NSA

If accusing Varun Gandhi under the NSA was deemed wrong by the advisory board of the Allahabad high court,the officials who were involved in this episode should be punished harshly so that in future, other officials do not dare to resort to such action.It is the duty of the civil servants to advise politicians sincerely,and not act according to the whims and fancies of politicians.Unless stringent action is taken against the bureaucrats involved in the Varun Gandhi episode,others of their tribe will not learn a lesson.

Outsourcing can help U.S

This is with reference to US President Barack Obama’s policy of discouraging outsourcing jobs to India and other countries.Mr Obama should,in fact,encourage outsourcing.This means Indian workers will be in contact with the US economy by remaining in India.Perhaps what he could think to do is not to promote the hiring of employees from India to work in America.Outsourcing jobs like medical transcription, call centres and other software-related activity indeed benefits the US economy as well because it cuts costs for the US firms.

AF-PAK policy

There is no evidence to suggest that American military and financial aid to Pakistan is actually working.I believe that billions of dollars that were supposed to go towards poverty alleviation,reconstruction and combating extremism have been siphoned off by Pakistani officials and middlemen.Similarly,there are reports that US military aid to Pakistan, instead of being used to combat the jihadis,has been used by Islamabad to arm itself against India.In spite of this,the Obama administration persists with the old strategy.There is very little that distinguishes the Obama approach to the Zardari regime from former US President George W. Bush. Clearly,Mr Obama’s AfPak policy lacks balance and fairplay.It is bound to fail.