Letters to the editor

Price of agitations8226; THIS is with reference to the forthright tone of your stinging editorial, 8216;No raj in Rajasthan8217; IE, Jun...

Price of agitations

8226; THIS is with reference to the forthright tone of your stinging editorial, 8216;No raj in Rajasthan8217; IE, June 5, in which you rightly say that 8220;for a modern state, the rule of law is a non-negotiable8221;. Can you imagine my misery yesterday when, having come here on some urgent professional business, I could not go beyond two kilometres from my parent8217;s home in Ghaziabad, because of the sealing of Delhi8217;s borders by the sponsors of the bandh? If in many parts of Rajasthan, both the Gujjars and the Meenas had played havoc with the normal life of ordinary citizens for six days, in the Capital, Monday was made into a nightmare. Yet no one from the UPA government or the BJP said anything about it. You are right when you say that 8220;shrill and uninformed accusations of police excesses8221; dissuade the police from acting tough. When the police act tough, their political bosses must stand by them. Now, who will pick up the bill for the damage caused to public and private property, as well as for the time lost at work?

8212; M. Ravi, Ghaziabad

Power flight

8226; AT the meeting of CMs the other day, the address by our PM saw the same old cliches being mouthed parrot-like IE, May 27. The need to cut T038;D losses and the importance of FDI in the power sector as well as the raising of power generation level 8212; these are repeated ad nauseam. We have heard it all but nothing seems to happen and, you can be assured, nothing will happen. If the posts of regulators are occupied by retired bureaucrats, who is to be blamed? Pliable and apathetic officers as regulators have ended up giving consumers a raw deal. As for FDI, the less we talk about it, the better. Most of the good foreign investors have run away from India, having seen the chaotic conditions in the power sector at close quarters. China adds 1,25,000 MWs in just a year and that figure has been our shortfall in generation for quite some time!

8212; A. Prasad , Ahmedabad

Poll play

8226; THE dust of the Goa elections has settled, but the fun seems to have gone out of the process. There was a time when elections were like festivals. Buntings, banners, graffiti would decorate our streets; loudspeakers would blare out the latest music interrupted by raucous voices exhorting you to vote for a particular candidate. Of course there was a downside too. Liquor was the lubricant in this common political process. Then T.N. Seshan arrived and took the 8216;enjoyment8217; out of polls. Some of his measures were good like ending the defacement of walls, control on the flow of liquor and money; but it was no longer a festival of the people. The Goa election process this time was testimony to this.

8212; S. Kamat; Alto Betim, Bardez