Parallel government

Parallel government
Though most of the schools and colleges don’t have good teaching staff, yet the best teachers are available in the tuition classes. Government hospitals lack good doctors, but world class treatments are available in private hospitals. Water taps may be dry in almost every railway platforms but good quality bottled water will be delivered to your seat. Inspite of the long queues in the public service departments, one can get certificates at their doorstep. Almost everywhere parallel systems are working and people are enjoying them. If government is failing to take strong steps for the betterment of our country, what is wrong if parallel government is getting the work done.
— Pankaj Khandelwal, Pune

Spare the PM
Apropos ‘Civil society lesson hard to forget: Sibal’ (June 27), this was another instance where the government burnt its fingers not knowing what to do, by hurriedly forming an ad hoc joint-panel to draft the Lokpal Bill and also accommodating five members from the so-called civil society only to be finally to be told by a high court that the panel has neither statutory sanction nor constitutional validity.  The exercise has to be done all over again now. Former chief justice of India, JS Verma, who has been quoted briefly, has reiterated what has been voiced by many; the prime minister is accountable only to the Parliament and there is the anti-corruption law to pull him up if he goes astray.
—V Subramanyan, via email

Petrol price hike 
Jaipal Reddy says that the price hike of petroleum products is inevitable due to their increasing prices in the international market (‘Reddy aside later, oil & gas watchdog to see changes’, June 21). He’s partially right because, if it were really so, they should also go down when the price of oil drops, as it often happens. But this is never the case. The real reason is that the government has a huge ‘corruption’ budget to take care of, which is always in deficit. This can be made good only by taxing the public. The only way we can remedy things from getting worse, is to vote this government out. And this unfortunately is going to take some time.
—GV Shankar, Thane

Ruling Congress
The way Union HRD minister Kapil Sibal and Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh are speaking on various issues of governance, it seems that this duo is running the UPA government and the Congress party respectively. Both have ridiculed and questioned Anna Hazare and Baba Ramdev’s crusade against corruption and black money and Kapil Sibal is saying that participation of civil society in law-making process is only one-time affair and a lesson hard to forget (‘Civil society lesson hard to forget: Sibal’, June 27). In many established democracies elected governments seek civil society’s participation on issues of governance and lawmaking through referendum. A one-time vote is not a 5-year license to the elected representatives to do what they like. If the Congress and the UPA government fail to read the pulse of the people, they may get a really hard lesson in the 2014 election.  
—MC Joshi, Lucknow

PM and the media 
The powerful three in UPA 2 - Manmohan Singh, Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi rarely engage with the media because their governance has come to a standstill and there is hardly any achievement to showcase (‘Mum Singh turns media-savvy king’, June 29). On the other hand, the government needs to get going on reforms in all sectors; then there won’t be any need to engage the media as their actions will speak louder than words.
—Ketan R Meher, Thane

Air India clarifies
We would like to draw your kind attention to a ‘Transport firm holds AI staffers hostage for non-payment of dues’, (June 27) and wish to clarify:  Air India owes no dues to the transport operator, M/s OFJ.  Air India has registered its strong protest for unilateral action of M/s OFJ. 3. Air India has called for a meeting with OFJ’s managing director to ensure non-recurrence of such incidents in future.
—K Swaminathan, Dy General Manager (Corporate Communications)