Word: gandhi
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1990-1999
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Hobbled by internal divisions, lack of direction and a leadership vacuum brought on by the May assassination of Rajiv Gandhi, India's Congress Party took the path of least resistance last week: it tapped an uncontroversial party stalwart to serve as the nation's Prime Minister. P.V. Narasimha Rao, 70, who has a heart condition, became the unanimous choice of party legislators after his main rival, Bombay politician Sharad Pawar, 50, withdrew his candidacy for the nation's top post in the name of party unity...
...nearly 44 years since India became independent, one vision of politics and society has reigned supreme. It interweaves two powerful strands: Congress Party leader Jawaharlal Nehru's legacy of a secular, socialist government; and the nonviolence and religious tolerance exemplified by Mahatma Gandhi, the ascetic Hindu champion. In elections concluded late last week, that tradition faces an unprecedented challenge from a movement that proudly proclaims itself to be the antithesis of what Nehru, and to some extent Gandhi, represented. It rejects the "foreign" influences of Islam, Christianity, capitalism and socialism, and aspires to restore Rama Rajya, a mythical golden...
...them rip into the Congress for the billions wasted on unproductive, state- owned industry, the alleged "pampering" of Muslims or the downplaying of Hindu tradition in favor of "pseudo secularism" -- their catchall term for Congress politicians who claim to be blind to religion but play to Muslim sentiments. Nehru, Gandhi and Congress still have a legion of defenders, but the tide is not with them. "The existing order is in a state of decomposition," writes Girilal Jain, a former editor of the Times of India. "Like the Soviets, we are facing the moment of truth. The Nehru model has exhausted...
...broaden its appeal, the B.J.P. in recent months has de-emphasized religion. Instead, it has promoted the party as the disciplined, ultra- nationalist remedy for the mounting ailments afflicting India, in particular the secessionist movements in Punjab, Kashmir and Assam and mounting sectarian and political violence. Since Rajiv Gandhi's assassination last month, the B.J.P. has appropriated the Congress slogan of "Stability" and argued that Gandhi's party, without a Nehru scion at the top, has become too shaky to lead India. Said Advani last week: "The B.J.P. appears to the common voter as the only oasis of stability...
...picture departments, where most of the material originates. "Now changes can be made at almost any stage of the production process," Stelzner says, "right up until the magazine goes to the , printing plants." That makes it easier to accommodate up-to-the-minute photographs like those of the Rajiv Gandhi funeral...