This is about the cover story on the JNU affair (Divide and Rue, Mar 7). The author has tried to mislead us, saying the BJP has “created” an issue in JNU where none existed. The anti-national activities of leftist students in JNU were always an issue for concerned citizens, not for left-liberals. During the 1999 Kargil war, JNU students organised a mushaira in which two soldiers present in the audience were beaten when they protested against the derogatory references to India’s armed forces. In 2010, leftist students celebrated the massacre of 76 CRPF jawans by Maoists in Dantewada. Then too, liberals defended such activities with their delusional version of the freedom of expression.
Lucknow M.C. Joshi
It’s a great pity that after years of independence, we are still busy defining nationalism. And if the UPA government was corrupt, the NDA is abysmally short on maintaining religious and social harmony. If questions of nationalism still distract us, how are we ever to improve India’s social progress index?
Perth Sanjiv Gupta
The average BJP politician seems to be incapable of understanding what a free society means. Every argument of theirs hinges on how bad the Left or Congress have been. Yet it’s also true that it’s because of the Congress that we find ourselves in this hell-hole. I’m told Laloo, Mulayam, Mamata and Karunanidhi and their ilk practise secularism. In any other country, it would be called corruption. And in every yardstick of nepotism, incompetency and knee-jerk responses to non-existent issues, the BJP is defeating everyone who went before them.
San Jose Natarajan S
The Nazis, Fascists, Golwalkar... these accusatory connections have gone on for too long. If India were in danger of being a fascist state, it wouldn’t have taken this long. What next? Golwalkar and his descendants equal the Einsatzgruppen?
Toronto Varun Shekhar
There is no defence for the obnoxious things currently happening in India. But do not forget the cruel, unethical and underhand way the Manmohan Singh government executed Afzal Guru.
Bangalore Hilary Pai
One would have thought democracy would entail the freedom of thought and speech. Now, the norms are being redefined: one has to be anti-Pakistan, anti-Left, have to hoist flags in schools and varsities etc. Is this like Mao’s “Great Leap Forward”? I think so.
Bangalore H.N. Ramakrishna
Shouting hoarse over freedom of speech is all very well. Dissent on political thought is one thing; but speaking against the very integrity of the nation is another. You think an agitation against the state would go down well in US/France? I live in France; the moment authorities suspect you of working against the nation's interests, they can take you into custody. Even harsher rules exist in the US.
on e-mail Sumeet
When Yogi Adityanath, Giriraj Singh and others exercised their ‘freedom of expression’, they were roundly criticised by the secular media and political parties, demanding stern action against them. But the same group began defending anti-national slogans raised by Kanhaiya, Umar Khalid and other students. The public is angry at this selective, and hypocritical, condemnation of events.
Delhi Pramod Srivastava
Too much freedom has now intoxicated the youth. Blurting out anything that comes to mind can in no way be seen as a sign of refinement or education. Budding politicians who have made our educational institutions their training ground have only a blurred vision of the future. Most of them misinterpret freedom and become scapegoats in the hands of politicians who have vested interests.
Cherthala, Kerala M.K. Somnatha Panicker
Kanhaiya Kumars and Rohith Vemulas have happened in universities before. But they were dealt with by the varsities, thereby limiting the influence of the conniving politician. The media, Parliament and government were never taken hostage. When and how did today’s universities lose their autonomy? The self-proclaimed ambassadors of the motherland, led by the effervescent HRD minister, chose to muddy the waters, as they have sensed dividends in the state polls.
Kochi George Jacob
Outlook has spoken out boldly on the burning issue of the day. As the media queued up frantically to interview Rohith Vemula’s mother and brother, you interviewed TRS MP Kavitha Kalvakuntla. Kavitha hit the nail on its dirty head: “Rohith has died due to political interference...unlike Rahul, we don’t want to milk a tragedy for politics.”
Palakkad Col C.V. Venugopalan (retd)
This is about Ravish Kumar’s takedown of the broadcast media vis-a-vis the JNU sedition case (Speaking Truth To Vigilantism, Mar 7). Smriti Irani and Amit Shah’s push-back shows one thing—Modi is no Vajpayee. Vajpayee happily sacrificed the interests of the BJP to curry favour with the media. Modi, by contrast, does not hesitate to take a tough stand when needed.
Chennai Akash Verma
Amit Shah fully deserves the Goebbels Award for being Modi’s chief dispenser of lies.
Dallas, Anwaar
It is a pity that JNU is used as a space for promoting profaneness and questioning nationalism. As an Indian citizen, I believe nationalism is sacrosanct and should not be dragged into opportunist debates. And why should police need to take permission from university authorities to raid hostels? There are several instances of anti-social elements using hostels as safe havens. For instance, of the 30,000-plus residents in Osmania University, Hyderabad, only around 13,000 have official permission to stay there. When teachers and other staff support student’s agitations, it emboldens them to break the law. No wonder JNU was the only campus where the massacre of 76 CRPF jawans by Maoists was hailed by a section of students, and now it is once again in the news for anti-India slogans and celebration of the ‘martyrdom’ of terrorists. Let’s liberate our universities when we can.
SECUNDERABAD Ashok Raipet
Whether or not those who raised those slogans in JNU should be booked for sedition is open to debate. What is galling, however, is how some people openly defended those obnoxious slogans. This shows that the root of the problem lies in the academic environment that encourages such warped notions. This anti-national mindset needs to be challenged and annihilated in campuses across the country. Students have to be taught that you can support democracy but not endorse anarchy, and that dissent is welcome as long as you are not promoting disloyalty or acting as an apologist for jehadism or radical Islamism. There is nothing liberal in being anti-national, and it is not the same as being anti-government. Anti-national is not a good thing to be.
CHENNAI K.S. Padmanabhan
Why is everyone picking up cudgels on behalf of those JNU students who openly call for the vivisection of India? The leftists are out to push the country into a cauldron of caste and communal strife.
MYSORE J. Akshobhya
The FIR against JNU students was lodged on the basis of a doctored video and a fake Hafiz Saeed tweet. Neither home minister Rajnath Singh nor then Delhi Police commissioner B.S. Bassi changed their stand after it came out that the video and the tweet were not genuine. How can we trust anything else they might say about the case? More importantly, aren’t we ashamed that mere slogans shouted in a campus by a small group of students led to a witch-hunt? How fragile is our nationalism?
ON E-MAIL Himanshu
Attacking freedom of thought and speech at JNU is of tremendous symbolic value to the RSS. The aftershocks would be felt soon in every other institution that continues to be an eyesore for the Sangh.
PATHAN Arshid Hussain Wani
If those lawyers cannot keep their nationalist outrage in check, their legal education can safely be said to be a failure.
BANGALORE K.S. Jayatheertha
The Indian media had been largely taken over by admirers of the RSS long before one-third of the electorate voted the BJP to power in 2014. They played no small part in making the muck stick on Muslims. And now, the media zealots have turned against all those who consider the RSS and its affiliates to be a threat to the nation. Going by the parallels with what had happened in Germany and Italy between the world wars, we could well be staring at a police state in the making, where dissent and resistance against authority is crushed with the anti-national canard.
KARIKKUDI Nasar Ahmed
“Can you imagine a situation in America or France where students raise slogans against their country?” asked the anchor of a major news channel. To him it was a rhetorical question, but that was only because he perhaps did not know that it has a simple answer: anti-national slogans are not foreign to American or French universities, and raising such slogans there would lead to absolutely nothing—certainly not what the ABVP and the BJP government made sure it led to in the case of JNU. Similarly, advocating secession for Scotland in the UK and for Catalonia in Spain is not treated as seditious in those countries. The anchor, however, went many steps further and asked those refusing to accept his idea of what cannot be said in India to leave. Does he think he owns our country?
ON E-MAIL T. Nayak
The day the media turned (hanging) judge, (paid) jury and (sadistic) executioner was the day we formally became a banana republic.
SHILLONG Biswapriya Purkayastha
Kudos to Anoo Bhuyan for an incisive interview with Sudhir Chaudhary (We are Redefining News, March 7). Chaudhury’s answers reveal the mindset that has denounced voices for democracy from JNU as anti-national and gives a glimpse into the ignorance and refusal to think critically that (mis)inform it.
DURGAPUR R.N. Roy
Sudhir Chaudhary is right. He has indeed ‘redefined’ news with unscrupulous reportage based on blatant lies. One question: Shouldn’t he apologise to the nation if the Zee News tapes from February 9 at JNU are proved to be doctored?
DELHI Suresh Thapaliyal
If any news channel today decides to broadcast news of the good, old Doordarshan type at prime time, I am sure it would be a hit. Lots of people want to watch news rather than shouting matches while having dinner. A daily dose of TV debates can be quite injurious to our health.
BANGALORE Maha
Someone should remind Smriti Irani that she no longer acts in saas-bahu soap operas
Dehradun Rakesh Agarwal
It seems you don’t have anyone on your team who is knowledgeable about technology. The article about a device that absorbs “harmful radiation” from cellphones (Chipper Than The Rest, Mar 7) is hogwash. A ferrite magnet is being sold as a radiation absorber? Seriously? I’m recommending your article for this year’s IgNobel prize!
PUNE Sankar Ganapathi
It’s well known that mobile towers and their radiation is harmful. More people should object to such towers being installed near their residence, and the authorities should ensure that, wherever they are installed, WHO-approved radiation norms are adhered to. I understand that technology could make it possible to do away with towers and let tiny chips convey the signals at low power, which would be harmless to people. More research on this subject is the need of the hour.
PUNE Sankar Ganapathi:On e-mail Mahesh Kapasi
Apropos Brigade That Lit the Fire (March 7), it goes without saying that the disaffected youth is ready fodder for politicians who want to make use of their angst to further their own interests. It would be naive to think that the scale on which the Jat agitation had erupted was merely a spontaneous expression of discontent. Let’s not forget the fact that the BJP not only installed a non-Jat CM in Khattar, but also let the first-time MLA take the helm in a state simmering with unresolved resentment ever since the Supreme Court struck down the inclusion of the Jats from the central OBC list in 2015.
Hyderabad J.S. Acharya
The kind of losses this agitation has effected to both public and private property is huge. The Patels in Gujarat, the Gujjars in Rajasthan and now the Jats in Haryana—it forms a disturbing trend and if the government gives in to the Jat demands right now, it will create room for strong-arming by other communities. It doesn’t make sense when every single community wants to have it easy.
Noida Bal Govind
The violence over reservations in Haryana is essentially about politics—a sad fact that is becoming obvious as the blackmailers are holding the government at gunpoint and allowing water pipes and private property to be held ransom. In the end, neither jobs nor other benefits will be sufficient to accommodate the aspirations of those driven by a lifestyle image they see on the TV, in the movies and in the glossies. Unless the national economy improves soon, the violence will keep getting worse. Ultimately it needs to be about picking everyone up and not having a messy tangle of unaddressed demands.
Secunderabad Padmini Raghavendran
It is intriguing and interesting that Sunil Khilnani (India: A Cartography of Minds, Feb 29) includes Nainsukh in his book, Incarnations. The son of painter Seu, Nainsukh became the doyen of Pahari miniature painting. He, his brother Manak and son Kaushal were the main artists of the Guler school and then the Kangra style of painting. And their own distinctive style constituted a gharana among Pahari paintings. It’s so good to see this subject explored.
JAMMU Rajiv Chopra
Your article on Madhopatti (Of Foregone Distinction, Mar 7) captures the little village’s fascination for the civil services. I think it’s hardly surprising, though, that despite being a cradle of bureaucrats, the village lacks civic amenities. After all, its bureaucrat sons and daughters are posted elsewhere and, instead of nurturing the village like a constituency as politicians do, they contribute by way of inspiration to the young men and women of the village.
THIRUVALLA P. Prasad Thampy
Your report on Mukul Rohatgi (On His Majesty’s Legal Service, Mar 7) was meticulously researched. Since Independence, the post of advocate-general has been filled up on the basis of political influence. Rohatgi, who had represented Gujarat when Narendra Modi was chief minister, is also close to Arun Jaitley, a lawyer who’s now a minister in the BJP government. Anyway, congrats to your reporter for a write-up on the Constitution Man of the government of India.
DELHI A.S. Malhotra
Thank you for your leader in praise of the Uttar Pradesh government’s effort to check urinating in public places. I wish to point out another gross Indian habit that needs checking—that of wetting fingers with saliva to aid the turning of pages. Even finance minister Arun Jaitley was seen doing so as he read out his budget speech from a sheaf of sheets.
GURUVAYUR, Prof P.C.K. Nambudiripad
I used to be surprised but am now used to seeing anti-Modi and anti-BJP articles in your magazine. Not once have you praised Modi for his hard work, his positive attitude, his ‘Mann Ki Baat’ reaching out to millions. I’ve seen nothing in your magazine that touches on Rahul Gandhi’s many foolishnesses. Imagine a country headed by Rahul!
ON E-MAIL Jaideep Lengade
It’s a pleasure to read your magazine except for the mudslinging and destructive reports on display. There has been enough of that. Let’s turn the world into a better place with posters of ‘Live and Let Live’, ‘Love and Let Love’, ‘Be Constructive’, ‘Be Happy, Compassionate, Peaceful’ and so on. This will turn the world to peace, stopping terrorism, hatred, harm and intolerance.
SECUNDERABAD P.V. Padmavathi
Your Feb 22 issue carried 10 pages of adverts from the Chhattisgarh government on the achievements of the Raman Singh government. In the same issue, you carried The Pegdapalli Files, reporting on the rape of women by security forces. It’s this courage and straightforwardness that I love your magazine for. Keep it up!
BHILAI Roshan
