Letters

The Well Runs Dry Truant members of Parliament should be made to pay for every freebie they use ("Missing in Action", March 4). The only way to remind our leaders about their duties is to force them to pay for unrestricted amenities. It will help the absentees realise that we don't elect them to forget the country and its citizens. G.R. Jhaver, Mumbai Our politicians first exploit the caste and communal divide in our society to manipulate their entry into Parliament and then conveniently avoid it to pursue their alternative professions. Arun Gaba, on e-mail The most unfortunate thing in our nation is that while there are politicians who make laws for others, there is no one to control the law-makers. Sandip Kumar, Gopalganj

We don't need an expert to tell us that the nation's economy is in the doldrums ("Tackling a Hung Economy", March 4). Even while consumer confidence dips to a low and the rupee flounders against the greenback, our Government continues to waste precious resources in funding useless projects. It is a challenge and an opportunity for Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha to draft a budget that revives the economy without fleecing the honest taxpayer.

D.B.N. Murthy, Bangalore

While calculating inflation rates, the cost of education is not taken into consideration even though it gnaws away at the bulk of a middle-class family's earnings. With no money left after paying academic fees, how can the vast majority of the middle class invest either in the consumer market or the stock market? If India is to become an economic power its knowledge base should be expanded at a reasonable cost.

Geetha Seshadri, Rajkot

While The panellists largely missed the point, Bibek Debroy articulated what could be the germ of a big idea: the whole issue is not just of formulating policies but also of implementing them. So the finance minister would do well to introduce new measures in his budget-reward ministers and bureaucrats for performance and punish them financially for non-performance. If this were ever to be practised in public-sector units, we would save the neat package that is currently being squandered each year.

G.S. Chandy, on e-mail

It cannot be true that only 50,000 Indians have taxable incomes in excess of Rs 10 lakh. It is, however, true that we have mustered enough cunning to evade income tax though I am not sure it can be attributed to lack of enforcement. Our apathy towards law in general is mostly responsible for tax evasion.
Manjunath, Bangalore

Ownership Deal

It is unfortunate that the more the world changes, the more Indian socialists remain stuck with their beliefs ("Plug the Drainage", March 4). They do not realise that the main reason for the fall of the erstwhile USSR was state control of all economic activities. Moreover, why oppose privatisation when losses in state enterprises have to be borne by the poor taxpayers, already burdened by increasing state costs?

V. Sagar, Delhi

Along with the move to privatise public-sector units running up losses, the Government should adopt measures to utilise money to ameliorate the condition of the downtrodden. For the nation may be above all else but its citizens are a significant part of it and their welfare is paramount.

Surya Prakash, Chhapra

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