• Of course, it does because it can reflect a far better collective conscience than any single country, especially the so-called militarily strong countries which pay heed only to what is might and not right (‘Does the UN matter?’, IE, Nov 30). That is why there is so much disorder and disorderliness leading, in turn, to conflicts and blood-letting. The case of Sri Lanka you highlight is a classic example in point. Without going into the details of that sordid, blood-soaked mess that was left behind by all sides, most of all for the Tamil people, because India was looking to its own interests. One of the problems in the UN is the power of the veto exercised by the exclusive ‘Big Boys Club’, which is an anachronism today and should be removed in any reform of the UN. In any case even this did not help, as Iraq demonstrates. There is a definite case for widening the membership of the Security Council, including the case of India and other nations. The criteria should not be just those who possess nuclear weapons and rockets but a saner political system. — Saravan. M London Come to Tamil Nadu • Your series on Bihar is excellent! After you finished with Bihar, why don’t you attempt to do the same in Tamil Nadu. Here too the law has proved elusive in its own way. The SCs in Bihar and the Brahmins in Tamil Nadu suffer the same fate in the hands of the mighty! — S.S. Jeyaraman Coimbatore Express inspires • Some Danes have started a whistleblowers’ organisation in Denmark. I have reasons to believe that this organisation could have been directly/indirectly inspired by the Express stories on Satyendra Dubey, which won global recommendation. This story was also mentioned on the BBC, incidentally. — Parveen Chawla On e-mail Good article • The article, ‘Dollars dollars everywhere but not very much to buy’ (IE, Dec 1), is very good. I agree with the viewpoint on lowering the reserves, but a better way would be to use the money on fixed assets. The government stand on FDI, especially, insists that they should be 49 per cent with Indians, is a very good approach for the long term. Most of the forex reserves is in the capital market. One has to learn from the mistakes Mexico and others made when the developed countries pulled the plug on them one fine day. — Ajay Bharatula On e-mail More suggestions. • In the ‘Writeback’ piece, Shantanu Kelavkar (‘Rescue Test cricket from itself’,IE, Nov 30) has proposed a new model for Test cricket. I find it good enough and would like to add few more changes. After the first innings, each team can change one player. The player would be their choice from the 13-member team. Instead of 115 overs, each team should have 135 for their first innings. Two new balls are provided for each innings and the captain can choose which of the two can be used at any time. Each ball should be used for at least 10 overs before the other ball is brought in. Any bowler can bowl as many overs as possible, but not two overs consecutively. There must be no fielding restrictions and floodlights can be used when deemed necessary. I hope other readers will also bring ideas their ideas to this project of making Test cricket more cool! — Srivasan On e-mail
