Spotlight on Gujarat
The editorial “The Gujarat stakes” (Oct. 27) is a sober assessment of the prospects of the Congress party in the Gujarat Assembly elections. So far, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi has only been reacting to what he perceives as the BJP’s wrongdoing at the national level. His tweets make fun of the government and seem to be admired by his followers. He is drawing crowds too. But all this may not convert into votes. People are still looking for an alternative vision from Mr. Gandhi.
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Y.G. Chouksey,
Pune
Ever since he made his debut in politics, not a day has passed without Rahul Gandhi being critical of the BJP. Any policy or social welfare scheme floated by this government is met with stiff opposition from him. The latest is terming the GST as ‘Gabbar Singh tax’ and demonetisation and GST as ‘double tap’. These attacks border on immaturity. Dignified voices of dissent are occasionally heard from the top echelons of the Congress, from the likes of Manmohan Singh and P. Chidambaram. Mr. Gandhi must leave dissent to them and concentrate on rebuilding people’s trust.
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N. Visveswaran,
Chennai
Modi magic
It is a dream to presume that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has lost his charisma (“Has Narendra Modi lost his magic?”, Oct. 27). Former U.S. President Barack Obama had started his poll campaign in 2008 with the slogan “Yes, we can”. He could not fulfil all his poll promises during his first term of presidency, but he returned to power. In Germany, Turkey and other European nations, ruling parties have captured power a second time as people have reposed faith in them. This shows that a party cannot execute all its poll promises in a single term. Similarly, Mr. Modi came to power with anti-corruption and transparency as his poll promises; the results are there for us to see. That demonetisation and GST will turn the tide is wishful thinking.
R. Sridharan,
Chennai
The headline of the debate is objectionable. Why do you call Mr. Modi’s administration ‘magic’? Magic indicates clever manipulation with no actual change. Do you think the measures introduced him are temporary? Also, while inviting people to write on this subject, The Hindu should have chosen neutral experts rather than party cadres whose views we are already familiar with. Rahul Narwekar’s opinion was balanced; we need more views like that.
J.P. Reddy,
Nalgonda
While it is debatable as to whether the charismatic Mr. Modi is fast losing his Midas touch, indications are that his image has indeed taken a beating after demonetisation and GST. An impression is gaining ground that he is running an authoritarian regime that has no qualms about thrusting ‘reforms’ and stifling dissent. The National Democratic Alliance is also further handicapped with allies like the Shiv Sena often striking a discordant . With opposition parties striving to unite against the BJP, Mr. Modi will have to pull out all the stops to retain power in 2019.
C.V. Aravind,
Chennai
Attack on Swiss tourists
On behalf of all Indians, I would like to apologise to the Swiss tourists who were attacked in Fatehpur Sikri (“5 held for attack on Swiss couple”, Oct. 27). The incident is appalling has brought embarrassment to India. U.P. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath should not merely spout rhetoric but do more to ensure that tourists are safe. External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj’s swift intervention to help the wounded couple was welcome. But she should have also sent a letter censuring the U.P. government and given an advisory to all the States to initiate steps to ensure the safety of travellers.
Moin Syed,
Gulbarga
Bank recapitalisation
The government’s plan of capital infusion will soothe the situation in the short term, but long-term solutions can only be implemented by the banking sector itself (“A bold step in bank reform”, Oct. 27). There is a need to adopt proper guidelines for lending money to various kinds of borrowers and these have to be strictly followed by all banks. There’s also a need to speed up Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code proceedings and make the code more effective in resolving NPAs. Mere recapitalisation of banks may widen the fiscal deficit further.
Shivani Singh Sengar,
Bhind
While Mr. Modi graciously acknowledged the economic slowdown in recent quarters, the statement by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley that India's “economy is fine” contradicts this fact. Further, the move to recapitalise banks is well intended but this has been done earlier too and did not bring the desired results. One hopes that the present recapitalisation package of ₹2.11 lakh crore ensures that these banks do not pile up NPAs any more.
Expansion of credit may be possible with recapitalisation but these new loans will also add up to existing stressed assets, which have been growing exponentially over the years. Indiscriminate loan waivers and widespread belief that loans availed from government banks need not be repaid have affected the repayment culture adversely. During election time, political parties compete with one another in promising loan waivers and surprisingly, the Reserve Bank of India, finance experts, and unions all maintain a studied silence then but condemn this later. This double standard is unfortunate for the ailing nationalised banks.
Kshirasagara Balaji Rao,
Hyderabad