Gandhi Walks Away from India PM Job

Interesting turn of events in India -- Sonia Gandhi, heir to India's Nehru-Gandhi dynasty, tearfully gave up her chance to become prime minister Tuesday to protect her new Congress government from damaging attacks over her Italian birth. More on this can be found in this Reuters article: bq. Angry and upset, Congress lawmakers mobbed Gandhi and begged her to change her decision, which paves the way for the architect of India's modern economic reforms, Manmohan Singh, to possibly take over the world's largest democracy. bq. But her shock move and the party's refusal to accept it has also left Congress without a leader to stake a claim to power. bq. "I must humbly decline this post," she told a chaotic party meeting in parliament's timber-paneled central hall, lined with life-sized portraits of former prime ministers, including her husband, Rajiv, and mother-in-law Indira Gandhi, who were both assassinated. The Indian stock market took a nose-dive yesterday (its biggest drop in its 139-year history) and recovered on the news of her departure.