Bounty Hunt Sir ? The United States state department has called on the world to provide information about war crimes suspects in Yugoslavia, including Slobodan Milosevic. The reward for those who help in the apprehension and arrest of such ?criminals? is five million dollars. The sole superpower needs to know the greatest war criminal today is Bill Clinton, the very man who has arrogated to himself the right to judge human rights violators. He has masterminded the dropping of thousands of bombs on Yugoslavia and Iraq. His actions in Kosovo were sanctioned neither by the United Nations nor countries like China, Russia, India and Brazil which contain 75 per cent of the world?s population. Innocent people have been killed and billions of dollars worth of private and public property destroyed. When the self-styled globocop calls Milosevic an Adolf Hitler, it?s like the pot calling the kettle black. For it is he who should be tried as a war criminal. Since I provide this information, will the US government make me richer by five billion dollars? Yours faithfully V. Ramachandrudu Hyderabad Late call to arms Sir ? The innumerable chinks in our armour are showing. The absence of any war in the past 28 years, during which we were fed on a diet of pompous rhetoric by our leaders, has lulled us into a false sense of security. But faced with a crisis, those declarations of strength and power have burst like bubbles. It is common knowledge that the Kashmir valley is a troubled area where Pakistan aided mercenaries are active round the clock. But we chose to sleep the sleep of the innocent, having put the country?s security in the hands of our defence forces in the belief that they would not allow any harm to come to us. It was only after a number of strategic posts were taken away from us that we were informed of what was going on. For over half a year a huge stretch of the most vulnerable area along the line of control had been left unmanned and unpatrolled. Does the taxpaying citizen not have the right to ask why? The Kargil affair is a sorry saga of inefficiency and ineptitude. The complacency of those at the helm is costing the nation dear. The country deserves an explanation from the authorities, from the defence minister down to the army commanders. Even after an overblown defence budget, many soldiers in Kargil do not have decent snowshoes or even sleeping bags. This disregard for the wellbeing of anyone other than themselves was always a hallmark of our politicians. But now the rot seems to be spreading to the defence establishment too. And why not? After all, members of that establishment are also bred from the same stock. Yours faithfully Aditi Sarkar Calcutta Sir ? The Congress has no moral grounds to ask for George Fernandes?s resignation for mishandling the intrusion in Kargil. This is especially in view of the fact that it was Jawaharlal Nehru who took the Kashmir issue to the United Nations, because of which the problem has festered for five decades. Also, not long after his gifting of Tibet to China, in the name of Hindi Chini bhai bhai, a large part of our territory was occupied by China. Unlike Kargil, there does not appear any possibility of our taking back Indian territory under Chinese control. Hence, the Congress must apologize to the nation for its own misdeeds before talking about the failures of the intelligence agencies, since at least the Bharatiya Janata Party appears determined not to allow Pakistan to continue violating the LoC. Yours faithfully, N.D. Dujari Calcutta Taxing proposal Sir ? For about a year income tax department officials have been given immense powers to collect dues by an increasingly cash strapped government. Many assessees feel harassed as a result. Consider the following case. A businessman goes to the income tax office to have his liabilities assessed. The tax officer says a certain amount is owed in the form of tax, interest and penalty. But if the officer is paid between 20 and 30 per cent of the amount assessed ? it is never less than 20 per cent ? the tax to be paid can be ?adjusted?? to an amount far lower than the original assessment. If the ?negotiations?? fall through, the officer responds with an excessive assessment against which the businessman files an appeal. While the appeal is pending before the appellate authorities, the income tax officer ? or whoever replaces him ? presses the businessman to clear his dues, failing which his properties, cash and bank accounts may be attached. The businessman then realizes that he would have gained had he accepted the original deal, in effect encouraging corruption. Such extortion was always there but it has now reached unimaginable depths. The officers openly ask for bribes, aware they cannot be touched since there is no proof ? proof is not easy to submit without exposing the assessee. If affected businessmen unite against such malpractices, tax officers might simply manage to acquire more power from the authorities. This may force businessmen to seek the help of criminals. Rule of law will be a thing of the past.The only way out are tax raids on the residences of the tax officers themselves. Yours faithfully P. Sharma Calcutta Sir ? The voluntary disclosure of income scheme yielded a bonanza. This was followed by the fairly successful launch of Yashwant Sinha?s Samadhan. Schemes such as these attract much publicity but they draw attention away from the fact that much remains to be done. Despite laudable intentions, such as the announcement of a money laundering bill, the eradication of black money remains a distant dream. Which means that until the income tax return scheme is made ?foolproof? the government will never have adequate funds to spend on necessities such as health and education ? which are truer indices of development than the proceeds from an amnesty scheme. Yours faithfully Leena Sinha Forbesganj EC should do it Sir ? The root of many of the ills afflicting India?s polity lies in the fact that elected bodies get a lot of people given to rowdyism, with some possessing criminal records. Political parties must be pressurized into choosing only people of good character and with a record of public service as candidates. As far as criminals are concerned, it is the Election Commission?s duty to keep them out of Parliament. Under the Representation of the People Act, a person convicted in a criminal case cannot contest an election. But the EC has given a criminal friendly interpretation to this by saying that a person will be allowed to contest if he/she is convicted in a lower court and an appeal is pending in a superior court. The provision should be read to mean that the person convicted in the lower court cannot contest elections till he/she is cleared by a superior court. The EC should also make it mandatory for candidates charged with criminal offences but not yet convicted to notify the public of all the cases filed against them through one English and one regional language newspaper. Yours faithfully M.R. Pai Mumbai Sir ? Keeping the election process clean is more important than seeking satisfaction from organizing polls in the world?s largest democracy. It is pointless spending millions of rupees to maintain the edifices of democracy when the people elected are themselves corrupt. There is need for an ?Indian Institute of Nationalism?? where one is told of the sacrifices made by freedom fighters and of our obligation to make the nation strong. All candidates should be directed to undergo training there. Yours faithfully, S. Ghosh Calcutta Letters to the editor should be sent to: The Telegraph 6 Prafulla Sarkar Street Calcutta 700 001 Email: the_telegraph_india @newscom.com Fax: 225 3240/41