Word: janata
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...Chairman Frank T. Cary said that the withdrawal decision was "a great disappointment," but insisted that the firm had no alternative. India's ruling Janata Party, in vigorously enforcing the nation's 1973 Foreign Exchange Regulation Act, is pressing hard for at least partial Indian ownership of foreign companies operating in the country. A total of 57 foreign firms have decided to close down their Indian plants rather than meet demands for some degree of Indian ownership. One company under pressure: Coca-Cola, which has all but stopped making Coke in India. The company had been ready...
...Cola in particular, the government in effect demanded that Coke turn over its secret drink formulas and 60% of its operations to Indian investors by next April or be expelled from the subcontinent. Minister for Industry George Fernandes, a leftist labor leader installed in his post by the new Janata Party government, charged that Coke was taking far more money out of the country than it was putting in, and trifling with India's own soft-drink industry. Said he: "The manufacture of beverages should be Indianized...
Improvement still seems distant. Under Mrs. Gandhi, Indian industry was mired in deep recession-largely because of impenetrable tangles of red tape. Desai's government did, however, inherit over $4 billion in foreign reserves and record wheat stockpiles. But the Janata regime is hamstrung by internal wrangling. Squabbles over patronage have left many ministerial posts vacant. "I have no time for policymaking because I have no help," moans a minister. One result is that Desai's first budget virtually duplicates that of the former Congress government. Inflation (now 2% a month) and shortages of key commodities (edible...
...protect their interests, BLD members will try to slow down the inplementation of land reforms, particularly the Land Ceiling Acts which limit the amount of property an individual may own. However, rural India will benefit from the decentralized administrative policies and the small-scale village industries which the Janata party advocates. Urban private industry will find the new government more cooperative, with H.M. Patel, a firm believer in free enterprise, as Minister of Finance. Of course, the Socialists would oppose any conservative trends, espcially those which impinge upon the rights of labor and the urban poor. Whatever the case...
Despite these ideological differences, it is unlikely the Janata party will fall apart very soon. Apart from the basic fact that they will have to hang together if they are not to hang separately, there is another reason which Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Myron Weiner pointed out last week. Weiner had been in India at the time of the elections and had the opportunity to speak with some of the politicians. Apparently, during their time in jail, many, particularly Jan Sangh and Socialist members, had discussed their views with each other. For some, it was the first non-acrimonious...