Really unfortunate

This refers to ‘The loneliness of Arvind Kejriwal’ by Poornima Joshi (December 1). If Kejriwal and the Aam Aadmi Party have been pushed to the sidelines, the former is chiefly responsible for it. Kejriwal erred in assuming power with the support of the Congress, a party he vehemently criticised in the run-up to the elections.

The performance of AAP was instrumental in the decimation of the Congress in Delhi and relying on the support of AAP’s bitter enemy for governance was illogical and foolhardy. After assuming power, AAP seldom behaved responsibly and showed a penchant for displaying drama and surrealism.

It is unfortunate that a party that caught the imagination of the youth and the educated is in the doldrums. The BJP stands to gain from AAP’s discomfiture, aided by Narendra Modi’s charisma and renewed enthusiasm in the party’s rank and file, The AAP has to do a lot of soul-searching and needs to redraw its political agenda.

CG Kuriakose

Kothamangalam, Kerala

It will not be an exaggeration to say that Kejriwal will be fighting the coming election for survival as the BJP is expected to romp home easily. His fall is a lesson for all that one shouldn't be too ambitious.

Bal Govind

Noida

Bring back confidence

This refers to your editorial, ‘Destabilising flows’ (December 1). The P-notes are used by some dubious promoters in India to make the investing public believe that some FII is invested in their company. The promoters use their own money to open an account with these FIIs in a foreign country. When the foreign broker buys the shares of this company, it is shown that the foreign broker has a stake in the company. This false impression is created by the operators of the stock in collusion with the promoters of the company to make the public believe that this company is worth investing in.

With volatility sucking the small investor into these stocks, when the price goes down they hold on to the shares in the hope that the price will come back as they think foreign investors have stakes in the company. The share price will go to zero as happened in the past, killing our small investors. SEBI should look into these past instances and present ones as mentioned in the edit, as also the questionable companies in which P-note investment has increased and bring all the guilty promoters and operators to justice so that some confidence returns to small investors to come back to our markets. When SEBI can’t protect small investors, don’t invite them to this quagmire.

CR Arun

Email

Independence is important

It is really a bad move on the part of the government to allow banks themselves to pick their auditors to audit their accounts (‘Public sector bank boards can choose statutory auditors’, December 1). There is absolutely no justification and merit in the move.

It is always important to maintain independence between auditor and auditee, to uphold the efficiency of the auditing profession. Unlike in other professions and businesses, only in the auditing profession should the consumer of the service be happy if his mistakes are pointed out by the person who is providing the service.

On the one side, the government has changed the selection process of whole-time directors of banks, namely CMDs and EDs, to be more strict and independent. On the other hand, the same government is liberalising the selection of auditors for banks. With a view to both upholding the independence of the auditing process and also protecting the public funds handled by banks, it is important to maintain independence. When the present system is working well, why to change it for the worse?

Many financial scams such as Enron, Satyam and NSEL could have been nipped in the bud and the proportion of money lost could have been minimised had there been due diligence stemming from audit independence. An auditor being appointed by the auditee itself is suicide. The move should be opposed by other bank-related supervisory authorities such as the RBI, IBA and so on.

RS Raghavan

Bengaluru

Not for us

The newly launched Kisan Vikas Patra (KVP) is actually more to unearth black money in India than for investment purposes. It’s certainly not for the kisan (farmer or common person) as the name implies. It is equivalent to currency notes of ₹1000, 5000, 10000 and 50000 as it is transferable easily with an interest of 8.7 per cent per annum payable on maturity. There is no need of PAN number and its duration is 100 months. So no I-T questions can be raised as the time limit that invites questions is 6 years. The only negative aspect is that it may tempt some people to forge these documents. How to prevent this is a big question.

M Kumar

New Delhi

Inside job

Ill-gotten wealth is sickening

The Modi government is interested in development. At the same time, it should find ways of unearthing black money in India which may run to astronomical figures, outstripping black money in foreign banks. For this he should first take steps to wipe out NPAs by urging banks to act speedily in recovering huge loans from society’s so-called big wigs. Steps should also be taken to unearth the disproportionate wealth of politicians and others, recover government lands from powerful political elements and other influential bigwigs, unearth benami ownership of land and so on. The real problem of the nation is ill-gotten hidden wealth by powerful political, business and other so-called ‘important’ individuals and their families. Communalism, secularism and so on are bogus issues put forward by the owners of such wealth to divert people’s attention.

VS Ganeshan

Bengaluru

Cheating autos

The decision of oil marketing companies to slash the prices of petrol and diesel has come as a Christmas present. This is the seventh reduction in petrol prices since August and the third since October in the case of diesel. World oil prices have been softening for the post four months and their southern journey has resulted in big savings on travel expenses and brought much relief to the common man. Cab services like Ola and Taxi-For-Sure with delightful offers are also doing their bit to ease travel fare. What is disgusting, however, is the reluctance of autorickshaw drivers to climb down on existing fares and their continued fleecing of passengers is a cause for concern. With many cab companies taking the autos head on and giving them a run for their money the rickshaw drivers should realise that any folly on their part to lower fares at this juncture would be at their own risk and peril.

NJ Ravi Chander

Bengaluru

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