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Agrarian tragedy The Cover Story ("An agrarian tragedy", Frontline, July 2) shed light on farmers who are entangled in debts and consequently frustrated. The staggering statistics of suicides in Andhra Pradesh bring out the adverse economic environment prevailing in the State. The policies of globalisation and liberalisation have eroded the indigenous, traditional patterns of living, destroying the symbiosis between resource bases and humanity. The frequent onslaught of natural calamities and the curtailment of subsidies and other financial assistance in the name of structural adjustment have placed the farmer in a volatile situation. Further, there are no regulations to bridle the exploitation by landowners. Poverty has forced farmers to resort to organ-trading. The government has to hammer out a sustainable solution to the crisis.
Justin Joseph
Your Cover Story on the seemingly unending chain of suicides in Andhra Pradesh was striking and comprehensive. The falling heads at the altar of the imperialism-driven globalisation policies are a horrible testimony to the indifference of the powers-that-be to the cries of the citizens. The remarks of N. Chandrababu Naidu, the former `CEO' of the State, that the "unusual spurt" in the number of suicides was because of the relief package announced by the government are uncharitable, to be mild. Besides bringing out the social and emotional dimensions of the disturbing state of affairs, you have traced the roots of the continuing disaster and put on focus the ways and means to address the issue. Frontline stands out in the mainstream media.
S.V. Venugopalan
The plight of the peasants of Andhra Pradesh, is heart-rending. The flood of suicides among small and middle peasants and landless workers have created a scar on the psyche of the common people. The previous Telugu Desam Party (TDP) government was guided by the neo-liberal policies of the World Bank. Despite getting thousands of crores rupees from the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government at the Centre, it failed to provide succour to the farmers. Although India has an agriculture-based economy, successive governments at the Centre and the States have neglected the sector on which about 70 per cent of the population depends. India has been described as a welfare state in the Constitution, but its governments have failed to raise the standard of living of the downtrodden and have left them at the mercy of moneylenders, touts, multi-national corporations, and insensitive administrations. All these factors have created a vicious cycle of drought, indebtedness and finally death in Andhra Pradesh. Although the cover story has suggested measures such as food-for-work programmes, increase in institutional credit, waiver of earlier loans, stopping harassment by moneylenders and so on, the new Congress-led State government, under the influence of big moneylenders, landlords and businessmen, is shying away from hard decisions to revive the agricultural sector. The Centre and State governments should follow their "rajdharma" and restore the faith of the people in the administration.
Akhil Kumar
The attitude of our bankers has much to do with the suicides of farmers. They are responsible for the denial of adequate credit, refusal of rehabilitation, and mindless recovery procedures in rural India. Forty per cent of credit from nationalised banks has to go to the priority sectors, whose list is being expanded frequently to suit the whims of every pressure group, 18 per cent to agriculture, and 1 per cent to the poorest of the poor under the DIR Scheme. If such targets are seriously meant, one-fifth of the loan officers ought to have been essentially in the village branches. Most banks have not achieved rural targets for many years. Those that have achieved these have resorted to mis-classification. Loans described as agricultural Gold Loans, Agricultural Demand Loans against Term Deposits and so on are examples. No action is taken against officials who do not reach targets. Banks routinely write off, compromise on or sacrifice crores of rupees to industrial or business units. But those who have taken even a Rs.10,000 loan in the agricultural sector are subjected to several weeks of recovery exercise. Losing crores on a single business loan seems to be less serious than losing a lakh through 10 agricultural loans. Is it cheaper to sacrifice a farmer?
R. Sajan
The Indian peasantry is going through a deep churning process caused by the neo-liberal prescription for agriculture. I feel the new government has rightly included in its Common Minimum Programme immediate steps to ease the burden of debt and high interest rates on farm loans and effective schemes of crop and livestock insurance.
A.J. Rangarajan
It is really a shame that we in India should have allowed such "an agrarian tragedy" to happen. And it is even more pathetic that most of the suicides of farmers were in Andhra Pradesh, which had a Chief Minister acclaimed as a champion of reforms and liberalisation. Then, is it the policy or its wrong application that is responsible for the deaths? The lack of institutional credit and technical support, absentee landlordism and absence of land reforms, withdrawal of input subsidies such as free power and subsidised fertilizer, incomplete information and inaction on the part of the government, inadequate infrastructure and irrigation facilities, absence of insurance protection and so on may be some of the reasons. The new government has taken some urgent action to provide relief such as the resumption of free power supply and other long-term measures. These experiences should be an eye-opener and should be taken into account by the new government at the Centre while framing the new agriculture policy. While following the same method of extending more and more loans, the government should consider introducing a simultaneous saving scheme with a better interest rate and insurance protection.
A. Jacob Sahayam
Dalits and conversion The article "Conversion as protest" by S. Viswanathan (Frontline, July 2) was an eye-opener. Religious conversions will continue until we make drastic changes in Hinduism. Conditions that led Dr. B.R. Ambedkar to proclaim, "To the untouchables, Hinduism is a veritable chamber of horrors," still exist in Hinduism. It is easy for someone to quote the Bhagavad Gita and say, "Caste is not based on birth but on character." However, there is no Hindu ritual to convert an "untouchable" to a "Brahmin". The caste system has created multitudes of problems in Hindu society. It has destroyed the beautiful fabric of Hinduism. There is no easy way to deal with the problem. It has to be discussed at length, before every untouchable in India converts to other religion. In the interest of the growth of Hindu culture, the caste system has to be given up entirely, exactly as Christians gave up slavery. The Bible openly supports "slavery" [Col. 4:11, Exodus 21:21; 1: Lev. XXV:44-55; Thessalonians 3:22]. Slavery was established, regulated, supported and sanctioned by the Bible. It was a common practice during the time of both the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament) and the Christian Scriptures (New Testament). It continued into the modern era in many countries around the world. In North America, most slaves were Afro-American. Still Christians abandoned slavery. Of course, in Hindu scriptures there is no support for slavery. There is no scriptural verse in Hinduism that sanctions the ill-treatment of "untouchables". Yet, it continues, especially in States such as Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.
Ed Viswanathan
Neurology It was interesting to read Milind Deogaonkar's article on the prospects of neural stem cell transplantation ("Miracle in the making", June 4). Neurological illnesses were perceived to be `incurable' until 15 years ago. However, things have changed tremendously over the past decade. With 1990s being referred to as `the decade of the brain', research into brain disorders have progressed at an amazing speed. Today, a majority of neurological disorders are treatable. For example, paralytic strokes can be cured by urgent thrombolysis (by dissolving the clots); several immunomodulating agents have been found for demyelinating disorders such as multiple sclerosis. Now, with the promising role of neural stem cell transplantation and gene therapy, there is hope that even the most dreaded degenerative brain disorders can be cured.
Dr. Sudhir Kumar
CIA The CIA's history is full of inexcusable failures ("The CIA under assault," July 2). Its ineffectiveness was proved beyond doubt when Saddam Hussein's military sneaked into Kuwait in 1990. India's nuclear tests of May 11 and 12, 1998, blasted the myth about the CIA's omnipresence. When the 9/11 hijackers were meticulously planning the World Trade Centre attacks, the CIA could not smell a rat. Its failure was all the more glaring when the terrorists were being trained in American airlines on U.S. soil. George Tenet should have resigned as CIA Director on September 11, 2001 and not in June 2004. Its failure in gathering strategic intelligence was acknowledged by the U.S. government itself when it had to enlist the support of a former United Nations nuclear weapons inspector to help find Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. In view of the CIA's proven ineffectiveness, the U.S. President should disband it once and for all.
K.P. Rajan
E.K. Nayanar This refers to your article about former Kerala Chief Minister E.K. Nayanar ("People's leader", June 18). Like EMS and A.K. Gopalan, Nayanar was a communist leader who earned a place in the hearts of Keralites. Even though I read many articles about Nayanar after his death, Venkitesh Ramakrishnan's article `Bread and kozhi curry' was the best. It was really touching. It successfully illustrates the special bonding between Nayanar and people of Kerala and the unique place he had in their hearts.
G.S. Sreejith
Education Hegel's Theory states that "History progresses through a dialectic or clash of opposing forces", but the Human Resource Development Ministry's plan to "detoxify" school education ("To undo the damage", June 15) by making deletions and additions in NCERT history textbooks, reworked during the tenure of former HRD Minister Murli Manohar Joshi, has shattered the very foundations of "history". As the printing and distribution of enough books in time would have been a logistical nightmare, the Ministry has decided to sanitise existing books. Wittingly or otherwise, the new HRD Minister Arjun Singh would end up setting a precedent where the "official" history of India will be changed every five years to suit the agenda of the party that comes to power. The larger question is, Why should the government be in the business of school textbook writing? It is the job of independent scholars and requires highly specialised skills. After all it is for an educationist to decide the extent to which children should be exposed to complex situations from the past.
Anil Pandit
Science and technology Apropos "To rebuild infrastructure" (Frontline, June 18), despite the NDA's promise to vigorously implement the Science and Technology policy, hardly any steps were taken to implement it over the past few years. Although the CMP of the new government has announced `value education' as the top priority of its HRD agenda, it does not give much importance to science and technology. Obviously the Left parties in the UPA coalition insisted on the inclusion of their demand in the draft CMP to decommunalise education, initiate steps to undo the patently irrational and retrograde move by the University Grants Commission to introduce Vedic Astrology in university curricula and so on. Research-oriented and value-based education is opposed to pseudo-sciences and spurious medical practices. Clandestine attempts to saffronise education will deter the growth of a sane and civilised society.
R.R. Sami
Correction: In the article "The immediate way out" by Utsa Patnaik (July 2) the sentence "All the arbitrary conditions in force at present for issuing Below Poverty Line (BPL) cards could be made available to all those who wish to apply" should be read correctly as "All the arbitrary conditions in force at present for issuing Below Poverty Line (BPL) cards should be waived and the cards should be made available to all those who wish to apply." Also, the sentence "However, it is incorrect to say that poverty declined in the 1990s" should be correctly read as "The above needs some explanation. It is wrong to say that poverty has declined in the 1990s."
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