This refers to ‘Failing capitalism’ (August 22). It makes a valid point. India has reached the transition stage from socialism to capitalism and has an equal chance of going ahead into full-blown capitalism as it has of slipping back into socialism with major goods and services provided by the public sector. As the author has pointed out, private-sector projects were brought in on the assumption that they would be more efficient than the public sector ones. It was thought that the corruption involved in government projects would reduce once there was open and transparent bidding and regulation by an independent regulator. The roof flying off the Delhi airport or the mess in Delhi’s power sector, including the charges of inflated bills by BSES, show that the private sector is not delivering either efficiently or honestly. Some other examples have also been cited in the article.
The author has not dealt with the raw deal that citizens get in private hospitals that were built on subsidised land on the promise they would provide free treatment to the poor, but this is an even bigger scandal. There may well be a situation where citizens will express their choice and prefer the old-PSU model. And you can’t blame either Prakash Karat or Mamata Banerjee for this.
Sachin Gupta, Mumbai
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