| « Previous | Home | Next » | red right hand 04 August, 2006 |
 photo: david lindley state election day was approaching rapidly and it seemed that every wall, house, shop and elephant was covered in bunting, pictures and and signs declaring an allegiance to one or other of the major players in the contest. in munnar we passed this election of office of the UDF, an alliance of parties led by the congress party (the party of the ruling national government). in kerala, the major opposition to the UDF is the LDF, the left democratic front, another alliance, this time led by the communist party of india (marxist) - i gather the marxist bit is both relevant and important, as there is also a communist party of india!! in fact this was the first state in the world to democratically elect a communist government, and to this day they remain a potent force in kerala, actually winning a majority in this election. it was odd in this alledgedly post-communist world to see so many hammer and sickle signs all over the state. it is well known that india is the world's largest democracy and i thought it was refreshing - after so many apathetic elections in the uk over the past 20 years - to see how seriously it was taken when we were there. as i said, it seemed that every surface was covered with adverts but also you could not move along the road but for some little truck toodling past with a huge sound-sytem booming out imprecations to vote for X! | |
|
Posted by davidlindley Archived under: india |
Permalink | Comment (16) |
