A triumph of democracy

From Narendra Modi, India’s ‘Watchman,’ Heads for Historic Election Victory by Jeffrey Gettleman, Vindu Goel, Kai Schultz, Suhasini Raj and Hari Kumar.

The New York Times is pushing their concern about yet another nationalist winning big but they are burying the lead.

The election turnout was one for the history books — the largest democratic exercise ever. In seven phases over 39 days, more than 600 million Indians cast ballots at a million polling stations, spread across densely populated megacities and far-flung villages, from high in the Himalayan mountains to tropical islands in the Andaman Sea.

Experts say the force of Mr. Modi’s personality, with many Indians intensely for him or against him, drove turnout to 67 percent, the highest this nation has ever seen.

67% of the voting population, over 600 million people, across an entire subcontinent, exercising their right to vote. What a philosophical and logistical triumph, whoever wins. Caught up in the particulars of who won how many votes and what it means for the future, it is too easy to overlook, 600 million people just voted!