The PM Comes to Town

The Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh, is in town today and tomorrow ceremonially opening and commemorating things: laying the foundation for a ten-lane highway (that's what a "laning" is, right?) to help with congestion between Bangalore and the 330-acre Electronics City business park, laying the foundation for the Bangalore Metro (a 1.4 billion-dollar project), and heading the 100th anniversary celebration for Canara Bank. The Metro ceremony, which is tomorrow, is open to the public. I'm thinking of going, at least to its outskirts.

All along the major streets today were signs welcoming the Prime Minister, as well as hundreds of feet of banners with the logo of his Congress party. It seems to me that political parties here play a much more visible role in government than they do in the United States. It's hard to imagine, say, Bush coming to a city and having lots and lots of elephants on poles in the street medians and in front of post offices. The Congress party dwarfs all other parties here, as far as I can tell, so all the signs might be unique to them.