The media around the world has reported with some sense of amazement that Manmohan Singh is the first full-term Indian prime minister to be returned to power since 1962, and implied that this re-election gives Mr. Singh a mandate for economic reform. But a more meaningful historical parallel exists between his return and that of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in 1999.
Just as intransigent communist parties held Mr. Singh's fragile coalition government to ransom during his first term in office, the mercurial Jayaram Jayalalitha, the leader of a southern regional party, tried to scuttle every policy change Mr. Vajpayee initiated after coming to power in March 1998. Just as the current election has given Mr. Singh's United Progressive Alliance a near-majority in parliament, the 1999 election returned Mr. Vajpayee's National Democratic Alliance with a clear mandate.
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