Chalk & cheese

• You cannot compare incomparables (‘With fear and favour’, IE, De...

• You cannot compare incomparables (‘With fear and favour’, IE, December 25). The Election Commission has a constitutional status. It is not under any government department, and is an autonomous agency deriving its powers directly from the Constitution. While some protection is now available for the tenure of the director, CBI, he is still exposed to various pulls and pressures other than removal. The CBI works directly under a government department. Police being a state subject under the Constitution, the CBI does not even have full-fledged powers of investigation in all cases. It derives its powers of investigation not from the Constitution directly, but from an unfamiliar Delhi Special Police Establishment Act, 1946. The CBI requires consent from the concerned state government before it can investigate most offences. However, you are right when you say that the CBI does not have the privilege of having had a really independent-minded and courageous director till date who could assert himself without fear and favour.

— Ashok Dhamija Mumbai

He changed India

• P.V. Narasimha Rao was a great visionary and scholar. He gave fresh direction to the Indian economy. And even though he was heading a minority government, he achieved the impossible by hanging on to power and becoming the first prime minister outside the Nehru-Gandhi family to complete a full five-year term.

— S. Kartik Ghaziabad

Teflon Laloo

• I refer to your editorial ‘Laloo as thermostat’ (IE, December 22). There is absolutely no doubt that there are stringent rules to punish law breakers in this country. However, there are even more loopholes that allow offenders to escape from the clutches of the law. Through there are video clippings to prove Laloo Prasad Yadav’s violation, the Election Commission will have to work hard to establish his guilt. Unless law breakers are dealt with strictly, there can’t be any progress for the citizens of India.

— N. Mahadevan On e-mail

Have wings, will fly

Story continues below this ad

• There is a faint ray of hope for the international airport at Devanhalli with the clearance of another hurdle (‘Back on the map’, IE, December 22). Whether this is sufficient for the project to take off remains to be seen. The state, the Centre and the parties involved in executing the project should have a coordination committee to iron out problems faced at any stage. There should also be focus on easy access to the airport. Providing two or four-lane roads is not enough. We need a dedicated rail line to connect the airport with the city railway station, so that people could travel to the airport quickly, and without hassles.

— D.B.N. Murthy Bangalore

• Thank you for your investigative journalism into Bangalore’s infrastructure. Remember, China’s emergence as an economic superpower was facilitated when it upgraded its infrastructure to western standards. Now, companies in the West are falling over each other to do business with China.

— George Raj Los Angeles

SC on Waqf Act: Stay on clause that creator has to be practising Islam for 5 yrs

India1 hr ago

The Supreme Court on Monday refused to stay the Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025, provision requiring registration of Waqf by user, but paused the clause that states a person must be a practitioner of Islam for five years to create a Waqf until state governments frame relevant rules.

View all shorts

Live Blog