Mandate for coalition

APROPOS of Shubhabrata Bhattacharya’s write-up "Verdict ‘99: Mandate for coalition" (October 16), one look at the election results makes it abundantly clear that the days of a single party getting a majority are over. The national parties, the BJP and the Congress, together could get only 294 (182+112) of 536 seats while 242 seats have gone to regional parties.

The left parties — the CPM which got 32 seats and the CPI which managed to corner four seats — cannot be considered national partis. Their reach is limited to West Bengal, Kerala and Tripura. The Janata Dal (U) despite its over-representation in the Vajpayee-led NDA government too has a limited base in Bihar and Karnataka.

Some people criticise Atal Behari Vajpayee’s 70-member council for ministers as being too large and unwieldy. The criticism may have been justified if Vajpayee had been running a single-party government. With 25 parties making up the National Democratic Alliance this size was unavoidable. Even now, senior BJP leaders like Vijay Kumar Malhotra, Madan Lal Khurana and Sushma Swaraj have been left out. Such are the compulsions of coalition politics.

S.S. JAIN

Chandigarh

II

With one-party rule having become a remote possibility, coalition governments are here come to stay. However, it is time to look at different options which coalition politics offers. Many countries, especially in Europe, have experimented with coalitions with a high degree of success. Whatever be the form of the government, it must have the welfare of the people high on its agenda.

Our system has seen steady deterioration of governance at every level. Practically nothing has been done to alleviate the appalling conditions in which the majority of people struggle to exist.

Indian unity can be preserved only if the republic safeguards its capacity to respect regional aspirations while knitting them together for a national purpose. The federal nature of the Indian polity should be expanded, power should be decentralised the viability of regional political parties representating and fulfilling the needs of the constituent states should be recognised. But if the regional parties with their focus on regional interests play an increasing role in the national power structure, it is bound to cause confusion in policies on vital issues of governance.

Stable and decisive governance is needed not only to give the people what has been their due in the last half a century and to clear the stables in the next five years of all the dirt left there by continual horse trading, but it is also needed to demonstrate to the world that India is capable of occupying and holding its due place in the comity of nations.

K.M. VASHISHT

Mansa

Dr Frederick Banting

This is regarding a write-up on Dr Frederick Banting by Illa Vij (October 9). Even though the article narrated the history of the discovery of insulin by Dr Banting, the first paragraph of the article incorrectly quoted him as the discoverer of penicillin. Penicillin was discovered by Alexander Fleming in 1928.

I would like to share a dramatic episode of the discovery of insulin by Dr Banting. While working as a demonstrator in the Departments of Physiology and Anatomy at Medical School, London after his post graduation in 1920, Dr Banting came across an article by Moses Barron on degenerative changes after experimental ligation of the pancreatic duct. Dr Banting was unable to sleep after reading that article and he wrote "Ligate pancreatic ducts of dogs. Wait six to eight weeks for degeneration. Remove the residue and extract", in his note book.

After cousulting many experts like Miller and J.R. Macleod for suggestions and laboratory facilities, he started his work in the laboratory of Macleod with a assistant, Best. On July 27, 1921, they pancreatectomised a dog and started the experiment. On November 19, 1921, they administered the prepared extract to the dog and found that the blood sugar fell from 0.33 per cent to 0.17 per cent in one hour.

On January 11, 1922, the first patient was treated with the extract in the Toronto General Hospital. This finding subsequently forced Macleod to change his research field from anoxemia to physiological activity of pancreatic extract. First they called the active principle of the extract ‘isletin’. However Macleod insisted that the internal secretion of the pancreas should be called ’insulin’. Later in 1923, Dr Banting and Macleod received the Nobel Prize for Medicine.

S.K. KULKARNI

Chandigarh

Spare the kids

This refers to Peeyush Agnihotri’s article "Targeting the consumer kid (October 16). It is really unfortunate that marketing professionals use school kids to promote their products.

The so-called demonstrations of various products in schools, through seminars, debates, painting contests etc. distract the students from their studies and hence the very purpose of classroom teaching stands defeated.

Since children are unaware of the intentions of the organisers and are imitators by instinct, the educational authorities should discourage such demonstrations and free distribution of goods in schools. This not only adversely affects the child’s psyche but also disturbs socio-economic balance at home.

VED GULIANI

Hisar

II

Due to the growth of consumerism in the middle class most advertising agencies have become money-oriented and in the name of competition make misleading ads.

No doubt advertising is essential for the promotion of consumer products but this does not give the ad agencies a licence to churn out inaccurate and obscene ads.

O.P. SHARMA

Faridabad