ASSEMBLY ELECTIONS UP-Behind the Caste Lines

Singh has appeared at a number of business forums in recent weeks and made pronouncements on the direction which the government's fiscal and structural adjustment policies would take from now. Considering the authorities' repealed claim that we are now entering the second phase of economic 'reform', the signals given and perspective set out in the finance minister's pronouncements should be taken seriously. They show, above all, (hat government has a simple-minded, narrow approach to fiscal and structural reforms. In its pursuit of free market principles, opening up and globalisation, the government is appirently bent upon ignoring the many adverse consequences of the so-called first phase of the reforms, as also the need for ensuring appropriate checks and balances in the policies envisaged for the future.