Published on Rediff on May 17th http://election.rediff.com/column/2009/may/17/loksabhapoll-after-the-counting-and-other-stories.htm The great fabulist O V Vijayan had a collection of short stories – and some of the best were based on the Emergency -- titled “After the hanging and other stories”. I could stretch the point and suggest that democracy was hanged in India, but perhaps that is too dramatic. Democracy was already a walking wounded in India. It had been a zombie for years, with paraphernalia such as elaborate elections, but it is merely form, not substance. What passes for a democracy in India is make-believe. It is, to paraphrase that old racist Churchill, about as real as the equator.
After the counting and other stories
After the counting and other stories
After the counting and other stories
Published on Rediff on May 17th http://election.rediff.com/column/2009/may/17/loksabhapoll-after-the-counting-and-other-stories.htm The great fabulist O V Vijayan had a collection of short stories – and some of the best were based on the Emergency -- titled “After the hanging and other stories”. I could stretch the point and suggest that democracy was hanged in India, but perhaps that is too dramatic. Democracy was already a walking wounded in India. It had been a zombie for years, with paraphernalia such as elaborate elections, but it is merely form, not substance. What passes for a democracy in India is make-believe. It is, to paraphrase that old racist Churchill, about as real as the equator.