Letters: Bhagwati's angst revisited

I entirely agree with Sukumar Mukhopdhyay's letter ("Bhagwati's angst", August 13). The reforms in India, in 1991, were driven by the International Monetary Fund, just the way the devaluation of the rupee under Indira Gandhi was also driven by the Bretton-Woods Institutions. Both were correct decisions and India had no choice in both cases. What Professor Amartya Sen has been talking about is much more fundamental and requires deep as well as broad thinking. Is inequality and poverty constraining growth in India? If it is, then we should go with what Professor Sen has been saying. The growing gated-communities in urban areas, breweries and wineries and exotic agro-processing centres in rural areas are a display of inequality and callousness of the rich towards the poor and oppressed. Rich people have by and large no interest in alleviating poverty. If they had any interest then they would not have tolerated poverty in the slums of Mumbai and the streets of Kolkata. Since the rich are callous about poverty in India, it is the government's responsibility to deal with the problem, no matter how taxing it might be to the intellect of some thinkers.

Chandra Ranade Washington DC

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