Two issues dominated Indian in 1999 and early 2000.

The first had been expected for some time. Following the defeat of Prime Minister Vajpayee's BJP-led government, the Lok Sabha was dissolved in anticipation of new elections scheduled for 4, 11, 17, 24 September and 1 October. The results of the election strengthened the position of the BJP, not because it did better, but because the 20+ regional parties affiliated with it did. The most important outcome was Congress' third consecutive defeat and the failure of Sonja Gandhi to stop its decline. Her Italian birth did not seem to be a factor in the election; the fact that Congress had forced the election but did not offer a serious programatic alternative to the BJP did turn off many voters.

Party	1998 Seats	1999 Seats
BJP	181	182
BJP Allies	81	118
Congress	140	112
Congress Allies	38	22
Others	103	103

Note: Voting in five districts in 1999 was postponed because of flooding.

The other issue was not as widely expected. In June, some of the most intense fighting ever broke out in the disputed region of Jamm-Kashmir. If Indian sources are to be believed, guerillas supporting Kashmiri secession from India moved into the region and started the fighting. Whoever was responsible, hundreds of people have died, and we are no closer to a permanent settlement to the crisis than we have been at any time since partition. The tensions now, of course, are magnified by the fact that India and Pakistan both officially became nuclear weapons states in 1998.

If anything, the tensions between India and Pakistan mounted in early 2000 as the result of a bizarre hijacking of an Air Indian jet. After a standoff that lasted nearly a week, India was forced to allow the hijackers to escape along with a number of Kashmiri militants who had been in Indian jails. The Indian government then blamed the Pakistani government for being involved in the hijacking itself, though no firm evidence existed one way or the another when these lines were written in early 2000.

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