Letters

Election 2024

While each State of India has a distinct language, culture, heritage, and, not least, commitment and loyalty to certain political parties, the aggressive back-door intrusion of Hindutva has polarised and divided voters both vertically and horizontally (“The Daring Dozen”, April 5). The Congress can no longer be complacent and rely on its “traditional” voters since the BJP is fast encroaching into that vote base.

M.Y. Shariff

Chennai

Citizenship Act

The Centre has finally announced the implementation of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, four years after the contentious law was passed by Parliament to grant Indian nationality to “persecuted” non-Muslim migrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan and to those who came to India before December 31, 2014 (“The CAA factor”, April 5).

While it seems a well-calculated move, it is not clear why the Central government, which cannot protect its own minorities in a State like Manipur, is bending over backwards to give 100 per cent protection to persecuted minorities from neighbouring countries. Only time will tell whether the government is sincere in its intentions to grant citizenship.

M.R. Jayanthy

Tiruchi, Tamil Nadu

BJP in Kerala

The BJP may be wooing the South in earnest, but it is almost certain that the party’s efforts will fail to yield any results in Kerala this time as well (“Wooing the South”, April 5). In Kerala, the contest is between the Congress-led United Democratic Front and the CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front. For the LDF, this is a crucial election as they need to improve their tally from last time’s lone win in Alappuzha. When the question of women’s entry into Sabarimala was a burning issue during the 2019 Lok Sabha election, the BJP gained nothing in Pathanamthitta constituency when the party’s State president himself contested from there. It remains to be seen what influence and impact Anil Antony will have this time for the BJP from this constituency.

Ajay S. Kumar

Thiruvananthapuram

Congress and AAP

The electoral understanding between the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party to contest the Lok Sabha election jointly in Delhi represents political opportunism at its worst (“Alliance of convenience”, April 5). Both parties are staring at an existential crisis, so it was only natural for both of them to come together. It is ironic that the AAP, which took a high moral ground to counter the corrupt policies of the grand old party of India, has now sealed a pact with it. More intriguingly, the two parties are at loggerheads in neighbouring Punjab. Hopefully, the voters of Delhi will give a befitting reply to the Congress-AAP combine.

B. Suresh Kumar

Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu

G.N. Saibaba

The inhuman treatment meted out to G.N. Saibaba, who was in jail for a decade, with least concern for his physical disability and no regard for international human rights standards, brings to mind Janis Joplin’s lines: “Freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose” (“Cry for help”, April 5). Saibaba was refused permission to visit his mother on her deathbed and not allowed to perform her last rites, even as perpetrators of heinous crimes were liberally granted parole—a classic case of “show me the man and I will show you the law”. Although Saibaba’s horrific experience underscores the urgent need to revamp the country’s prison system, we find no ray of hope as things stand today.

Ayyasseri Raveendranath

Aranmula, Kerala

Sandeshkhali

Sandeshkhali, where protests broke out demanding the arrest of Trinamool Congress strongman Sheikh Shahjahan, is a throwback to Nandigram, which Mamata Banerjee used as a launch pad to overthrow the Left (“Rising up in Anger”, March 22). The Trinamool is employing the same template used by the CPI(M) and the Congress to monopolise power and control public institutions.The public has had enough. With elections round the corner, the Trinamool needs to read the writing on the wall.

Sudipta Ghosh

Jangipur, West Bengal