Only with a view to setting the record straight, I am truly constrained to point out two glaring, and unbelievable, errors of date/year and name - about the same historical event - in Devangshu Datta's otherwise interesting and persuasive column "Secrets, lies and conspiracy theories" (Viewpoint, April 18). Lal Bahadur Shastri died in Tashkent not in 1965, but in 1966, on January 11. And the Tashkent "deal" was "brokered" not by Leonid Brezhnev, but by Alexei Kosygin, the then prime minister of the then Soviet Union.Sharadchandra Panse  PuneDevangshu Datta replies: Mr Panse is absolutely right about the Tashkent Conference being held in January 1966. This is entirely my error since I was writing from memory and did not check it. The Kosygin/Brezhnev attribution is more debatable but Kosygin was indeed, the man who oversaw the deal in that he sat at the table with Ayub Khan and Lal Bahadur Shastri.Our apologies. We stand corrected.Letters can be mailed, faxed or e-mailed to:The Editor,

Letters: A year and a name

Business Standard

Apropos the editorial "'Are you serious?'" (April 22), it is an open secret that Manmohan Singh governed the nation for 10 years under the instructions of the Gandhi family. The weak leadership of the United Progressive Alliance government is responsible for the pathetic condition of the nation today. When the country was hungry for a stable and clean government and a strong leader, Rahul Gandhi failed to present himself as a worthy candidate. The Congress cannot expect Rahul to change overnight and deliver the goods. When the country is passing through a development phase, there are bound to be changes in rules and laws. The land acquisition Bill is one such law. All the parties should rise above petty politics and bat for economic growth and development.Veena Shenoy  ThaneLetters can be mailed, faxed or e-mailed to:The Editor, Business StandardNehru House, 4 Bahadur Shah Zafar MargNew Delhi 110 002Fax: (011) 23720201E-mail: letters@bsmail.inAll letters must have a postal address and

Letters: No more petty politics

Why has the Centre held up Madhya Pradesh's reforms?

Labour law, again

Pakistan is on its way to becoming China's client state

ChinPak

During a recent interaction with the media, Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Dharmendra Pradhan, said the Narendra Modi-led government worked like a bunch of "squirrels" - every minister worked in his own small way, but together they were taking the country in the direction of "double-digit growth". Taking a swipe at Rahul Gandhi's recent remark that the Modi regime was a "suit-boot ki sarkar", he said, "When Draupadi was being humiliated by the Kauravas in full view of senior members of the family, they did nothing but sit and watch. We are being tagged by some people as the 'suit-boot' government but let the country know the real face of these people." He went on to advise the media to have faith in the government's work and not make "headlines out of everything".

Hard-working squirrels

A recent study by a leading newspaper found that Delhi had only seven days of "healthy" air in the past 730 days. So, if you are a resident of Delhi and are worried about the quality of air you breathe, just wait for another 730 days. When Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari was asked at a recent conference what his government was planning to do to address the issue, he promptly said, "We are working on it and will do something by the next two years."

Two-year notice

At a function to announce the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding by the Ministry of Railways, the Ministry of Coal and the Odisha government to form a joint venture (JV) to develop rail infrastructure for evacuation of coal, Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu likened the proposed JV to a marriage, which had a pati (husband), a patni (wife) and a woh (paramour). He said conventional wisdom would suggest that a marriage was doomed if there was a woh. However, this three-way relationship, where the interests of all the parties were in complete alignment, was bound to succeed.

Power of three

This refers to the editorial "In need of a strategy" (April 21). The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government seems to be taking its anger out on the media because of the former's failure to combat effectively the Opposition's onslaught on the land acquisition Bill. It is bad that the inconvenient media men are called 'news traders' by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.True, the fourth estate is not totally free from gonzo journalism. But it is equally true that paid news is patronised by our leaders and political parties. Still, if the government thinks that it is getting a raw deal from the media, it has many ways to publicise its viewpoint. But it must avoid painting the media with a broad brush.For their own credibility, while the media needs to be objective and fair, the government of the day must get used to taking the bad with the good from the media over its policies and programmers. It will be bad for the democracy if the media and the powers that be agree to a "you scratch my

Letters: Media and the message

This refers to Jehangir Gai's column "Consumers can lose if complaints are delayed" (Consumer Is King, April 20). The phrase "consumer is king" carries with it some social ethics. Although the Consumer Protection Act is legislated in the interest of the consumer, it should not be carried out to illogical and ridiculous lengths, as it is prima facie misuse of the law. The very purpose of the enactment of the Limitation Act under civil law is to ensure that opportunistic methods of obtaining financial gains by way of damages should be controlled by way of time. Legal interpretations are not commercial activities and do not carry with them profit motives.Contesting consumer complaints after an abnormal delay is an implication of blowing hot and cold in the same breath, which is not the purpose of justice. Further, ignorance of the law is no excuse for either party and will not be tenable in any court of law. Such grievances can only be resolved by way of an amicable out-of-court settlemen

Letters: For the consumers

The sugar industry's problems refuse to go away. Several governments have been unable to find the golden mean that gives a good price to the cane growers, a tidy profit to the sugar mills and affordable cost to the consumers. All three groups count a lot in terms of votes and donations to parties. The proposals now being forwarded by the millers - import duty on raw sugar, export subsidy, loan waiver or restructure, an increase in mandatory ethanol mixing, buffer stock owned by government - haven't worked in the past. They are market-distorting methods of passing the burden indirectly to the consumers through higher prices, and to the government in terms of loan-waivers or the carrying cost of the buffer stock. In any event, a buffer stock can help solve one year's problem, not the structural one.Farmers have got hooked on to what is called a lazy man's crop with a guaranteed offtake and good price. Industry has compounded its problems by a breakneck spell of expansion, since sugar doe

Letters: Sugar rush

Rahul Gandhi needs lessons in economics and history

Rahul Gandhi's 'Are you serious?' moment

Hearing the helicopters

Just some months ago, Power Minister Piyush Goyal had a tiff with the media, threatening police action against a journalist who had sneaked into a closed-door meeting. There was a near-tiff again during a recent function at Rail Bhavan. Goyal noted the heavy presence of journalists at the event and said that perhaps, it was Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu's charisma that drew the media to the function. Then, he added sarcastically that the Railways served subsidised tea too. It was left to Prabhu to lighten the mood by summing up a minister's relationship with the media: "First, the patient goes after the doctor. Then, the doctor goes after the patient and then the two cannot live without each other."

Relationship status

The Congress is going all out to ensure that party Vice-President Rahul Gandhi is identified as a champion of poor farmers in the agitation against the National Democratic Alliance government's land acquisition Bill. After allowing him to take centre stage during a recent rally at the Ramlila Maidan, the party ensured that his 'intervention' speech on the agrarian crisis in the Lok Sabha was glitch-free. So, Gandhi was flanked by a battery of young guns from the party. While Jyotiraditya Scindia sat next to him, Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi's son Gaurav Gogoi was behind him on his left, and Deepender Hooda sat on the right. The young MPs prompted him at times and even deflected the barbs directed at Gandhi from the Treasury benches.

Flanking strategy

Potato growers across Odisha are up in arms against government agencies for not purchasing their produce. Earlier this week, aggrieved farmers from Sambalpur dumped a large quantity of potatoes at the entrance of the office of the deputy director of horticulture. They were miffed that state authorities, which had announced last month that some government agencies would purchase potatoes from farmers to prevent distress sale, did not keep their word. The sad part was that last year, Odisha had faced a severe shortage of the tuber, prompting the government to set up a 'Potato Mission' and announcing plans to keep buffer stocks.

Bitter potato

This refers to Debashis Basu's column "Taxtortion, Modi govt-style" (Irrational Choice, April 20). MAT simply means minimum alternate tax under direct tax laws. The word "minimum" reflects barely a figure of tax liability. It applies when income accrues and arises in India. It seems the author is lobbying to knock out the MAT provision from the statute. But so long as the law remains, it is unfair to criticise the government to enforce the law just because previous governments did not enforce it in its entirety.Bishwajit Bhattacharyya  New DelhiLetters can be mailed, faxed or e-mailed to:The Editor, Business StandardNehru House, 4 Bahadur Shah Zafar MargNew Delhi 110 002Fax: (011) 23720201E-mail: letters@bsmail.inAll letters must have a postal address and telephone number

Letters: The 'minimum' reality

This refers to Vinayak Chatterjee's column "Getting real about real estate" (Infratalk, April 21). Indian infrastructure, like housing and land, is a revenue generator. Practically every urban development authority with the local government only looks to siphon off cash every year under the pretext of education tax and other levies. Even a simple act of development needs several clearances from various agencies. Fees need to be paid at every step as well and you need to grease the palms of officials to move the file from one table to another.Ask any architect or builder and you will see how difficult it is to play a fair game with the authorities and get approvals for proposed projects. Some banks have a clear agenda before sanctioning a loan and good standards for consumer protection. I feel that the Real Estate (Regulations and Development) Bill will be just another hurdle.Let us hope that one more permit or licence rule to govern the infrastructure sector is not created because it i

Letters: Another hurdle?

Apropos the editorial "In need of a strategy" (April 21), the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) does need a media-savvy advisor and a well-conceived media strategy to sharpen its image in the eyes of the objective as well as secular media. Both these things are unavoidable for a highly centralised form of government in which one person's success or failure affects the reputation of the entire government and the ruling party.Moreover, the TRP-obsessed electronic media, which specialises in making a mountain out of a molehill, finds easy prey in the irresponsible utterances of members such as Sakshi Maharaj, Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti, Giriraj Singh and Yogi Adityanath. The prime minister's delayed or indifferent response to such expressions adds fuel to the fire of criticism. Here, the remedy is to rein in the loudmouths in the party rather than the media.Another major hurdle to the aura of the BJP is its association with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and other members of the Sangh Parivar. Man

Letters: BJP and the media

Days before polls were held to the Delhi Assembly, Prashant Bhushan had accused the Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal of using unethical means to win elections, forcing the party party to deny that there was a rift within. The party's landslide win in the Delhi polls didn't put an end to the differences and culminated in the expulsion of Bhushan and Yogendra Yadav, along with a few others from the AAP.

How cracks widened within AAP: A timeline

We take a look at the most powerful quotes from Rahul Gandhi's speech in parliament

Rahul back with a bang...

Government should deal with the media, not blame it

Business Standard

Business Standard

Page 452 - Business Standard