Letters to the editor

The inflation problem has not been well tackled. But the priority should be to strengthen the economy and the budget gives importance to this aspect, which should be commended. There shouldn’t be any reason for opposition parties like the BJP, the communists or capitalists to be sorely disappointed with the budget. Enough importance has been given to defence, education, the rural sector, agriculture, and so on. But it was disappointing that the finance minister failed to unearth black money worth thousands of crores of rupees — earned and accumulated through bribes or by way of undisclosed income.

—Amjad K. Maruf, Mumbai

Grey areas

• It hurts us to note that our Union finance minister, and prime minister are under the false impression that in this country all senior citizens are of the elite and are tax payers. How nice if it is so for a country like ours! But the fact remains that only about 10 to15 per cent of senior citizens belong to the above elite group and are tax payers. The remaining 85 to 90 per cent are of the weaker sections of society who do not qualify for the enhanced tax exemptions in the recent budget. Granting benefits to only one section of senior citizens does not satisfy the larger group. The government continues to ignore this vital group.

—Ernest Abraham, Bangalore

• If Railways Minister Lalu Prasad deserves praise for thinking differently in his railway budget, he is also the one who can be said to have broken the myth that revenue can be increased only by burdening the common man.

P. Chidambaram, for his part, may not have brought in a flamboyant budget, but his concerns for defence, agriculture, education and healthcare are laudable — and, as for senior citizens like me, the proposal of reverse mortgage is a blessing. But the big question is, how does this budget hope to check runaway inflation?

— Bidyut K. Chatterjee, Faridabad

Black and white

• Mahima Kaul’s ‘Black is the new White’ (IE, February 24) was interesting to me because I myself am sitting on a racial and cultural fence. The way Barak Obama’s “white blackness” was explored is a great way to spin it. It is interesting because white America is still very bigoted, particularly in the south. However Obama doesn’t come across as abrasively black in the way he presents himself and the manner in which he articulates his platform.The only criticism that I have is that may be the article could have gone further with the comparison between Obama and Jesse Jackson. Why is Obama really that different from previous black candidates? Is it a question of the times, or is it the candidates themselves? My theory as to why JJ lost is because his rhetoric was too extremist black. Obama is “the reconciliator”. In my opinion that spin of Obama as the political facilitator is what makes him a “safer” less “threatening” black candidate and hence the “whiter black” man.

—Ivan Holman, New York