Letters: The half leap

In this new era of economic growth, nations doing reasonably well, when met with extended periods of stagnation, have opted for a change in the government. If it was the US in 2008, it was the euro zone and Latin American countries later. China had a routine change but it is also trimming its political sails drastically now. India, too, must want a political change and this is where the injection of Narendra Modi into high-end national politics must seed our worries. Neither the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) nor the Congress have cadre-based presence in half the Indian states; one reason the nation has been under a compulsive coalition governance for decades. The workings of a decade and more of Modi would tend to put off most of the ranking regional parties to gel together to form a government with the BJP, if it leads the Congress. If the BJP is unable to touch respectable figures on its own, the resurrection of a Third Front will loom large. A successful big leap forward by the Modi-led BJP in 2014 might prove good, but with a half leap, the nation would plunge deeper into trouble.

R Narayanan, Ghaziabad

Letters can be mailed, faxed or e-mailed to:
The Editor, Business Standard
Nehru House, 4 Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg
New Delhi 110 002
Fax: (011) 23720201 · E-mail: letters@bsmail.in
All letters must have a postal address and telephone number