSP in UP leads this charge. Throw in your regional medley of political behemoths - the Akali Dal, CPI (M), DMK, AIDMK and you have enough coalition partners to make a million political combinations possible! Quite enough to whet your intellectual appetite.

But lets not get to ahead of ourselves. GE 2009 will undoubtedly covered in this blog, but so will other aspects of Indian politics; the history, the controversies, the growth, the paradigm shifts, the big pictures and even the little details. Not only will stalwarts like Nehru, Indira Gandhi and B R Ambedkar be mentioned, but even the now-slightly-forgotten ones like like VP Menon, Sardar Patel, Jayaprakash Narayan and Kanshi Ram. Its time to relook at history, and study the distance we have travelled as a nation.

Works of 'India Scholars' shall be reviewed - Shashi Tharoor, Pratap Mehta, Ashutosh Varshney, Amartya Sen, Sunil Khilnani and the like.

Watching Indians support Obama is a mixed bag. Positive as in the fact, that we do realize that front page news does indeed deserve to make it on the front page - decisions made impact us all. But negative when those same people refuse to have the desire to know more about their own political atmosphere, and realize how domestic elections are much, much more important to them, than who enters the White House.

I look forward to hearing your ideas and feedback. I will try and address a new and different topic, in each bit I write, and hope that by putting all these pieces together, we can all make sense of 21st Century Indian Politics.

Oh and before I forget, 62 is Independant India's current age. :)