Golden goose

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has emerged as a shrewd politician by taking the unexpected but politically and ad...

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has emerged as a shrewd politician by taking the unexpected but politically and administratively correct decision of dissolving all the consultative committees of the Planning Commission and thus burying the controversy created by the Left. The decision has left no margin for anyone to voice a grudge. His terse “neither you nor they” in reply to the “either we or they” threat of Left-leaning economists in the committees must have left them shell-shocked. They got what they deserved. A visibly perplexed D. Raja of the CPI has asked: “What is the logic behind dissolving the consultative committees completely?” Well, what was the logic in the Left making so much noise on the issue and calling the presence of the foreign experts in the committees a “surrender of sovereignty”?

— M.C. Joshi Lucknow

• The stalwarts of Left parties have in effect killed the golden goose with their insistence that “foreign” consultants must go. Since they wanted to resign, their wishes have been realised with the sacking of all consultants!

— Ashit K. Sarkar Bangalore

Plan the process

• The dissolution of consultative groups by the Planning Commission reminds one of the axiom that “war is too serious a business to be left to generals”. One may say that “economy is too serious a business to be left to economists”. The nation has a right to know the justification for setting up consultative groups and then abolishing them. Does it mean that consultative groups sans representatives of foreign organisations — actually, multilateral organisations and two foreign firms — are useless? I don’t have much faith in commissions of inquiries, but I cannot resist demanding an inquiry commission to review the working of the Planning Commission. It should examine the impact of the Planning Commission on the economic development of the country.

— Sureshchander Gurgaon

A different man

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• Thanks to Yogendra Yadav for his touching article on Kishen Pattnayak (‘Politics of a different place’, IE, October 2). As a journalist who spent years in Orissa, I can vouch for the silent contribution that Pattnayak made. He is dead. But I am sure his ideals will live on to inspire others.

— Ruben Banerjee Doha

• The article on Kishen Pattnayak was enlightening. It is difficult to even think that such men can exist in times when the word politician itself has acquired abusive overtones. It is really sad that the media ignored one of the very few politicians who served the people selflessly.

— Prasanth Kanakadandi Las Cruces, New Mexico

Third umpire

• This refers to the question being resolved by the Supreme Court whether, as per Article 12 of the Constitution of India, the BCCI is state or not. If the court decides that it is state then monopoly, arbitrariness and privileges of a few individuals and groups in the BCCI will soon be a thing of the past.

— Hem Raj Jain New Delhi