It was the slogan that propelled India's then prime minister Indira Gandhi to her first re-election victory in 1971 by a landslide.
Thirty-five years on, the Congress Party government has brought back Garibi Hatao -- "Eradicate Poverty."
The government, elected in 2004 on an anti-poverty program, is hoping the slogan will again work magic and keep the masses in its fold, say analysts.
"The problem is that of showing achievements [on the anti-poverty front]," says Rasheed Kidwai, biographer of Congress president Sonia Gandhi, daughter-in-law of Indira, who was assassinated in 1984.
"The government's report card does not have much to show. It's also trying to woo its traditional core constituency with an eye on the next national polls due in 2009," Kidwai says.
The government says it used the Indira Gandhi slogan for the restructuring of a package of anti-poverty programs because it was an easier term to understand than Hindi officialese for poverty alleviation.
But coming as the slogan does midway through the coalition government's five-year term, analysts view the move as strategic and all agree it bears the imprint of Sonia.
"It certainly has the touch of Sonia Gandhi. She considers Indira her role model and has observed her from close quarters. This is one of the results," Kidwai says.
Indira's slogan worked magic amongst India's masses at a time when the country, dependent on food imports, was battling grinding poverty and its industries were in their infancy, Kidwai says.
"The scenario in 2006 is very different. Today India boasts economic growth rates of over eight percent but there is a great disconnect between urban and rural India," he says.
"Debt-burdened farmers killing themselves is just one example," he says, referring to hundreds of recent suicides in India's cotton-growing belt.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese