TXA8755@ritvax.isc.rit.edu (Tanmay Agarwal) (05/15/91)
News from Dow-Jones follows :
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Rising Hindu Nationalist Party Aims To Change Nature Of India
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NEW DELHI - Win or lose, one party is setting the tone for next week's
Indian election with a mixture of pop religion and Hindu nationalism.
The Bharatiya Janata Party, or Indian People's Party, has suddenly
emerged as India's No. 2 party Its platform would change the fundamental
character of India as a secular nation.
Analysts predict the Congress Party of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi
will remain the single largest party after voting next week for the Lok
Sabha, the decision-making lower house of Parliament.
Congress has governed India for all but 3 of its 43 years of independence.
But the BJP's surge of popularity has caught the experts by surprise,
even in the swiftly changing political landscape that will see India's fourth
government in 18 months.
About 520 million people are eligible to vote, in what promises to
be a volatile election. More than 70 people have been killed in pre-election
violence.
Under twin threats of political violence and vote fraud, the balloting
is staggered over 3 days - May 20, 23 and 26 - to allow security forces to
shuttle from one likely trouble spot to another. Voting will be delayed in
the states of Punjab and Assam and has been canceled in Kashmir.
All three areas are facing armed insurrections by separatist guerrillas.
The BJP's leading electioneer is Lal Krishna Advani, whom colleagues
describe as a soft-spoken hardliner.
Advani has touched a resonant chord among the Hindus who are more than 80%
India's 844 million people: that India is theirs, that Hindu culture equals
Indian nationalism, and that India's minorities - particularly Muslims, who
make up 12% of the population - should get no special treatment.
''Indians never had a concept of nationhood. Now the BJP has provided
the identity to the majority,'' said Dhirendra Sharma, editor of the
magazine, Philosophy and Social Action. India, with 15% of the world's p
opulation, is divided by language,
caste and culture as well as religion.
In the 1989 election, the BJP rose from 2 seats to 86 in the 543-seat
legislature, largely from an agreement with another party, Janata Dal, not to
oppose each other in some districts.
This time it has no seat-sharing arrangement, which means it will have
to work harder just to keep its strength. Even so, most analysts
predict the BJP will win more seats - but not enough to form a government.
Hindu revivalism was discredited in 1948 when one of its proponents
assassinated independence leader Mohandas K. Gandhi, the guru of
nonviolence.
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Nepal's Prime Minister Resigns After Losing Seat To Communist
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KATMANDU, Nepal - The interim prime minister who led the struggle that
ended Nepal's absolute monarchy resigned Tuesday after losing his
legislative seat in the country's first multiparty election in three decades.
Krishna Prasad Bhattarai lost in his Katmandu constituency to Madan
Bhandari, a 39-year-old Marxist.
He lost by only 751 votes out of 63,000 votes cast.
''It is inappropriate for me to continue in government on political and
moral grounds,'' Bhattarai said after submitting his resignation to the royal
palace.
He also said he would quit as head of the centrist Nepali Congress Party.
King Birendra accepted Bhattarai's resignation but asked the veteran
leader to remain as caretaker prime minister until a new government is
formed, a palace statement said.
Tens of thousands of jubilant supporters of Bhandari's leftist alliance
poured into the streets of Katmandu hours after the result was declared,
dancing, waving red flags and smearing red powder on the faces of onlookers.
The leftist alliance and the Nepali Congress were the strongest contenders
in Sunday's voting for the 205-member House of Representatives.
The country's new constitution calls for the legislature to select a
prime minister and government.
But results are in from just a few of the races that were at stake in
Sunday's vote.
Of 59 races whose results were announced by the Election Commission,
the Congress won 31 and the leftist alliance 24. Four seats went to small
parties and independents.
Ballots must be collected from 14,000 polling places, from sea-level
jungles to the Himalayan villages. A final count is not expected before
Friday.
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U.S. Relief Chief In Bangladesh As Storms Kill Dozens More
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DHAKA, Bangladesh - The commander of U.S. forces sent to save millions of
cyclone victims from disease and hunger met with Bangladeshi leaders Tuesday to
plan the massive relief mission.
Foul weather, lashing winds and floods continued to batter the storm-
weary nation, killing dozens more.
Swollen rivers spilled over their embankments and killed 10 people,
raising the death toll to 27 in 4 days.
New storms in Manikganj and Pabna in the north and northwest left 12 more
people dead, officials said.
Nearly 139,000 people died when the most powerful cyclone on record in
Bangladesh slammed into the coast 2 weeks ago. Since then, tornadoes,
thunderstorms and floods have killed more than 160 people.
Maj. Gen. Henry Stackpole, the commander of the relief troops, met
acting President Shahabuddin Ahmed and briefed him ''about the mission of the
Joint Task Force.''
Bangladesh Army Chief Lt. Gen. NoorUddin Khan, a key figure in the relief
efforts so far, and U.S. Ambassador William Milam attended the session at
the president's office.
The first advance Task Force teams of nearly 200 personnel arrived in
Dhaka Sunday. They are to be joined by 7,000 troops, some of whom were en
route home from the Persian Gulf when they were diverted to Bangladesh.
They will come outfitted with equipment like hovercraft that
Bangladesh has never seen before.
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