Rep. Joseph Crowley (D-NY)	Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC)	Rep. Frank Pallone (D-NJ)

Walter Andersen Johns Hopkins University	Philip Oldenburg University of Texas	Stephen P. Cohen Brookings Institution

Even as the U.S. State Department said it looked forward to working with India’s new government to build on the already strong bilateral relations, analysts said that Washington was too caught up with Iraq and domestic politics to rejuvenate ties with New Delhi.

Walter Andersen, associate director of the South Asia Program at Johns Hopkins University’s Paul Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), said how the Congress Party distributes power and the parties it chooses as allies will determine its policy.

On foreign policy, Andersen, former chief of the U.S. State Department’s South Asia Division in the Office of Analysis for the Near East and South Asia, said the new government would be hard put to take any new initiatives in relation to Pakistan, in particular.

“I doubt any government will be in a position to take innovative steps –– steps that arouse controversy,” he contended. “Prime Minister Vajpayee was committed to the process with Pakistan and I would say it is up in the air. There’s a lot of pressure on India to do so. But will they take those sorts of steps to deepen the Indo-Pakistan relationship?” he asked.

Prof. Philip Oldenburg, senior lecturer, Department of Government, University of Texas, Austin, and former director of the Southern Asian Institute, Columbia University, said there would be little, if any, change in the policy toward Washington. “There may be a harsher judgment on what is going on in Iraq right now. But diplomatically I don’t think anything is going to change.”

South Asia expert Stephen P. Cohen welcomed the election results as a “triumph of democracy.” Cohen, senior fellow of Foreign Policy Studies at Brookings Institution in Washington, said the results indicated that perhaps the majority of Indians wanted a fresh set of political players.

Cohen opined that the Congress Party and its allies “will probably respond with a few changes in economic policy. Possibly some changes in foreign policy, but nothing radical and nothing dramatic. Substantively, I don’t see any major shifts in Indian policy. There will be some more criticism of the U.S., perhaps a shift in emphasis on the liberalization process — but New Delhi will not want to alienate Washington unnecessarily or roll liberalization back.”

Referring to India-Pakistan relations, Cohen said: “Congress may inch forward a little bit and hopefully the Pakistanis will reciprocate and you’ll see the beginning of a process which has more than one step. I think this time there is a fairly good chance that if the Indians can reciprocate and make some changes, at least in style if not substance, the Pakistanis will respond to that and you’ll see the beginning of a movement that will move step by step.”

Terming the Indian elections a miracle, he said “every time the Indians go to the polls, it’s the largest organized activity in human history. And this time there was relatively little violence. The issues I think were seriously discussed. The Indian electorate seems extremely mature. There was a high turnout again, which is far higher than the U.S. Americans in particular should be appreciative of the success of the voting process in India.”

Rep. Frank Pallone (D-NJ) said “the fact that Indian voters can turn out one party and put another in its place so easily is further proof that India is a strong and vibrant democracy. I look forward to working with the leadership of the Congress Party and continuing to strengthen the ties between our great democracies.” In a similar vein, Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC) said: “The elections in India prove once again the power of democracy. The people of India have spoken in these elections. We will respect this decision and will work with the Congress Party to ensure strong U.S.-India ties continue.”

Rep. Joe Crowley (D-NY), co-chair of the Congressional Caucus on India and Indian Americans, said the elections proved that India had a vibrant and mature democracy in action.

“I congratulate the Congress Party for their strong showing in the election. The new government must keep the peace negotiations with Pakistan on track, to ensure that the violence and deaths of innocents completely ceases. As the party that originated the first economic changes under Prime Minister (Narasimha) Rao that enabled India and the Indian economy to develop to the level that it is today, I am sure that the Congress Party will continue the strong economic growth that India has experienced.

(Vasantha Arora in Washington also contributed to this report)