India Government

Ending a week of great suspense, India's president on Wednesday called on Hindu nationalists to govern the world's most populous democracy for the first time. The Bharatiya Janata Party quickly accepted the summons, vowing to work "for change, for good government, for decentralization and against corruption." But its grip on power, disputed from the start, may not last the month.

NEW DELHI - After months of criticism over policy malaise, the Indian government on Friday announced a series of bold economic reforms allowing significant foreign investment in the retail, aviation and broadcasting sectors. The moves, aimed at invigorating the economy, would allow investment from abroad of up to 51% in supermarkets and chain stores such as Wal-Mart, up to 49% in aviation, up to 71% in broadcasting and up to 49% in parts of the electrical power industry. In addition, New Delhi announced plans to sell its stake in several public service companies dealing in oil, copper and aluminum.

India's fourth government in two years collapsed Friday night, ending a shaky, short-lived coalition and heralding a new period of political chaos. Prime Minister Inder Kumar Gujral resigned and his United Front government fell after the Congress (I) Party, a key ally of his coalition, withdrew its support. Gujral lasted seven months.

It's only been about three weeks since the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization, or FAO, cautioned that avian flu was back on the rise after a five-year decline around the world. On Tuesday, the federal government in India announced that it had ordered poultry farms in the eastern part of the country to cull chickens and destroy eggs to rein in an new outbreak of bird flu.  Also planned: restricted access to the region and a ban on the movement of poultry, Reuters reported.

India's government began legal action to try to take over the office of a national newspaper that has been sharply critical of the administration of Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. The government said it told Indian Express, one of the country's largest newspapers, that it will file suit to take possession of the company's New Delhi headquarters because of violations of its lease. Express officials condemned the move as part of an official campaign against the newspaper.

India's new government said it is calling a conference Sunday of all of India's political parties to discuss proposals for ending the Sikh insurgency in Punjab state. The insurrection has taken more than 5,000 lives since 1983. A spokesman said the Dec. 17 date was set by a special Cabinet committee formed by Prime Minister Vishwanath Pratap Singh as part of his pledge to restore peace to both Punjab and the state of Jammu and Kashmir.

As an actor, he played in 130 movies in which he was always the hero, never the heavy. They were nearly all romantic sagas about brave, honest men fighting against daunting odds for the honor of women, most often, mothers. As a politician, he was the undisputed leader of a state with a population nearly as great as that of France. Indeed, some of his opponents accused him of tyranny equal to France's Bourbon kings.

Maharashtra, India's business and industrial powerhouse, slipped from the grip of the Congress (I) Party on Monday after a humbling election defeat that spells more trouble for beleaguered Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao. Over the weekend, as votes were tallied in a round of recent state elections, it became clear that the party had been thrown out of power in another booming western state--Mohandas K.

Voting ended a staggered election for India's next government in all but a handful of remote districts, with exit polls Saturday suggesting stronger support for Hindu nationalists. Seven people were killed in election-related violence Saturday, bringing the death toll to at least 75 since elections began Feb. 16, but the day's violence was mild compared with other voting days.

As thousands of Muslims from India's capital hurried through the portals of their country's most magnificent mosque, some were serene and others pensive about what this week's change in government means for them. The previous day, the "saffron wave" of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party carried veteran BJP politician Atal Behari Vajpayee into the prime minister's chair.

A popular anti-corruption activist emerged from an Indian prison Friday, three nights after and seven pounds lighter than he entered, to a triumphant welcome from supporters after protracted negotiations with the government over the terms of his hunger strike. Doctors said septuagenarian Anna Hazare's weight loss, sustained from the fast he started behind bars, didn't represent a health risk, even as Hazare declared that the support of the Indian people had given him "new energy.

The Indian government's bid to cap liability for nuclear plants, seen by U.S. reactor-builders and operators as a prerequisite for entering the Indian market, was dealt a blow Monday when the ruling coalition withdrew legislation in the face of mounting opposition. The measure would limit to about $65 million the compensation that foreign nuclear operators would be liable for in the event of a nuclear accident. It would also cap the government's liability at about $385 million and mandate that all claims be presented within 10 years.

Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee reshuffled his Cabinet in an effort to burnish the government's image and speed up economic reforms. Vajpayee's coalition is reeling from a series of scandals, ranging from the resignation of his defense minister amid accusations of corruption to revelations of stock-market rigging. "In 2 1/2 years, we took into account the performance of the ministers and then reshuffled them," Vajpayee said.

The Indian government Wednesday told survivors of the huge earthquake in the Kutch region that it would rebuild their devastated towns and villages and try to make them quake-proof. The government will construct only one- and two-story buildings in the quake-prone area, not tower blocks like the ones that collapsed into heaps of rubble, Information and Broadcasting Minister Sushma Swaraj said.

Shocked and humbled by one of the most frightful tragedies in its history, India has set aside its long-standing doctrine of proud self-reliance and is accepting--even seeking--foreign help. "Twenty-two countries have sent assistance, and every day, more and more are arriving," K.N. Shelat, the Gujarat state official in charge of coordinating international aid to quake victims, said Friday.

A pro-Pakistani militant group in Kashmir on Monday declared a cease-fire for three months, saying it was ready to hold peace talks with the Indian government. Abdul Majid Dar, chief commander of the Hizbul Moujahedeen group, gave the Indian government one week to end what he called a crackdown on militants in Kashmir.

President Clinton's announcement Wednesday of tough sanctions against India jeopardizes billions of dollars in U.S. trade and investment in that populous nation, a blow to U.S. companies already hurting from the financial crisis in Asia. U.S. government officials and business executives were scrambling to assess the impact of the sanctions, which include a ban on the sale of military goods and technology, a cutoff of U.S.

When Asha, a frail Delhi slum dweller, had her sixth daughter two years ago, doctors advised her to be sterilized immediately. But the 35-year-old domestic servant would not hear of it. In a country where, as the saying goes, women are blessed to be mothers of a hundred sons, Asha believed it would be sacrilegious for her not to have a son.

India and Pakistan exchanged angry accusations Monday about India's claim that its nuclear rival had a hand in the eight-day hijacking of an Indian Airlines jetliner in which one passenger was killed. Reflecting the tensions between the two neighbors, a land mine explosion Monday killed 17 people and wounded 31 in the disputed region of Kashmir.