Akhilesh’s black spot

Akhilesh’s black spot
Day one of Akilesh Yada’s reign gets a black spot. The March 16 story about Akilesh Yadav is that of the impatience of youth pitted against an entrenched old guard that for long has nurtured muscle, trading patronage for electoral support.

Even as a modified direction is being sought for the future, the past baggage needs to be carried for political sustenance. The induction of the tainted Raja Bhaiya as a minister in the UP cabinet is not too surprising.  Every political party faces this dilemma.

At least the UP scion is vocal on his idealistic agenda for the state, whereas we have seen that incumbents to power elsewhere are not shy to get into vendetta politics. Yadav is young and new and hopefully has the wisdom and the will to  carry  through his innings with reasonable success.
—R Narayanana, Ghaziabad

The last laugh
Apropos of your edit ‘A milestone for Bangladesh to cheer’ (DNA, March 17), while one feels relieved that the maestro has finally made it and congratulates him for his Herculean feat, it is more of a milestone for Bangladesh which overhauled Team India’s 289 effortlessly with five of their batsmen scoring near-fifties. 

This has taken the glare out of Sachin’s hundredth ton since it did not help his team to win, but, ironically, to lose because the scoring rate did suffer in his pursuit of the much-hyped record. Interestingly, the Bangladeshis never said that they would not give him his hundred but saw to it that they won the game. They indeed had the last laugh.
—Dr V Subramanyan, Mumbai

II
Team India suffered one of the most humiliating defeats against Bangladesh. The so-called strong batting line-up of Team India has the habit of wasting balls in instant cricket. From Ravi Shastri, Sanjay Manjrekar, Sunil Gavaskar, Rahul Dravid and now Sachin Tendulkar, they have all done this in the past. Sachin’s   record cost us the match.

An Afridi or a Chris Gayle could have plundered 100 runs of the dot balls that he let go of. Both these big hitters did not have his envious record but they played little cameos to help their side win crucial games. Ponting did make an impact by scoring match-winnings innings and worked hard to help his side win, when he was the skipper.  In Sachin’s case, he was sluggish when reaching a milestone hence people are cursing him despite his historic century.
—Jayanthy Subramaniam, Sion

III
Notwithstanding the unprecedented, unparallelled achievement of Sachin which the entire world was anxiously waiting for, the rejoicing by Indian fans unfortunately is with a pinch of salt.

Even Virat Kohli who is in tremendous form and likes to play his natural game according to the situation had to give the strike umpteen times to Sachin to enable him to reach the milestone. Eventually after his exit, nothing could undo the damage already done. The very team that scored 300 plus against Sri Lanka had to settle for 290, thus paying the price.

Sachin we all love you, now that you have achieved everything please ensure that you play for the team and bring more laurels to Team India.
—Unny Damodaran, via email

IV
Sachin Tendulkar has achieved the impossibe: a hundred centuries in international cricket. This is a feat that would remain without any parallel for a long time.

But it is very depressing that India had to lose the very match that immortalised Tendulkar. Cricket is a team game and one hopes that this fixation for records ends with Tendulkar. The celebrity cult-driven form of cricket appreciation is leading team India nowhere.

This game has to be played collectively and eventually the team has to triumph and not a single player. Indian cricket has to mature in this aspect.
—K Chidanand Kumar, Bangalore
                               
Textbook budget
The Union budget is pragmatic in the sense it does not contain any major policy change. It is text-bookish. After seeing the fate of recent reform-oriented proposals, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has perhaps tried to play safe to clear the negatives and pave the way for confidence-building. The budget contains more of wisdom in the context of coalition politics, without being sensational.
—Valli S Rajan, Kalyan

II
The government’s move to amend the law with retrospect effect to tax Vodafone deal is indeed a retrograde step. Besides giving a wrong message to industry as a whole, it will affect our corporate image globally. A government which goes to court and loses its case, having the gumption of amending law with retrospective effect is an act of ‘corporate vendetta’.

While it is understandable to amend law for any future loss of revenue, the manner with which it has been done is highly objectionable. The government must be seen above such acts and show magnanimity while deciding their action which has far reaching impact on future of foreign investments in India.
—Ashok Goswami, Mumbai
 
Curbing road accidents
This is with reference to the March 16 article about the sad  death of young architectural student Sushmita  Patil in a road accident. Today the major causes of road accidents are negligent and rash driving especially among youngsters, hence parents, educational institutes and social organisations  should council their children who are behind the wheels or driving about the danger posed by negligent and rash driving.

The police should rigidly enforce traffic rules and deploy more number of police personnel on outer roads to stop these rash driving by youngsters. Also stationing more ambulances on these outer roads can help save lives.
—Ramesh G Jethwani Bangalore