MyVoice: Views of our readers 07th February 2024
Plug India’s batting woes
It refers to “A hard fought victory for Indian cricket team”. India may have won the second Test at Visakhapatnam and levelled the series against the English team, but there are many big holes which need to be plugged soon, especially when it comes to batting. Yashaswai Jaiswal and Gill together have scored almost 40% of the team’s total runs so far and batsmen like Rohit Sharma, Shreyas Aiyer, K Bharat have disappointed for big time. Thanks to the excellent display of Bumrah’s reverse swing, aptly assisted by Ashwin and Kuldeep, we were able to outclass England in second test but series is wide open and we really have to be on our toes and bring our A game to the forefront in next three Tests, hopefully with the return of Kohli, Rahul and Jadeja, our batting should be revived in Rajkot.
Bal Govind, Noida
PM’s prediction takes voters for granted
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s prediction that the NDA will return to power with over 400 seats cannot but be viewed as part of his strategy to gain a psychological advantage and persuade the undecided voters to vote for the projected or likely ‘winning side’ and thus steal a march on the Opposition. While which party wins how many seats matters, what a party represents and whether it does good or harm to the country too matter no less. The Prime Minister must have taken the ‘overarching appeal of Hindutva’ and public support for him for granted to make such a prediction. An inflated sense of self-importance, overconfidence and overestimating abilities do not always achieve the desired effect, in fact they sometimes produce the opposite effect. In this context, it must be conceded that the BJP appears to be in pole position, given its organisational strength with legions of dedicated party rank and file, full backing of the RSS, its ideological parent, enormous money power, full backing of corporate behemoths, overt propaganda in its favour by large sections of the media, misuse of central agencies to portray the Opposition as corrupt, invocation of virulent nationalism and resort to religious polarisation. Nevertheless, the Indian voter’s capability to throw surprises, stop the perceivably unstoppable juggernaut and prove pundits wrong cannot be underestimated. In any case, it is not the incumbent Prime Minister aspiring for one more time who decides the electoral outcomes, but the humble voter. Meanwhile, it is important to ensure that the EVMs are not tampered with or manipulated in any manner.
G.David Milton, Maruthancode, Tamil Nadu
Who is Modi to decide the Opposition?
Prime minister Narendra Modi asserting that NDA will cross 400 mark in Lok Sabha elections are of full arrogance and talks like a dictator. He says that opposition has lost courage to contest elections. Modi’s jibe that the they sat on treasury benches for long and now they sit there for long and after next elections, opposition will be seen in the visitor’s gallery is nothing but showing a great arrogance. He talks about dynasty politics in the presence of Amit Shah and Rajnath Singh and has forgotten that both their sons are enjoying the posts given by BJP party. Modi’s guarantee that India will become the third largest economy in world in his third time seems to be a big jumla. What happened to his promises that fifteen lakhs in everybody’s account, about black money and recovered black money will be directly transferred in income tax payees’ accounts. Now why to bring the comments of Nehru thought that Indians are lazy and not intelligent? Who will believe him that in his third term that Government will make a significant decision and lay the foundation for a prosperous India for the next 1,000 years. In his ten years rule polarisation has been increased, hate speeches have become common to kill the minorities and attacks on adivasis, dalits, Muslims are in high peak. It is the voter who will decide who will sit in opposition and who will be ruling?
Zakir Hussain, Kazipet, Telangana
PM’s Unparliamentary Speech
The PM’s reply to motion of thanks to President was not looking like a reply but a election meeting somewhere in the north India when PM who normally only smiles when his party MPs hail him with chants “Modi Modi”, this time around raised slogan “Abki baar” and made his party MPs to follow with slogan “370 paar*. If this was not enough as usual he poured venom on first PM Nehruji (who is long dead) and selectively used the speech of Indira Gandhi. When he, his party and allies are confident of “400 paar” whey they need dead PM, weak leader Rahul Gandhi to achieve. The New Parliament which was built at tax payers money belongs to people who send the leaders of their choice. On the one hand he claims that strong opposition is good for democracy, why then convert Parliament into election ground. None of the PM’s in the past has taken the parliament to such low level and no wonder even Chief Justice was forced to say murder of democracy on what he was at Mayrol poll in Chandigarh.
N Nagarajan, Netaji Nagar, Hyderabad