Wednesday, September 23, 1998
Vajpayee's MEA Culpa
He may still prove us wrong in New York later this week, but for a prime minister who signalled change on the foreign policy front with a 53-kiloton bang Atal Behari Vajpayee seems to have given in rather meekly to the MEA's dreaded forces of continuity.
Dying reform, waning vision
Whatever happened to economic reform? While traversing the road between spectacular economic hemorrhage to becoming an economic honcho, India appears to have lost both, the road and the road-map. In the post-Independence era, perhaps for the first time ever, India had embarked upon a real and ambitious economic liberalisation programme in 1991, thanks to a huge external sector crisis. Seven years later, there appears to be a general farewell to reform, everywhere.
Enter the President
India's fractured polity leaves little room for any major executive action that will not snowball into a controversy. The BJP-led government's decision to recommend dismissal of the Rabri Devi government belongs to this category.
|
|
