Fair-weather friends

Apropos the article ‘Royal Challengers of Bengaluru’ (May 25), the author deserve kudos for coming out with such an interesting conversation between ‘Motu and Chotu’. In fact, it speaks volumes about the inside story of our 12 national political ‘gems’ who were seen holding hands in a show of strength on the oath-taking ceremony of HD Kumaraswamy, as 24th CM of Karnataka.

A government by ‘default’ has forcibly been thrust upon the people as neither the Congress nor the JD(S) had the concurrence of the people to form the government in this ‘hush-hush’ manner. In fact, this need-based opportunistic hobnobbing between the Congress and JD(S) has virtually made a mockery of Indian democracy. While both of them appear to have ‘paid back in the same coin’ to the BJP as it had earlier played the similar political cards in Goa and Manipur but the moot question still remains: Can two wrongs ever go on to make one right? No guesses please.

As regards the ‘Big-12’ representing different political ideologies, their latest publicity oriented political melodrama could be more ‘self-assuring’ than ‘worthy’ of posing any real threat to the future prospectus of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his party. Moreover, if one looks back in to the ‘golden’ history of our democracy, it may safely be concluded that most of them have time and again proved themselves to be ‘fair-weather friends’ only to ‘migrate’ to some safe haven as per the need of the hour.

New Delhi

This is with reference to the news report ‘Smoking hurts legs too’ (May 25). The harmful effects of smoking is really scary and it is distressing to note that our government does not have a strict policy to ban tobacco consumption.

Although measures like banning smoking in public places and increasing taxes on tobacco-related items will have a significant effect on the sale of tobacco items, in my opinion educating people on the harmful effect of tobacco will prevent people from consuming it. The poor can ill-afford the costs of treating tobacco-related ailments. The anti-tobacco movement can be spearheaded with the help of NGOs, film stars, sports persons, etc.

Thane

The Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB) ordering the closure and disconnection of power supply to the Vedanta-Sterlite copper factory in Thoothukudi must cheer all those who have vehemently opposed its existence.

The beleaguered unit has been in the news for all the wrong reasons and the ensuing violent protests have left more than a dozen dead, besides, 19 more critical. It is unfortunate that the plant was carrying out activities to resume its production operations though it was barred from doing so. The Tamil Nadu government and the police are equally culpable because they allowed the situation to worsen and then tried to deal with it using extreme measures.

Bengaluru

The change proposed by the Union Cabinet to amend the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, to treat home buyers as secured creditors vis-a-vis developers in a liquidation process in line with suggestions made by the Supreme Court in December 2017, is welcome.

At present, when the developer company is declared insolvent, thousands of families who had booked their homes by investing their hard-earned money cannot lay claim to the proceeds of the liquidation and thus ended up both losing their homes and the money they invested.

With the proposed changes in the IBC, buyers can put pressure on builders to deliver homes on time. It would also deters unscrupulous builders from taking buyers for a ride. It is hoped the ordinance aimed at bringing proposed changes in IBC will be made a permanent legislation sooner than later.

Sholavandan, TN

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