Opinion Red alert

* THE Maoist attack on the Congress convoy in Chhattisgarh last week was unfortunate. The editorial,‘Mortal combat’,points out the need for government presence in Maoist-affected areas. This should encompass three things — ensuring the reach of government programmes to such areas,efforts to rehabilitate youth who might have been led into extremism,the Centre and the state government speaking in unison to discourage political elements from taking advantage of the disturbances. It is well known that Naxalism took root because of uneven regional development and the long-term neglect of tribal people. These failures should be addressed. The Centre should also support the concerned state government instead of trying to undermine it. The states should be provided with adequate security forces and other infrastructure to combat extremism. Policies should be formulated to empower tribal groups and other marginalised communities.

— P.R. Achuthan Nair Delhi

Over the boundary

* THIS refers to ‘CSK chief arrested,cops say he’s involved’ (IE,May 25). After being quiet for long,India Cements,the owners of Chennai Super Kings,issued a statement on Friday clarifying that Gurunath Meiyappan was not CEO of the team but only an honorary member of the management. Yet,all the information about Gurunath was deleted from the CSK website. This seems to indicate that the team and BCCI chief N. Srinivasan are nervous and anticipate more trouble. Gurumurthy has confessed to betting as well as to passing inside information to Vindoo Dara Singh. Cricket lovers

will not take this sordid affair lightly and CSK could lose many fans.

— Yash P. Verma Pune

* GIVEN the recent instances of spot-fixing,match-fixing and betting,the BCCI and the IPL must be administratively segregated from each other. The IPL chief should be apolitical and staff working under him should be well versed in cricket. It should be a transparent body and publish its balance sheet for the information of all concerned. Perhaps the IPL should be held not only in India but also in Sri Lanka,Bangladesh and South Africa.

— Vijay D. Patil Pune

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