Army audit

8226; Jasjit Singh has made a strong case for increasing defence expenditure to 3 per cent of the GDP. However,...

8226; Jasjit Singh has made a strong case for increasing defence expenditure to 3 per cent of the GDP. However, in his figure of Rs 66,000 crore, he has not included major chunks like defence pensions which add to the cost 8216;Balance is the best defence8217;, IE, June 1. The defence pension bill amounts to Rs 11,000 crore annually. Also add the cost of paramilitary forces which come under the defence ministry like the BSF, Assam Rifles and ITBP. The maintenance of the nuclear arsenal costs 0.5 per cent of GDP Rs 13,000 crore, so if you add up the unstated but real costs of defence, we are approaching a figure of Rs 100,000 crore which is well past the 3 per cent mark recommended by the Finance Commission. What needs to be done is to evaluate the efficacy of defence expenditure. Pakistan is spending 4 billion on a force level of 0.6 million against our expenditure of 16 billion for a force level of 1.2 million. We are spending double the amount per soldier. I wonder why defence analysts do not bring out this aspect.

8212; Pavan Nair On e-mail

BJP8217;s future

8226; With reference to the editorial, 8216;House warming8217; IE, June 2, my prognosis is that L.K. Advani will try to upstage A.B. Vajpayee in order to occupy the centrestage within the BJP. Vajpayee will disappear slowly from the scene, either because of his poor health or his isolation or his redundancy. The rival centre of power in the organisation will be M.M. Joshi. Advani will raise issues like the construction of the Ram temple and the Common Civil Code more aggressively in order to curry favour with the RSS and the VHP. But they will be inclined to help Joshi more than Advani because of the ambiguous stand of the latter on these issues when in the government.

8212; Sachdi Nanda On e-mail

8226; One problem that the BJP faces right now is that they8217;ve no useful legacy to depend on. The last few years of their rule didn8217;t produce anything on a positive note; so they had to depend on cliches instead. They had to invent their new slogans, and a new set of lies and statistics. Now that they are on the other side, what can they do? I suggest that they join Bollywood. After all, they have shown themselves to be good at acting in their six years in power!

8212; Saumen Sengupta On e-mail

Quota disquiet

8226; Apropos of the editorial, 8216;Some reservations8217; IE, June 3, the demand for reservations in the private sector by allies in the newly formed government, just goes to show that these constituents are only interested in widening their votebank at the cost of the country. It is high time that the reservations, initially introduced to remove imbalances in society, are completely scrapped. The demand for reservations in the private sector will only lead to chaos in an industry which has modelled itself on a culture that rewards talent and nothing else.

8212; Anand G. Mumbai

8226; In your editorial about the Maharashtra government8217;s bill on reservations in the private sector, you have actually mentioned 8220;merit8221;! If 8220;merit8221; was really that necessary in our country, would most of our 8220;journalists8221; ever have found a job?

8212; Rajan Shete On e-mail

Tailpiece

8226; The article, 8216;The revolutionary as prophet8217; by Verghese K. George IE, May 28 proves, if any proof is needed, that Indian communists have been consistent only about their inconsistency.

8212; Vidya Sagar Delhi