In an upset, India's Congress Party won the national elections.(The Week)

* In an upset, India's Congress Party won the national elections. The party leader, Sonia Gandhi, then dealt the world another surprise by declining the post of prime minister. Gandhi was born in Italy, and appears to have concluded that the country should have a leader of unquestioned legitimacy. It was an honorable decision, one that leaves the government in a better position to negotiate with Pakistan. The effect of the elections in two other areas remains in doubt. Although it was Congress that initiated economic reforms in a previous spell in office, the defeated BJP was more associated with free markets. The election result was widely seen as a backlash against globalization. Perhaps it was really a kind of revolution of rising expectations: Markets had lifted millions of rural Indians out of poverty, but not ...