U.S. News & World Report

New Delhi

As India burns, its politicians help light the torches

Conspiracies and convulsions paved the way to a change of government in India last week. Politicians not only plotted while India burned: They ignited explosions over religion and caste in attempts to gain or retain power. As hundreds of Muslims and Hindus died over a disputed religious site and young people committed suicide to protest an affirmative-action plan, Indian political fixers wheeled and dealed. In the end Chandra Shekhar, a bearded figure in a shabby camel vest and rumpled white pajamas, emerged as the new Prime Minister.

Chandra Shekhar's victory and his government both may prove fleeting. His partner, former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, whose Congress Party has the most seats in Parliament, seems content to prop up Chandra Shekhar just long enough to prepare his own party for a new election, probably next year.

Voters in the world's largest democracy had no say in last week's government making and breaking. It was arranged in half a dozen New Delhi drawing rooms. Shared hate is more potent than principles in this hothouse world.

Most of the politicians agreed on only two points: That the 11-month-old government headed by Prime Minister V.P. Singh had to go and that none of them was ready to face the electorate. Singh went down to defeat on November 7. His own Janata Dal Party split apart; the party name was hijacked by Chandra Shekhar, who dubbed his rump group Janata Dal (S). The "S" stands for Socialism, the 64-year-old Chandra Shekhar's longtime political creed, and a word that still has sex appeal in Indian politics.

Churned up by politicians and politics, India is under greater strain than it has been for decades, and cooling public passions has to be the No. 1 priority for India's new leader.

V.P. Singh contributed both to the churning and to his own downfall. He came to power as an avatar of honesty and high principle and came to grief as a devious but unsuccessful manipulator. Disputes that had simmered under his predecessor, Rajiv Gandhi, blew up in Singh's face. He leaves office with struggles raging over religion, caste and secessionism -- none of them new to India but all much uglier than they were a year ago.

Singh traded terrorists for a hostage in Kashmir, then fought a losing battle against secessionism there. He attempted a peace mission in Punjab, where Sikhs have been fighting a bloody separatist war. But he never followed up on that bold beginning, and the killing in Punjab is now at its highest rate in years, 600 dead a month. Another separatist upheaval is brewing in Assam.

The cruelest conflicts in India have always been those between the country's two biggest religious groups, Hindus and Muslims. Recently tensions were whipped up when the leader of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) -- the nation's third-largest and a partner in Singh's minority government -- joined a crusade by Hindu fanatics to build a temple at the birthplace of the Hindu God Rama. The site at the north Indian town of Ayodhya has been occupied for 500 years by a Muslim mosque. When negotiations collapsed, pilgrims and hoodlums laid siege to Ayodhya. Some 250 people died and 100,000 were arrested, including the BJP president. The next day, the BJP withdrew its support for Singh.

Caste struggle. The BJP's role in the Ayodhya troubles was a product not of religion but of politics. On August 7, the Prime Minister suddenly declared that his government would implement an affirmative-action plan that had gathered dust for 10 years. It provides job preference for lower castes, including a Hindu vote bloc the BJP considers its own.

The plan also hit middle-class students where it hurts, in their job prospects, igniting a protest movement that saw 65 youngsters commit suicide. The scheme, which is now before the Supreme Court, turned out to have been suicide for Singh as well. He lost his parliamentary majority and his loyal supporters in the intellectual community. He succeeded only in uniting his enemies, including Gandhi and Chandra Shekhar, whose only common interest is their loathing for him.

Chandra Shekhar becomes Prime Minister with long experience sabotaging governments but none at running one. His allies reportedly were won over by what the Indian Express called "blandishments of money and office." A government so constructed is not likely to last long enough to make radical changes. India under Janata Dal (S) will likely continue to buck world trends toward open markets, restrict foreign investors and turn back to the International Monetary Fund to help it survive zero growth and high deficits.

Above all, India has to be made governable again. Chandra Shekhar claims he can do so using the technique that brought him to power. After one 24-hour bargaining session, he told U.S. News that "in a democracy, the art of discussion, even with adversaries, is more important than anything else."