Kerala146;s destroyers

The proof of the pudding is in the eating and Kerala8217;s evolution as the primary labour suppliers to the world at large points to the ...

The proof of the pudding is in the eating and Kerala8217;s evolution as the primary labour suppliers to the world at large points to the 8220;famous success8221; of the political establishment, and the deadly mediocrity driving it 8216;The old man and the trap8217;, IE, October 23. If any changes were initiated by these worthies Panampilly, EMS, Karunakaran, Nayanar8230;the entire bunch very few resulted in positive results. The modus operandi of the system, in the meanwhile, has been reduced to: 1 capture power by any means 2 distribute power among leaders and satellites 3 consolidate leaders8217; status through the meanest system of granting favours 4 convert every problem into a slogan, rubbishing all progress. Even the reported 8220;different approach8221; of Antony is a non-starter; he should get out and head a people8217;s movement to reform the set up so the characters ruling the roost today can be kept far away from Thiruvananthapuram.
8212; K.S.C. Nair, On e-mail

T.V.R. SHENOY has given a brilliant analysis of the ground realities in Kerala. It is strange to see that a party like the CPIM feeling like a fish out of water when they are out of power. Pinarayi Vijayan, the party boss, and his comrades, are bent upon bringing down the Antony government at any cost since they feel they were outsmarted by the UDF in the allocation of medical colleges, engineering colleges, B.Ed courses and what not. God8217;s own country has been converted into a hell since the Assembly election of 2001. It8217;s ironical that the CPIM, which labelled Karunakaran a murderer in the infamous Rajan case, now wants to anoint him as the chief minister.
8212; Kumar Chellappan, On e-mail

Not cricket

There has been a lot of unnecessary criticism of the Indian team for their performances against New Zealand in the just concluded Test series. But what is more distressing is the praise showered on Fleming and the NZ team for performing well. Did they deserve this seeing that they only drew the series? When India drew the test series in England 1-1, the Indian team was criticised by the same people for not winning the series. In any case, it was not the skills of the NZ team but the flat batting tracks that did the trick. One also fails to understand why we didn8217;t prepare a pitch for our spinners. Why should we lose the home advantage?
8212; Amjad K. Maruf, Mumbai

Medical education

Apropos of your story, 8216;Mind your English to treat better8217;IE, October 23, an three-month orientation for new medical students seems reasonable, but keeping another three months aside to acquaint them with the latest technology makes no sense. In Rajasthan, your correspondent should ask the MCI representative as to how many medical students actually do an internship and how many teachers teach seriously at some of the new private colleges. I really regret the declining standards of medical education in India. The first thing the MCI must do is to ban private practice for medical teachers.
8212; D.R. Chowdhary, On e-mail