Opinion Building skills
The government of India had raised over 100 battalions of the CRPF to counter the Maoists.
Building skills
* The government of India had raised over 100 battalions of the CRPF to counter the Maoists (How do we engage with Maoists? Army asks govt,IE,March 22). It appears these units have not been properly deployed or adequately equipped,necessitating dependence on the army whose primary responsibility is to guard against external threats. Since such threats are on the rise,the army should be allowed to focus on borders. Some politicians and NGOs sympathise with the Maoists and this makes the anti-Naxal operations difficult. It would be better to augment the strength and capabilities of the CRPF to meet this challenge. The army could train the CRPF.
S.C. Vaid,Greater Noida
Uphill task
* The editorial Bit player,big stakes (IE,March 23) says: elections could provide the Congress a chance to retrieve political coherence. This is too generous on a Congress that has lost vision and ambition,only to abdicate frontal responsibilities in one state after another. The Congress has scripted a sorry tale both in Chennai and Kolkata. After the heyday of K. Kamaraj and B.C. Roy,the party became allergic to strong state satraps. Thus political space in a number of states was ceded to emerging regional outfits. With no connect with the street,the Congress got reduced to a party of armchair manipulators. Todays CPM is in a similar situation.
R. Narayanan Ghaziabad
Virtual reality?
* It is heartening to note that Mamata Banerjee,who opposed the Tatas in setting up the Nano car factory in Singur,has a robust industrial revival blueprint for West Bengal in her manifesto (Mamatas vision for Bengal,IE,March 22). Her partys plans of restarting closed public sector enterprises and modernising tea gardens are particularly commendable. Let us hope this vision gets translated into reality if she comes to power,which seems likely,and does not fall prey to publicity stunts and the compulsions of electoral arithmetic to cling to power.
S. Chattopadhyay,Mumbai
Axe the tax
* I welcome the withdrawal of the 5 per cent service tax on healthcare by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee (5% hospital tax is out,relief for garment firms,IE,March 23). Medical treatment was slowly becoming unaffordable for the common man,and this 5 per cent only added to peoples bills and woes. Now the FM must work towards reducing the cost of living for the aam aadmi.
Bhagwan B. Thadani,Mumbai
Single focus
* The electronic media has given wide publicity to the retaliatory action by Israel against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. It was in response to the showering of rockets by Hamas on civilians. But,as usual,television channels conveniently chose to overlook the provocative acts of the militants and highlighted only the Israeli action.
Vineet Phadtarem,Mumbai
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