05-27-2009, 08:14 AM
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story...3-25377,00.html
Now that Singh's authority is massively enhanced, the dynamics have changed. One of the few good elements in the regional geo-strategic equation that we can rely on is steadiness in Indian policy.
Singh stands now as one of the greatest statesmen in Asian history. As finance minister in 1991, Singh put India on the path of economic reform and liberalisation. Even in the face of the global financial crisis, India's economy will grow by better than 6 per cent this year. It will be, after China, the second fastest growing large economy in the world. Singh's political achievement is extraordinary, all the more so because he is a leader who, until he was catapulted into the prime ministership, was a respected technocrat but not regarded as a first-division practitioner of the political arts. He is the first Indian PM to serve a full term and win re-election since 1961. He has brilliantly expanded India's centre, marginalising both its Left and its Right.
As Pramit Chaudhry, senior editor of the Hindustan Times, and one of India's most brilliant security and economic analysts, explains it, the BJP is a lot like the US Republicans at themoment, lost and in search of anidentity.
"The BJP has two wings," Pramit tells me, "the small-town, cultural conservative, upper-caste Hindu wing, which basically is horrified by all manifestations of modernity. It can't bear to see women drinking and the like. And the big-city, business modernisers, who claim to speak for the new India, and couldn't care less about women drinking or such issues. These two wings basically have nothing incommon."
It drove the BJP's big-city supporters nuts to find the BJP on the same side of the US nuclear deal - that is, opposing it - as the Indian communists and indeed Pakistan. The BJP lost every big city in India except Bangalore.
The nuclear deal, which Singh campaigned for magnificently over four years, and which often seemed extremely unlikely to get up in either India or the US, also established beyond doubt Singh's personal leadership credentials.
Now that Singh's authority is massively enhanced, the dynamics have changed. One of the few good elements in the regional geo-strategic equation that we can rely on is steadiness in Indian policy.
Singh stands now as one of the greatest statesmen in Asian history. As finance minister in 1991, Singh put India on the path of economic reform and liberalisation. Even in the face of the global financial crisis, India's economy will grow by better than 6 per cent this year. It will be, after China, the second fastest growing large economy in the world. Singh's political achievement is extraordinary, all the more so because he is a leader who, until he was catapulted into the prime ministership, was a respected technocrat but not regarded as a first-division practitioner of the political arts. He is the first Indian PM to serve a full term and win re-election since 1961. He has brilliantly expanded India's centre, marginalising both its Left and its Right.
As Pramit Chaudhry, senior editor of the Hindustan Times, and one of India's most brilliant security and economic analysts, explains it, the BJP is a lot like the US Republicans at themoment, lost and in search of anidentity.
"The BJP has two wings," Pramit tells me, "the small-town, cultural conservative, upper-caste Hindu wing, which basically is horrified by all manifestations of modernity. It can't bear to see women drinking and the like. And the big-city, business modernisers, who claim to speak for the new India, and couldn't care less about women drinking or such issues. These two wings basically have nothing incommon."
It drove the BJP's big-city supporters nuts to find the BJP on the same side of the US nuclear deal - that is, opposing it - as the Indian communists and indeed Pakistan. The BJP lost every big city in India except Bangalore.
The nuclear deal, which Singh campaigned for magnificently over four years, and which often seemed extremely unlikely to get up in either India or the US, also established beyond doubt Singh's personal leadership credentials.