[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 62 (Tuesday, May 7, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4792-S4793]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        CONGRATULATIONS TO INDIA

  Mr. MOYNIHAN. Mr. President, there is good news and better news in 
the world today with regards to the progress and the stability of 
democratic procedures around the world. We are, as is evidenced from 
the day's proceedings, already well into our election season, though 
the actual election will not be held until next November, as has been 
our practice over the last two centuries.
  It is possible in a country such as ours to take for granted 
national, State, and even local elections, as a part of the rhythms of 
our life. Yet, they are rare in the world. In the whole of the 
membership of the United Nations, some 185 countries now, there are 
only 7 States which both existed in 1914 and have not had their form of 
government changed by violence since then.
  We are joined in that very special group, by the United Kingdom, four 
former members of the British Commonwealth--Canada, Australia, New 
Zealand, and South Africa--and Sweden. I would add Switzerland, though 
it is not a member of the United Nations.
  Of the great powers of the world, the newest to begin a process of 
choosing leaders by elections is Russia, the Russian Federation and 
other members of the former Republics of the Union of Soviet Socialist 
Republics.
  Yesterday, we learned with understandable anxiety that on Sunday 
Major General Aleksandr Korzhakov, the close aide and security advisor 
to President Boris Yeltsin of Russia, stated that it might be necessary 
to cancel the Presidential elections scheduled for June. He stated that 
the country was not ready to make a decision. It is clear his concern 
is that if the country were to make a decision now, it might not choose 
Mr. Yeltsin.
  Mr. President, this will be the second Presidential election in 
Russian history. To his great credit, yesterday in Moscow, Mr. Yeltsin 
said that the election would not be postponed; it will take place as 
scheduled. Mr. Yeltsin went on to instruct General Korzhakov not to get 
involved in politics and to refrain from making such statements in the 
future.
  On the other hand, in his statement, Mr. Yeltsin refers to his 
opponent, who is associated with former Communists in Russia and who 
has a program very much opposed to the economic reforms Mr. Yeltsin has 
been pursuing, albeit at times erratically, by stating that, 
``Korzhakov is not alone in thinking that a Gennadi Zyuganov victory 
would start a civil war.''
  Now, those are ominous terms, sir. Mr. Zyuganov is the candidate 
considered to be Mr. Yeltsin's chief opponent, and he represents a 
revival of Communist thinking and organization to some extent. The word 
``civil war'' takes us back to the events of 1917 when the Bolsheviks 
seized power from a moderate provisional government, potentially a 
democratic government. Those events in St. Petersburg in the Winter 
Palace in 1917 are well-known to us --and were followed by four years 
of intense, agonizing war across all of Eurasia. A war in which the 
United States was involved with troops in Murmansk, Vladivostok, and 
elsewhere, as were the British and the French. The outcome was the 
triumph of the Soviet Union and the horror that followed for nearly 
three-quarters of a century, until its final dissolution in 1991.
  We can only wish the democrats, or if you like republicans, well in 
the Russian elections. We should take note of how very tentative these 
advances can be, and take into account those who are voicing concern 
over the prospect of an election in which the outcome would result in 
civil war.
  By extraordinary contrast, Mr. President, the Republic of India today 
concludes the third and final day of the largest election in human 
history. Some 590 million Indian citizens are eligible to vote in three 
separate days of balloting: April 27, May 2, and today, May 7. This 
will be the 11th national election since the founding of the Republic 
of India in 1947. A very large proportion of the electorate will have 
voted in some 800,000 polling places.
  The task of keeping the polling stations open is formidable, yet the 
task is being accomplished and it suggests the magnitude of the 
achievement. In so doing, India continues to exist as a democracy, in 
defiance of just about everything that those who profess to know about 
the subject would argue are required as preconditions necessary for a 
democratic society. Yet India continues to remain a firm democracy and 
to exhibit an extraordinary commitment to law and to civic process.
  Here is a country with 15 official languages, not to mention English 
which,

[[Page S4793]]

as Prime Minister Nehru described, enjoys ``associate status.'' In 
addition, some 50 major regional languages. It is a country that 
stretches from the Himalayas in the north to Cape Comorin far into the 
Indian Ocean, approaching the Equator. It is the second most populous 
nation on Earth. There has never been a country of this size able to 
have regular and free, democratic elections. They are not without 
disturbances, few elections are anywhere; however, we do know that 
there will be a government formed in the aftermath of this election. 
There will be no civil war. There will be no civil unrest. There will 
be an acceptance of a democratic process without parallel in the 
history of mankind. It should cheer us up and make us realize that the 
last half century has not been for nothing. The current possibilities 
of a democratic society around the world are perhaps beyond what anyone 
could have imagined a century ago, and they are thriving and proudly 
prevailing on the subcontinent of India, in the Republic of India.
  I am sure the entire Senate will wish to congratulate the people of 
India and all who have participated in this election. We take no 
position whatever as to the outcome. There are any number of parties 
with capable candidates. At the present time, the balloting should have 
been concluded, it being past midnight in India. Soon we will know the 
outcome.
  It fell to that singular commentator, William Safire, in the New York 
Times, to note this event in a remarkable column in which he observes 
the Indian achievement. I think we should note the contrast of this 
achievement with the People's Republic of China which, though 
comparable in size, has never had an election of any kind.
  I ask unanimous consent that Mr. Safire's column be printed in the 
Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

                 [From the New York Times, May 2, 1996]

                          The Biggest Election

                          (By William Safire)

       Washington.--In 1975, when Indira Gandhi assumed 
     dictatorial control of India and threw her opponents in jail, 
     President Ford asked his U.N. delegate, Daniel P. Moynihan, 
     what to make of that.
       ``Look at it this way, Mr. President,'' said Moynihan with 
     a courtier's irony. ``Under your Administration, the United 
     States has become the world's largest democracy.''
       When Mrs. Gandhi later confidently stood for election, 
     India's voters threw her out. Freedom was back, and the U.S. 
     happily became the world's second-largest democracy.
       This week, with dignity, honest balloting and relatively 
     little violence, 400 million of India's citizens--65 percent 
     of eligible voters, higher than here--go to the polls to 
     select candidates from 500 political parties. It is the most 
     breathtaking example of government by the people in the 
     history of the world.
       Americans don't hear a whole lot about it. President 
     Clinton is busy being campaign manager for the Labor party in 
     Israel's May 29, election, in effect telling Israelis to vote 
     for Shimon Peres or else.
       When he is not intervening shamelessly in Israel's 
     political affairs, Mr. Clinton is barnstorming with Boris 
     Yeltsin, trying to help him defeat Yavlinsky's reformers and 
     Zyuganov's Communists in Russia's June 16 election. 
     Washington is also headquarters for the Clinton campaign for 
     the U.S. Presidency, where he beefs up beef prices to 
     consumers while pouring strategic oil on troubled motorists. 
     But in all the campaigning, no mention is made of India, 
     where voters outnumber those in Israel, Russia and the U.S. 
     combined.
       As a result of this uncharacteristic White House 
     forbearance, television coverage here about the biggest 
     election has been next to nil. Not only do Americans not know 
     for which Indian candidate to root, but hundreds of millions 
     of voters are forced to go to the polls ignorant of Mr. 
     Clinton's preference.
       Why? Do nearly 900 million Indians not matter? American 
     lack of interest is not new; a former Foreign Minister of 
     India, one of Nehru's acolytes, told a U.S. envoy: ``We would 
     far prefer your detestation to your indifference.''
       One reason is that India strikes a holier-than-thou 
     diplomatic pose, remaining nonaligned when there is no longer 
     one side to be nonaligned against. Year after year, India is 
     near the top of the list of nations that consistently vote 
     against the U.S. in the United Nations.
       We're wrong to let that overly irritate us. China votes 
     against us, too, and unbalances our trade and secretly ships 
     missiles to rogue states and jails dissidents and oppresses 
     Tibet and threatens Taiwan and (cover the children's eyes) 
     pirates our CD's--but we care more about what happens in 
     China than what happens in India.
       That's a mistake. Contrary to what all the new Old China 
     Hands and other Old Nixon Hands tell you, India will draw 
     ahead of China as a superpower in the next century.
       Yes, China's economic growth rate has doubled India's, and 
     China's Draconian control of births will see India's 
     population exceed China's soon enough, to India's 
     disadvantage. But China does not know what an election is. 
     Despite the enterprise and industriousness of its people, 
     despite the example of free Chinese on Taiwan and the 
     inspiration of the dissident Wei Jingsheng, jailed in 
     Beijing, China is several upheavals and decades away from the 
     democracy India already enjoys.
       Without political freedom, capitalism cannot long thrive. 
     Already the requirements of political repression are 
     stultifying the flow of market information in China, driving 
     wary Hong Kong executives to Sydney. The suppression of 
     dangerous data undermined technology in Communist Russia; it 
     will hurt China, too.
       Though more Chinese are literate, many more Indians are 
     English-literate (more English-speakers than in Britain), and 
     English is the global language of the computer. American 
     software companies are already locating in Bangalore, India's 
     Silicon Valley. Bureaucratic corruption scandals abound; 
     India's free press reports and helps cleanse them, China's 
     does not.
       I'm rooting for Rao, the secular Prime Minister, who is 
     more likely to move toward free markets than Vajpayee, his 
     leading opponent. But whoever wins, it's a glorious week for 
     the world's largest democracy.

  Mr. MOYNIHAN. I take the liberty of extending the congratulations of 
the U.S. Senate to the Government and peoples of India on the 
conclusion of this, the 11th national election as an independent nation 
in the world: proud, increasingly prosperous, and with every 
expectation of becoming more so.
  I thank the Senate for its courtesy and allowing this interruption. I 
suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. SIMON. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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