Letters To The Editor

A merit quota? • THE suggestion to further widen the scope of the reservations to include Dalit Muslims and Christians made by minister...

A merit quota?

• THE suggestion to further widen the scope of the reservations to include Dalit Muslims and Christians made by ministers like A.R. Antulay and Congress leaders like Veerappan Moily (IE, November 13) needs a comment. None of these politicians seem to worry about the basic principle that an honest person must first produce wealth before they can demand their right to consume. And wealth is produced by the efforts of the competent. If jobs are going to be guaranteed based upon considerations such as quotas, without any thought about the imperatives of commensurate wealth production, we will find ourselves on a slippery slope. There should be some minimum limit for jobs to be “reserved” for the competent, who not only have to produce wealth for their own consumption, but also for those who seek the benefit of quotas.

— Sameer Kumar, Mumbai

Asian goals

• APROPOS of K. Subrahmanyam’s ‘Be Asian, think global’ (IE, November 22), with our topsy-turvy priorities vis-a-vis quality education — which we seek to destroy by introducing panaceas like reservations — it is difficult to “think global”. Our advantage in having a large number of English-speaking people and our foreign policy objectives are constantly being attacked by both the Right and the Left. At least in the matter of strategic goals, our politicians should learn to be realistic if they want the 21st century to belong to Asians — more so to
India and China.

— M.K.D. Prasada Rao, Ghaziabad

Marketing skills

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• IS our national cricket team really serious about winning the World Cup next year? The answer seems to be in the negative. Our boys in blue have their minds on everything except cricket. No wonder that they get blues on the cricket field. A week before their departure to South Africa on an important tour, most of our players were busy doing endorsements and walking on the ramp when they should have been fine-tuning their cricketing skills. But who really cares, and the BCCI, along with the players, is only interested in money. This is a shame for a cricket-loving nation like ours.

— S.N. Kabra, Mumbai

More derring-do

• THE Express tradition continues. Thank you for your reports exposing the DRDO, which gets a huge amount of funds — funds that should have gone to social development. You put it well: the DRDO has covered itself with the flag. I think the money is going to middlemen who are always present in the clinching of defence deals. Don’t forget that even if it is R&D for self-reliance, suppliers are involved to a great extent. The Express should investigate this front. Immediate accountability is needed, and heads should roll if the officials are found guilty.

Apart from this, private sector leaders like Narayana Murthy should sit on such investigation panels.

— Saleha Tahniyat, Hyderabad