The local flavour

The local flavour
Any MLA while being sworn in should take oath in local language only (‘All MLAs should take oath in Marathi, warns Raj’, DNA, November 3). But there is a provision that one can take the oath in any of the 15 recognised languages prescribed in the Constitution. Thus if any minister insists on taking the oath in other language he can, as the Constitution allows him to do so. We have also seen that many MPs in Parliament don’t take oath in Hindi in spite of Hindi being our national language.
—Bhavesh Chandrakant Jani, Mumbai

Yeddyurappa’s war
Arati Jerath has done a comprehensive analysis of the current situation in Karnataka. (‘Karnataka government crisis is a proxy for BJP-RSS war’, DNA, November 6) BS Yeddyurappa is a strong political force in Karnataka and if today BJP is able to form a government in Karnataka, it is because of him. It will indeed be a sad day if the current BJP leaders in Delhi let him down. In politics you cannot sacrifice long term interests for short term gains. For the UPA government too, the Reddy factor is an issue which they will have to counter very soon. The BJP should not do political hara-kiri by not supporting Yeddyurappa.
—S Subramanyan, Navi Mumbai
 
The national song
Apropos ‘Ayodhya saints slam Chidambaram, Baba Ramdev’, (DNA, November 6), the Ayodhya conclave of saints needn’t raise the issue again because senior Congress leader and Union minority minister Salman Khursheed has criticised the fatwa against singing Vande Mataram. He has clarified that the issue was resolved over 50 years ago by agreeing to sing only two stanzas of the national song. Indians of all religions have faith in the song that been an inspiration for India’s freedom.
—Achyut Railkar, Mumbai
 
The legend scores again
The heartwrenching fifth ODI between Australia and India at Hyderabad was a real tearjerker and one could almost feel the anguish on Sachin Tendulkar’s face after he was caught out (‘Oh! no, Sachin’, DNA, November 6). The sad part was that except for Suresh Raina not a single batsman supported Tendulkar. It was galling to see MS Dhoni, Harbhajan Singh and Yuvraj Singh play so carelessly. All players can learn a lesson or two from the little master for the way he single-handedly carried the match. We are sorry that we lost the match, but we take pride in the fact that only Tendulkar could have achieved this astonishing feat of scoring 17000 runs in cricket.
—Vijayalakshmi, via email
 
II
Ayaz Memon quite rightly asks “Has there been a better One-day innings by an Indian?” in ‘Aus put through Sach Ka Saamna ‘ (DNA, November 6). The sceptics had indeed written Tendulkar off after the first two ODIs in which he failed to score anything of consequence but he picked up in the third and fourth matches just to show that there was a lot fire still left in him and he topped it all with a vengeance in this fifth encounter by leading the charge so authoritatively that his surpassing 17,000 runs was totally eclipsed.  As Memon says “India may have lost, yet cricket was still the winner” thanks to the Little Master. Team India would have made it if only the tail end had played a shade better.
—V Subramanyan, Thane

Don’t waste time 
It is really disappointing that despite the virtual majority mandate bagged by Congress-NCP  combine at the recent assembly elections on OCT 22, still the government is not in place (‘Under pressure, Chavan promises govt in 48 hrs’, DNA, November 5). Both the Congress and NCP should immediately shed their differences in the interest of people. Both the Congress and NCP should realise time is money and should not be wasted any longer.
—Jitendra Kothari, via email