Good choice
With reference to the report, “Gopalkrishna Gandhi is Opposition’s vice-prez candidate” (July 12) by proposing Gandhi’s name for vice-presidency, Opposition parties have created an excellent opportunity for having a consensus candidate.
Gandhi’s experience and record of public service as a civil servant, diplomat and governor of an important state and his non-partisanship while holding all these positions have few parallels. He does not require to supplement his rich credentials with his illustrious family background, being the grandson of not only Mahatma Gandhi but also C Rajagopalachari.
If the ruling party joins hands with the Opposition and appoints Gandhi to the post of vice-president, it will not only give the country the best person for the office, but also create an atmosphere of goodwill and political harmony.
R C Mody New Delhi allow critical arguments and opinions is heading towards tyranny.
After the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) landslide victory in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, within months of demonetisation, Prime Minister Narendra Modi bragged that he had trounced an “internationally renowned” economist and demolished his economics, despite evidence that the note ban was a financial disaster.
The BJP must ponder why some of India’s finest minds are critical of it and its world view. But perhaps that’s too much to expect from it as it presides over “an authoritarian regime pursuing its own view of what is good”, as Sen has said.
G David Milton Maruthancode economy, yet the lure of the yellow metal in Indian society remains strong. This is confirmed by the findings of India’s citizen environment and consumer economy (ICE 360º) survey.
One out of every two households surveyed bought some gold during the last five years. Sixty four per cent of those surveyed could not buy gold because there were “no savings to spare”. Reasons for taking loan against gold were mainly medical emergency and financial crisis.
As is evident, gold acts as an insurance cover as well as savings instrument. The informal economy has a gold-plated underbelly that averts the government’s gaze; it comes into play to absorb economic and social shocks in low and middle-income businesses and/or families.
Whatever the government’s policy concerns, weaning people away from gold may not be desirable in the absence of reliable government social safety nets. Two unorthodox suggestions: First, facilitate and make reliable gold trading processes so that people work with lesser quantity of gold; second, popularise low-weight jewellery, which might bring down overall demand.
Y P Issar Karnal