California, the richest state of the union and Louisiana, the poorest state in the union have both elected unusual governors. Arnold Schwarzenegger is an Austrian immigrant and Bobby Jindal is the son of immigrants from India. There is an astounding symmetry in how this has happened. They are both Republicans. The party accused by its detractors as being the home of privilege has turned out to be more open to fulfilling the dreams of high-achiever immigrants than the leftist rhetoric-loving Democrats.

Arnold and Bobby have both made themselves attractive to the American establishment by unrelated and unplanned personal choices. Schwarzenegger married a niece of John Kennedy for love. Bobby became a Roman Catholic from personal conviction. Both these acts happened years before either of them stood for electoral office. They were deeply felt private choices. Only the churlish would suggest that either individual had future electoral gains in mind when they made their decisions. But in politics everything counts. In our own country, possibly from a genuine belief that Nehru had a soft spot for things cultural, rather than based on cynical considerations, his daughter made sure that Vedic chants were part of the funeral of the agnostic Jawaharlal Nehru. And persons as far removed as Sonia Gandhi and Chandrababu Naidu have had advantages stemming from their marriages in their smooth entry into politics. Given the pitfalls of marriage as an institution, it is inconceivable that either of them had planned for the unintended consequences! The contours of democratic politics are such that the perceptions of voters do influence their choices. Private choices do have an impact on political outcomes.

... contd.