This refers to the report that Manmohan Singh hit out at the Bharatiya Janata Party in Parliament telling Rajnath Singh that the UPA will win the elections again (March 7). The usually soft-spoken Prime Minister perhaps wanted to sound optimistic about the election that is expected to see Rahul Gandhi as the Congress party’s prime ministerial candidate. It is certain that the UPA can never win the election given its performance, particularly on the economic front.
It is actually the common man who should worry about the outcome of the next election. The question is not who will win but who can save the country.
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It was heartening to see that, for once, Parliament looked like the venue of a literary meet instead of a battleground. We heard the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition exchange Urdu couplets of famous poets to establish their viewpoints.
However, the Prime Minister’s spirited defence of his government lambasting the Opposition, albeit with a poetic flourish, was not quite convincing. His combative assertion that the UPA’s performance has been highly commendable might have pleased his desk-thumping partymen but not the public that is groaning under the effects of his mismanagement. His newfound aggression is more like the brightness of a dying flicker, as pointed out by Rajnath Singh.
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V. Rajalakshmi,
Mumbai
Congratulations to Arun Jaitley on his excellent speech in Parliament on the UPA government’s performance, quoting Roman Senator Tacitus. He reminded me of eminent and well-read parliamentarians of the 1950s and 1960s.
I also recalled the words of British parliamentarian Oliver Cromwell who, addressing the English Parliament on April 20, 1653 said: “You have sat too long for any good you have been doing. Depart, I say, and let us have done with you. In the name of god, go!”
B.M.N. Murthy,
Bangalore