The biggest differences among the various groupings consist in the tone and tenor of their respective visions of India.
Congress remains a “big tent” party, committed to preserving India’s pluralism and conscious of the multiple identities and interests of India’s many peoples. The BJP, which accuses Congress of “appeasing” India’s minorities, hews to a staunchly Hindu-chauvinist line and has received support from some of the most bigoted and intolerant sections of Indian society.
The “third front” involves assorted petty particularisms — parties representing the sectarian interests of specific castes, sub-regions or linguistic groups. The danger is that such groups could accentuate the divisions of a fractious society, rather than pull everyone together in the collective national interest.
That would be a startling change from five years ago.
The 2004 elections were won by the Congress party, led by a woman political leader of Roman Catholic faith and Italian descent (Sonia Gandhi), who made way for a Sikh prime minister (Manmohan Singh) to be sworn by a Muslim (President Abdul Kalam) in a country that is 81 percent Hindu. That single moment captured much of what elections have meant for this diverse democracy.
But the ultimate reality will remain that of a coalition government trying to make progress in a contentious polity. In India, policy changes require political consensus within the ruling coalition, labor laws are strongly defended by unions and political parties, and controversial decisions can be challenged on the streets, in the courts and ultimately at the polls. Necessary policy reforms advocated by a ruling party are often held hostage to the prejudices of its allies.
So change comes slowly. But it does come and once a policy consensus has been established, it tends to be durable. Indian democracy has often been likened to the stately progress of the elephant — ponderous in its gait and reluctant to change course, but it is not easily swayed from its new path when it does.
The elephant of Indian democracy will acquire a new set of mahouts before the month’s end. Who they are will have a major impact on the fortunes and prospects of one-sixth of humanity. That alone makes the election results due on Saturday worthy of the world’s attention.
Shashi Tharoor, a former UN under secretary-general, is the Congress Party candidate for parliament in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala State.
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