Case for a two-party system in India

India is the largest democracy in the world and a strange one at that. The party with the least seats has the maximum power; yes least seats. Regional parties play on the emotions of the downtrodden locals, incite them against the central government, and motivate them using religion or other regressive issues like eliminating the use of computers and capture the vote bank. With several Indian states having such dominant regional parties what results is a very fractured parliament. Let alone a single party majority, even alliances struggle to put together the magic number of seats to form the government. This results in frenzied horsetrading after the elections and crores of rupees changing hands behind close doors...or should I say being transfered from one Swiss bank account to another. Thus, a regional party with a handful of seats can make big demands like cabinet positions and control of critical ministries like Railways to support the formation of a coalition government. Laloo Prasad Yadav, who may be the candidate of choice in a section of Bihar, finds himself heading a multi-billion dollar operation! That's not the mandate of the majority, is it? After the commotion settles we deal with over twenty parties forming the government, as was the case under Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Twenty parties having to agree on issues of governance - that's ridiculous. I don't think twenty adults can even agree on a cuisine for dinner. If India has to progress economically and socially, I believe we need a two-party political system like the United States. The more popular of the two is voted to power and has clear authority on making decisions without the lag of conflicting ideologies. I also think that such a system will shift the focus on selecting the right candidate by giving people a say in who they want as their leader, rather than letting that be a decision made by an individual like Sonia Gandhi . I would love to see primaries and caucuses, and rigorous debates that allow the people to make informed decisions. Hoping for change!

India - a country known for its intellectuals...

My American friends often joke with me about how every Indian they meet is a software engineer, a doctor or a lawyer (lets keep our monopoly on the taxi driving profession a secret). The stereotypical Indian image overseas has evolved over the years...for the better. But where has our country really gone....it is being run by a bunch of C-grade graduates at best. You may say we have an Economics guru with a doctoral degree as Prime Minister, an MBA from Harvard as Home Minister (formerly the finance minister) and so on. Now, who are we kidding. People like Manmohan Singh and P. Chidambaram are just puppets controlled by the "rajmata" - Sonia Gandhi. Mrs. Gandhi an Italian-born, who almost became the PM of India in 2004, has attended the coveted Cambridge University..or has she? Well not really; she studied a language teaching course from a "teaching shop", not the University. However she did commit perjury by claiming a higher qualification in an affidavit she filed before the Returning Officer of Rae Barelli in 2006. Anyways, all of that is not important, after all she is the heir to the Nehru-Gandhi family that we have elevated to dynastic status in India. Now for her son, Mr. Rahul Gandhi. He is representative of the youth of India and holds a degree from Harvard. Can't fight that. Oh well, lets dig a little deeper...he attended St. Stephens College. "Attended" is key. He left the college after one year...that too after he was admitted on a sports scholarship for his mastery of pistol shooting. Once again he attended Harvard and moved on to some unknown university in Florida to complete his B.A. Well, what I'm trying to get at is - why do we treat India like a kingdom? It's been 60 years of almost the same family raping..err ruling the country. From the "License Raj" socialistic ways of Nehru that put the country back several decades, to the monarchist emergency of Indira Gandhi and the ridiculous Simla Agreement, to the banana republic of Rajiv Gandhi this power-hungry family sucked the optimism out of every hard-working Indian. When we want our CEOs to be the best qualified, why not our politicians who run budgets and organizations an order of magnitude larger than the biggest Fortune 500s? My countrymen and women, I appeal to you - vote for non-criminals, that have selflessly served our nation. Welcome meritocracy, shun nepotism!