A shackled Congress
Sidharth Bhatia’s comments on the present unenviable predicament of the once-mighty Congress (‘With allies like this the Congress doesn’t need enemies’, DNA.Sunday, November 1) are objectively correct. As he rightly points out, the honeymoon between the Congress and NCP has somehow lasted 10 years but has not contributed to a better understanding between the two partners. The fact is that the Congress has had enough troubles from its so-called ‘allies’ since it decided to get into the coalition mode of governance, one would wholeheartedly agree with Bhatia when he says that Congress will have to become strong in the long term “to win on its own steam”.
—V Subramanyan, Thane
Genuine concerns on UIN
Apropos ‘Gelling your number’ (DNA, October 31) by Yogi Aggarwal, it would be beneficial to public at large, if there is a proper debate on the subject. The importance of evolving a suitable tool to improve the delivery mechanism, free of corruption, to reach out to the poorest section of the society needs be emphasised. However, one must not forget to ensure that there should be adequate checks and balances to prevent infringement of privacy, civil liberties and financial frauds by national and international hackers having access to such vast data. One hopes that Nandan Nilekeni and his team will take due cognisance of such genuine apprehensions before introducing the UIN.
—Subhas Mallik, via email
Inexcusable delay
A senior leader is stated to have said “it took 12 days and 9 days in 1999 and 2004 respectively to form a government and that such deadlocks are not new to the alliance” (‘NCP, Congress now haggle over urban, rural portfolios’, DNA, November 2). This kind of justification is just not acceptable when the governance of the state is concerned. This shows complacency on the part of the leaders, now that the elections are over, and total disregard to the duties and responsibilities that lies on them. Time is the essence for good governance and cannot be frittered away like this.
—LJ Prasad, Mumbai
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