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L E T T E R S T O T H E E D I T O R

Bye, Sachin; no one is above game

The media is going overboard over the 200th Test match of Sachin and his retirement from cricket. There is no doubt that he is one of the best cricketers the game has ever produced and and I am his diehard fan. There have been greats before him. Sir Bradman retired, Sir Sobers retired, so did Sunil Gavaskar, Kapil Dev and more recently the trio of Ganguly, Dravid and VVS Laxman retire. There always was a player to fill their place. Nothing happened to the cricket of Australia, the Windies or India. And nothing will happen after Sachin's long overdue retirement. These players are great because of the game and not vice versa. The game is not because of them. No player lasts forever, the game does. There is nothing greater than the game itself.

Sachin, in fact, has overstayed in the team for almost three years now, and I believe that he is there because he is Sachin Tendulkar. Any lesser mortal would have been shown the door a long time back because of consistent non-performance.

Dr H.S BAKSHI, Bathinda

Quotes on Sachin

At a time when Sachin Tendulkar has played the last match of his glorious cricketing career, I recollect some notable quotes on the legendary batsman:

We did not lose to a team called India, we lost to a man called Sachin--Mark Taylor.

I want my son to become Sachin Tendulkar--Brian Lara.

I have seen God. He bats for India at No.4 in tests--Mathew Hayden.

Nothing bad can happen to us if we were on a plane in India with Sachin on it--Hashim Amla.

And, the best one is from Barack Obama: I do not know about cricket, but still I watch cricket to see Sachin play. Not because I love his play, it's because I want to know the reason why my country production goes down by 5% when he's batting.

R.C.DHAND, Bathinda

Letters to the Editor

Letters to the Editor, typed in double space, should not exceed the 200-word limit. These should be cogently written and can be sent by e-mail to: Letters@tribuneindia.com

— Editor-in-Chief

Pictorial art

The photographs by Amit Kanwar published in The Tribune from time to time, by and large, compel attention for their excellence. The picture (October 30) depicting a monkey scanning a newspaper is simply superb. Hats off to Kanwar for his magnificent art of photography!

Tara Chand, Ambota (Una)

Druglord’s arrest

Reference to the report “Punjab druglord Bhola, four aides held” (November 12) gives some satisfaction that the police has acted tough against druglords like Bhola and others who are the masterminds of synthetic drugs trafficking worth Rs 700 crore. Bhola, an Arjuna awardee and winner of the Rustam-e-Hind and Bharat Kesri titles, is a suspended DSP since 2002. He has earned a bad name for sportsmen as well as the police.

The disturbing aspect is the involvement of around 50 NRIs in the racket as his accomplices. The Punjab government must publish their names along with their villages and addresses in India so that people remain beware of them and prevent their children from falling into their trap. The police should stem the rot of drug trafficking in Punjab. The Centre and the state government should work close unison for effective results.

BRIJ B GOYAL, Ludhiana

Bluestar & Indira

Operation Bluestar was an unfortunate to act to flush out militants from the Golden Temple complex. Some other measures should have been taken to hound them out (News report "Indira was wrongly advised on Bluestar: KPS Gill", November 1). It is hard to believe that Indira Gandhi would not have let this operation happen if she had been advised properly. She was a stubborn, headstrong and powerful prime minster. She was unpredictable and did things her way without listening to the opinions of others. Even those very close to her did not know how she would behave in a particular situation. After the 1971 war, which gave birth to Bangladesh and when about one lakh Pakistani soldiers surrendered to the Indian Army, she was heaped with praise even by her rivals. Atal Bihari Vajpayee called her the epitome of goddess Durga.

This made her more tough, resolute and self-willed. Evidently, Operation Bluestar was her brainchild. She saw some bullet marks on the walls of Harmandar Sahib. Yet she said that not a single had been fired at it. Was it not a thumping lie? She talked of applying balm to the wounds of the the Sikhs, but did nothing. She never even slightly expressed regret for the happening.

Bhagwan Singh, Qadian

Middle class mentality
One of the tragic features of the midde class man's existence is that he considers that the ultimate objective of his life is to help his children "settle down". He would regard himself successful only if he achieved this. So much so, that he does not mind indulging in corruption in the process, if need be. He is happiest then, even if purity of means is damned or compromised in the process. Euphemistically, morality is abridged or shrunk, for this is like a fashion of the day, not decried.
We need a debate on how to counter this destructive mentality. Bertrand Russell has said that "there is no God but human race, let us work for the welfare of it." Morally strong, but out of work, individuals or economically not strong enough people can be deemed to be very fine human resource assets, who can be fruitfully fitted in society.
Akhilesh, Garshankar