Friday, June 26, 1998
Coming of age?
The BJP-led coalition at the Centre completes its first hundred days in office today. It would be easy to give it a poor report card, especially as governments' first days are usually their most vigorous and tend to set the tone. Except that its radical decision on going openly nuclear, which has consumed the whole of its -- and the nation's -- energy for the last six weeks necessarily calls for a reserving of judgment.
A Yadav Front
Cynics may view the creation of the National Democratic Front by Laloo Prasad Yadav and Mulayam Singh Yadav as the last nail in the coffin of the United Front, but their wellwishers see it as the beginning of a new alignment of political forces which accepts the centrality of the Congress in any non-BJP dispensation that can replace the Vajpayee government. However, it is their instinct for survival, rather than their commitment to the cause of the poor, that has forced the two Yadav chieftains to bury their hatchet.
Musings of the mandarins
There has been a series of reports, commentaries and statements from China on India's nuclear tests. Most of the statements underline how the nuclear tests have caused instability in South Asia, unleashing the prospect of an arm race. Moreover, the Indian tests have proved that Delhi seeks hegemony in South Asia and thus accentuates Pakistan's security vulnerabilities.
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