Walled off
Sir — New India, reports suggest, is hooked on high-decibel videos of political jumlas on social media and has little space for wall graffitis this poll season. West Bengal, thankfully, has not quite kept pace with New India. A candidate was recently seen painting a wall graffiti in Mandarin near Topsia to woo Calcutta’s Chinese residents. But the real threat to the vivid tradition of political wall graffitis is not social media, it is the mushrooming of gated communities. People living inside these self-contained bubbles have little idea about the writing on the wall in the streets.
Tarun Bhattacharjee, Calcutta
Right choice
Sir — The decision of the Congress leader, Rahul Gandhi, to fight the Lok Sabha polls from Rae Bareli instead of Amethi could be a masterstroke (“Rahul switches to Rae Bareli”, May 4). The move will perhaps help the party regain a toehold in Uttar Pradesh. It would be wrong to call Rahul Gandhi a coward for fighting from two seats — he could easily turn out to be a hero by winning both in Wayanad and Rae Bareli.
While the Bharatiya Janata Party has been talking about mangalsutras, machhli, Mughals, mutton and so on, Congress and the INDIA bloc have been highlighting issues like unemployment, inflation, farmers’ woes, a caste census and so on. This will definitely reap rich dividends.
Zakir Hussain, Kazipet, Telangana
Sir — By fielding Rahul Gandhi from Rae Bareli, the Congress has scotched the BJP’s propaganda that the principal challenger to the prime minister, Narendra Modi, is running away from the numerically crucial Hindi belt. Instead of commenting on Rahul Gandhi’s choice of constituencies, Modi should have volunteered to contest from a constituency in South India besides the safe seat where he can play the Ram mandir card to the hilt. As for Modi’s prediction that Rahul Gandhi will lose in Wayanad, it is just wishful thinking. Whatever be the result of the elections, Rahul Gandhi’s call ‘to open shops of love in the market of hatred’ endears him to patriotic Indians who see him as a powerful moral force.
G. David Milton, Maruthancode, Tamil Nadu
Sir — It would have been demoralising for the rank and file of the Congress had Rahul Gandhi not fought from Rae Bareli. In the eventuality of Rahul Gandhi winning from both Wayanad and Rae Bareli, he should retain Wayanad and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra can contest from Rae Bareli. This would be one way to revive the Congress’s grasp on Uttar Pradesh. With both Gandhi siblings in Parliament, the Congress, too, might expect better days.
Bal Govind, Noida
Sir — Rahul Gandhi’s decision to contest the Lok Sabha elections from Rae Bareli is the right move. Rae Bareli is a safe bet for Rahul Gandhi and he should focus all his energies on campaigning there.
D.V.G. Sankara Rao, Andhra Pradesh
Sir — The decision of Rahul Gandhi to contest elections from the Gandhi family’s bastion, Rae Bareli, is a good one. However, this might upset the constituents of Wayanad who stuck by him through hard times like his suspension from Parliament.
Dimple Wadhawan, Kanpur
Many voices
Sir — All eyes are on the national political parties that are fighting the Lok Sabha elections. But what about the hundreds of political parties that stay registered with the Election Commission of India but rarely contest polls? Political parties are completely exempt from paying income tax as long as they file their returns with the tax department and submit to the EC details of any donations above Rs 20,000 that they receive annually. So political parties that do not contest elections can continue to collect donations and enjoy tax exemptions. Uddalak Mukherjee should have considered this aspect in his article, “It’s party time” (April 30). Not every Registered Unrecognised Political Party ‘deepens’ democracy.
H.N. Ramakrishna, Bengaluru
Sir — I do not agree with Uddalak Mukherjee that without RUPPs “elections in India would be robbed of colour and, more importantly, conversations that make Indian democracy argumentative and, hence, more virile.” Rather, the EC should take steps to curb bogus and unproductive entities.
K. Nehru Patnaik, Visakhapatnam
Sir — The article, “It’s party time”, brought to mind another piece that Uddalak Mukherjee had written during the previous general elections about independent candidates who contest the polls (“The expendables”, April 23, 2019). Independents and RUPPs indeed play a pivotal role in directing the attention of voters to issues that are ignored, often intentionally, by the representatives of major political parties. They also willingly enter an arena where the odds are stacked against them to uphold moral principles and should be feted for this in spite of the outcome of the elections.
A.K. Sen, Nadia
