NEW DELHI--The party that laid the foundation for modern India's scientific achievements is back in power. The Indian National Congress party swept out Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and his BJP party in a stunning upset in last week's general elections. Former finance minister Manmohan Singh, 71, was expected to be named prime minister after Congress party leader Sonia Gandhi declined the post.
CREDIT: PALLAVA BAGLA |
The results are being interpreted as a rejection of the government's support for costly high-tech solutions to the country's problems at the expense of the needs of the agricultural underclass. The chiefs of the two Silicon Valley-like states of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka lost their jobs, and Murli Manohar Joshi, a prominent physicist and the country's first Cabinet-level science and education minister, failed to win reelection to the new Parliament.
Indian scientists are generally encouraged by the shift in power. Although research spending grew from 0.7% to 1.1% of GDP during BJP's 6 years at the helm, "the Congress [party] understands how to support and nurture science," says C. N. R. Rao, a chemist and veteran adviser to earlier Congress-led governments. The other winner in last week's vote was the electronic voting apparatus (above) deployed at 10,000 polling places.
