Subject: India - Recent unfortunate developments - It is indeed very sad to see the government being pulled down just for the sake of it, when there was no need to, that too when it was performing well, forcing a 1000 crore expenditure on elections for the country. For the past 50 years, congress has ruled and has its people in almost every part of the system be it beauracracy or even in the press. The 'Secular' scribes of India had more interest in writing about Jayalalitha sneezing than anything good happening around the country. Some of the facts which the Indian Secular Politicians and SECULAR MEDIA alike dont want to know are listed in this mail. Governance and Performance: *The BJP led co-alition proposed 69 bills in the Lok Sabha, and got 53 of them passed, which itself is a record of sorts in a period of 13 months, and also given the fact about a highly un-co-operative opposition and BJP commanding bare minimum majority in the house. of the bills which got stalled, most of them were stalled by Congress just for the sake of stalling it. *North East Sector, which is the most neglected sector in India and where we can see signs of separatism, received a special package under the BJP led government, with the prime minister himself taking personal attention in the matters. In the last 13 months, about 1250 Kms of roads have been constructed in the north east alone. Foreign Policy: *After the Pokhran tests, even though the pundits predicted gloom, the management of post pokhran fallout was excellent and the results speak for themselves. *Vajapayee's trip to Pakistan itself is a historic achievement in the history of modern India. He laid to rest the biggest fear Pakistanis had, (that India had not reconciled to Partition and that it will occupy it someday) simply by Visiting Minar-e-Pakistan in Lahore. This is the place where the creation of Pakistan was formally mooted in 1940s. Why didnt any other PM of India think of it in the past 50 years ? When the Vajapayee government fell, even Pakistanis expressed regret. *Personally, I had never thought that our border problems with China will be solved in my lifetime and that too without a war. Thanks to Post pokhran phase handling and about a Month back (MARCH 1998) China Voluantarily said, it is willing to Recognise Sikkim as part of India in order to Improve bilateral relations. *US sanctions: US has had sanctions on India since 1974 Pokhran-1 tests. After the tests, the screws were only tightened. But due to effective management of the foreign policy. But surely the government deserves credit for making US Sanctions hurt US more than India. *Around 1995, US president bill clinton had taken personal interest in blocking the transfer of the much needed two cryogenic engines from Russia. After the nuclear tests, India sold 4 PARAM 10000 supercomputers (Supercomputers are banned to russia by US Sanctions again) and in exchange Russia delivered eight Cryogenic engines against the 2 blocked cryogenic engines. *During the Early 90s, whenever an american company invested in india, they used to demand Guarantees from Central government for the projects. (Remember Dabhol and Enron?)This time around, because of Competetion from European companies to invest, the trick wouldnt work and in Gujarat, the power project was awarded to Gaz De France, against Enron. After that very Rebecca Mark of Enron fame did Lobby in US to lift sanctions on India! *Around the same time India did nuclear tests, the global economic crisis (intiailly Asian Economic crisis) had spread. Around the same time, Boeing suffered too many cancelled orders because all asian economies were faltering. Boeing had some 200+ finished planes waiting for prospective buyers. Around the same time, Air India and Indian Airlines had an expansion plan to buy around some 200+ planes. Had it been any other govt at center, Boeing would've easily bribed someone and dumped the planes on India. But the government decided to award the project to Airbus consortium of Europe... The key outcome is explained in the next point. *The Bangalore Airshow was a runaway success, with mainly European and Russian aviation companies along with US companies participating. The show even rivalled the Birmingham Air show which happens in UK. The difference this made to India was the fact that India's HAL got EIGHT Contracts for manufactuting for European Airbus consortium, and the French ATR is now helping HAL build 50 seater passenger aircrafts in India. (NOTE ALL THIS TECHNOLOGY IS ACTUALLY UNDER SANCTIONS ON INDIA BY USA and NONE OF THIS WOULD'VE HAPPENED IF WE HAD BOUGHT BOEING PLANES)And after losing this contract to Airbus, Boeing offloaded 48,000 jobs in USA about a few months later, which was a clear signal that US sanctions are hurting US interests. Technology: *Some significant things happened during this government's time in this sector. The best thing the government did was to constitute a IT Task force whose panel consisted of INDUSTRY CAPTAINS and IT Company chiefs like Infosys chairman Mr. NarayanaMurthy and many others. (Had it been previous governments, it would've been dont by some sleepy beauracrats with no idea of what they're doing) *Even though the programems were going on earlier, this year, India received boost in certain key technologies and certain defence technologies were brought to the forefront. Agni-2 tested, Ocean Sat to be launched, ISRO formally starts commercial launching of Satellites, Insat 2-E Launched, and with 8 Cryo-genic engines coming from Russia (thanks to sanctions management), India is all set to launch its own first Geo-Stationary satellite in the year 2000. *the SHAR range at Shriahrikota will be convertes into a full fledged GSLV launch station. *Private players in Internet were given green signal, thanks to the recommendation of IT Task force. *An Industrial task force was set up to clean up the outdated industry laws, again under this task force too were industry people like Ratan Tata and KumaraMangalam Birla etc. *This year's harvest was a bumper crop with a record food grain production. Economy: *Even as the pundits spoke of gloom, the timing of the tests was crucial in geo-political sense too because Euro was coming out and Europe was undergoing a change. At this time US put too many sanctions, and india decided to go in with Europe as trading partner. (Even today Europe is India's largest trading partner) *Since December 1998, US is no longer the largest Foreign investor in India. European Union has overtaken US. *Just barely a week before the government was pulled down,the WORLD BANK formally declared, that as of April 1999, India is the hottest destination for foreign investment. *A Comparitive analysis of Mutual Funds of US market shows, that for the past year : -Eaton Vance Greater India Fund, invests in India - (+27% returns) -Century 500 Index fund, Invests in US blue chips - (+7% returns) -Eaton Vance Greater China Funs, Invests in CHina - (-2% negative) Come to think of it, * it took a -COMMUNAL- Party to make peace with Pakistan and neighbouring countries. * the -COMMUNAL- party's birthday bash had Junoon, the Pakistani lead band as the star performers in India. And the Junoon Band members said it was the best moment of their life. * it took a -COMMUNAL- Party to bring economy back on track AND ALL OUR -SECULAR- PARTIES DID WAS HIT THE ECONOMY BY PULLING DOWN THE GOVERNMENT AT THE WRONG TIME, JUST WHEN THE ECONOMY WAS RECOVERING. There are many more Achievements which have not been mentioned in this post. How long will the -SECULAR- parties of India take Indians for a ride ? Do any of you really think we needed this expense of 1000 crores on elections at this juncture just for the sake of people like Sonia Gandhi, Jayalalitha ? In spite of knowing very well that they cannot form a government even if they come to power, why did the opposition pull down the government ? That too before passing the budget ? The real reason for pulling out was that Congress was itching for power. And since the economy had recovered, it was time for their gamble. Jayalalitha proved a perfect pawn for the imported Sonia. --