India’s four states two large ones and two small went to the polls last week. Andhra and Kamataka are big states in south India while Goa falls in the middle and Sikkim in the extreme north. Congress (has suffered heavily in these elections almost in all the four states. Andhra returned N.T. Ramarao’s Telegu Desam party and Kartaka Deve Goivda’s Janata Dal. In Sikkim the fledgling Sikkim Democratic Front has won an absolute majority in the 32member Assembly. In Goa the situation is fluid and the rival parties are engaged in efforts to form government. Significantly Andhra where the Congress (I) lost heavily is Prime Minister Narasimha Rao’s home state. In the course of electioneering, Rao had made it a question of a vote for (or against) his government and its new economic policy.

Several important conclusions can be reached about the election results:

First and foremost, the Indian voter has rejected the kind of economic liberalization being practiced by the Rao government. It has entailed price rise of commodities of daily use, which is pinching the common man. India’s so-called liberalization is limited to a few sectors of the economy. Agriculture is completely untouched. Farmers are unable to produce cheap commodities. There are numerous restrictions on them. The result is that the country’s poor are not enamored of Rao’s liberalization. There is widespread corruption in his government, Middle classes, are getting disenchanted. India is in no position to introduce liberalization so long as its polity is undemocratic and fascist. Whatever has been introduced has produced half-baked results. Secondly, India cannot boast of a two-party system of the kind prevalent in the USA and the UK. Most observers in the west had started believing that the Congress (I) and the BJP were the two main political forces between whom political power will rotate. The WSN had been clear all along that the two parties were basically akin and do not represent the other part of India. The two parties had joined hands first to mount an attack on Sikhs’ Golden Temple and then on Muslims’ Babri masjid. This led to the minority groups like Muslims and Christians getting alienated from the two parties, consequently the minority groups tilted the balance away from the Congress (I) and the BJP and in favor of regional parties like the Janata Dal, the Telegu Desam Party, and the Sikkim Democratic Front. In other words, one has to contend with regional, local forces that could join hands tomorrow to rule India. Unfortunately, the US administration’s assessment of Indian politics was wide off the mark. The US government unwisely threw its weight behind the present Indian establishment which is in favor of Hindu fundamentalism; it totally neglected the regional groups and forces, and minorities. Washington forgot that India is not a one nation; it is a combination of several nations held together by one of the largest standing armies in the world. The US committed the mistake of not looking after the interests of regional parties and minorities who are in ‘conflict with the fundamentalist parties like the Congress (I) and the BJP.

Article extracted from this publication >>  December 16, 1994