A comment from Dr. Johannes Wamser, Managing Director of India Consulting Dr. Wamser + Batra GmbH


An election of gigantic proportions is coming to an end this week: for five weeks, around 800 million eligible Indians were able to cast their votes, including around 150 million first-time voters. The voter turnout is almost 70%. For a state the size of Europe as a whole with all its infrastructural deficiencies, it is certainly an organizational masterpiece. And proof that despite massive corruption scandals and disappointments over election promises not being kept, the population has neither become tired of elections nor dissatisfied with politics.


It is a miracle that this multi-ethnic state, which is characterized by social, linguistic, cultural and economic disparities, has managed to exist as a state unit in the form of a democracy for decades. Certainly not always and not everywhere textbook-like - in some rural regions it is still common practice for the village elder to determine the choice of his village. But while (almost) all other emerging countries are characterized by autocratic systems, the Indian population and the media landscape demonstrate, election after election, their willingness to argue, criticize, have a say and vote out governments. And so, according to the first official information, this election will once again result in the government being voted out in favor of the opposition.