Letters: Let's jettison paternalism

This refers to Shubhashis Gangopadhyay’s article “Who prefers cash transfers?” (January 26). The writer correctly challenges the conventional wisdom of welfarist governments that has dictated a paternalistic approach in evidence so far. It is time that our establishment, which has tended to be left of centre, trusts the wisdom of the common man — now that he is getting better “educated” owing to the wider reach and spread of media. It will be a win-win situation with the common man exercising his freedom to use cash as he thinks best, while simultaneously reducing the administrative load on the government machinery in a very significant way.

Kishor Kulkarni Mumbai

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