Governance without a human face

Sir, Manmohan Singh’s promise when he took over the charge as Prime Minister was that he would preside over a government with a “human face”. In that manner Dr Singh’s mask of the “human face” seems to have slipped somewhat.

Otherwise why should farmers suicides continue in the heartlands of India, why should they refuse to meet the PM on his healing trip there, why should twenty thousand people march towards Delhi during the last few months agitating for land and aggrieved on their displaced status?

Why should people demonstrate against SEZ’s to the point of giving up their lives since their agricultural land was being taken away? It is a shame that even after 60 years of independence and close to forty years of bank nationalisation, government cannot organise credit at the farmer level . 

S Kamat
Goa

Bank loans

Sir, The editorial, Good guidelines (DH, Dec 6) is no doubt a sort of caution to all banks taking recourse to rough and tough measures to recover loans from defaulting borrowers. Banks may outwardly agree with the guidelines issued by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on the procedures of extending loans to customers. Banks extending loans to applicants should thoroughly assess their capacity to repay promptly the interest on the principals paid to them.

H NARAYANAN
Bangalore

Welcome move

Sir, The RBI decision to rein the banks who employ recovery agents who harass borrowers is a welcome move. Recent reports on borrowers of some financial institutions being harassed by loan recovery agents has brought into the limelight deeper and darker undersides of these financial institutions. Infact no one is exploiting the perceived weakness in the law with impunity than these banks.

Ramesh G Jethwani
Bangalore

Our duties

Sir, Regarding the World Human Rights Day, while acknowledging the fact that human rights are very important, we must also lay emphasis and stress on human duties. If we want to make the world a better place to live in, then we must know our duties before our rights. Hope our leaders would focus on duties more than the rights.

Naresh Jain
Bangalore

Human values

Sir, In the ongoing debate on Gujarat elections, even the supporters of Narendra Modi admit that what happened in 2002 was shameful and cruel.Yet they support him because, according to them, he has brought development in Gujarat. If Modi wins, it is not because that what he did was correct, but because of a mob who do not care about the human values.

K S Xavier
Kochi, Kerala

Climate change

Sir, Nobel Peace Prize winner Al Gore has reiterated the need for reducing CO2 emissions for the “survival of our civilisation”. It is an irony that carbon dioxide which is essential for life on earth and, needless to add, for its survival may become the destroyer. The time has come to rethink about our way of living which has become highly materialistic with progress measured in terms of money.

V S Venkatavaradan
Salem

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