The lady knows best

Sir — Sushma Swaraj is, what may be called, more nationalist than thou (“Sushma, husband eye exit”, May 16). The people have voted, the leaders have chosen, but Swaraj is not satisfied. She continues to think that it is a “humiliation to the nation” to have a “foreigner” as prime minister. Swaraj is entitled to her personal opinions, and no doubt she has expressed them in the polling booth. She is also within her rights to resign from the Rajya Sabha. But it is extremely presumptuous on her part to describe the mandate as a “national shame” and to term her resignation a “sacrifice”. Sonia Gandhi has emerged as the prime ministerial contender in much the same way that Atal Bihari Vajpayee had after the 1999 general elections. After all, the laws and conventions of Indian democracy have not been twisted to facilitate Gandhi’s elevation. But Swaraj should stop to consider that this move, instead of placing her on a moral high ground, might just hasten her slide into political oblivion.

Yours faithfully,
Janaki Dutta, Calcutta

Mixed results

Sir — In writing a requiem for the National Democratic Alliance, Ashok Mitra is prepared to throw the baby out with the bathwater(“Revenge of the people”, May 14). He talks of the “immiserizing” effect of globalization on India. He should see the data. India has fewer poor people now (in spite of a rising population) than ever before. Globalization and liberalization work to reduce poverty — but they leave inefficient, special-interest groups like protected industries and unions worse off. But in the regime Mitra seems to push, the gains to these special interests will be at the expense of the rest of the population. This is why post-independence, Indian socialism saw an increase in poverty in India.

The blow to the NDA is probably a reflection of the people’s disenchantment with too little of the benefits of globalization coming their way. Some of it is not the NDA’s fault. Agricultural subsidies in the West have stymied economic development in Indian agriculture. But insufficient development of infrastructure under the NDA has also restricted a more even distribution of the benefits of globalization. Large-scale corruption did not help either. Thus, government policy should now focus on increasing expenditures on education, healthcare, while reducing the government imprint on business. At the same time, the government should focus on streamlining the legal system to enforce property rights and rule of law. The NDA government’s failure to do this resulted in its defeat because it translated into the exclusion of millions of Indians from the benefits of globalization.

A Congress government may succumb to leftist pressure of the sort espoused by Mitra and slow down the process of India’s integration with the global economy rather than ensure that the benefits of globalization are received by those who work hard. India will then lose a chance to take her rightful place in the community of nations.

Yours faithfully,
Atin Basu, Lexington, US

Sir — Now that the general elections have thrown up the mother of all surprises, we will probably be able to silence outsourcing critics especially in the European Union. Having raised hell over the outsourcing of measly call-centre jobs, it should be heartening for them to note that India has reciprocated by outsourcing the prime minister's job.

Yours faithfully,
Ram Shankar, Bhopal

Sir — When Mikhail Gorbachev lost the elections in Russia, Time magazine had commented, “He can win elections hands down in any country , except his own.” The same can be said for Atal Bihari Vajpayee today.

Yours faithfully,
P.K. Shome, Rourkela

Sir — By defeating the communal forces the Indian voter has expressed his faith in democracy and secularism. The icing on the cake is the verdict in Gujarat — the laboratory of Hindutva. You cannot fool all the people all the time.

Yours faithfully,
Ashokankur Datta, Delhi

Sir — At one level, the election results show that the people of India are neither communal nor fascist. They just want to get on with their lives like anybody else. I think the BJP really needs to sit down and think about the kind of alternative it proposed to offer when it came to office in 1999 and what it really offered in the last five years. You just cannot splurge on a silly “India Shining” media campaign when half the rural poor are starving to death or hanging themselves. I think the two biggest problems with the BJP as far as middle-class votes were concerned were Gujarat and UTI. The latter was a body-blow to the financial stability plank of the BJP. Tehelka and the Kargil coffin scam made the BJP lose the moral high ground it used to occupy by projecting Atal Bihari Vajpayee all the time. The recent disinvestment of profit-making, blue-chip, public sector bodies and the privatization policy were the last straws. There was no transparency in the disinvestment process and no debate or discussion at any level. The courts opposed it, the unions opposed it, constitutional bodies opposed it, people in general opposed it. This also took away the BJP’s nationalism plank that it had carefully cultivated after the Kargil war.

While some jobs were being created, they only benefitted some sections of the middle class in a few cities like Pune, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Delhi. The benefits did not percolate to the semi-urban or rural areas. And the jobs are low-end ones — mostly, in the customer-services sector or the business operations side. They are hardly an indicator of economic growth in India as the BJP tried hard to project. Overall, the people gave Vajpayee a mandate to govern in 1999 rather than the BJP.

Yours faithfully,
Saptarshi Ghosh, Warwick, United Kingdom

Sir — The poll results are a tribute to the intuitive-intelligence of the Indian voter, caught in a slow-moving agrarian economy, skewed development, large-scale poverty and unemployment as well as lack of basic amenities like water, electricity and health-care. The Indian voter can see through the diversions played out for public consumption. It is a rejection of the arrogance exemplified by Narendra Modi and the politics of defence deal pay-offs caught on camera. The verdict comes with a pertinent message for our future rulers that they can ignore at the cost of political survival.

Yours faithfully,
P.N. Sinha, Calcutta

Sir — I think the biggest mistake the NDA made was to alienate the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagham over the Vaiko affair, which has cost them all the 40 seats from Tamil Nadu. The next mistake was alliance with “Amma”. The third mistake was supporting Narendra Modi in Gujarat.

Yours faithfully,
C.V.K. Moorthy, Bangalore