From: vigneswa@ecs.umass.edu
Newsgroups: soc.culture.indian
Subject: Cabinet re-shuffle:  Would Rao be successful?
Date: 21 Jan 93 10:34:58 GMT


A news item appeared in The Times 

Rao picks new team to fend off critics

By Christopher Thomas in Delhi and Our Foreign Staff

	In an attempt to fend off potential challenges to his
leadership, P.V.Narasimha Rao, the Indian prime minister, has
reshuffled  his  cabinet  and  junior  ministerial team after
demanding the resignation of the previous government on Satur-
day night.

	Mr  Rao has  been  criticised  even  by  some  of his
closest supporters for his  lacklustre performance  since the
Ayodhya mosque was razed by Hindu zealots on December 6. They
have  lost faith  in his  ability to lead  the country.  News-
papers  normally loyal  to his  Congress (I) party  have also
accused him of failing to offer leadership during last week's
rioting in Bombay.

	The prime minister  has excluded from his new cabinet
any ministers regarded as allied to his rivals.  Time appears
to be running out for him to pull the  party together.  If he
fails  he will  almost certainly  have to  face a  leadership
challenge  later this year.  He will shortly announce an over-
haul of the party's  hierarchy, a  move also designed  to con-
solidate his position.

	Mr Rao faces  some daunting problems. The economy has
been disrupted by weeks  of upheaval, throwing  his  economic
reform  programme  into  doubt, and  the  hardline  Bharatiya
Janata  Party (BJP)  says it  is preparing a campaign to para-
lyse government business in four northern states that it used
to control.  That would be an economic catastrophe.  Bookings
by foreign  tourists have  already  collapsed, representing a
huge loss of foreign exchange.

	Muslim members  of the cabinet  have been upset by Mr
Rao's failure  to protect  their people, who  have borne  the
brunt of  rioting in Ahmedabad, Bombay and  several  areas in
the  Hindi-speaking  northern  heartland.  He  has  failed in 
attempts to  forge an alliance of  anti-BJP parties  to fight
Hindu extremism, reflecting the Congress's declining authority.

	Nor is there a sign of any end to the violence. Terri-
fied  families in  Bombay's  suburbs  have  stockpiled knives,
petrol and acid bombs to defend their  homes from any renewed
outbreak  of  Hindu-Muslim  bloodshed.  Although  troops  and
police  have imposed  calm in  the  city, where  at least 500
people have died, tension is high. ''It's like an armed camp,''
said a resident in the suburb of Andheri.

	Sunday was the first day since riots erupted on Jan 6
that no  communal  deaths  were reported  in Bombay.  But V.P.
Singh, a former prime minister who went on a hunger strike to
appeal for peace, said normality did not just mean the absence
of violence. ''When tens of thousands have become refugees in
their own city, when  millions  live in fear  and tension ...
what sort of normalcy is that we speak of?'' he asked. He was
arrested last night and taken to hospital because of problems
with his kidneys after he had refused to abandon his fast.

	Amid the horror of people being burnt alive in homes,
however, stories are  emerging of Hindu helping Muslim. ''We
found  refuge with a Hindu  neighbour as  rioters broke into
our  home.  They helped  us  escape,'' said  Asaf Ali, whose
family of six left for Madras.

===

Vicky:
UMass, Jan 21
Newsgroups: soc.culture.indian