(Patrick French is an award-winning historian and political commentator. His books include 'Liberty or Death: India's Journey to Independence and Division', 'The World Is What It Is' and 'India: A Portrait'.)A few years ago I met a group of Indian scientists who were researching the genetic origins of the people of the subcontinent. Taking blood samples from diverse regions, they were able to use DNA analysis to identify disease genes that affect different communities. Their hope was that - over time - it might be possible to treat health problems with tailored medicines.
One of the remarkable aspects of recent scientific discovery is that it is possible to tell, by looking at DNA sequence variations, which of India's language groups a person belongs to - other aspects of identity, like religion and caste, have no genetic marker. A controversial offshoot of this research is the idea of 'Ayurgenomics', which links genomics with Ayurvedic traditions.
Although it is too early to be certain whether the innate forces of vata, pitta and kapha (or 'air', 'fire' and 'earth') could be expressed genetically, the scientific response has not so far been favourable, and so it was a great surprise to find 'integrated courses' in 'modern science and Ayurgenomics' promised in the BJP manifesto.
One medical professor even wrote in 2011 that the experience of learning about what he termed the pseudoscience of Ayurgenomics 'leaves my jaw dangling from its joint in utter astonishment that anyone could think such a thing was a good idea.'
Such lurches into the unknown are fortunately absent from the rest of the manifesto, and by the standards of previous general elections, this iteration of the BJP's policies is a great improvement, with less of Murli Manohar Joshi's pet subjects like Vedic astrology, or the need to use ancient agriculture to boost rice yields, and more attempts to appear moderate, cooperative and engaged with the changing mood of voters.
Not that other parties avoided assurances that had little firm grounding. On foreign policy, the Congress promised to 'support the goodwill nurtured for decades amongst socialist countries' via the Non-Aligned Movement - which gives the impression that it may have forgotten that we are now in the 21st century.
Perhaps the most entertaining manifesto opening came courtesy of the AIADMK, which began with the lines: 'Led by our charismatic Hon'ble Chief Minister Puratchi Thalaivi J Jayalalithaa, Tamil Nadu is marching ahead victoriously.' To which we can only applaud and say, best of luck.
The recently deceased British Labour Party politician Tony Benn (who as a child in 1931 met Mohandas Gandhi during the Second Round Table Conference) used to complain that these days everyone was so busy discussing personalities that they had no time for political 'issues'.
If you are interested in ideology, as Benn was, you will be happier reading a party's manifesto than worrying over who its senior ministers might be.
Both the Congress and the BJP published their manifestoes very late in this campaign, almost as an afterthought, as if they knew in practice that decisions on which future policies stood any chance of implementation depended on the coalition arithmetic.
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