Election Time

Today's the final day of voting in the Indian General Election. Hooray! I know India's a big country, with an even bigger population, but voting began over a month ago, and I'm getting mighty bored by it all. The newspapers are full of page after page of who is cosying up to who and who's likely to garner a few extra votes by giving out free alcohol. So not exactly subtle electioneering. But it has led to some fun headlines, like "Left is Now Right for a Desperate PM". I'm a bit confused, because only yesterday "Left was the Centre Ground".

India has some unusual electoral laws. You can't stand for election if you're a convicted criminal, as Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt found out. He's spent some time behind bars for gun running. His fault, he committed this crime so long ago it his case had reached the courts, and he'd been found guilty and served time. But there's away around this - it's not unusual for it to take 7 years or more for a case to reach trial. Commit your crimes and then stand for parliament while you're waiting. It's what they do in Bihar, over a third of the politicians in this state are awaiting trial - corruption, extortion, murder. Just the usual stuff.

There's barely any space left in the papers for the regular features, like what Pakistan is lying about now (because according to the Indian papers, and Raju, there's always something), and the exciting lives of Bollywood stars - who's been seen with who, and who actually ate food at a function. Not all the actresses do. It's really "in" to faint on movie sets. Obviously there's still cricket on the back pages...it's the Indian Premier League (albeit in South Africa, because of fears there would not be enough police available to keep the peace during both the elections and the cricket.) Maybe if the politicians gave out less alcohol it would make policing a little easier...