With the Delhi election only a few days away, many are switching parties, and political parties in turn are welcoming them. As a citizen of democratic India, I would like to state that those who change political parties just before elections compromise their principles and parties who welcome them also compromise their principles.

By giving a ticket or importance to new entrants, the parties are doing injustice to loyal workers who have been with the party and have been working for the party for many years. Voters should think about this.

Sajjan Singh

Asansol, West Bengal

Illogical tax laws

Absurd taxation laws result in black money and tax evasion. If one has lakhs of rupees as savings after paying taxes, why should he/she be forced to put it in banks or invest elsewhere? It is a personal choice to keep the cash in hand. What right does the government have to make a person part with his cash?

Whenever cash is seized or found, all that matters is that its owner must have valid proof of how it was earned. This will take care of black money as well. It is not the job of government to insist that the money be invested and where it should be invested. If these provisions are made a rule there will be practical difficulties in promoting business and the dream of ‘Make in India’ will fail.

In connection with the proposal to make furnishing of PAN mandatory in case of purchases of ₹1 lakh, this amount is too meagre; it should be ₹1 crore. IT exemption limit must be raised to ₹10 lakh and service tax exemption limit must be raised to ₹1 crore. All monetary figures of exemption and deduction under not only the Income Tax Act but all fiscal laws must be raised a hundred times as these are very old limits.

M Kumar

New Delhi

Draw that line

This refers to ‘Freedom of expression is never absolute’ by Rasheeda Bhagat (January 20). The observation that making religion and religious symbols the butt of jokes is going too far is fairly true. What is required is to draw a line between wit and ridicule. Both the creation of offensive cartoons of Prophet Mohammed and the deadly attack on the journalists involved in the drawings were despicable and are to be roundly condemned.

If the offensive cartoons of the Prophet were in bad taste so were MF Husain’s controversial drawings of Hindu deities. It is pertinent to ask why Husain never dared to paint or draw Prophet Mohammed. It has to be understood as well as recognised that everyone has a fair share of feelings, sense and sensibilities. Why don't we enjoy our freedom and creativity without tearing down others or holding them in contempt ? If others pay us back in the same coin, are we ready to accept them gracefully and cheerfully? Those who have staunch belief and faith may remain unruffled notwithstanding severe provocations. The tragedy is that they are very few in number.

CG Kuriakose

Kothamangalam, Kerala

Educational loans

It is disturbing to read the report, ‘For banks, education loan is a testing portfolio’ (January 20).Banks are struggling to recover loans. There is a clear shift of responsibility in financing higher education from the state to parents and now to students themselves, on the plea that it is a public good in the long run. The States’ primary responsibilities should centre around providing educational infrastructure alone, particularly for higher education. When it comes to primary as well as secondary education, States have a larger role and responsibilities, owing to the need to improve literacy rate. There is nothing wrong in students taking educational loan to fund their higher education, to be repaid from their future income.

As States have more financing responsibilities, self-financing by poor undergraduates is not a bad idea. But the caveat is to keep the cost of higher education at a reasonable level, apart from ensuring high quality. Instead of commercial banks venturing into long-term educational loans, why not start a dedicated bank to cater to educational needs?

Vazuthur Raghavan

Chennai

Sheer hypocrisy

How can a person who talks about sacrificing two-and-a-half years of service voluntarily to protest her seniority being overlooked, agree to lead the party overlooking the rights of seniors who have had toiled to build the party? Isn’t the same rationale applicable in politics? Is it not the height of hypocrisy?

Harnessing the electoral dividend is only possible through concrete action to redress the common man’s unresolved issues and not by merely bringing a new face on the eve of the election. If there was no Arvind Kejriwal, the BJP would have given Delhites either Vijay Goel or Satish Upadhyay and the Congress would have continued with Sheila Dixit.

Ettirankandath Krishnadas

Palakkad, Kerala

Shot in the arm

That the four-day bank strike proposed from January 21 has been deferred comes as a shot in the arm. The customers are really fed up with the announcement of strikes by banks at regular intervals. The Reserve Bank of India and the government are breaking their heads on following appropriate monetary policies to achieve macroeconomic objectives such as enhancement of investment, employment, income and output, and controlling inflation in the country. It is imperative that the bankers buttress their effort and not throw a spanner in the works.

S Ramakrishnasayee

Ranipet, Tamil Nadu

Ticked off by Pranab

President Pranab Mukherjee has rightly cautioned that the “ordinance route” cannot be used to replace the normal legislative process. At the same time he has not spared the Opposition for disrupting Parliament proceedings. It is true that “dissent is a recognised democratic expression, but disruption leads to loss of time and resources and paralyses policy formulation”, to put it in his words. The UPA government resorted to the ordinance route for food security. Then the NDA cried foul. Now the NDA has been going in the footsteps of the UPA and the latter has been crying hoarse.

Debates and discussions are not taking place, only uproarious scenes are being enacted, wasting the taxpayers’money.The ruling party and the Opposition should sit together and pass the Bills in the larger interest of the people. Keeping issues dead-locked is no answer.

KV Seetharamaiah

Hassan, Karnataka

Pros and cons

The proposal by Microsoft to use the frequency spectrum in television broadcasting for providing wireless broadband services has its pros and cons. It will lead to optimum utilisation of spectrum and low infrastructural requirements due to its focus on government programmes on education and healthcare. It is akin to intranet, where only two groups are involved, the government and the people. But the government should ensure that technology is not patented to bring more players and ensure affordability.

Vikram Sundaramurthy

Chennai

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