'The pressures' did not come from 'trying to bring about economic reforms' as he puts. The presures came about becuase of the collapse of the Soviet Union, and so too India's biggest trading partners, sending her economy into bankruptcy. The 'reforms' he talks about, were NOT voluntary - they were Mandated by the World Bank as a pre-condition for extending a stop-gap loan of a few measly billion dollrs (for which India had to pledge all her gold reserves as surety) to stave off total economic disaster. Were it not for that economic meltdown, the Commie Cong would have merrily kept to their same destructive Socialist policies, raking up huge growth in the 2% range, which they shamelessly referred to as the Hindu rate of growth. What a two-faced hypocrite.
