Letters to the editor dated Feb 7, 2020

This refers to ‘Point is to raise growth without inflation’ (February 7). The piece stated that “the banks and the private sector are also partners of growth, and have to be proactively engaged in the process of revival” — which is indeed correct. But a lot of attention needs to be given to the functioning of both these sectors.

In the case of banking, default-free repayment of loans by borrowers is essential. For this, there must be eternal vigilance by the management. The sanction of huge loans should be done after a proper study of the borrowers’ background and the purpose and intent of the loan.

The private sector’s place in growth is also substantial, and the borrower’s field of and efficiency in operations will be important factors.

Coimbatore

This refers to ‘Women can ‘command’, anywhere’ (February 7). Women have broken all glass ceilings, and with such aplomb, that their presence is felt in almost all ‘male domains’ in the past decade or so. While our society, especially in metro and big cities, is moving towards the nuclear-family concept where both the wife and the husband are working professionals, then it is more than critical that men, too, take up responsibility in the household. Similarly, we all need to bring a much-needed change in our thought process. Not just in politics or governance, but all sections of sciety have many women role models for inspiration.

Noida

This refers to ‘Campaign ends for Delhi polls: Both BJP and AAP fancy their chances’ (February 7). It goes without saying that pre-poll campaigning this time witnessed some highly uncharitable and unhealthy personal comments put forth in the public domain. While the BJP leadership has harped on about the ongoing protests against the CAA Shaheen Bagh being a strategy to ‘balkanise’ India, while questioning the credentials of the AAP, the ruling AAP is visibly banking on the solid support it purportedly enjoys among the lower and lower middle-class voters through its welfare measures in education, healthcare, and civic issues. Mind you, the BJP also seems to have made a last-minute attempt to further prepogate its Hindutva agenda by announcing the constitution of the Ram Temple trust.

Curiously enough, the BJP has asked all its leaders to camp in Delhi and oversee the arrangements at the booth level, a fact which speaks volumes about the seriousness the party high command attaches to the ensuing Delhi Assembly elections.

Amidst all this, the Congress has vanished from the electoral race here.

New Delhi

The AAP and the BJP are contending for power in the national capital in a contest widely views as being between David and Goliath. The AAP is seeking re-election on the basis of its ‘report card’ (performance during its first term) and ‘guarantee card’ (promises for a hoped-for second term).

The AAP stands to benefit from the tangible benefits provided to the aam aadmi, which give it an advantage over the BJP. Its social welfare programmes have generated a pro-incumbency wave among the city’s impoverished people.

The BJP has tried to make the Shaheen Bagh sit-in a Hindu-versus-Muslim issue to polarise the voters. The scores of violations of the Model Code of Conduct by BJP’s ‘firebrand’ leaders in a vain bid to conquer vikas with vitriol have shown the party’s scant regard for the sanctity of the election process at the heart of a representative democracy.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s announcement of a trust for temple construction in Ayodhya, the Enforcement Directorate’s disclosure of Popular Front of India’s alleged links with the Shaheen Bagh protests and the Central Bureau of Investigation’s arrest of an Officer on Special Duty to Deputy CM Manish Sisodia in an alleged bribery case were last-ditch attempts to avoid coming a distant second.

It is to the AAP’s credit that it has refused to respond to the BJP’s politics of polarisation.

Maruthancode, TN