India: Second-Place Triumph

Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi won an election victory in the strife-torn state of Punjab last week, even though his Congress (I) Party failed to come out first in the balloting. Gandhi triumphed because a near record 60% of eligible voters defied the threat of terrorism to cast ballots for state and national candidates. Sikhs form a majority in Punjab, a state in which a small band of Sikh militants has pursued a violent campaign for independence since 1981. At stake in the election were 115 state assembly seats and 13 slots in the lower house of the Indian Parliament. Campaign terror...