Posted on 05/16/2004 9:02:40 AM PDT by Tacis
The pro-business government of Infia (BJP) has just lost the national elecetion. It has been replaced by an ultra-left wing government lead by the Italian born wife of the last male-Gahndi, who died some years back. The communists have a place in the new government for the first time in a long time with the socialists haveing the major part.
The new government will do what left wingers world over do, tax the devil out of those who have anything, stuff a large portion in their own pockets and redistribute the remainder to the "needy."
This must certainly cause those who outsourced work to India to give a second look and may force some of those jobs back to the US.
And we, under the guise of "free trade", will enrich and enable them with our industry and money just as we do with Red China.
This is not a good development for America. We need India as a strong ally with Pakhistan and China so closeby. As for the Indian economic threat, the salaries there for programmers are already sky rocketing, making companies think about moving their work to even cheaper countries and allowing people there to afford more US goods...
Having said all that, there will be minor changes in direction. Watch for a slowdown in divestment of sick government-owned industries. Also watch for more government subsidies to the agricultural sector. Oh and yes, higher taxes to pay for it all. But no real change in direction. India just became a somewhat more expensive place to do business, just not so expensive that it's no longer an attractive destination for outsourcing.
The "weak on defense" Congress is more or less a BJP-created myth.
When Pakistan attacked and occupied Indian land during Kargil, the BJP was in power. The official policy was restraint. There were no incursions into Pakistan. The Indians got back what was theirs and stopped.
Compare this to Indira - Sonia's now deceased mother in law. She saw civil unrest in a Pakistani province and moved Indian troops right in.. a full-scale invasion. She, not the BJP, was responsible for reducing Pakistan's landmass and population by more than 1/2. India has no real threat on its eastern border, due to Congress policies.
As for the nuclear tests under the BJP - that program was also initiated under the Congress.
So, to sum up.. the BJP did an ok job at the helm but all this fear-mongering over the Congress is just BJP-propoganda.
Compare this to Indira - Sonia's now deceased mother in law. She saw civil unrest in a Pakistani province and moved Indian troops right in.. a full-scale invasion. She, not the BJP, was responsible for reducing Pakistan's landmass and population by more than 1/2. India has no real threat on its eastern border, due to Congress policies.Oh, cool. This may solve our Pakistan problem for us.
If the Congres's past is any indication, they will go at it alone without help. Especially not from the US. Their core support base is actually quite anti-American so they will have to pander to them. But that's all it'll be.. pandering and meaningless posturing at the UN. No threat to American business.
If U.S. goods are freely available for sale in India then someone should tell the Bush Administration's U.S. Trade Representative Robert B. Zoellick. He recently chastised India for demanding that the U.S. keep the door open to Indian information technology services while still being "one of the world's most closed economies."
Oh. And include sources. It's much more effective that way. Here's one.
http://biz.yahoo.com/bizwk/040324/b3876078_1.html
There's much demand for computer equipment. How else can there be programming?
H-P and MS got a big contract. Good for the Indians they'll hire to do the job.
That proves that U.S. goods are freely available for sale in India? Sure.
Ironically, the author of the biz.yahoo.com article warned the U.S. to stop the complaining and be thankful for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). He warned, "It would benefit no one -- least of all the U.S. -- to turn India's clock back to the 1980s, when even local investors could not start a company or expand existing operations without a government license, when there were strict foreign-exchange controls, and multinational corporations were not welcome."
What they need is a party like Shinui in Israel..or the secular parts of the GOP here.
-Eric
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