Edition: U.S. / Global  India Shifts Course  Published: May 14,
2004  In a stunning political shift, Indian voters have
decisively rejected the governing Hindu nationalist party and
the coalition partners that have kept Prime Minister Atal Bihari
Vajpayee in office since 1998. Liberalizing economic policies
carried out under Mr. Vajpayee's Bharatiya Janata Party
governments have given India statistically impressive economic
growth. Yet in a country where poor people vote in large
numbers, most of them remain unimpressed.  Along with the
coalition's drubbing came the equally unexpected revival of the
long-fading Congress Party under its Italian-born leader, Sonia
Gandhi. Mrs. Gandhi, the widow and daughter-in-law of
assassinated prime ministers, capitalized on her family name.
But she also benefited from uneasiness over economic change and
a backlash against the B.J.P.'s religious divisiveness.  If, as
now seems likely, Congress leads the next government, it should
press ahead with market reforms while broaden