Dear Sir,

Recently I have seen some mosques closing immediately after the congregational prayers.
This makes people, especially those whose jobs involve frequent travelling outside their offices, to miss performing prayers in mosques.
Many reasons could be cited for closing mosques immediately after prayers.
But if it leads to someone missing a prayer, it is not good at all.
So I request the authorities to assist all such people who want to pray in mosques, maybe in congregation.
May Allah bless all of us with His boundless mercy.

Ahamed Fajeel, fajeel@nourish-media.com

Biased comments

Dear Sir,

Indian politician Subramanian Swamy, a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Rajya Sabha (the Upper House of the Indian parliament) MP, is considered a legal luminary by many people in the country, but his recent comments against the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor Raghuram Rajan (“RBI chief is wrecking economy, says Swamy”, Gulf Times, May 18) are biased.
Swamy’s statements reveal that he has only limited knowledge about the Indian economy and banking norms.
Rajan is a person of great eminence and has formerly occupied the coveted IMF chief economist position.
After taking over as RBI’s governor in September 2013, he has been criticised for increasing bank interest rate.
This is done not without a purpose.
What have been the outcomes? The inflation has been contained despite famine in various Indian states.
Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) have invested substantial sums in the Indian stock market, besides starting up new ventures, several of which have been expanding exponentially despite gloomy global economy.
While RBI maintained bank interest rate at 8% throughout 2014, it was brought down to 6.5% by Rajan in a phased manner.
It is an undisputed fact that despite several odds, Indian inflation is still under a lower level compared to the economy of many other countries.
This, by any standards, is no small achievement.
I expressed my deep concern last year through Gulf Times when India’s finance ministry attempted to withdraw the veto power vested with the RBI governor by appointing more government nominees in the committee to decide repo rates.
The finance ministry had no option but to continue with the status quo, thanks to the efforts of those who are keenly interested in the well-being of Indian economy and banking sector, irrespective of the fact whether they are in the country or overseas.
Rajan too, on his part, has not yielded to the unwise proposal mooted by the finance ministry then.
His mettle has been amply proved whenever there is an opportunity.
All earlier RBI governors, who are veterans in the Indian banking industry, Subba Rao, Y V Reddy, Bimal Jalan and Rangarajan, have served for a term of five years.
Rajan completes his three-year term in September this year.
The finance ministry, in the larger interest of Indian economy in general and banking industry in particular, must extend Rajan’s term by two more years as they have done in the past with other erstwhile governors.
Thus no need to pay heed to Swamy’s unfounded accusations.

K M, (Full name and address supplied)

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