Apropos Sanjaya Baru’s article ‘Shining from within’ (IE, December 27), the Mahalanobis model in the fifties envisaged a low rate of growth in the beginning and an accelerated rate of growth afterwards. The so-called Indian ‘‘diaspora’’ is the creation of heavy investment in higher technical education to produce the high priests of Nehru’s temples of modern India. The rate of growth of the Indian economy would have been greater today if the public sector had grown at the expected rate. Nehru thought at that time, ‘‘our pains are pains of growth’’. The main defect of the model was that it presumed an organised economy. But the greater part of the Indian economy is unorganised. It was expected that the problem of poverty could be tackled by a percolating effect and for the time being doles and concessions created by a fiscal deficit were prescribed for the poor. Poverty as well as fiscal deficits grew simultaneously and the whole growth process would have been throttled had there been no green revolution. Manmohan Singh rescued the monetary sector from imminent collapse in the nineties. Nobody can deny that Atal Bihari Vajpayee is trying hard to turn the wheels of the Ramrath from the Ayodhya road to the development road. But still, the present bubble could burst any time if the vast unorganised sector is not integrated into the planing process and the fiscal deficit curtailed. —M.K. Mahapatra Pune First among equals • Getting perturbed over a query about the stand of other political parties regarding her leadership, Sonia Gandhi said: ‘‘Whether I am acceptable as the prime minister is a choice that has to be made by the people of this country and not by me’’ (‘Sonia for alliance first, leadership later’, IE, December 29). She should not have overlooked the fact that in our system the prime minister is never the choice of the people but is nominated and imposed by the party high command in case of a single party or by the coordination committee in case of an alliance forming the government — in fact, at times the incumbent doesn’t even belong to the largest party in a coalition. —M.C. Joshi On e-mail State of decay • The Congress has no locus standi as of today in Uttar Pradesh politics (‘In UP, Mulayam ignores Cong call for Kalyan ouster’, IE, December 29). The party is in a miserable condition in the state. Instead of talking of the BJP being a communal party, the Congress should first get its house in order or else it could be eclipsed from the national scene. —Sudhaksr Sathe On e-mail Lyngdoh’s charge • I think Chief Election Commissioner J.M. Lyngdoh’s views are justified (‘Cancerous cynicism’, IE, December 27). So what if he paints the entire lot of politicians with the same brush. This ‘‘cynicism’’ of Lyngdoh’s that you so dislike comes from his factual understanding of the Indian politician. Let’s not berate the tiny ‘‘educated and aware’’ percentage of the Indian populace. Let us hope that more Indians demand change, as soon as possible. —Ajay Poduval On e-mail Free at last • It is good that the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, has finally decided to cut the financial umbilical cord with the government (‘Enough! IIMA rejects govt cash’, IE, December 28). It is time they also looked at discarding all financial ties and freeing themselves from the neta-babu stranglehold that has destroyed most of India’s other institutions. —Chandu Nair On e-mail
