Newspapers have been suffused with so many negative examples of so-called democratic leadership of late that it was a refreshing change to see two notable Indian leaders put the interest of their nation beyond their own political careers.

By rejecting the post of prime minister, Congress Party leader Sonia Gandhi cleared the path for India to be led by Dr Manmohan Singh, a man she and many other Indians believe would do a better job of governing the vast country.

Gandhi's move to give way to Manmohan, a former finance minister and architect of India's economic reform in the early 1990s, will also spare India from divisive splits over her eligibility as leader in view of her Italian roots.

The other leader whose actions have stood out over the past week happens to be Gandhi's former rival, the outgoing prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee. The Bharatiya Janata Party leader accepted his party's stunning defeat last week with humbling grace.

"My party and alliance have lost, but India has won," he said.

This is the kind of exemplary statesmanship that politicians everywhere ought to learn.

It is certainly apt that the reaffirmation of the supremacy of democracy as the best form of government has come from India. It is, after all, the world's largest democracy, and arguably the most vibrant.