India’s political landscape is witness to an innovative private-public partnership model. The upgrades are rapid and arrive with every election. It enables nationalisation of costs and personalisation of political power. People pay taxes. Government collects them. The politicians choose a section of voters to please. As in George Orwell’s farm, all are equal but some are more equal. Like in stock markets, derivatives deliver returns.

This is the electoral republic of vote benefit transfers. To appreciate, reflect on the headlines. The buzz is about a high turnout of voters led by women at the first phase in Bihar. This validates the grand idea of political parties.

The woman voter is effectively the ‘X Factor’—X because it is a silent vote, or maybe because the X chromosome has been

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