Tainted debate

• Instead of going ga-ga over Laloo Prasad Yadav’s successful rebuttal of charges of the opposition ov...

• Instead of going ga-ga over Laloo Prasad Yadav’s successful rebuttal of charges of the opposition over inducting tainted ministers in the new government (‘Laloo turns Atalspeak on NDA’, IE, June 8), we should try to find a permanent solution to this vexed issue. Staging walkouts or sitting on dharnas will lead us nowhere.
It is no secret that no party — with the possible exception of the Left — is free from this accusation. But we also must note that it will not be fair to prevent a person from

fighting a election just on the ground of charges framed against him or her by a court. This is because our judiciary is very slow and some people can be tempted to take advantage of this and implicate their political opponents in false cases. So, first and foremost, our judicial system needs to be overhauled in order to make it dispense justice fast. This done, we should pass a law preventing a person indicted by a court to get elected directly or indirectly to Parliament or occupy any other public office. The plea of the BJP that Babri Masjid case was a political struggle and therefore cannot be equated with corruption and criminal cases is a travesty of justice. By the extension of this argument, a politician will kill his political opponent and then seek an acquittal terming the murder a political case.
Any activity, political or otherwise, which leads to loss of life and property, is a criminal case. Demolition of this disputed structure itself resulted in communal riots in which lives of hundreds of innocent people were lost and property worth crores of rupees destroyed. So this case was not of an ordinary nature.

— Sachdi Nanda On e-mail

• Laloo Prasad Yadav has a point when he exposes double standards of the opposition. The NDA’s campaign against tainted ministers does seem to be a case of pot calling the kettle black. The NDA should agree on Advani and Uma Bharati relinquishing their present positions. The UPA should reciprocate by replacing the tainted ministers. Probity in public life should be a common concern.

— J.M. Manchanda New Delhi

• Back-biting has taken the front seat again. Instead of looking into finer details of other’s faults, one should work for a better tomorrow. A government is merely for five years, if it is stable. Why waste the first two years in fighting and counterfighting? The Congress and the BJP are both national level and responsible parties. They should stick to the ethics of politics and run the country peacefully. Let us not make Kargil another Bofors and let us not search any taint in ministers. Let us allow the new people to work in the government and oppose them only on policy matters.

— Chayashri P. On e-mail

Wisdom?

• With regard to the editorial, ‘The wisdom of Elders’ (IE, June 7), the domicile qualifications should be strictly applied to prevent Amar Singh and Mulayam Singh from bringing actors, actresses and rich businessmen who do not understand the problems of UP, into the Rajya Sabha.

— Shankar On e-mail