Vajpayee to resign as ruling party loses in India (Amazing India: 650 million voters)

CNN ^ | 5/13/2004 | CNN

[zarf]

NEW DELHI, India -- Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee's Bharatiya Janata Party has conceded defeat in parliamentary elections in a stunning voting upset that should see the return of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty to power.

Vajpayee -- who called the election six months earlier -- is also expected to resign within hours, India's defense minister said.

[beaversmom]

India's massive election was staggered over several stages because more than 650 million people voted.

Elections are usually tinged with violence in the world's largest democracy, and this year was no different -- despite more than 400,000 security forces being deployed.

Election violence claimed 48 lives, less than half the number of deaths that occurred in the 1999 election.

Wow!

[rdb3]

The geopolitical chessboard is changing rapidly, isn't it?

[A Simple Soldier]

This is unbelievable. This is a massive upset. Massive. Similar to Dewey Beats Truman.

The conventional wisdom was the BJP would expand its majority.

[USMMA_83]

This is a bad day for India. More of it's educated class will migrate out to the West.

[snopercod]

And this will leave which faction in power?

[lavrenti]

The corrupt, left-wing Congress Party. Run by yet another Nehru family member. I think the Italian widow of the dumber younger brother.

[Rebelbase]

And the new party and PM's position on nuclear deterrence with Pakistan is?

[sphinx]

This is a bad day for India. More of it's educated class will migrate out to the West.

I passed through the Delhi and Trivandrum airports 25 years ago, so if I were a reporter that would make me an expert on India. Not being a reporter, may I ask you to elaborate? Are you suggesting that idiot socialists will be back in charge, or do you have something else in mind?

[lavrenti]

Oh, and Congress (I) will make a mess of things regarding the WOT. It's like having PRI run Mexico again.

[sphinx]

So the competitive environment just eased a bit for the US? Silver lining, I suppose.

[snopercod]

Congress Party releases platform

NEW DELHI, April 10: The main opposition Congress party, outlining its foreign policy before elections, on Saturday accused the government of making India "subordinate" to the United States and of flip-flopping on ties with Pakistan.

The Congress said that if voted to power in the parliamentary polls that begin on April 20 it would retain "freedom of options" in foreign relations and oppose sending Indian troops to Iraq.

"Sadly, a great country like India has been reduced to having a subordinate relationship with the United States where the US takes India for granted," a Congress vision statement said.

Releasing the platform, former junior foreign minister Natwar Singh said Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee's Hindu nationalist-led government was "ready to send troops to Iraq" but that Congress scuttled the move in parliament.

The Vajpayee government points to the growing political and military relationship with the United States as a key achievement of its five-year tenure, but says it would only deploy troops to Iraq with a clear UN mandate.

Mr Singh, however, denied there was any "paradigm shift" in India-US relations and accused the government of "denting 50 years of consensus on foreign policy in India".

India, which was ruled by Congress for nearly 45 years, led the Non-Aligned Movement during the Cold War when it tilted towards the Soviet Union.

Mr Singh noted that US Secretary of State Colin Powell named India's rival Pakistan a major non-NATO ally during a visit to the subcontinent last month without first informing India.

"He (Powell) came, met the prime minister, the foreign minister but when he went to Pakistan he said Pakistan was being given MNNA status. At least, he could have informed us. And what did the government say? They said they are disappointed. At least they should have condemned this," Mr Singh said.

Congress said it would work for a "stable, working, cooperative" relationship with Pakistan, with which India resumed bilateral talks in February after a gap of more than two years. But Congress called the government's Pakistan policy "a saga of contradictions and confusion," accusing Vajpayee of changing his stance five times in five years.

"The government completely failed in containing and countering terrorism sponsored by Pakistan," the statement said.-AFP

[Rebelbase]

Yikes! Changed is position on Pak. five times in five years. Are we sure this isn't John Kerry?

Seriously, this does not bode well for peace between the two countries.

[snopercod]

The Congress Party ran on halting the privatization of the Indian economy, apparently.

[rabidralph]

The leftist Congress Party accused Vajpayee's party of not helping the poor, even though we are outsourcing our tech jobs to them. I wonder how this election development will affect outsourcing?

[watsonfellow]

The Indian elections recieved a great deal of coverage here in Singapore.

Let me straighten out a few things.

The privatization of the Indian economy began under the Congress party in the early 90's. Congress has committed itself to further free-market reforms.

The BJP is an especially nasty party. A few years ago the BJP Premier of Gujarat gave vocal and political support to HIndu extremists, which started a bloody religious war that killed thousands of people.

[AM2000]

The privatization of the Indian economy began under the Congress party in the early 90's. Congress has committed itself to further free-market reforms.

Yes and no. It started under the Congress, but with a non-Nehru PM (Rao). The Nehru's have always been against it. Sonia is a Nehru/Gandhi. She has spoken repeatedly against economic privatization.

[AM2000]

told ya so :D

[Dog Gone]

Yes, you did, and I was skeptical. This is a serious setback for India, much like the results of the Spanish elections for Spain. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

[vanmorrison]

OK...So the heavily socialist Congress Party wins again, undoing the privatization efforts and economic reforms that have led to American high-tech outsourcing there. This does not bode well for India's long-term economic outlook. Likewise for those American firms who bet on changes occurring in Indian society itself.

The same thing will happen in China. Bet on that, too.

I've said this a hundred times on this site. The hysterical ravings of America-hating leftist liberals who continually wish and hope that India, or China, or any other flavor-of-the-month country will perform some kind of economic miracle that will supercede the USA, has always been whistling past the graveyard. These countries have no history or tradition of economic and political freedom that will sustain any long-term growth curve. How much more evidence does anyone need to see?

"Who are you gonna believe, what I say or your own lyin' eyes?"