With reference to your editorial, “Take five” (August 20), if our governor thinks the RBI needs a COO we should support the move. To ask for transparency in every appointment in the RBI is asking for too much. We have a governor who is the envy of the world; we should trust him. The governor wants to take the union on board, which is a good sign. We have rights and unions too have rights; let’s exercise them in a sensible manner.

CR Arun

Email

The argument of the outsider, though it is not so in this case, could also be stretched against the appointment of the RBI governor! The imperatives of placing the right person in the right job have culminated in having Raghuram Rajan at the helm of affairs at the RBI and he is doing his best to resuscitate the ailing Indian economy which has evidently recovered from the onslaught of the global slump of 2008 and its attendant hardships. He should be enabled with reasonable autonomy and objective liberty to make changes as he desires both administratively and functionally to tweak economic growth. The attempts for supremacy among equal functionaries are natural. We remember the irreconcilable spat between the erstwhile Deputy Governor KC Chakrabarty and former SBI CMD Pratip Chaudhuri on CRR.

When everything is subject to change for betterment, The Reserve Bank of India Act 1934 must also be put through the needy amendments to have a COO on par with the existing Deputy Governors. Resistance to the proposition for a COO has to be dislodged with corrective decisions.

B Rajasekaran

Bangalore

Real hero

Thankfully, the truth finally dawned on a sessions court judge to hold that Irom Sharmila was not attempting suicide and order her release. Strangely, it did not occur to successive governments for the last 14 years that she could have been stopped from her ‘attempt to suicide’ by repealing the draconian Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA).

Irom Sharmila’s heroic struggle for the withdrawal of AFSPA has made her a folk hero. The haunting picture of a frail-looking woman with a feeding tube connected to her nose is a study in contrast to a gun-toting soldier in combat uniform. Further, Irom Sharmila’s ‘fast unto death’ provides a perfect foil to the token hunger strikes undertaken by weak-kneed politicians with bananas hidden in battery torch lights. When sweeping powers to the armed forces in so-called disturbed areas are nothing short of a licence to go on a rampage, the rightness of Irom Sharmila’s cause cannot be contested.

G David Milton

Kanyakumari, Tamil Nadu

Learning lifelong

Tirna Ray makes a good case that “To move ahead fast, learn lifelong” (August 20). Apart from attending B-schools there are three other ways for continuous learning in life.

Observing one’s own and others’ behaviour and learning from their good and bad aspects is an instantaneous and inexpensive method of updating oneself. Reading is another. However, these days the reading material abounds in books, internet, e-books, social media and media and it is a difficult art to decide what not to read. The third route is to interact with well-known experts and get one’s doubts cleared.

All these approaches require the cultivation of a questioning attitude. Those who think that they know everything should remember that even a genius like Isaac Newton said he had been able to pick up only a few pebbles from the vast ocean of knowledge.

YG Chouksey

Pune

Sensible approach

The interaction with Ratan Tata (“Indian business thrives on envy, frowns on success”, August 20) revealed his frankness and broad and sensible approach to things. If corporate entities can shed their petty jealousies and rivalries, and adopt a cooperative attitude, it will become a win-win situation for all. Tata’s call for an India where the Government and corporates work together for the good of the country can usher in overall prosperity.

CG Kuriakose

Kothamangalam, Kerala

Pros and cons

The mooted post of COO has pros and cons (“Take five”, August 20). The top brass of the RBI will be relieved from governing day-to-day operations and can concentrate on policies and strategies. But the thing is that all the existing four Deputy Governors’ functioning will come under the COO, coo’s assay and hence there is a need to promote an existing incumbent to the post rather than to bring an outsider into the stream to get co-operation. Seniority-based appointments will serve the purpose.

NR Nagarajan

Sivakasi, Tamil Nadu

Yet another scam

Now, the Dena Bank scam with regard to fake fixed deposits running into some 400 odd crores of rupees and loans sanctioned against them which were ultimately swallowed has come to light. The Government should not lose time tracing the details for necessary punitive action against the culprits. The Modi Government should take positive urgent action instead of allowing the law to take its own course. Some special measures can be thought of to deal with these culprits. If the culprits of all the scams are effectively cornered and punished irrespective of their background, the Modi Government will earn goodwill and establish public ethics.

VS Ganeshan

Bangalore

Unfair toll

The toll gate fee is being collected at a distance of every 50 km on national highways and some state highways. Two-wheelers and three-wheelers are exempt, though. One cannot have any objection if the fee is collected from commercial vehicles as they generate income for their operators. But collecting from personal car owners is not justified. For the owners of small cars the fee has become a heavy financial burden.

Udaya Sankar Balabhadrapatruni

Email

Right move

India calling off talks with Pakistan for the latter having had talks with the Kashmiri separatist leader is the correct line of action. It exhibits the fact that India can no longer be at the beck and call of that country; the change of government has indeed brought about a radical change in the formulation of policy towards Pakistan. It has now become clear that Pakistan does take the separatists on its side in matters relating to Kashmir. This being so, the toughness exhibited by India in the present case is totally justified.

TR Anandan

Coimbatore

Take a tough stand

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has vowed to end the graft menace. Rising corruption is the outcome of rising inflation. Tough measures have to be initiated to rein in inflation on the one hand and take punitive action on reports of corruption emanating from complainants on the other. There are takers of bribe so long as there are givers to get their work done in hurry.

At present there is no field where corruption has not made inroads. Corruption at the top political and bureaucratic levels breeds corruption at the lower level. Good education cannot come without paying a heavy price in the form of hefty donations and incurring expenditure in the purchase of costly books. Jobs cannot be secured without greasing palms. Authorities at the helm have no qualms about delaying transfers and promotions. Regional transport offices, taluk offices, PWD, land survey department, food and civil supplies department, labour department… all these are the nerve centres of corruption. Even in courts, clerks do not give any information unless their palms are greased.

In the past corruption was clandestine. But now giving and taking bribes is no longer a matter of secrecy. Before eliminating corruption in government offices, Modi needs to keep his cabinet colleagues free of corruption for the rest of the five years. It is a challenge.

KV Seetharamaiah

Hassan, Karnataka

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