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Journalism of Courage
8226; The rollbacks in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu signal a return to the politics of populism. The hesitant and halting steps towards power sector reforms and subsidy reduction have been retraced. In the days to come, more state governments could follow these leads and, if the statements from the Left are anything to go by, the Centre could as well.
Should this happen, the already high fiscal deficit will spiral out of control and the states8217; finances, already parlous, will reach a point of no return. It is instructive that neither the Tamil Nadu chief minister nor her Andhra Pradesh counterpart has spoken of the financial implications of their largesse or how they propose to finance it. Right-thinking people no pun intended should look on these developments with grave foreboding. The country has to brace itself for a return to a regime of high taxes, higher levels of government borrowing and deficit financing, with consequent higher prices and interest rates.
8212; R. Sankar New Delhi
Inner strengths
8226; Few politicians follow their conscience, so Sonia Gandhi8217;s example is a great one. As the English authors of the book, The Perpetual Pessimist, put it, 8220;It is by the goodness of God that we have in our country three unspeakably precious things: Freedom of speech, freedom of conscience and 8216;prudence8217; never to practise either.8221;
Let us hope that this supreme sacrifice of Sonia Gandhi will help install in India a truly secular government in which one8217;s religion or ethnicity will never be a factor.
8212; Mahindar Singh New Delhi
Business as usual
8226; Now that the issue of the prime minister8217;s post has been solved, the chief and perhaps only issue today for the Congress-led government should be to provide a good, honest and stable administration, a government that is concerned with the public interest and not with the interests of the rulers. Opposition parties like the BJP should keep a watch on the government and criticise any bad policies initiated by the UPA.
Political parties supporting the Congress government should abide by definite principles and not indulge in any political bargaining. The opposition parties, especially the BJP, should see to it that discussions and opposition are based on conviction, not trivial issues.
8212; Amjad K. Maruf Mumbai
Prez vs PM
8226; With reference to T.V.R. Shenoy8217;s article 8216;It should be PM Sonia8217; IE, May 20, India does not have a presidential system. It is a parliamentary democracy, and people vote for parties, who are free to nominate their leaders. It is fair to say that the election results support Sonia Gandhi, but nothing obliges her to become prime minister, nor should anyone have had such an expectation. By Shenoy8217;s argument, prime ministers who take over mid-term 8212; like Inder Gujral and Chandra Shekhar did in India or John Major in Britain 8212; would be subverting the democratic mandate too.
8212; Rahul Siddharthan On e-mail
Truly brilliant
n It was a masterstroke indeed on the part of Sonia Gandhi 8216;Sonia8217;s masterstroke8217;, IE, May 19. The NDA has let the nation down by invoking such a non-issue.
8212; Shashank Ranjan On e-mail
