But whodunnit?

To feel great

• The bane of Indian politics is that though the founding fathers of our constitution had planned a parliamentary form of government, it is becoming a presidential style contest. By projecting a prime ministerial candidate before elections, many yes-men, opportunists and men of little substance hope to piggy-back ride on the popularity of the PM-hopeful. Thus, the qualities of the candidate contesting for a parliamentary seat take a back seat — anybody who pulls the right strings gets the ticket to contest. The Indian voter should vote for the right candidate, irrespective of party affiliation. Only then will the political parties be under pressure to give tickets to honest, sincere, educated, hardworking, and ‘‘clean’’ candidates. Only then would we really ‘‘feel great’’.

— Deepak Kapur Chandigarh

Good beginnings

• By winning the prestigious series, the Australians have reiterated that they are the undisputed kings in one-day cricket. In both the finals against India, Australia played total cricket, whether it is batting, bowling or fielding, particularly in the second finals. India now must introspect why their good beginnings in the tour, particularly in the test series, did not lead them to their goal.

— Bidyut K. Chatterjee Faridabad

Joshi’s ‘autonomy’

• HRD Minister Murli Manohar Joshi’s foray into the realms of management education is reminiscent of the adventures of Alice in Wonderland. His notions of higher education are inimical to the spirit of autonomy and merit. During Joshi’s tenure, the HRD ministry has earned an unenviable reputation for obfuscatory governance, starting with the controversial rewriting of history text-books and concluding with the snow-balling odium of intruding into the autonomy of highly regarded institutions like the IIMs. HRD ministry officials are at pains to explain away the directive to the IIMs to reduce the tuition fees as something which in no way will affect the academic autonomy of the institutions. It will be unwise for Indian academia to leave the definition of ‘‘autonomy’’ to entrenched bureaucracy.

— K. R. Rangaswamy On e-mail

Thanks

• Thank you, Indian Express, for the report on women’s hockey ‘Forget Sydney, cheer for India’s unsung hockey heroines’ (IE, February 9). The same day India was routed in cricket against Australia and there was so much coverage for the miserable defeat.

— Satish On e-mail

Hurdle race

• It’s a good thing Indian hockey is improving on all fronts. But unfortunately, it’s the officials who have become the hurdles now. They demoralise players by not giving proper facilities.

— Ramki On e-mail