• It is not the first time in independent India that a budget has been resented with an eye to helping farmers, nor will it be the last. Ever since the first five-year plan, the country has been trying to help the farmers, but even 60 years later they are not much better off than they were then. Let’s examine the main reason. It has been said by our past leaders, and by at least one present leader, that the money allotted for any particular cause hardly ever reaches it. Once the middlemen take charge of things, the funds diminish like an ice cube in the summer heat. Thus, unless and until we tackle corruption at every level, no amount of money is going to solve any problem in India. — Niranjan SolankiVadodara A complicated affairn This refers to two reports ‘Why loan waiver won’t stop farmer deaths’ and ‘More suicides’ from Vidarbha. Interestingly, these suicides took place within days of the budget announcement of the loan waiver for farmers. That announcement overlooked the basic problems of small and marginal farmers: market price of their produce, better agricultural infrastructure, availability of farm loans on easy terms and repayment schedules, etc. Without taking the above factors into account, no loan waiver, no matter how big, will substantially improve the lot of our farmers.— M. RatanNew Delhi Too many services• Shishir Gupta’s article ‘They could rule India’ calling for “administrative reform” in the context of the 6th Pay Commission recommendations, is timely. But Gupta could have been a little more elaborate as well as pointed and focused. If the political executive at the Centre is determined, the first thing that should be done is to deny primacy to the Indian Administrative Service whose members are forging ahead at the expense of other services.For a change, the Indian government would do well to consider having three cabinet secretaries at the Centre, a member of the IAS to handle administrative matters, a member of the IA&AS to oversee economic affairs and a member of the Foreign Service or the IPS to deal solely with national security.— M.K.D. PRASADA RAOGhaziabadIshant’s season• This refers to ‘Just like Ishant’India will be playing a lot of cricket in the near future on dead tracks which will also test Ishant. The lanky bowler has to maintain his fitness in order to survive the grind of Indian cricket. Therefore, the BCCI should use him only for quality matches instead of wasting his talent on every tournament. — Mayank AroraNew DelhiBeyond belief• Harsha Bhogle is right when he says: “When confidence accompanies opportunity, when the mind is driven by visions of success, defeat can be stopped in its tracks.” In Australia, India cricketers showed what they were capable of when they took a chance on themselves. The rest, of course, is history.— Anil SinghBhopal
