The Congress-led UPA alliance is taking revenge on the educated middle class which does not vote for them in any election (Was It Just a Mirage Then?, June 11). The rich, it knows, do not venture out to vote during polls and are ‘beyond democracy’. But since they are the ‘fund bank’ in elections, they continue to get all the sops. The poor get inducements come elections and are forgotten soon after. It’s the middle class which is marooned in the middle of a sea of problems. They can neither afford the lavish lifestyle of the rich, nor live the way the poor do. The leadership bankruptcy in the UPA is making it worse.
Shreenivas S., Bangalore
A couple of years ago, at the G-20 summit, Barack Obama was all praise for Manmohan Singh, saying, when he talks, the world listens. The media created an image of a despairing world and a wise Manmohan with all the answers, being listened to in rapt attention. Now the scales have fallen. The same government is clueless and apathetic. Or maybe it was the media that was clueless about the ‘dream team’ all along. Having fallen for its own version of reality, it can’t fault the government now.
V.R. Ganesan, New Jersey
The country has officially been declared a market economy. Socialism is treated as a social evil, and especially all kinds of subsidies. Reforms have meant not improving efficiency of retarded sectors but of the state relinquishing control from every sector. India’s high growth of the past years was matched with unprecedented tax collection. But the only area where state expenditure increased every year was defence—standing at a whopping Rs 1,90,000 crore. Before the administered pricing mechanism was removed, India had an oil pool account, meant to cushion the country from global swings. If a socialist state can’t do it anymore, while exiting all sectors of public funding slowly, why do we need a state?
Vinu Nair, New Delhi
It’s a funny form of socialism in this country where poor Mr and Mrs Dixit on their scooter are subsidising fuel for the guy in the background in his Mahindra Scorpio.
Sagar Bhattacharya, Patna
All these years post-liberalisation, you (or the media at large) had been party to selling the “grand dream” to the middle class. How come this empathy now? Have the cracks become too obvious to ignore?
Chittaranjan, Bangalore
Between the nothing-to-worry affluent class and nothing-to-lose underclass, those in the middle have everything to worry about and much to lose.
M.C. Joshi, Lucknow
The indecisiveness of our experts in matters of inflation stuns me. The growth rate is six per cent approximately, but the rate at which corruption is growing is 600 per cent.
Arun, Bangalore
When the whole world is in the grip of a financial nightmare, the euro and the EU itself is on the verge of a meltdown, and the US is teetering on the brink of recession, it’s stupid and facile to blame Manmohan Singh (or Sonia Gandhi) for everything. Blame the capitalist system, driven as it has been by years of rapacious greed, testosterone and cocaine-fuelled recklessness in the trading rooms of the West, political encouragement for people to live on credit and a total lack of responsibility and foresight among economists and politicians in Europe and America. That’s why the rupee is in free fall, growth is slowing and inflation is galloping. The situation is beyond the control of anyone in India. It’s said that when America catches a cold, the world sneezes, and right now the US and Europe are in the grip of a chronic disease. Ergo, our case of Delhi belly!
Ali, Panchkula
With the GDP growth at a nine-year low, escalating deficits, sinking rupee, uncertain markets, politics deep in the cesspool of unprecedented corruption, diseased policymaking, the prime minister in hibernation, petrol rates hitting the roof and prices of basic commodities rising too, UPA-II has immersed India deep in troubled waters. The ruling party might well write off the middle-class votes in 2014.
Arun, Bangalore
Of course, it was a mirage. One conjured up by idiotic TV anchors and pie-in-the-sky hacks. Trotting out cellphone densities, more IITs, unique ID for all, business tycoons spreading their wings globally etc etc. Amidst all this, the government busied itself appointing interlocutors for J&K, advisors for the Northeast, lulling us into believing terrorism would vanish if we just talked to Pakistan or played cricket, raking in moolah from IPL on the side.
V. Mahadevan, Chennai
With the increase in fuel prices, the target tax collections from fuel should exceed what was planned in the budget. So why not reduce tax on fuel? This has been done in states like West Bengal and Goa on the initiative of local leaders.
Maha, Bangalore
