Nirmal Verma

Shut this door

• The Supreme Court has done well to expose the gang of 465 who have been sitting pretty on expensive government property without the slightest right or claim to it. What is amazing is that in a country where no two politicians, artists, dancers, or authors agree on anything and bitterly fight each other, this group of 465 has shown exemplary unity of thought, action, and deeds in usurping and retaining a perk to which they have no claim. What is even sadder is to see these worthies hang on to these houses even in their advanced age, when they are usually expected to rise above greed. It is also possible that even after their death, their children will cling to these properties as if they were family estates. To avoid a recurrence of such incidents, we must stop this pernicious practice of doling out properties to all and sundry. The government has no business to house actors, dancers, painters and sportsmen, who are wealthy enough to afford their own dwellings.

— Kishore Karnad On e-mail

The tax collector

• Our finance minister periodically announces radical methods to extract taxes from the salaried and the business classes. Can he think of no method to nab politicians who have so much of black money and who spend so lavishly in fighting elections? He seems to be either helpless or afraid of this lobby.

— Inder Nath Delhi

Left literacy

• We must heartily welcome the Left’s opposition to the entry of foreign universities on the grounds that they will foster “cultural insensitivity” among hapless Indian students (IE, October 27). After all, look what education at the University College, London, did to Mahatma Gandhi! Hopefully, Prakash Karat, CMI(M) secretary, will now lose no time in setting fire to his own University of Edinburgh degree in public.

— R.P. Subramanian Delhi

Groom Pathan

• India’s emphatic win over Sri Lanka in the first ODI at Nagpur shows how well the team has gelled as a cohesive unit, in spite of the raging controversies running through Indian cricket. It was heartening to see Sachin Tendulkar at his belligerent best after a long time. Credit goes to him also for proposing Irfan Pathan’s name for the No 3 slot in the batting order. Pathan has been showing his prowess with the bat ever since his entry into international cricket and India should be able to shape him into a useful all-rounder, as Pakistan has done with Abdul Razzaq and Shoaib Malik.

— Arjun Chaudhuri Kolkata