In an echo of the manner in which Communist parties helped Indira Gandhi stay in power after the Congress split in 1969, India’s Communist parties had won a record number of seats in the 2004 elections and gave support to the Congress party, which formed the UPA government led by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. A bacchanalia of spending ensued, as Manmohan Singh rode the growth wave seeded by Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Just a few years into Manmohan Singh’s second term, the abdication of liberalisation came home to roost, with persistent inflation and plummeting growth.
