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- <text id=91TT1422>
- <title>
- July 01, 1991: World Notes:India
- </title>
- <history>
- TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1991
- July 01, 1991 Cocaine Inc.
- </history>
- <article>
- <source>Time Magazine</source>
- <hdr>
- WORLD, Page 47
- World Notes
- INDIA
- Filling a Power Vacuum
- </hdr><body>
- <p> Hobbled by internal divisions, lack of direction and a
- leadership vacuum brought on by the May assassination of Rajiv
- Gandhi, India's Congress Party took the path of least resistance
- last week: it tapped an uncontroversial party stalwart to serve
- as the nation's Prime Minister. P.V. Narasimha Rao, 70, who has a
- heart condition, became the unanimous choice of party
- legislators after his main rival, Bombay politician Sharad
- Pawar, 50, withdrew his candidacy for the nation's top post in
- the name of party unity.
- </p>
- <p> Pawar's unexpected capitulation forestalled a looming
- power struggle, but the Congress Party's problems are far from
- over. Incomplete returns from the interrupted parliamentary
- election indicate that while the party will return to power
- after a 19-month hiatus, its hold on the lower house's 545 seats
- will fall short of a majority.
- </p>
- <p> Rao's first tasks will be to contain separatist violence
- and address a thicket of economic problems, including an $80
- billion foreign debt and a 17% inflation rate. After that, Rao
- will need to restore cohesion to his party's fragmented ranks.
- </p>
-
- </body></article>
- </text>
-
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