The bigger picture
The Assam-Mizoram issue may be moving toward a resolution, but it poses an important question. Are State governments forgetting what the idea of the Union of India is? One can draw up a list of issues between various States which harm the idea of India — i.e., one where you do not discriminate. Let us not forget the difficulty with which this great nation was created and then united.
Ratnaraj Jain,
Rajahmundry, Andhra Pradesh
Legislature and history
In the article, “TN Legislature turns 100” (Tamil Nadu, August 1) and the reference to the two Government Orders (G.O.), famously called ‘Communal G.O.s’ issued in September 1921 and August 1922, I wish to add that the resolution to pass the Communal G.O. was piloted by the (late) O. Thanikachalam Chettiar (my maternal grandfather), Justice Party Leader and Member of the Legislative Council. The speech he made while introducing the resolution finds a place in The Penguin Book of Modern Indian Speeches by Rakesh Batabyal with the title, “Proportion of Non-Brahmins in the Public Services”.
G.V. Balasubramanian,
Chennai
What ails Indian sports
India’s medal hunt at Tokyo has been powered by the women athletes. One cannot resist lamenting that while there is no dearth of talent in sports in India, the gold medal is still elusive.
Given the excellent form she is in, one sincerely hoped that P.V. Sindhu would get India a gold, but, alas, she seemed to lack the killer instinct in her matches. The Central and State governments must provide our sporting talent with world class training and supervised by proper coaches.
Tharcius S. Fernando,
Chennai
The results do indicate how much we lag behind when compared to other nations. Our sporting system needs to be blamed for this. We hardly give importance to any of the sports barring cricket. The development of more infrastructure, scientific training methods, international exposure, more funding and minimising political influence are needed.
Unless any sport is developed from the grass-root level, India will continue to be at the bottom of the medals table.
V. Ganapathy Subramanian,
Nagercoil, Tamil Nadu
We need to ponder over our continuing medal drought. We have to set right our priorities right from the school level. The culture of encouraging sports is present only in a minuscule percentage of schools across India. Students across the country should be able to participate in a variety of sporting events so that talent can be spotted and nurtured from a very early age.
Brij B. Goyal,
Ludhiana, Punjab
