India starts voting today, and if one were to believe the hype surrounding the electoral bid by Narendra Modi of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), then the polls are a mere formality.  The widely held expectation in India, propagated by a credibility-challenged media, is that Modi is a shoo-in for the post of prime minister. But opinion pollsters and media pundits have not always shown accuracy in understanding subtler realities of the world’s largest democracy. They could have goofed up again.  This Monday marked the start of an unprecedented exercise in democracy – the biggest general election in history. The first of 814.5 million … Continue reading India stands at electoral crossroads