WASHINGTON: American Congressmen are being led to believe that Prime Minister of India P.V. Narasimha Rao is indecisive on communal issues, and has done cheek either the decline of the ss party or the rise of the Bhasratiya Janata Party (BJP).

A background brief prepared by the Congressional Research Service (CRS) of the US Library of Congress claims that “corruption and alleged ties to organized come” have undermined the already declining public confidence in government officials and politicians of all hues. It suggests that Rao “for the moment at least” may survive these allegations.

The report claims that the neglect of grass root political organizations has been an important factor in the decline of national support for the Congress party and the rise of communal politics and regional based parties.

The report says that although Rao confounded his critics and sup porters alike by providing “real leadership” in addressing India’s economic difficulties, he has remained “indecisive on such other problems as communal violence between Hindus and Muslims, the continuing decay of the Congress party, and the ascent of the BJP.” it farther states that “Rao’s failure to meet more effectively the BJP challenge has created serious dissensions within the Congress party.” It says that the actions of the Rao Government to check the BJP immediately after the Ayodhya crisis “were widely viewed both as too late and “ham handed”.”

Thus the charge of indecisive ness against the Rao government unchecking the rise of the BJP and of not being unequivocal in dealing with communalism is very different from what the Congressional Research Service was telling American Congressmen in February this year. It had blamed police at the local levels for favoring the Hindu majority and held them ‘responsible for numerous deaths and atrocities against Muslims.” Now the CRS perception of communal ism seems to have changed a bit with the indecisiveness at the highest levels of the central government also being portrayed as a factor in communal violence.

The latest report describes the “Hindu led” BJP as “both a driving force and a beneficiary of increasing Hindu militancy” Apparently the BJP claims that “there is broad support for establishment of a Hindu state.” The CRS blames the BJP squarely for organizing the march to Ayodhya which “resulted in the illegal destruction of the 400 year mosque.”

Besides providing these perceptions of the state of Indian political setting, the Congressional Research Service brief provides very lite new information of the state of Indo US relations. It describes in considerable detail the main areas of US and Congressional interest in India which include nuclear weapons, missile proliferation, regional stability, human rights and trade barriers. It has nothing new to say on any of them.

Article extracted from this publication >>  October 29, 1993