Not cricket

Mumbai is divided. So is India. Tendulkar8217;s Ferrari 360 Modena, gifted to him by F1 champ Michael Schumacher, drove into the eye of a storm the minute it rolled off an Air France plane late Friday night. The Centre8217;s decision to waive the Rs 1.6 crore import duty for the car has divided his fans.

8226; 8216;8216;He has earned enough for five generations. Give him a Padma Bhushan or something but certainly no financial considerations. The country cannot afford it.8217;8217;
Pramod Navalkar, Shiv Sena leader
8226; Sachin has brought name and fame to this country. We must accept that contribution by such gestures.8217;8217;
Vilasrao Deshmukh, former chief minister
8226; 8216;8216;They do this for Sachin, and then spend hours checking the baggage of the hockey players who have won gold medals for the same country? Would Dhanraj Pillay have got the same exemption? Sachin can afford to pay, and he should have.8217;8217;
Vijay Kalantri, businessman
8226; 8216;8216;Sachin is an exceptional case. He has brought fame and credit to this country. This is not an extra favour for him.8217;8217;
Gurunath Kulkarni, NCP MLC
8226; 8216;8216;He has that kind of money. He should have paid it in a dignified manner. Instead he walks away with a whopping tax waiver.8217;8217;
Shekhar Suman, TV host
8226; 8216;8216;I would have done the same thing. Why should Sachin question a decision of the government? It is a bonanza for him.8217;8217;
Shankar Mahadevan, singer
8226; 8216;8216;There is something called government appreciation. This is a very small gesture for the laurels he has brought for this country.8217;8217;
Gurudas Kamat, president of Mumbai Regional Congress Committee
8226; 8220;I think we should make Sachin the prime minister of India so that he can join the corrupt politicians and rape Mother India.8221;
Raman Kumar
8226; 8220;Why target one individual for getting a favour legally? Sachin is as patriotic as every other Indian and does every Indian proud and deserves special treatment unlike politicians and others who just cheat.8221;
Vish
8226; 8220;It8217;s a pity that we are still bothered about all this. The greed of the man is insatiable. Sachin has given us the price of his integrity. That8217;s what our values are. God has given him everything, but these things still matter to him. Really shameful for Sachin. May God give him some wisdom also.8221;
Arvind Kapoor
8226; 8220;Why does it always happen like this? We start believing that a famous person is very good and believe that he can do no wrong. In the end, it turns out that he is no better than others after all. You still are one of the top batsmen in the world, but you have lost the respect we gave you. Hope you will realise your mistake.8221; Indian on e-mail
8226; 8220;Laws and rules are not some ex-Union Minister8217;s fancy to apply to whoever and whenever you want. Shame on Pramod Mahajan, not on Sachin. Shameless good-for-nothing ministers.8221; Feroz
8226; 8220;Congratulations to Tendulkar. The Rs 1.6 crore would have gone a long way in alleviating suffering of poor farmers who sweat in the fields of India to make our country self-sufficient in food, but they make hardly enough to make their ends meet8221;. S. Prasad