MONSOON POLITICAL REVIEW

Politics in South Asia, as the summer rains end, presents a dismal picture of turmoil. In Bangladesh, impending general election has unleashed a ferocious struggle between the two main political combatants. The future of the country does not rest in the animosity between Begum Khaleda Zia and Sheikh Hasina, but who will tell them that? In Sri Lanka, the Sinhala-Tamil schism has for the moment been overtaken in intensity by the conflict between the government and the opposition, despite a crippling LTTE bomb attack on the capital's airport which reduced the prized national airline—the best run in South Asia—to half its Fleet. Nepal is at a defining moment in its history as the Maoists and the political mainstream are locked in what seems to be an intractable knot between republicanism and consitutional monarchy. In Pakistan, the military commands the political arena, and has managed to enforce a semblance of order on a fractured land. It is too early to say how the experiment in partyless local democracy will work out in the long run, although this is one determined general in the middle of it all. India, repeatedly rocked by defence and financial sector scandals at the centre, prepares for what promises to be a violent and vituperative election in the crucial state of Uttar Pradesh, not too long after a round of state assembly elections left the ruling NDA combine in New Delhi reeling from dramatic reverses. Ayodhya and the Ram temple issue, and the ghost of the Babri Masjid are returning to haunt the Hindus and Muslims of the country. South India seems relatively less crisis-ridden, although Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa could change all that in one afternoon of ego-centricism. Meanwhile, violence in the now-familiar flashpoints of the Subcontinent continues without let or hindrance. Ali of Jammu and Kashmir is now officially under a security blanket. Northeast India is definitely in a worse state than Kashmir, with not even a strong case of cross-border infiltration to force the situation to such a pass.

Sri Lanka: Between the LTTE and the deep blue sea

 Sri Lanka is stricken by a three-way conflict. It is presently a Sinhala vs Sinhala vs Tamil fight. The two main Sinhala parties, the People's Alliance (PA) and the United National Party (UNP), are still far away from forming a national government, something they have been talking about for some time now. President Chandrika Kumaratunga and opposition leader Ranil Wickremesinghe, cannot seem to hammer out an all party government in Colombo which could have been the prelude to a consensual approach in dealing with the Tamil insurgency.