Such anger, but is it righteous?

In an article titled ' Appearance of a tiger, heart of a rabbit ' one Swaminathan Aiyar accuses the present Prime Minister of cowardice in his actions. " Alas a series of Modi's decisions last week were so populist, dithering and spineless as to make Manmohan Singh look a lion by comparison," he writes. Surely that is not possible. Even Sir Geoffrey Howe was a braver than the previous Prime Minister. Mr Aiyar makes 3 points. In February, the Congress proposed a series of hikes in fares of passengers, freight and monthly suburban passes but the Election Commission postponed it till after the election. Mr Modi has not implemented the rises in full. According to Mr Aiyar it is " Because Modi wants votes of Mumbai's railway commuters in the coming Maharashtra state election. This is as cynical and cowardly as anything the Congress can be accused of." Not true. No one can beat the Congress in villainy and treachery. The Congress was in power for 10 long years. Surely that was enough time to balance the railway budget. The Congress did not do so to win votes and proposed the hikes after elections to put the next government in trouble. Mr Modi is following what the Congress did when it started to increase diesel prices by 50 paise per month to prevent a sudden jump in inflation. The second grouse is that Modi increased subsidies for export of sugar and increased duties on imports which will lead to a rise in the price of sugar. " Far from reforming a monumentally stupid system, Modi has kept it alive through additional stupidities," he writes. But surely this will help preserve foreign exchange, reduce our Current Account Deficit and improve health by reducing sugar consumption. The third complaint is that Mr Modi has postponed the doubling of gas price till September. " Manmohan Singh was willing to bite the bullet, not Modi," he opines. Firstly, the Congress proposed a doubling of gas price on 1 April, after elections, knowing that it will immediately stimulate inflation, cause public anger against Mr Modi and damage the economy. All these measure taken by the Congress just before the elections, including the Land Acquisition Act, was a scorched earth policy to destroy the economy so that the next government cannot function. It is not only cynical but an immense betrayal of the people, tantamount to treason. But why such anger and uncouth language? We hope it is only because Mr Aiyar is an ardent supporter of the Congress and not because he is in the pay of the Americans as a an employee of the Cato Institute which apparently subscribes to libertarian principles. Libertarians consist of Neo-cons, Tea Party members and other assorted loonies who would bomb the whole world for US supremacy. Good company what?