Urban voters must introspect

This refers to ‘Why are urban and rural voters dissimilar?’(April 23). It would be apt if the educated urbanites introspect on their lacklustre attitude when it comes exercising their vote. The Election Commission (EC) must come out with more practical measures to bring urbanites to polling booths. The more important factor that has prompted rural voters to turn up in larger numbers is cash sops rather than caste issues. The EC must mull internet voting, which could be another way of improving the voting percentage.

Sakaleshpur, Karnataka It may be true that caste and religious considerations do influence the voting pattern in rural areas. But it is not the only reason. In rural areas people generally back persons who are popular locally so as to gain employment opportunities and other benefits. In urban areas the people are generally well-informed about the policies and work of political parties and form strong opinions on parties.

Coimbatore

With reference to ‘Trump moves to end Iran oil waiver; India to raise issue’ (April 23), it goes without saying that the proposed US move to end the 180-day waiver given to India and seven other countries for crude imported from Iran could not have come at a worse time. One just fails to see any rationale behind the decision of the President Trump to bring Iran’s oil exports to zero by denying the regime its principal source of revenue simply because Iran had earlier refused to fall in line as per the ‘whims and choices’ of the world’s sole superpower. But the moot question obviously is: Could Trump reasonably be justified in imposing his own ‘super’ wishes by not reissuing Significant Reduction Exceptions (SREs) when they expire in early May? Moreover, why punish its strategic partner India too even if “Iran is being given ‘very bad’ advice by @JohnKerry and people who helped him lead the US into the very bad Iran Nuclear Deal in big violation of Logan Act?” In any case, India may still use its diplomatic acuemen to urge the US administration to be similarly flexible for some more time in the wake of impending elections here.

New Delhi

Terror of this magnitude that ripped through Colombo in Sri Lanka is a dastardly attack on humanity and has to be condemned in the strongest possible way. The perpetrators of this heinous crime are cowards and inhuman, to say the least.

This senseless act, aimed at innocent civilians and targeting religious places and commercial locations, is appalling. With easy access to sophisticated electronic gadgets that can sense the happenings in the remotest corners of the globe, terror has assumed dangerous proportions. The world must fight this menace in a concerted and unified manner. There is no place for barbarism in a civilised society. While the world stands in solidarity with the people of the island-nation, the global community should expeditiously move in the direction of evolving credible measures to counter and root out terror.

Nagpur

This refers to ‘Capital goods need policy overhaul’ (April 23). Our capital goods policy targets lifting domestic requirements from 60 per cent to 80 per cent and production to ₹7.5-lakh crore by 2025 from the present ₹2.3-lakh crore. The state of the sector is not encouraging. Capital goods stocks are trading much below their five-year average valuations. Only a huge policy push for capital goods will attract large external investments. But we lack the commitment to create an environment to excel in quality, reliability and customer care. One big concern is the labour intensiveness of our export sector. While we average $1.8 per hour, in Thailand it is $0.49 ,Vietnam $0.38, and Indonesia $0.35. This tends to shift base of operations away from us.

Navi Mumbai

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