Square meals on wheels

Sir — When Ratan Tata promises a car under one lakh rupees, it is understandable: the Tatas earn their daily bread by selling cars. But when L.K. Advani asks car-makers to work towards a four-wheel option that the man on the street can afford, he is playing to the gallery in an election year (“People’s Car catches Advani fancy”, Jan 16). In a market-driven economy, politicians have no role beyond policy-formulation. Asking industrialists to do something is most unbecoming, since market analysts are there to do precisely that. Besides, India is already home to some of the world’s cheaper cars, and talking about increasing their numbers without thinking about improving the roads, controlling pollution, and implementing road safety norms and transport laws is downright irresponsible. Once and for all, let people like Advani know that the man on the street is more concerned about getting two square meals a day and a roof over his head than about possessing a four-wheeler.

Yours faithfully,
Tapan Pal, Batanagar

It’s the time to party

Sir — The editorials, “End of ideology” (Jan 13) and “Get set” (Jan 14), are of the opinion that the Bharatiya Janata Party has abandoned its earlier mascots, Hindutva and the Ram mandir in the interests of governance and coalition politics. But the BJP leaders know better than the rest that in politics, the same slogan loses its effectiveness if repeated. Hence the party’s masterful changeover from the Hindutva party to the party of governance. Since the BJP has tasted success recently on the slogan of governance, it is expected that it will use the same slogan to the hilt in the coming Lok Sabha polls.

This does not take away from the fact that the National Democratic Alliance and the BJP, under the leadership of Atal Bihari Vajpayee, have given India the stability and development that it badly needed. I agree with P.A. Sangma that the Lok Sabha elections have been converted to America-type presidential elections in that it is a contest between personalities. Here Sonia Gandhi is no match for Vajpayee. Vajpayee has proved himself as the most durable alliance leader India ever had. A leader from the Nehru-Gandhi stable could never succeed in this role because of their egotism. The BJP is also ahead of the Congress in campaigning. They have hit the right spot by kicking off their campaign on the birthday of Subhas Chandra Bose’s, a leader for whom most Indians have a soft corner. Finally, in a one-on-one analysis, the BJP’s crop of young and dynamic leaders like Pramod Mahajan, Arun Jaitley and Sushma Swaraj are way ahead of the Congress’s old and ailing leaders.

Yours faithfully,
Tapan Das Gupta, Calcutta

Sir — Mani Shankar Aiyar has tried to ridicule the claims of the NDA government about the economic growth of the country over the past few months (“India Shining — or India Dimming?”, Jan 13). He has reeled off statistics to support his argument that there has not been any real growth in the economy during the rule of the NDA government. He claims that the economy had hit a high while Manmohan Singh was finance minister. There is no denying that Manmohanomics worked wonders for the economy. The growth of a nation depends on several factors, both internal and external. While not sitting on judgment as to whether or not there has been actual economic growth under the NDA regime, one should appreciate that the government has garnered the available resources well to facilitate an upswing in the economy. The feel-good factor is not a make-believe thing, it is bringing foreign investment to the country. We are now only second to China in terms of economic growth. If indeed the economy had looked up during the Congress regime, why was the euphoria missing among the people? Aiyar is clearly criticizing just for the sake of criticizing. Unfortunately for him, this particular piece of criticism is serving as a right-handed compliment to the BJP.

Yours faithfully,
S. Ram, Calcutta

Sir — The BJP has come out with flying colours in the acid test ahead of the general elections. The BJP is a party which,when it was in the opposition benches, was in support of a full five-year tenure of the assemblies and the Lok Sabha. The BJP was also in favour of the simultaneous holding of general and assembly elections. Along with many of its core manifesto issues such as the common civil code, Article 370 and Ram mandir, the BJP left this by the wayside. A party which dons and sheds principles at will surely cannot be trusted.

In the coming elections, the BJP has practically no issue save the foreign origin of the Congress president, Sonia Gandhi. As far as the BJP’s own performance is concerned, any national survey will show that the party is riding on Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s image as a leader with a conscience. Which makes the prospect of an even contest in the coming general elections brighter, as the Congress is also a personality-oriented party.

Yours faithfully,
Deepak Kumar Vidhyarthi, Muzaffarnagar

Sir — With the BJP redefining Hindutva as “all-round progress for India”, whatever doubt there was about the party’s agenda, should be cleared (“BJP redefines Hindutva and itself”, Jan 12). The subtext of the new definition is, India is for Hindus. The minority communities immediately become inconsequential in the democratic processes of the country. Armed with the mammoth mandates given by the people of Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, the BJP’s next project could well be renaming the country as Hindustan.

Yours faithfully,
T.R. Anand, Calcutta