The editorial ‘Borrow in India’ (January 30) exposes the vulnerability of infrastructure projects being stalled in the event of loan default to overseas borrowers unless it is regulated by stable hedging mechanisms. Companies would do well to offset the risk by hedging foreign exchange exposures through forward contracts and options. They would also do well to adopt stringent accounting standards to increase confidence levels of stake holders.

Vikram Sundaramurthy

Chennai

Cry, beloved country!

After looking at the photograph of Mahatma Gandhi published in the media on his death anniversary with all reverence, I went into a state of sorrow and a sense of anguish when I learnt that the Hindu Maha Sabha is reportedly planning to install statues of the killer of the Mahatma, Godse (‘Now, plan to install Godse statues in temples’, January 30). Day is not far off when fundamentalists would celebrate the birth or the death anniversary of Godse as ‘The Assassin’s Day’ or ‘ The Murderer’s day’!

Tharcius S Fernando

Chennai

Kejri’s wall

Delhi Assembly poll has caught the national imagination. It has come to be treated as an epic battle. By pulling out all the stops in full public glare, the BJP gives a definite advantage to the AAP in the perception battle. Its deployment of almost the entire Cabinet and over 120 MPs, not to speak of the RSS pracharaks , keeps the focus on AAP’s Arvind Kejriwal and makes him the central character in the electoral contest and gives AAP a psychological edge.

The BJP’s panic decisions betray that it sees no prospect of the receding “Modi wave” breaching Kejri"wall’’. The confusion surrounding Kiran Bedi’s Blue Print and the party’s vision document and the internecine fighting within the Delhi unit accentuates the BJP’s ill-preparedness just a week before the polling and puts the party on the defensive. Seen as a leader who represents a new value-based politics, Kejriwal wins the support of Dalits and other have-nots. In the “capital class war”, he flags issues of water, electricity, education, healthcare and safety, and promises change and regains the confidence of the middle class by his candid admission of ‘mistakes’.

G David Milton

Maruthancode, Tamil Nadu

An issue of diversity

US President Barack Obama’s words on the freedom of religion is a nudge to the Union government, to be followed up with a reference that India’s full membership of the Security Council would entail “greater responsibility".

It would be facile to see this as a $14- trillion Christian nation advising a far lesser ‘secular’ economy on the need for wide spectrum equanimity. As its long-term strategy, the US looks upon India to counter Chinese influence in the eastern hemisphere.

Sustained internal rifts, that too over fundamental rights of inclusiveness, could render India an unstable fulcrum for leverage against China. Closest friends are the ones that do not hesitate to give the bitterest advice.

R Narayanan

Ghaziabad

Revelations

The disclosure by former environment minister and estranged Congress leader Jayanthi Natarajan that she received specific orders from Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi on big-ticket environmental clearances is an answer to his repeated statement that the poor are ignored by the incumbent BJP-led Central Government and that only three to four industrialists are being favoured.

It was a known factor Rahul Gandhi wielded considerable power during the UPA regime without any accountability or responsibility. The fallout of this statement is going to be visible in the ensuing Delhi assembly election. It is definitely a setback to select corporate and vested interests that are working overnight and helping Congress perform its role as a vote cutter aimed at blocking the march of AAP to power in Delhi.

Ettirankandath Krishnadas

Palakkad

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