Letter of the WEEK

Worth their service

• LT.Gen. (retd) Shantonu Choudhry’s ‘Undignified, minister?’ should surely be good education for Pallam Raju, minister of state for defence. The article very nicely brought out the magnitude of injustice done to the defence forces in terms of status and pay packet. This nation that is constantly at war with terrorists and insurgents, and fights with its own neighbours, does not realise the worth of its armed forces. A soldier puts his life at stake out of love for his country. But how far can that go? Such degradation and injustice as seen in the compensation package recommended by the 6th Pay Commission merely turn this soldier into a mercenary, who serves because he needs money.

— H.S. Gur

Hisar

Barrel solution

• Prime Minister Manmohan Singh finally made his presence felt with an address to the nation to explain his government’s decision to hike fuel prices. However, his offering a grim reading of the situation in the summer of 2008 is too late; it comes when we are far into the abyss. If he is serious about tackling the crisis India faces because of the rising oil prices, he must get his team to work on a comprehensive energy policy for the next 20 years. Anything less will be disastrous for the country. Besides, that will mar an economist prime minister’s legacy.

— Karan Thakur

New Delhi

Oiling the commoners

• The recent fuel price hike by the government is a completely wrong move. The justification that it is moderate is really grasping at straws. Even after taxes, the American public pays less for a litre of petrol than we used to pay even under the old prices. We are told, when we were “shielded” from the rise, globally, inflation rose.

The finance minister well knows that this rise will surely push inflation up.

A strange way to help the aam aadmi, who appears to be so dear to this government.

— Rahul Mudholkar

Pune