• Thanks to the High Court’s intervention, municipal authorities have been goaded into demolishing illegal buildings constructed all over Delhi and in Mumbai’s Ulhasnagar area. While this process was underway, the intrepid reporters of the Indian Express have brought to light extraordinary stories regarding our cities’ innumerable illegal storeys. Consider the educative tale of Anjali Rai, Congress MLA from Delhi’s Paharganj area. She resides in a flat on the second floor of a four-storeyed building. The ground floor is an illegal banquet hall; the third and fourth floors too are illegal. Rai admits the banquet hall, the third and fourth floors are llegal, but argues they belong to her mother-in-law, who “doesn’t know the law well” (IE, December 28). Clearly, Rai and her mother-in-law are also a little hazy regarding the law of common sense, which tells us that a second-floor flat cannot be built on thin air; that it needs something as a foundation — in this case, the illegal banquet hall. Alas, arguments such as these seem to have blocked the demolishing crews’ bulldozers. In Mumbai, the government has already capitulated; it has halted demolitions at Ulhasnagar by issuing an ordinance to counter the court’s ruling. — R.P. Subramanian New Delhi • The expected has happened. The much publicised ‘Clean-up Ulhasnagar’ drive has ended as predictably as a typical Bollywood movie. With one difference — unlike in the movies, in Ulhasnagar even the villains have gone scot-free to resume their illegal activities. As usual, the politician-builder-civic bosses nexus has had the last laugh. Public interest will yet again be sacrificed for private gain. Instead of bulldozing illegal constructions, Maharashtra government has bulldozed the common man’s hope for a slightly cleaner governance. — Kishore Karnad Baroda Absurd stand • L.K. Advani should be ridiculed for his stand that the expulsion of 11 MPs caught in the cash-for-questions saga was not commensurate with the crime they committed. In fact, the 10 Lok Sabha MPs and one Rajya Sabha MP should not be allowed to get away with a mere expulsion. They should also face criminal charges and be prosecuted in accordance with the law. It is imperative such people be debarred from holding public office for life. Such a deterrent may be the only hope to bring some sanity and reputation to the highest legislative body of our country whose name and sanctity have been tarnished by tainted and scam-ridden MPs. — Aires Rodrigues Mumbai Poll will tell • The Congress has gained much political capital from its policy in regard to the 11 MPs now expelled from Parliament. The BJP, which once prided itself as the party with a difference, has made a hash of the issue. Whether the 11 MPs were “stupid” or the BJP is, will be known when the by-elections are held. — C.J.M. Mathew Faridabad Maya’s stroke • BSP supremo Mayawati’s bold and welcome step to expel its corrupt and immoral parliamentarians from her party should be a trend-setter in Indian politics. Public-memory is very short and MPs trapped in earlier infamous JMM-bribery case later became political heavyweights! Instead of pleading for a ‘‘lesser’’ punishment for its camera-trapped MPs, BJP should follow ideal set by Mayawati. — S.C. Agrawal Delhi
