Standing up to pressures from India
By Dr Maqbool Ahmad Bhatty
The result of the 2009 Parliamentary Elections in India has served
to reinforce the confidence of that ambitious power to play an
assertive role not only in its region but also at the global level.
The Congress Party's emergence as the largest party has been made
possible by the burgeoning economy and rise of an educated middle
class creating a consumer's market of 300 million. Even though the
electoral process gets messy in a county with the greatest
multiplicity of ethnic groups and religious minorities, and its
conduct is not totally transparent, the result has a certain
credibility justifying for the country the title of the world's
largest democracy.
Mr Manmohan Singh, the Sikh technocrat who helped launch India on
its economic resurgence in 1990, will continue as prime minister.
Interestingly, the dynastic legacy since Nehru's uninterrupted
premiership from 1947 to 1964 continues. Daughter Indira Gandhi
succeeded him, and her son Rajiv Gandhi inherited the leadership.
Both were assassinated, one by a Sikh bodyguard and the other by a
Tamil woman suicide bomber.
Rajiv's widow Sonia Gandhi being Italian born chose to play a
kingmaker's role, recognising the constraints on ambition arising
from such ancestry. Her son Rahul, now 36 years old, is preparing
himself for leadership by strengthening the party and has played a
prominent role in the election campaign. The image he has acquired
is that of a gifted and dedicated nationalist who will continue to
pursue his great grandfather's vision of India as a world power.
The Hindu content of India's national ethos, that was exemplified by
Mahatama Gandhi, even though he was assassinated by a Hindu
extremist in 1948, still bedevils the region's politics. The Kashmir
dispute continues to poison relations with Pakistan and constitutes
one facet of a post World War II global order in which Muslim rights
and aspirations have been suppressed.
The 9/11 events were used to brand Islamic resurgence as 'terrorist'
in character. Palestinians faced stronger repression in Israeli
occupied regions, while India followed suit by equating the Kashmiri
liberation struggle to terrorism.
The Nation: June 7, 2009 |
