Discovering Amartya, courtesy Stockholm

  IT is good to know that an Indian-born Indian passport-holder has won a Nobel prize. To develop the concept of welfare economics would have required not only intellect but also an insider’s sensitivity to human misery. It is thus not surprising that the work was done by an Indian and a Bengali at that. Amartya Sen is no doubt worthy of all the praise that can be bestowed on him. But perhaps he deserved better countrymen. An award, no matter how celebrated, is no more than the decision of a committee, and a committee’s decision can swing either way. Sen’s name had been considered in the past and passed over. The East Asian financial crisis and his own transfer to Cambridge seem to have helped, but he could have missed the bus this year also. Suppose he had died in the meantime. In that case he would not have got the prize at all.

The most effective way of judging the progress and prosperity of a country is not to stare at numbers like GNP and rate of growth, but to ask and answer a simple question : Is the country self-assured and self-assessing? By this yardstick, independent India has a long way to go. Satyajit Ray had won all conceivable awards and honours in the world and was on his death-bed when his own government decided that he should not die without receiving the Bharat Ratna. Contrast it with the self-confidence of the British Indian government which knighted C.V. Raman before he was Nobelled. Amartya Sen has not exactly led an anonymous life. His research works have been published and stacked in libraries the world over. Is India intellectually so feeble that it could not have gone to a library and found out for itself that Sen’s ideas make sense ? Does India’s perception of its problems as well as the ways of solving them depend upon the deliberations of a handful of people sitting in Stockholm and carrying out their work according to their own lights? May be, India believes that the solution to its problems lies in the hands of providence. In that case let us thank God for pointing out Sen to India. Let us also pray to God to shortlist other Sens, big and small, that may still be around, and bring them to the notice of the Stockholms of the world .

RAJESH KOCHHAR
Bangalore

(This letter was received before the announcement of the Bharat Ratna award for Amartya Sen.)

Cheating in exams

Career examinations for the law-abiding citizens have turned into real nightmares. While rogue students care a cock for any norms or any vigil exercised by the examining authority, the meek are harassed by some unscrupulous invigilators who unabashedly try to shower favours on others out of fear or to favour them.

The recent Company Secretary examination conducted by the Institute of Company Secretaries of India in Dev Samaj Girls Senior Secondary School, Sector-21, at Chandigarh, was one such instance to illustrate the above observation. It showed the rank depravity to which some of the invigilators could stoop — helping some of the examinees and harassing those who just raised an eyebrow. The number of such invigilators could be very small but their mischief could not have gone entirely unnoticed but for some lacunae in the overall superintendence. The ICSI are requested to post some of their own staff to oversee the examination arrangements in future to ensure fairplay and a level playing field for all the examinees.

RAMESH BHATT
Chandigarh

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Old tunnel

There used to be a pedestrians’ tunnel below the Raven’s Wood, which is at present under the occupation of the High Court of Himachal Pradesh. This tunnel used to be a thoroughfare for Shimlites moving on foot between the main town and the adjoining localities like Bemloe, Khalini, Chhota Shimla etc. It was, rather, very useful to the porters till it was blocked on commencement of the construction of the new multi-storey building of the High Court. None made any issue out of the blocking of the easement in the sanguine hope that once the construction was completed, the High Court would suo motu have the old tunnel reopened for the benefit of the oldtimer Shimlites who love the pedestrian mode of their movement.

Unfortunately the tunnel has now been converted into an underground store-cum-office. It appears that the court has lost sight of the encroachment (perhaps unintended) on the said public easement.

May one hope that the court will give the matter its urgent attention and recreate the old tunnel, may be a little below the old site, to reactivate the old shortcut from Bemloe bus stop to the entrance of Himachal Holiday Home!

Rather, provision of a vertical shaft in the middle of the proposed new tunnel, with an electric lift therein, will make the approach to the High Court so very easy — an invaluable convenience for all those who commute to the premise daily.

K.L. NOATAY
Shimla

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No post offices

Apropos of the Calling item “No Post Offices” (Jan 11) in connection with the Sector 15, Post Office, Panchkula, it is stated that efforts to find a suitable building for housing the post office in question are being made on a priority basis. As soon as a suitable building will be available, the post office will be shifted to Sector 15, Panchkula.

As regards the construction of the departmental buildings in Sector 8, and Sector 15, the process is under progress.

N.K. SHARMA Sr. Supdt. of Post Offices
Ambala