No more chances

No more chances
Death-knell for our present dispensation may be distant but distinct. The scams of varying magnitudes and the financial misdemeanours of our netas and babus unfolding every alternate day only confirm the inevitable and added to this, our frank finance minister’s helplessness for the skyrocketing price-line. People find nothing to cheer about. Time is running out for the present government. The welfare of the people has been edged out from their agenda. In the wake of 2G and other scams, corruption seems to have grown manifold.
—KK Wajge, Mumbai

Need clean records
It is shocking that for last many years we have remained silent about the criminal records of some of our representatives in the legislature, who are playing a big role in passing the laws. It is a matter of grave concern for the whole country. The Parliament has more than 75 members with criminal records which includes murder, rape, kidnapping, assault, and terrorism. All the parties willingly choose candidates with criminal record on the basis of their popularity and their ability to win. I strongly feel that there must be amendment to the Representation of People Act so that criminals are kept out and not given the poll ticket. It is high time the government should do something to end this with strong law to make the legislature free from criminals.
—Bhagwan Thadani, Mumbai

Right move
This is with reference to ‘Mark sheets come under RTI Act: SC’ (August 10). This is great news for students. Many careless evaluators have often spoilt the academic aspirations of many students due to their careless evaluations. This Supreme Court verdict will be of great help in checking erratic evaluation as well as victimisation of students which is fairly common in many centres of higher education. This can also help check corruption — favours or money being received by some unethical teachers for granting marks. Such transparency will the education system better in our country.
—G Anuplal, Bangalore

II
This is with reference to ‘Mark sheets come under RTI Act: SC’ (August 10). The path-breaking judgement by the Supreme Court paves way for the examinees to have access to the answer scripts under the Rights to Information (RTI). The mode of correction and allocating marks is not totally infallible. There have been cases of bright students getting fewer marks than what they expect. Evaluators, by oversight or due to some other considerations, tend to make mistakes, but that should not make the conscientious students suffer for no fault of theirs. With this landmark verdict, exam conducting bodies have to now ensure that the students do not suffer due to the mistakes on the part of evaluators. 
—Sakunthala Seshanna, Bangalore

USA’s ‘credit’
The US’s ‘AAA’ credit rating has been downgraded to AA+ because it has never given any importance to agriculture, the backbone of any country (‘Standard & Poor’s downgrades US credit rating from AAA’, August 6). On the contrary, it has solely concentrated on the big industries, especially industries manufacturing armaments. Besides, its citizens have developed undesired lavish lifestyle. The industrialisation, urbanisation and lavish lifestyle are the root causes of any country’s economic downfall. No country can ever survive without giving paramount importance to agriculture. The Indian government ought to learn these universal economic facts and accordingly decide all its future policies, at least in the interest of its aam aadmi.
—Hansraj Bhat, Mumbai

II
This is not to defend the wrong economic policies of the successive US governments. But, it is significant to note that Standard & Poor’s downgraded the US credit rating from AAA to AA+ a few hours after the US Treasury discovered a two trillion dollar error in their calculations (‘Standard & Poor’s downgrades US credit rating from AAA’, August 6). This suggests that the so called ‘economic analysis’ by S&P as the basis for lowering the credit rating was just window dressing  and a publicity stunt. The credibility of S&P had already been tarnished when they downgraded the credit rating of Lehman Brothers just on the eve of its collapse, having given them high ratings earlier. It is equally significant that none of the other credit rating majors like Moody’s and Fitch have endorsed S&P’s assessment. As an economist said in his inimitable tongue-in-cheek style: “If it were possible to rate rating agencies, perhaps we should downgrade S&P from ‘semi-pro’ to ‘amateur’.
—VS Kaushik, Bengaluru

Hindi is necessary
I strongly disagree with the assertion of lyricist Prasoon Joshi that it is not necessary for a Hindi filmmaker to have any knowledge of Hindi language (‘In Bollywood, Hindi goes on a Roman holiday’, August 6). What an ungrateful view of a person who rose to fame by writing songs in Hindi for Hindi movies. It is clear that these people are here only to make money. Veteran directors like Kamal Amrohi, Raj Kapoor, Guru Dutt, Mehboob Khan, K. Asif, BR Chopra, Bimal Roy, Shakti Samanta, Prakash Mehra, Manmohan Desai, Gulzar had thorough knowledge of Hindi and Urdu. And it resulted in turning their movies into masterpieces which are popular even today.
—Anil R Torne, Talegaon Dabhade

Wrong twist
This is with reference to ‘Maken twist to House debate’, (August 9).  It is baffling as to why the Congress party is shifting the focus of the CWG scam to who appointed Kalmadi, when that is totally irrelevant. Indisputably, the scam was perpetrated during the UPA regime, Mani Shankar Aiyar, minister of sports at the time wrote to the PM about Kalmadi’s shenanigans and the inevitable consequences. The media had highlighted all the wrongdoings a year before the Games were set to roll. Why should Maken throw a red herring on who appointed Kalmadi? Instead, they should answer why it was allowed to happen under their very noses.
—NS Rajan, Bangalore