Never believe the pundits: Gandhi sets to work on coalition. For months all the press kept telling us that Congress was dead, and the BJP were sure to win.

It is a clear case of observer's bias: most reporters are well educated and middle class. So their view of the world is from that perspective. The upper middle class and the city dwellers have done quite well over the last few years, so they thought everybody would be happy.

It is going to be interesting to see what is going to happen in India now. It is clear yhat ignoring the poor and farmers is electoral suicide. However, the future of India lies in economic liberalisation, and new technologies like the computer industry and the creativity found in the cities (Bollywood anyone?). Further liberalisation is necessary, but how to achieve that without alieniating the poor is a very hard problem. I hope Sonia Gandhi will be able to solve this. We'll see