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fraud (Neglect Is A Fraud’s Best Friend,
Mar 5). The modus operandi of Nirav
Modi and Mehul Choksi needs to be
investigated thoroughly. The fraud was
enabled by SWIFT (Society For
Worldwide Interbank Financial
Telecommunication), a messaging sys-
tem used by banks worldwide to trans-
fer funds. It is supposed to be a secure
service, but Modi, in collusion with
PNB employees, breached it.
ON E-MAIL P.L. Singh: The organised
loot of more than Rs 11,400 crore hap-
pened even after the Mallya scandal!
Perhaps the successful fly-by-night ope
rations of Lalit Modi and Vijay Mallya
served as inspiration for Nirav Modi.
This fraud may well prove to be just the
tip of iceberg of banking scandals. The
Modi government has already pinned
the blame of the NPAs mess on the
Congress. Even if they are to be believed
on that, they have to accept that they
were caught napping. A clean-up of the
balance sheets of banks was the primary
challenge this government had taken on
its head during the 2014 elections. If
they had acted on their promises, such a
fraud couldn’t have happened.
MUMBAI K.P. Rajan: When the rich
and the powerful are swindling nat
ional banks periodically, perhaps enj
oying the ‘ease of doing business’
climate, are people, who have kept
their hard earned money in banks, not
bound to lose their faith in the banking
system? Can they now trust the banks
with their biometric digital details,
something the government is pushing
for aggressively? The only way, I feel, to
allay the fears of costumers is to bring
Theatre Of The Absurd
BANGALORE J. Akshay: The AAP-BJP conflict in
Delhi has degenerated beyond the limits of accept-
able bizarreness—yes, Indian politics is marked by
such a thing. That a large number of bureaucrats
have rallied around the Chief Secretary is telling. It
reveals the tension that AAP, itself a party with a
former civil services employee at its helm, has had
with bureaucrats in its three years of being in
power. The Delhi CM has to take up some responsi-
ble and clear the air around this unbecoming incident. Kejriwal’s eccentric
functioning of the party now appears to be going out of control. Political
goons—and there is no dearth of them, in all parties—will perceive any fail-
ure to resolve this case as a green flag to intimidating civil servants.
the fraudsters and the conniving bank
officials to book as quickly as possible.
Fate of Water
DEHRADUN Rakesh Agrawal: I am
not surprised that this government is
determined to go ahead with the River
Linking Project (Bid for a Big Catch,
March 5). The ruling party wants to go
ahead with all those projects that can
fetch it votes and funds—even those
that fall flat on all scientific facts and
logic. River basins across India follow
different geological patterns and link-
ing them is not just impractical, but
disastrous. Secondly, a river isn’t a pipe
that we can control. You can’t compare
the Ganga to another river. It has dif-
ferent characteristics, so do Godavari,
Krishna and Mahanadi! This is happen-
ing at the time when policymakers all
over the world have given up old para-
digms of development. Dams, which
were touted as the temples of new
India, are now being decommissioned
in the West. But here, we are going
ahead with the Pancheshwar Dam pro-
ject in Uttarakhand, which will displace
thousands and devastate a huge area.
The real reason is the huge amount of
money involved in these projects.
Caste Out
MUSCAT Ramachandran Nair: This
STORM AHEAD The Ken river, MP
STUDENTS STAGE PROTEST OUTSIDE
SSC OFFICE IN DELHI
refers to your editorial comment Dalit
Atrocities (March 5). It is a reality that
unfortunately continues in modern
Indian society as well. There has not
been much change in people’s attitude
towards those who are exploited by the
PROTESTS AGAINST ‘HOLI
HOOLIGANISM’ AT DELHI POLICE HQ
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19 March 2018 OUTLOOK 7