A washingtonpost.com article from: [e-mail]

[Yamanoor Srihari]

Mayil and Sethu, I am quite happy that we are having this discussion. I am quite as shocked as everyone else is. I am copying this group iluIndia-***@public.gmane.org which I wish to dedicate exclusively for such discussions, and request both of you to join the group.

With Jayalalitha, I agree about poor candidate selection and also her arrogance combined with the problems of Rajni and Thirunavukarasu

However, one other point has been ignored, and atleast this time Jaya didnt slip into the mire. The point is casteism. Increasingly we see the Vanniyars forming a belt and similarly, other castes are increasingly playing an ugly role in TN politics. So in spite of good things like teaching the government officers a good lesson, Jaya lost (not withstanding the problems she herself created) because of caste....this will be very very ugly a trend in the future.

In AP, you have to understand the people were naturally tired of CBN. He never even showed interest in the rest of the state, and this was expected. For sometime I worked with an IAS officer who is a fellow here who told me how Naidu is interested only in IT and numbers and how the unscruplous among the beauracracy learnt to fool him by making up numbers. This angered the people a lot and they put him down.

Also, we have been discussing (me and some of my friends, also in the group) that India did undergo a form of false growth, where certain populations and groups, especially the erstwhile middle class is gaining grounds through strong education which puts them higher up in the work force and leaves the poor of India behind, with a much larger gap to share with a much larger group of people. This effect, a big exaggerated has exacerbated the situation and was cause to the loss of the election.

Finally, no one thought they were doing big harm by playing the poker game of anti - incumbency. Sonia Gandhi did not win because Indians think being ruled by foreigners is fine, or because people thought she is great. It is because people made the stupid mistake of not looking at the big picture of things. Now it will appear as if foreign origin is not an issue, which is a very bad perception.

We are in the largest mess that we ever could be, and I always wonder how one man could be so clairvoyant - Mahatma Gandhi...

I know I have not addressed all the issues and we have many more coming as to whether this situation can be fixed at all or not...and we should beat them out one after the other.

Thanks

Srihari

Sethu Raghavan <meetsethu-/***@public.gmane.org> wrote:
Quite true Mayil, I discussed this with Hari yesterday
and we agreed that its more the foolishness of the
people who voted.

As you said alliance played a crucial role in all the
states..People normally voted for the local candidate
unmindful of who will become PM. There are some
interesting points to note

1.Almost all of the left parties including DMK,MDMK
opposed Sonia because of her foreign origin. Even
Mulayam didnt not support for the same reason in 1998.
Sharad Pawar created NCP because of that reason. Now
see whats happening..no body has any problem with
that..

2.Already left parties started to oppose the
disinvestment of PSU's which are badly managed.If you
have entered one of the PSU's like BHEL you know how
much it stinks...no wonder that BSE lost Rs.52 Billion
in 2 days ...

3.I really think that the alliance will not lost for 5
years. Its a mis-guided attempt to put a foreigner
into the hot seat with nuclear controls....

I am also really confused and angry with the
masses...certainly as a person who lived in hyderabad
for one year,I would not vote TDP out of
power...Cyberbad will become cypherbad again.

Sethu

Hi Sethu,
I was waiting to discuss with some one but cud
nt
find a person. I wud like to include srihari in the
loop
and learn what his views are too.
You wont believe i was shocked after seeing the
results.
the first shock was that the DMK had swept polls in
TN,
without a single seat for ADMK+. How cud that be
possible?
next huge blow was from Central, that vajpayee had
lost. I
cant come to terms with the fact Vajpayee is going
to be
the Oppn. leader and the worst is some italian maid
is
going to be India's PM. To say the least people
didnt know
what they wud were doing. I am not a fan of Jaya but
i
wanted ADMK+ to win this time due to strong support
for
vajpayee.
Atleast some of the reasons for failure in TN were
1. Ofcourse the strong alliance of the oppn.
2. Poor candidate selection of Jaya. (this is
evident from
the fact that dinakaran lost periyakulam by 22,000
votes
compared to other constituencies were the margins
were
huge)
3. Failure to welcome rajini and thirunavukkarasu in
the
active fold of the party. This is not a major factor
but it
might have made a diff, u never know
Reasons for failure in South and east for BJP were
three
factors
Alliance, alliance and alliance.
It was not a vote for sonia gandhi, not a vote for
vajpayee
but to the regional parties or anti-incumbency
factor. DMK
party as a family party is further emphasized by
Dhayanithi
maran's candidature. Karunanidhi continues to expand
his
family control over the party and nt a good sign.
I am not at all happy with the way things are going,
but
what more can i do?
Jai hind
Jaimv

You have been sent this message from
as a courtesy of washingtonpost.com
Mayil,
What do you think?.I miss discussing politics

with you.

Sethu
The Upset in India
IN 1998, WHEN Atal Bihari Vajpayee took the

helm of

the world's largest democracy, nobody predicted

the

extent of his success or his alignment with U.S.
interests. His Hindu nationalist party seemed

likely to

exacerbate tensions with India's non-Hindu

minorities,

inflame relations with Muslim Pakistan and

generally

make India an awkward international partner -- a

prospect

that appeared to come true a few months into Mr.
Vajpayee's tenure, when his government defied the

world

by detonating five nuclear bombs. Six years

later,

however, Mr. Vajpayee has improved relations with
Pakistan, gone out of his way to forge an alliance

with

the United States and advanced the remarkable

program of

liberalization that has turned India into a star

economy.

But if all that was unexpected, so was

yesterday's news.

Having called an early election to capitalize on

his

apparently robust popularity, Mr. Vajpayee lost.
Although the reasons for this upset will grow

clearer as

voting data are analyzed, the dominant theory is

not

encouraging. Mr. Vajpayee is said to have been

punished

for the pro-market reforms that fostered India's
high-tech boom; voters in the villages felt left

out and

took their revenge at the ballot box. This

suggests that

even the world's most successful economic

reformers run

big political risks. India conducted poverty

surveys in

1993 and '94 and again in 1999 and 2000; over that
period, the rural poverty rate fell from 37

percent to 30

percent, so the idea that the villagers have not
benefited from India's growth is spurious. Given

India's

continued boom since 2000, poverty in the villages

has

almost certainly fallen further. Mr. Vajpayee

apparently

got no thanks for this.
India will now be governed by a coalition

dominated by

the Congress Party, the political vehicle of the

Gandhi

family. The current Gandhi is Sonia, the

Italian-born

widow of the assassinated former prime minister

Rajiv,

who was himself the son of the assassinated former

prime

minister Indira, who was the daughter of the

former prime

minister Jawaharlal Nehru, who led the country for

17

years until his peaceful death in office. Mrs.

Gandhi

and her colleagues can be expected to pursue her
predecessor's rapprochement with Pakistan; on the
economy, the new rulers are likely to offer less
continuity, though the difference may be partly
rhetorical. Mr. Vajpayee's reforms are too

entrenched to

be rolled back, but progress in areas such as the
privatization of lumbering state-run industries

may

decelerate.
The sharpest discontinuity is likely to come in
relations with the United States and possibly with

U.S.

allies such as Israel. India has become a leading
customer for Israeli weapons technology. With Mr.
Vajpayee in office, the Bush administration hoped

that

India might be persuaded to send peacekeepers to

Iraq --

a remarkable shift from the Cold War, when India

proudly

led the Non-Aligned Movement and seized every

opportunity

to tweak American leadership. The Congress

Party-led

coalition is expected to swing back to traditional
anti-Americanism, sounding off against the United

States

at the United Nations and perhaps challenging U.S.
influence in the Middle East by launching its own

peace

initiative. All of which would test the Bush
administration's reserves of forbearance and tact.

But

then again, who knows? India's democracy excels at
defying expert predictions.
Would you like to send this article to a friend?

Go to

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/admin/emailfriend?contentId=A25738-2004May13&sent=no&referrer=emailarticle

News -

=== message truncated ===





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[Sundaresan Krishnaswami]

Its not at all upsetting me that Sonia Gandhi will be the prime minister.
By and large BJP was blind. They have learnt a new lesson. But they don't
know that they can really come to power with 2/3rd majority without
alliances. People of TamilNadu can now identify the Lotus symbol, that is
a welcome sign. I don't think people's verdict is nowadays based on an
incident like Godra or Gujarat riots. They have become more or less
selfish, that is indeed good. The next government if really will put some
effort in bringing up people below the poverty line, control population,
then their foundation will become unshakable.

Incidently I happened to read this column. I don't know whether Melvin is
upset or happy, but as far as I know, he is someone who can never agree
to this verdict.

THIS WEEK'S COLUMN:

"THE UNBELIEVABLE STORY FROM INDIA"
<a href=" http://www.MelvinDurai.com/sonia.htm ">Web Column</a>

Ladies and gentlemen, this can't be true. We must be the
victims of the world's biggest hoax. No, I'm not talking
about President Bush's military service. This is far more
earthshaking than that. This concerns the world's largest
democracy, India, which just held a general election. A
general election, as my Pakistani and Nigerian readers will
tell you, is an election in which the general gets elected.
But India did not have a general running for office, so what
did the 380 million voters do? They kicked out the incumbent
prime minister and replaced him, in effect, with an
Italian-born woman named Sonia Gandhi, making her the first
white woman to rule India since Her Majesty Queen Victoria.
At least that's what we've been told.

You can believe it if you wish, but as for me, I'm not that
gullible. I don't read horoscopes and I don't open emails
that say, "Keep her begging for more." And I'm certainly not
going to believe that Indians have elected an Italian-born
woman as prime minister, especially since Italians have
never done so themselves. (Perhaps the Italians are waiting
to elect an Indian-born woman as their prime minister? Yes,
soon after they put mutton curry on their pasta.)

At first, I wanted to believe. I was thrilled about the
thought of Sonia Gandhi, leader of the Congress Party and
widow of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, serving as
prime minister. I hadn't been this excited about race
relations since Oprah gave a big hug to Michael Jackson.

I even tried to share the good news with my American
friends:

Me: "Guess what, Mike? India just gave the prime minister's
seat to a white woman?"

Mike: "How come? Is the prime minister getting a new seat?"

Me: "No, you don't understand. A white woman is assuming the
prime minister's position."

Mike: "Which position? Stooping? Kneeling? Sleeping?"

Me: "The position of prime minister, silly. A white woman is
becoming the new prime minister of India."

Mike: "Yeah, right. Next you're going to tell me that
President Bush is really a Martian."

Me: "Well, guess which planet he wants to spend billions
on."

Needless to say, I began to have doubts myself. After all,
discrimination is prevalent in India and skin color seems to
be a national obsession, so how could this nation of
predominantly brown people entrust their future in white
hands? Were they truly unconcerned about her race or did
they simply get fooled by her tan? "Is she white? Is she
brown? Who gives a darn, she wears a sari and says,
'Namaste.'"

I also thought about the status of women in Indian society,
how some enjoy immense freedom while others are constrained
by the men around them. American women enjoy many rights,
yet in almost 230 years, none has gotten even a sniff of the
presidency (except perhaps after his morning jog). So how
could it be possible that Indians have elected another woman
as prime minister, their second in 20 years?

The more I thought about it, the more unbelievable it
seemed, this story of Sonia Gandhi. A white woman leading
India? It would be an amazing story, if only it were true.
--
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[Jai Sivanantham]

Hi Srihari,
I definitely concur with u in this point of
Casteism by various political parties in TN and all over.
esp by Ramadoss. It is not a good sign at all. But ADMK is
not far beyond in this matter. I am not sure if you choose
to ignore it or not aware of it. ADMK is a active supporter
of part. community. Many indicators of this are constant
good showing by ADMK ( even in this election, ADMK vote
share has increased by a few %) in south Tamilnadu and one
more fact is around 70+ candidates out of 140 odd Assembly
seats are from that community. Is that a coincidence?? It
can't be. What is ur say on this???

Jai Hind.
Jaimv

Post by Yamanoor Srihari
Mayil and Sethu, I am quite happy that we are having this
discussion. I am quite as shocked as everyone else is. I
wish to dedicate exclusively for such discussions, and
request both of you to join the group.
With Jayalalitha, I agree about poor candidate selection
and also her arrogance combined with the problems of
Rajni and Thirunavukarasu
However, one other point has been ignored, and atleast
this time Jaya didnt slip into the mire. The point is
casteism. Increasingly we see the Vanniyars forming a
belt and similarly, other castes are increasingly playing
an ugly role in TN politics. So in spite of good things
like teaching the government officers a good lesson, Jaya
lost (not withstanding the problems she herself created)
because of caste....this will be very very ugly a trend
in the future.
In AP, you have to understand the people were naturally
tired of CBN. He never even showed interest in the rest
of the state, and this was expected. For sometime I
worked with an IAS officer who is a fellow here who told
me how Naidu is interested only in IT and numbers and how
the unscruplous among the beauracracy learnt to fool him
by making up numbers. This angered the people a lot and
they put him down.
Also, we have been discussing (me and some of my friends,
also in the group) that India did undergo a form of false
growth, where certain populations and groups, especially
the erstwhile middle class is gaining grounds through
strong education which puts them higher up in the work
force and leaves the poor of India behind, with a much
larger gap to share with a much larger group of people.
This effect, a big exaggerated has exacerbated the
situation and was cause to the loss of the election.
Finally, no one thought they were doing big harm by
playing the poker game of anti - incumbency. Sonia Gandhi
did not win because Indians think being ruled by
foreigners is fine, or because people thought she is
great. It is because people made the stupid mistake of
not looking at the big picture of things. Now it will
appear as if foreign origin is not an issue, which is a
very bad perception.
We are in the largest mess that we ever could be, and I
always wonder how one man could be so clairvoyant -
Mahatma Gandhi...
I know I have not addressed all the issues and we have
many more coming as to whether this situation can be
fixed at all or not...and we should beat them out one
after the other.
Thanks
Srihari
Quite true Mayil, I discussed this with Hari yesterday
and we agreed that its more the foolishness of the
people who voted.
As you said alliance played a crucial role in all the
states..People normally voted for the local candidate
unmindful of who will become PM. There are some
interesting points to note
1.Almost all of the left parties including DMK,MDMK
opposed Sonia because of her foreign origin. Even
Mulayam didnt not support for the same reason in 1998.
Sharad Pawar created NCP because of that reason. Now
see whats happening..no body has any problem with
that..
2.Already left parties started to oppose the
disinvestment of PSU's which are badly managed.If you
have entered one of the PSU's like BHEL you know how
much it stinks...no wonder that BSE lost Rs.52 Billion
in 2 days ...
3.I really think that the alliance will not lost for 5
years. Its a mis-guided attempt to put a foreigner
into the hot seat with nuclear controls....
I am also really confused and angry with the
masses...certainly as a person who lived in hyderabad
for one year,I would not vote TDP out of
power...Cyberbad will become cypherbad again.
Sethu

Hi Sethu,
I was waiting to discuss with some one but cud
nt
find a person. I wud like to include srihari in the
loop
and learn what his views are too.
You wont believe i was shocked after seeing the
results.
the first shock was that the DMK had swept polls in
TN,
without a single seat for ADMK+. How cud that be
possible?
next huge blow was from Central, that vajpayee had
lost. I
cant come to terms with the fact Vajpayee is going
to be
the Oppn. leader and the worst is some italian maid
is
going to be India's PM. To say the least people
didnt know
what they wud were doing. I am not a fan of Jaya but
i
wanted ADMK+ to win this time due to strong support
for
vajpayee.
Atleast some of the reasons for failure in TN were
1. Ofcourse the strong alliance of the oppn.
2. Poor candidate selection of Jaya. (this is
evident from
the fact that dinakaran lost periyakulam by 22,000
votes
compared to other constituencies were the margins
were
huge)
3. Failure to welcome rajini and thirunavukkarasu in
the
active fold of the party. This is not a major factor
but it
might have made a diff, u never know
Reasons for failure in South and east for BJP were
three
factors
Alliance, alliance and alliance.
It was not a vote for sonia gandhi, not a vote for
vajpayee
but to the regional parties or anti-incumbency
factor. DMK
party as a family party is further emphasized by
Dhayanithi
maran's candidature. Karunanidhi continues to expand
his
family control over the party and nt a good sign.
I am not at all happy with the way things are going,
but
what more can i do?
Jai hind
Jaimv

You have been sent this message from
as a courtesy of washingtonpost.com
Mayil,
What do you think?.I miss discussing politics

with you.

Sethu
The Upset in India
IN 1998, WHEN Atal Bihari Vajpayee took the

helm of

the world's largest democracy, nobody predicted

the

extent of his success or his alignment with U.S.
interests. His Hindu nationalist party seemed

likely to

exacerbate tensions with India's non-Hindu

minorities,

inflame relations with Muslim Pakistan and

generally

make India an awkward international partner -- a

prospect

that appeared to come true a few months into Mr.
Vajpayee's tenure, when his government defied the

world

by detonating five nuclear bombs. Six years

later,

however, Mr. Vajpayee has improved relations with
Pakistan, gone out of his way to forge an alliance

with

the United States and advanced the remarkable

program of

liberalization that has turned India into a star

economy.

But if all that was unexpected, so was

yesterday's news.

Having called an early election to capitalize on

his

apparently robust popularity, Mr. Vajpayee lost.
Although the reasons for this upset will grow

clearer as

voting data are analyzed, the dominant theory is

not

encouraging. Mr. Vajpayee is said to have been

punished

for the pro-market reforms that fostered India's
high-tech boom; voters in the villages felt left

out and

took their revenge at the ballot box. This

suggests that

even the world's most successful economic

reformers run

big political risks. India conducted poverty

surveys in

1993 and '94 and again in 1999 and 2000; over that
period, the rural poverty rate fell from 37

percent to 30

percent, so the idea that the villagers have not
benefited from India's growth is spurious. Given

India's

continued boom since 2000, poverty in the villages

has

almost certainly fallen further. Mr. Vajpayee

apparently

got no thanks for this.
India will now be governed by a coalition

dominated by

the Congress Party, the political vehicle of the

Gandhi

family. The current Gandhi is Sonia, the

Italian-born

widow of the assassinated former prime minister

Rajiv,

who was himself the son of the assassinated former

prime

minister Indira, who was the daughter of the

former prime

minister Jawaharlal Nehru, who led the country for

17

years until his peaceful death in office. Mrs.

Gandhi

and her colleagues can be expected to pursue her
predecessor's rapprochement with Pakistan; on the
economy, the new rulers are likely to offer less
continuity, though the difference may be partly
rhetorical. Mr. Vajpayee's reforms are too

entrenched to

be rolled back, but progress in areas such as the
privatization of lumbering state-run industries

may

decelerate.
The sharpest discontinuity is likely to come in
relations with the United States and possibly with

U.S.

allies such as Israel. India has become a leading
customer for Israeli weapons technology. With Mr.
Vajpayee in office, the Bush administration hoped

that

India might be persuaded to send peacekeepers to

Iraq --

a remarkable shift from the Cold War, when India

proudly

led the Non-Aligned Movement and seized every

opportunity

to tweak American leadership. The Congress

Party-led

coalition is expected to swing back to traditional
anti-Americanism, sounding off against the United

States

at the United Nations and perhaps challenging U.S.
influence in the Middle East by launching its own

peace

initiative. All of which would test the Bush
administration's reserves of forbearance and tact.

But

then again, who knows? India's democracy excels at
defying expert predictions.
Would you like to send this article to a friend?

Go to

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/admin/emailfriend?contentId=A25738-2004May13&sent=no&referrer=emailarticle

Post by Yamanoor Srihari

News -

=== message truncated ===
__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
SBC Yahoo! - Internet access at a great low price.
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http://www.stanford.edu/~yamanoor
http://yamanoor.tblog.com
---------------------------------
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[Yamanoor Srihari]

Maybe I came out like that..in the way I wrote. The only reason I admire Jayalalitha is for her guts, and because thats a better choice than dynasty. However, I do agree with the fact that castes are now an important factor in anyone voting for any party, ADMK or otherwise. We are out of the frying pan, Rajnikanth, and into the fire, Caste system. Its only getting worse by the day, since you can see how the problem magnifies!

Srihari

Jai Sivanantham <mail2mayil-/***@public.gmane.org> wrote:
Hi Srihari,
I definitely concur with u in this point of
Casteism by various political parties in TN and all over.
esp by Ramadoss. It is not a good sign at all. But ADMK is
not far beyond in this matter. I am not sure if you choose
to ignore it or not aware of it. ADMK is a active supporter
of part. community. Many indicators of this are constant
good showing by ADMK ( even in this election, ADMK vote
share has increased by a few %) in south Tamilnadu and one
more fact is around 70+ candidates out of 140 odd Assembly
seats are from that community. Is that a coincidence?? It
can't be. What is ur say on this???

Jai Hind.
Jaimv

Post by Yamanoor Srihari
Mayil and Sethu, I am quite happy that we are having this
discussion. I am quite as shocked as everyone else is. I
wish to dedicate exclusively for such discussions, and
request both of you to join the group.
With Jayalalitha, I agree about poor candidate selection
and also her arrogance combined with the problems of
Rajni and Thirunavukarasu
However, one other point has been ignored, and atleast
this time Jaya didnt slip into the mire. The point is
casteism. Increasingly we see the Vanniyars forming a
belt and similarly, other castes are increasingly playing
an ugly role in TN politics. So in spite of good things
like teaching the government officers a good lesson, Jaya
lost (not withstanding the problems she herself created)
because of caste....this will be very very ugly a trend
in the future.
In AP, you have to understand the people were naturally
tired of CBN. He never even showed interest in the rest
of the state, and this was expected. For sometime I
worked with an IAS officer who is a fellow here who told
me how Naidu is interested only in IT and numbers and how
the unscruplous among the beauracracy learnt to fool him
by making up numbers. This angered the people a lot and
they put him down.
Also, we have been discussing (me and some of my friends,
also in the group) that India did undergo a form of false
growth, where certain populations and groups, especially
the erstwhile middle class is gaining grounds through
strong education which puts them higher up in the work
force and leaves the poor of India behind, with a much
larger gap to share with a much larger group of people.
This effect, a big exaggerated has exacerbated the
situation and was cause to the loss of the election.
Finally, no one thought they were doing big harm by
playing the poker game of anti - incumbency. Sonia Gandhi
did not win because Indians think being ruled by
foreigners is fine, or because people thought she is
great. It is because people made the stupid mistake of
not looking at the big picture of things. Now it will
appear as if foreign origin is not an issue, which is a
very bad perception.
We are in the largest mess that we ever could be, and I
always wonder how one man could be so clairvoyant -
Mahatma Gandhi...
I know I have not addressed all the issues and we have
many more coming as to whether this situation can be
fixed at all or not...and we should beat them out one
after the other.
Thanks
Srihari
Quite true Mayil, I discussed this with Hari yesterday
and we agreed that its more the foolishness of the
people who voted.
As you said alliance played a crucial role in all the
states..People normally voted for the local candidate
unmindful of who will become PM. There are some
interesting points to note
1.Almost all of the left parties including DMK,MDMK
opposed Sonia because of her foreign origin. Even
Mulayam didnt not support for the same reason in 1998.
Sharad Pawar created NCP because of that reason. Now
see whats happening..no body has any problem with
that..
2.Already left parties started to oppose the
disinvestment of PSU's which are badly managed.If you
have entered one of the PSU's like BHEL you know how
much it stinks...no wonder that BSE lost Rs.52 Billion
in 2 days ...
3.I really think that the alliance will not lost for 5
years. Its a mis-guided attempt to put a foreigner
into the hot seat with nuclear controls....
I am also really confused and angry with the
masses...certainly as a person who lived in hyderabad
for one year,I would not vote TDP out of
power...Cyberbad will become cypherbad again.
Sethu

Hi Sethu,
I was waiting to discuss with some one but cud
nt
find a person. I wud like to include srihari in the
loop
and learn what his views are too.
You wont believe i was shocked after seeing the
results.
the first shock was that the DMK had swept polls in
TN,
without a single seat for ADMK+. How cud that be
possible?
next huge blow was from Central, that vajpayee had
lost. I
cant come to terms with the fact Vajpayee is going
to be
the Oppn. leader and the worst is some italian maid
is
going to be India's PM. To say the least people
didnt know
what they wud were doing. I am not a fan of Jaya but
i
wanted ADMK+ to win this time due to strong support
for
vajpayee.
Atleast some of the reasons for failure in TN were
1. Ofcourse the strong alliance of the oppn.
2. Poor candidate selection of Jaya. (this is
evident from
the fact that dinakaran lost periyakulam by 22,000
votes
compared to other constituencies were the margins
were
huge)
3. Failure to welcome rajini and thirunavukkarasu in
the
active fold of the party. This is not a major factor
but it
might have made a diff, u never know
Reasons for failure in South and east for BJP were
three
factors
Alliance, alliance and alliance.
It was not a vote for sonia gandhi, not a vote for
vajpayee
but to the regional parties or anti-incumbency
factor. DMK
party as a family party is further emphasized by
Dhayanithi
maran's candidature. Karunanidhi continues to expand
his
family control over the party and nt a good sign.
I am not at all happy with the way things are going,
but
what more can i do?
Jai hind
Jaimv

You have been sent this message from
as a courtesy of washingtonpost.com
Mayil,
What do you think?.I miss discussing politics

with you.

Sethu
The Upset in India
IN 1998, WHEN Atal Bihari Vajpayee took the

helm of

the world's largest democracy, nobody predicted

the

extent of his success or his alignment with U.S.
interests. His Hindu nationalist party seemed

likely to

exacerbate tensions with India's non-Hindu

minorities,

inflame relations with Muslim Pakistan and

generally

make India an awkward international partner -- a

prospect

that appeared to come true a few months into Mr.
Vajpayee's tenure, when his government defied the

world

by detonating five nuclear bombs. Six years

later,

however, Mr. Vajpayee has improved relations with
Pakistan, gone out of his way to forge an alliance

with

the United States and advanced the remarkable

program of

liberalization that has turned India into a star

economy.

But if all that was unexpected, so was

yesterday's news.

Having called an early election to capitalize on

his

apparently robust popularity, Mr. Vajpayee lost.
Although the reasons for this upset will grow

clearer as

voting data are analyzed, the dominant theory is

not

encouraging. Mr. Vajpayee is said to have been

punished

for the pro-market reforms that fostered India's
high-tech boom; voters in the villages felt left

out and

took their revenge at the ballot box. This

suggests that

even the world's most successful economic

reformers run

big political risks. India conducted poverty

surveys in

1993 and '94 and again in 1999 and 2000; over that
period, the rural poverty rate fell from 37

percent to 30

percent, so the idea that the villagers have not
benefited from India's growth is spurious. Given

India's

continued boom since 2000, poverty in the villages

has

almost certainly fallen further. Mr. Vajpayee

apparently

got no thanks for this.
India will now be governed by a coalition

dominated by

the Congress Party, the political vehicle of the

Gandhi

family. The current Gandhi is Sonia, the

Italian-born

widow of the assassinated former prime minister

Rajiv,

who was himself the son of the assassinated former

prime

minister Indira, who was the daughter of the

former prime

minister Jawaharlal Nehru, who led the country for

17

years until his peaceful death in office. Mrs.

Gandhi

and her colleagues can be expected to pursue her
predecessor's rapprochement with Pakistan; on the
economy, the new rulers are likely to offer less
continuity, though the difference may be partly
rhetorical. Mr. Vajpayee's reforms are too

entrenched to

be rolled back, but progress in areas such as the
privatization of lumbering state-run industries

may

decelerate.
The sharpest discontinuity is likely to come in
relations with the United States and possibly with

U.S.

allies such as Israel. India has become a leading
customer for Israeli weapons technology. With Mr.
Vajpayee in office, the Bush administration hoped

that

India might be persuaded to send peacekeepers to

Iraq --

a remarkable shift from the Cold War, when India

proudly

led the Non-Aligned Movement and seized every

opportunity

to tweak American leadership. The Congress

Party-led

coalition is expected to swing back to traditional
anti-Americanism, sounding off against the United

States

at the United Nations and perhaps challenging U.S.
influence in the Middle East by launching its own

peace

initiative. All of which would test the Bush
administration's reserves of forbearance and tact.

But

then again, who knows? India's democracy excels at
defying expert predictions.
Would you like to send this article to a friend?

Go to

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/admin/emailfriend?contentId=A25738-2004May13&sent=no&referrer=emailarticle

Post by Yamanoor Srihari

News -

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