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Article: Double Vision; Having two leaders at the top has led not to confusion in New Delhi, but a newfound and welcome vibrancy.(Sonia Gandhi, Manmohan Singh lead coalition)(Cover Story)
- Article from:
- Newsweek International
- Article date:
- February 28, 2005
- Author:
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Byline: Ron Moreau and Sudip Mazumdar
It looked like a formula for disaster. Against all odds, Sonia Gandhi led her Congress party and its 15 coalition partners to victory in India's parliamentary elections last May. Hindu zealots in the defeated Bharatiya Janata Party responded by threatening massive protests against India's first "foreign born" prime minister. To quell the rancor, Gandhi (who is of Italian descent) arranged for her friend and adviser, the technocrat Manmohan Singh, to become prime minister. Yet Gandhi remained Congress party president and became chair of the ruling coalition.
Not surprisingly, many Indians doubted the two-headed ...