Train the young guns and pass the mantle
Sir, Congress President Sonia Gandhi's request to party workers to start preparations for 2009 Lok Sabha Elections shows her worries about the performance of the party. The Congress is getting weaker day-by-day in several states. It has already lost Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. Now even in Rajasthan, Gujarat and Karnataka party members are busy fighting among themselves.

Giving Rahul Gandhi the command of the Congress is a hasty decision. No doubt Rahul is young and he has a lot of dreams. But having dreams is not enough. Rahul is too immature to give him the top command of Congress leadership.

Instead, the Congress should try to bring its experienced leaders together and give them responsibilites explaining to them the present demands and making them realise the importance of their united role. The youth brigade can work at the ground level and try to attract the youth. Later on they can take the leadership into their hands.
Shailesh Kumar
Bangalore

A novel method 
Sir, It is shocking that a 35-year-old elephant was electrocuted in a village in Alur taluk (DH, Nov. 18). Such cases have been reported frequently from across the state. Farmers are within their rights to protect their crops by devising some mechanism to scare away elephants but it is dangerous to electrify their perimeter fences to secure their lands. Electric fences must be outlawed, and farmers advised to adopt some novel but safe method to protect their crops.
B H SHANMUKHAPPA
Davanagere   

Ninety syndrome
Sir, Sachin Tendulkar deserves special praise for his contributions to Indian cricket. A few years ago, he found himself in all sorts of trouble with a back injury which resulted in poor performance. But he discovered the magic touch, and has silenced critics. He should not have suffered from the ninety syndorme and missed a century six times in a row out of forty two times in his carrer.
Inamdar Ramchandra
Bangalore

Higher education
Sir, It has come as a rude shock to hear that none of our institutions of higher learning could find a place in the list of the world’s 100 top universities! The reasons for this dismal scenario are not far to seek. While the number of institutions of higher learning in our country have gone up by leaps and bounds the quality of education has suffered  badly. At the same time the Central government is further diluting the standards of these institutions by its never ending talk of reservations for OBCs and others.
V Padmanabhan
Bangalore

Strengthen coalition
Sir, With the BJP not budging even a wee bit from its solid stand in declining to sign the Memorandum of Understanding, it seems this issue might dichotomize the twin-party coalition in Karnataka. Whether such a government constituted by parties with mutual disputes and widely conflicting views between themselves will be able to give a stable government to the state is anybody’s guess. Unless the coalition is strong and inseparable the situation may pave the way for polls in the near future.
H NARAYANAN
Bangalore

Booze onboard
Sir, Let us not wake up the sleeping lion. By introducing liquor onboard domestic airlines, there is definite potential for brawls with the crew and amongst e passengers themselves as happened on earlier occassions. There is a definite difference between international and domestic carriers. Firstly the travelling time is longer on an international flight than that of  domestic one. Secondly the fear of deportation and other legal action on an internatinal flight makes people behave well lest they lose their chance of survival.
Sivakumar
Bangalore