M A I L B A G

Budha has every reason to smile

This has reference to H.K. Dua’s front-page editorial “Budha can smile” (May 12). West Bengal Chief Minister Budhadev Bhattacharya very rightly deserves smile. Even he is entitled to have a hearty laugh, given the number of seats the CPM, won, much beyond the party’s expectations.

Budhadev is the new face of the pragmatic Left. To keep pace with the changing world, he has become a new face of the Left politics. The massive victory of the Left has also erased the rigging stigma. The pro-change agenda received wide support from the urban middle class. They seemed to have taken care of the problems of the urban middle class. And for this, they actively wooed private capital and investment.

The quick feedback from the grassroots also helped the party to change its development agenda. But the Left’s happiness has also heightened the UPA government’s worries. The pressure of the Left is already on the UPA Government due to some of its policies, but now the pressure will carry some more weight, as the CPM leader Mr Sitaram Yechuri has said.

GURDERSHAN SINGH, Chandigarh

II

There is certainly something charismatic about the Communists’ awesome electoral performance in the West Bengal and Kerala Assembly elections. In West Bengal, good governance of the Left has cast a spell over the electorate. That the Left continues to govern the state for 29 consecutive years is a glorious record.

The Left has wrested power from the Congress in Kerala. They have made their intentions clear — they will continue to put pressure on the UPA Government in New Delhi with renewed vigour as the UPA owes its survival to them. As the Left will, certainly, have a bigger say in policy matters, they must use their good offices in checking the price rise.

TARSEM S. BUMRAH, Batala

III

Mr Dua has rightly pointed out that while parties which are stronger in states can keep the national parties at bay, a national party like the Congress has to travel a long distance to recapture power at the Centre on its own.

My only worry is that as the Left has 63 MPs, it would like to apply brakes on the economic reforms of the Manmohan Singh Government. Even otherwise, the Left has categorically said that the Centre cannot always take their support for granted.

This is a clear message for the Congress to work hard and regain its lost ground in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar at the earliest.

SUBHASH C. TANEJA, Rohtak

IV

The voters of Tamil Nadu have given a mandate in favour of the DMK in the Assembly elections even though it is a minority government. The electorate has unseated the Jayalalithaa government and voted for Mr Karunanidhi’s DMK and its allies like the Congress and the PMK with the hope that it would usher in a new era of Centre-State relations.

Even though the emergence of Dravidian parties has strengthened regional autonomy over the years, the lack of effective cooperation from the Centre has resulted in the failure to accelerate development in many parts of the state. For the first time, the DMK government will be dependent upon the Congress.

IQBAL SINGH SAROYA, Mohali

Avoidable riots

Riots, planned or spontaneous, have no place in a civilised society. Gujarat today is perhaps the most communally polarised state in the country. Otherwise, why did the government demolish the 300-year-old Dargah in Vadodra? The riots that followed the demolition were avoidable.

Chief Minister Narendra Modi, after two days, came to the rescue of his people and sought paramilitary personnel from the Centre which responded promptly. This is yet another opportunity for Mr Modi to improve his government’s image.

BIDYUT KUMAR CHATTERJEE, Faridabad

II

CPM leader Sitaram Yechuri has condemned the demolition of illegal encroachments in Vadodara on the Gujarat High Court’s orders. But what about the large number of Hindus killed in Udhampur and Doda in Jammu and Kashmir? What about the demolitions carried out in New Delhi and other parts of the country? Mr Yechuri has not uttered a word about this.

Mr Yechuri has no word of consolation for the unfortunate Kashmiri Pandits who are either brutally killed by the terrorists or driven out of their homeland.

RAJ PAL GUPTA, Ludhiana