Letters: Naive assumption

This refers to the editorial "An undesirable move" (November 5). There is no doubt the results of opinion polls conducted by responsible media houses are read with interest. However, for most readers, opinion polls only have curiosity value since they are conducted on a wide range of issues and on a sampling basis. This is due to the wide variance between the opinions expressed by the participants in such polls from the actual poll results. Every voter makes up his/her mind well before the poll - whether based on the promises or past performance of the political parties concerned, or on narrower considerations such as caste or religion of the contestants. Hence, to think that opinion polls may sway public opinion (even of the so-called "fence sitters") to vote in a particular way is a naive assumption that is an insult to the intelligence of the average voter. As for the Congress' support to the proposed ban; it only reveals the party's jittery and paranoid state of mind.

V Jayaraman Chennai

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