Vajpayee, and he thought he could wrap up an agreement at the Agra Summit in a jiffy. As he twisted the Constitution of his country out of shape while he declared Emergency late last year, just to facilitate his re-election, Musharraf thought nothing of the processes of democracy, let alone the sanctity of the Constitution.

— M.K.D. Prasada Rao

Ghaziabad

Fair criticism

• To err is human. But when arbitrators who are experts at passing judgments on the proceedings of a match are suspected of having erred in their decisions, they are bound to come in for some stick. Especially when it is a game of cricket and the national side is vying for honours, playing against the best team in the world. The umpires need to be cautioned against passing evidently horrendous decisions in this age of highly sophisticated electronic gadgetry, where every verdict of theirs comes under public scrutiny. Such attitudes will only result in friendly ties turning into wars.

— Pachu Menon

Margao, Goa

Unsporting spirit

• The Aussies take the field not with 11 players but with two more — the umpires. Ponting’s strategy of crying foul against Harbhajan Singh has worked, and India have effectively been reduced to 10 men for the next two Tests. After enjoying such unfair advantage, do the Aussies deserve to be crowned the unchallenged kings of cricket? In India’s first innings at Sydney, Harbhajan played the true sportsman by admitting that the ball had hit the ground before it reached him. But what happened in the second innings when his own catch was disputed?

— S. Kamat

Alto Betim, Goa

India XI vs Aus XIV

• India lost the Sydney Test match thanks to some poor batting and bad umpiring. It was India XI v/s Australia XIV (including both the umpires and the third umpire). The Australians can go to any extent to win a match. They are masters at sledging and they now accuse Harbhajan Singh of making racist comments. What really surprises me is that we treat the likes of Ricky Ponting, Bret Lee & Co as semi-gods and shower money and ad contracts on them.

— S.N. Kabra

Mumbai

Left turn

• Jyoti Basu needs to be congratulated on admitting an ideological blunder by stating that socialism is not feasible now. Such candidness is welcome from our Left intellectuals. But one also wonders what could be the rationale for swinging from totalitarian socialism to capitalism in a camp that once believed in the ideals of social justice so passionately. It is ironical that a leader like Jyoti Basu has to be reminded that democratic and ‘liberal’ socialism would surely resurface as a possible ideal once the problems of dearth and drudgery have been mitigated substantially.

— Devesh Vijay

Delhi