Hike in rice prices

Honouring our greats
It appears that the Congress-NCP government is keen to keep at least one of the promises it made to the people of Maharashtra — to put up a statue of Shivaji Maharaj at the sea-front in Marine Drive (‘Shivaji statue to be 3 ft taller than Lady Liberty, DNA, June 2).

Shivaji’s greatness is written into the history of India: his capacity to organise farmers to defend their land and religion, his justice and fairness even to his enemies, his religious tolerance, and his good governance. A real tribute would be give good governance to the people. The government can also renovate all his forts to enable people to visit them and take inspiration from his life. If the government is keen on a statue, it could consider having it on the Elephanta Caves island, which could become a pilgrimage centre for visitors to India.
—MD Kini, Mumbai
II
Attacking Kumar Ketkar’s residence was an extreme act of vandalism committed by members of the Shiv Sangram Sanghtana and they should be punished severely. Ketkar was absolutely right in criticising the state government on its plans to install a statue of Shivaji in the Arabian Sea.

A huge financial deficit, severe power crisis, and the issue of the farmer’s suicides are just some of the problems that are plaguing the state government. But it is not making a sincere attempt to alleviate these problems. Instead, it wants to squander public money for ridiculous purposes such as erecting statues. This is sheer wastage of the tax payer’s money and people should protest against it.
—Sandeep Ghiya, Mumbai

Accepting Change
At last the never-say-die, fiery lady has decided to call it quits (‘Hillary bows out, backs Obama’, DNA, June 6). Barack Obama’s sudden surge in popularity is reminiscent of what happened with former US President Carter.

When Jimmy Carter got the Democratic nomination, people asked in disbelief, “Jimmy who?” Obama’s slogan, “Change we believe in”, has caught the imagination of the American public. It looks like Bush’s Iraq adventure has cost the Republicans the presidency in 2008. The American Hostage crisis in Iran showed that Carter lacked the toughness required of the incumbent of the most powerful office in the world. Let us hope that Barack Obama, if elected, does not end up the same way.
—V Venkatasubramanian, Mumbai

Holistic approach 
This is with reference to the decision to hike fuel prices taken by the UPA government, which has snowballed into a nationwide controversy (‘Govt. bites political bullet, hikes fuel prices, DNA, June 5). This  complex problem has baffled even a professional economist like Manmohan Singh.

He is not sure of himself either in diagnosis of economic problems or in his prescriptions. Also, thanks to the ideological handicaps of the Left parties, even alternative  energy resources cannot now be developed through international treaties. With the  fuel price hike in international markets, there is little the government could do. But that does not justify the inefficient handling of the economic resources of the nation. Export recovery must be combined with sharp cuts in imports.

People must learn to tighten their belts and turn away from conspicuous consumerism. The government must reduce the interest rates, sales tax, VAT and other indirect taxes. We should realise that a holistic approach towards sustainable development is the need of the hour.
—Prashant Patil, Pune

Hike in rice prices 
This is with reference to the article ‘Rice and prices’ (DNA, June 6). Though the author has commented on the overall world scenario of food crisis, the situation is exactly what we see in our country. Production in agricultural sector has not been impressive as the farmers face grave  difficulties. More and more debt-ridden farmers are committing suicide. Innovative measures need to be introduced to  tide over the food crisis.
—NV Unnithan, Navi Mumbai