Letters to the editor

— Rajesh Gajra

Mumbai

Federal lament

• Your report in November 6 on the PM’s speech at the international conference on federalism can at best be considered a case of delayed wisdom. If only Dr Singh had talked to Atal Bihari Vajpayee as an elder statesman, with enough experience in running a coalition government successfully for a long time, and followed his advice on when to give in to regional parties and when to crack a whip, he may not have had to express such unhappiness about leading a coalition government. As a PM, it is always his responsibility to point out to regional parties and members of the coalition cabinet where they are going wrong and take action accordingly. Unfortunately, Dr Singh has the additional problem of having to take orders from the Congress party president. The NDA government did not have a similar problem since Vajpayee and Advani were in the cabinet. Another major problem the PM is facing is interference by the Left in decision-making.

— R.P. Desai

Mumbai

Iron link

• Congratulation to The Indian Express on publishing the excellent article, ‘A tale of three Emergencies…’ by Arun Jaitley. The article is a piece of history useful to students of politics born after Indira Gandhi’s emergency in 1975. Abhishek Singhvi has called Jaitley’s comparison of three emergencies “odious” (‘Hitler, Pervez, Indira? Odious comparison’), but could not justify his statement by sound reasoning. Rather he has unnecessarily referred to Modi and Golwalkar in his article, which is irrelevant with the subject matter.

— Lila Dev

Mumbai

Dream run

• Mahendra Singh Dhoni has brought in a new dimension to the art of leading a national side and he richly deserves the honour of captaining the team in both the versions of the game, sooner rather than later (‘The winning captain’). Critics may wonder at the wisdom of entrusting a youngster with the monumental task of leading a side known for its erratic forms, for no other job in the world has been as taxing as that of the skipper of the Indian cricket team. Anyone elevated to the hot seat soon develops cold feet and is either dumped or has to quit disgracefully. Considering that the new leader has had a dream run so far, this would be the right time to give him a free rein to produce results. A long stint at the new job with the BCCI, keeping him privy to all decisions taken will boost his confidence and in turn gain him the respect of his team mates. He has amply proved that he is a team man.

— Pachu Menon

Margao