Rajiv’s killers

Rajiv’s killers
Apropos “Court stays execution of Rajiv killers” (August 31). It is unfortunate that it has taken 11 long years for the President to decide the fate of mercy petition. The irony is further compounded by the fact that for the last seven years the Congress party is ruling at the Centre whose party head was murdered. The tragedy of our legal system is complete in the sense that even after 20 years of Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination, the issue is still being debated whether to hang them or not. The repercussion of inordinate delay in rejecting mercy petition by the President shall also affect the fate of Afzal Guru and other such cases. Had the government allowed the natural process of justice, this situation may not have taken such huge proportion.
—Ashok Goswami, Mumbai
 
II
The government is at fault in delaying the hanging of Rajiv Gandhi’s killers.  By the inordinate delay in issuing the notice regarding their hanging, the government has allowed public sympathy to grow for the killers. We should be like the US in case we are interested in dispensing with justice.  The US neither delayed the capital punishment meted out to Sadam Hussain nor did it wait to capture Osama bin Laden alive.  Our government must have speedy trials of those who face capital punishment for their acts.  Our president too should not delay in dispensing the cases. We now fear that Omar Abdullah will seek pardon for Kasab as well. Our government is solely to be blamed for raking up needless and senseless controversies. Justice delayed is justice denied.
—Harischandra Parshuram, Mumbai 
 
Taming the BCCI
Apropos “Ajay Maken questions BCCI stand” (September 1), the sports minister deserves to be complimented for his courage to try to tame the BCCI “white elephant” which has been the fiefdom of several influential people who have nothing to do with cricket for a long time.  He is quite justified in demanding that the richest cricket body in the world be brought under the purview of the RTI Act to make its activities transparent. Sunil Gavaskar, himself a beneficiary of the BCCI’s pay-packets, has posed the question “If it has nothing to hide, why this objection?”. Rajiv Shukla’s defence that it does not receive funds from the government is more than offset by the fact that it is the beneficiary of several benefits like tax and customs waivers, police protection during the games at no expense.  It is high time that the National Sports Bill was passed and the BCCI tamed.
—Dr V Subramanyan, Mumbai

Transmitting transparency
Apropos “Ajay Maken questions BCCI stand” (September 1), the National Sports Bill designed with a view to regulate the sports scenario and bring about an improved version of transparency did not deserve to be rejected by the Union Cabinet. The rejection was obvious, with Praful Patel, Sharad Pawar, Farooq Abdullah and others being cabinet ministers and at the same time administering various sports. No man will like the government meddling with his golden treasure. May be the BCCI does not depend on the government for funds but it is at the same time accountable to lakhs of Indian cricket fans. It cannot bypass the people of the land who look up to cricket almost as a religion. By coming under the RTI Act, BCCI does not lose its importance in any way, nor will it affect its present way of functioning. Instead, it can only go to improve its standing in the eyes of the public by being more transparent. The government does not want to put spanners in between but apply grease in the functioning of BCCI. It needs to be noted that BCCI enjoys certain benefits at the taxpayers’ expense, besides getting various tax exemptions. The Bill should not be viewed as an interference of the government in sports bodies. Instead, it is an attempt to refine and fine-tune the present system, besides establishing the accountability aspect. There is nothing unconstitutional if the financial dealings of the BCCI are open for public scrutiny. If cricket is the best administered sport, why then, should BCCI not come out of its ‘close-door’ body label? It will be prudent for it to come within the framework of government policy and guidelines. BCCI should not be unnecessarily worried and make it an issue, especially when it claims that everything is OK behind the closed doors. Let good things be known to all, especially when there are so many scams and cases of corruption around.
—Prem K Menon, Mumbai
 
II
It is ironical that within days of the historic debate on the Lokpal Bill in Parliament during which the MPs swore by transparency and accountability that the Union cabinet scuttled the much needed National Sports bill moved by sports minister Ajay Maken. In what amounted to a rank conflict of interest, heavyweights in the Cabinet heading key sports bodies participated in the cabinet meeting and thrashed the bill. PM Manmohan Singh only proved once again to be a lame duck. Why are these sports bodies refusing to come within the ambit of the RTI Act? What are they trying to conceal from the public. Sports is one arena that definitely has to be above politics. It would have been an ideal situation if there was a total ban on politicians holding posts in sports organisations. Let the sports field be managed by sportspersons. We have so many of them and they will do us proud. We cannot afford to have any more Kalmadis. May the sports turf be cleared of politicians and the scams.
—Aires Rodrigues, Goa