K. Subrahmanyam
The NDA’s prime ministerial candidate, L.K. Advani, has, in a television interview, expressed confidence that elections are likely to be held in 2009, and not this year.
He also took the unusual step of visiting Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the occasion of Holi to convey his greetings and present copies of his autobiography to them. Earlier, he had been bemoaning the absence of personal communication
with Gandhi and its adverse impact on his relationship with the prime minister. In his ‘Walk the Talk’ interaction (IE, March 24), he also signalled that it was possible for his party to consider the acceptability of the 123 Agreement with the United States if the Indian Atomic Energy Act were to be amended to shield this country from the provisions of the Hyde Act. In the interviews, in the wake of the release of his autobiography, Advani has projected himself as a strategist who persuaded Prime Minister Vajpayee to invite
Pervez Musharraf for the Agra summit and as a strong leader, who did not hesitate to condemn US ambiguity on Pakistani terrorism during the hijack of IC-814 to Kandahar.
Purely on objective considerations, the NDA’s interest lies in having the elections in 2009 and avoiding the polls in 2008. So is it for the Left parties too. Next year, in spite of all
the efforts by the US Federal Reserve, the US Congress and the European central banks, the world economy is likely to be in a worse condition than it is in this year. The central banks and governments can only limit the damage, not totally avoid it. Despite all the brave talk in India, this country cannot scape the global trend. The Indian economy is bound to be in a less favourable situation than it is in now.
... contd.
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