Letters: Poverty politics

The article “The politics of distribution” by A V Rajwade was quite interesting. Going by what happened to Vedanta and Posco, our mineral resources will remain untapped. No doubt a lot of politics went into play to appease Rahul Gandhi’s concern for tribal people. On the discipline seen in the country after Emergency was imposed in June 1975, The New York Times had commented, “To remain in power, the Congress party in India will do anything; it would even do good to the people.” At present, the party wants to take away power from Naveen Patnaik, who has so far given Orissa a corruption-free government and is personally incorruptible. He has even sacked his own ministers and officials on corruption charges. It is a pity that Patnaik is not being allowed to invite investments in his backward, yet mineral-rich, state.

As for Indira Gandhi, she turned to the Left more out of her love for power when she was in a virtual minority and that is when we heard slogans like “Garibi hatao” and “Indira is India”. “Garibi hatao” had been translated into English as “Quit poverty”, which was borrowed from the “Quit India” slogan of the forties. The Times of India had editorially commented that the meanings of “Quit India” and “Quit poverty” were not similar in intent; the former meaning “British, quit India” and the latter, “India, quit poverty” against “Poverty, quit India”.

S Acharya, on email