Laloo’s spin

• This refers to your editorial ‘Dancing with Laloo’ (January 11). Laloo Prasad Yadav is a self-serving, ruthless and ...

• This refers to your editorial ‘Dancing with Laloo’ (January 11). Laloo Prasad Yadav is a self-serving, ruthless and quite predictable politician. He would not think twice in blasting even Sonia Gandhi the moment he is sure that the Congress cannot be of any use in his electoral agenda. The Congress saved his party’s government in Bihar from president’s rule during the NDA regime and in turn got a raw deal in the parliamentary elections. Bihar has become a big challenge for the rule of law and norms of governance under Laloo-raj and, till it continues, there can be no positive change. It is time for the grand old party to rethink its alliance with Laloo Yadav and realise that paving the way for politicians like him to acquire dictatorial positions in politics may rock the boat of Indian democracy.

— M.C. Joshi Mumbai

Courting vacations

• It is rather anachronistic for courts at any level to be closed for extended vacations every year. This throwback to more leisurely times puts litigants through unnecessary and unwarranted inconvenience and delay in getting proper and speedy justice.

— V. Nagarajan Chennai

Cracks in the frame

• There is much talk about India’s emergence as an aid donor following the tsunami disaster (‘India’s quality of mercy’, IE, January 11). When we have almost 300 million people living in abject poverty, is it smart to refuse so-called “tied” aid from the US? Tied or untied, aid in any form should be accepted by a nation which has 300 million people below the poverty line. This discrepancy highlights our confused priorities.

— Sundip Mundkur Worcester

Smart aid

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• If the past be any indication, tsunami relief is unlikely to reach the
victims in its entirety. At least some, if not all, could to be siphoned off en route, as has been highlighted by some reports. Therefore the following precautions could be considered. All tsunami relief collections should be credited to the Prime Minister’s Relief fund. Now that enough has been received, further collection should be stopped. There must be coordination at the national level about the type of assistance needed. Distribution of relief should be vested with young government officers at the taluka and tehsil levels. Orphans must be looked after, so that they are not exploited by shady groups.

— Raghubir Singh Pune

Strange timing

• It has become very evident that the chief minister of Tamil Nadu is out to victimise the Kanchi Kamakoti Mutt and the Shankaracharyas. Otherwise, how can one justify the “timely” arrest of the junior seer Vijayendra Saraswathi? The Supreme Court granted bail to the senior seer Jayendra Saraswathi in the morning and in the evening the Tamil Nadu police barged into the Kanchi Mutt to arrest the junior seer. Why were the police in a hurry to arrest the junior seer soon after the grant of bail to the senior seer? The senior pontiff had said he would not visit and attend to the Mutt activities till a chargesheet is filed.

— S. Krishna Kumar Mumbai