Welcome judgement

It was a remarkable coincidence that the Supreme Court’s judgment convicting VK Sasikala came about at a time when she staked claim to power. The verdict could not have come at a more opportune moment for those who do not want to see Sasikala in the chief minister’s chair. The O Panneerselvam camp took it as a tremendous boost to it and believed it furthered its interests. The celebrations were surprising, given the fact that the apex court “convicted” J Jayalalithaa too.

Different parties joined hands to fell Sasikala. But none of them questioned the suitability of a fawning politician who fell at the feet of his leader as a gesture of sycophancy to be the CM. Wittingly or unwittingly, they have played their part in paving the way for the BJP to try and gain a foothold in the state where its vote share is less than 3 per cent. It is highly unlikely that OPS will muster enough numbers by effecting desertions from the dominant faction swearing allegiance to Sasikala.

The continued support of AIADMK MLAs to E Palanisamy can thwart the attempts of the BJP to gain a toehold in the State via President’s Rule. The verdict is welcome for the tangible benefit of setting the stage for resolution of the political crisis and the intangible benefit of cleaning up the political system.

G David Milton

Maruthancode, Tamil Nadu

Justice prevails

It is heartening that the SC has given a clear and unambiguous judgement in the appeal filed against the exoneration of Jayalalithaa and three of her co-accused including Sasikala by the Karnataka High Court in the disproportionate assets case. By turning down the HC judgement, the apex court has proved again that Indian judiciary is always just and above board.

Tharcius S Fernando

Chennai

Location disabled Congratulations to Lokeshwarri SK for enlightening us about the intricacies involved in co-location facilities (‘Much ado about the NSE co-location issue’, February 14). Most of the media reports did not reveal the actual process involved. I would request her to add about the lessons learnt in overseas markets where these facilities are already in vogue. I wonder whether this was the issue that caused exit of its earlier CEO and delays in getting the exchange listed.

PV Subrahmanyam

Ameerpet, Hyderabad

Bold move This is in response to ‘Demonetisation transformed mindsets’ (February 14) by M Venkaiah Naidu. Demonetisation was indeed a bold and decisive step by the current government to tackle black money and corruption. However, the government should take follow-up measures to ensure the short term pain caused by the move yields to long term gain.

There is a need to enhance cyber security infrastructure to facilitate secure digital transactions. Also, the government should resist the tendency to adopt overzealous tax administration to boost tax revenues.

Amala S Maheswari

Kozhikode, Kerala

As a minister in the ruling party, there is nothing wrong in Venkaiah Naidu supporting the demonetisation decision. But some pertinent questions that can be asked: Why did you not foresee the troubles that would be faced by the common people? Why was the ₹2,000 note printed first when small notes are not sufficient to meet the requirement? The acute shortage of currency and its arbitrary rationing reduced rupee’s status to just being another commodity.

TSN Rao

Bheemvaram, AP

Ethics at Infosys

The principle of compensation for severance is not questioned. It is the related issues that cause concern to the small shareholder and the tax paying public. Was such an unduly large compensation considered small compared to the cost of the ex-CFO’s continued presence in the company? If so, that is disturbing and mysterious. What is “motivated compensation” that the company’s chairman speaks of?

NS Parthasarathy

Chennai

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