A football hero

Judging the judiciary
Apropos 'Judge listens to his heart, joins anti-graft movement', (August 25), Ajay Pandey's statement: "I feel judges should lead by example…" gladdens the common man’s heart. His statement stands apart from the usual statements made by the judges on probity in public life and transparency. In India, even the code of conduct for judges is not in the public domain. Unfortunately, in our legal system, litigants have no place, even though they are consumers of justice. To fight judicial corruption, we need to abolish Judges' Protection Act,1985 and The Judicial Officers' Protection Act,1850. Litigants should be able to express their opinion on judges' performance on the websites of courts.
—Deendayal M Lulla, via email

A football hero
Bhaichung Bhutia's tryst with Indian football has ended ('Bhaichung Bhutia likely to retire from international football on August 24', August 21). The jovial footballer was India's face of football for almost a decade. Throughout his illustrious career, spanning around sixteen years, Bhutia enthralled fans and stayed away from controversies. But for him, India would have never scaled whatever small peak in the field of football that it has done in the last few years. He captained India with aplomb and gelled well with colleagues. Great sportspersons' innings are tragically cut down by injuries and Bhutia had a terrible calf muscle injury for the last few months. Now Bhutia's experience should be utilised by the Football administrators of India.
—Ganapathi Bhat, Akola

Anna's coercion
For the first time the government and the Parliament spoke in one voice in branding Anna's crusade as a coercive tactics that were undermining the democratic traditions. In the past, trade unions and various political parties have resorted to bandhs, rasta rokos, gheraos and other violent means to pressurise the government into conceding their demands. Were they not coercive? Did they not undermine our democracy? In all the cases, the government gave in. Why were the political parties and the government so resistant to Anna's 'coercion'? Reason is simple. Anna's fast was threatening their very survival. But people must realise that freedom is never given, it is taken.
—VS Kaushik, via email

People's success
Anna's 12-day long fast has led the Indian democracy to rediscover itself. It is the victory of the people and democracy and reiteration of supremacy of the people and authority of the Parliament. It is the defeat of the cynics who saw the Gandhian way of achieving the goal through non-violent and peaceful means as irrelevant in today's new age and fast paced world. It is the defeat of those cynics who saw the youth as a generation which is totally disconnected with the country's heritage, ethos, concerns, issues and problems. Lokpal is not the last nail in the coffin of corruption; it is just the first.
—MC Joshi, Lucknow

II
The government's initial move to break the deadlock by having talks with Team Anna turned from a 'breakthrough to breakdown' ('Talks fail, expect fast changes', August 25). But thankfully, the nitty-gritty of Lokpal are now being sorted out with 'give and take' policy among the concerned parties. It is a good sign that Anna has ended his fast before things got out of hand. Now it is the government's responsibility not to use its wiles to breakdown the consensus that has been reached, lest the people are incensed enough to cause a mass movement which may become too unwieldy for the government to control.
—HP Murali, Bangalore