Opinion Enough already

Ahmedabad

State rights

• While I wouldn’t like to say anything against the Right to Education bill in case I wind up being branded an “elitist”,I do feel that Mayawati does have something of a point. Building statues is wrong but let us be objective and look at it in totality. The government passes a bill under the Concurrent List meaning states have to implement it. Most states are running deficits; the new bill puts an additional strain on state resources. At the same time,the Centre looks to cut its deficit. Thus when our honourable finance minister stands up next year to present his budget — even if things go exactly according to plan — he will pass on part of the blame of a higher deficit to states which had to increase their deficit due to this act. In this manner the Central government has tried to absolve itself of responsibility.

— Rahul Mudholkar

Pune

CVC’s turn

• This refers to the report ‘Two days to retirement,govt steps in for whistleblower’. The CVC needs to explain to the public why it had not taken up cudgels on behalf of the whistleblower,compelling the government to act instead. A lack of response would only water down the faith we have on the vigilance set-ups in government departments and PSUs — and tend to demoralise these very vigilance units.

— R. Narayanan

Ghaziabad

Subtle signals

• I was amused to read ‘Cong U-turn: Sharing dais with Big B okay’. Congress General Secretary Shakeel Ahmed “clarified” that no one has been officially asked not to share a dais with Bachchan and only those who don’t like his being Gujarat’s brand ambassador are avoiding Bachchan. Ahmed perhaps forgets that,in politics,nobody asks anybody to do or not do anything. It’s always conveyed subtly,and acted upon.

— Yash P. Verma

Pune