Shocking process

With reference to the editorial, ‘In need of a fix’ (March 30), we are shocked at the gold price being decided so informally. As most of our legal enactments typically follow the British model, we can set up an online electronic platform where orders can be processed more transparently or follow the prudent Chinese model by setting up exchanges where the gold price can be determined by fair means.

VK Sridhar

Erode, Tamil Nadu

Absolute power corrupts

Major surgery has been inflicted on the AAP with the axing of founders Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan. Now with the removal of L Ramdas as the party’s disciplinary committee chief, Kejriwal has sent a strong signal that nobody is indispensable. The saying “power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely” must be changed to “power leads to arrogance and absolute power leads to absolute arrogance”. This is true in the case of the AAP because its brute majority in the Assembly cannot shake it for the entire term. If people had foreseen that the AAP would be no different from other parties, the fate of the party in the election would have been quite different.

KV Seetharamaiah

Hassan, Karnataka

Why didn’t Kejriwal act against Bhushan and Yadav as soon as he came to know that they “backstabbed” him? The removal of these two founder members from the political affairs committee, their removal along with Anand Kumar and Ajit Jha from the party’s national executive, and the removal of Bhushan as the chief of the disciplinary committee have made it clear that there is no place in the AAP for dissent.

The AAP which was born out of the Lokpal movement and the same Kejriwal who had resigned as chief minister on the issue of lokpal removed its own internal lokpal L Ramdas without even the courtesy of conveying the decision to him. Bhushan and Yadav may have gone wrong by expressing their views outside the party forum but they were stressing what the AAP stood for: transparency, probity and democracy in the party’s functioning.

MC Joshi

Lucknow

Deciding the fate of founder members through voting smacks of a unilateral decision. Had the party served a show cause notice and given them the opportunity to explain their stand on the charges attributed to them, things would not have come to such a pass.

The move to silence the dissenting voices in the party shows the impatience of a man who believes in dharnas and protests. It’s incumbent on Kejriwal to make his allegations of anti-party activities against the duo public.

R Prabhu Raj

Chennai

Saina deserves better

It is really heartening that Saina Nehwal has become the first Indian woman shuttler to attain the No 1 spot in the world rankings, thereby ending India’s 35-year wait. The entire nation including the President and Prime Minister congratulated Saina.

However, we cannot also forget how the same Indian government and the sports ministry slighted her for reminding them to consider her case also for a Padma Shri. Despite this, Saina went ahead to reach the top slot, thereby bringing honour and glory to our nation.

Fiona Waltair

Chennai

Innovative thinking needed

Sumit Mazumdar, the CII’s president-designate says the auction of coal and iron ore blocks will revive growth in the mining sector, but the roads and highways sector is languishing (‘PPP model for highway project was wrong’ by Pratim Ranjan Bose, March 30). The auction is going to bring major funding to the coal-bearing States and they must use the money judiciously. Improving the quality of life of people and infrastructure creation should be of utmost importance.

Innovative thinking is required to solve project backlogs and the non-bidding of projects offered. Unless structural changes are made, growth will elude the road sector. In the context of environment protection, it is better if plants are close to where the raw materials are available.

TV Jayaprakash

Palakkad, Kerala

It’s a nexus

This refers to your edit, ‘In need of a fix’ (March 30). The interest rates were fixed, gold rates were also fixed and still our government seems to have not recognised the need to bring in transparency in the way spot gold prices are discovered in this country. We seem to always do the reverse when it comes to markets. Take for instance, the futures market for agriculture commodities, the mandi system — it is inefficient but the futures market derives the price from mandis every day. We don’t have a functional spot market for agricultural commodities. The same is true of gold. The reason for all this is simple, it is the nexus between the politician and the traders. The common man is paying too heavy a price for this.

CR Arun

Email

Drainage water supply!

Apart from the dispute over river water sharing between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, it seems a new one has surfaced: sewage water disposal. The difference between the former and the latter is that while the old one is for constructive growth, the new one is regarding danger to the health of all including people, plants, animals and the environment. Karnataka is duty-bound to take urgent steps to stop this unhealthy disposal.

VS Ganeshan

Bengaluru

Corrective action required

Ever since the BJP government came to power it has been in a hurry to leave a stamp on everything. Instead of winning the hearts of the people by sticking to its election promises one by one, it has been indulging in unnecessary controversies like ghar vapasi, Bhagavad Gita, and other non-developmental activities detrimental to the party as well as the government. It has also been interfering in the independence of the RBI and the CBI and free speech and so on. Even now it is not too late. It should reconcile and take corrective steps and try to establish itself as a good government.

TSN Rao

Bhimavaram, Andhra Pradesh

Welcome move

It is welcome news that the Centre is reviewing the FDI policy in the pharma sector. The government should devise means to have control over the manufacture of drugs by companies with foreign financial support. The government should also have a say in the list of generic drugs that the companies should give priority to in manufacturing and pricing.

TR Anandan

Coimbatore

Will there be a review?

It is a welcome step that the CBSE has promised to “protect interests of the students” who suffered due to the unusually difficult Class XII mathematics paper. Some students were so traumatised by the paper, they were not willing to take their next examination. The problems were completely different from what had been set in the past.

So what went wrong? Apparently the CBSE wanted a big change by stressing on application and skill based evaluation. Most of the questions were not from the books or the syllabus although they could be linked to the syllabus “somehow”. Some students even compared it to IIT standards. It’s fine to want to create scholars and scientists, but not by demoralising the kids.

Gopal Sutar

Bengaluru

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