• Your editorial, ‘Who will pick up the tab?’, has rightly put a question mark on large-scale increases in budget allocations for UPA’s flagship social-sector programmes. There could be no denying that these programmes have been ridden with corruption and inefficiency and have failed to achieve their objectives. Such sharp spikes in allocations without reviewing the past performance of the programmes and plugging the loopholes wherever they are represent bad governance and even worse economics.

There could be no two opinions on the pressing need to help small farmers caught in the debt trap. Incidents of suicide by such farmers did not start just the other day. For four years, the government remained indifferent and has now announced a Rs 60,000 crore waiver with an eye to the general election. It is certainly a very bad precedent. Loan-waivers will now onwards become yet another vote-catching device for parties in power apart of course from encouraging borrowers to evade repayment.

The dumps are real

• This refers to ‘Well-being in a bottle’ by Farah Baria. It trivialises depression by saying that it can be beneficial and can spark creativity as well.

Who doesn’t feel sad in this world? Life does have its ups and downs. But it is important to note that clinical depression is a serious medical condition. In a country where most people are not even aware that depression has a bio-chemical basis (scientifically proven, contrary to what the writer says) that can be treated with medication and are reluctant to approach psychiatrists, whom the author refers to as shrinks, this article can do much damage. Untreated depression, over time, can spiral into chronic psychiatric illnesses such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, which lead to thousands of suicide cases every year.

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