Letters to the editor

Ulta Pradesh?8226; Shekhar Gupta's article, 8216;The You in UP8217; IE, April 21, draws a broad picture of the UP election scene and re...

Ulta Pradesh?

8226; Shekhar Gupta8217;s article, 8216;The You in UP8217; IE, April 21, draws a broad picture of the UP election scene and recalls his 8220;pessimistic jottings of May 20048221;. But these, I8217;m afraid, still hold good for Ulta Pradesh 8212; sorry, Uttar Pradesh. Caste and criminals will continue to determine the final outcome. Is it not a telling a commentary on the state of law and order in the state that the current election is a seven-phase affair stretched over five weeks? In many polling booths, voters have been out-numbered by para-military forces. But what else can you expect from a state that is as crime prone as UP? The less said about its policing, the better. As for development, the state of its roads tells you how indifferent the administration is to this basic infrastructure. The writer is quite right to predict a hung assembly, but the 8220;change8221; of voters moving to the centre is not in evidence.

8212; M.K.D. Prasada Rao Ghaziabad

Court as check

8226; Apropos of the two 8216;On the Record8217; pieces by Justice Verma IE, April 7 and 8, they were a timely reminder not only to the judiciary but also to the executive. Dr Manmohan Singh has made his observations the basis for his speech of April 8. However, Justice Verma was himself an activist judge. When he was on the bench, he had passed orders on environment-related issues that exposed the executive8217;s callousness. So the question is, why is the government so afraid of judicial overreach? Why does it pass legislation in a hurry in order to subvert judicial intent? Why does it announce policies without doing its homework? If the court sheds its activist role, the legislature and executive would again become irresponsible.

8212; Vikram Desai Surat

EMS, a Gandhian

8226; The CPM8217;s general secretary, Prakash Karat, on the 50th anniversary of its first government in Kerala, praised then chief minister, E.M.S. Namboodiripad, and his good work in those days 8216;View from the Left, IE, April 4. But he blamed the church for his dismissal. This does not give us the true picture. EMS was a true friend of the poor, a true socialist communist and the only Gandhian minister in Free India. When he accepted only Rs 500 as salary and toured his state on his bicycle, he acted on Gandhi8217;s advice to serve the poor honestly. Seeing his honesty and popularity, then prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, panicked and wanted an end to the Kerala government. He gave up the INC presidentship and Indira Gandhi

replaced him. She went to Kerala and won over the Muslim League MLAs who were supporting EMS, thus engineering the collapse of his government. Once the EMS ministry fell, the Muslim League MLAs helped to establish a Congress government in its place. The big question, is why did the communist party not give EMS a second chance to be chief minister?

8212;R.S. Chahal Panchkula