Letters to the editor

House this fair?• I fully endorse Sudharshan Synghal’s recommendation in his excellent piece on our bold and habitually errant MPs...

House this fair?

• I fully endorse Sudharshan Synghal’s recommendation in his excellent piece on our bold and habitually errant MPs and his solutions for this malady (‘House that for erring MPs?’, IE, July 11). Synghal has hit the nail on its head when he says that as our MPs are not given exemplary and deterrent punishments for their acts of omissions and commissions, they have been emboldened to indulge in further unlawful acts with utter disregard of the law and their responsibilities towards the citizenry. I urge all our right-minded leaders to take a farsighted view of such misdemeanours and realise that when one officer is severely punished for his unlawful act, it has a salutary effect upon hundreds of others and keeps them on the right side of the law.

— G R Vora, Mumbai

The Sardesai spirit

• BATTING in his usual middle order after half the top batsmen were out for a paltry 75 in the Test match against the formidable West Indies in 1970-1971, it needed the lion-hearted Dilip Sardesai (‘Sardesai’s view from the pavilion’, IE, July 5) to take courage in both hands. He hit two hundreds and a double century in the Series, and with the help of other lower order batsmen managed to put up huge totals and helped India succeed against the West Indies. Sardesai always played with a straight bat and excellent footwork. In his personal life Sardesai was a good and humane person, courageous and outspoken.

In the recent ODIs against South Africa in Ireland, although Sachin Tendulkar was declared as the man of the series for his performance in the ODIs, he fittingly shared his man of the series prize with Yuvraj. It is this spirit that marked Sardesai’s cricketing career.

— M.A. Rane Mumbai

Misplaced tears

• PRIME MINISTER Manmohan Singh said that he could not sleep after he saw images of the stricken relatives pleading for Dr Haneef’s case. Reading this news, I was moved to tears too but it was over our prime minister and the way he deceives himself on this issue. Every terrorist attack in India has left hundreds of relatives of victims in a very pathetic condition. Their crime is only that they happen to be Hindus. The entire displaced Hindu community of Kashmir has been wailing in camps in poverty. I think Dr Singh should give some thought to the victims’ relatives.

— G.V. Ashtekar, Pune