For years India has ignored the close to 1 billion poor so that a handful of
upper caste people can have a great life. I wonder how India will hanlde the
coming revolution from the poor?
India's Gandhi Faces Crisis, Stocks Crash
By Terry Friel and Sanjeev Miglani
NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Indian prime minister-elect Sonia Gandhi faced her first
crisis Monday, before even taking power, when pivotal leftists refused to
formally join her government and markets crashed on fears over economic policy.
Shares on the Bombay bourse plunged as much as 17.5 percent -- the worst fall
in its 129 years. Trading was halted twice, for a total of three hours, before
the index closed 11 percent down, extending big losses last week. The rupee and
bonds also fell.
The crash, including a big drop Friday, has wiped tens of billions of dollars
off the value of listed companies. Hundreds of brokers and small investors
protested outside the bourse on the day Gandhi was due to visit the president
to claim power.
Leftist parties, which hold more than 60 of the new parliament's 545 seats,
decided not to formally join Gandhi's Congress party and its allies in the
coalition expected to be sworn in Wednesday.
The move was expected, because the leftists compete directly with Congress in
their state strongholds. But they also bitterly oppose the return to power of
the ousted Hindu nationalists, which would be the inevitable result if Gandhi
falls.
So they have pledged to support her from outside, voting with Congress on most
issues, including confidence motions and drafting a common agenda. It is common
practice in Indian politics for allied parties to informally support the
government from the outside.
"The whole tug-of-war is economic policy. Either the left should be in the
government and take responsibility for implementing those policies or they
should give unconditional support if they are supporting from outside," said a
trader with a leading brokerage in Bombay.
Doing Insurance business in the Garden State
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