Word: india
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...history of modern dynasties, the House of Nehru rates one of the heftier chapters. Since India gained independence in 1947, its political destiny has been inextricably linked with this powerful family, whose scions have ruled the country with only two brief interruptions. There was Jawaharlal Nehru, India's first Prime Minister and an early leader of the durable Congress Party, his daughter Indira Gandhi, and her son Rajiv. Such was the family's sway that when Indira was assassinated in 1984, the 40-year-old Rajiv, a reluctant and unproven politician, was rocketed into high office on the strength...
Suddenly that dynasty is in disrepute. In parliamentary elections late last month, the Congress (I) Party, as it is now called, was routed from power for only the second time in independent India's history. Several corruption scandals, as well as Gandhi's accelerating isolation from his people, helped squander the reserves of public support that in 1984 had given his party an unprecedented 415 of the 542 seats in the Lok Sabha, the lower house of Parliament. Congress has been reduced to a sorry 192 seats, having lost power to a disparate opposition led by Gandhi's archrival, Vishwanath...
...DELHI, India--Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi resigned yesterday, and for only the second time since independence in 1947 his Congress Party did not claim the right to form the next government...
...With India's voters set to go to the polls next week, the country's attention was focused less on politics than on a religious dispute over the future of a 16th century mosque in the North Indian town of Ayodhya. Militant Hindu groups claim that India's Mogul conquerors built the mosque after destroying a temple marking the birthplace of the Hindu god Rama. The militants demand that a temple to Rama be built on the spot. India's Muslim minority fiercely objects to the plan. As tension has mounted in recent weeks, at least 400 people, most...
With Hindus accounting for 83% of India's 833 million people, Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi permitted the militants to lay the foundation stone for the new temple last week. The Hindu extremists are the vanguard of a growing movement led by the Bharatiya Janata Party. Its aim: to establish a Hindu Rashtra -- Hindu Nation...