India Today Year of Chaos [Politics]

January 5, 1998

IMAGES: POLITICS
Year of Chaos

The Congress' fixation with Sonia Gandhi came close to obsession. Congressmen begged and pleaded but the sphinx was unmoved. So they did the next best thing: they brought down the government. India's fractured political landscape became a dumping ground for former prime ministers. Rashtrapati Bhavan shed its ceremonial garb. The soft-spoken and erudite Kocheril Raman Narayanan, who took office on July 25 as India's 10th President, decided it was time for India's reluctant politicians to go back to the people.

."No party, no government has any ideology
other than votes."

--Shankersingh Vaghela,
President, Rashtriya Janata Party

Sonia Gandhi Pic: Dileep Banerjee

Hidden: Despite entreaties from a desperate Congress, the lady refused to lift her veil.

H D Deve Gowda Pic: Bhawan Singh

Rejected: H D Deve Gowda found it impossible to come in from the cold.

Inder Kumar Gujral Pic: Sharad Saxena

Ejected: The globe-trotting I K Gujral was far more at ease in foreign lands than in his own squabbling party.

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