• By death alone? n Dhananjoy Chatterjee is now ‘At the president’s mercy’ to save or extinguish his life for the heinous crime of rape and murder he committed (IE, June 28). The convict has already spent close to a term of life imprisonment awaiting or evading the death sentence. Can one be punished with life imprisonment and a death sentence simultaneously for the same crime? — Raghubir Singh Pune • Dhananjoy Chatterjee does not deserve to get clemency from the president for the heinous crime he committed by raping and murdering a 14-year-old girl. Already, the victim’s family has been denied justice for such a long time. While the judiciary had ordered his execution more than a decade ago, Dhananjoy’s family had managed to get one stay order or the other and somehow managed to prolong the inevitable till this day. Although we can understand the state of mind of his family members, the fact remains that they do not have much moral ground on their side to go on a dharna asking for the life of Dhananjoy to be spared, who had himself claimed the life of an innocent 14 years ago. — V. Rajesh Mumbai Some reservations • This refers to the article ‘Captain, a hole in your argument’ by Bibek Debroy (IE, June 28). Discrimination still exists in India, no doubt. Job reservation in private companies may seem to be an answer, but not in the long term. Measured reservations in the educational system seem to be the solution. In Indian companies/multinationals today we can see many people from the “backward classes” who have fought their way up after getting an opportunity to study in quality schools and earn degrees that made a difference to them. Reservations/free education till class XII, and measured reservations at the undergraduate level, which is sufficient to fetch a job in India, seems a solution, but not at any more higher levels of education where reservations could have a negative effect. — Jathan Rai On e-mail Yes, minister? • Let this type of advisory committee first call Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav and ask him to explain the safety measures to be taken during train journeys (‘For Manmohan and Sonia, Saturday evening is time to talk business, politics’, IE, June 27). — Ashok Bahuguna On e-mail Opening shots • Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag have added currency to the opening debate in Indian cricket by making statements on who would be their preferred partners. This kind of public speculation is totally against the team’s interest. The matter should be of concern only to the team’s captain and coach. The Indian batting line-up has been transformed into a formidable team only because of Saurav Ganguly’s strong leadership and the encouragement he gives to youngsters. I don’t see why a dashing batsman like Yuvraj Singh cannot fit into the opener’s slot when both Sachin and Sehwag — the former in one-dayers and the latter in both ODIs and Tests — began shining after they were pushed higher up from middle-order slots. — S. Neerajakshi Srihari Chennai
