Letters To The Editor

created on quotas, has not said a word about the PM’s endorsement of quotas. Does the buck not stop with him?

— M. Ratan, New Delhi

Way to schools

• Some 57 years after Independence, primary and secondary education in India is abysmal although it is clearly the way out of the quota conundrum (‘Way out of reservation’, IE, May 27). To cite some anecdotal examples: around the last week of May/first week of June, when state boards declare the Class X and XII results, for an entire day my ex-colleague gets calls from his village requesting him to read out the results from the Internet of students from the village. Almost none of the students get a first class, most pass with a second or third grade. Quite a few don’t make it. All these students

belong to the “upper” castes. Now state board examinations are not really difficult. Even then, if the performances of these students are so poor, it clearly reflects on the quality of the schools they go to.

— V.R. Srinivas, Mumbai

Caste concerns

• I read very carefully the letter of Yogendra Yadav in the Indian Express of May 24 in the hope that he would suggest some better solution to the ongoing controversy about OBC reservations, but in vain. He has found fault with everything without any solution. If reservations were the right remedy, the lot of the backwards would have

improved long ago, as these have been in force for the past 55 years.

— Deepak Narain, Gurgaon

Crash killed

• Sugata Bose clears the cloud created by the Mukherjee Commission (‘The Mortal end of a Deathless Hero’, IE, May 21). I had attended a meeting of the working committee of the Forward Bloc in which Shahnawaz Khan participated. Discussing Netaji’s death or escape to Russia, he remarked, “I am convinced of his death in the plane crash at Taipei. Col. Habibur Rahman was with him in the plane and he told me of the crash. He too suffered injuries but remained with Netaji to the end. As a memoir he has Netaji’s watch with him. Habibur Rahman cannot tell a lie.” However, the party — goaded by Netaji’s nephew — agreed to disagree and keep Netaji alive for the purpose of keeping the Forward Bloc alive. On my visit to Taiwan in 1968 I was shown the place in Taipei where

Netaji’s plane had crashed. Let us not make a mockery of the life of such a great leader.

— Yogi Ranjeet, Former MP Basti (UP)

Bye, captain

• By not considering the former captain Sourav Ganguly, the selectors have conveyed the message loud and clear the doors are closed for him for both versions of the game. No other country would have treated such a successful

captain like this. Many will miss Ganguly. Let us hope Ganguly will try to contribute in other aspects of the game, like coaching or umpiring.

— Vasudevan, Navi Mumbai