Cleanse the polls

8226; Your suggestion that political parties and civil society as such must come forth to play their part in cl...

8226; Your suggestion that political parties and civil society as such must come forth to play their part in cleansing elections 8216;Decriminalise with care8217;, May 5, although noble, is a call in the wilderness. Had the intentions and approach of our political parties been honest and sincere, the rot in politics could have never spread. With our present-day political parties having the single goal of grabbing power by hook or by crook, morality in politics has become a casualty. Political parties which are fielding not only persons of criminal antecedents but also some of those placed behind bars are doing so deliberately and purposely. Asking these parties to contribute to the decriminalisation of politics is like asking for the moon.
Civil society can contribute little in this regard. Voters who apply their minds and discretion while pushing the EVM button are in a hopeless minority. The possible way out may be a legal amendment derecognising any political party which has persons with criminal antecedents as party members and which fields them in elections.

8212; M.C. Joshi On e-mail

Dhanraj8217;s plight

8226; I completely agree with Manish Kumar 8216;All Greek: Dhanraj may miss Athens8217;, IE, May 4. Officials of the Indian Hockey Federation are acting like dictators.
And how long will Rajender Singh, the coach, keep trying new players? In the last few tournaments he has said his standard line: 8220;Boys are young and we are experimenting.8221; With the Olympics coming up, the time for experimentation is over. It is telling that even Pakistani hockey players have expressed their disappointment over Dhanraj8217;s exclusion.

8212; Michael On e-mail

On EVMs

8226; This refers to the article 8216;We need to know more about EVMs8217; IE, May 5. It is interesting that all the objections to the use of EVMs are coming from ivory tower columnists. A number of American Indian names have been dropped in this article. Neither the voters nor the political parties/candidates have any complaint against EVMs.

8212; Rajesh Pandey On e-mail

That8217;s cricket

8226; From time to time, the media points to the stepmotherly treatment of other games, particularly hockey, compared to the attention, media hype and monies showered on cricket. Cricket particularly men8217;s cricket does receive tremendous public following, media attention, advertisement revenue, product endorsement and viewership, compared to other sports in India. People complain that this has thwarted the growth of other sports in India. Nothing could be farther from the truth. In 1947, India ruled the roost in international hockey. We won the football title at the first Asian Games. At the same event we walked off with most of the medals in athletics. In cricket at that time, we were the minnows, we were routed everywhere. Cricket is not hogging the limelight. Cricket has worked hard to reach where it has and I hope it stays there. Once the other sports get to some semblance of international standards, monies will come, TV viewership will go up and ad revenues and product endorsements will naturally follow.

8212; Kaly Bose On e-mail