BJP's Bomb

[Wojtek Sokolowski]

At 12:50 PM 5/13/98 -0400, Doug Henwood wrote:
>Patrick Bond wrote:
>
>>Or Rakesh, as the Indian anti-nuke movement posited last night, maybe
>>it's a sign not of having already consolided its rule, but of the
>>fragility of rule. A feel-good populist measure to keep intact a very
>>shaky coalition government?
>
>Well, hell, if their bomb-inspired bounce in the polls starts to decay,
>what will they do for an encore? Vaporize Islamabad?
>


>From what I heard on the NPR today it appears that the polls showing
support for the bomb are terribly biased.  They reflect mainly the views of
the urban middle class (which is usually reactionary in India and
elsewhere; "the class that brought you Adolf Hitler and cheered 'smart
bombs' falling on Iraq").  

That seems to make sense, because how would they poll the countless urban
and rural poor.  I would guess that members of these classes have other
priorities than bomb-inspired national identity politics.

Regards,

Wojtek Sokolowski