In watching news of India's unexpectedly successful Congress Party progress over the past week, my attempts to discover what the party's platform actually is — and what their oft-referred-to "reforms" consist of — were unsuccessful. It turns out that on the other side of the world, "left wing" might still mean "progressive":
With most of Congress's coalition partners and outside supporters coming from left-wing parties, investors are concerned that Congress might reverse some of the key economic reforms of the past decade. Some of these initiatives include lower import tariffs; tax breaks for foreign investors and Indian business houses; sell-offs of state-owned industries, hotels, and utilities; and cutbacks in bureaucratic regulations.But, while Congress leaders say they might slow down the sell-off of profitable state industries, such as state oil companies, the overall direction of liberalization would continue.
Wholesale privatization? Individual empowerment? Congress has apparently turned a new leaf, shedding a history of leftist state-ossification for rightist, libertarian reform. Foreign policy is promised to remain on the course set by outgoing Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. We'll see, as would-be Prime Minister Sonia Gandhi has bowed out from a leadership position amid a brief power vacuum that's caused party-faithful hysterics and a tumultuous couple of days at the Indian stock exchange. From here, though, the Congress Party looks like welcome change.
