Letters: Beyond the gloom

Isn’t Shankar Acharya in “The unravelling” (April 12) being less than fair when he calls seven per cent GDP growth and 34 per cent of GDP aggregate investment a disaster in a particularly difficult global economic situation? And more so when we compare these figures to nine per cent GDP growth and 38 per cent of GDP aggregate investment at a time when a sustained global boom was “lifting all boats” across the globe. It’s a pretty good performance — perhaps the best in today’s world.

The (already tapering off) food inflation was because poor Indians were eating better for the first time in centuries — a grand success that we should celebrate even though George W Bush was complaining.

The current account deficit is unlikely to be a problem since rich investors all over the world have no better investment destination than India. An unreasonably unhappy army chief’s antics need no comment beyond that he is providing all of us with good entertainment.

Mihir S Sharma’s new definition of collective responsibility of the Cabinet in “As bad as it gets?” (April 10) is puzzling. Isn’t the entire Cabinet invariably collectively responsible for everything that the government does — and for that matter, fails to do?

Alok Sarkar Kolkata

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