India's minority government won an important parliamentary vote Monday, keeping Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao in office to pursue radical economic reforms.
Rao's Congress party had a majority of 52 in the lower house when the fragmented opposition joined forces to try to force through amendments on a government policy statement pledging to overhaul the economy.Rao told the opposition it had provoked an unexpected crisis that may undermine foreign confidence in his reforms.
"I hadn't expected this," Rao said before the vote. "Suddenly we are faced with such a tense situation. It will take some time before we are able to repair this damage."
Rao launched the reforms a month after taking office last July, with India on the brink of defaulting on its foreign debt of $71 billion. He had threatened to resign and call for fresh elections if he lost Monday's vote.
The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank lent India $4.5 billion in 1991, first to help stave off default and then to back Rao's attempts to cut red tape and attract foreign investment.
Rao made it plain he was abandoning the goal of socialist self-sufficiency that India adopted at independence from Britain in 1947, and foreign investors began a cautious return. Theoretically, Congress is in a minority in the 532-member Lok Sabha, or House of the People.