• The UPA’s decision to dissolve the Bihar assembly is prompted mainly by its avowed resolve to willy-nilly keep the BJP-led NDA at bay. What will the government do if the next election too yields a fractured verdict? What about the huge expenditure involved in conducting frequent elections? — P.K. Jha On e-mail • It will be a mere waste of public money to repeatedly hold elections without a permanent remedy. Instead, consider this: the chief minister should be elected through secret vote on nominations signed by at least one-third of the MLAs. Abstaining MLAs may not be allowed to attend proceedings of the House. The same procedure may be followed for no-confidence motions but with a compulsion to name an alternate leader in the same motion. Ideally, we should appoint experts as ministers so that the MLAs may take care of the people rather than lobbying to become ministers themselves! This system will also be a check on biased governors acting on the behest of their political mentors in New Delhi. — Madhu Agrawal Delhi The right man • Apropos of your editorial ‘Coach, coach hota hai’ (IE, May 21), the BCCI has done the right thing in choosing Greg Chappell as Team India coach till World Cup 2007. Not only is he a vastly experienced cricketer, he has already proved his mettle as a cricket coach. His no-nonsense professionalism should be a perfect foil to Sourav Ganguly’s aggression. It is also a welcome decision to station the national coach at the National Cricket Academy, Bangalore. That will allow youngsters to get into the groove pretty early. — Arjun Chaudhuri Kolkata Like a club • The manner in which Sonia Gandhi’s press meets are organised is unique. Press meets are meant to inform the entire media about the current affairs, and how the government is tackling them. If this is done in small clusters, it does not serve the said purpose and would be unnecessarily repetitive. It is surprising why even senior members of the Congress are mute witness to such a club-like futile exercise. — F.S.K. Barar Jodhpur Imagine • Just imagine if something like the ‘Jo Bole So Nihal’ controversy involved Hindus and Muslims. The public would then have to face countless hours of television debates by the Akhtars, Singhals, Azmis, Modis, lefties, rightists. Many elections would have been won on this issue. And there would have been riots of great magnitude. So much for our secular credentials and our polity’s commitment to secularism. We the people of India should make sure we don’t fall into this pit. We, and not these politicians or the fundamentalists, have to restore secularism and the spirit of democracy. — Amit Gupta Noida Dishonest policy • This refers to ‘Despite cold vibes, Indian diplomat on way to Nepal’ (IE, May 23). The notion that India was honest in helping Nepal to overcome the Maoist uprising was shattered by the evidence presented by the Nepal Army. It proves that India’s actions have been anything but friendly in reality. — Anupam On e-mail
