Polls and limits

8226; The Supreme Court has rightly focused on elections for students-associat...

8226; The Supreme Court has rightly focused on elections for students-associations in universities. Enormous amounts of money are being wasted each year on extravagant campaigns. The election of winning candidates should be held null and void if it is proved that he or she crossed the prescribed limit. The print-material for poll-publicity must carry the name of the printer and of the person paying towards the cost of material. Use of vehicles for campaign should be strictly restricted.

8212; Subhash C. Agrawal On e-mail

Saving face

8226; Apropos of 8216;Govt8217;s own dept spikes Cong list for oil directors8217; IE, September 17, it is certain that neither Petroleum Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar nor the DPE minister Santosh Mohan Dev could have acted on their own without a green signal from the Congress high command. The credit of foiling Aiyar8217;s bid to foist Congressmen as independent directors on the boards of all oil navratnas and miniratnas goes to the timely exposure by the Indian Express. The DPE8217;s rejection of Aiyar8217;s proposal is nothing but a face-saving device adopted by a highly embarrassed Congress leadership.

8212; M.C. Joshi On e-mail

Stay, Advani

8226; This refers to your editorial 8216;End notes8217; IE, September 19. While announcing his decision to lay down his office in December, L.K. Advani has undoubtedly made a bold statement that 8220;while the BJP had to keep its basic ideological stance intact, it also had to expand itself to reach large sections of the people outside the layers of all ideology8221;. As the leader primarily responsible for expanding the BJP to its present position at the national level, Advani simply cannot afford to keep the party confined to the ideology of the RSS. It will be a sad day if the party allows him to quit as its president.

8212; Ram Gurbaxani Minneapolis

Sania8217;s right

8226; The dictionary definition of secularism is 8220;the belief that the state, morals, education, sports, etc. should be independent of religion.8221; All citizens are bound by this founding principle. The squalid gaggle of apoplectic zealots who oppose Sania Mirza8217;s attire have conspired to deny a citizen of her basic rights.

8212; Ganesh S. Krishnan On e-mail

The same scam

8226; Now that the floods in Mumbai and other parts of Maharashtra have mercifully receded, we can look forward to a greater deluge: the relief funds floated by everyone, from the streetside 8216;8216;leader8217;8217; to the chief minister. For our politicians and bureaucrats this is an opportunity they have been praying for. Imitations of Gautam Goswami will be in business and the Patna and Solapur scams will be reenacted, throwing up yet another set of millionaires ensconced in mammoth mansions. Unfortunately, all the scams will hit the front pages only after the culprits have helped themselves to their hearts8217; content and that too for only till so long as the investigative journalists don8217;t sniff out a newer, hotter scam. The scamsters will live happily ever after just as their illustrious predecessors have done, protected by those at the very top wrapped in khaki and khadi.

8212; Kishore Karnad On e-mail