INDIA SUMMARIZED

TODAY we have sets of alliances that would have seemed unlikely even a few weeks ago. And we ought not be surprised if more surprises are in store, some before the process of election to the Lok Sabha 2009 is completed but many more once the results are declared in May. Politics, we are often reminded by politicians, is the art of the possible. Politics, we have learnt to our cost, is hardly an art in the Indian context; it is a craft as nebulous as it is crude, bereft of scruples and utterly without honour. There are no permanent friends in politics, we are told that an enemy’s enemy is a friend. But in India, it seems a friend’s friend can become an enemy, an enemy’s enemy can become an enemy, a friend is by definition an enemy, and every enemy is a friend in waiting. You will agree that a general election can for the most part therefore only be an exercise in choosing one undesirable over another. In short, our system stinks. We are being exhorted to cast our vote. We are told...