With reference to ‘SC suspends trials under sedition law’, the apex court decision is welcome, which will have a far reaching implications on civil rights.

Because now no further FIR can be filed under section 124A and all pending cases would be kept in abeyance.

Given the misuse of this law, there needs to be a balance national security and personal liberties. But how long will the government take to reconsider this provision and come up with new law?

The government would do well to have detailed discussions with all key stakeholders, including opposition before framing a new law.

Bal Govind

Noida

Act and deact 

This refers to the report “SC halts trials under colonial era sedition law” (May 12). The Apex Court has done well to suspend the operation of antiquated Act. It will compel the procrastinating government to repeal or amend the law expeditiously.

Since 2010 there have been 867 cases against 13,306 accused out of which Jharkhand, Tamil Nadu, Bihar, UP and Haryana account for over 60 per cent of number of accused. However, conviction rate has been poor ranging from 3 per cent to 33 per cent annually with an average of 20 per cent between 2014 and 2020. About 20 per cent cases were found to be false or mistaken or they lacked evidence. Percentage of cases pending with police or courts is also high-around 70-85 percent on yearly basis. All this proves the ineffectiveness of the law.

YG Chouksey

Pune

Boosting PSU banks

Apropos 'Fast-tracking PSU bank reforms' (May 12), several measures have been taken in the recent past to bring up the ailing PSBs to equip them to compete with others. PSBs are facing issues ranging from digitalisation, mounting NPAs, staff mix and inadequate capital. Merger and acquisition have not proved effective.

Meeting customers’ expectations is another major factor for PSU banks. The older clientele still prefers visiting bank branches for their transactions.

Attitudes of employees do also play a major role in shaping the banks. Those who joined the service upto 1990s had their loyalty towards the institution they belong to. Post 2000, given opportunities available now, many hop between jobs adding to the employers’ burden.

RV Baskaran

Chennai

The roiling rupee

This refers to your editorial “Rupee tantrums” (May 12). While several factors like growing inflation, widening CAD could be attributed to the rupee’s fall , forex reserves of about $600 billion is not necessarily a comforting factor.

Unlike forex reserves built based on export surplus which are stable in nature, FII and FPI are hot money which may flow out of a country at short notice. The fact that overseas investors have pulled more than ₹1 lakh crore in the current year proves the vulnerability of such inflows. External factors like rise in global crude oil price are putting pressure on the rupee, unless the government decides to rationalise tax rates and curb money supply it might prove challenging to arrest the downfall of rupee. Overseas borrowings would prove costly if rupee continues its fall. Since the dollar dominates India’s forex reserves, the US Fed’s policy moveswill have adverse impact on Re-dollar rates.

It is time for the government and RBI to work in unison to address this issue through suitable policy measures.

Srinivasan Velamur

Chennai

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