World Crisis Online

By Shen Dingli, Shanghai At a cost of some US $2 billion, the 700 million-strong electorate of Indian has cast its votes in the latest month-long election. This vast democracy, the world’s largest by far, has again demonstrated its ability to peacefully choose its leaders. This is ample good reason to send very best congratulations to India.

India’s experience challenges the presumption that an under-educated populace is unqualified for popular election. India’s economic output may be just a quarter of its even more populous northern neighbor, while literacy levels remain much lower.  Still, it has yet again strenuously demonstrated that democracy does not have to be unique to the West.

The unforeseen victory of Congress indicates the general satisfaction of the Indian people with the direction of Indian economy. As politics tends to be local, this election was a grassroots evaluation of the government’s performance over the past five years, and shows India’s readiness to take next step towards becoming a great power.

Since the early 90s, the Indian government has been addressing the issue of economic development. India’s annual economic output has in the past several years been increasing at an average pace of 9%, at least until the recent global financial crisis. Though India is far behind China in terms of infrastructure development, it has made headway. Highways have emerged in metropolitan areas and are now crowded with cars