People power

This is with reference to “Political corruption: From need to greed to need” ( Business Line , April 9.) Controlling a corrupt mind through a Lokpal Bill is a far cry. An integrated approach — wherein morality, spirituality, religion, economics, culture and development come together for the common good — is required to control corruption.

Otherwise, it would be like treating cancer with antibiotics. The need to be corruption-free must come from within; trying to control corruption through a Lokpal Bill may have its undesirable consequences as well.

It may cause a breakdown of institutional framework, leading to more of economic instability and political fallout. People alone can bring about this change.

No amount of institutional framework will succeed in a democratic set-up unless we, the people, change, demand transparency, and act cohesively against the corrupt.

Amit Saha

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All-pervasive

The editorial, “Fast against corruption'' ( Business Line , April 9) deal with the implications of Anna Hazare's efforts to combat corruption.

In the current Indian scenario, corruption owes its origin mainly to politics.

There is an enormous need of funds for elections. As the political parties cannot mint money, they are tempted to raise funds through unscrupulous means.

Before going into legislation to end such political corruption, the Election Commission should have thought of state funding. This would prevent unnecessary expenditure for publicity.

Nowadays, election time is almost like a festival season. As with every other law, the Lokpal Bill may also face the hurdle of loopholes in establishing corruption charges. It is to be seen how the ambit of the Lokpal Bill is defined and whether it includes the top posts of the prime minister and the judicial officers.

C. P. Velayudhan Nair

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Return to mutual funds

This is with reference to “Retail investors return to mutual funds thru SIP route” ( Business Line April 10).

One of the findings “But once the market tumbled, new account openings fell drastically by over 71 per cent to 2 lakh accounts” is definitely a sign of immaturity on the part of Indian retail investors.

When the markets tumble, the net asset values (NAVs) of mutual fund schemes also nosedive, giving a good opportunity to enter the mutual fund schemes or to increase the stakes in different schemes.

The fact that accounts opened by high net worth investors (HNIs) dropped by just 24 per cent during that period indicates that they were properly guided. But it is quite surprising even a relatively small group of HNIs (24 per cent) also reduced their exposures to mutual funds.

This shows that they were no better than retail investors in terms of their approach to mutual fund investments.

The report once again confirms that retail investors (including HNIs) are driven by sentiment and do not have professional approach to investments.

The contrarian approach of certain investors is certainly more professional and deserves to be emulated by the majority.

K. V. Rao

Bangalore

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