• Apropos of your leader, ‘Illusory makeover’, where you advise Mayawati “to pause a moment and reflect on the promises she has made to her electorate” — the UP chief minister is in her element when she steps out, bejewelled, with an army of security personnel, and pockets donations from her partymen, most of them obviously poor.

This is a serious letdown where her primary dalit constituency is concerned. She does not appear to have the foggiest idea of development because otherwise she would not go on building park after park in the name of Ambedkar (who, if he were alive today, would decry such a waste of public funds) and her mentor Kanshiram.

She seems to labour under the impression that what she demands from the UPA should be conceded without delay and demur! The disproportionate assets case pending against her should be disposed of in her favour by the CBI. The Centre should grant UP tens of thousands of crores, which, if not granted, will be termed discrimination. If these demands are not met, she would withdraw support to the UPA! That, in essence, is the stand of a chief minister of the country’s largest state.

Instead of tending to her large and needy constituency and addressing infrastructure and employment issues, she continues to delude herself.

— Prasad Malladi

Basivireddypeta

Ratna row

• It was funny that the BJP, through L.K. Advani, publicly demanded the nation’s highest honour, the Bharat Ratna, for its veteran leader Atal Bihari Vajpayee by simply writing a letter to the prime minister! Bharat Ratna awardees are selected only with the consent of the opposition leader, and a lack of unanimity prevented anyone being awarded the honour since 2001. The political misuse of the Bharat Ratna should be avoided by making the selection process transparent, after the awardees are named on January 26.

... contd.