Quick election update

This is going to be a very quick post on the elections. Post 2nd June, I will blog more extensively. Till then, here are some of the major headlines.

Sonia Gandhi has been elected as leader of a Congress led alliance and now looks all set to be the next Prime Minister of India. A number of BJP leaders have made comments criticising her choice as PM citing her 'foreign' origins. My views on this are quite clear- as long as she's a good PM (and her lack of political experience suggests she might not be), I don't care. The people of the country have rejected the BJP's xenophobic campaign and the party should now have the grace to admit this. Although I have to admit that in the past few days, I've met a number of Indians, who while pleased that the BJP has lost, are not pleased to have an Italian born PM. You can read the rest of my comments on what I think of the BJP's victory here (check the post for the 15th of May) and here. Read this if you're still not convinced.

The CPI(M) and the DMK have decided against joining the government, which I think is a serious mistake. This seems like historic Blunder II.With a mandate of this size, there is no reason to stay out of government. Also I would argue that Dan Drezner's fears about the Communists changing the tone of economic policy is not entirely justified. Look at how much the Communists in West Bengal have been wooing foreign investment..even IBM is setting up shop there.

What do our friends from across the border have to say about the elections? The NYT and the Dawn both have interesting pieces, contrasting the process of democratization that seems to have proceeded relatively smoothly in India to its absence in Pakistan. Sometime later I shall post a longer thing on why I think democratization has failed in Pakistan.

In neighbouring Pakistan, Musharraf has called for a review of Islamic Hudood laws introduced under General Zia. While some authors, like Charles Kennedy have argued in the past that the laws are not as damaging to women as they might seem, and that, they were used against political dissidents, this is certainly a brave stance. Musharraf has tried in the past to abolish the blasphemy laws, but failed to stand up to the Jamaat-i Islami. Let's see if he succeeds this time.

That's all for today. I might not be blogging for the next few days, but the topics that I hope to cover in the future include: the Sri Lankan peace process, caste politics in UP and what this election means for the SP and BSP, a look back the BJP government in power, and the role of Islamization in Pakistan. If you have any expertise on any of the above, feel free to get in touch.