“As I was saying before”:https://varnam.org/archives/000072.html, the monsoons are the most important weather phenomena affecting everything in India. General elections are due in 2004 and political parties are gearing up to face the fact their prospects maybe affected by a less than normal rainfall this year.
“How Ballot Hopes Rest On Good Monsoon”:http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=32684
bq. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government is drawing up a contingency plan to boost its electoral prospects in case the monsoon fails for the second year in a row. The plan includes involvement of non-government organisations (NGOs) to augment food distribution network. The plan is aimed at neutralising the impact of drought.A bad monsoon is not good news for the ruling party which is gearing up to face elections.
Around this time, the most important person in the country is the head of the India Meteorological Department (IMD), who makes the weather prediction. In his book, Chasing The Monsoon, Alexander Frater mentions that the Prime Minister’s Office makes regular calls to the IMD to keep track of the arrival of the rains.
Update: “Salomon says Indian monsoon a source for worry “:http://reuters.com/financeArticle.jhtml?storyID=2684164&newsType=usGoldRpt&menuType=markets
bq. “Some of the long-term global circulation models are indicating a dry bias across much of India during the time frame of June through September — the Indian monsoon season,” Russo and Davis said. This does not mean there will be a replay of last year’s poor monsoon, but the “guidance…raises the possibility for a dry bias this season,” the two concluded.
Monsoon and Politics
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