at the Centre that they think only the
BJP can offer. They surely have forgot
ten the miseries piled upon them by
such policies as demonetisation and a
hastily foisted GST tax as well as the
agrarian crisis, low employment
growth, rise in inflation, suppression
of free speech and the gagging of the
media and the utterly nauseous moral
policing and cow vigilantism. The hope
is that the ModiShah duo will take the
country forward by stressing on inclu
sive development and rule of law.
COIMBATORE S.R. Radh ak ris h
nan: I have been an ardent reader of
Outlook for 15 years and app reciate the
choice of articles offered every week.
In the June 10 issue, I loved the piece
on the ModiShah team provided by an
ins ider, Anirban Ganguly (Success in
Symphony), as well as the following
art icle on the same theme (Applied
Chemistry). But, as a 77yearold who
has seen much of Indian politics since
Independence, I am really wounded at
the turn politics has taken in recent
years. First, politicians have disre
garded the reasonable limitations
placed on freedom of speech in the
Constitution. They have every right to
ask for votes, but not at the cost of
dem eaning and degrading opposition
leaders. It was painful to see how the
Opposition personally targeted Prime
Minister Modi. They had no respect
for the post of prime minister. I sur
mised that most of these antiBJP par
ties who, once in power in different
states, have looted the state coffers and
misused power, don’t want Modiji to
come to power again because he’s
against corruption. They are least
bothered about the welfare of the
country—making money is their chief
concern. Unlike most of these opposi
tion leaders, he has not helped enrich a
single person from his family. The
massive mandate that Indians have
given Modiji is proof that they want a
corruptionfree polity.
Travel Travails
NOIDA Bal Govind: Apropos Ticket
To Ride (June 17), the Delhi govern
ment is dangling freebies well before
elections in the capital. It defies all
logic. The proposal is confused and will
be cumbersome to execute. What
about women from other parts of NCR
who travel to Delhi for work? How can
it be optional? Ideally, if Delhi chief
minister Arvind Kejriwal wanted to
propose something like this, he should
have taken other stakeholders into
confidence and created the required
infrastructure for smooth implemen
tation. Otherwise, it could lead to total
chaos and confusion. Exchequer
money should not be thrown into the
drain like this. The Delhi chief minis
ter should have focused on other
pressing issues which ail Delhi.
Needless to say, this move of Kejriwal
will further create a rift between his
party and the central government. I
won’t be surprised if this scheme
doesn’t get implemented properly andKejriwal, playing the victim card, puts
the blame on Modi again.HYDERABAD Lokesh Karthik: The
unassuming gentleman behind the
Delhi metro, E. Sreedharan has been
credited with the feat of putting the
stateoftheart system in the capital by
cutting through red tape. In public ima
gination, he cuts a figure of the technol
ogist ‘doer’ who went against a haggard
system to better it. It’s also the kind of
figure that Modi’s PR off ce loves. He
has now voiced concern over Delhi CM
Kejriwal’s decision to make metro rides
free for women, saying it would hit the
revenue model of the service. Despite
the positivity that the Delhi CM wanted
to bring about—as well as capitalise
on—through this decision, Sreedharan’s
point deserves to be addressed. Is the
AAP prepared with answers to such
queries of governance? An intelligent
comeback is desirable, but nowhere in
sight. Kejriwal managed the ‘oddeven’
scheme in his first term, driving into
the citizenry the seductive logic of
its practicality. People actually abided
with the order, a small but significant
feat of civic governance in itself. Now is
a time to expand on that model. This is
the opportunity.FREE RIDE? Aboard the Delhi MetroChaliye Hindi Ko Vanakkam
CHENNAI Kangayam R.
Narasimhan: This refers to Lingua
Fracas (June 17). Tamil is one of the
longestsurviving classical languages in
the world. Hence, DMK president M.K.
Stalin believes that the ‘Aryans’ of
Uttar Bharat should not impose Hindi
on Tamils. This is behind his outrage
over the New Education Policy draft’s
proposal of the ‘three language for
mula’, which was accused of being laced with ‘Hindi imposition’. While Stalin
rej ects Hindi with the same vehemence his party displayed in the 1960s, he
simply looks away when Sunshine School, run by his own family, imposes a
fine on students for speaking Tamil in its premises. Ridiculing Stalin’s hypoc
risy and double standards, AIADMK says that Stalin should first implement
the twolanguage formula (Tamil and English) in schools run by his own fam
ily and party bigwigs. While DMK leaders exhort people to oppose Hindi, their
family members have progressed by learning Hindi. When political satirist
Cho Ramaswamy sought information from Dravidian leaders about the
schools their wards attended, he drew a blank. Obviously, most were studying
in convent schools. About 50 percent of people in Tamil Nadu today are famil
iar with Hindi in some way or the other and thousands of Tamil children learn
the language in Dakshina Bharat Hindi Prachar Sabhas and CBSE schools.
Learning Hindi is no crime and Dravidian politicians must stop whipping up
passions on the issue just for the heck of it.letters INBOXED
6 OUTLOOK 1 July 2019