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Journalism of Courage
• Apropos the editorial, ‘Our time starts now’ (IE, Dec 2), the reason environmental disasters like the Bhopal gas tragedy occur and many mini-Bhopals are still happening, is not because of bad laws but the weak implementation of laws. The existing environmental laws are not properly implemented because there is a lack of political will to ensure the protection of the environment. India, too, needs a Green party, which creates a constituency for environment protection. There are thousands of environment activists in India who can easily join hands to form a powerful political group.
— Pranav Sachdeva New Delhi
Unfair to Uma
• In the Uma Bharati case, there was indiscipline by Pramod Mahajan and the rootless Venkaiah Naidu. Instead, it was Uma who was cornered in front of TV cameras. She had no choice but to walk out. The BJP dictionary has a one-way definition for discipline. That is: pick up whomever you want, humiliate her/him and take action terming it as indicipline. At least, Murli Manohar Joshi is right on mark here. For an office bearers’ meeting, who arranged TV cameras? Can anybody explain why the BJP team has a penchant for either the old or political zeros such as Ramprakash Gupta, Nityanand Swami, Lalji Tandon, Kailash Joshi, Babulal Gaur, to occupy the top positions? You talk about leaders in glass houses: the current BJP leadership of some old people and a few young manipulators is a shining example of this. What a state of affairs in the cadre-based party!
— Chetan Singh Bhadravati
Good pieces
• I read ‘Pontiff in Looking Glass Land’ by T.V.R. Shenoy (IE, Dec 3). It’s good writing. I share Shenoy’s viewpoint. I would just say, “Fellow countrymen, let’s allow the law to decide..but let’s hurry”.
— Shyam D. On e-mail
• Apropos of the article, ‘We are in denial’ (IE, Nov 27), it was one of the most forthright and thought-provoking articles I have ever read. Hinduism comes out in all its glory in this inspiring piece.
— M.V. Bhat Chennai
Our man is Kumble
• Harsha Bhogle’s article, ‘Kumble pushed away his sunset for his high noon’ (IE, Dec 3) is eloquent and brings Kumble’s achievements and character to the fore. It is sad, though, that a man of Kumble’s achievement is not a star of Indian cricket, nor is he the darling of the media and crowd. In terms of achievement, he is probably next only to Sachin in this Indian team and possibly even better than him since he has won more test matches for India than Sachin. Someone should write an article on this bias of the media that creates heroes out of lesser cricketers, especially batsmen, while ignoring the committed ones like Kumble and Srinath. In fact on some occasions Kumble has been treated badly by his captain, the board and sections of the media. It seems only tantrum-throwing boastful flamboyant behaviour is rewarded.
—Gopinathan On e-mail
• Beautiful! That is a heart-felt piece of writing, Harsha. We, the cricket- lovers in India and, indeed, the rest of the world (for ours is a quaint fraternity), need to open our hearts and minds to this most unassuming of our all-time greats.
—Partho On e-mail
