The principal opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has planned everything to the last detail for the election campaign. From its headquarters in the national capital, it is directing party workers how to organise a rally or function in each region. At a recent event across 100 places where Narendra Modi's speeches were being relayed on 3D screens party workers were given a list of dos and don'ts and frequently asked questions. The list told party workers to inform the Election Commission representatives that expenses for the event were being borne by the central committee. More to the point, the party candidates were asked not to be present during such exercises, otherwise the event would be billed to their personal poll expense accounts.

BJP's micro-planning

Business Standard

At an event on "women in leadership" recently, Chanda Kochhar, managing director & CEO, ICICI Bank, explained how the concept of maternity leave has evolved over the years. She recalled how when she requested and was granted six months maternity leave at a time when three months was the norm, it made the news in a pink newspaper. Now, her bank offers not just six months maternity leave, but an extension if it is needed.

Extended benefit

Apropos the report "Bernanke cold to Rajan remedy" (April 12), it is no surprise that the co-operation suggestion made by Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan did not find much support. For one, the big crisis has been met and managed; the US Federal Reserve's taper will actually reduce the asset bubble risk in the US. In any event, bigger economies protect their turf fiercely except when they need smaller economies to pitch in during a crises. Globally, central banks also try to protect their independence from the government, and fear that the position may weaken if they begin to act keeping other economies' needs in mind. The irony is that Rajan himself was (still is?) a big supporter of the Chicago School theory that central banks should have only one, or a hugely over-riding, objective of managing inflation. This suggestion was strongly made by a committee headed by him on financial sector reforms. For the same person to pitch for a globally co-ordinated monetary policy ac

Letters: Rajan makes his point

This refers to Sanjeev Sanyal's article "Bring back the Railways!" (April 8). I have travelled much of India by train - from Rameshwaram to Amritsar, Bhubaneswar to Thiruvananthapuram and places in between. I am, however, at a loss as to why foreign credit cards are not now accepted, rendering it impossible to make online bookings either through IRCTC or Cleartrip.com. The argument that there is a security risk is preposterous since it is not beyond the wit of a man to use other methods of booking. Before this, the system was one of the best, indeed better than those in many "western countries". Perhaps your good offices can remedy this matter so that those of us who love visiting India can again enjoy the ease of online booking.Ian Scott  SingaporeLetters can be mailed, faxed or e-mailed to:The Editor, Business StandardNehru House, 4 Bahadur Shah Zafar MargNew Delhi 110 002Fax: (011) 23720201E-mail: letters@bsmail.inAll letters must have a postal address and telephone number

Letters: The ease of online booking

This refers to the report "Bernanke cold to Rajan remedy" (April 12). Raghuram Rajan, with his "hands on experience" on international economy and direct knowledge of emerging economies, has given practical and realistic suggestions to protect the currencies of such economies from volatility . His suggestions on the "safety net" and "multilateral body coming to help" will fall on deaf ears. In fact, Ben Bernanke, the former US Fed chairman, was the first to negate such an idea. The Eurpoean Union will also not buy this since its economies are in dire straits. Hence, the emerging economies will have to fend for themselves.The basic lessons are: do not touch hot money for use as far as possible; do not allow the domestic currency to appreciate beyond a certain point; create foreign exchange reserves against all these inflows, which will come in handy later. In Bengal, there is a saying: Parer sona diyo na kaane, praan berobe hanchka taane (do not wear someone else's earrings since you wil

Letters: Following suit

Industrial and trade data dash hopes of economic recovery

Double whammy

Our foreign reserves have crossed $300 billion. How much is too much?

Kunal Kumar Kundu: Running on reserves

The external environment will certainly affect India's internal quest to get back onto the path of high economic growth -- but much of the slack is in domestic policy

Nitin Pai: Our foreign policy is 8% growth

On its 50th anniversary, CPI-M faces its biggest challenge

Facing history

Though the party might not win too many seats, it clearly has the potential to upset calculations

Probal Basak: For Bengal, BJP thinking of the long term

An epidemic of intemperate words across UP

Hateful speech

Guide

The long relationship between literature and cinema is full of anecdotes about writers feeling demeaned or bullied by a medium they couldn't relate to, from George Bernard Shaw's reaction to winning a screenplay Oscar for the film version of Pygmalion ("It's an insult, as if they had never heard of me before - and it's very likely they never have. They might as well send some honour to George for being King of England") to countless stories about literary authors standing by helplessly as their ideas are butchered. A brilliantly surreal expression of this theme occurs in the Coen Brothers' film Barton Fink, which begins as an apparently straight story about a playwright employed by a big Hollywood studio, but builds up to an apocalyptic climax that literalises the idea of the artist in Hell.Barton - shell-shocked and fearful as things collapse around him - reminds me a little of the droll self-portrait offered by R K Narayan in an essay about the filming of his novel The Guide. Narayan

Guide to a song

On the evening before election day in the national capital region, my son asked the family cook to lay out some "starters and stuff" for "a couple of friends" who were, he said, going to drop by for a bit. "You know why they're coming home, don't you?" said my wife suspiciously. "To spend the evening with him," I said, wondering what had her mojo in a twist. "To drink your whisky," she said darkly, "because, in case it hasn't crossed your stupid mind, there's prohibition in Delhi."Which might be the reason that a dozen or so of his drinking buddies appeared to spend a good part of the night, and up to the early morning, propping up the bar. But given fair warning, I'd been careful to remove the more expensive malts, and can only hope no guests thought to look in the medicine cupboard in the toilet, which might have led them to wonder about the strange consumption habits of the residents of the house. At any rate, it meant that the kitchen found itself turned into an industrial enterpri

Kishore Singh: The toast of voting day

This Thursday, as Delhi went to vote, I stood in my balcony observing the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) voter help desks outside my house. They were happy to debate with passers-by about their electoral choices, and hidden behind my plants, I heard some interesting views on politics. Most of the older men in the neighbourhood, primarily from the business class, seemed totally gung-ho about the BJP. However, the younger lot, jeans-clad and loud-voiced, was divided. They spoke loudly about rooting out corruption, bringing down prices of essential commodities and generally wanting "change" - clearly they didn't want the Congress back, but I couldn't get a sense of what party they were rooting for. Then the old fruit seller came by on his bicycle. The political types asked him belligerently if he had voted. I went out - ostensibly to buy some grapes, but also to hear what he had to say. After all, among all of us, he was perhaps, the only aam aadmi."I have to work,

Geetanjali Krishna: Maybe, it's time for a change

Your road to work, gentle reader, will have been brightened up of late by giant hoardings of Narendra Modi, by all accounts - especially his - the next prime minister of India. One expects, of course, that they will be taken down after the elections. But, as one of my companions on the road recently remarked to me: "There's a chance that after the elections, his pictures will only get bigger."The personality cult around Modi has reached levels not seen in this country for years. In Kanpur, the throne that was honoured to seat NaMo during a rally last year is preserved reverentially under glass at the local Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) office. In Agra, the equivalent throne was the subject of a furious bidding war by local BJP leaders. The Congress, traditionally the party of sycophancy, can only look on in awe this time. BJP leaders are even echoing a slogan from the dead past. At a recent Modi rally in Purnia, said the Times of India, "almost all the speakers, including former ministe

Mihir S Sharma: What would Indira do?

The ruling party's dismal performance this political season has reached its nadir

Aditi Phadnis: The Congress endgame

It is not common knowledge that Sanskrit had a West Asian link, in the now volatile region at the junction of Syria, Iraq, Turkey and Iran

Shreekant Sambrani: Lingua Indica

As the general election kicks off, here is something for the ladies to consider. It's also for other sufferers of India's wildly skewed power equations; but most of all for the ladies, since you constitute half the population - or would, if you weren't constantly being picked off in the womb, in infancy, or in marriage.Narendra Modi's best buddy and right-hand man Amit Shah said, in a speech in UP: "This election is about voting out the government that protects and gives compensation to those who killed Jats. It is about badla (revenge) and protecting izzat (honour)."While Mr Shah was explicitly talking about vengeance by ballot, most thinking people will recognise this as implicit incitement. That should make them nervous; but if you happen to have ovaries instead of testicles, or in fact if you're anything but an adult Hindu male, it should terrify you.If you've been listening to the BJP's campaign ads - and it's hard to miss them - you know that they say two things: First, that the

Mitali Saran: Mr Modi's men

Directly interpersonal exchange between contestant and voter has all but vanished

Sunil Sethi: The changing face of election campaigns

Germany's big current-account surplus is not a problem with a simple solution

Kenneth Rogoff: A surplus of controversy

Diamond Quadrilateral equivalent in the form of a network of high-speed "bullet" trains will be associated with Narendra Modi

T N Ninan: High-speed folly

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