Can Caste, Region and Ideology Stem Hindu Wave

five years will now be halted and reversed. It will not do for the National Front government to search for legalistic devices to revive development planning in a socially meaningful and productive frame. The Mahalanobis model is still va|id for India. The draft Five-Year Plan, 1978-83, which never got a chance to be implemented, with its emphasis on removal of unemployment as the first priority still provides significant insights and policy guidelines for fashioning a new Eighth Plan. The National Front government will be well advised, if it is to fulfil the commitment to the right of people to gainful work, to go back to the original concept and purpose of development planning and update the planning process on the right lines. It may not be amiss in this context to refer to a sound principle that must THE major issues that figured in the elections to the ninth Lok Sabha and influenced the voting behaviour of the Indian electorate may roughly be summed up as (a) concern for stability and integrity of the country; (b) consciousness of community, caste and ethnic identities; (c) recentment against corruption, scandals and (d) urge for socio-economic equality. However, the election results show that Hindutva, Hindu consciousness, Hindu backlash, anti- minorityism, or whatever other name you might give to the phenomenon, has emerged as the most significant new force in the politics of India. The BJP, aided by its allied organisations like the RSS, the VHP and the Shiv Sena, modified part of its stance to represent the emerging force.