The past week has been an interesting one, at least in terms of democracy, in the world's largest democratic country, India.
A novice politician riding a wave of public protest made history by winning 67 out of the 70 seats in the state elections in New Delhi. Capturing 96% of the available seats — with a modest 54.3% of the popular vote — is unheard of in any vibrant democracy, but that is what happened.
The Aam Aadmi (common man) Party led by Arvind Kejriwal left its old-guard rivals in the dust. The mighty Congress, which had ruled Delhi for 15 years (three terms), failed to get a single seat, while the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won only three seats despite fielding renowned policewoman Kiran Bedi as its candidate.
Analysts are still trying to figure out what went right, or wrong, depending on your perspective. Only a year ago Kejriwal became the laughing stock of the country when he quit just 49 days after winning the leadership of Delhi, saying he wanted to take his anti-corruption campaign onto the national stage. That didn't work out very well for him, but he had the courage to dust himself off and set his sights on Delhi again.
Now he is back with a bang sufficiently big to ensure that he has a mandate to make the changes he feels are right for the city and has promised to make.
One of the biggest reasons for Kejriwal's success has been his ability to tap the voter base of the poor, who are barely making ends meet amid the ever-rising cost of living in the capital. He has promised giveaways including water and electricity, and also vows to make the city a safer place for women and rid Delhi of its reputation as the rape capital of the world.
Still, questions persist about why and how the people of Delhi voted the way they did. The core electorate is considered far more educated than their peers elsewhere, yet they chose a "common man" to run the metropolis of nearly 21 million inhabitants.
An engineer by training and a former senior tax collector by profession, Kejriwal is anything but "common" himself, but he eschews all the frills that most politicians enjoy and shows great understanding and empathy for the poor.
Was this the reason people chose him over the heavily hyped candidate of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's BJP?
Mr Modi, who last May won the first absolute majority in three decades of federal politics, has become more of a rock star than a prime minister. His victory gave him a mandate to undertake major economic and social reforms, but while India and the world have expected so much, little has been delivered so far.
His premiership has been heavy on marketing, featuring a talk at Madison Square Garden and a similar event in Sydney among other high-profile spectacles. But over the past nine months Mr Modi has managed to do more harm to himself than good for the country in terms of putting his policy promises into action.
The premier's self-promotion reached new heights of narcissism when US President Barack Obama visited India last month. Mr Modi chose the occasion to show off a pinstriped suit worth nearly 1 million rupees, the sort only a handful of the rich and famous would ever wear. Once one zooms in, one sees that the stripes are letters spelling out Modi's name.
In a country where 363 million people are still living below the poverty line, a narcissist prime minister spending a fortune on a suit is shocking in itself, especially given that its wearer prides himself on his humble beginnings.
Were the excesses of the Modi camp and the corruption baggage of the Congress the factors that led to the triumph of Kejriwal?
I don't know if anyone has the answer to those questions, but one thing we can surely learn is that in a thriving democracy, no one party can rule forever, even if it has a superstar like Modi or the legacy of last name, which for the Congress is Gandhi.
So while we Thais try to figure a way out to stamp out the influence of certain people in our political system, the victory of a no-name party in a small state must surely give our constitution drafters and reformers some insights. Their top priority should be to promote democracy, for in such development lies the foundation for a stronger future where people are not dependent on a one-man show or a celebrated family name.