Lost ground

Sir — The over-hyped andolan of Team Anna that promised the nation visions of an Arab Spring died an untimely death. And now we have Baba Ramdev taking centrestage, spewing rhetoric against the government, which, according to many, has ceased to function (“There leaps Baba on the bus”, Aug 14). A year after his ignominious exit from the Ramlila Maidan in a woman’s guise, Ramdev was back at Ambedkar Stadium, threatening to go on a “march” to Parliament with his supporters to demand immediate steps to bring back the black money stashed abroad. The yoga guru’s attempt to carry forward the legacy of Team Anna cannot be seen as anything but an expression of the desire to reclaim lost ground and convince the nation that he always had the best interests of his countrymen in mind while locking horns with the government. Now that the lok pal campaign is in a state of status quo due to the sudden decision of Team Anna to go ‘political’, Ramdev wants to assert that he is endorsing a people’s movement with no political agenda whatsoever.

But what about the political party he had tried to launch earlier this year? While announcing his entry into politics with the launch of the party, Ramdev also insisted that he would not contest elections. Are we then to believe that the party would just stand at the sidelines, cheering at the tamasha that goes on in the name of governance in the country? People would soon condemn Ramdev for his duplicity. The common man has already been let down by a movement which promised to purge the nation of all sleaze and fraud. He is likely to view another such campaign with wariness now.

Yours faithfully,
Pachu Menon, Margao, Goa

Sir — It is amusing to see a person like Baba Ramdev leading a so-called crusade against corruption in high places. Ramdev himself is a fountainhead of corruption. He says he has no political agenda but his speeches are clearly anti-Congress. He only talks of cases of corruption involving Congress leaders while he conveniently forgets the corruption charges pending against many senior Opposition leaders. This is a trait that he shares with the other anti-corruption crusader, Anna Hazare. However, while Hazare has a modicum of respectability, Ramdev is a character of dubious repute. The earlier the people realize this, the better it would be for the country.

Yours faithfully,
Ambar Mallick, Calcutta

Bengal’s pride

Sir — Nilanjan Bhattacharya’s article, “What the fish!” (Aug 12), reminded me of my childhood days in Burdwan. In the early 1980s, we would listen to live commentaries of football matches between Mohun Bagan and East Bengal sitting in a local club, divided into two groups of supporters. Sometimes we would travel to Calcutta by local train, certainly without ticket, to watch my favourite team, Mohun Bagan, play live. While watching a certain match between Mohun Bagan and Aryan in the Mohun Bagan grounds, I was thrown out of my seat by an elderly gentleman. He said that he has been watching his team, Mohun Bagan, play, sitting for the last 20 years in the same seat, which I had unknowingly occupied. That seat was supposed to be lucky for the team. After coming to know that I was also a Mohun Bagan supporter, sometimes he would buy me the tickets. Such was the craze in those days.

After my graduation, when I came to Calcutta in the early 1990s in search of a job, I lived in a rented house in Santoshpur with two other boys. We used to eat regularly in a pice hotel near the 8B bus-stand. Gone are those days. Lots of up-market eateries have come up in and around Jadavpur and Santoshpur now. The so-called messbaris are disappearing fast. Moreover, people nowadays would rather have ‘home delivery’ than eat in a pice hotel.

When I was about to marry a girl of my own choice, my parents repeatedly checked her lineage to make sure that she belonged to a Ghoti family. Even now my mother does not know that my wife is from a mixed family of Ghoti and Bangal lineage, my father-in-law being Ghoti and my mother-in-law being Bangal. My mother is 78 and cannot cook because of a prolonged illness. I still cherish the food prepared by my mother-in-law in the Bangal style.

Yours faithfully,
Debmalya Bhattacharyya, Calcutta

Sir — The hilsa is disappearing steadily from the Bengalis’ platter. The fall in the size of this year’s catch is alarming (“Lack of rain, east wind keep hilsa off coast”, July 16). Even if hilsa are to be found in the market, their prices vary from Rs 800 to Rs 1,000 a kilogram and are, therefore, out of the reach of the middle class. The breeding and migration grounds of the hilsa have been shrinking both in Bangladesh and India due to the high level of pollution in the rivers of these countries. India and Bangladesh must keep pollution in check. The waters of the Padma-Meghna and the Hooghly-Bhagirathi river systems should be dredged at regular intervals to maintain a proper flow of water that will ensure the migration of the hilsa.

Yours faithfully,
Anindya Bhattacharya, Calcutta