I don't think it's surprising things like this happen. Despite the insistence of the academic economists and other globalization apologists, the people in the middle class and lower simply aren't feeling the "wonderous" effects of globalization. You can tell people all you want this is going to be great for them, but the fact of the matter is, most of us aren't seeing an improvement in our economic condition.

I am no communist, actually I'm a moderate pro-business Democrat, but I have to note that the upsurge in the 90's of these policies that shaft the poor all over the world corresponded with the shuddering death of the Soviet Union.

That is, without competition in the ideological sphere, the worst ideas and policies of capitalism gained traction.

The 'marketplace of ideas' will rememdy this monopoly; the question is, with what?

Er... pro-market; pro-communal violence; pro-nuclear brinksmanship...

This has happened before with the "policy" in Thailand. The government simply drew a chalk line around the "vibrant" economic zones and all the people left in the countryside simply became a flexible, disposable pool of labour. When their economy crashed in '97, companies just slashed the already poor wages and sloughed off workers back to the boondoocks to reduce costs. Since there's no government support for these people they are a cost free component of the economy ignored in most government considerations. The same is now true in China of course, who are ruled by the most nakedly capitalist junta in history and who call themselves The People's Communist Party!

I've also noticed that the Soviet Union kept the free market fanatics in check. I have told other people this and they told me I was crazy. Glad to see someone else noticed this as well.

All politics is local. India is a huge, multi-lingual, multi-ethnic, multi-everything country, with dozens of parties represented in the legislature, and simple interpretations of election results are pretty much guaranteed to be wrong.

As one commenter notes, the BJP (which did badly in the recent elections) is a Hindu nationalist party blamed for anti-Muslim violence by a big part of India's electorate. And blamed for being soft on Muslims by another big part. This is surely a big part of the story of last weeks election.

Also, Congress is the party that *started* the current round of reforms in 1991. As I understand it, they're committed to deregulation (fighting the "license raj"), lower tariffs, and even to privatizing state industry (albeit more slowly). So I wouldn't bet on India's economic policies changing an awful lot.