Cricket in the time of drought

The decision by the Bombay High Court is on expected lines because after the birth of social media and pseudo-nationalistic media, the courts are ruling in favour of popular sentiments fanned by these channels (“Why the Bombay High Court questioning of the IPL’s use of water is wrong on several counts”). In this case, some TV channels who are hell-bent against the IPL owing to their old prejudices, went overboard in influencing the court’s decision by their relentless campaign. After all, in courts also there are these middle class moralistic individuals as judges, who consider every form of entertainment as a sin.

By the logic of shifting IPL from Maharashtra, the court is essentially saying that if there is a strife somewhere, others living far away should also mourn, which basically means nothing should be done and we should always remain in mourning.

And why shift matches to other states – aren't they experiencing drought too? The failure of the successive governments is being borne by the poor IPL this time. – Vishal Jindal

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Mr Girish Shahane, your words are just a play of logic. It is a very ethical question about priorities. The question just acts as a force to press larger society and institutions like the government to pay immediate attention on the basic problem of existence for few.

It is just scraping the surface if you bring everything down to availability of resources. What you mean to say is that it does not matter when you play loud music and dance and have fun at your home, when somebody has just died in your neighbour’s house.

Is it not ideal that every member of society should think and participate in the problems and joys of others. Shake your nerve a bit. – Rajesh Jha

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I strongly disagree with your viewpoint and the fact that you’re using a well-based platform to provide a point of view that is very biased.

There is something known as moral duty and moral consideration. I hope you agree that the IPL isn’t a necessity for anyone – not the organisers, not the players and definitely not the viewers.

No doubt it generates employment and revenue for our country, but to whom does that revenue go to? IPL seems to be an event by the rich and for the rich. And it’s a common fact that the rich forget their moral duties in the hope of becoming richer.

Do we have to hold matches in a place that has been hit by drought? The main purpose of the IPL is entertainment and I strongly believe human lives are more important than a mere source of entertainment, or rather I would say there isn’t any comparison.

It is true that it is the failure of the government that it hasn’t done anything to provide for the people suffering. But instead of blaming the government, something that we Indian population are pretty good at doing, why not take a step yourself and just try to make a difference? It’s really sad to see that people are supporting IPL instead of supporting the people of Latur and the people of Marathwada.

I wish you had given both the sides of the coin. – Shareen

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I very much appreciate the Bombay High Court’s concern in saving water by not holding the IPL in Maharashtra, which is essentially not wasting water in watering the stadium greens. It’s a great idea and I would suggest that we also stop watering the golf courses – their greens are typically 25-30 times that of a cricket ground. We should also add the lawns of the high courts, the lawns in the residences of the honourable justices, the ministers, as well of all senior secretaries to the government. – S Srivastava

Lip service

An excellent and well-researched piece of writing (“Three reasons why the Centre has failed to provide relief to drought-hit states through MNREGA”). I congratulate the writer. It proves that lip service to the poor is done just for publicity, which the media dutifully reports.

When the Union Finance Minister said the allocation MGNREGS is the highest ever, did he lie to Parliament? If it was an error should he not correct it and apologise for the wrong statement or claim?

Shouldn’t the Act be amended to penalise officials for non-payment of wages in time on the lines of penalties for non-compliance of the Right To Information Act? – Mathew Thomas

Universal healthcare

India’s people actually need humane primary healthcare (“Is the corporate hospital killing small hospitals and exploiting patients?”), but instead our focus has been on tertiary care for the last six decades. That’s why corporate hospitals are capitalising. The concept of family physician is ending in small and big cities.

A day is not far away when a poor patient will have to consult multiple specialists for simple ailments. – Akshita

Summer apathy

It’s inhuman that labourers in the unorganised agricultural sector, old people and daily wage labourers are toiling out in these extreme heat conditions in Telangana, Odisha and other parts of India, while the rest of India looks on (“In Andhra and Telangana, workers continue to toil through hot hours, despite heat warnings”).

The pay commission religiously recommends salary hike for government staff to an incredible extent, compared to those in unorganised sector. Forget government protocols, policy and Constitution. Mother Nature would hang her head in shame at human obliviousness at framed inequaiity and lack of humanity. When will we get down to basics of life and accept it’s ever-increasing entropy marching towards death irrespective of social class? – Chhanda Basu Mullick

Kashmir unrest

According to the writer, the situation in Srinagar should not be treated as a face-off between patriotic Indian students and anti-national Kashmiri ones (“Why governance by slogans is the very opposite of how to handle the situation at NIT, Srinagar”).

Then what is it? Do not philosophise where it is not possible. We treat this great country as a mother because we all breathe its air and bathe in its sunshine, drink its water, eat its food and sleep on its lap. Why does the writer see so many ill-fed, illiterate and helpless people on the face of Bharata Mata?

How is it pseudo-nationalism? This variety of nationalism has produced the likes of Chandra Shekhar Azad and Bhagat Singh. Only men like the writer are the opportunistic ones who will not sacrifice anything for Bharata Mata. – Doosri Radha

Listener as commentator

I may be in the minority to disagree with Keshava Guha ("No country even for yes men: What the sacking of Harsha Bhogle tells us about the BCCI"). Commentary on the television when the listener is also a spectator is different. He is perhaps past the “sell- by date” to make way for new voices and opinions. His almost endless and continuous chatter that is sometimes irrelevant to what is actually happening is sometimes jarring. He suffers from what I call “verbal diarrhoea”. Perhaps the only commentator whom I respected and miss is Richie Benaud. Others have come and gone. – Srinivasan N

Rational thought

There is no doubt that “stories” of various miracles are being surreptitiously documented and will be “revealed” only 50 or 100 years down the line (“The Virgin gushing milk in a Tamil Nadu church is a Hindu favourite”). To accept that the Virgin appeared to this boy delivering milk and then saved a bunch of Portuguese sailors (why Portuguese?) 500 years ago, one needs to suspend all thinking and reasoning faculties. But I suppose that is how religion works?

One would have expected Saba Naqvi though to at least touch upon the authenticity of these so-called "miracles" taking place there? Or is it too dangerous nowadays to even think of such inquiry? – Vinay Tandon