Opinion Probe freely
Dayanidhi Maran resigned from the Union cabinet after the CBI hinted at his role in forcing a telecom promoter to sell his stake in Aircel to a Malaysian firm.
Probe freely
* Dayanidhi Maran resigned from the Union cabinet after the CBI hinted at his role in forcing a telecom promoter to sell his stake in Aircel to a Malaysian firm (Corruption: Another UA head rolls,IE,July 8). Already,a former DMK minister and the daughter of the DMK supremo,apart from bureaucrats and businessmen,are behind bars for their alleged role in the 2G spectrum scam. This is all because the case is being monitored by the Supreme Court,with the CBI submitting its status reports directly to the apex court. The case for making the CBI independent of government control becomes stronger.
M.C. Joshi,Lucknow
SITs right
* Pratap Bhanu Mehtas article Overreaching? (IE,July 6) is superbly argued,but has some flaws. He himself accepts that there has been a serious,widespread and long-persisting apathy about black money. A Special Investigation Team is more than an instrument for specific cases. Its even more essential for proposing principles,plans,institutional designs. On black money,we have been faced with abdication at the highest levels of the executive. The SCs overarching approach has a better chance of reasonable success than any thing else.
Anil Inamdar,Mumbai
Why statehood?
* The demand for a separate state of Telangana is growing again,but the argument of relative deprivation does not hold. In industrial development,Telangana is far ahead of Rayalaseema and is on par with coastal Andhra. So there is no economic case for the creation of a separate Telangana state. Politically too,Telangana has not been sidelined. Of the 16 chief ministers that Andhra Pradesh has had,Telangana has had some of its own too.
Subrata Mukherjee,New Delhi
Not Swede model
* The decision to create an authority to deal with corruption in high places is good. But the decision to follow the model of the Swedish ombudsman is wrong and shows the lack of imagination on the part of those who are anxious to clean up the administration overnight with the help of Lokpal. The Swedish ombudsman is a junior official who takes care of the delays in government departments,municipal bodies,etc,and hardly gets about 200 or 300 complaints a year. In India,the Lokpal would likely have to do deal with thousands of complaints in a month and,before long,the office would be submerged in complaints.
Those pressuring the government to appoint a Lokpal as soon as possible dont seem to realise the preliminary work to be done. Already,there are demands for exempting certain authorities from the ambit of the Lokpal,which is a sign of the scare created. Its better to give up the Lokpal idea and start using and strengthening extant laws.
B. Krishnamoorthy,New Delhi
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