Disband excise dept

Apropos of the editorial ‘Illicit liquor trade’ (May 21); the ruling establishment has failed to protect the state treasury from being looted by those tasked with its security. The perpetrators of this daylight loot must be hand in glove with various wings of the state machinery. The parallel liquor business, ranging from illegal smuggling to distillery operations, could not have flourished without the police and political patronage. It is an irony that Punjab, once known for its rich agricultural economy, has to resort to liquor-linked revenue to run its fiscal affairs. It is time to look for other income sources. Since the black sheep have overrun the system, the excise department should be disbanded to make way for a state-owned liquor corporation to plug the revenue pilferage.

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Anil Vinayak, Amritsar

No surprise here

Apropos of the editorial ‘Illicit liquor trade’ (May 21), does it come as a surprise to the common people, or the government of the day about the illicit liquor trade in Punjab? Certainly not, rather all governments are aware of this menace. The criminal-politician-police nexus prevails. They all stand to gain at the cost of the state. Every party in power will claim to have dismantled the nexus, yet it keeps thriving.

Vinay Kumar Gupta, Ambala Cantt

Support WHO

Refer to the editorial ‘Covid-19 probe’ (May 21); it is disheartening that the WHO has been reduced to a pale shadow of its former august self. In this verbal fight between the US and China, the WHO has not been able to assert its authority in a convincing manner. How the deadly virus spread should be probed immaculately by the WHO, and all the major powers of the world should extend a helping hand to it.

Ravinder Kumar Jain, Ludhiana

Attack on BSF men

Apropos of the news report ‘2 BSF men killed by militants in J&K, their weapons taken away’ (May 21); it is disheartening that in a UT where the security forces are fiercely fighting against armed militants, the BSF troop movement was not under any security cover and the standard operating procedure was not followed. The militants got time to execute the strike and even took away the weapons of the martyred soldiers. This is an instance of gross negligence and must be investigated to fix accountability.

SHASHI KIRAN, JALANDHAR

New business models

Over the past few decades, businesses around the world have seen a quantum leap in both globalisation and outsourcing. However, the spread of Covid will revolutionise the way business is conducted. Most countries would cocoon domestic industries and wouldn’t hesitate to exercise extreme protectionism to ensure their GDP regains ground before pondering over extending their businesses to other countries. We should relaunch the Make in India campaign with vigour, with the objective to breathe new life into indigenous enterprises that are on their last leg, owing to stiff competition from overseas markets.

SHAILZA, PATHANKOT

Nepal’s anti-India stand

It doesn’t take a great leap of imagination to figure out the current political leanings of Nepal, which has deceitfully changed its allegiance. However, the origin of its attempt to manipulate the boundaries of Kalapani-Limpiyadhura-Lipulekh in the Indian state, Uttarakhand, by showing them in its own country’s map could be traced to China, which has the infamous history of making repeated bids to instigate India’s border-sharing neighbours for its vested interest. Nepal has strongly objected to India’s move to construct a road at the Lipu lekh pass to shorten Mansarovar pilgrimage, but remained tight-lipped when China’s news agency laid claim to the Mount Everest from where runs the China-Nepal border across its summit point which the latter had once labelled as the crown of its country. Without China’s concealed provocation, it is unlikely for a relatively smaller country like Nepal, in its own independent capacity, to pluck up the courage to confront India.

UPANT SHARMA, PANCHKULA

China back to old tricks

When the focus of the whole world is on trying to get rid of Covid, China is preparing strategies to destabilise India’s development by creating disturbances along the LAC. We should be extra careful in guarding our borders more than in war time, as China is creating problems via the Nepal tri-junction. China is also trying to disturb our sovereignty by helping our neighbours like Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Nepal and the Maldives to instigate them against India and to make war bases there. We should not vote in favour of China in the UN and its agencies. We have not seen any UN meeting in which China has favoured us since 1962.

RK Dahiya, Yamunanagar

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