It is remarkable that in Punjab people could find such extraordinary resonance with a young political party, predicated not so much on any charismatic leadership as on a renewed confidence to forge new possibilities ahead. These were essentially to be built on fresh foundations of health, education and simple yet effective governance to shape the next generation. And Delhi, as a pilot project of AAP, had perhaps attempted to establish this.

Ideologies that found sway elsewhere, were jettisoned and political pedigree had little resonance. Never has the onus of reclaiming the state's eminence sought to be shared as much by the political class as by its proletariat. This joint venture, if imbibed well , ought to form the basic operating template for every other State.

R Narayanan

Navi Mumbai

Fertiliser sector woes

Apropos editorial 'Not a fertile policy' (March 17), it is not a good idea to bring all fertiliser manufacturers under one roof. It is also not an appropriate moment to initiate this move, when there is a shortage of fertiliser is looming large due to the Russia-Ukraine war.

. If the Centre can plug the leakages of the fertiliser subsidy by giving it to famers through direct benefit transfer (DBT).

Besides, the Centre needs to have a relook at the fertiliser policy, analyse the causes for the reputed private players who exited the field recently and take steps to bring them back and augment the domestic fertiliser production.

RV Baskaran

Chennai

This refers to the Editorial "Not a fertile policy"(March 17). The proposal to require urea makers to drop branding to bring 'One nation One fertiliser' monopoly is not a good one. The new policy of aggregating the supply under single umbrella will reduce transport cost and will lead to subsidy saving.

At a time when urea manufacturers are exiting the industry, the new move will discourage new entries from entering the sector. The Editorial has aptly suggested for direct delivery of subsidy to farmers and decontrol of the urea market with prices linked to market forces. The government has to make sure that more urea makers don’t exit the market.

NR Nagarajan

Sivakasi

Harbhajan in a new Avatar’

Apropos 'AAP could nominate Harbhajan Singh as its Rajya Sabha candidate' (March 17), it was interesting to gather that the former India off-spinner could follow the footsteps of his illustrious teammate Sachin Tendulkar as a Member of Parliament in the Rajya Sabha.

Notably, the new CM wants Harbhajan, to work towards 'lifting the standard of sports' in the Punjab, which has gone down considerably in past few years. Creditably, he has also been associated with many philanthropic projects and social work in Punjab.

While one would always like to see him occupying such a key position but he should attend the House proceedings regularly unlike Sachin Tendulkar whose tenure in Rajya Sabha was perhaps marked by a large abstention.

SK Gupta

New Delhi

Oil politics

Reports that India is close to clinching a deal with Russia for buying 3.5 million barrels of its crude at deep discounts appear to have divided opinions in the West. But crucially, the US has indicated that India’s plan may not violate American sanctions against Russia.

However, this transaction is more symbolic in nature as 3.5 million barrels don’t constitute a big volume for India given its daily consumption of 4.5 million barrels. Of particular interest is the proposed payment mechanism for the transaction with a rupee-rouble arrangement. Actually, sanctions on Russia have once again provided impetus to calls for reviewing the dollar as a reserve currency and the primary currency of global trade. The current state of geopolitical play should compel India to look at internationalising the rupee to firewall future strategic trade from Western sanctions.

Both Trump – with Iran sanctions – and Biden administrations have now forced India to rejig its trading patterns. And while Russia has not made things easy with its unjustified Ukraine invasion, India shouldn’t be compromising its strategic autonomy in trade.

N Sadhasiva Reddy

Bengaluru

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