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Journalism of Courage
8226; Sharad Pawar is the chief of the Nationalist Congress Party and as a cabinet minister, responsible for important decisions and outcomes at the highest level. So why is he president of BCCI?
8212; C.R. Bhattacharjee On e-mail
Salute Paswan
8226; Even though Ram Vilas Paswan has now been reduced to a small player from the enviable position he enjoyed after the February election, his immense contribution to the people of Bihar should not be overlooked. He sacrificed his chance of becoming chief minister but achieved a stable government with a clear mandate for the people of Bihar. However illogical his stand looked a few months ago, the result of the confusion he created led to a proper polarisation of votes in the state and dealt a mortal blow to the goonda raj of Laloo Prasad Yadav.
I think is time to acknowledge Paswan8217;s contribution to development of democratic norms in the country.
8212; Prakash Vohra Bhavnagar
This open secret
8226; I want to congratulate Ila Patnaik for the article, 8216;Who killed Manjunath?8217; IE, November 28. The issue of disparity of rates in kerosene oil or S.K.O. is crucial but no notice is ever taken of it at the policy-making level. Anybody will be attracted by the profits to be made through adulteration. The petroleum ministry did not take any notice of it and even if they did, the political lobby who have the great chunk of petrol pumps in their own names or under fake names, did not allow this difference to be narrowed. Once in the year 1972-73 it was narrowed and was reduced to a few paise between diesel and kerosene oil. Then, diesel sales increased by 20-30 per cent and the same can happen now if kerosene rates are brought almost at par with diesel. Kerosene is no more the poor man8217;s commodity. The poor man gets kerosene at double the prescribed rate, that too in a 750ml bottle and not in a one litre bottle. Kerosene issued on ration cards is siphoned to petrol pumps and industry who are large quantity consumers.
8212; B.L. Goyal Jalandhar
Fools play
8226; The ongoing tamasha in Indian cricket both on and off the field in the BCCI only goes to reconfirm the views of Winston Churchill on cricket, who viewed it as a game of fools where one fool throws the ball, another fool stops it and thousands of fools cheer or jeer them.
8212; G.S. Kulkarni Delhi
Another committee
8226; It is high time the Super PM and PM constitute a committee to find out to what extent the 8216;8216;aam aadmi8217;8217; has really benefited from various steps taken by the UPA government. The findings will surely give a jolt to them because the plight of the 8220;aam aadmi8221; is worse than it was prior to the UPA8217;s sterling performance.
8212; K.R.P. Gupta On e-mail
Last question
8226; One 8216;8216;tainted8217;8217; minister has resigned from Nitish Kumar8217;s new cabinet. But it strains the credulity that the chief minister did not know of the charges against the minister when he took him in. What the people really want to know is: if the NDA is so conscious of its image in Bihar, why did it dole out tickets to so many criminals and musclemen to fight this election?
8212; Bidyut K. Chatterjee Faridabad
