Socialist Named India’s New Prime Minister

A socialist leader was named as India’s new prime minister today and said his government faces a “grim and challenging” task to quell widespread unrest that helped topple his predecessor.

Chandra Shekhar, who led efforts to unseat Vishwanath Pratap Singh as prime minister, pledged that his government will seek “to create a society of equals” in a nation where thousands have died this year in battles over religious, ethnic and class differences.

The clashes were used to rally opposition against Singh, the first Indian prime minister to be ousted by Parliament. He lost a confidence vote Wednesday. The 63-year-old Chandra Shekhar is expected to be sworn in by President Ramaswami Venkataraman on Saturday.

“In all humility, I would like to say that the task before us is arduous,” Chandra Shekhar said. “It is so grim and challenging. But one has to make every endeavor to retrieve the situation.”

At least 370 people have died in the last three weeks in Hindu-Muslim riots over a 460-year-old mosque that some Hindus claim was built on a site sacred to the warrior god Rama. Hindus seek to raze the mosque in Ayodhya in northeast India and build a temple.

Meanwhile, at least 150 upper-caste students have committed suicide or died in clashes with police to protest Singh’s attempt to reserve more government jobs for low-caste Hindus.