The Hindu : Opinion / Letters to the Editor : Last chance

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Wednesday, Jul 09, 2008
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Opinion - Letters to the Editor

Last chance

This refers to the article “The Congress party’s last chance” (July 8). As rightly pointed out by the author, the Congress should utilise the lifeline — the support provided by the Samajwadi Party — to strengthen the centrist forces. The Congress-led UPA government has given a reasonably good account of itself in the last four years. With the spectre of communal forces regaining power looming large, the Congress should shed its complacency and defeatist mindset.

J. Anantha Padmanabhan,

Srirangam

* * *

The almost dead UPA with the Left withdrawing support has been resuscitated by the SP to some extent. But the life will linger on for a maximum of eight months. The SP will use the Congress to face Mayawati in Uttar Pradesh to recover some lost ground. After that it will ditch the Congress. Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh would do well to realise that only the Left parties are genuine allies.

Col. C.V. Venugopalan (retd.),

Palakkad

* * *

The perception that the Indian public discourse has remained polarised between the Right and the Left overlooks the soft Hindutva card played by the Congress. The party’s economic policies have tilted towards the big business since the 1990s. Even Nehruvian policies with an apparent tilt towards socialist policies were in reality designed to favour the landed gentry because of pressure from the strong conservative forces in the Congress. The only difference is the absence of extreme communalism in the Congress. Its economic policies are indistinguishable from those of the Right.

Kasim Sait,

Chennai

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