Express your voice

Your column acted as the last straw and I can8217;t but help express my reaction to this continuous canonisation of Manmohan Singh. The fact remains that he has not once asserted his influence on any political decision made by his party president, and has never protested overtly or covertly against any issues of political immorality where the Congress is concerned. Singh has even you under his Faustian spell, and I find that very amusing.
Vijaya Kumar Dar

8226; You are a great journalist and you have earned our respect through your interviews, but your March 5 column shocked us. Even you are talking about the ascendancy of Rahul Gandhi as the PM of India as a foregone conclusion! Why Sir no remorse in saying that? Is it our fate that we are to be ruled by a dynasty in the name of democracy and secularism?
A reader

8226; I am upset that you are advising the present Congress regime to do the right things for the sake of continuing dynastic rule. Her Highness Ms Sonia Gandhi has been propagated and encouraged by sycophants and the fourth pillar and also other pillars of democracy. Her advisers are the same who were once part of the Sanjay and Rajiv coterie. Does Sonia have any clue about the consequences of her actions for the 8216;Aam Aadmi8217;? The mess we are in has to be sorted out by sane, honest and forthright intelligentsia and not by dynastic rule and self-serving sycophants.
Rajhans Dave

8226; Election pacts and alignments are alright but giving berths in Cabinet to men with doubtful honesty and integrity is harmful to national interest. Take the case of Shibu Soren. While he was Union minister for Coal and Mines, a non-bailable arrest warrant had been issued against him but the hon8217;ble minister was found missing from his official residence and declared absconding for days. Can such an individual be called to adorn a chief minister8217;s seat? Your thinking that Sonia is grooming Rahul to be the next prime minister is correct, but can this be tolerated? Criteria for a person to become a minister must be decided once and for all.
M G Pillaiishnavilasam

8226; Why the irrelevant reference to Rahul Gandhi? Does the country not already have enough of the dynastic dose? A journalist of your stature and objectivity at least should not be throwing such silly ideas for wily Congress sycophants.
Inder Nath

8226; Having helped in the creation of an artificial and also purely temporary halo around Sonia8217;s head, it is but natural for you and other secular editors to be grieving its erosion so soon after. Things started going wrong for Sonia soon after tainted ministers were inducted into the Cabinet. Thereafter, with the active contribution of the Communists, it has been one continuous downhill journey for Manmohan Singh personally and his government. Under the BJP, India was actually shining, even if in parts. This government began losing its shine from the very first day and most pathetically, neither Sonia nor any of her ministers know how to put the shine back. All the media attempts to distance Sonia from the disastrous decisions on Jharkhand are of no avail; the country can no more be hoodwinked by pliant editors and sycophantic story writers because we know that it was 10 Janpath that ordered the installation of the Soren Ministry.
B V Shenoy

8226; A very nice article, though with the way the Congress has behaved in the last few days and in the weeks leading to the state elections in Bihar and Jharkhand, it should have been titled 25 years backwards. Instead of looking forward, the Congress appears to be in a time warp. The stalwarts of yesteryear should gracefully retire. Their time has long gone and it is high time someone told them so.
Mahesh Chittaranjan

8226; Even though the BJP has been the victim of political dishonesty in Jharkhand, it is a fact that the party is not an exception to the general unholy Indian political system. Otherwise the party would have taken effective steps to amend the Constitution to check such nuisances. Fortunately India currently has a Prime Minister, a President and a party leader who are seen to be honest and above reproach. This trio should take personal initiative to reform the system without waiting for political consensus that may never arrive.
Subhash C Agrawal

8226; The sooner Sonia Gandhi realises that what she heads is not the glorious, principled Indian National Congress but an inglorious, unprincipled brotherhood of scheming, selfish sycophants the better. Indira Gandhi went through such a phase and the Congress suffered. Rajiv Gandhi, under similar circumstances, damaged it further. Now it is the turn of Sonia. Does she really think that the leaders of her party or those belonging to her allies are genuinely servants of the people, or are they using her name to promote own interests?
N Sriram