Congress tsunami in Karnataka
The Congress in Karnataka, has not just emerged as the single-largest party by beating the BJP, but it secured a comfortable majority, thus killing any hopes the BJP may have had of horse-trading its way to power. The BJP government has been dogged by public accusations of rampant corruption, with trade bodies accusing officials of demanding a 40% cut on deals and job recruitment. Even rallies by some of the BJP’s star names, including the hardline chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, Yogi Adityanath, drew only lacklustre crowds.
The Congress fought these elections on local issues of livelihood and food security, price rise, farmer distress, electricity supply, joblessness and corruption. But BJP lost this election. The Congress wave was so strong that it even did not spare bigwigs. The BJP stalwarts are losing their facade of charisma.
People are not blind, everyone needs good quality life and better future. The Congress has proved it can win a head-to-head battle with the BJP, despite the saffron party using PM Narendra Modi as the star campaigner of its campaign. The BJP’s dream of a Congress-mukt Bharat has suffered serious blows. The loss in Karnataka severely dents BJP’s claim of being a truly pan-India party. It has lost power in the only South Indian state, it ruled.
K G Vilop, Chorao
BJP wiped out from Dravidian landscape
The drubbing in the Karnataka elections is one of the most caustic setbacks for PM Narendra Modi and the BJP. The loss has severely dented BJP’s claim of being a truly pan-India political party. Humiliatingly rather, as Tamil Nadu chief minister MK Stalin has rightly said, the defeat has “wiped out the BJP from Dravidian landscape.” The debacle could weaken the political positioning of the TN BJP’s State President K Annamalai, as he was the co-incharge for the party’s campaign in the Karnataka elections. Thankfully, the Congress secured a comfortable margin of victory, thus killing any hopes of the BJP indulging in horse-trading to grab power. Now the BJP has been reduced to largely ruling only in Hindi-speaking States, and this throws into the dust, the proclaimed image of the unassailability and the sovereignty of Modi’s rule. The political alphabets in South have only 23 letters now after the deletion of ‘B’, ‘J’, ‘P’. And ‘Bajrang Bali’ seems to have only helped the Grand Old Party of India.
Ranganathan Sivakumar, Chennai
Elections can be won on burning issues
Karnataka Elections have shown that leaving aside religious sentiments, elections can be won with a big margin based on the burning issues faced by the people. Voters of Karnataka chose to ignore religious appeals and support day to day issues of the common people, like price rise, unemployment, corruption, law and order, etc. This is a big slap on the face of the parties which try to misguide the voters through polarisation of religious sentiments. Karnataka Assembly election results have shown, Yes! Yes, there is still hope for Indian Democracy. Yes, there is still a silver lining to the black clouds.
Satish Shivram Phadte, Porvorim
Well done Karnataka!
The first hurdle of the Bharat Jodo Yatra which started from the South has been cleared by a resounding and stupendous victory for the Congress (INC) in the recently concluded Assembly Election of Karnataka. Kudos to the Kannadigas who have been brave enough to overcome the tenacious and moribund BJP, portrayed by the two brothers in arms.
Hearty congratulations to Rahul Gandhi, his sister Priyanka Vadra and Mallikarjun Kharge and the very proud people of Karnataka who have given an overwhelming mandate to the INC. Now don’t lay idle resting on your laurels, but start from the grassroot level to solve the problems of aam admi. Finish with corruption and come down heavily on inflation and give relief for the poor and the needy. Don’t be selfish and egoistic, but selfless and compassionate to the people who voted you to power. Jai hind!
Mariano H Correia, by email
Fire Services could use harvested water
While citizens face hardships to get potable water in the ongoing peak summer season, thousands of litres of water has to be used in fire-fighting operations. It is pertinent to note there have been several fire incidents in the state, especially in the forest areas. To add to this, there have been frequent incidents of rupture of water pipelines leading to huge amounts of water being lost. Fighting fire is important and so is the availability of potable water for the daily use of the citizens. Hence a solution needs to be arrived at, so that potable water supplied by the PWD is not used for fire-fighting operations, as all the potable water goes down the drain, quite literally.
It must be said that elsewhere in the country, rainwater harvesting is becoming a common water source for residential and commercial needs. Rainwater can also be used as a water source for fighting fires, wherein huge amounts of water is necessary. It would be prudent for fire stations in the state to introduce rainwater harvesting within their premises. The water stored in large tanks during the monsoon season can be used to subdue the fires, as and when there are fire incidents, instead of using water supplied by PWD. Water from the rivers could also be used to fight the fire, by filling the fire fighting vehicles with water from this source. It is learnt that the Karnataka State fire and Emergency Services uses treated water from the sewerage plant to douse major fires. Perhaps Goa can learn from this.
Adelmo Fernandes, Vasco
Railways should clear garbage on tracks
Recently I travelled on a fully economy passenger train from Margao down to South India. The train got crowded, as it moved from station to station with a lot of families. Hordes of vendors also entered the train regularly, offering various snacks, food items, soft drinks, merchandise, etc. in various types of packing material. Everyone around wanted to taste the variety of items sold by the vendors. After emptying the plates, tetrapacks/plastic cups and glasses out they were flung through the open windows. A few foreign tourists were aghast at the cleanliness standards of Indians. We requested the families to gather all the waste in a bag and drop it in a bin at a station as our compartment was without any bins.
If one observes, there are billions of waste items scattered all along the railway tracks throughout India -piles and piles of every type of rubbish. Where would these millions of tons of rubbish go to, except that when it rains the water will carry all this waste into our water bodies, rivers and the sea, causing irreparable damage. It can also clog the drains and cause flooding. The beauty of the passing topography is marred by sights of rubbish nearby. It is a shame that we Indians care so little about our ecology and abuse it while taking great pride in our Matrubhumi and our culture.
While our PM has given tremendous importance to cleanliness and promoted various schemes and projects to instil cleanliness everywhere, it is pathetic that the Railways are one of the biggest contributors to unclean surroundings. There are a new set of bogies which have fine grills outside every window which by itself deters waste materials being thrown out of the windows. All trains need to have such grills which can be a first step. Secondly, every compartment needs to have sufficient number of bins. Thirdly, every station master should be made responsible to clear all waste material thrown around the tracks in his/her control
Alwyn M D’Sa, Miramar
