M A I L B A G

Lessons to learn from poll results

APROPOS of H. K. Dua’s front-page editorial “The big change” (May 14), he is right in his assertion that in the most dramatic turnaround in the electoral history of India, the predictions have not only gone awry and calculations fallen by the wayside but also put a big question mark on the relevance of the opinion and exit polls. The Indian voter has once again proved that his ballot is not only “secret” but it is “sacred” as well as he will not allow its sanctity to be violated by exit polls.

Another lesson that our politicians need to learn from these elections is that the Indian voter cannot be taken for granted. He knows how to punish, and heavily, complacency in governance. The Indian voter is demanding, unforgiving and difficult to fool. It is not the personal stature of a leader but his ability and wisdom, combined with policies of the general well-being, that can win him the voters’ faith.

Herein lies the great lesson for Mrs Sonia Gandhi as well. The agenda for her is already clear and formidable. She and her government must work for policies, the benefit of which tickles down to the poorest of the poor.

No doubt, Mrs Gandhi also has to stabilise the market by bringing a balanced and development-oriented budget, continue the peace process with Pakistan and China and, of course, maintain the Indo-US relations on an equal footing.

VED GULIANI, Hisar

II

I endorse H.K. Dua’s view that the BJP had become arrogant and had failed to see the writing on the wall. India Shining and Feel Good were just empty slogans, coined by the spin doctors of the BJP and the ad agencies. Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee was desirous of serving a full term in office, but alas, due to these very same over-confident spin doctors of the greatest Prime Minister the country has had since Jawaharlal Nehru, the Lok Sabha was dissolved a good six months before the completion of its term.

I am quite sure that the BJP cannot be written off and it would be difficult for Mrs Sonia Gandhi to rule the country. We should wait and watch what happens over the next few months and years.

I believe and hope that the BJP learns lessons from its decimating defeat. The BJP will be unbeatable for the next 25 years if they go in for a young leader. I don't see them being very far off, what with Mrs Sonia Gandhi having to deal with the likes of Mulayam, Laloo, Marxists and herself! God save India is all that I would like to wish for the nation at the moment.

ABHAY SAPRU, Via e-mail

III

This has reference to H.K.Dua’s front-page editorial “The big change”. The political parties should learn some lessons from the election results. They would not allow any one party or alliance to claim popularity. The people are just giving them an opportunity to rule so that they prove their worth and live up to people’s expectations. If they fail, the people will oust them from power.

Another lesson is that the ruling coalition should try to solve the problems of the people. When we claim to be the world’s largest democracy, the government of the day should ensure that all the problems of the people are solved. Illiteracy, poverty, unemployment, beggary, religious intolerance, terrorism, drug addiction, bribery, corruption and so on are eating into the vitals of society and as long as these problems remain unresolved, we cannot claim to have taken the lead among the developing countries.

DALIP SINGH WASAN, Patiala

IV

Undoubtedly, the BJP-led NDA government has paid a well-deserved price for neglecting the interest of the service class and the common man. The much hyped India Shining campaign of the Vajpayee government absolutely overlooked the resentment, suffocation and sense of indignation in the mind of the common man.

The BJP government had become a symbol of crass materialism, capitalism and utilitarianism. In such a scheme of things, the common man found himself increasingly irrelevant and neglected. The election results have made it clear that the masses saw in these elections an opportunity to send the NDA government packing. The Feel-Good campaign of the NDA badly boomeranged because it absolutely failed to gauge this mood of the masses.

The message is loud and clear that no government can afford to trample over the common man. The results can be termed as a sweet revenge against a government that failed to realise the needs and aspirations of the majority.

PROF SALIL KUMAR UPPAL, PG Dept. of English, D.A.V. College, Jalandhar

V

Under Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s able leadership, the country surely marched ahead in most spheres during the last six years. He also set a good example of functioning through a coalition government. But the BJP became so (over)confident of its success in the elections that it failed to get good coalition partners this time.

Ideally, the BJP should have been allowed to continue the good work for a second term, but the main irritants probably proved to be Hindutva, the senseless utterances against Mrs Sonia Gandhi and her family by the likes of Narendra Modi, continued harping on the foreign origin issue of Mrs Sonia Gandhi and excessive emphasis on the Feel-Good factor. May be, the people wanted to cut the BJP-led NDA to size for all this. Hopefully, the new government will follow the good policies and programmes initiated by the Vajpayee government.

V.K.TANGRI, Amritsar

A question of protocol THE swearing-in ceremony of the new Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, Dr Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, was shown live by some TV channels. Amazingly, two chairs on the dais were occupied by two kids, obviously the Chief Minister’s kin. While Governor Surjit Singh Barnala was administering the oath of office and secrecy to Dr Reddy, one child was standing and playing on the chair unmindful of the solemnity of the occasion. Why couldn't the Chief Secretary and others responsible for the function politely tell the Chief Minister that children were barred from sitting on the dais? No wonder, we see the so-called VVIPs’ kith and kin exercising extra-constitutional authority and the bureaucrats vying with one other to pamper them. Lt-Col B.R. MALHOTRA (retd), New Delhi