Thursday 23rd October 2008

It’s just over two weeks until the American Presidential election, but in this apartment in Central Delhi you might be mistaken for thinking it is happening tomorrow. There are flags pinned across the paintings of Indian landscapes: they read, “Change we can believe in!” and “McCain: same Again!”. A girls sits in the corner by a banner declaring, “Vote from Abroad!”, her laptop perched on her knees, covered with an image of Obama’s face, mid-speech. Instead of the scent of incense smell of freshly-baked brownies drifts from the kitchen. The table is covered with finger-foods: mini sausages on sticks, precision-cut crudites, and nachos with salsa. The A/C whirrs gently. A handful of women frantically check lists and grab their mobile phones, on their starting blocks and ready to begin. Here is the Democrats Abroad phone bank.

These six women are serving one of their countries, whilst living in another. All of them Indian-American, though more American than Indian (in the way that only those with duel citizenship know, they also feel more Indian when they are in America). They are scattered all around the room, perching on the edge of sofas with mobile phone in one ear and finger pushed in the other, speaking to other expats. “Have you requested your form from Washington yet, ma’am?”; “You can FedEx it – it only costs 90 rupees”; and “I’m afraid that registration has closed in the state of Texas. But you can encourage others, right?” It must be the only call center in India staffed by Americans.

If theres only one thing that India is proud of, it the fact that it is the largest democracy in the world – with a potential votership of over one billion people. It’s the one trump card India holds in it’s competition with China. It’s possible to vote with a fingersprint next to a symbol for that even the fact that its literacy rate is waning in comparison – 61% compared to China’s 91% – it still manages to keep the d-word. And with it, remain a friend of the West.

There is a heads on race this general election, almost as nail-biting as that in America.the Congress Party (known as Cong, which makes them sound like they emerged from the jungle) is currently in government under the leadership of Manmohan Singh. Their only direct rivals are the BJP, or Hindu Nationalist Party. But with a country of such a disparate, disconnected votership, most vote in their immediate interests: who will give them a job, and who will fight for their class rights. Politics is still very much drawn along caste, rather than party lines. There’s a saying, “in India, you don’t caste your vote, you vote your caste.” Of course, corruption is endemic, and bribery is always an issue. But there will always be those who throw stones – and knowing the state of most voting systems around the world,they probably live in glass houses anyway.

India remains the largest democracy in the world. It is fairly incredible that such a sizeable landmass and population, with so many currents running through it (not least that of terrorism) has remained such. Only once has it teetered on the path of autocracy, with the emergency motions passed by Indira Gandhi in the 1970s. “A billion people and and it’s a democracy,” George W. Bush once said, as if he were admiring the lassoing of a particularly fine specimen of bullock, “Now ain’t that something.”

Obama today promised that India would be one of his top priorities. The Indian media, glossing over the words “one of”, reported the statement as if the two countries were best friends. India needs the US, but it also looks increasingly likely that soon the US will need India. The two will remain democracies, and proud of it. India may lack literacy, it may lack basic santitation, and it could even get overtaken by China as the software capital of the world. But every citizen, though they may be on the breadline, can put a fingerprint on a voting card and make their small voice heard.

So the two countries stand side by side with democratic values, or so India would like to think. It’s only right, therefore, that India should help America’s elections in any way it can, even with crudites and election-branded Apple macs. And though tonight, these women with brownies and Diet Coke by their side are calling American ex-pats, it seems they could be on the phone to any Indian as they chirrup. “Wow, congratulations on voting,” one says, “and thanks for your enthusiasm for our country’s democracy.”