• Apropos of the reports about the delay in sending foodgrain sacks to Bihar (IE, Sept 13), every time I think our rulers can go no lower I am treated to more harrowing tales. Like millions of decent people, I am appalled that free grain for distribution to the flood-affected is being held up. I don’t know all the political realities around it and I don’t care. I don’t want to hear that a 10-day bureaucratic delay is “normal”. It only looks “normal” to the bureaucrat who has come to work after a good breakfast, not to a hungry family waiting for food. If there is just one child out there, wet, weak and deprived of food for even a single day, it is a disgrace and failure of governance and everyone concerned needs to be severely punished. May the miseries of the defenceless cast a curse on all these people. — Maja Daruwala New Delhi Plainspeaking • Making pre-election promises to the gullible electorate is one thing; the sacrifices required for achieving them are quite another matter. It is indeed refreshing to note that Montek Singh Ahluwalia has found it necessary to tell the honest truth (‘Montek’s reality check: CMP will cost’, IE, Sept 11). He has also been ruthlessly straightforward in stating that we do not have the necessary resources to implement such ambitious programmes. Politicians will continue to make empty promises; it is the people who will have to challenge them. The bulk of Indians does not have the required knowledge for such an exchange. It is left to the intelligentsia and the media to engage the politicians in that debate. — Giri Girishankar On e-mail Census stances • What's wrong with Narendra Modi’s move to have a population census (‘Modi floats his state population panel’ IE, Sept 11)? Even if it is to know about the religion-based numbers, there is no logic in attacking him. All our political parties are clamouring for religion/caste based job reservation, then what’s wrong in knowing the religion-based population figures? We cannot be communalists on a selective basis! — Vaidyanathan Mumbai • Apropos the editorial,‘Statistical snarls’ (Sept 10), it is unreasonable to blame the census authorities unless we can say that they had motives. Since the initial figures put the Muslim community on the wrong side and the RSS and Co appeared to have grabbed an issue, the hypersensitivity of the government and the media is quite understandable. The hounded registrar general of census had no way but to come out with a face-saver. But is it not a fact that in every census since 1951, the percentage of the Hindu population has been constantly declining while the Muslim population has been rising for whatever reasons? — M.C. Joshi Lucknow Tailpiece • The recent census figures, apart from giving rise to controversies, have some interesting data. Here are some notable facts from Census ’01: India has 2.2 million factories and workshops, 1.5 million schools and colleges and 0.5 million hospitals. But the number of places of worship is 2.4 million — more than the number of schools, colleges and hospitals put together and more than the factories and workshops. God alone can save this country. — Venkatavardan Vanavasi Delhi
