The UPA-Left’s plans to have the country’s first woman president face a credible challenge as the BJP-led NDA and the born-again Third Front prop up incumbent Abdul Kalam for a second term. Suddenly, the presidential election is no longer a walkover.
A four-year wait for a car, no kissing on screen and no drinking without a permit. In the third decade of freedom, India was a land of scarcity, prohibitions and controls.
The decade proved to be ostrich-like. It saw old verities vanish and new ones raise their heads, as Congress hegemony ended and religious fundamentalism began.
INDIA AT 60 
