• This refers to your editorial ‘Hostile milestone’ (IE, May 25). Rather than wasting money on publishing the UPA’s report card, the NDA should have introspected about its own role as opposition. How constructive have they been in the last year? You have rightly said the UPA should also be sincere and responsible in its duties. Had there been more positive involvement from the NDA, the UPA could have done better. — Bal Govind Bareilly Thank you so much • We must be grateful to the UPA for giving the common man the opportunity to vote for the second time in a matter of months in Bihar. In this era of coalition politics, frequent elections are unavoidable. Elections produce a lot of fun in this entertainment age, be it for central, state or local bodies. We must have elections every year by dumping the out-of-date five-year system altogether and keep the common man always happy. — Victor Frank Chennai Money, of course • The takeover of the Manchester United club by US sports tycoon, Malcolm Glazer, is justified (‘Football, for love or for money?’, IE, May 24). This is because in the current era of back-to-back matches and fierce competition, a football club cannot do away with stars and soccer stars do not shine without money. Manchester United fans who are fretting and fuming over the ownership change of the club should find no reasons to complain once the club returns to winning ways. — Arjun Chaudhuri Kolkata But, sir • Deepak Nayyar's ‘Universities in the sick bay’ (IE, May 25) is an interesting article. The question is, what did the author do during his tenure as VC of Delhi university to cure the sickness. — R.L. Keshwani Sao Paulo • If we can sincerely improve the conditions in our universities and make them genuine centers of learning, our talented will come back from abroad and there will be no more brain-drain. But is this possible under the current set of political leaders of India? — Banmali S. Rawat On e-mail • One critical aspect that is often overlooked is the synergy in research between universities, private/public companies and existing national laboratories. My suggestion is that every professor right from entry level should be encouraged to make all efforts to obtain funded research projects from both government and private companies. This additional responsibility on professors would only help in making research proposals more competitive and the teaching in universities more up-to-date. — Sundar Rajan Krishnan On e-mail • Excellent and timely article. I taught at Delhi University from 1972-1981, there was no reward for good work, the only criterion for award was politics. In 1981, I migrated to the US and now work at NASA. — Subhash Saini On e-mail
