This refers to your edit “Short-lived euphoria” (June 18). The Congress party deserves praise for nominating Pranab Mukherjee as the United Progressive Alliance’s (UPA’s) presidential candidate despite the Trinamool Congress’ vehement opposition. By doing so, the Congress leadership has not only shown some guts, but also that it can deftly handle regional parties like the Samajwadi Party. But the road ahead is not going to be easy for the Congress because of the growing stature of regional parties in national politics. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh could do well to remember that he was successful in implementing the first round of reforms as the finance minister in the early nineties only because of the full support he had received from the then Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao, even though Rao was heading a minority congress government. It is now essential that the PM provides the same type of support to his ministers, so as to remove the obstacles in policy making. Of course, this solely rests on his ability to successfully convince his ministers so that the alliance acts as a cohesive unit.
V Sridhar Kolkata
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