Letters to the Editor

Print edition : April 13, 2018


IT is time to take serious notice of the factors that led to the spectacular victory of the BJP and its allies in the north-eastern States, including Tripura (Cover Story, March 30). There may be some merit in the statement that in the case of the CPI(M) in Tripura, apart from the anti-incumbency factor, its loss was because it did not provide jobs for aspiring youths. However, the reality is that the BJP won because of its assertive leadership, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the forefront of it; the use of technology; and the strident attacks against opposing political parties.

However, the recent byelections in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar overwhelmingly favoured the Samajwadi Party and the Rashtriya Janata Dal. Also the Congress party did well in the Assembly byelections in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.

If all the opposition parties come together on a common platform for the 2019 Lok Sabha election, the BJP could be brought to its knees and Modi’s mismanagement of the economy and the Central government’s divisive policies could be stopped and the democratic and secular values enshrined in the Constitution could be kept intact.

N.C. Sreedharan, Kannur, Kerala

FINALLY, the BJP has been able to make inroads into Tripura, Nagaland and Meghalaya with its canny election strategy. The results have put the Congress party in an embarrassing position. It needs to keep in mind that a defeat in the upcoming Assembly elections in Karnataka, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh will further weaken its position in the political arena. As far as the BJP is concerned, it could unseat the Left only because it tied up with a regional party, the Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura (IPFT).

Although developmental activities did take place in Tripura under the CPI(M) regime, the government failed to create jobs for the educated youth and paid a heavy price. The BJP may have won Tripura, but administering it will not be an easy job because the IPFT’s demand for a separate “Twipraland” will lead to problems.

Jayant Mukherjee, Kolkata

THE election results in Tripura, Meghalaya and Nagaland come as a shot in the arm for the BJP and provide further impetus to its “Congress-mukth Bharat” objective and also put it well on course for a “communist-mukth Bharath”. The results have ensured the expansion of the party’s vote base, thereby helping it shed its image as a party of the “cow belt”.

That the party has emerged as an effective political alternative to the Congress party, dislodging it both at the national and State levels, should come as no surprise to any political observer. However, what baffled political observers was the magnitude of the defeat of the Left Front in Tripura. The BJP’s emphatic victory can be attributed to the sustained and relentless efforts of its party workers at the grass-roots level.

B. Suresh Kumar, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu


Journalists in today’s world are getting more creative to protect their freedom (“Journalistic immunity”, March 30).They work like multinational corporations, cooperating with each other across the globe. The Panama Papers expose is a good example of this.

Julian Assange had to take refuge in an embassy of Ecuador to protect himself after his WikiLeaks revelations. The whistle-blower Edward Snowden is in Russia to avoid prosecution under U.S. laws. They are examples of citizen journalists. In this age of social media, where every citizen can disseminate information, immunity should also be extended to citizen journalists. This is what is needed for democracy to flourish. News and its sources are sacred. The people do have a right to know.

Deendayal M. Lulla, Mumbai


THE present crisis in Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) was analysed clearly in the article “An ethos under attack” (March 16). As someone who was a student of JNU from 1968 to 1972, I was deeply shocked on reading this article. In 1968, the School of International Studies was asked to merge with JNU. Almost all the faculty and students were against joining JNU because they felt that in a vast campus it would be difficult to manage many centres and schools of excellence.

The present crisis can be resolved only if every centre is autonomous, each under a Director. JNU has become an ocean, and a Vice Chancellor with various administrative bodies under his control is not able to tackle problems.

Thomas Edmunds, Chennai

2G scam

THE 2G scam case created a lot of noise across the country, giving the media ample chance to blow the issue out of proportion, shaming the UPA-II government and giving the BJP the opportunity to project itself as the only alternative to the Congress party (Cover Story, January 19).

Why was so much hype built up around the so-called 2G scam if the case was weak and there was no loss to the public exchequer and no illegal gratification took place? Why did the case drag on for years with no tangible results? Was it all not a waste of the court’s time, a waste of the time and energy of the investigation officers, lawyers and judges involved in the case and the ultimate waste of taxpayers’ money? There is something fishy in the whole affair, which clearly shows the politician-corporate nexus.

M.Y. Shariff, Chennai

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