Meddling with IIMs

8226; The editorial, 8216;The Rs 6000 trap8217;, was a good one IE, January 7. Good intentions are useless ...

8226; The editorial, 8216;The Rs 6000 trap8217;, was a good one IE, January 7. Good intentions are useless in the absence of commonsense. It is unfortunate that India always seems to be laddled with commitees made up of ex-bureaucrats who come up with almost kafkaesque suggestions. Some honest soul searching on the part of the Rao committee and some amount of fieldwork would have made it crystal clear that what was needed was more investment in professional courses. Instead, we come up with these bizarre conclusions.

Maybe it is time that the human resource ministry employs McKinsey, or any leading consultancy firm, to do an independent, unbiased study on what needs to be done! In this era of globalisation, we should be benchmarking our institutions and pitting them against the best in the world. Instead what we come up with is a farce of a solution. Time and again, leading economists have predicted that the next revolution India so desperately needs to gain a double digit growth figure will not come with slogans like 8220;India Shining8221;, nor with self congratulatory pieces in the media and within government on the sensex rally, but with sound fruitful investments in infrastructure and primary education.

8212; Hirva Trivedi On e-mail

You tell us

8226; Mani Shankar Aiyar, in his column 8216;8217;Tis theatrical8217; IE, January 6, has shown an uncanny ability to criticise when no criticism is warranted. In his exuberance to attack the government8217;s diplomatic initiatives, Aiyar overlooks the economic repercussions that troop deployment and cessation of travel links caused to Pakistan. The patience shown by India has led to change in the policies of many foreign countries, which have accepted Pakistan as a hub for global terrorists. Instead of recognising this victory, he goes about defending Pakistan. Perhaps Aiyar should go beyond petty politics and come up with an alternate strategy to find permanent peace with Pakistan.

8212; Rajanikant M. Iyengar On e-mail

8226; Good article by Mani Shanker Aiyar. It takes a visionary and a brave man to perceive the ground realities as they are, without fearing a backlash from others. More people need to do the same on both sides of the border.

8212; Imran Khan On e-mail

8226; Both Aiyar and his party do not understand a non-partisan and assertive foreign policy. His party is solely responsible for all the historic baggage that we are reeling under since independence. Aiyar8217;s understanding of foreign policy is laid bare in the first few paragraphs of his article. All the reasons he cited, like snapping ties with Pakistan, expelling diplomats, insisting on an end to crossborder terrorism, etc, are known as protection of self interest. Today the initiative on dialogue is with us only because of BJP8217;s firm handling of Pakistan.

8212; Prashant On e-mail

Destroying history

8226; Apropos the editorial, 8216;Madness of the mob8217; IE, January 7, destroying the Bhandarkar institute sounds really bad, but what is not mentioned is that institutions such as these were used to besmirch the name of all things Hindu in a country where Hindus are the majority. Maybe the communist dinosaurs who have been lying about Indian history will now make way for others to do a fairer assessment of Indian history.

8212; Rajesh Jain On e-mail