The alibis trotted out by the Congress Working Committee are self-deceiving rather than even face-saving ‘Sonia shares rout blame, her party hunts for more excuses’, IE, December 8. If the CWC can cite electronic voting machines as one of the causes for the party’s defeat, it appears that it is running out of ideas. The other one about the use of money power is also absurd as Ajit Jogi, on behalf of the Congress, allegedly tried to use money power to split the BJP in Chhattisgarh.
— Bhadur Singh On e-mail

8226;The Congress party should stop mourning. Instead it should vigorously pursue, through legislative or other initiatives, the following agenda to capture a majority of the seats in the next Lok Sabha. One, it should accept electoral reforms as recommended by the Constitution Review Committee. Two, it should compel political parties to submit to the Election Commission audited accounts with a list of top 500 donors and publish it. Three, it should take a lead in finding a way of reforming the judicial processes to reduce the back-log by 50 per in two years. Three, it should commit itself to reforming the police force as per the report of the Police Commission. The NDA, with its internal contradictions, will dither to challenge the above programme of action; at the worst, the Congress will go down with a cleaner image.
— P.V. Maiya Bangalore

8226;It is surprising and funny to note that the Congress party, instead of inquiring into the real cause of its electoral failure, emphasises that the BJP has a history of creating communal disharmony. People will never forget the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.
— N. Venkatesan On e-mail

Woman power

Sagarika Ghose is absolutely right ‘Power of the parkati women’, IE, December 8. It is time khadi-clad pot-bellied politicians got rid of their age-old ways. Old-timers need a paradigm shift. — Beckey Harris On e-mail n THIS is a very well-written article and should serve as an eyeopener for those who deliberately attempted to undermine Vasundhara Raje Scindia’s chances in Rajasthan. The same applies for Sheila Dikshit who has always conducted herself better that many in her own party and in the opposition.
— J. Kusum On e-mail