M A I L B A G

Bold budget needed for more growth

Our Prime Minster and Finance Minister have fixed growth targets at 8 to 10 per cent. But to achieve and sustain this target a bold budget would be needed. We will have to take many steps towards reforms in labour and the power sector. Without proper power supply, industry cannot grow. Power plants require concessions. The recent strikes in Honda and Ford factories indicate the need for labour reform.

To compete globally, we also have to create infrastructure like roads and modern transport systems. Inspector raj must go completely. Rationalisation and simplification of direct and indirect taxes is needed. Tax rates must be reduced, the base must widen, and discretionary scrutiny must be withdrawn under the Income Tax Act. Discretion provisions facilitate corruption.

DEEPAK SARAF, Rampura Phul

Self-made teacher

The department of English in Kurukshetra University had the finest and brightest team of English teachers in the early eighties in North India. The popularity of Dr O.P. Grewal, Dr R.S. Singh and Dr B.S. Dhiya had spread far and wide. In the class-room, Dr Grewal was the most successful and appealing of teachers. His literary observations had a wonderful acuity of thought. He motivated us to examine literary theories and masterpieces critically and never to accept any idea or concept blindly.

Dr Grewal was a self-made man who faced a lot of struggle. He held on to certain positive life values till the last moment of his life. Once he told me, “I am not a revolutionary but I have been able to keep myself honest and untainted. I have remained committed to my own basic convictions.”

RAJ BAHADUR YADAV, Fatehabad

II

Dr Om Parkash Grewal, besides being a distinguished professor of English, was a good writer in Hindi. Being a declared Marxist, he was very much an advocate of Janwadi Lekhan. But he was a liberal at heart and in his thinking. I had many occasions to talk to him on my own writing of Hindi fiction. He would give his opinion without any bias. A thorough gentleman and a learned scholar is no more. It is big loss.

YASH PAUL VAID, Ambala City

Partisan politics

The Left parties’ opposition to the UPA’s policies, like that on Iran or on airport modernisation, is not only unjustified, but also unprincipled. Do they think that economic advancement so vital to the country’s progress can be achieved without modernising infrastructure?

One wonders why the Leftists, who claim to be benefactors of the working classes, are putting spokes even in policies which are entirely for the public good. It is time they shed partisan power politics and conform to statesman-like politics, obliterating the gap between precept and practice.

Lieut-Col CHANAN SINGH DHILLON, (retd) Ludhiana

II

We kept quite when Iraq was attacked. We have now endorsed the right of powerful countries alone to own atomic weapons and to decide which are the ‘rogue states’ in the world. One recalls our shameful conduct when Hungary was attacked by Soviet Union.

At this rate, we will have no friends, only masters. Is this self-interest?

V.C. NANDA, Chandigarh

Tormented teachers

The new policy of change in timings in government schools has created discontentment amongst teachers. School timings have been increased by 45 minutes, even extending to primary classes. Regular employees might not be bothered but what about teachers who work on a contractual basis? So-called stations are allotted at a minimum of 40 kilometres distance in remote areas, with meagre transport services.

Today, teachers are carrying the ass’s burden of wrong government policies. The emphasis should be on quality not quantity. For improvement in education, regular monthly inspections could be done. This should be of how well a teacher is teaching, not how good he is at maintaining records.

AMANDEEP KAUR BHELLA, Mahipur