A POLITICAL earthquake has rocked south Asia following India’s general election. Millions of workers, the dispossessed and rural poor decisively rejected the ‘neo-liberal’ policies of the ruling Hindu nationalist coalition government led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its prime minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee.
“Not only has the country been stunned by the awesome verdict, the entire free world must learn from the courage of the poor, illiterate, the voiceless and the underprivileged of the earth’s largest democracy as they punish rulers who thought their realm consisted of only 150 million for whom India was definitely ’shining’.” Editorial of the Indian weekly, ’Outlook’.
“It is generally the Indian middle class and the rich who are feeling good, but there are so many others, belonging to the lower middle class, belonging to the peasantry, belonging to the working class, who are not feeling good.” That view, from analyst Kumar Kaldeep, quoted by Radio Netherlands is important to keep in mind when the Indian election results will be announced next week.
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