The British conquered India, ruled and left but their one legacy continues to enslave us in fetters of a different kind. This means Sachin is God and work or study is a big bore; the cricket board in India gets richer and richer and the country goes downhill. These are the wages of irrational exuberance.

— John Alexander

Nagpur

Drumbeat 123

•Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit’s comments about the Left’s allegiance to outsiders are born of a late realisation, her party being the one that has enjoyed a near full term of power on communist crutches. Possibly, she is echoing the new drumbeat of defiance that marks the Congress’s post-Budget determination of going ahead with the nuclear deal with the US? Nevertheless, the UPA government will do well to seal the deal, ignoring the Left’s threat. The nation’s needs are more important than the Left’s outmoded views.

— V.S. Ganeshan

Bangalore

Three vectors

•To our comrades anything American is like a red rag to the bull. So they oppose the nuclear deal. The BJP is peeved, because the credit for a historic breakthrough for India is going to its rival. Strobe Talbot’s comments about the NDA having been ready to sign a (similar) agreement with the US for much less are unpalatable to the saffron brigade. So, the nuclear question meant to answer our energy needs boils down to the Left being pro-China, the BJP pro-itself, and the Congress ‘pro-India’ as Indira Gandhi once famously said.

... contd.