Letters To The Editor

8212; Mohan Siroya, Mumbai

Behave, or else

8226; AFTER the incident at Pune when the bodyguards of the Jolie-Pitt team manhandled a British photographer, they should have given instructions to their entourage to be careful while dealing with people in India. Therefore the behaviour at the school in Mumbai was completely unacceptable and Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt are directly responsible for the incident. An apology is just not enough and they have to ensure that their unit acts in a more responsible manner in future. Brad Pitt has made the matter worse by denying in a TV interview that any of the bodyguards made those comments or acted in an irresponsible manner.

This is contrary to TV clips of the scene. Ideally the Mumbai police commissioner should have informally told Brad Pitt at their meeting to send back the three bodyguards, which would also have been good PR for the stars. The Mumbai police should take strict action against the bodyguards involved and deport them if necessary. This will clearly send out a message that India takes no nonsense and everybody, including visitors, must know how to conduct themselves in public.

8212; S. Kamat; Alto Betim, Goa

Unite on reform

8226; THE UPA has asked Ahmed Patel to try to convince the Left parties to support the economic reforms, which can only enrich the country IE, November 17. Should he also not talk to the NDA/BJP to support such programmes since it is they who originally conceived them when they were in power? It is high time that the Congress and the BJP evolved a bipartisan approach to such major reforms.

8212; R.P. Desai, New Delhi

Doha lag

8226; BARELY two weeks are left for the commencement of the Asian Games at Doha. While most of the countries have finalised their list of participants, India is yet to finalise the list. As a result, athletes who are still undergoing training are not sure whether they will be part of the team or not. Such uncertainties even at the last moment will have an adverse effect on the performance of the players. We Indians have an uncanny knack of doing everything at the eleventh hour.Most of our sports organisations are headed either by politicians or by retired bureaucrats. Though the bodies they head did not show an iota of improvement for decades, they continue to hold the position for years together. There is no point in spending crores of rupees organising international sports events unless we are able to make some improvements in the standard of sports. Otherwise a country which represents a sixth of the world population will be a laughing stock before tiny nations.

8212; Elangalloor Mana, Edapal Kerala