Development
PASIGHAT—22-02-2014 Bharatiya Janata Praty’s Prime Ministerial candidate Narandra Modi wearing a traditional headgear of Adi tribes addressing a rally in Pasighat in West Siang district of Arunachal Pradesh on Saturday,22 February 2014. PHOTO: RITU_RAJ_KONWAR
Araveeti Rama Yogaiah
Hyderabad
I AM really sad to say that your report on the Gujarat development model was blatantly biased. I do not have any statistics at my disposal to measure development. But the changes I have seen for myself are phenomenal. The water supply meets the requirements of most of the people. Similarly, electricity is in surplus in spite of Gujarat being a highly industrialised State; there are good roads and transportation facilities are good. Besides, millions of jobs were created to cover almost the entire population. Is this not development? The “non-working class” will always have complaints. They are leeches who drain the economy of all its resources.
V.R. Gopinath
Kozhikode, Kerala
Ukraine
FROM the article on Ukraine, one was able to discern that Russia intervened in Crimea because of geopolitics and to protect the interests of the more than a million ethnic Russians who live in Crimea (“Crossing the line”, April 4). Russia should find a way to ensure the security of Russians in Ukraine without infringing on Ukraine’s national integrity so that the world can see that intervening in a nation’s affairs can be done without involving its populace in fratricidal warfare, something the U.S. failed to achieve in Syria, Sudan and several other nations.
Md. Shahid Anwar
Dhanbad, Jharkhand
Syria
THE article “Rebels in retreat” (April 4) made one thing absolutely clear: Bashar al-Assad continuing as President of Syria is inimical to permanent peace and the crisis in the country is worsening because of his callous and brutal rule.
G. Azeemoddin
Anantapur, Andhra Pradesh
Reliance
DHIRUBHAI AMBANI was a visionary, and the establishment of Reliance amidst political chaos is an indication of his clear intentions regarding its formation (Cover Story, March 21). In order to expand his empire, he dealt with political bigwigs in a manner that the situation demanded. By building Reliance, Dhirubhai took India to a new global platform, marking the culmination of an era of industrial growth and development.
Shreya Jha
Patna
CORRUPTION together with crony capitalism has become the major issue just before the election. Before every election, political parties raise these kinds of issues to get votes and afterwards they forget what they promised the people and tag along with the same capitalist class. And the vicious cycle of corruption continues. To eradicate corruption and crony capitalism, people must first be made aware of their constitutional rights and ethical duties, and for this the literacy rate needs to be increased from the grass-roots level, accountability in public service has to be ensured, and the legal system has to be bolstered.
Subhradeep Sarkar
Kolkata
Banking
PUBLIC sector banks have played a stellar role in the growth of India and should be given credit for expanding their ambit to the unbanked rural areas (“Backbone of the economy”, March 21). The government did the right thing by allowing them to increase their branches there. However, some of the government’s other decisions such as opening up the sector to private players, outsourcing regular bank jobs, and handing over rural banking to so-called business correspondents are fraught with disastrous consequences for the industry and must be stopped.
J. Anantha Padmanabhan
Tiruchi, Tamil Nadu
Death penalty
THE Supreme Court’s verdict commuting the death sentences of the assassins of Rajiv Gandhi is unfortunate (“Life after death”, March 21). Although the reason behind it was to ensure judicious disposal of all clemency petitions in order to prevent the mental torture of convicts, it is ironic that criminals who have committed heinous offences expect humanitarian consideration from the highest judicial fora! It needs to be understood that in the instant case the death sentences were commuted primarily because of a systemic failure to dispose of mercy petitions in a time-bound manner and not because the convicts are innocent. Hence, the jubilation expressed by some people after the verdict is misplaced. These convicts are hard-core criminals who had scant regard for human life and committed a cold-blooded assassination, which truly fits into the category of the rarest of rare cases.
B. Suresh Kumar
Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu
Arun Ferreira
IT is worth protesting against the Maharashtra government and police for the injustice done to Arun Ferreira (“Free at last”, “this fortnight”, March 7). His torture by the police cannot be pardoned. Frontline through this article rightly revealed the ghastly face of the State government and police. The Rs.25 lakh lawsuit that Ferreira has filed against the government is no remedy. Those responsible must be punished and sent to jail for their disregard for human rights so that no government will ever dare to arrest innocent people.
Bipinchandra S. Shah
Malegaon, Maharashtra
COMMents
SHARE