E M S NAMBOOD1RIPAD India ig8o : Political Developments SOCIAL SCIENTIST readers will recall the article that this writer had written before the Lok Sabha elections in which it was stated: ^Tlic new year that dawns on January 1, 1980, will mean for the Indian people not the opening of just a new calendar year but of a new phase in their political development. For, within a week thereafter, they will be going to the polls to elect their representatives to the seventh Lok Sabha."1 Let it be admitted at the very outset that the writer went wrong in his assessment in one respect. He did not expect the Congress (I) to secure such a sweeping electoral victory. The question, according to him, was ^not which of the various parties, or combination of parties contesting the forthcoming elections would secure an absolute majority in the Lok Sabha and thus be able to form its own single party Government. Which of them will have the largest number of members in the Lok Sabha—this is the question. Any party or combination of parties answering to the latter requirement would be obliged to seek allies in other parties or combinations in order to be able to form the new Government."3 This assessment, of course, proved wrong, The Congress (I) was able to win not only a simple majority but the two-thirds