Small isn’t beautiful

The statement in the editorial, ‘Three to go’, “small states are not a panacea and one need only glance at Jharkhand to acknowledge it”, is correct.

• The statement in the editorial, ‘Three to go’, “small states are not a panacea and one need only glance at Jharkhand to acknowledge it”, is correct. Carving the former Assam into so many states, many years ago, resulted in some ethnic confrontation in the Northeast.

Creating more states will only add to the already high unproductive expenditure in the exchequer by creating more posts of governors, ministers and their bureaucrats. Since units of development must be villages and districts, formation of more states cannot increase the national output and cannot spur further growth. To develop backward regions in states, they must get focussed attention and sincere efforts must be made in that direction rather than trying to find futile excuses.

— K.G. Acharya Mumbai

• In your editorial ‘Three to go’, you have rightly endorsed Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati’s proposal to break it into three states. True, politically and administratively, UP is too unwieldy.

But there is another reason why this break-up is needed. With this, governments in the four daughter states of UP — I include Uttarakhand here — will also become more competitive in seeking investment and showing their voters how much better they are performing than the others. At the moment there appears to be little incentive in various parts of Uttar Pradesh for the politicians to concentrate on bijli-sadak-pani issues. The emphasis is on building social coalitions.

— R. Chatterjee Pune

In memoriam

• I write this letter in reference to the article that appeared in your newspaper on January 13, which has quoted the Sri Lankan president saying that a Sri Lankan memorial dedicated to the IPKF (Indian Peacekeeping Force) will be ready by this February. It is very heartening to read that at last the Sri Lankans have shown some gratitude to the Indian army for their heroic efforts in fighting the LTTE during the IPKF operations.

This Sri Lankan memorial is perhaps long overdue. But I have a question. Has any Indian government ever thought of building such a memorial for the IPKF? Remember the saying ‘A country that does not honour its soldiers dishonours itself’?

— Pawan Kaul Pune

OSA, RIP

• This refers to your timely and lively editorial ‘No half-measures’ (IE, January 19). Ever since the Right to Information Act came into force, it has proved handy for the common man to lay hands on the vital information on several public issues, which were hitherto denied under the garb of the Official Secrets Act.

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However, the OSA now seems to have lost its very purpose for which it was brought into existence in 1923. It should thus be fully replaced by the RTI Act, with some suitable modifications to take care of “public interest” in its true sense.

— S.K. Gupta Delhi

Echo chambers

• The US political process bears an uncanny resemblance to mainstream filmmaking. Elections and speeches are scripted to the letter, politicians put on a tirelessly rehearsed act, catering endlessly to the whims of the target audience. A successful filmmaker can’t afford to risk raising issues in a way that don’t immediately reflect audience sympathies. Good politicians vying for votes are similar in that they speak according to the already existing expectations and prejudices of the voting public.

An American presidential candidate must never get booed by an audience. Candidates shape their views based on what national and local polls tell them matters to the voting public. And what matters is largely manipulated by the media and the state.

— Safiya Sameena

Vijayawada