• by Ranjit Devraj (new delhi)
• Saturday, May 16, 2009
• Inter Press Service

By winning convincingly in India’s month-long general election, the ruling Congress party’s policy of reforms combined with a commitment to India’s rural masses and secularism seems to have paid off.

While the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) was still short of the 272 seats required for a majority in the 543-seat Lok Sabha (law-making lower house of parliament) Saturday, it had a comfortable enough win for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress party president Sonia Gandhi to thank voters at an impromptu press conference and pledge more of the same.

'The people of India know what is good for them and they always make the right choice,' said Gandhi. 'We made certain promises in 2004 under the common minimum programme [of the UPA] and under the prime minister’s leadership worked hard to meet them. I believe the people have appreciated that we work for them.'

Singh said the Congress party owed its 'massive mandate' to the desire of the Indian people for a 'stable, strong government which is committed to secular values.'

The Congress party appeared to be regaining its traditional image of a 'secular' party that appeals to minorities and people at the bottom of India’s caste hierarchy. This was particularly visible in Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state, where the party has made significant gains against powerful caste or religion-based parties.

What may also have worked for Singh and the Congress party was the attention paid to India’s vast rural population, consisting mostly of farmers - for whom was launched the massive National Rural Employment Guarantee (NREG) scheme and loan waivers.

Singh has become the first prime minister in three decades to win a second consecutive term in office, beating the ‘anti-incumbency factor’ in Indian electoral politics.

Projected to win 206 seats on its own, the Congress party is now in a position to form a strong central government capable of implementing its policies and programmes, unfettered by opponents or allies.

Venu Srinivasan, president of the Confederation of Indian Industries, a powerful business lobby, said in a statement: 'The present economic conditions in India required an election verdict which would provide stability at the centre. And the verdict has done just that. The re-election of UPA would also provide the continuity that is important at this stage.'

Singh’s five years at the helm were marked by double-digit growth that made the international community sit up and take notice - and India was not hit too badly hit by the global downturn either.

Politically, towards the final year of his term, Singh came under withering attack by allies in the Left Front - both for his pro-liberalisation policies as well as for a nuclear cooperation deal that he signed with the United States.

But, Singh survived a confidence vote in parliament and the results available show the Left Front faring badly in its bastions of southern Kerala and West Bengal.

'Congress can now provide a strong and stable government,' Kamal Nath, minister for trade and commerce, told IPS, emphasising the fact that the party is now in a comfortable enough position to pick and choose from among a large number of possible allies.

Nath said the next government could be expected to continue with its policy of reforms in an 'India-specific manner.' On the cards is a deepening of land reforms, and labour reforms are needed to provide better stimulus to manufacturing, he said.

More than the body blow dealt to the Left Front, the victory of the Congress party and its allies in the UPA is also significant in that Congress routed its arch rival - the pro-Hindu, right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Where pre-poll opinion surveys and exit polls had predicted a close fight between the BJP and the Congress, the margin emerging, as counting progresses, shows a gap of more than 50 seats between the two parties.

The BJP had begun the campaign with a Hindu revivalist agenda that landed its star campaigner in Uttar Pradesh, Varun Gandhi - scion of the Nehru- Gandhi family - in jail for making inflammatory speeches aimed at the Muslim minority.

In contrast, Rahul Gandhi - son of Sonia Gandhi, and widely regarded as heir to the Nehru-Gandhi legacy - repeatedly emphasised the Congress party’s secular values and commitment to development during his campaign in Uttar Pradesh, and across the rest of the country.

Rahul Gandhi is due to be inducted into the next cabinet and groomed to take up the top job at a later date - following his late father and former prime minister, Rajiv Gandhi. Singh indicated at the press conference that Gandhi would be made a minister in the next government.

© Inter Press Service (2009) — All Rights Reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service

Where next?

Advertisement