Nepotic ministers

Having read your paper8217;s investigation series 8216;From Home Minister8217;s Home8217; and the related leader, 8216;Distilled question8217;...

8226; Having read your paper8217;s investigation series 8216;From Home Minister8217;s Home8217; and the related leader, 8216;Distilled question8217;, one recalls Oliver Cromwell8217;s words: 8220;End your sitting in this place, which you have dishonoured by your contempt of all virtue and defiled by your practice of every vice.8221; This indictment applies to most of our elected representatives. To these worthies, 8220;virtue8221; lies in attaching themselves to the 8220;high office8221; at high public expense. India8217;s Home Minister Shivraj Patil and Union minister for shipping, road transport and highways, T.R. Baalu, are fans of nepotism; abuse of office is the norm. The vice of corruption defines the character of most of our ministers at the Centre and in the states.

8212; M.K.D. Prasada Rao

Ghaziabad

Speedy noose

8226; 8221;Hang me, don8217;t dilly-dally,8221; says high-profile terror convict Mohammed Afzal. A person who has no life other than facing the gallows dies every second. Afzal committed an awful crime, the consequences of which he cannot escape, but as a civilised, peace-loving country India could go through with the punishment without dragging it on in view of the coming election so as to garner minority votes. The government is unnecessarily delaying the case. Whether to execute him now or spare him should be decided soon.

8212; Swetha R. Deepak

Chennai

Shining the light

8226; The realistic step by the Centre of hiking the fuel price will prove beneficial in the long run. The fear of an inflationary tendency in the economy has to be understood in its perspective. It is due not so much to the rising costs of fuel as to profiteering by hoarding essential commodities. The government has to crack down on profiteers, and unproductive spending has to be curtailed. There should be a ban on night cricket too. That will save the precious power for industries. Consumerism makes sense where production, both agricultural and industrial, increases.

8212; B.B. Goyal

Ludhiana

The other price

8226; This is with reference to your editorial, 8216;Logical terrorism8217;. The BJP and opposition parties have called for a one-day agitation against the fuel price hike. The CPM, in another act of one-upmanship, has declared a weeklong nationwide bandh. Hundreds of crores worth of losses will be caused by the destruction of public property, missed manpower, extra law enforcement deployment expenditure, etc. The government should have anticipated these costs while fixing the fuel price hike.

8212; N. Kunju

Delhi

Correction

8226; In the piece on the edit page, 8216;No heart in heartland8217;, 8220;five8221; prime ministers should have read 8220;four8221; prime ministers from UP. The allusion was to four of the total of eight PMs from UP who completed their terms.

The error is regretted.

8212; Editor