Letters: Modi's mantras

This refers to A K Bhattacharya's column "Mr Modi's five mantras" (New Delhi Diary, October 16). Narendra Modi's five new ideas sound positive and immeasurably more mature than what one had earlier experienced from either him or the Gandhi-Singh combine. Quite a few of them are incontrovertible, such as motherhood, but not fleshed out enough in the column to merit any comment.

Some of them such as listening to the people and a more participatory democracy, sorely need fast, majority-reflecting and cost-effective tools, and these have so far eluded humanity. Referendum, recall, initiative or plebiscite - all cost enormous sums of money and time. One in particular - transparency and no secret files - however, seemingly contradicts reality. Gujarat's Lokayukta Bill is clearly an effort to install a pliable Lokayukta with a selection panel loaded with government representatives.

The second instance is the refusal to publicly disclose the Nano incentive arrangements worked out with Tata Motors. Clearly, there is a significant gap between words and deeds, and it remains to be seen how this is bridged in the months before the elections.

P Datta Kolkata

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