| Going, Going, Gone |
|
|
| "In hindsight, we didn't 'go for it' the
way we ought to have. The Australians did and they proved they deserved
to win the Cup after all." |
|
Ajay Kumar Saxena, Chandigarhl
|
| |
| Clean Bowled |
| The World Cup has caught the imagination of everyone
in India ("Go for It!", March 24). In a country where religion and
politics act as divisive forces, Sourav Ganguly's team has rejuvenated
the feeling of unity in each Indian. In India, for every opinion on
cricket, there's an equal and opposite opinion available but your
article was just the swot analysis the team's think tank needed to
follow in the final match. |
|
Aaditya Vidyarthi, on e-mail
|
| |
| Your story on cricket made good reading but it
was based on the assumption that India had already entered the finals.
We should not forget that in a game of cricket anything can happen.
|
|
Anuraag S. Kapoor, on e-mail
|
| |
| After a very shaky start in the World Cup, which
resulted in cricket fans humiliating the players in India, our team
now seems to be on the job. They have improved from match to match. |
|
D. Praveen Anand, Mangalore
|
| |
| What Lies Beneath |
| The Ayodhya dispute, as it stands today, is locked
in political, historical, religious and legal debates ("Depths
of Ayodhya", March 24). They say the Indians lack a sense of
history. Is the recent judgement of the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad
High Court asking the Archaeological Survey of India to excavate the
disputed site in Ayodhya an attempt to restore the lost sense of history?
Or is it an attempt to scrutinise religion through the magnifying
glass of history? As T.S. Eliot once said, history has many cunning
passages and contrived corridors. It is important to tread carefully
through the excavation process because any historical revelation can
shape the future of political discourse of our country. |
|
Prasanna Raghav, Chennai
|
| |
| Mother Courage |
| Reading about Kavita Gadgil instilled a new sense
of pride ("Pilot Project", March 24). Being the wife of
a defence personnel, I can understand the feelings of Gadgil. Only
a brave mother of a heroic son can set such examples keeping aside
her own grief and embracing the tears of others. |
|
Preeti Rajdeep Singh, Chandimandir, Haryana
|
| |
| Power Craze |
|
The reckless exploits of Mayawati are too shocking to be believed
("Mayawati and the Banality of Power", March 24). As a
matter of fact the Mayawatis, Laloo Prasad Yadavs, Kanshi Rams and
other so-called messiahs of the Dalits are the illicit byproducts
of the mess created by our Nehruvian, secularist makers of the Constitution
who drafted it using their hearts instead of their brains. It is
ridiculous to have an electoral system that has the provision of
caste-based reservations and in which the value of the vote of a
DLitt scholar equals that of an illiterate Dalit. Till we suitably
amend the electoral system, we have no choice but to tolerate the
likes of Mayawati.
|
|
A.K. Sharma, Chandigarh
|
| |
| "There's a Chinese saying that is aimed at
President Bush: 'He who rides the tiger ends up in it'." |
|
Vivek Khanna, Panchkula
|
|
|
|
|
It Is time we owned responsibility for disdain shown to the constitutional
spirit. Else, how can one explain Mayawati continuing in office
after causing this huge dent in the state exchequer for her personal
benefit? Our reaction is limited to just reading about the issue
and then forgetting about it, not realising that our hard-earned
money is being merrily used for "celebrating the birthday"
of a "constitutionally" chosen chief minister. Our politicians
would never take such issues to their logical conclusion lest their
own dirty linen is washed in public by fellow politicians. A case
must be filed against her and the money that was squandered recovered.
|
|
|
|
Amit Bansal, on e-mail
|
| |
| Mayawati is under attack from the media because
her fault is her caste. Till recently, Uttar Pradesh had been ruled
and sucked dry by successive Brahmin and Thakur lobbies though their
combined population is less than that of Dalits. Hundreds of crores
of Central government grants over the years have been siphoned off
by this powerful coterie. Schools for the underprivileged were not
built, fake teachers were appointed, rations meant for poor Dalits
and Adivasis were sold or were found substandard, basic facilities
like roads, health care and drinking water were denied to them. What
Mayawati has done is nothing compared to this organised loot of the
state. |
|
Ashok K. Das, Ahmedabad
|
| |
| No Big Deal |
| The story on Shah Rukh Khan's surgery is a case
of much ado about nothing ("Star Struck", March 24). Surgeries
on the cervical spine for disc prolapse are performed routinely in
the country. While allowing an individual the right to have his or
her surgery done anywhere in the world, prominent publications like
yours shouldn't write articles over-dramatising operations performed
on celebrities abroad. What comes across to the public is that these
operations are not being performed in India. |
|
Dr K. Sridhar, on e-mail
|
| |
| False Note |
| In the Newsnotes section it has been mentioned
that Maharashtra Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde apologised in
Mumbai for his party's denigration of Veer Savarkar ("Savarkar's
Ghost Haunts the Congress", March 24). This is totally false.
Shinde has never made any statement apologising for the stand of the
Congress Party on Savarkar in Parliament. |
|
Ajay Amber, public relations officer, Chief
Minister's Secretariat, Mumbai
|
| |
| War on Reason |
| George Bush sees the US as the new Rome and has
designs to create an American Empire ("War of Nerves", March
24). What legal or moral right has he to attack Iraq at this stage,
when nothing has been done by Iraq for more than a decade? He uses
the excuse of WMD to give legitimacy to his ambitions. |
|
Keshav Agarwal, on e-mail
|
| |
| Never before in the history of the world has so
petty a man led a disproportionately powerful nation into an attack
on a small country without even a fig leaf of a rational justification.
Bush's action will erode the entire moral capital of the US, and perhaps
convert the world into an inferno of terrorist actions. This could
bring us to the brink of a dreadful world war. |
|
Shailesh Gandhi, Mumbai
|
| |
| IRAQ WAR: Ayes and Nays |
| "This war should be a lesson to all dictators who
hold their countries to ransom." |
|
J.K. Shetty, Mumbai
|
|
| For weeks now we were in the grip of the cricket
World Cup fever. Now we are in the grip of a World War fever. One
is entertaining, the other frightening. In one we eagerly want to
know the number of runs scored. In the other we dread to know the
number of casualties. One has a cup full of joy, the other has only
cups of sorrows. One is a game of the bat and ball, the other is about
bullets and bombs. One is noble and brings fame. The other is ignoble
and brings only shame. In one, the two teams shake hands after the
game. In the other, one wonders if any team will survive. |
|
Geraldine H., Mumbai
|
| |
| Take to Task |
| Given the substantial contribution of the Indian
workforce towards the growth of Malaysia, the evidently premeditated
harassment of Indian it professionals in Kuala Lumpur is condemnable
and bodes ill for the future of Indo-Malaysian bilateral ties ("Soft
Target", March 24). The fact that India is making giant strides
in the it industry and its economy is stabilising post-liberalisation
is obviously not going down well with its hitherto friendly neighbours
like Bangladesh and Malaysia, who perhaps feel intimidated by India's
growing importance in Asia. If an apology from the highest level is
not forthcoming, appropriate economic retaliatory measures should
be adopted to drive home the point that the Indian workforce should
not be unjustly treated. |
|
Nalini Vijayaraghavan, on e-mail
|
| |
| No Answers |
| Not surprisingly, even Dr A.P.J. Abdul Kalam had
no direct answer to the all-pervading sense of helplessness prevalent
among the citizens of the country in dealing with a stubborn and insensitive
administration-a British legacy ("Vision for 2020", March
24). Also, it is a myth to say that the nation is bigger than its
leaders. Had it been true, leaders like L.K. Advani, Uma Bharati,
Ashok Singhal and Pravin Togadia would have been languishing in jail
for throwing the whole nation into turmoil with their rabble rousing
on the Mandir issue. |
| Jaiprakash Gupta, on e-mail |
| |
| Narrow Focus |
| Shekhar Kapur has focused exclusively on the business
of cinema in his speech at the India Today Conclave ("Beyond
Hollywood", March 17). But cinema is art first and commerce next.
Only if directors make films that touch people's hearts will they
get the kind of revenue Kapur talks about. Those who ignore art and
focus only on commerce simply fail. |
|
Suhrud Javadekar, Pune
|
| |
| Pygmy Attitude |
| The guest of honour of your conclave may have said
on the giant screen that he sees India as a global giant ("India:
Global Giant or Pygmy?", March 17). But the absence of his physical
self from the meeting citing security reasons strongly points to the
pygmy image that he really has of us.
|
|
A.K. Gupta, Delhi
|
| |
| Silly Point |
| The cricket World Cup comes along only once in
four years and there are increasing stakes in the international cricket
arena involving national pride, fierce competition and mind-boggling
finances ("Eyecatchers", March 17). So it is indeed sad
having a bimbette like Mandira Bedi co-anchor a television show that
has cricketing giants like Kapil Dev and others on it. Apart from
being an excited cricket fan obsessed with her wardrobe and "noodle
straps", Bedi seems to have no logical reason for being where
she is. |
|
Sanjiv Grover, on e-mail
|
| |
| "Given her highhanded nature, Mayawati is
bent upon driving the last nail in the NDA coffin and may also end
up being its pall bearer." |
|
A.S. Raj, on e-mail
|
| |
|
Vision of Hell
CURRENT
ISSUE APRIL 07, 2003
){kind=link}