'Your cover story on quadricycle made interesting reading'

Neither Hero Nor Anti-hero
Your cover story on the remarkable quadricycle produced by Rajiv Bajaj (The Quadricycle Diaries, September 29) made interesting reading, but reaffirmed my long-held belief that we tend to honour the wrong heroes ignoring the real ones. You have called Rajiv Bajaj an anti-hero for his verbal vitriol against all those who oppose his quadricycle, calling it a step backward. His father, Rahul Bajaj, was a leader of the famous Bombay Club which opposed the entry of transnational corporations when the economy was opened up in 1991. Once MNCs were allowed, Hero Honda overtook Bajaj Auto as the largest manufacturer of two wheelers, because it judged customer preferences better. Bajaj himself went on to tie up with Kawasaki to offer motorcycles.

Bajaj announced he would provide a new, affordable car for the Indian middle class following the introduction of Nano by Tata. But having seen Nano's failure, Bajaj has changed tack, claiming his product is an improvement on the autorickshaw - the threewheeler in whose market, his company has a major share. The credit for thinking out of the box should go not to Rajiv Bajaj but to an unsung hero from Kerala - M.D.Jos, who runs a little known company Eddy Current Controls(I) Ltd, primarily in Variable Speed Drives. Jos designed a four-wheel drive to replace the auto in 2000 and displayed it at the swadeshi exhibition held in Coimbatore under the aegis of Swadeshi Jagran Manch. Unfortunately, Jos did not have the political clout Rajiv Bajaj and his family enjoy. Or else, the quadricycle would have been on the roads a decade earlier.

Venkateswaran C.V., On e-mail

Rajan's New Avatar
The feature on new RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan (Rockstar Successor, September 29) is very speculative. Let's pray that Rajan really rocks and succeeds in his new avatar. The rockstar economist has generated a lot of optimism. It reminds me of Raghupati Raghav Raja Ram, a popular bhajan Everyone now seems to be singing an updated version of the bhajan featuring Rajan.

J.S. Broca, New Delhi

NSEL Scam: An Investor's Appeal
The National Spot Exchange stopped trading from July 31 on the orders of the Forward Market Commission without any prior intimation to over 15,000 investors. We are a senior citizen couple, aged 72 and 65 years, who after a lifetime of struggle and frugal living, had invested in financial instruments issued by the exchange, after misleading presentations made by the exchange and brokers, wherein they clearly stated that all commodity contracts were fully backed by actual delivery of stocks. We had invested over Rs 1 crore, almost our entire savings, under the impression that this was a government-approved exchange and also further misled by the word 'national'. I believed the authorities were properly regulating this 'national' exchange. Little did I know that regulation was weak, with loopholes that allowed either mismanagement or fraud to be committed.

Over 45 days have passed since the exchange closed and the only progress made has been that the Central government has instituted a committee to study the situation and report the facts. After this there has been deafening silence. I appeal to you to find out why the government authorities are not moving faster with this investigation, and what the government is doing to get us our money back.

Jatinder Kumar Ahuja, Renu Ahuja