Individuals and privacy

This refers to ‘Let’s be realistic about Aadhaar’ by TK Ramachandran (October 6). Freedom of individuals to be left alone from control of the government is the core tenet of democracy. In a democracy, people control the government, and not vice versa. People trust the government and the government has to trust the people. That is why transactions between the Government and individuals are based on truthful declaration or affidavits, given by individuals to government. Such declarations are subject to law of perjury. One tends to think that Aadhaar is based on the premise that people are out to cheat the Government. The Government puts every individual under the vortex of Aadhaar’s surveillance. Businesses including media that infringe on privacy must have no right to operate. However, the difference is that the individual has choice and freedom to buy or not to buy goods and service offered by private businesses. The government’s Aadhaar is mandatory. Life becomes impossible without availing services of the Government and from businesses regulated by the government.

KVA Iyer

Kaloor, Kerala

For better management

This refers to the lead ‘Kotak panel bats for transparent boards’ (October 6). Recommendations of Uday Kotak-led SEBI committee on corporate governance can bring in greater transparency and professionalism in the functioning of boards of listed companies. Considering the recent governance issues at, say, Tata Sons and Infosys, the committee has proposed formal information channels under regulatory purview to share sensitive information with certain promoters and specified shareholders. This will put an end to the prevailing regulatory vacuum regarding sharing information with various stakeholders.

The proposal to separate the role of chairperson and MD/CEO in listed companies with more than 40 per cent public shareholding and that the chairperson of a listed company should be a non-executive director, will make the management more accountable to shareholders. The committee’s recommendation not to appoint relatives of promoter groups as independent directors is also in consonance with canons of good corporate governance.

Philip Sabu

Mannuthy, Kerala

In defence of Illaiah

Professor Kancha Illaiah’s use of ‘social smugglers’ as a metaphor for those who amass wealth by exploiting the lower castes while critiquing caste in Post-Hindu India provoked some men of a community into targeting him. Illaiah’s works have stimulated discussion on the social and economic implications of caste.

The Hindu Right is angry with Illaiah for questioning religious texts sanctifying division of man on the basis of birth. The simultaneous ‘deification’ of BR Ambedkar and attacks on Ambedkerites brings out the hypocrisy of the casteists.

Freedom of expression is sacrosanct. Those who cannot counter intellectual arguments in kind turn to violence.

G David Milton

Maruthancode, Kanyakumari

Free speech at a cost

This is with reference to ‘Fake News vs Free Speech’ by Venky Vembu (From the Viewsroom, October 6). I disagree with the presumption of the writer whose views have undertones of disapproval of government regulation of social media. He suggests that if social media platforms like Facebook are subject to regulatory oversight this will be exploited by elements who will throttle free speech, which he feels is a bigger than fake news.

Can we extrapolate this argument and express disapproval of the need to have a government in the first place to administer and regulate society, on a similar stubborn presumption that the government will inevitably misuse its power to repress the rights of its citizens?

It’s high time that social and print media understand that the free speech they espouse, campaign for and defend is not an unquestionable prerogative, and like people and governments, they should be held accountable for their misdeeds and negligence.

Aravind Sridhar

Bengaluru

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