Sir, The uproarious scenes witnessed in the Rajya Sabha, while the Women’s Reservation Bill was being introduced on Tuesday, should make us hang our heads in shame. The members of the upper house need to behave properly when important bills such as these are being tabled in the house. In not summoning the marshals of the Parliament to forcefully evict the unruly members, the presiding officer of the Rajya Sabha is equally responsible for this disgraceful spectacle.
The Rajya Sabha, modelled after the British House of Lords, was established by the founding fathers of our Constitution with an intention to house members of standing in the society to provide the benefit of their wisdom and experience while discussing the bills passed by the Lok Sabha. What we see in practice is that the Rajya Sabha is no better than the Lok Sabha in the undignified conduct of its members.
V VENKATASUBRAMANIAN
Mumbai
Uproar in Parliament
Sir, Though not surprising, the behaviour of Rajya Sabha members during the introduction of Women’s Bill is really “unmanly”. MPs nearly came to blows and unprecedented scenes were witnessed in the upper house. One wonders what will be the future activities in the Parliament when the Bill becomes a reality.
V S Venkatavaradan
Salem
Stamp papers
Sir, I would like to bring to the attention of the revenue department, the plight of the people who need to buy stamp papers in Belgaum. There is only one location in a crowded part of the city where people have to wait in a queue for hours to buy stamp papers. More points of distribution, in at least ten different parts of the city, should be opened so that people do not spend hours trying to buy stamp papers. A list displaying the value of stamp paper to be used for various purposes should also be put up at these points.
Gerard J D’Silva
Belgaum
Election manifesto
Sir, Very often the political parties, after coming to power, forget to implement the promises made in their election manifestos. In such circumstances, why doesn’t the Election Commission mandate that the manifestos should be submitted as an affidavit duly sworn in before a notary or a magistrate and then to the electorate? If this is done, the winning party which comes to power will not make any attempt to deviate from the promises made in the affidavit-cum-manifesto.
B S Raghavendra Rao
Bangalore
Frivolous charges
Sir, The Bombay High Court is reported to have stayed the notice issued by the Animal Welfare Board of India (AWBI) to the telecom company Vodafone asking them to delete a portion of their ad showing a pug dog chasing a school bus. The division bench has given this interim ruling on the technicality that the AWBI is an advisory body and has no powers to issue such notice. The division bench should have dismissed the case so that the AWBI will henceforth desist from making such frivolous charges on the grounds of “cruelty” to animals.
V V S MANI
Bangalore
Traffic jam and IPL
Sir, Traffic in burgeoning cities like Bangalore always crumble due to plethora of problems like rallies, political meetings, underpass work, laying of pre-cast structures etc. The new addition to the ever increasing list is the ongoing India Premier League (IPL) cricket matches. Whenever the matches are played, the arterial roads leading to the stadium get choked up. Perhaps organising such matches far away from city limits is the only practical solution in sight.
B N BHARATH
Bangalore
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Rajya Sabha and dignified conduct 
