This refers to ‘From Bhai with love’ (IE, October 27) by Raja Menon. His suggestion of augmenting our punch against Dawood is a piecemeal one, although he is right to say that India has to modernise its forces and expand its army in the short run to square up with the low intensity threat. When George Bush became president, he focused on Star Wars and selected an air force general as chief of the Pentagon to further his agenda. Unfortunately 9/11 laid his agenda low. Now the war in Iraq has put a question mark on Donald Rumsfeld’s approach. — Prem P. Batra, On e-mail China is also unequal The author makes a valid point about the distributive growth (‘Sorry to play party pooper’, IE, October 29). However, the assumptions that China has less inequality than India is not true. The latest UNDP Report 2003 lists the income ratio of the top 10 per cent income group to bottom 10 per cent income group in China at 12.7 as against 9.5 in India. Similarly,the income ratio of top 20 per cent income group to the bottom 20 per cent income group in China at 8 as against 5.7 in India. On the GINI index also India scores lower indicating lower inequality. The point is not to say that more should not be done to include the less-than-one-dollar earners in the growth process but merely to correct a fallacy that Communist China is more egalitarian. — Hir Purkait, On e-mail Dangerous intake Pesticides in colas did cause an alarm from Parliament. The JPC report on Surveillance of Food Contaminants in India (1993) remained in cold storage for 10 years, which perhaps is the usual fate of JPC reports (‘Scary report on toxins in food buried for 10 years’, IE, October 29). Let alone the Acceptable Daily Intake and Minimum Residue Levels of pesticides consumed by man, the fact remains that the daily intake is at toxic levels. Aiming at high yield of vegetables, pesticides are used lavishly by farmers, endangering human life. In my medical practice, I have observed a steady rise in the number of patients suffering from dyspepsia (indigestion), neuritis (inflammation of nerves), and anorexia (loss of appetite). Strict measures are warranted to check pesticide contamination of food articles. — F.S.K. Barar, On e-mail Muslim-centric? The observation, “That a country like India, with a Muslim population more than that of half the OIC states combined is outside the grouping itself reflects upon its legitimacy to speak on behalf of Muslim welfare” in the editorial,‘The irony that’s OIC’ (IE, October 17) betrays the Muslim obsession of the so-called self-proclaimed secularists of India. Quite often India is called the “second biggest Muslim country” after Indonesia, as if everything has to be seen through the Muslim prism. It may be recalled that during the Indira Gandhi regime, Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed was sent to Morocco to attend the OIC conference and had to return humiliated. — V. Sagar, Delhi Needed: regulation Apropos of ‘This men will further your retirement nest’ by Sonu Jain (IE, October 27), the writer has not taken into account the rebirth of the Harshad Mehtas and Bhupen Dalals who, in collusion with corrupt political leaders and bank authorities, will just eat away the only protection that employees have. This is just hype. The writer should, instead, emphasise on incorruptible regulatory agencies, an aspect dismissed in just one sentence. — A. Majumdar, On e-mail
