Got him, finally

The arrest of Raj Thackeray has come at the right moment, but it is imperative that the Maharashtra government put in place adequate police personnel and paramilitary to deal with law and order problems

The arrest of Raj Thackeray has come at the right moment, but it is imperative that the Maharashtra government put in place adequate police personnel and paramilitary to deal with law and order problems 8216;Raj gets one night in lock-up8230;8217; . The MNS must not be allowed to use the development to its advantage. It must be remembered that Thackeray8217;s divisive politics violates the Constitution.

8212; Abhijeet Agrawal, New Delhi

This refers to the editorial 8216;Excluding Raj8217; and Kumar Ketkar8217;s 8216;Mumbai Cowboy8217;. Both pieces make an accurate analysis that opportunistic vote-bank politics, governmental non-performance and irresponsible media coverage have allowed

Thackeray and his lumpens to hold Mumbai to ransom. The Congress should know that indulging Thackeray to divide the Shiv Sena will backfire once the MNS becomes uncontrollable.

8212; M. Ratan, New Delhi

The mayhem in Mumbai must be condemned. Mumbai is the commercial capital of the country and even a day8217;s closure means a loss of billions. If to that one adds the damage to property, the losses would be huge. Besides, the Raj Thackeray brand of politics puts the home ministry under tremendous pressure and police forces need to be redeployed to control the mobs. Politicians and their parties should be barred from taking recourse to any means that is not democratic. For the moment, the state government should make the MNS pay for the damage it has caused to public and private property. After all, there will be quite a bit of footage of MNS activists rioting with the news channels.

8212; S.N. Kabra, Mumbai

May Day!

The current economic crisis, ostensibly caused by some reckless decisions by key decision-makers in the US, could determine the Indian political landscape and policies in the near future. Among the biggest setbacks to the UPA government has been high inflation caused by high oil prices. This has been followed by the present crisis which has caused a lot of hardship to retail investors besides threatening many jobs. Unprecedented terrorist attacks and sectarian violence make the picture complete. Ironically, it is the Left, ignored since the trust vote, that is likely to make the most of the crisis and ensure that the UPA loses the next general election and the NDA, if it returns, finds policy-making nightmarish.

8212; Navneet Dhawan, New Delhi

More die of headlines

This refers to the use of book titles or lines from books as headlines for Ila Patnaik8217;s articles. Her piece had the headline 8220;The world is what it is8221;. It is a straight lift from the opening of V.S. Naipaul8217;s A Bend in the River and also a reference to the title of his biography. Once Patnaik8217;s piece had the headline 8220;Surely you are joking, Mr Ahluwalia8221; 8212; after physicist Richard Feynman8217;s Surely You8217;re Joking, Mr Feynman.

Unless the reader knows the references how will he like them?

8212; U. Bhattacharya, Ghaziabad