Rebuttal

This is with response to the reply by Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia, and Mr. P. Sainath's response (May 24). Dr. Ahluwalia's response to the Sainath article was revealing. It was clear that he thought himself perfectly justified in making such frequent and expensive trips to the U.S. And he claims that these were hardly holidays, but time spent away from family, as if he were making a huge sacrifice for the public cause. Reading his response, one cannot help thinking that perhaps he could do with a crash course in living poor.

Rosamma Thomas,

Chandigarh

Surely Mr. Sainath should have better things to do than maintaining the sickening statistics of Montek Singh Ahluwalia's foreign visits. Dr. Ahluwalia is doing his job and let him be. Let Mr. Sainath start probing and uncovering bigger things like misadventures in agriculture, black money, corruption, scandals, etc — an area in which he has cult figure status.

Satish Srinivasan,

Bangalore