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India and Canada

Mark Tully explores the reasons for BJP success (and Congress collapse) at India's ballot box; Elizabeth Davies attends a First Nations potlatch raising funds to fight a pipeline

The Bharatiya Janata Party is celebrating a landslide victory in India's elections - but what won it so many votes? Longterm 麻豆社 India-watcher Mark Tully argues that brilliant technological tactics played a role - but the complacency and corruption of the Congress party might have had even more to do with it. In British Columbia, Elizabeth Davies sees another form of democracy in action, as she attends a traditional potlatch with a very modern purpose. Canada's First Nations peoples used to celebrate these mass feasts as a way to redistribute wealth and show off to others; but now they're being held to raise funds for a campaign against the planned Northern Gateway oil pipeline.

Presenter: Pascale Harter. Producer: Polly Hope.

Picture: Paper cups bearing the portrait of BJP candidate Narendra Modi, holding free tea distributed at a roadside stall in New Delhi on February 12, 2014 as part of the BJP's 'talk over tea' election campaign. (SAJJAD HUSSAIN/AFP/Getty Images)

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11 minutes

Last on

Thu 22 May 2014 19:50GMT

Broadcast

  • Thu 22 May 2014 19:50GMT