•The Lok Sabha speaker is rightly anguished over Parliament’s dignity being lowered by the “totally inappropriate and unacceptable behaviour” often displayed in the Lower House ‘Is this why we sent them to Parliament?’,.However, Indian citizens are far more anguished by the conduct of our honourable MPs outside the House. After all, many of them have been charged and convicted, or are being tried, in cases of corruption, extortion, rioting, and even rape and murder. If this is what some of our MPs do in life and to society, how can the speaker’s wishes of a disciplined Lok Sabha ever be fulfilled?— R.P. SubramanianDelhiStreet politicos•It is a shame that Indian politicians go to the extent of fighting with bricks and stones in the national capital, setting aside all norms of civilised conduct ‘No way to protest’, The staff of many of Delhi’s foreign embassies might have watched in disbelief the fight between members of two of our national parties. If educated and politically aware people think it appropriate to settle scores on the street, defying the law, who then will respect formal institutions such as the police and the judiciary? Perhaps only the poor who do not belong to organised groups.India is not a democracy;it is a ‘mobocracy’. — Rajababu SinghIndoreScarlet herrings•Shailaja Bajpai’s ‘The Scarlet Letter’ puts in the right perspective the issues surrounding the rape and murder of a young foreign tourist. Instead of talking about horrendous crime itself and about actions taken so far to catch the perpetrators, the media as well as the various state agencies seem to be more interested in highlighting the ‘corrupted’ lifestyle of not only the victim but even her mother. Is it anyone’s case that rape and murder of girls leading such a lifestyle are permitted and not considered to be criminal acts? Where then would we draw the lakshman rekha and how many women of this world would survive such licence? It seems that some ‘vested interests’ are throwing a red herring across a simple case of rape and murder. — Satish Dayal New DelhiCheers missing •There is much hue and cry over hockey’s fate in the country of its origin. My question is, what has the media done to promote hockey? The game has always got the short shrift from all quarters. Media goes ga-ga over cricket and cricketers; no one cares for hockey, which got India eight consecutive gold medals in Olympic right from 1928. It has never got the desired impetus from the print and visual media as it has always been considered a poor man’s game. The media will have to take up the cause of this great game, which I believe is still not dead. India can yet reclaim the past glory of its national game if our media keeps tabs on the steps to be taken for its promotion. — Piyush PandeyPuneWho’s Sarabjit?•The news that Sarabjit Singh is to be hanged by April 1 in Lahore is disturbing. His case is not straight and has an element of mistaken identity. What happens if Sarabjit Singh is hanged and at a later stage it is proved that he really wasn’t behind the crimes he stands accused of? — M.C. JoshiLucknow
