When a Desi 'Selfie' of an ink-stain can show the finger '" in this case literally '" to the Oscars and Ellen DeGeneres, winning on sheer coolness quotient, you know that democracy has arrived. In a country once notorious for the political apathy of its urban middle class, even Delhi has recorded the highest voter turnout in 25 years.

Much like how lighting up in public came to be viewed with derision in the West, today in India the single most unfashionable thing you can do is to not vote. The Citizen is Angry, but not at all disconnected as she once was. Irrespective of outcomes and political preferences, this should have been a celebratory moment for India. Yet, it is a time for circumspection and concern. While electoral rhetoric by definition thrives on abrasive attacks, this has been an especially contradictory and ugly campaign. Overtly, questions of governance, economics and leadership have prioritised the development debate over identity politics. But where it's needed, Religion has been used '" with impunity and ruthlessness '" as a weapon of divide and rule.

Read Barkha Dutt's column on HT