Rajiv Shastri's article "Why India's subsidies are inflationary" (February 3) once again raises the cliched question, "can good economics and good politics co-exist?" Watching the political and economic situation in India, any thinking person will answer "no".
Given this self-defeating situation, there is no political party that will be willing to bite the bullet and bring about a balance, unless they are driven to the wall. Finally, the number of politicians who have the ability to understand the economic consequences of their commissions and omissions is very small, and often their voices are muffled, ignored or unheard.
I, for one, had some hope in the Aam Aadmi Party to bring about this balance, but the way AAP has been handling the power supply situation in Delhi, or the vigilantism displayed in handling a recent incident involving African women, that hope, too, is fading. In the upcoming elections, all the parties are focussing on how to win and come to power. Nobody talks about the deep malaise in the system and their proposed methods to correct it.
N Subrahmanyam Hyderabad
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