Missing Mr Fixit

8226; Apropos of Shekhar Guptarsquo;s article on J.N. Dixit lsquo;Mr Dixit, I presumersquo;, IE, January 8, he was known among ...

8226; Apropos of Shekhar Guptarsquo;s article on J.N. Dixit lsquo;Mr Dixit, I presumersquo;, IE, January 8, he was known among his colleagues as a man who always did what he thought was right and, to use his words, ldquo;in the national interestrdquo;. Some officers in the MEA used to privately observe that Dixit was in the habit of using his mental biceps so much that he should be called ldquo;Mr Fixitrdquo;! Between puffs of his famous pipe, he could make a quick decision and move in the ldquo;national interestrdquo;. For him, ldquo;national interestrdquo; was both a professional ideal and a personal passion.

mdash; Mahindar Singh New Delhi

Central confusion

8226; I agree with Ila Patnaik that the Reserve Bank of India is out of sync with the countryrsquo;s priorities lsquo;In one stroke, India signals central bank in out of sync, not reform friendlyrsquo;, IE, January 13. It wants more restrictions on FIIs and FDIs. Taxing of FIIs will not yield anything but slow growth and a reversal of the reform process. This is a clear signal that the RBI wants to get back to its old style of functioning with the many controls that it lost as a result of the reform process. Besides, its functioning is not transparent; hence India can lose a big amount of money and no one will see it coming. The RBI should welcome the two mantras of a growing economy: less control and more transparency. The prime minister should include the RBI in his governmentrsquo;s reform agenda.

mdash; Pranav Sachdeva New Delhi

Bombay dreams

8226; Your editorial lsquo;Go ahead, Mumbairsquo; January 13 has a welcome call. Not only Mumbai, but every city and town in the country needs to be meticulous in enforcing every law on the big and the small, equally and uniformally. Much of the indiscipline, disorder and contempt for the law that we see around us stems from the fact that vested interests prevent the law from taking its natural course. Although Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh and his deputy, R.R. Patil, need to be complimented for giving critical support and a free hand to the authorities in Mumbai to demolish unauthorised constructions even of social and political heavyweights, the real test of their determination and support will come in case people belonging to the ruling camp get into the net.

mdash; M.C. Joshi MumbaI

8226; The future seems bright for Mumbai. It is an international city, and must adhere to basic norms.

mdash; Rajesh Dharia New Jersey

Kofi break

8226; I don8217;t agree with criticism of India dissuading United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan from visiting disaster hit areas lsquo;No to Kofirsquo;, IE, January 12. What good can he do? He is a puppet in the hands of the US. Why should people like Annan come and inspect our affected areas? We have enough resources to cope with this emergency. In fact, India was the first country to extend a helping hand to Sri Lanka after the tsunami struck on December 26.

mdash; S. Kumar Chennai

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