Masala Democracy

Other stuff : according to articles in the Dawn, Pakistan spent over $800 million on the Kargil operation. At a conservative Rs 40 per $, this amounts to Rs 32 billion. The Indian press carried the figure Rs 55 billion spent on the Indian side.

The current tranche of IMF loan being negotiated for is somewhere of the order of $100 million.

-arun gupta

I suppose the bashing of India is obligatory in this forum.

The turnout in this election was more than 50% and not the 40% mentioned in the article.

Does the government have a mandate ? Based on turnout, more than any government in the USA.

Are the elections representative ? To a large extent. The diversity of parties and political opinions represented should leave no doubt about that. The seeming chaos in India is because groups of people who have never had political representation before are entering the process.

And, Kargil did not sway the polls very much. In most places, the vote was still about bread and butter issues.

-arun gupta

Constitution Suspended: State of Emergency Declared in Pakistan

According to credible sources in Islamabad, the military administration has suspended the constitution and declared a state of emergency in the country.

Just wondering where you get your figures from:

``...the over $1 billion/day operation...``

So Pakistan spent its entire 1999 budget and more in the matter of the few weeks of the conflict?

``...Pakistan is about to default with less than $100 billion in foreign reserves.``

With $100 billion in foreign reserves Pakistan would be golden, its debts would be paid in full and it would be a rising star.

Do you have any clue about what the actual figures are??? This is a very embarassing situation for you my friend.

Here we go again. More ``Europeans out`` nonsense, Sonia Gandhi neo-colonialism babble. And I suppose Mughal colonialism was acceptable in India because it wasn`t perpetrated by white people? Did it ever occur to people to think that the Congress Party lost, not because of Sonia Gandhi, (who won handsomely in both constituencies she ran in), but because of the fundamentalist, nationalistic, xenophobic, Hindutva rubbish as personified and perpetrated by the BJP? (Not to mention the Congress Party`s stupidity in refusing to form alliances with other parties.)

When the Guyanese president Cheddi Jagan passed away a few years ago, his white, American-born wife, Janet Jagan, ran to succeed him in the ensuing elections. Despite rantings and ravings by the oppostion, a la the BJP and Sonia Gandhi, Mrs Jagan won the election and continued the good governance her husband had begun, after years of corruption and economic chaos.

And by the way, like it or not, English *is * an Indian language.