RBI’s objectives are clear

This refers to ‘How much money should RBI create?’ by TB Kapali (August 18). The preamble of the RBI Act clearly says the basic function of RBI is “...to regulate the issue of Bank Notes and keeping of reserves with a view to securing monetary stability in India and generally to operate the currency and credit system of the country to its advantage”. Hence its basic objective is monetary stability. The balance sheet grows on account of efforts to meet this objective. The contention that a large balance sheet will be inherently inflationary has another side: We can say that inflation and reduction in purchasing power have resulted in a larger balance sheet.

S Kalyanasundaram

Email

Death of rail budget

The proposal to merge the Railway Budget with the main Budget seems to be a retrograde step. It is good to know how well the railways are doing not only in a year but compared to previous periods or to other players in the transport sector. The proposed merger would make it difficult to judge performance, could hide inefficiencies and conceal dependence on government. The railways should be corporatised with the government as predominant shareholder and run as a board-managed commercial organisation. The proposed step runs counter to the Government’s policy of transparency and accountability in the use of public resources. Extending this logic, PSUs and banks could be merged with the General Budget.

NS Parthasarathy

Chennai

Retrogade ideas

Raghuram Rajan’s observation that lower level bank employees are overpaid and higher level employees are underpaid is surprising. The former receive far less pay than Central and State government employees. The call to change the time tested governance structure in banks is an attempt to facilitate eventual privatisation of PSBs. Campus and local hiring would deprive youngsters from rural areas getting employment in banks. What will happen to the banking industry when the regulatory authority itself seeks to insulate itself from its role by advocating retrograde proposals?

J Anantha Padmanabhan

Tiruchi, Tamil Nadu

Unfair deductions

It defies logic that the US deducts Social Security Tax from non-permanent residents’ income knowing fully well that, at the time of deduction, the foreigner is not eligible for social security benefits — only US citizens and permanent residents (green card holders) are eligible. The US government should either stop this practice or refund the deductions with interest if the individual affected returns to his/her country without getting permanent resident status.

S Pandian

Erode, Tamil Nadu

Scrap sedition law

In these days of ‘hyper-nationalism’ the prosecution against Amnesty International India on the ground of sedition has come as no great surprise. However, what has surprised us a bit is the fact that the sedition charge has been slapped by the Congress government without any preliminary inquiry withscant regard for the Supreme Court ruling detaching sedition from all reasons other than “incitement to violence” and “intention to create public disorder”. It is interesting that the Congress and BJP’s student wing ABVP are on the same page on the issue of sedition. The narrative of nationalism espoused by the BJP and the Congress leaves no space for any criticism of the state or the army. The limited agenda of the Amnesty event at the United Theological College in Bengaluru was to highlight the human rights violations in the Kashmir Valley and seek remedial action.

Human rights and civil liberties activists and organisations are not supporters and sympathisers of insurgents as made out to be. The state cannot absolve itself of all responsibility for resorting to the use of force. Any political system refusing to allow dissent becomes a tyranny. As of now, the sedition law remains a tool in the hands of the state machinery to stifle dissent. It has to go from the statute book for good.

G David Milton

Maruthancode, Tamil Nadu

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