With reference to the editorial “Farm happiness” (March 14), farmers with small holdings shun their occupation due to unprofitable ventures and move to urban areas, seeking employment. A nation that produces bumper crops also sees farmers committing suicide due to the debt trap. This contradiction could be removed by developing more village industries to provide alternative employment during crises like crop failure and drought.

NR Nagarajan

Sivakasi

Point of view

The rupee fluctuation graph should be shown upside down (“Come elections, the rupee thrives”, by Gurumurthy K, March 14). The ‘reflection’ is indeed the real picture! It’s confusing because from the chart, it seems as if ‘50 plus’ in 2009 is ‘better’ than ‘30 plus’ in 1996.

Devraj Devraj

Alappuzha

Language matters

“Let a hundred languages bloom” by Sandhya Rao (March 14) looks at learning language from the angle of livelihood. But it is more than that. For advancing in life one needs to know the language well and have a grasp of its literature. It is unfortunate that many literature, engineering and science graduates cannot draft a letter elegantly. It has been scientifically proved that the more languages one learns the greater is the individual’s intellectual development.

People are generally averse to learning maths because they believe it is a difficult subject. Similarly it is popularly believed that language learning is difficult. Years back I learnt a foreign language in another country quite well in just 6 weeks! We need books, equipment and teachers of high quality to achieve that. Here our thinking is to produce shoddy books and ask some disinterested teachers to do the teaching.

Serukudi

Bangalore

Time to act

“Sanitation is independence” by Vijay Raghavan (March 13) is an informative and timely article. It is high time India focussed on the need for sanitation because it affects vital indicators such as child mortality and infant health. It is a shame we are spending millions on space missions while half the population is forced to defecate in the open. Even Sub-Saharan countries are faring better than us in this respect.

Nilotpal Mahanty

online

Honest to goodness

The interview by Nandini Nair, “Look at Parliament, it is a joke”(March 13) made a lot of sense. However, I don't understand how Rahul can be considered to lead the country when he has zero experience in any official position in any state or at the Centre. He has no credentials whatsoever other than the fact that he is an ex-PM’s son. We had great expectations from Arvind Kejriwal but his last two months have been disappointing. But he did one good thing. Around 30 per cent of India, which strongly believes in honesty, got together. If this does not translate into honest governance, we will surely miss a great opportunity.

Sunil Aggarwal

Delhi

Show them how

In a couple of months a new government will be in power and the 16th Lok Sabha will be constituted. As always the voter is faced with a Hobson’s choice as no political party in the country, not even the AAP, deserves to be voted to power. It has become a custom for parties to field the same people again and again with hardly any appraisal of their contribution; only the winnability factor and caste equations are in play. The onus is therefore on voters to select and reject candidates. There were some sane voices in existing House but these were drowned in the cacophony of the majority. Only this segment deserves a second chance for they have the interest of the people at heart. The country needs good administrators and able ministers in Parliament, not rabble. As the world’s largest democracy our Parliament should be a model to other nations.

CV Aravind

Bangalore

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