Letters: Always the populist

This refers to Akash Prakash's article “The populism risk”(March 9). The author talks about the risks of fiscal imprudence, socialistic bouts in the form of quotas and giveaways, and populism in the form of loan waivers to farmers. It is noteworthy that even when the ruling party (the Congress) enjoyed a comfortable majority in both the Houses, it had adopted populism to win over vote banks, especially in rural areas. In fact, farm loan waivers amounting to more than Rs 65,000 crore just before the last general elections got the Congress back into power with a better majority. Electoral setbacks would only make the Congress even more socialistic and, unfortunately, a strong economic agenda would not help it retain power post-2014. Clearly, there's a lack of economic leadership, even when an economist is heading the Centre.

K V Rao, Bangalore

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