CJI’s critique

Chief Justice RM Lodha has criticised the Government’s rejection of Gopal Subramanium appointment in no uncertain terms. Subramanium’s nomination as a Supreme Court judge was unanimously recommended by the collegium headed by the CJI. The CJI’s assertion that an independent judiciary is non-negotiable must be followed up with some concrete action, albeit without triggering a confrontation between the Government and the judiciary or a constitutional crisis.

He could have intervened when a flurry of negative intelligence reports were leaked to the media as part of a slander campaign against Subramanium.

His belated indignation at being overruled cannot obscure his failure to prevent Subramanium from withdrawing his name. Lodha could have given an assurance that the collegium would stand its ground. Nevertheless, the CJI must be commended for not letting the Government’s wrongdoing pass without castigation.

G David Milton

Kanyakumari, Tamil Nadu

Doubling tax exemption

The salaried class is grateful to the Government for understanding their plight in the light of raging inflation and for contemplating a doubling of the tax exemption limit on investment from the present ₹1 lakh to ₹2 lakh. To enjoy the exemption, employees have to make an additional investment of ₹1 lakh. The Government’s intention is to encourage savings and mitigate hardship.

But people would be happier if the Government raises the threshold limit, which attracts no tax, from the present ₹2 lakh to ₹4 lakh or at least 3 lakh. The problem is not alleviated unless people are freed from the burden of making forced savings to enjoy the benefit of tax relief.

KV Seetharamaiah

Hassan, Karnataka

Well argued

The article “Are sugar mills privately managed PSUs?” by Tejinder Narang (July 2) very clearly articulates the deficiencies in the sugar industry. Increasing import duty was wrong; instead the Government should have taken steps to plug the loopholes in the price-fixing mechanism.

Many state governments are acting very irresponsibly with their finances and policies for the sake of votes and to please lobbyists who are all mostly connected to politicians. The people have got used to the whims and fancies of the state governments are not raising their voices against this. The middle-class does not want even a small increase in cost of goods and services but will keep cribbing about quality of services — the fares of Mumbai suburban trains is a classic example.

Sridhar Narasimhan

Email

It’s their right

“Orphaned by our education system” by Megan Reed recalls what Rajiv Gandhi once famously said: that every penny does not reach the needy because of the middlemen.

The Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan is not the only such scheme where allotted funds have not been fully received and utilised. The mid-day meal scheme is another example. Migrant labourers are ignored by our government and because of their situation, they would rather have their children employed. So it becomes all the more critical to provide basic education to these children. It is their right.

Bal Govind

Noida

The big challenge

This refers to the editorial, “Tackling fiscal slippage” (July 2). The Government has to deal with two key issues: containing inflation and fiscal deficit on the one hand and ironing out the economic slowdown on the other.

In order to reduce the fiscal deficit, subsidies need to be gradually nullified. At the same time, the Government must accelerate the growth-engine by deliberately giving sops to the corporate sector to augment production, lifting the personal income-tax exception ceiling to make the salaried spend more on goods and build assets with the proceeds from disinvestment in targeted PSUs. The biggest challenge is to convince the people that the pills, however bitter they may be, have been prescribed only to revamp a sluggish economy.

S Lakshminarayanan

Cuddalore, Tamil Nadu

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Send your letters by email to >bleditor@thehindu.co.in or by post to ‘Letters to the Editor’, The Hindu Business Line, Kasturi Buildings, 859-860, Anna Salai, Chennai 600002.