Your promise to protect bankers for their commercial decisions is a huge confidence booster, but how does one define a commercial decision? Are our investigative agencies well equipped to dissect lending decisions of bankers?
'There is a compulsion to look hard, decisive, and risk-taking; start something; and then conclude it in a way you can claim victory.' 'That is not such an easy option against China,' notes Shekhar Gupta.
India looks less equal to China than 5 years ago, the strategic alliance with the US is hobbled by trade, and Pakistan is looking anything but chastened by Balakot. What has gone wrong? asks Shekhar Gupta.
'The Modi Model we see now is still the old Gujarat Model.' 'But with an acknowledgement that governing India is more challenging than governing Gujarat,' notes Shekhar Gupta.
'When they completely surrender to the BJP or the BJP has completely taken over the party, what's the point in the AIADMK surviving and doing business in the state?'
Prime Minister Modi made a strategic blunder of Nehruvian proportions -- presuming no war can happen now, and the Chinese won't be a military threat and risk their economic interests, observes Shekhar Gupta.
'Mr Modi's next challenger/s will need to invent a new politics,' says Shekhar Gupta.
The Modi government is notoriously honest about one fact: It does not listen to economists, observes Shekhar Gupta.
'Since the rise of the Modi-Shah paradigm, the BJP has followed a simple formula.' 'Sweep the Hindi heartland and the two big Western states, and you can rule India with a majority by just adding some little bits on the platter from here and there,' points out Shekhar Gupta.
'Whatever the legal position, it is my understanding that in practice, the Indian authorities have always treated Hindu refugees from Pakistan and Bangladesh far more sympathetically than Muslims,' notes Sunanda K Datta-Ray.
Modi isn't going to voters on his track record but on the fear of the terrorist across the border and the Muslims within. It's a battle on his terms, says Shekhar Gupta.
As the China factor enters the body politic of India with greater potency, its consequences will certainly be far-reaching, note Harsh V Pant and Vinay Kaura.
For those who think India's democracy is just fine and there has been no change in the last few years, perhaps it would be instructive to see what has happened on a few issues, observes Aakar Patel.
'Modi has shown political courage by instituting several economic reforms which include demonetisation, ushering in GST, eradication of benami transactions...'
In its sway over national politics now, the Modi-Shah BJP is what the Congress was under Indira Gandhi. Why would they indulge coalition partners, their greed and egos now, asks Shekhar Gupta.
'The Republic is currently captained and crewed by people who seem interested in the safety and well being of only a select kind of passenger, advising the rest to swim for Pakistan,' points out Mitali Saran.
Neither Modi nor Shah had held legislative or executive power in Delhi before 2014. They have no training in appealing to the diversity of India as represented in Parliament. Their prism is the provincial politics of Gujarat. An exclusive excerpt from Vinay Sitapati's fascinating new book, Jugalbandi: The BJP Before Modi.
'Rahul Gandhi's recent video performances offer little hope - the first fell flat in attacking government 'strategy'; the second showed him in a position unbecoming of a leader,' argues T N Ninan.
Perhaps the calculation is that economic recovery will have been achieved before the next general election comes around, but such assumptions can come unstuck if current directions are not reversed quickly, cautions T N Ninan.
'They don't want anybody to stand up and support the vulnerable sections of society who may be targeted.'
'Vajpayee would not have approved either of the way the BJP now functions or of the thoughts that it entertains in its mind,' says T C A Srinivasa-Raghavan.
'There are three pillars of concern: The expansion of Hindu majoritarianism, the concentration of executive power and decay of independent institutions, and curbs on free expression and dissent.'
At some stage this fall in the quality of life will begin to hurt anybody's popularity, observes Shekhar Gupta.
'If Mr Modi and Mr Shah have made a poisonous, polarising campaign their brahmastra for 2019, Mamata Banerjee is showing them its limitations,' says Shekhar Gupta.
Four decades of federal evolution made India more secure, but coronavirus is reversing that. Modi's central government has tasted power again and is unlikely to give it up, notes Shekhar Gupta.
"Such are his core supporters that they will vote for him even if cooking oil sells for Rs 5,000 per litre under his leadership.' 'They don't think about inflation but Modi when they go out to vote.'
Ambrose D'Mello, the Independent candidate from Bengaluru South, has been on maun vrat for 15 years. He does not own a house, does not wear footwear and sells books to earn a living.
The winds of nationalism laden with religion will now yield to those of concern over the stalled economy, unemployment, and a general malaise and unhappiness, predicts Shekhar Gupta.
'Air India's privatisation is acceptable as long as its control does not pass on to a foreign entity,' says A K Bhattacharya.
'He wanted to learn all the time.'
'While Modi is undoubtedly the star of the show, the online sphere has found in Modi the champion to re-engineer what it means to support the right.'
'We don't know where he will go from here and how he will conduct his government.'
'Modi remains the most popular politician in India; the BJP's organisational and fundraising prowess is considerable; and the Opposition, while newly collaborative, has no leader or clear economic messaging as of yet.'
'It is not his doing, but Rahul Gandhi is forced by circumstances.' 'In taking political decisions, everything has to get his clearance.'
'We are seeing an era where only what Modi wishes is going to happen.' 'A clear message has now been sent to others that if this fate could befall on Nitin Gadkari, then just think what could happen to lesser mortals.'
This is not an election Budget in the sense that I might target the voter in the coming elections. But if you look beyond this round of state elections, and tilt the periscope to graze at the more distant horizon, see how the Narendra Modi government wishes things looking by the summer of 2024, observes Shekhar Gupta.
The BJP's message is that the past must be reinvented as creatively as imagination allows, states Sunanda K Datta-Ray.
'Taranjit has the ideal temperament to deal with the Americans who understand firmness and appreciate flexibility.' 'He can hold his ground with a cheerful face and still make it clear that India and the US are partners, rivals,' says Ambassador T P Sreenivasan.
'It doesn't take much time for people's perception to change about a person.' 'People come and go based on people's will.' 'Nobody should forget that.'
With the role of the venerable elder thrust on him in UP, Mr Singh has had to attune himself to the politics at the Centre, observes Aditi Phadnis.
