Date:26/10/2005 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2005/10/26/stories/2005102602261002.htm

Opinion - Letters to the Editor

Economics & politics

The editorial "Bad economics, worse politics" (Oct. 22) is right in arguing that the bid to impose the two-child norm on the right to contest elections to local bodies is elitist. The norm is all that Mani Shankar Aiyar has said it is — anti-poor, anti-woman, and anti-democratic.

Raghuram Ekambaram,
New Delhi

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How can family planning be called bad economics? How can one explain a big family in the present circumstances? Should we go on punishing conscientious citizens by reducing the number of parliamentary seats in States that scrupulously follow the national objectives?

When people do not cooperate on such an important issue, the state is forced to take drastic decision, which is what Maharashtra has done. If anything, the State deserves praise for taking such a bold, corrective decision.

T.R. Kallapiran,
Tirunelveli, T.N.

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There is nothing wrong in governments bringing about reasonable policy changes that benefit the country at large, even if it means denying a few rights for some time.

S. Thyagarajan,
Chennai