Hidden agenda

8226; Apropos of the recent coverage on Panna, regarding missing tigers IE, March 6, the report...

8226; Apropos of the recent coverage on Panna, regarding missing tigers IE, March 6, the report does not reflect the true picture since the Tiger Reserve Management has recently estimated more than 30 tigers. This can always be verified. The researcher who was quoted in the report has based this report on a collar study undertaken by him almost a decade back. Considering the longevity of tigers and their innate tenurial behaviour to move away from natal areas, the possibility of such tigers being present in the habitat does not seem to be well-founded. The researcher, like many others who have done breast-beating in the media over tigers, also appears to have a hidden agenda. It is learnt he has set up an NGO near the tiger reserve recently to further his cause, which perhaps warrants an anti-system posture to gain credibility. Alas, these are the woes of wildlife conservation today!

8212; Rajesh Gopal IGF 038; director, Project Tiger New Delhi

Jharkhand and Goa

8226; The reported direction of the Supreme Court preponing the date of holding confidence vote in Jharkhand legislative assembly amounts to encroaching upon the legislative and executive powers of the state governor upon whom the Constitution has cast this sovereign duty of testing the majority of the government in power. An over-active judiciary is not a good sign for a healthy democratic society like ours.

8212; Hemant Kumar Ambala City

8226; The developments in Jharkhand, Bihar, Goa and even at the Centre, with its tainted ministers, lead to the conclusion that India does not deserve democracy as mobocracy is ruling the country. It is unfortunate that all the adverse developments are taking place when Manmohan Singh is the PM. The Congress party, which ruled the country for decades since Independence largely on the support of its MPs from UP, has been reduced to marginal status in the Hindi heartland. This is because of corruption and atrocities on the minorities. The Congress should reform. The nation is watching.

8212; A.L. Agarwal Delhi

8226; The nation applauded when Sonia Gandhi submitted to her 8220;inner voice8221;. She also by that act made it known to the world that she does not crave for power. Now, as the events in Goa and Jharkhand unfold, the halo has dimmed, and one feels that Sonia Gandhi should apologise 8212; equally publicly 8212; to the people of India for the misdeeds of the governors and her pet captains, Priyaranjan Das Munshi and Ajit Jogi.

8212; Hirva Trivedi Mumbai

8226; There is a mistaken belief that the BJP-led Parrikar government won the vote of confidence on the floor of the Goa Assembly. This is incorrect since the voting was taken up in a manner not consistent with democratic norms and an independent MLA was disallowed from voting on a cooked-up pretext that he had joined the BJP party some two years back. The fact that he was a BJP MLA was not brought to the notice of the office of the Speaker, himself a BJP man in this interim period, except just before the vote of confidence. The matter of disqualification of the independent MLA on a 8216;forged8217; membership form for admission to the BJP has since been challenged in the courts and is currently being heard. In the midst of this, the Goa speaker resigned and took with him the file pertaining to the disqualification of the independent MLA and in that process lost the 8216;forged8217; membership form which is the crucial document for a matter that is sub-judice. Is this responsible governance by the BJP, one cannot but ask.

8212; S. Kamat Alto Porvorim, Goa