Slush story

Sourav’s out

• Your report,‘Round 1 to Greg: Dravid is captain for the next 2 ODI series’ (IE, October 14), was along expected lines. Sourav’s poor performance brought him down. Actually Rahul Dravid’s reinstatement as captain of the Indian cricket team is the victory for coach, Greg Chappell. It is sad that the country’s most successful cricket captain, Sourav Ganguly, has forgotten that a cricketer’s popularity depends upon performance.

— Bidyut K.Chatterjee Faridabad

What’s up, Doc?

• A person who can do 12 heart surgeries in 12 hours and do them justice, apart from handling tasks of administration and marketing like Dr Naresh Trehan, is truly great (‘Somebody runs away with Rs 600 crore, there’s obviously no question of morality here’, IE, October 11).

— Navdeep Singh Manchester

Congress legacy

• This refers to ‘The Congress is shifty’ (IE, Oct 13) by T.V.R. Shenoy. Actually, the rusted Congress party instantly needs a teacher to learn the meanings of some hard words. They have forgotten to understand and act according to the Constitution.

— Mahesh Adelkar On e-mail

• In his article, Shenoy makes mention of the “three bunders” and Abu’s cartoon on Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed’s bath tub. It’s not only the three bunders (governors) who made the PM dance to their tunes, he also has a madari in Prakash Karat.

— Inder Nath On e-mail

Bandh & politics

• The BJP and Shiv Sena had to pay a fine of Rs 20 lakh each for calling a bandh in Mumbai in 2003, consequent to the judgment of the Mumbai High Court. Yet, in a democratic system, all political parties have the right to protest peacefully against any action of the ruling government. Arun Jaitley, as BJP spokesperson, called for action against those who organised the one-day nationwide general strike on September 29. He sounded like a school boy sneaking to his teacher. He has unconsciously allowed the right of parties to conduct mass protests to be forfeited.

— S. Sathiyamoorthy Nagpur

Some queries

• Apropos of your editorial,‘Purses and Hearts’, (IE, October 13), the Mirwaiz’s complaint is not reasonable. Compared to both Bhuj or Latur, Jammu and Kashmir is far less accessible and the terrain is more inhospitable, as pointed out in your newspaper on the same day. Also, about 72 hours after the earthquake, militants massacred nine Hindus in Budhal Tehsil of Rajouri
district. Would the Mirwaiz be able to assure full safety to relief workers who may go to Kashmir as in, say, Bhuj or Latur?

— Surendra Sundararajan Baroda