This refers to the editorial, “Begging the question” (August 10). On the one hand, some market players do not have an iota of shame in creating huge bad loans. On the other, a poor boy, whose mother was a domestic help and father a vegetable vendor, committed suicide in Kolkata for being accused as a thief for keeping a neighbour's pigeon that had flown to his home.
This explains the reason why the pay back rate of micro loans is much more than macro credits. Nobel laureate, Mohammed Younus of Bangladesh, gave micro loans to the poor, even to beggars through the Grameen Bank. The pay back rate of such loans was as high as 95 per cent. The poor, including beggars, seem to have more self-respect than some of the rich profiteers.
Sometimes, we compare macro bank defaulters with beggars. But this is an insult to the beggars. Most beggars are victims of circumstances and they do not snatch public money, unlike some creamy looters. We see that beggars have enough compassion to feed street dogs and more often than not they share their food and money with other beggars. This gesture stands in total contrast with the modus operandi of some filthy rich people.
It is said that a fish rots from the head down. This biological phenomenon explains why corruption is more likely to pollute the creamy layer first rather than the poor.