 Manifesto of the new Government Peter Sagar, Political Correspondent, Mumbai
With Manmohan Singh in the center and Sam Pitroda behind the scene, India is not going to travel back in time. Economic liberalization, attracting foreign capital and creating an environment of good relations with the neighboring China and Pakistan will continue. The new Government will definitely correct the budget deficit problem. Most likely there will be no difference in the policy of the Central Government except the Government will be more socialistic and “friend of poor and common people” in the tradition of Mrs. Indira Gandhi’s India and Indian Green Revolution. The biggest challenge for the new Government will be “Kashmir” and “US-Pakistan alliance”. BJP just could not manage America and got harassed again and again by the Pakistanis and the American. It will be interesting to see if Rahul’s party can manage the same better. |
As the dust cleared, India’s future direction is visible now. Congress will form a stable Government in the center with the help of the left (CPI(M), CPI, Forward Block). Two states finally provided guidance to India’s politics – Kerala and West Bengal. The left front is going to provide unconditional support to Congress in exchange of the Congress’s support for the common people and the poor. BJP’s “feel good” campaign brought all core constituencies of India together. The Marxists and Congress – enemies of the past are working towards taking India towards the center from the far right. Sitaram Yechuri, a member of the CPI-M Politburo (the party's highest decision-making body) told an Indian television channel on May 13 that his party would lobby for the divestment ministry -- headed by Arun Shourie in the outgoing Vajpayee government -- to be disbanded. This means that privatization will be put on hold for the time being at least. The left front will provide complete unconditional support to Congress. The traditional enemies Congress and the left front finally have realized that their main common enemy is BJP which is communal and least socialistic. After all Congress was socialistic and provided the common people of India the basic needs. Most of the interior infrastructure building and making the farmers the backbone of the country was part of the main agenda of Jagjivan Ram and Mrs. Indira Gandhi. That India has changed and moved to the far right. India under BJP became a strong ally of US and Israel. India overlooked the needs of its allies like Saddam’s Iraq and Palestinians. India undertook massive privatization and economic liberalization. While the rural poor went nowhere, BJP created the new middle class based on imported outsourcing BPO jobs. The industrialists were the biggest gainers under BJP’s rule.