Before writing one word of this piece I spent many moments staring at my computer’s smugly blank screen wondering why the results of this Lok Sabha election make me feel so relieved. I am not a supporter of the Congress Party. I blame it for India being a country in which forty-five per cent of children are malnourished. I blame this party for our broken-down infrastructure, our decaying cities and the appalling state of public education and healthcare. I blame this party because it has ruled India for more years than any other. And, because it has got away with its terrible failures by hiding behind the Dynasty. We love our royal family as can be seen from the intense emotions aroused by Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi in hardboiled TV anchors. If they had been less emotional at least one of them should have asked why India was in such bad shape if Dadi, Daddy and Mummy cared so much for ‘the poor’.

So why am I happy that the Congress Party is back in Delhi in the strongest position it has been in since Rajiv Gandhi lost the election in 1989? Well, for one reason because I loathe regional parties. The thought of a prime minister of India who would ban computers and English schools (except for his own children) is beyond horrific. Provincial politicians have their uses but they belong in the provinces. For another because I loathe Marxists of every hue. I am delighted that they have been given this huge drubbing in West Bengal and may they never again have the hold over a government of India that they had over the last one. With their hypocrisies and their treacheries they belong in history’s dustbin and it is great that they have been put back in there by the voters of Bengal and Kerala. They were personally responsible for stopping the last government from continuing the process of reforming our economy and the best thing Dr. Manmohan Singh did was to put his foot down when they opposed the nuclear deal. If they had their way India would be reduced to being a servant of China as we once were of the Soviet Union.

... contd.