• Maja Daruwala's article, ‘Information Law: Dead on Arrival’ (IE, October 1), highlights the government seeking to exclude “file notings” from disclosure under the RTI Act. These notings are not so much the mind of the government as the process of that mind working towards a decision. When responsibility cannot be anything but “collective”, what public interest can be served by knowing how much knowledge/ignorance individual officers at each level have displayed or what their analytical abilities or malafide intentions were? What ought to matter is the decision distilled at the end of these mullings. Unfortunately, administrative discretion is an evil necessary for bridging that yawning gap between the law and reality, allowing administrators the flexibility to find solutions to deal with vague and dated laws. The right to information would be better served if the public could know whether the decision taken was rooted in the rule of law. They ought, therefore, to demand for an account of the factors which went into taking the decision. — Madhumita Mitra Washington DC No light • Apropos of Raghuvansh Prasad Singh’s piece (IE, October 3), all I can say is what a great difference there is between his thinking and his working! What he says is true, but it appears to be a mere utopia. Has Prasad tried to implement his ideas, even if only in his own Lok Sabha constituency? Vaishali is my constituency, although I don’t live there anymore. Prasad has been representing it for almost a decade but has the ground level situation improved? Before writing more pieces like this, I can only suggest that he reads Shekhar Gupta’s ‘Why Ranjeet Dawns’ (IE, Feb 26), in which he describes the ground picture in Bihar more accurately (he even referred to Saraiya, which falls in Vaishali). Have you, or your paralysed government (’90-’05), done anything to achieve your own vision of India Empowered? Prasad (and his party) never wants to make people empowered because it will expose them. I remember having to wait as a young student until daylight, in order to study, because there was no electricity. Prasad should at least ensure that things in Bihar are raised to the 1990 level! — Avinash Roorkee Sandwiched army • With regard to the report,‘ULFA encircled, Cong does an Andhra in Assam.’ (IE, Oct 4), it is inexplicable why the government chose to call off the army operation against the ULFA in Tinsukhiya. Had this not happened, the ULFA would have been forced to come to the dialogue table on Delhi’s terms. — Ruchi Mishra Gurgaon Quite right • The views expressed in your editorial, ‘India’s interest first’ (IE, Oct 4) about India’s vote against Iran in the IAEA are realistic. India has for long taken a cynical, one-sided, and appeasing stand in matters related to the Islamic states but, as you have mentioned about Iran, the attitude of these states to Indian interests in matters like Kashmir or the UNSC permanent membership has always been disconcerting. It is rightly said that India’s primary national interest should lie in ending its own nuclear isolation. — M.C. Joshi Lucknow UPA drifting • Going by the tactics of the Left, it looks like we are on the threshold of mid-term polls. Once again we are facing an unstable situation. The alliance the CPI struck with Paswan in Bihar, and the recent nation-wide strike call are some examples of the drift within the ruling coalition. — Satyadev Hyderabad
