MyVoice: Views of our readers 9th October 2022

Isn't KCR building castles in the air?

The writer V Ramu Sharma's lucid explanation about the launch of the new outfit Bharat Rashtra Samithi based on prevailing ground realities in the political arena made an interesting read. In fact, the very idea that Congress and other parties have failed to take on BJP on every issue plaguing the nation is the reason for the birth of the new party to fill up the opposition space in order to give a befitting reply and oust BJP at the Centre is absurd and poor thinking. In short, the whole idea of floating BRS in a hush-hush manner underlines the fact that more than making a history at the national level, winning in the state has become important in the coming pools.

In fact, when Mamata Banerjee, a powerful leader in her den, could make no impact outside the state despite giving a clarion call to all regional and small parties to join together to oust BJP in Goa, it is obvious that just transforming TRS into BRS in pursuit of ushering in a qualitative change in governance at the national level by taking BJP by its horns – when it has not tested its waters in assembly polls in any of the state so far – only tantamounts to building castles in the air.

Also, in the absence of a sound foundation, foraying into national politics to dismantle the political monopoly of BJP even when Telangana under TRS could not bring a perceptible change in the lives in the vast majority of population due to lopsided policies pursued in the last eight years, BRS seems only a gamble for survival in politics because it is unlikely to raise the spirit of people in the state, leave alone rest of the country.

Even as many eyebrows are raised and questions been asked by a cross-section of people about the role of BRS due to many regional leaders keeping silence and non-committal about working with BRS, it is going to be a herculean task and a tough time for KCR to come up with convincing answers.

Moreover, with fear and doubt already lingering in the minds of many regional leaders that BRS may go the same way like Third Front and National Front even before its take-off due to lack of agenda, charisma and pan-India appeal in the supremo of the party, time will only tell to what extent BRS will expand and leaves its footprints across the country or fizzle out in the thin air with no traces.

– K R Srinivasan, Secunderabad

Regional parties wary of non-Cong alliance

Many feel that there is no vacuum for any national party with Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao entering national stage, renaming Telangana Rashtra Samithi as Bharath Rashtra Samithi. As the things stand today, in the country's political scenario, many regional leaders are looking at Prime Minister chair with permutations and combinations of political parties. Though all are for a joint action plan against BJP and Narendra Modi to unseat in next general elections, many prominent leaders are eyeing for PM chair without exposing themselves. Many alliances and Fronts are in the minds of regional leaders but somehow there is no unity and sacrifice for the united efforts, resulting in poor show by the leaders as seen during President and Vice President elections.

When major regional political parties with a stronghold in their states have been unable to give good fight to Modi and BJP, the move by KCR entering the national stage for national recognition raises questions. In fact, the idea of a national party is born as KCR has been intolerant to BJP and Modi with many differences with adverse comments frequently on BJP and Modi as well as personally on Prime Minister Modi. If one goes back to the history of Telangana struggle for separate state, KCR had good relations with Congress party. He maintained good rapport with BJP supporting it on many issues. Now he wants BJP and Congress-mukt India with his own agenda! Then how can major regional parties believe him for his political moves?

As opposition parties in Telangana are raising many issues and problems of the people, exposing corruption, scams, money laundering, political mafias with land grabbing, sand mines corruption, delayed salaries to govt employees, pending bills to contractors etc., the idea of KCR to keep aside all these and enter national politics may not go well with Telangana people and moreover KCR's new national party has no name of Telangana; thus, Telangana people may feel betrayed as many issues of people are still unfinished with a lot of disappointment. Though many financial benefit schemes announced, they are limited to some influential and the rest is angry. Let us see how far Bharat Rashtra Samithi will succeed in getting national support to face Modi and BJP when other regional parties are coming together under the leadership of Nitish Kumar including Congress party to give effective fight against BJP and Modi. Whether BRS joins Nitish Kumar team or not, time only clears. In between these two, I feel BJP and Modi will have a cake walk!

– JP Reddy, Nalgonda

Surely, BRS chief has a strategy up his sleeves

The moment KCR announced the formation of a national party, his decision was received a mixed response. Some called it the need of the hour and some overambitious and that it would be of no use. Some compared him to Naidu's experiment in last elections. All said and done, KCR's decision is based on some solid groundwork he did for quite some time. He is sure of what he does. He was berated, made fun of and totally ignored as a nonentity when he embarked on separate Telangana agitation only to disprove his detractors. After Telangana was formed and during his two terms as CM he has delivered quite tangibly in sectors related to power, water, agriculture and infrastructure to cite a few instances. It is this confidence which catapulted him to think of replicating Telangana model to all other states though the scenario may change depending on the nature of each state. He is able to give hope to the rest of the country that he wants to extend his state's benefits to serve a national cause. When he wants to share the success of his state, he knows people would welcome him. Since he is confident of his intentions and commitment, he is forging ahead with the hope that he will be supported. If people fail to support him or if he fails to convince them, so be it. Telangana people will not lose him as they have reaped benefits since he led the state for over 8 years so far.

– D Nagarjuna, Hyderabad

A rather hasty move

Since with an eye on next General Elections during 2024, BJP is concentrating on Telangana state, CM KCR has clevely planned to rename the TRS as the Bharath Rashtra Samithi with the intention of making it a national party in order to counter the challenge from BJP. Coming days will witness that his hasty efforts are bound to fail since his new move is not going to have any impact on Telangana on account of inherent reason that people will favour a regional party alone which can fulfil real aspirations of the state, rather than a national party established purely for satisfying personal ambitions of an egoistic leader. Moreover, root-cause for mounting popularity or acceptability of dynamic PM Modi is that sensible voters are highly enlightened about indispensable reality that he alone can provide stable or powerful central government capable of encountering recurring threats from adersary countries, unlike unstable or weak multi-alliance government.

– BVK Thampi, Thiruvananthapuram

A big gamble, indeed

V Ramu Sharma's article, "A big gamble, or an astute strategy"? (Hans India, Oct 8) is very timely. It has been the desire of KCR to throw his hat into national politics for which he is eagerly waiting for the right opportunity. As the national party Congress is reduced to a shambles with repeated defeats since 2014, Rao seems desperate to capture the vaccum created by former. Due care seems to be taken by him ensuring that regional affairs can be well handled by his son, KT Rama Rao, if warranted, in near future; as he is already in the saddle with the party affairs as the working president. Perhaps, KCR is also convinced that in spite of its bold strategy of BJP bigwigs, it may not shatter TRS votebank in days to come.

As on today, except HD Kumaraswamy of JD(S), no other leader seems interested to follow the new party of KCR on national sphere. Ace politicians like Sharad Pawar of Maharashtra, or Mamata Didi of West Bengal or Akali leaders of Punjab gave no assurances to KCR to follow the bandwagon of BRS. As on date, the party even lacks its cadre, a backbone for survival, outsideTelangana. However, KCR's attempt to test the national political waters in the forthcoming assembly polls in saffron State Gujarat (which is all set to win power for seventh time), will prove as a litmus test of the national status of BRS! Yes, afterall, it is a big gamble of Telangana Chief Minister.

- Govardhan R Jilla, Mumbai

It's time to wake up to natural disasters

IT is extremely disturbing to know the latest warnings issued by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [IPCC] about climate change-induced natural disasters up ahead. Post the latest climate change report released by the IPCC, almost all the media outlets have been highlighting the key takeaways from the report.

From Time Magazine To The New York Times to CNN to almost all the Asian media houses, the global media outlets have gone into detail about issues like climate change, global warming, sea level rise and the like.

Overall, it is all about human activities that have been the major driver of all these natural disasters. First off, countries from across the world should take serious and immediate steps to reduce the emissions of methane and carbon dioxide that have been the major contributors to the climate change crisis. But given the latest findings and current erratic weather patterns like intense tropical storms, it is amply clear that no concrete steps have been taken worldwide to reduce carbon dioxide and methane emissions.

On all these official occasions, the IPCC Climate Change reports have often been talking about sensible things like planting trees and developing forests as part of fighting the climate change issue. Interestingly enough, my native areas such as Korkai, Tuticorin, Tiruchendur, Nagercoil, Kanyakumari, Marthandam and Tirunelveli in Tamil Nadu have been hubs of natural resources like big trees, rivers, seas, mountains and other natural vistas apart from having been home to rigorous agricultural activities like crop cultivation.

As a matter of fact, such green activities and natural canopies will definitely act as a protective layer against the so-called greenhouse effect. On top of all, public awareness is crucial to the fight against climate change. In fact, great efforts by green activists like Greta Thunberg towards climate change mitigation should be encouraged and appreciated.

Efforts like communicating all the IPCC climate change findings to people through proper channels and raising global/public awareness of climate change problems will go the extra mile to pitch for a strong fight against the issue so as to be able to save our beautiful planet.

– P Senthil Saravana Durai, Mumbai

Population, biology and murky politics

In his annual Vijayadashami address RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat made a self-contradictory statement. He described the RSS as 'a symbol of brotherhood and amity.' In the same speech, he launched a tirade against 'religion-based population imbalance.' Clearly, Bhagwat flagged the issue of religion-wise population balance and imbalance to win political support for Hindu Right from his 'Hindus are in danger' narrative. The bogey of imbalance in population among religious communities is used by the Hindutva forces for creating a fear among the 'majority community' that it could be reduced to a 'minority' due to demographic change.

It is unfortunate that it did not occur to Bhagwat that it is an affront to the law of nature to say that reproduction should be commensurate with the numerical strength of religious communities. It is demeaning to make procreation a matter for competition between religious communities. It is hard for any right-thinking person to countenance childbirth which is purely biological being linked or associated with religion. There must be more significant and valid reasons than religion for 'family planning.'

The RSS chief spoke of 'temple, water and cremation' as part of his outreach to the Dalits. He could have done even better if he added 'inter-caste marriages' and interbreeding among various castes. It would have done some justice to RSS' professed espousal of 'Hindu unity' and its theory of all Indians sharing a 'common ancestry.' The RSS should be willing to repudiate the notions of 'superiority of upper castes' and 'purity of genetic pool' and make them outdated. When will it occur to those who look at life through the prism of religion that religious identity should pale next to human identity? Instead of urging his compatriots to be united by a sense of common humanity, Mohan Bhagwat goes about pigeonholing Indians as 'us-and-them' on the basis of religion.

– G David Milton, Maruthancode (TN)

EC move absolutely in interest of voters

The scholarly argument advanced in the editorial column on the important subject of ECI's move on poll promises and Revdi culture, (EC move on poll promises not within its remit , THI, 8 Oct), heavily represents the rights of political parties only, but not the voters. In this regard, the flip side of the coin is submitted hereunder, in defence of the rights of Indian voter. For example, take the classic case of the Special Category Status, promised to the AP by the BJP & TDP combine on the eve of General elections in 2014. But soon after winning the elections and forming governments, the said parties took a U- turn and broke the promise, to the great disappointment of the five crore population of AP. They may have their own reasons for promise breaking, but the voter who has helped this party to form government, has been betrayed, and the parties have gone scot-free. From the above episode, we can infer that there needs to be a regulatory body to put fear of God in the political parties, who break their own promises made in the manifesto unethically. Therefore, the ECI's move to regulate the implementation of promises made in the manifesto is in right direction as it empowers 912 million voters of world's largest democracy.

– PH Hema Sagar, Secunderabad

Ban exports of cough syrups till probe done

Just a few days ago, there was a report that in India maximum antibiotics are sold without the approval of authorised agencies and now another report has come from the World Health Organisation (WHO) that 66 children had died in Gambia after consuming the cough syrups imported from India. Indian authorities are conducting investigation of this matter which is of very serious nature and can tarnish the image of the country. The WHO has sounded the alarm on four substandard India-made products typically used to treat cough symptoms in Gambia. They are: Promethazine Oral Solution, Kofexmalin Baby Cough Syrup, Makoff Baby Cough Syrup and Magrip N Cold Syrup

This is not the first time India-made cough syrups have been scrutinised. Some 13 children died in Himachal Pradesh (HP) in 2020 after drinking adulterated cough syrup. Before this, another 12 children died in a village in Jammu after consuming a diethylene-glycol-laden tonic. Both of these were manufactured by HP-based Digital Vision.

This gives us a glimpse into India's weak drug regulation policy — Digital Vision's products have failed to clear quality standards at least 19 times since 2009 — which has also allowed cough syrup abuse to thrive in India. It is well known fact that the country is earning huge foreign exchange through the export of pharmaceutical and it is utmost necessary that in may not have the adverse impact on our economy which was previously shattered due to corona

Apropos, "Haryana begins probe, sends samples to lab," (The Hans India, Oct 7). It's a cause for concern that the tentative results of the laboratory analysis of one of the cough syrups have confirmed 'unacceptable' amounts toxic chemicals that can cause acute kidney injury, in four of the 23 samples tested. The matter needs to be thoroughly probed in a time-bound manner as it will have a bearing on India's growing reputation as a global pharma hub. The large-scale manufacture and worldwide distribution of Covid-19 vaccines over the past year and a half have brought immense goodwill to New Delhi and demonstrated the capability as well as reliability of Indian pharmaceutical companies. It's critical to take exemplary corrective measures to ensure that all the good work is not undone.

– Yash Pal Ralhan, Jalandhar