‘Vote twice’

Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar’s call to voters to >vote twice in the Lok Sabha poll (March 24) is irresponsible and reprehensible. Coming as it does from a national-level leader, it is all the more deplorable. His explanation that it was spoken in jest is evidently an afterthought. One only laments the murky depths to which politics and electioneering have sunk.

T.S. Krishnamurthy ,

Chennai

All of us know it is not practical to cast one’s vote in two places — and it will be a waste of time, energy and money anyway. People are unlikely to have their names and voter entries in two places. The ink-mark affixed to the finger is indelible for days. When somebody speaks something in jest and he admits so publicly that he spoke in jest and nobody is personally offended by such comments, why make a hue and cry over it? We will be wasting a lot of our time and energy if we take such comments seriously and probe them in news report after news report.

Sanal Kumar K.P .,

Chennai