IT is really very amusing to see all the political formations in India competing with each other in the race to form the next government at the Centre. All this even before the actual results are out. This includes political parties which had rubbished the claims of various opinion and exit polls during the first phase of elections and even sought a ban on them. Now, when the same exit polls predict a hung Parliament, our politicians have no qualms in accepting their findings. — G. Anand, Mumbai Coalition sums • This refers to your editorial ‘Sensex and poll sense’ (April 29). Yes, India must come to terms with coalition governments, but it is a limited acceptance. Rather than the government, it is the people who are in manufacturing, production, agriculture and IT businesses that had made the turnaround of India’s economy. Yet, people are assuming that because the growth rate was high on the NDA’s watch, the government should get the credit. — Arvind Amin Cotton triumph • The dispute-settling mechanism of the WTO was successfully invoked by Brazil on behalf of poorer nations like Burkino Faso in the matter of the unconscionable government subsidies to cotton growers in rich countries like the US. Why the US should grow 16 billion bales of cotton a year and export quite a lot of them, smothering competition from poorer nations, at the expense of its own tax-payers, who subsidise nearly two-thirds of them, is indeed mystifying in economic terms. The US and the EU countries, ardent supporters of the creed of free trade and free enterprise, want it to work a la carte only in those sectors where they stand to gain. What the US will do with the WTO ruling in an election year is anybody’s guess. Let us hope wiser counsel will prevail. — K. R. Rangaswamy Clear gaze • BJP, the morning after’ (IE, April 29) by Ashok Malik is neither optimistic nor pessimistic, but a very realistic and balanced article. Nice to locate some unbiased reporting! — Rajesh Gooty Where’s my vote? • The Indian Express put together an impressive campaign urging people to vote. But what about those people who did not find their names in the voters’ list. What is the Election Commission doing about this? Our EC is busy spending time on matters like whether the finance ministry should release tax collection figures. It should concentrate on basics like inaccurate electoral rolls. — Gaurav Vaidya On alternatives • I agree with Seema Alavi (‘Hello, Prime Minister’, IE, April 28) that all NDA promises and claims are not too sound, but do we have a better alternative? Can the other political parties put together a stable government for the next five years? — Bhavishya Goel
