Great idea

With reference to “Why pay a price for honesty?” by Vinod Sharma (March 24) , it’s good to see there are still people with integrity who want to change the system.

Sanjay Tripathi

Agra

Yes, groups are stronger than individuals. Sometime back, the executive director of a company had said that corruption was an intricate part of daily life in many countries through many centuries and we should not be overly concerned about it. After such a lot of compromises in our business class, this article comes as a breath of fresh air.

S Subramanian

Chennai

Nice to see the concern for ethics and the solution suggested. You must take the lead and include persons like Anna Hazare and RTI activists I am also concerned about and wish to contribute in increasing honesty in India through value education, literature and public awareness. We should also think of the root cause of corruption. Is it sponsored by political parties to meet the genuine need to run party offices? Then, we should think of a solution to meet the needs of parties.

Pramod Aggarwal

online

Welcome directive

I refer to the Supreme Court direction to the Centre to withdraw all orders making Aadhaar card mandatory to avail services. The directive of the apex court has to be welcomed especially when the government agencies themselves do not have a clearcut plan of how to enrol citizens to this scheme. Around ₹4,000 crore has been spent till date to collect details of 50 crore Indians. While we appreciate the UIDAI’s objective, the manner in which it has been executed looks unpromising. Instead of bringing new cards to the table, the government should have utilised one of the existing identity cards and linked them to the Direct Cash Benefit Scheme. This would have saved the exchequer huge money.

Vivek George

Mavelikara, Kerala

Such a joke

The Business Line is no ordinary newspaper. It caters to readers with a specific interest. Hence your decision to devote two full pages to politics on the plea that the upcoming Lok Sabha elections are crucial is disappointing since all newspapers, the entire electronic media, and regional and national magazines are already overflowing with politics.

Having said that, I also admit I go through the headlines on the political pages. And when I read “We will provide an alternative to Cong, BJP” (March 22) I could not help appreciating Prakash Karat’s extraordinary sense of humour!

AR Ramanarayanan

Chennai

Stay on track

This refers to your report “Now, study on how trains have benefited Kashmir” (March 22). This is a welcome study and kudos to our Railways for achieving this. They should similarly ensure effective rail connection among the northeastern states and between them and the rest of India.

The government should also begin to take a wider view of railway development in keeping with what is happening around us in the region. China has been envisioning a train service between Berlin and Beijing via Istanbul and Baghdad.

Western nations have been talking of train services from Europe to the Mekong delta nations via India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. There has been a neglect of railway development compared to telecommunications.

S Subramanyan

Navi Mumbai

Shocking behaviour

If the reported news about Sharad Pawar asking people vote twice by erasing the ink is true, it is quite unfortunate and he deserves condamnation. As a a senior politician, Central minister and reputed veteran, he should not talk like this. The Election Commission should definitely investigate and initiate action even if he said this in a lighter vein. It is unfortunate many of the so-called senior politicians are behaving irresponsibly. Let alone statesmen, it seems India lacks decent leaders.

VS Ganeshan

Bangalore

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