BSNL

Published : Mar 25, 2011 00:00 IST

THE neglect of the public sector telecom giant BSNL by successive governments has led to its present sorry plight (Call disconnect, Cover Story, March 11). It is unfortunate to note the callousness with which former Communications Minister A. Raja handled BSNL's affairs. The systematic sidelining of BSNL allowed private players a free run in the market and led to a situation where they had a virtual monopoly. It is the duty of a Minister to protect and promote government-run institutions, but it appears that the former Minister's action caused the virtual annihilation of BSNL. But for the vigilant role played by its employee unions, the situation could well have been far worse.

Scams galore

DHARMA means righteousness and is non-negotiable (Cover Story, March 11). A Prime Minister must keep track of every department and service under him and cannot plead ignorance. The coalition dharma that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh talks about often does not absolve him of responsibility for the crimes committed by constituents of his government.

The Cover Story clearly brought out the origins of the various scams and the failure of the government to prevent them at an early stage.

S.S. Rajagopalan Chennai

INDIA has become a silent spectator to numerous corruption and bribery cases that often escape the law. The pursuit of power and pelf has become the order of the day.

Corruption is coming in the way of implementing welfare schemes and industrial projects. The reality is that the country lacks strong rules to act quickly against the corrupt political class. There should be a provision in the Prevention of Corruption Act for the confiscation of the assets of people convicted of offences under the Act.

It should be amended so that prior sanction from a competent authority to initiate prosecution against a public servant is no longer needed. Special courts should be set up to handle graft cases without any delay.

P. Senthil Saravana Durai Vazhavallan, T.N.

BY breaking his silence through a press conference, the Prime Minister appeared to be under pressure to defend himself because of the scams that have come to light under the UPA-II regime. The UPA government seems to be divided on handling the series of scams that have come to light. However, the Prime Minister is dissociating himself from the frauds committed by Ministers in his government.

All is not well with his government, what with its inability to bring to book the holders of black money and control inflation, which has affected the common man.

ALL hell has broken loose for the government. Scams are being unearthed almost each day with seemingly no respite. They point to a dangerous politician-business nexus operating beyond the pale of the law.

In the 2G spectrum case, the Prime Minister pretends to be helpless as the Department of Telecommunications was headed by another person. But the Department of Space comes under one of his portfolios.

Was he totally unaware of the handing over of the 70 MHz spectrum by ISRO to Devas? This latest scam is a reflection of the reality that we live in a system that facilitates and celebrates the accumulation of wealth by unfair means.

THE blind race for power and pelf has ruined the political system of the country. In order to regain its lost credibility and restore the aam aadmis confidence in the political system, the Prime Minister and the UPA chairperson have to come out of the clutches of coteries and take pragmatic decisions. The common man wants concrete action and will not accept mere expressions of concern and the usual reply that the law will take its own course.

CBI raids and public relations exercises are for public consumption. These are carried out not because the government has a desire to bring out the truth, arrest the corrupt, stop the growth of corruption or professionalise investigation agencies.

During the meeting with new channel editors, the Prime Minister expressed his helplessness in the face of coalition dharma. It is the dharma of politicians to be honest, it is the dharma of political parties to protect the integrity and honesty of the nation, it is the dharma of individuals to stand by the truth. The dharma of coalition is only to remain in power and safeguard its own interests at the cost of the nation's.

S.A.S. Sarma HyderabadPakistan

WHATEVER be the facts in the Raymond Davis case, it has cost Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi his job (Shot in the dark, March 11). Qureshi, known for his tough talking, had gone through the records of the foreign office and after taking the view of legal experts refused to certify Davis a diplomat.

Had a similar incident taken place in the U.S., the authorities would have arrested the Pakistani diplomat and tried him/her as per its laws. The reality is that the U.S. is running Pakistan's economy, and the government is not in a position to antagonise the U.S. at this moment. If things spin out of control, the U.S. could even implicate President Asif Ali Zardari in Benazir Bhutto's assass- ination.

With a new Cabinet being set up in Pakistan, Davis may be freed, but one needs to salute Qureshi for his courage to stand up to his party bosses.

The judiciary

THE judiciary is the last resort of law-abiding citizens (Time for change, March 11). Its image should be protected. Justice V.R. Krishna Iyer's suggestion for the formation of appointment commissions, performance commissions and anti-corruption commissions must be taken up seriously by the Centre.

National-level appointments through a process similar to the one adopted in the case of IAS/IPS cadres could reduce judicial corruption and misdeeds. It is imperative to ensure that the judiciary is above suspicion.

Andhra Pradesh

IN true cinematic style, the megastar K. Chiranjeevi emerged on the political arena of Andhra Pradesh a few years ago (Merger dividends March 11). He believed more in his charisma and on theatrical outbursts than in an ideology, organisational strength and political and personal probity and integrity. He cast himself in the role of a messiah and thought rather innocently that the millions who attended his meetings would support him through votes. That was not to be.

Realising that his dreams would not come true in practical politics, he merged with the Congress, forgetting all his past tirades against it.

Oil mafia

THE gruesome killing of Additional District Collector Yashwant Sonawane shows how deeply lawlessness has penetrated Indian society (An oil scam, March 25). The system constantly fails to put an end to such crimes because of the nexus between politicians and mafia gangs.

What is appalling is that politicians have started their old game of trying to gain political mileage out of the incident while the nation is outraged over the murder.

IF only the Maharashtra government had taken timely action on the report filed by Sonawane on Popat Shinde's illegal activities, the nation would not have lost a dedicated public servant.

Now, going by the statement of Maharashtra's Director General of Police, it appears that a State government resolution prevents the police from cracking down on the mafia in the aftermath of the killing. Consequently, the offenders will go scot-free and their unlawful activities will continue.

It is sad that whistle-blowers like Sonawane become sitting ducks because the powers that be are indifferent to the activities of criminals.

Kerala

THE political scene in Kerala is marred by a series of scandals, with the ruling coalition and the opposition front trying to outdo each other in mudslinging and levelling allegations with an eye on the coming Assembly elections (Rash of scandals, February 25).

In the midst of all this, the common man's problems continue unabated.

The environment

THE article Scorching the earth (February 25) was indeed shocking to read. With friends like Jairam Ramesh, our precious planet does not need any enemies.

One fondly hopes that good science and people's common sense will prevail and that the government will not give in to arm-twisting by various lobbies.

Francis BangaloreDas Kapital

IN the book review Marxism revisited (February 25), the reviewer mentioned that the only major linguistic extensions of Das Kapital were in independent India, with editions in Marathi, Hindi and Bengali.

Two independent translations of all the three volumes of the book have been rendered in Tamil. The volumes translated by Thyagu and edited by Ra. Krishnaiyah were published by the New Century Book House. Another translation by K.R Jamathagni, edited by M. Naganathan and Jamathagni Santhi, was published by Kathiroli Pathippagam.

Both translations were published in 1998.K. Lakshmanan Srirangam, Tamil NaduCORRECTION

In the article "A deal and its end" (March 11), the second sentence of the fourth paragraph in the first column on page 13 should read as follows: "It is claimed, which is not unreasonable, that such involvement was necessary to ensure that the satellite characteristics meet the functional specifications for the advanced satellite-based multimedia services that Devas would implement on the ground."

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