Manmohan as PM and his Stephanian links!

A very quick roundup of the day's headlines, as colonial American history awaits me rather ominously!

The President of India has invited Manmohan Singh to be the new Prime Minister, and he will be sworn in on Saturday if he can prove that he has enough support. In the meanwhile, the BJP is licking its wounds and planning to review what went wrong in these elections. Some are already criticising Sushma Swaraj and Uma Bharati for their rather theatrical campaign against Sonia. The BJP will now probably focus on assembly elections in Maharashtra later this year, where, if the Lok Sabha poll was any indication, they should give the Congress a run for their money. It might also be a mini referendum for the way Manmohan Singh has run the country till then.

Manmohan Singh will be the first Sikh PM of the country. I am not sure that's hugely important though. After all, the Hindu nationalists believe that Sikhism is an outgrowth of Hinduism. (Nothing could be further from the truth, Sikhism, developed as a response to certain doctrinaire, ritualistic aspects of Hinduism- as did Buddhism and Jainism). So now we have a Sikh PM and a Muslim President. I am going to take just a moment off, and rejoice in our secularism, no matter how tarnished...just a moment.

Anyway, that apart, there is this slightly amusing article in today's Telegraph about how Manmohan's family has reacted referring to his grandson Raghav. I must admit here that Manmohan Singh's daughter Dr Upinder Singh was my professor in college in Delhi, and my favourite professor at that. She taught us Ancient Indian History and a part of the Medieval India course and as generations of Stephanians will testify, she's fantastic! I have therefore, also been on the receiving end of her kids' brattiness....so I think the Telegraph has got it all wrong...I think they mean Madhav when they say Raghav in the article above!! It's a small error, but if I know fierce little Raghav Tankha, he will not be pleased at all. (Also, they don't live in Safdarjung, do they? I thought they lived on-campus in North Delhi...)

Some more shameless plugging for my college- a number of India's new parliamentarians studied history at St. Stephens (ahem..so did I!), and there is this article in the Indian Express where they try to find out about Rahul Gandhi as a student, and guess who they get in touch with....Dr. U. Singh! Incidentally, who the hell is the Mr Neeru in this story?? On a more serious note, some would argue that this is actually not a good thing- that deracinated Stephanians like us should be in charge of the nation's future. And much as I love my college, I will admit that it did encourage a certain distance from reality and everyday Indian life. We lived in this slightly elitist cocoon and even student politics were heavily circumscribed. We were not affiliated to the Delhi University Students' Union, we did not vote in their elections, and even our teachers were quite apathetic. It had its merits- it prevented the college from descending into the kind of dangerous political quagmires that some other colleges did, but it also meant that we insulated ourselves from much of what was going around us...and if we are to be the 'future leaders' of the nation, as many Stephanians are touted to be, surely that's not very healthy?

The op-ed in today's Telegraph has a sensible take on economic reform arguing that the Sensex should not be the sole guardian of our prosperity and it is time we sat down and absorbed the lessons of our election.

Finally, a moment of silence for two people who passed away yesterday- former Kerala Chief Minister and CPI(M) leader E.K.Nayanar and NSG Commando Surjan Singh Bhandari who was injured in the Akshardham attack.