This refers to A K Bhattacharya's column "The importance of poll manifestos" (New Delhi Diary, April 2). The author is right in saying that election manifestos have outlived their utility as far as the intent of the parties' promises is concerned. This is more so in the age of coalition governments and that too when parties join hands after contesting against each other. If the promises by political parties are so blatantly flaunted, it creates further disrespect in the eyes of the common man for the politicians. Mr Bhattacharya is not right in saying that the Congress has learned from its mistake in amending tax laws retrospectively since its manifesto has still not ruled out retrospective amendment to tax laws. If there was one single blunder the current government has committed in connection with foreign investment, it was the amendment of the Income Tax Act with retrospective effect from 1961. How can we say that it has learnt from this? His other observation that a manifesto could reveal a lot about a political party's own assessment of where it went wrong looks good in theory only. The Congress has governed for the longest continuous period (10 years at a stretch) in the past 44 years. If they could not learn from their biggest mistake, what benchmark will the manifesto serve?
Naresh Saxena New Delhi
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