Democracy has been shortchanged with a system of governance which welcomes loud and corrupt and keeps the intelligent and the honest at bay
Never in the history of independent India had there been such complete disenchantment of the public with their political representatives. All opinion polls prior to the general elections brought out the total lack of credibility of the political class. "Sab Chor Hain" (all are thieves) was the general refrain. And, yet, the public did vote, in overwhelming numbers (more than 300 million), to prove to those who would be their masters that they were behind the campaign to clean up the political stables.
If it was not the office of the Election Commission that was strictly monitoring any excess in poll expenditures and "putting the fear of Seshan" into straying politicians, it was an activist Supreme Court that was seeing to it that the wrongdoings of national-level politicians were properly tackled rather than swept under the rug. The President proved willing to intervene to get a governor to resign for misdeeds committed while a central minister. No more a rubber stamp, it seemed, Shanker Dayal Sharma also returned two populist ordinances sent to him by the Prime Minister for approval just prior to the elections.
While all this shows that the the justices, election authorities and Head of State were aware and alert in the run-up to the elections, how long can they make up for inert, ineffective and corrupt politicians without being accused of overstepping constitutional propriety?