Cosmetic change

Clearly, the election battle is not so much between hindutva and secularism as between hindutva and caste. It’s true Dalits and members of OBCs are co-opted into the party and groomed for leadership roles more by the BJP than say, by the Congress and communist parties. But the nub of the matter is that such ‘low-rent’ leaders are conditioned to subscribe to the hindutva ideology and remain within the ideological framework established by hindutva ideologues.

Worse, they must prove their allegiance to the cause by openly showing feelings of hostility towards people from other religious persuasions if they are to upstage other leaders. Narendra Modi did this successfully in Gujarat in 2002.

The notion of ‘Hindu unity’ exists more on paper than in reality or else inter-caste marriages would have by now become the norm and blurred caste distinctions. Project managers of an overarching Hindu identity craftily portray the religious minorities as the ‘common enemy’ despite the fact that Muslims, Christians and other minorities in the Indian context share ‘kinship’ with the lower caste Hindus. It is far-fetched to expect the BJP to transform the lives of the victims of an iniquitous system perpetuated for several millennia as Ambedkar did or the BSP is doing now.

G David Milton

Kanyakumari

No ducking this one

The Supreme Court’s bouncer to N Srinivasan to step down or be forced out by it to facilitate a fair criminal probe into the IPL betting scandal that involves his son-in-law Gurunath Meiyappan should bring the curtains down on a career filled with muck and controversies galore. His continuance in office is untenable and poses a question mark over his chances of becoming chairman of the ICC in July. Srinivasan’s exit would also mean that the IPL season this year could be in jeopardy and more skeletons could tumble out of the BCCI’s closet.

NJ Ravi Chander

Bangalore

The grass is green

Your edit, “A hope and a prayer” (March 26), is a succinct summation of a likely situation. The human tendency is to hope for the best but the fact remains that the FII-flows are all about Keynes’ speculative expectations and irrational exuberance.

How far a Modi government will be able to garner support for “desired” reforms and implementing pending projects and stabilising the exchange rate is anybody’s guess. The major challenges lie in energising infrastructure projects with actual implementation on the ground and accelerating exports for greater employment and incomes and for achieving a stable exchange rate.

KU Mada

Mumbai

The way stock market has been behaving of late, it is clear that investors have already factored in Modi’s victory. If the NDA ends up 30-40 seats short of the 272 mark, the real horse trading will start. Sadly, it is always FIIs that pump in money to create a rally in the market, not domestic investors. This makes our market too dependent on FIIs, which is not a good position to be in.

Bal Govind

Noida

It takes guts

We must appreciate Arvind Kejriwal’s courage and determination to contest against the mighty Narendra Modi in the coming Lok Sabha election. Kejriwal has taken a bold decision, albeit politically unwise. However, the Indian voter will keep both leaders guessing. Throwing ink on Kejriwal in Varanasi was unfortunate.

S Ramakrishnasayee

Ranipet

What about suicides?

The article “Genetic edge” by David Zilberman (March 26) says nothing about farmer suicides which happened for more than a decade in the cotton heartland of this country. It does not talk about the raised cost of farming using GM seeds.

There is no evidence of increase in productivity which was able to compensate for the cost increases, because of which suicides are happening even today. So to glorify GM crops is not justified.

CR Arun

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