• It seems that the coffin of the erstwhile ‘gentleman’s game’ of cricket has been firmly nailed by people like Mukesh Ambani, Shah Rukh Khan and Preity Zinta, as they won bids to own teams in the Bermuda cricket (Twenty20) venture of the high-profile Indian Premier League (IPL). Cricket, particularly for India, is more a profitable business than a game. Cricketers of the past like Ranjit Singh or Don Bradman have mercifully been spared the sight of how business killed a genuine game. Maybe Indians believe that, given the country’s economic growth, IPL will lift the standards of cricket but take it from me, cricket will lose its charisma, its art, its beauty forever. Come, let us wish the ‘gentleman’s game’ a peaceful afterlife.— Bidyut K. ChatterjeeFaridabadNo child left behind• UNICEF’s State of the World’s Children 2008 Report exposes the hypocrisy of the Indian state glorifying its economic growth rate even as India has the single largest number of newborn deaths in the world. I strongly feel that the Indian state has miserably failed in effective implementation of almost all public welfare programmes like Integrated Child Development Scheme, the Midday Meal Scheme and the Supplementary Nutrition Programme which have ultimately become money-spinning machines for corrupt administrators, giving India worse mortality and malnutrition rates than Ethiopia, Eritrea and Bangladesh. In the present scenario the role of media, NGOs and civil society is bigger than ever, in building public opinion to promote transparent, effective governance so that the caravan of malnutrition, disease and death can be halted.— Vitull K. GuptaBhatindaAgainst the wall• By blowing up the wall separating Gaza from Egypt the Palestinians are trying to break a heartless and imprudent siege imposed on them by Israel in collaboration with the hypocritical Arab rulers. Despite unlimited control, a complete monopoly over the use of force, utter callousness and the infamous Shin Beit (Israel’s military intelligence), Palestinians vote as they want, resist, carry on their daily lives with dignity, and blow huge holes in the walls and policies constructed in order to imprison and defeat them. All this may not be on the minds of those desperate people who surged into Egypt. They may not be thinking of ‘the big picture’. But they are worth admiring by every person who yearns for human rights and self-esteem. As a Jew, I have been saddened and mortified that my own people, after all they have experienced, cannot see what they are doing to others. But on a larger scale, not as a Jew but as a human being, I take heart in the Palestinians’ active refusal to be ground under a global system that is producing unimaginable wealth and power for a few, at the expense of the growing ranks of the pitiful and desolate. — Aaron Sears PunePersonal not political• Our media devotes way too much time to the personal lives of our politicians. While the western media also pays attention to the personal lives of politicians, it is important to realise that in India the ordinary citizen does not have time for the extra-marital affairs of our politicians. If a survey were conducted of the Amarinder-Aroosa episode for example, the ordinary citizen of Punjab would be least concerned. It is only the elite with nothing much to discuss who would be interested in such issues. It is time that politicians are allowed their privacy.— Vinay Jain Delhi
