Word: gandhis
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...most impact on the year's events. And we stress: for better or for worse. The Man of the Year is not our version of the Nobel Peace Prize nor an attempt at canonization. It is a news judgment. Some subjects have been men of peace, like the Mahatma Gandhi (1930) and Martin Luther King Jr. (1963). Others have been evil, like Joseph Stalin (1939 and 1942) and Adolf Hitler (1933). We have also had several Women of the Year, including Queen Elizabeth II and, for 1986, President Corazon Aquino of the Philippines...
Suddenly that dynasty is in disrepute. In parliamentary elections late last month, the Congress (I) Party, as it is now called, was routed from power for only the second time in independent India's history. Several corruption scandals, as well as Gandhi's accelerating isolation from his people, helped squander the reserves of public support that in 1984 had given his party an unprecedented 415 of the 542 seats in the Lok Sabha, the lower house of Parliament. Congress has been reduced to a sorry 192 seats, having lost power to a disparate opposition led by Gandhi's archrival, Vishwanath...
...taking part, the balloting was the biggest democratic exercise in world history -- and the bloodiest and most contemptible ever held in India. At least 134 people died in election-related violence. Because of widespread rigging, new voting was ordered in 1,485 polling stations, including 97 in Amethi, Rajiv Gandhi's constituency in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh. Ultimately, Gandhi was declared the winner over Rajmohan Gandhi, a grandson of Mahatma Gandhi and no relation to Rajiv. But 20 of Rajiv's 59 ministers were defeated, a measure of the Congress Party's steep decline...
...Gandhi's political enemies owed much of their success to the pertinacity of V.P. Singh, India's new Prime Minister. The unassuming Singh, 58, served in Indira's governments and as Minister of Finance and Defense under Rajiv, but in 1987 he resigned, claiming that he had been blocked in his efforts to unearth graft related to defense contracts. Soon after, Singh launched a dogged national crusade against corruption. For the elections, he persuaded several of India's opposition groups to quit fighting one another and work together to defeat Congress. As a result, they were able to avoid facing...
...opposition's strategy paid off handsomely. Although Congress remained the largest party in Parliament, it fell 71 seats shy of a majority. Three days after the third and final day of polling, Gandhi, looking fresh-faced and unperturbed, appeared on television to tell the nation, "The people have given their verdict. In all humility, we respect that verdict...