Letters: Time for Modi to change

In the article, "For statesmanship and sanity" (April 28), of the three changes the writer Nitin Desai suggests Prime Minister Narendra Modi should adopt, disowning extremists in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is imperative and the easiest to undertake.

The votaries of beef ban and Bharat Mata ki Jai have created little impact on people's mindset but have provided the anti-BJP media and political parties an opportunity to cash in on the controversy. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and its followers should have kept quiet during the first two years of BJP-led rule and allowed the government to strengthen its development agenda. The RSS should have publicised its work in the social and educational sectors.

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While the animosity between Modi and Congress President Sonia Gandhi may not prompt him to persuade her to support his economic policies, he should garner the backing of other parties so that the Congress is isolated in the Rajya Sabha.

However, the BJP's moves to dislodge the Congress in the states where it is in power have made other parties suspicious of the saffron party's motives.

Modi should consider adopt humility. His predilection for inaugurating almost every new activity, his monthly Mann ki Baat on radio and frequent reference to "I" and "my government" point to growing narcissism and reluctance to self-introspection. The perception that Modi leads an individual-centric government is doing him no good.

It is time Modi included in his Cabinet people with intelligence and who have the courage to dissent. This will not happen if he surrounds himself with advisors, who invent a rationale for every action of his.

Y G Chouksey, Pune

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