Ensuring relevance Congress’ dilemma
This refers to the article “Highway developers facing rising labour cost” (December 1). Highway developers themselves would have factored in future business repercussions and planned their financial strategies accordingly. Accordingly, their margin of profit would be substantial to ensure their long-term business stability and revenue inflow. All round economic development is a key factor in the laying down of government policies and developers cannot portray a one-sided view that labour costs are increasing hampering their functioning.
Further, in an environment of intensive mechanisation, even skilled labour has lost its relevance in many areas. An additional increase in capital expenditure for mechanisation will be of long-term benefit to the developer as his activity is an ongoing one. Once again, short-term contracts will be beneficial only when the quality of output at least matches the level of investment or else it will not be costeffective. This will also result in a fall in the company’s market image that may hamper execution of future long-term contracts. It is only when this aspect is taken into account that the long-term investment will have relevance.
C Gopinath Nair Kochi in systemic changes in the country". His courage of conviction should be a matter of pride for all Indians. If, in the past, we have failed to bring in major big ticket reforms in the country, it was only because no politician — both at the Centre and in the states — was willing to take risks. Almost every leader’s first priority is to ensure his/her re-election for another term in office; and so they all play safe, taking action only after more than adequately covering their back and ensuring that their actions will not annoy any part of their vote banks.
In Modi, we are lucky to have a leader who hasn’t hesitated in bringing about patently controversial changes about which he — and his government — were convinced were for the ultimate good of the country. I am sure they were aware of the anticipated backlash and the possibility of hurting huge sections of society that could go against the PM and his party, and even vote them out in 2019. The fact that knowing all this they went ahead speaks volumes about his good intentions and tremendous courage and confidence in his own decisions.
Unfortunately, the malady — of playing ultra safe — extends to the bureaucracy also. This was a reason for what was labelled as policy paralysis — a classic case of combination of inaction on the part of both the political leadership and the official machinery. As your editorial “Reversal in trend” points out, with healthy improvement in GDP growth, the national economy may well have bottomed out, and yet, it is too early to start celebrating. You have rightly cautioned about the strong “headwinds”. Despite all the problems yet to be tackled, the Prime Minister’s bold admission is a great morale booster. Krishan Kalra Gurugram The massive victory for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the civic polls of Uttar Pradesh is disappointing and disturbing to the Congress party at a time when Rahul Gandhi is all set to take over as national president of the party. Malicious propaganda against the BJP by Congress leaders has failed to improve the prospects of the Congress. More interesting to the people but disturbing to the Congress leadership is the fact that the party has been knocked out even in the Gandhi family bastion of Amethi. State Chief Minister Adityanath, who led the party’s campaign, has given credit for the victory to the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP President Amit Shah. The 2019 Lok Sabha election is about 18 months away. Adityanath must concentrate on health care, maintenance of law and order, holding the price line of essential commodities and must strive hard to control corruption in government offices to improve its prospects of giving more number of seats to the BJP in the Lok Sabha elections. K V Seetharamaiah Hassan