But seriously

Sir ? I will be really sorry to see Laloo Prasad Yadav go just because he is enveloped in a thick fog of scandal. There is more at stake than mere matters of conscience if not of propriety or legality. Nobody in the cabinet can excel Laloo Yadav in his role as a comic genius and in his ability to generate at will heavily accented bon mots like ?dephelummen? (development in English) to relieve the tedium of cabinet meetings and parliamentary debates which tend to be dull and dreary. Not long ago, he was an instant success in Pakistan, becoming the darling of the masses, when he went there as part of an Indian parliamentary delegation. If the railways ministry does not suit Laloo?s genius, he can well be appointed as India?s ?ambassador extraordinary? with cabinet rank. After all, as the saying goes, an ambassador is someone who lies abroad for his country.

Yours faithfully,
Kangayam R. Rangaswamy, Madison, US

Dead men tell no tales

Sir ? Bhaswati Chakravorty?s article, ?The hunger game?(April 26), underscores just how far our administrative systems are geared to conceal the truth, reward sycophancy and aid corruption and the suppression of the weak. This is true of all states and of all parties across the ideological spectrum.

Reports of starvation deaths are considered bad for image ? they are greeted with a barrage of criticism and set of falsehoods to perpetrate the myth of universal well-being. But one only needs to travel a few kilometres from the cities to get a glimpse of the apathy and the obstructive attitude of the officials. Yet, if there is a visit by a neta, the same people ?spring to life? to get the streets swept and the beggars hidden. Such is the hypocrisy of the Indian political and administrative mechanism after six decades of progressively deteriorating public services.

There appears to be no accountability or even an understanding of it. It requires vigilance ? which generally comes with better education ? among citizens and an understanding of their rights for them to demand superior service from those who are paid from the public coffers. Such vigilance and understanding was displayed recently by a group of villagers who castigated a bribe-taking policeman. But it will take decades to undo the damage done by political leaders and the bureaucracy. Being a democracy, hopefully, it should be worth the wait.

Yours faithfully,
Avijit Chatterjee, Calcutta

Sir ? Bhaswati Chakravorty touches a raw nerve. Her article exposes as hollow the government?s claim that there have been no starvation deaths. In the hands of lazy and corrupt officials, the government?s poverty alienation schemes have failed to deliver. It is a ridiculous situation because our country has excess foodgrain stocks which are rotting in the godowns. Thus, stories like that of 65-year-old Patu Mura can be found all over the backward districts of Jharkhand, Orissa, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. But not in a single case have the governments involved accepted their culpability. Instead, they have attributed the deaths to illnesses or snake bites.

Yours faithfully,
Jang Bahadur Singh, Jamshedpur

Sir ? ?The hunger game? was heart-rending. We have, as a nation, simply failed to deliver.

Yours faithfully,
S. Venkat Raman, Zurich

Sir ? Yet another death has occurred at Amlashole, reportedly due to starvation. This time, unlike a year ago, the district authorities wasted no time in denying that it was a starvation death, claiming instead that it was owing to the lack of medical treatment. This reminds me of the poem, ?The naked king? by Nirendranath Chakraborty. A group of townsmen watches silently as the procession of a king dressed in invisible gold attire passes by, causing the poet to regret the absence of the little child who would cry, ?The king is naked!?

Perhaps our leaders are complacent because no one in West Bengal has the courage to speak the unpleasant truth today. But irrespective of what the administration says, the truth cannot be hidden. At this rate, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, who prides himself on being the No.1 chief minister of the country today will meet the fate of the earlier No.1, N. Chandrababu Naidu. Bengal then will take the place of Andhra Pradesh as the state infamous for starvation deaths. But maybe Bhattacharjee is not worried because he thinks that such deaths, being so small in number, won?t make a dent in the left?s huge vote bank.

Yours faithfully,
Tridib Roy, Calcutta

Link failure

Sir ? Business circles in Calcutta were happy when Air India announced it was going to start direct flights from the city to London from June 4. But the Air India flight from Calcutta is scheduled to arrive at London at 3.55 pm. This will discourage passengers who want to take connecting flights to the United States of America, and they will continue travelling from New Delhi or Mumbai. It seems that Air India has assumed that passengers from Calcutta will be flying mainly to London or a few destinations in Europe. As far as I know, the bulk of the traffic from Calcutta is for the US and given that the convenience of connecting flights has not been taken into consideration, the Air India flight from Calcutta may not have adequate passenger load. This may lead to the flight being eventually discontinued.

Yours faithfully,
B.G. Roy, Calcutta