An India of fragmented politics?

Here is an interesting article that questions the whole mascarade of last week when didi (helder sister) Hilary met up with UPA2's bete noir, West Bengal chief minister didi Mamata.  The article points out that the official explanation for this mediatic show made no sense, on the other hand, the question of Iran's oil came up towards the end of the visit back in Delhi with our meek foreign minister.  No suprises there!  However, what is more worrying is that this could be a sign of things to come.  India is the world's largest democracy, and as my mother often says, it is a demon-cracy, and rightly so as the political landscape of the largest states are turning to local parties, the result is leading us to an ever increasing fragmented national policy and legistlative stagnancy...

So why did didi Hilary visit a wayward UPA ally?  The article explores the possibility that we may be entering an era where central government will be toothless as the keys will be held with the state goverments and therefore getting India on-board  for international agendas such as sanctions against Iran will require pressure and support from state chief miniters to allow the central government to function at the parliamentry level.

We are in for some interesting horse trading... but could this lead to a brighter future for India?  It is a fact that no single party can govern India today, but is also a fact that there isn't a national party that has the technical ability to do so, even if they obtained a ruling majority.  All parties are made up primarily of corrupt self-serving politicians.  There are actually very few technocrats with the capacity to govern this nation.  the upshot of a fragented political landscape is that a central goverment will have to be composed of a union of parties.  If only a strong leader emerges that can pick the best elements of each party to get India on the right track to reforms.  Time will tell.