Democracy triumphs!!!

I acquired my voter ID card about 5 years back when I was about to finish high school but have never voted in any of the elections - be it the general elections or the state assembly. For 4 years since school, I lived about 3 hours from my voting constituency and never felt the eagerness to take the gruelling journey home just to cast my vote. And since then I've been living outside India - first in Germany and now in Korea, and hence has just been a silent spectator to the 'Great Political Drama' that unfolds during the times of the elections.
In high school, during the infancy of my political consciousness I had witnessed a number of failed governments, weak leaders and the corruption and inefficiency that shrouds Indian politics - which unfortunately made me loose faith in the Indian democratic system at the very beginning. Towards the end of high school I was too busy with myself to take an active interest in politics and being in IIT where politically affiliated student unions don't exist, I have rarely had a chance to feel the wind that drives Indian politics. I hardly bothered for the Gymkhana elections in IIT and took no interest in them. This is partly because I didn't really care for what went on with others, the major policy changes and the possible changes that could be brought about by an active student movement. It might be said that all I was concerned about was myself and my career. And this is not just true for me but for a large number of other students in IIT as well. And the effect of such lack of interest and initiative reflects in the appalling conditions of the hostels, the lack of proper on campus medical facilities etc. Maybe if we had been a little more active, maybe if we had a little more faith in ourselves and if we had taken some right steps at the right time, it could have saved the innocent life that was lost due to the negligence of the pathetic BC Roy hospital.
I always believed that democracy cannot work in a country as large as India, where politics is played on the basis of caste, where a large number of politicians have extensive criminal records, where party tickets are sold to the highest bidder, where many of the MPs rarely turn up for the Parliamentary proceedings. This was coupled with the fact that a large percentage of the Indian population lives a very hard life and their votes can be bought by very small favors right before the election. The 'educated elite' hardly ever bothers to vote, believing that nothing will change and just one vote hardly matters. Voter turnouts in major cities are always very low. Also, due to the large number of regional parties, the negligence in developing states ruled by the opposition coalition, the short term myopic policies of the government which aims at immediate gains in the coming election rather than sustained growth in the long run, I believed that democracy could never be fully realised successfully in India.
After the 2004 elections when Congress led UPA came to power, there was much drama over the appointment of Dr Manmohan Singh as the PM (or rather a 'puppet PM'). Though I greatly admire Dr Singh as an academician and an economist, I was rather sceptical of him as a PM. I'd have rather preffered to see Advani as PM, whom I considered ideal for the job, because, as many would agree, he seems to have the 'balls' to do so. Also, growing up in a BJP era (during my high school), the 'India Shining campaign' (which ultimately didn't work), I came to admire a lot of NDA leaders like Yashwant Singh, Pramod Mahajan, Arun Jaitley, Sushma Swaraj etc, partly because they were media savvy. The confidence that the 'India Shining' campaign, the successful conclusion of the Kargil conflict, the peace measures with Pakistan, brought about was countered by the utter failure of the way the Kandahar hijacking was dealt with and the interference of MM Joshi in the functioning of IITs and IIMs.
Coming back to the present day, I was once again a 'distant observer' of the 2009 general elections. However, I could feel the tremors from thousands of miles away. The possibility of a fractured mandate, the horrors of Mulayam Singh's 'misguided manifesto' (which reminded me of Pol Pot's monstrous idea of going back in time to purify ourselves of 'western influence'), the possibility of the Third front or a Leftist dominated coalition coming to power, the nightmarish scenario of Mayavati becoming the PM, the bleak economic situation, constantly troubled me, though apparently I was far away from the reaches of the its fallout.
The results of the election stunned everybody. Nobody expected any particular coalition to come close to the magic figure but as it turned out, they did. And not only that, there was a clear mandate that people don't approve of the misguided ideas of the bigwigs of UP-Bihar. The Red bastion seems to crumble, at least for now, and I hope it will continue to crumble in future. Though this result will not make me a fan of the UPA overnight, it still makes to happy to think that the uncertainties that were threatening to engulf Indian politics seems to have cleared, at least of the time being. These are difficult times and the current government will have to cater to the expectations of a billion people. The market seems to have given a resounding applause to the election results and, hope, seems to break though the clouds of despair in these dark days.
Given the magnitude of the election process, the difficulties faced in conducting it, this outcome is no less momentous than the election of Obama. Just the difference in that it was not played out in the US. It seems that I've been proved wrong. Democracy does work in India, if not perfectly. People still have the power to spring surprises and reject opportunists.
There has been many occasions in the past, when the name of India featured prominently on the global stage- the Pokhran blasts, Olympic medals, winning the T20 world cup, the talks of India poised to be a global superpower. But I think that the results of this election has made me more proud of India that any other event. I've never been happy to be proved so utterly wrong and to witness not just the successful conclusion of the most complicated election process in the world but the triumph of the very idea of Democracy!