Raut grabbing headlines for wrong reasons
Shiv Sena leader and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut has kicked up a controversy by making a statement that Indira Gandhi used to meet Don Karim Lala and this caused a political stir in India. There is no point in feeling so offended or proving Raut wrong, criminalisation of politics has long been a concern especially in Maharashtra where the flourishing underworld has been part of its functioning from olden days. Karim Lala was one of the three top underworld dons of Mumbai for over two decades, from the sixties to the early eighties and the other two being Mastan Mirza alias Haji Mastan and Varadarajan Mudaliar. So in the name of mouth piece, Raut is causing rot in the Sena cadre.
Akhilesh Krishnan
Honour Bapu Nadkarni with a postal stamp
Bapu Nadkarni better known as maiden-over machine and being the most accurate bowler of the world having bowled record 21 successive maiden overs (131 continuous balls without giving any run) in a test-match against England in Madras (now Chennai) in the year 1963-64 with bowling-figure 32-27-5-0, breathed his last on January 17, 2020 at the age of 86 years. He had similar economical bowling averages like 32-24-23-0 at Kanpur followed by 34-24-24-1 in Delhi against Pakistan in the year 1960-61. He had a career economy rate of less than two runs per over. He took voluntary retirement from first-class cricket in the year 1967 after playing against New Zealand even though he had career-best figure of taking 6 wickets for just 43 runs in that match.
Department of Posts should honour such a fine cricketer of yesteryears by issuing a postage-stamp in memory of Bapu Nadkarni, the finest all-rounder of those times whose performance as maiden-over machine could not be repeated. Unfortunately cricketers of present era playing in money and fame are honoured so frequently including one with greatest honour of Bharat Ratna, real cricket-heroes of yesteryears are forgotten. Even a series of postage-stamps on cricketers of yesteryears can be considered to be issued.
Subhash Chandra Agrawal
Another step taken by railways to enhance passenger amenities
The much awaited IRCTC’s premium train Tejas Express inaugural run between Ahmedabad and Mumbai Central is welcome. The move comes at a time when the Indian Railways is experimenting with the concept of privately run trains on its route network. The first such successful private run between New Delhi and Lucknow is also getting good response and it is welcome to know that the carrier is planning more such initiatives with new routes across India.
The concept of privately run trains with operations like catering and housekeeping being undertaken by a private carrier onboard Tejas Express is worth a risk. Privately run trains under luxury segment will definitely be a success and will help the railways to place itself in a better perspective. Indian Railways should now experiment such a concept not only with premier trains but also superfast/mail express trains that are crying for attention w.r.t. superior passenger amenities. Privatizing train’s maintenance and other aspects related to passenger amenities will only help railways inch closer to achieve its goal of customer satisfaction whilst providing high passenger comfort.
Varun Dambal
(The views expressed by the author in the article are his/her own.)
