It is unbelievable that responsible Opposition leaders like L.K. Advani and George Fernandes thought it was democratically correct parliamentary behaviour on their part not to participate in a debate in the House and instead meet the PM on the sidelines to hand over a memorandum of points to modify the Finance Bill. Is there a division in their ranks? Because, Atal Bihari Vajpayee had already announced that the Budget will be allowed to be passed but there would be no debate in the House. So where was the need to meet the PM? — Mukund B. Kunte New Delhi • I don't understand why NDA leaders should be upset. What is wrong in the prime minister’s demand that they take part in the discussion on the floor of the House? — Mani Maran R. Chennai Don’t rush into it • In ‘A civil debate: A good idea to get kids into the civil services?’ (IE, August 21), I agree that it is thoroughly misplaced to make 18 year old kids give a competitive UPSC exam. This should be done after they are graduates. Instead, improve the training at Mussoorie’s Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration, have mid-career professional updates, allow later entry, consider the contract system, have a balance between contractual and permanent employees based on mid-career appraisals. Insulate the civil services from reckless transfers by politicians. — Vinod Chowdhury Delhi Politics in court • The courts are being dragged into political vendetta. Is it not the responsibility of the court to force the complainant to proceed with the case, in a reasonable time frame, once a case has been filed? In the case of Uma Bharti, both the state and the court slept over the case for 10 long years. Similarly, the court was silent when the case against Taslimuddin was withdrawn by the state. If the courts’ time and resources are wasted on political fights, genuine cases will remain pending in the courts for years. — Surinder Mehta On e-mail Disgusting! • It took a Canadian visitor to nail the Rishikesh lie (‘Quack, quack’ IE, August 25). Where were the newspapers and the government for so many years? I have followed the unbelievable saga of Neeraj Clinic in Rishikesh with anger and disgust. Anger that the government does nothing to rein in such establishments. And disgust that regulatory organisations like the Consumer Council of India do nothing to prevent such things happening. — Roy Eagleton Chandigarh A shambles • India's poor performance in the current Olympics brings the focus back on the sorry state of sports affairs in our country. Take, for instance, hockey where we persisted with Rajinder Singh for so long and he was suddenly replaced as the Olympics came close. In weightlifting, we got our sports persons trained in countries notorious for doping. Also, the poor weightlifters have no idea of the medicines they have been prescribed in case of injuries as the medicine description is in a foreign language. — Ashish Chaturvedi Lucknow
