Three cheers to Mukul Kesavan (The Moon Also Waxes, Aug 22) for talking about the path less cynical. Among the good news we’ve had of late, we could count Jairam Ramesh, whom I have had the privilege of knowing since 1974. One of his first acts in the rural development ministry was to invite cag to audit all its schemes. To that, you should add nrega, nrlm and pura. Instead of pointing fingers, why not get into a tech partnership with the government for improving conditions in our villages? At some 650 districts in India, at five to ten committed individuals per district, we need just 3,500-6,500 people to get things going. A bunch of my friends is joining up with the ministry to improve things in the Dumaria, Dhalbhumgarh and Chakulia blocks of Jharkhand’s East Singhbhum district.
Ricky Surie, Jamshedpur
Contrary to what Kesavan thinks, newspapers should not consciously put out just good news (for inspiration) or bad news (for sensationalism). They should put out all news: good or bad, in proportions commensurate to reality.
Jyoti Rani, Delhi
Is Vinod Mehta trying to back-pedal by giving us good news because all the bad news the media has pushed to the foreground is proving costly for the Congress?
Ronny Lal, on e-mail
With a great deal of sophistry, Kesavan is preaching what Dr Manmohan Singh preached to some editors a few weeks ago.
Manish Banerjee, Calcutta
Kesavan echoes my thoughts. Every time the media paints India as a land of rape, scams and murders, I wonder if there is nothing good to report on.
R.C. Acharya, on e-mail
Good news is no news, Mr Kesavan. We don’t learn anything from happy stories; unhappy ones caution us, or make us change for the better.
Aditya Mookerjee, Belgaum
Mukul Kesavan is just a B-grade version of Arundhati Roy. Perhaps you didn’t get Arundhati, which is why you settled on a second-rater.
Pankaj Kumar, Mumbai
