  I know that everyone has heard at one point or another about the fiascos underlining the Indian parliamentary elections given the amount of media attention that was given. Firstly, the Indian National Congress obtained an unexpected triumph in India’s elections against the Bharat Janta Party (BJP) a Hindu nationalist led coalition.
Secondly, the chair of the party Sonia Gandhi refused to accept the post of prime minister, undoubtedly due to criticism that she was Italian born. Finally, she decided to place former finance minister Manmohan Singh as the prime minister due to large concerns over the financial future of the Indian economy. One of the questions that arises is: who is really in power? At first glance, it may seem quite simple to thinking that the people voted for the Congress party, and therefore it’s the people’s choice that will be in control. However, if that were the case, then there should have been no opposition by Sonia Gandhi to accept the seat of prime minister since the people were not concerned by her being born Italian.
Given the circumstances--and her children's fear for their mother’s life amid fears of an assassination attempt--it is not surprising. But is the placement of Mr. Singh in office a mere distraction, while Sonia Gandhi will continue to pull the strings? Also, given that the current collation was backed by the Communist Party of India, and given the fact that that party's concerns over not having received negotiated seats in the government lead Manmohan Singh to give away those seats as agreed, leads me to believe that the government may be run primarily by the communist party, while the people have the general impression that it’s the Congress party that are in control. There is also another theory of mine that points to important figures in the financial world being in charge, due to the appointment of Manmohan Singh as a minister when the financial future of India was questioned.
Primarily, the new government brings greater opportunities to the poor with the attempt to increase expenditure on public welfare while maintaining the economic growth rate at seven percent per year. Given that the BJP did bring about prosperity in India, there has been the notion that the economic benefit was not felt all the way at the bottom. In any case, will the Congress party be able to bring about any substantial difference given that the poverty gap has increased tremendously over the years? This one of the things which remains to be seen. These are issues which are common to the developing world, where public welfare has taken a back seat to those in power concerned about their own economic well-being.
But this is also common to the developed world, although not as apparent. In any case, many of the strains arising on the public--such as health care and unemployment--are due to the large population exceeding one billion in figure and increasing exponentially. If Congress is to remain in power, then this is one of the issues which have to be dealt with in insuring the future success of India as a whole. urlLink Read more! 
