MUMBAI ATTACK UNDERMINES INDIA’S POLITICAL, ECONOMIC CONFIDENCE
Bibhudatta Pradhan and James Rupert
Bloomberg, December 1, 2008
India’s deadliest terrorist attack in 15 years has left a shaken population, shorn of confidence that its leaders can keep them safe and revive an economy growing at its slowest pace since 2004.
The Mumbai attacks that took the lives of at least 195 people pose an enormous political challenge to the Congress Party-led coalition government, which is obliged to call a national election by May. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh yesterday replaced Home Minister Shivraj Patil after the rival Bharatiya Janata Party took aim with quarter-page newspaper ads showing blood splattered on a wall and proclaiming “Weak Government.”
The 60-hour slaughter at five-star hotels, a Jewish center and a restaurant thrust Indian terrorism into the global limelight. Politicizing the killings risks inflaming India’s ages-old Hindu-Muslim divide, the root of 11 previous bombings this year that left 300 people dead in street markets, theaters and mosques.
“Undoubtedly, India’s image is hurt,” said D. Suba Chandran, deputy director at the Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies in New Delhi. “There is a need for a bipartisan approach that has been lacking.” By targeting foreign nationals, the attackers also struck at international links that have underpinned 9 percent average growth in the $1.3 trillion economy for the past three years.
Bibhudatta Pradhan and James Rupert
Bloomberg, December 1, 2008
India’s deadliest terrorist attack in 15 years has left a shaken population, shorn of confidence that its leaders can keep them safe and revive an economy growing at its slowest pace since 2004.
The Mumbai attacks that took the lives of at least 195 people pose an enormous political challenge to the Congress Party-led coalition government, which is obliged to call a national election by May. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh yesterday replaced Home Minister Shivraj Patil after the rival Bharatiya Janata Party took aim with quarter-page newspaper ads showing blood splattered on a wall and proclaiming “Weak Government.”
The 60-hour slaughter at five-star hotels, a Jewish center and a restaurant thrust Indian terrorism into the global limelight. Politicizing the killings risks inflaming India’s ages-old Hindu-Muslim divide, the root of 11 previous bombings this year that left 300 people dead in street markets, theaters and mosques.
“Undoubtedly, India’s image is hurt,” said D. Suba Chandran, deputy director at the Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies in New Delhi. “There is a need for a bipartisan approach that has been lacking.” By targeting foreign nationals, the attackers also struck at international links that have underpinned 9 percent average growth in the $1.3 trillion economy for the past three years.
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