Letters: Misplaced analogy

With reference to the editorial, "Unintended consequences" (November 3), Reserve Bank of India governor Raghuram Rajan was right in highlighting the importance of ideas, along with the need for tolerance, to students of the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, but at the wrong time.

Coming in the wake of the incidents of intolerance in the country, Rajan's address to the students might be perceived as criticism of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government at the Centre. This would have been justified if his concerns were reflected in the economy and growth. But there is no indication that investments in India from abroad have declined because of these incidents or that investors were apprehensive due to retrospective taxation measures. Does the chief of the US Federal Reserve deliver a sermon when a US citizen kills a non-white person?

Rajan is an appointee of the United Progressive Alliance government, which preceded the present disposition. He kept quiet when the Muzaffarnagar riots were taking place.

Y G Chouksey Pune

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