The Rafale deal again
After a lull, the Rafale issue has taken centre stage again (Page 1, “French judge to probe Rafale deal”, July 4). Anyway, the point of origin of any alleged financial irregularity emanates from France. In India, calling for a Joint Parliamentary Probe or constituting a commission would be an exercise in futility. It can at the most provide some fodder to the Opposition which is directionless in its fight against the Bharatiya Janata Party government. None of such probes in the past has seen the light of day, nor has there been any follow-up action taken even if the reports were made public. It would be an avoidable diversion at the time of a raging pandemic. The Congress has no moral right to seek a probe as it stonewalled attempts to get to the truth in the Bofors deal. Moreover, The Hindu, which came out with a series of revelations on the Rafale deal, only pointed out the procedural lapses involved, rather than any intentional wrongdoing on the financial front.
V. Subramanian,
Chennai
As the probe brings a certain industrial group and its businessman owner in the spotlight now, there will be questions on whether there was preferential treatment and a bypassing of mandatory procedures that are necessary to select a manufacturing partner. The Congress may claim that its leader stands vindicated after his allegations but one hopes that the French probe does not turn out to be another Bofors deal that rocked the then Congress regime.
R. Prabhu Raj,
Bengaluru
Covaxin trial results
The long-awaited results of the Phase-3 clinical trials of Covaxin (Page 1, “Covaxin demonstrated 77.8% efficacy against symptomatic COVID-19”, July 4) should be immediately sent for peer- review, and the results published in a scientific journal of repute, so that the claims can be cemented and controversies surrounding this vaccine can be put to rest. The Centre should ramp up all vaccine production, ensure that the procurement of imported vaccines is speeded up, and inequities in distribution rectified to achieve its target of vaccinating a large percentage of the population by the end of the year.
Dr. Biju C. Mathew,
Thiruvananthapuram
Revenue stamps
A revenue stamp is required for receipts of amounts for ₹5,000 or above even though payment is made through banks. This meaningless colonial practice at times results in signed receipts becoming useless in case the gumming of revenue stamps is not proper as a major part of the signature vanishes in case a poorly gummed revenue stamp drops off from the signed receipt. The Government should do away with the requirement of revenue stamps for any receipt either by cash or through a bank. If needed, special receipt papers printed at the government security printing press on the lines of stamp papers may be introduced at a cost of say ₹100 for heavy transactions of say ₹50,000 and above. Such receipt papers, if introduced, should be made available at all post offices and bank branches (private and public sector) apart from other convenient centres by having a sale commission.
Subhash Chandra Agrawal,
New Delhi
