Tags:
Journalism of Courage
Bibek Debroy8217;s nightmare estimates of the cost of an Employment Guarantee Act 8216;The Rs 208,000 crore riddle8217;, IE, Oct 23 are shot through with factual mistakes. The author constructs an imaginary version of the act by combining the most liberal provisions of two alleged 8220;drafts8221;, one due to the ministry of Labour and one due to the National Advisory Council NAC. However, the latter actually supersedes the former and there is no question of combining the two. The author further states that guaranteed employment in the NAC draft 8220;is not restricted to one adult per household8221;. In fact, it is. Finally, Debroy8217;s calculations are based on a grossly inflated norm of Rs 200 per day for the cost of employment generation. Recent experience with labour-intensive public works programmes suggests that Rs 100 per day would be a more reasonable benchmark. If the factual mistakes are corrected, Debroy8217;s cost calculations are entirely consistent with those submitted by the NAC. They imply that the Employment Guarantee Act will cost about one per cent of India8217;s GDP by the time it is extended to the whole of India say four years from now. Is this an exorbitant price to pay to protect the bulk of the rural population from hunger and extreme poverty?
8212; Jean Dreze Allahabad
No Pawar
8226; I could never have imagined that a politician of Sharad Pawar8217;s stature 8212; a Shivaji trained by the late Y.B. Chavan 8212; would succumb to pressures. The decision after 10 days of lobbying all around does not behove the present set of politicians of the NCP. Why did it take so long to decide a matter which could have been finished with one 8216;yes8217; or one 8216;no8217;. God save the NCP. The great P.A. Sangma is silent of late but he must be having the last laugh and feeling sorry for his former companions. Purno, come on, there8217;s still time!
8212; Vindo Tuli Delhi
The right wing?
8226; Admiral Tahiliani is right 8216;Calling for the Tri-Shakti spirit8217;, IE, Oct 28. I was a staff member of the Chiefs of Staff Committee who was present when we invited him to address the chiefs before submitting the Joint Memorandum in 8217;97-8217;98. Despite his pleas to stick together he knows well the 8220;Right Wing8221; of the IAF under Air Marshal Sareen restarted the petty squabbles that showed in the cracks of the CIDS, even before it was instituted, and that this 8220;Right Wing8221;, or the Neo-Cons of the IAF, will never let it function unless they call the shots because they believe that it is the divine right of fighter pilots to feast first before the rest.
8212; Gurkirpal Singh Chandigarh
Wrong campaign
8226; BJP President L.K. Advani has, time and again, proved that he is a religious fanatic by his divisive statements on the need for constructing a Ram temple at Ayodhya. It is Advani and his partymen who want to construct the Ram temple in Ayodhya, not the common people who have been living amicably with their Muslim and Christian brothers and sisters. The BJP, unable to digest its defeats, tries to attribute them to its inability to translate its hidden agenda of temple construction into reality. The party should learn from the Maharashtra elections.
8212; Albert P. Rayan Sengottai TN
