Editor,
Birds of an NDA feather flock together. Yes, the allies met in New Delhi specifically at Delhi’s Ashoka Hotel hosted by Amit Shah, having been buoyed and backed by exit polls predictions in favour of the NDA. But doubts are creeping in the minds of people whether Modi and company are exuding too much confidence by depending on the exit polls predictions. Too much of anything is bad. Likewise, too much confidence of winning the elections are unwarranted as the relevance and importance of counting votes is belittled. Celebration of victory without the results being declared is tantamount to being improper on the part of political parties.
Truly, for Modi and company, it is a bash of celebrations, of having been voted back to power for the second term. When such celebrations and confidence are overflowing, history is there to warn them of consequences. Even in the past, exit polls had gone wrong much to the chagrin of the psephologists and the enthusiasm of the political parties. So, while celebrating the premature victory, the BJP and its allies should not forget the fact that the victory is not yet awarded to the NDA. There is a process called vote-counting based on which the winner is declared and the nation is inching towards it on May 23.
For those who are keen about revelling in premature results, let them wait till final results come out because there is many a slip between the cup and the lip.
Yours etc.,
T K Nandanan,
Kochi – 15
Of exit polls
Editor,
Much has been said about the Sunday exit polls. Till February 13, 2019, the day when Prime Minister Modi was in Corbett National Park after a tedious journey of four years and nine months, he was facing the 2019 polls against all odds. These odds are too many to name in this limited space. Then Pulwama happened followed by Balakot happened. If The Reuters and World View 2 are to be rubbished and if some huge variations in the number of casualties are ignored then Balakot was a success. With the World View 2 statement that satellite imagery shows Jaish-e-Mohammed camps intact, Balakot becomes more mysterious than ever, especially when satellite imagery promised by the government was never released. Be that as it may but nationalism and jingoism have trampled over all the odds of Feb12-2019. With that Faridabad polling booth incident, which till now we are clueless as to how many such booths exist among the 900 million voters, and with opposition complaints of MCC violations taken up after thirty days, only a miracle will prove the exit polls wrong. Who knows the NDA numbers may well be above 340 on 23 May 2019.
Yours etc.,
- Khyriem.
Via email
Anarchy in Bengal
Editor,
It’s condemnable that some goons in Kolkata have also destroyed the statue of Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, the pride of Bengal a few days back He was a great scholar and a social reformer who worked for the overall welfare of society and always upheld human values. The vandals, who harbour evil thoughts, cannot tolerate, nor can they respect the virtues of a person. All right-thinking citizens should stand up to condemn such acts of hooliganism.
But it is worrisome to note how one political party is blaming the other. If there is smoke from the fire it is certainly due to “damp” wood. Of course, it was a premeditated act considering there were a good number of youths inside the campus in the evening when the college was on vacation. However, in Mamata’s Bengal such destructive elements have increased by leaps and bounds and are thriving but there is no noise of intolerance by any prominent forces from any quarter. The party rivalry and vindictiveness has turned into brutal enmity and bloodshed in this state. The hands of the state police are literally tied. They cannot arrest Didi’s non-dressed infantries. How many innocent people have been shot dead or injured by TMC cadre and others is hard to account — the latest being Joydeb Barman, a BJP leader from Cooch Behar who was shot dead with an AK-47 rifle two days back. The news has been just suppressed.
There is another bombshell relating to Mamata’s special people. They have used the mike to warn people from a particular community to leave the place or bite the bullet. As per the number of WhatsApp footages that are going around the situation is ominous. Crying, and weeping crowds of people from Diamond Harbour is exceedingly heart-wrenching to see. It’s almost like a Kashmir type (1989) situation in certain pockets in West Bengal. People have been seen leaving their homes in frenzied panic to look for safety elsewhere as their residential units have been burnt and destroyed.
What is shocking is that no media has raised the alarm bells; no one said that democracy is in danger. Is cancer in one square millimetre of skin-area not enough to kill a man in due course of time? One strike of a match-stick is enough to reduce several buildings to ashes. Let’s learn to be human first then indulge in intellectual hypocrisy. Humanity should not be slaughtered at the altar of discrimination and insane politics.
Yours etc.,
Salil Gewali,
Via email