NYT Prints Reasonable Editorial!

An event so rare it deserves a blog entry all its own. The subject of the editorial is India's political upset, with the ruling Hindu nationalist government of Prime Minister Vajpayee having apparently been ejected by the secular left-leaning Congress party of Sonia Gandhi.

The Times' editors made a number of shockingly rational observations and recommendations. Among them, that the Hindu emphasis of the ousted party was religiously divisive, that its pro-market economic policies were fundamentally sound and should be continued, and that the Congress party should move quickly to take up where Vajpayee left off in peace talks with Pakistan. From the NYT website:

India Shifts Course
In a stunning political shift, Indian voters have decisively rejected the governing Hindu nationalist party and the coalition partners that have kept Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in office since 1998. Liberalizing economic policies carried out under Mr. Vajpayee's Bharatiya Janata Party governments have given India statistically impressive economic growth. Yet in a country where poor people vote in large numbers, most of them remain unimpressed.

Along with the coalition's drubbing came the equally unexpected revival of the long-fading Congress Party under its Italian-born leader, Sonia Gandhi. Mrs. Gandhi, the widow and daughter-in-law of assassinated prime ministers, capitalized on her family name. But she also benefited from uneasiness over economic change and a backlash against the B.J.P.'s religious divisiveness.

If, as now seems likely, Congress leads the next government, it should press ahead with market reforms while broadening their benefits. The party will also need to reinforce India's secularism, reassuring Muslims and members of other minority faiths that religious freedom will be fully protected. Another priority should be following through on Mr. Vajpayee's welcome steps to reduce tensions with Pakistan and to resolve the Kashmir conflict peacefully. With India and Pakistan both armed with nuclear weapons, this issue, which has sparked repeated full-scale wars, cannot be left to fester.