Opinion Own goal
Shekhar Gupta has jolted many of us out of the fallacy that hockey in India owes its abysmal plight to the entire game having undergone a sea change at European...
• Shekhar Gupta has jolted many of us out of the fallacy that hockey in India owes its abysmal plight to the entire game having undergone a sea change at European hands and that they altered the rules out of expediency,not principle. With pertinent instances of other Asian hockey teams South Korea,China who have adapted,the author has buttressed his point successfully. It is incumbent upon Indian hockey players to orient themselves to the new style of the game.
Azhar A. Khan
• Hockey lost because it failed to invent new ways of marketing. Its 70-minute format is time-friendly. But where cricket invented the limited overs game and switched to the day and night format,hockey failed to evolve. I distinctly remember the frenzy of the 70s,the whole nation glued to transistor radios whenever the Indian hockey team was playing a world cup match. Jasdev Singh and Melville de Mello,ace commentators both,were household names. Hockey was dethroned not by cricket but by politics played by its governing bodies. In the name of giving representation to all zones,a quota system was introduced and deserving players were sidelined.
Ashok Goswami
Friendship renewed
• C. Raja Mohan should be congratulated for his appraisal of the dynamic of the Indo-Russian relationship. He hits the nail on the head by exposing the implausibility of a grand India-China-Russia nexus. China doesnt require any alliance to counter a declining America. It now finances US deficit spending in a big way,besides being the worlds biggest manufacturer of virtually everything. India has an edge in soft power while Russia has the natural resources along with its defence and nuclear industries; but China has everything. India is only a second rate competitor for China.
Niharika Rai
New Delhi
Picture imperfect
• Topic of cancer was thought-provoking and apt. Pictures on tobacco packets have little effect on users. People who are habitual users of such deathly things care little about pictures; a smoker doesnt even bother to look at them. Cigarette companies intentionally print the deadly pictures of lung cancer lightly and blurred. The government should take strict action against the concerned companies.
R.K. Kapoor
Scrap Upper House
• Members of the Upper House were supposed to act as a balancing force to any populist bills passed by the Lower House. What we see in practice however is that both Houses are now occupied by the same sort of people. The recent unruly scenes in the Rajya Sabha are testimony to that. So why should we have two Houses,with the attached delay in passing bills? The so-called upper house should be scrapped,as has been done in many state assemblies.
V.V.S. Mani
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