A timely counsel !
The anniversary issue of your
magazine is superb. You have
rightly advised Prime Minister Narendra
Modi to be rooted in the ground realities in
the matters related to the governance of our
democratic state. Regrettably, he has so far
not appreciated what you have rightly
described as rajdharm in a democracy . He
seems to think he can remain popular only
by making false promises . He must realize it
does not work long . Democracy is all about
social and economic justice. Any
government can ignore it only at the cost of
its own extinction in due course of time.
The Modi government has still a few
months to complete its present term. It
would do well to use this time meaningfully.
It must attempt some course corrections
and avoid its pattern of not really doing
anything on the front of all- inclusive
development, a supreme goal of our
leadership at any point of time. Besides, the Government must take steps to ensure
autonomy of all our institutions for
governance. To do so the Modi government
must take appropriate steps aimed at
purging the allegedly corrupt elements in
our Parliament. The presence of any criminal
in our highest legislative institution is bound
to be detrimental to the security and
development of the nation.
Krishna Kabir
Kolkata
False assurance
The interim budget
of our government is
sugar-coated. It has
been designed just to
win the upcoming Lok Sabha
elections. This will not do. In the
2014 Lok Sabha election, the vote
share of job-seeking youth was
high for the Bharatiya Janata
Party. They trusted the saffron
brigade on the basis of its assurances. They are
feeling cheated by what have come to be known as
‘Pakodanomics’ and ‘Modi-nomics.
The government has made a lot of promises in the
budget . But where are the resources for that ? What
about the funding needed to ensure an assured
pension? The government has
not presented its Economic
Survey so far. We are in the dark
as to the scene of employment
across the country. The National
Sample Survey Office has not
presented its report on
unemployment data. We see
millions of unemployed youth are
struggling to make a living.
Demonetisation and the GST have ruined the
employment market, especially in the informal sector.
Agrarian distress has made farming increasingly
unattractive for our rural youth.
Christopher J.
Bengalur
Tradition overlooke
In his article, “ New Reservation. Will it help the poor?” ( Power Politics, February 2019) ,Hari Jasingh has rightly said that the entire gamut of reservation needs to be reviewed afresh so that the millions of fellow Indians still groaning under the deadweight of deprivation and injustice are helped for their multifaceted development . I wonder why both Houses of Parliament did not discuss the Constitution ( 124th Amendment) Bill , 2019, threadbare before passing it in Januar this year . The passage of the Bill was done very hastily . The usual practice is that a Bill is circulated ahead of being introduced and referred to the respective standing committee of our Parliament. This allows MPs to solicit public feedback and interact with experts before forming their own recommendations. Our Parliament skipped this scrutiny mechanism . This is not good.
Razia Iqbal
Pune
New calculus
N. Chandrababu Naidu
In Andhra
Pradesh, the
Congress and
the Telugu
Desam Party have
decided to fight coming
elections separately. Their
alliance in Telangana lost
heavily to the Telangana
Rashtra Samithi in the recent
Assembly elections. Voters
in Telangana were angry with
the Congress for its alliance with the TDP which had
opposed the creation of their state . They have
returned the TRS to power with a bigger majority. The
TDP calculation is it will do better in the state without
the Congress. People of
Andhra Pradesh see the
Congress responsible for the
bifurcation of the State in
2014.
AP Chief Minister N.
Chandrababu Naidu wants to
work with the Congress at the
national level against the
Bharatiya Janata Party.
Naidu’s political campaign is
directed against the BJP-led
government at the Centre for not granting special
category status to Andhra Pradesh.
K Reddy
Hyderabad
Stress on people’s development
No system can last long if people are not happy with it. Across our border in the north and east , the political leadership in China seems to be fully aware of it. According to reports, at the Party School of the Communist Party of China Central Committee on January 21, Chinese President Xi Jinping talked of improving material conditions, especially by creating opportunities for young people to find employment. Xi sought to motivate his 86 million strong CPC machine to generate a movement for mass-financing micro, small and medium-sized firms. He urged the cadres to go the extra mile to provide to the people social security, medical and health care, food security as well as workplace safety. I wish our leadership too knew the importance of people’s development and took serious steps for peoples economic development.
K Sudarshan
Mumbai