Indians pin their hopes on the good Dr Singh
By returning to the helm Manmohan Singh, whose entire career has been about providing freedoms and opportunities to some of the poorest people alive, India's electorate sends a clear message to the world: India wants the stability to enable it to engage the global community to solve local concerns.
The message is reinforced by the dramatic increase in Congress' electoral haul to just over 200 seats. Yet the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) remains the party of opposition with some 160 seats. Together, they control nearly three-quarters of the 543 seats contested. The results also disprove several myths about the Indian electorate unquestioningly peddled by academics and analysts.
Foremost about them was the intellectual paucity, the lack of any ideology, in these elections. Indians, however, don't do ideology. Rather, they fall back on age-old concepts to solve immediate concerns. First and foremost is the economy, and implicit in voting for Congress is the deep-seated belief in education that Indians share with other Asians. No one in Indian politics is better educated than the Oxbridge-trained Dr Singh, and a solid education combined with his record meant India's masses entrusted him with managing their primary concern - the economy.
Then there was the charge - based on a fundamental misunderstanding of how Indians conduct politics - that Dr Singh is unable to enthuse the masses. Certainly no firebrand, Dr Singh however possesses a quiet dignity that appeals to a people who are hierarchical by nature and highly status conscious. Furthermore, Dr Singh's actions spoke louder than his words.
Finally, multicoloured diversity and divisions of Indian society confused election analysts. They assumed narrow sectarian concerns would prevail, resulting in the further decline of the two major parties, a hung parliament and another round of divisive elections. Indians have shown their ability to come together and voted for the major parties. Far more astute players at democracy than they were given credit for, Indians have not just avoided a hung parliament but also delivered the death blow to political parties modelled on outdated western ideologies.
The Congress victory also shows the flexibility and acceptability of the electorate. Dr Singh was chosen by Sonia Gandhi, the Italian-born leader of the Congress Party. Her son, Rahul, born to wealth, privilege and one of the most powerful families this century, actually gave Congress its human face by campaigning tirelessly.
Dr Singh might be the only prime minister since Jawaharlal Nehru in 1957 to be re-elected after a full five-year term. But he is also that rare leader to be returned to power during a recession. India's growth will slip several percentage points, unemployment will be an even greater concern with its corollary of rising nationalism and social problems. Managing all three while reining in the ostentatious displays of wealth by India's super rich pose formidable challenges.
