Call me bitter because my own prognostication was off, but as I mentioned in the post where I attempted to test my own sense of general trends in Indian politics against my ability to predict election results, I find rapid post mortems from the very institutions and people who failed to accurately predict the elections both puzzling and structurally insidious. Setting aside the comments that are deliberately designed to further political ambitions (i. those from Mamata Bannerjee or Rahul Gandhi or many others), the extent to which the media and 'analysts' play a role in quickly constructing a narrative about the results of the election is seeming like as much of a ritual as the one they engage in during the voting itself (writing about the 'world's largest democracy' etc.). It's almost like India is developing a multi-headed hegemonic chattering class to go along with its 'democracy' ;)
Don't get me wrong - I know the temptation and do succumb to easy explanations. Moreover, it is worth noting that the Indian government can conduct as complicated a process as staged elections involving hundreds of millions of people. But the lack of self-reflection--one might even say hubris-- on the part of the media. There are hundreds of millions of people who vote in a very complicated process involving many political parties in many different political contexts, and within 24 hours, the literati feel equipped to provide a ready explanation of what it all means. That's not to say that no explanations are possible or that these are malicious people - I know at least one of the writers I cite below and they're quite lovely- but it seems irresponsible not to spend the time to give these several hundred million people an explanation worth having about all the things this election might demonstrate. In some cases, this is implicitly noted by the manner in which the stories are written - some stories contain far more facts and far less speculation about what 'Indians' think.
Anyway, I mainly wanted to use this space to offer you some examples for good cheer and ironically my flatmate has asked me to explain the Indian elections to her :). Hopefully someone will soon have more productive commentary to offer than my carping, but for now, here you go - have a good chuckle at some of the claims being made:
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The entire electoral process
The entire electoral process in India is studded with uncertainties.. Even the India media failed to predict the resurgence of the Congress Party!!