With an eye on the future

Sir — Milind Deora’s becoming one of the youngest parliamentarians ever, at age 27, is good news for the youth of India disenchanted with contemporary politics (“Dreaming big, Boston to Delhi”, May 14). After all, he does set himself apart with both his attitude and his views. His management degree from Boston did not get in the way of his desire to do something for the people of Mumbai, never mind if it is all still at the stage of ideas. As befits a pragmatic manager entering a new domain, he has made a good beginning by identifying the necessity to harness the confidence of the youth and provide them with employment. Perhaps the other young parliamentarians, Rahul Gandhi, Sachin Pilot, Dushyant and Akhilesh Singh, and Jyotiraditya Scindia could take to heart Deora’s credo — “clear the mind’s cobwebs and think without any baggage from the past”. This positive attitude and its effects will go a long way in showing what the young people are capable of, and, also hopefully, ensure a long and successful political career for Deora.

Yours faithfully,
Diya Sen, Ranchi

Theatre of the absurd

Sir — Sushma Swaraj, K. Govindacharya and Uma Bharti must be feeling very foolish now that Sonia Gandhi has declined the prime ministership. But their vehement opposition to her occupying the top post showed their inability to accept the verdict of the people of India gracefully (“Sushma threatens to play sanyasin”, May 18). As it is, the Bharatiya Janata Party has never been known for being gracious. If the nationality issue was so important to Swaraj, why did she agree to contest against Sonia from Bellary in 1999? And why didn’t the BJP raise objections to a “foreigner” becoming leader of the opposition? Swaraj keeps saying that the Congress-led coalition has not received the mandate of the people. She ought to know that the Congress is the single-largest party on its own. The Congress may not have received the full mandate, but then neither was the mandate for the BJP or Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

If Swaraj thinks she will get political mileage out of her theatrics, she is quite out of touch with reality. Her stance is unconstitutional and anti-democratic, and shows how she and the BJP think Indian voters are fools. Indians have voted for change this time and Swaraj should be dignified enough to accept that change. If there are issues she wishes to take up, she will have to wait until the next general elections.

Yours faithfully,
Prashant Solomon, New Delhi

Sir — Sonia Gandhi has fulfilled all legal provisions concerning Indian citizenship. So how can Sushma Swaraj question her citizenship? Hinduism enjoins respect for all people, irrespective of culture, religion or status. Who is Swaraj to negate these tenets of Hindu culture? Personal attacks for narrow political gain do not go down well with the Indian masses. If you want to be respected, you must respect others too, it is said. If Swaraj doesn’t heed this golden rule it will backfire on her as happened in these elections.

Yours faithfully,
Nilanjan Ghosh, Calcutta

Sir — Sushma Swaraj’s cheap posturing and the BJP’s threat to observe “a black day” if Sonia Gandhi were sworn in as prime minister are a blot on our secular democracy. No sane Indian can forget the horrific images of the Gujarat riots. India may boast of being the fourth-largest economy in the world, of having the largest pool of scientific talent and so on, but there is no doubt that the riots, or “pogrom”, which took place in the state under a BJP regime damaged our image internationally. Is it not ironical that Swaraj now claims that she and her party are more nationalist than anyone else?

I remember how, on a visit to Assam two years ago, Swaraj had expressed surprise that Hindus were a majority in Assam. Clearly, she doesn’t know the country well unlike a real nationalist who would have the country’s history, geography, culture, law and so on, at her finger-tips.

Yours faithfully,
Bikash Kumar Baruah, Guwahati

Sir — It is not surprising that now the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and its affiliates, which had kept away from the freedom movement, have been trying to drum up anger over Sonia Gandhi being a foreigner. The Hindutva parties are always on the lookout for emotive issues — earlier it was the Ram mandir and now it is Sonia. The purpose of this exercise is plain — to deflect national attention away from core social and economic issues.

Yours faithfully,
Ram Puniyani, Calcutta

Sir — Instead of bristling with indignation before television cameras at the prospect of Sonia Gandhi being prime minister, Sushma Swaraj should set her own house in order.

Yours faithfully,
Mitali Bose, Calcutta

Sir — Why just India, even in the United States of America, an apparently more progressive democracy than India, a foreign-born naturalized citizen does not have the legal right to run for the highest elected post, that of president.

Yours faithfully,
Kunal Saha, Columbus, Ohio

Sir — The 1999 election in Bellary had already decided the Sonia Gandhi vs. “swadeshi bahu” contest. The 2004 elections only repeated the message, on a larger scale.

Yours faithfully,
Priyanka Chakraborty, Calcutta

Sir — Somnath Chatterjee is agitated that Atal Bihari Vajpayee and L.K. Advani have not intervened to stop the agitations started by some BJP leaders over the foreigner issue. But the issue has been part of the BJP agenda for a long time. If BJP leaders are raising it now it is because it is their duty to put forward the views of their constituency.

Yours faithfully,
Sunil V. Khaitan, Calcutta

Sir — The BJP leaders, who take pride in their “swadeshi” credo, need to be reminded that the recent collapse of the stock market was the result of foreign institutional investors taking their money out of India. In my opinion, India has already been sold out to foreigners by the BJP. The Indian public has just changed the guardian of the country.

Yours faithfully,
Om Prakash, Calcutta