Why we believe

Sukumar Ranganathan — Mon, 18 May 2009 05:18:00 GMT

On Friday, India went to bed preparing itself for days, maybe weeks of uncertainty before the next government was sworn in.

On Monday, it came into work, expecting almost the world of the new government whose swearing in is imminent, and merely a matter of form.

The events of the intervening days may explain why the stock market breached the upper circuit level and had to be shut for trading soon after opening Monday morning.

It may also explain why the coverage of most television stations and newspapers, including this one, are more about hope than anything else.

It isn't hope without reason.

The new government, after all, will be the first time since 1984 that a ruling party or alignment has returned to power. It will also be the first time since 1991 that the new government will, largely, be free of the pulls and pressures of coalition politics.It's the first time in a long while that a party that has come to power has had as its star campaigner in the elections, a young leader. And youth is the scarcest of things in the political mix as is evident from the fact that this leader is exactly half the age of his own party's prime ministerial candidate.

It's good to hope. And it will be more than good if the new regime in New Delhi is the Camelot everyone has been searching for.

Still, it wouldn't do to ignore or deny the outgoing government's track record which is, at best, patchy, and, at worst, a tad worse than that.

The new government has the political room and the opportunity to ensure that the surfeit of hope we have seen in the past few days translates into reality, and into, a better, richer, and more equitable India. To do that, however, it will need to do better than it did the last time. For starters, it may want to pick some new ministers -- preferably from the young people in parliament.

The last time round, the government could blame allies for its inability to do something -- and get away with it.

This time, the credit and the blame will be its and its alone.

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Why we believe