Letters to the editor

An appeal to Patil• I AM 75 years old and have no affiliation with any political party. I am deeply saddened by the manner in which Son...

An appeal to Patil

• I AM 75 years old and have no affiliation with any political party. I am deeply saddened by the manner in which Sonia Gandhi has gone about appointing Pratibha Patil as the presidential candidate. I have also seen with disgust various investigative reports in the print media about the way she handled her sugar and educational empires and, prima facie, misused public funds for her own selfish motives and for the sole benefit of her relatives. I also read your clarification at Chennai calling the allegations, including those made by Arun Shourie, as “malicious” and baseless. In my personal opinion, Sonia Gandhi is using the plank of women’s dignity as her master stroke to mislead the voters of her party and the people of India. I fail to understand why Patil should fall in line with this plan. From what I can make out, the Congress and Left combine want another term in the next elections to rule the nation with their own children in positions of authority. Pratibha Patil, if she heeds a sincere piece of advice from a senior citizen, should refuse to play along and resign from the presidential candidature.

— Bhagwat Singh Mehta, Udaipur

Vicious circle

• DESPITE all the mud-slinging on the UPA presidential candidate by the BJP leaders, Pratibha Patil is bound to win. Not that she is immaculate; lists of allegations of this nature could be made on any politician who has been 40 years in the field. But no such allegations were made when political candidates, say Zail Singh or Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, were contesting presidential elections. The opposition has never known to have vitiated the presidential polls by such slander-mongering earlier. Now, when Advani will be leading a delegation in the future to the president demanding the dismissal of a tainted minister, will he not be appealing to Pratibha Patil whom he called tainted? At least the BJP leaders should wash their hands before going to greet the new president, lest the muck sticking to their folded hands drips down on to the Rashtrapati Bhavan carpet.

— N. Kunju Delhi

Retiring babus

• THIS refers to your editorial, ‘Old order’ (IE, July 10). There is no comparison between India and developed countries where politicians retire at a much younger age than our politicians who continue to ‘serve’ the nation throughout their lives. For example, former US president, Bill Clinton, retired at the age of 54, after having occupied the White House for eight years. Also, there is a shortage of manpower and they welcome immigrants, whereas there is a lot of unemployment in India. As you have rightly stated, the decision to raise the retirement age is usually taken by senior bureaucrats who are about to retire to serve their own interests. And they successfully mislead our political rulers.

— Dalip Singh Ghuman, Chandigarh