Underachiever?

The Time magazine’s description of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as an “underachiever” (July 9) is unfair. Dr. Singh is the architect of liberalisation. He is fully aware of the critical slowdown of the economy. He wants to bring in reforms but his coalition partners oppose every move of his. Americans are not used to coalition governments and hence do not understand Dr. Singh’s predicament.

A.V. Premkumar,

Kannur

The

Time magazine’s comment should evoke anger in us but we find ourselves nodding our heads (reluctantly) in agreement. Dr. Singh has a long list of failures. What irks us the most is his passive acquiescence in corruption. Unfortunately, this has led us to approve the depiction by a foreign journal as appropriate.

S. Rajagopalan,

Chennai