We may follow the Brits, but are so different.

British Prime Minister Theresa May won Thursday's general election and lost. Her party, the Conservatives, also called the Tories, had a clear majority with 331 seats in the last parliament. There are a total of 650 seats in the House of Commons and 326 gives a majority. May wanted a larger majority to silence members of her own party who want a soft Brexit, negotiations for which must be completed by 29 March, 2019. She ended up with 318, down 13 seats. Just a couple of months ago the Tories were leading Labour, the main opposition party, by 20 points in opinion polls. So why did they do so badly? Voters may have been angered by being asked to vote when the last elections were held in 2015 and the parliament still had 3 years to go. Looking to protect her lead in opinion polls she built a protective wall around herself, refused to debate her opponents and answered every question with the same slogan of "strong and stable leadership". This naturally gave her opponent Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the Labour Party the opportunity to appeal to the 'vote bank' by promising to nationalise the railways, increase taxes on the wealthy and abolish tuition fees for college students. Young people turned out in large numbers, giving victory to Labour candidates in university towns like Canterbury which had been held by the Conservatives for over 100 years. The Tories did unexpectedly well in Scotland, gaining 12 seats, for a total of 13. This and support by the Democratic Unionist Party, the Protestant party of Northern Ireland, has allowed May to form a minority government. India follows the British system of government. In 2004 the Congress formed a government even though it had only 145 seats in the Lok Sabha, out of a total of 545 seats. In 2009, it increased its tally to 206 by promising farmer loan waiver, increasing civil service salaries through the Sixth Pay Commission and MGNREGA. The Congress got hammered in 2014, being reduced to just 44 seats. The BJP is now ruling. Is it any different? No. We have farmer loan waivers in various states, there was the Seventh Pay Commission, which increased civil service salaries by 24%, and a host of handouts, including free gas connections for the poor. The difference with Britain is that Theresa May will probably be replaced as leader of the Conservative Party, but here political parties are controlled by families who hang on to power by any means. Also politicians will kill to stay in power. Thus, in Madhya Pradesh police shot 5 protesting farmers to death. The Chief Minister promptly announced a compensation of Rs 10 million to family of each farmer. It is taxpayer money so it's easy to be generous. Now the Chief Minister is going on hunger strike to appeal for peace. Kill, handout, drama. We may follow the British system but we are so different.