We have been witnessing a lot of turmoil over acquisition of land for industry from farmers and villagers (This Land Is Your Land, Sept 26). All the while, 10,00,000 acres has been lying idle with the CPSEs. How come it never struck any government that this land could be unlocked and handed over to industry? On the government’s exercise of mapping and creating a database, I say it’s better late than never. Trade unions are on the wrong side of the argument in saying the database is an attempt to dismantle the public sector and benefit the private sector, for non-productive land is an asset that, if sold at the right price, can generate revenue for the exchequer and also create more jobs. A regulator should be appointed to oversee the sale of such land.
M.C. Joshi, Lucknow
It amounts to stark failure and guilty inaction of the heads of many central public sector enterprises (CPSEs) that these entities are holding surplus land that remains unutilised for the purpose for which it was earmarked. Many CPSEs are either sick, dormant, closed or earmarked to be sold; some of them could perhaps be revived and made profit-worthy, or sold to those who could rejuvenate them. I wonder why this has not been done? The government is also attempting to disinvest in many of these CPSEs, which I believe is not the right step. Instead of making the CPSEs profitable, the NDA government is trying to create private-sector domination. This is not a healthy trend. We need to learn from China, which is working to make the government taller than the private sector and a major player in industry and other areas.
M.Y. Shariff, Chennai
It is interesting to note that there is land waiting to be unlocked. Why don’t we just leave it to the real estate mafia. After all, they are the best at unearthing its real value!
Ravindranath Ramakrishna, On E-Mail
This is with reference to The Eternal Return of King Nobody (Sept 26). A song sung on Onam in Kerala goes, “When Maveli ruled, people were all equal and there was no stealing or cheating.” Into this secular, equitable equanimity came BJP president Amit Shah with the Sangh parivar agenda of pushing the idea that Onam should be celebrated as Vamana Jayanti. Mahabali, or Maveli, as Malayalis fondly call him, is believed to be an asura king, and he is pressed into the ground by Vamana, an avatar of god Vishnu. It is meant to perpetuate the idea of savarna dominance, a theme that recurs in the Ramayana and Mahabharata. It’s no wonder that the Hindutva enthusiasts of north India have taken exception to Keralites welcoming Maveli.
N. Kunju, Delhi
True to the times we live in, BJP’s Amit Shah has tried to upturn the Malayali tradition of celebrating Asura king Mahabali’s annual return to his beloved people by refering to Onam as Vamana Jayanti. This is unwarranted and senseless. A festival celebrated by all faiths in Kerala cannot be allowed to be taken hostage by vote-crazy politicians. No Malayali should be deprived of the sumptuous Onam sadhya, the pookalam (floral decoration), or traditional Onam songs. Please leave Onam alone.
Dr George Jacob, Kochi
I read Showkat Motta’s first person report on Kashmir with interest (Embers Of A Curfewed Id, Sep 26). If the stone-pelters truly don’t fear arrest and death, why do they refuse to take off their masks? Again, if they only profess to follow the Hurriyat’s call for azadi, why do they carry Pakistan flags, even ISIS flags, and shout pro-Pakistan slogans? Is azadi all about the freedom to join Pakistan?
G.L. Karkal, Pune
How come the stone-pelting protesters in Kashmir went back into their homes after the attack in Uri? Their ghastly work is now done—they know that through their pro-Pakistan agenda and slogans of azadi, India and Pakistan are on the brink of war. What they need to realise is that when bombs start falling in Kashmir, they’ll not make a distinction between pro-Pak Kashmiris or azadi seekers, or even between security forces and Kashmiris. In all of this, the economy and livelihood suffers—this year, the summer tourist season has gone fallow and trade is down.
Ghai, Mumbai
Apropos Thinking Out of the Witness Box (Sept 26), our left-leaning liberals were fine with the 2013 law on rape as long as the people punished under it were poor and did not belong to the cocktail circuit. But now that their friend is in trouble, these pretenders have suddenly woken up. Shameful!
Ravi Jain, Hyderabad
We need new land laws for the biggest zamindars of the country—the government.
Rakesh Agarwal, Dehradun
It beats all reasoning how politician-gangster Mohammed Shahabuddin has obtained bail in a case involving the murder of an eyewitness to two other murders (Godfather Returns To Haunt Bihar, Sept 26). Shahabuddin the criminal and Shahabuddin the politician are virtually indistinguishable, and it’s politics that has come to his rescue. Chief minister Nitish Kumar’s reputation for good governance, his moral authority and his long-term ambition of emerging as a national leader may well depend on how he handles the Shahabuddin affair.
K.S. Padmanabha, Chennai
The anguish of the parents whose three children Bihari don Mohammed Shahabuddin is alleged to have killed is proof enough that not only is our criminal justice system slow, it lets those with money and muscle simply get away. What is sad is that there are politicians like Laloo Prasad Yadav and quite a few people in Shahabuddin’s home district of Siwan who welcomed his return from jail. This when it is quite clear that as a free man, he will be able to erase evidence of his crimes and even threaten or coerce witnesses into silence.
K.R. Srinivasan, Secunderabad
The Samajwadi Party is torn by an intergenerational feud: UP chief minister Akhilesh Yadav (‘A Chief Minister’s Mutiny’, Sept 26) wants his father’s men, including uncle Shivpal, out of the picture. But father Mulayam Singh Yadav will have none of this. Akhilesh will have to establish his progressive credentials by speaking up for secularism and going beyond the one-caste bastion that his party has held on to if he wants to prove he is a true rebel. In fact, if he does that, he can become the genuine harbinger of a new politics in his state.
Secunderabad P. Arihant
Apropos The Vazir and His Checkered Board (Sept 13), we are writing to express serious concern at the apparent inaccuracy concerning our senior partner Sarosh Zaiwalla. You say Keith Vaz (left), MP, received thousands of pounds from Zaiwalla to fund his parliamentary office. This is manifestly untrue. Zaiwalla has given no money to Vaz, save for two advertisements for his parliamentary calendar, the cost of which totalled no more than 500 pounds. At Vaz’s request, Zaiwalla had donated 1,000 pounds to a Gujarat cyclone relief charity, and to the best of Zaiwalla’s recollection, it was a representative of the charity who collected the amount from our office. It was a perfectly lawful donation.
Zaiwalla has been completely open with the (inquiry) committee and disclosed all facts, including records from his firm’s accounts. The committee never found, as your article alleged, that Zaiwalla had given thousands to Vaz’s parliamentary office.
We also want to point out that the author of the allegation against Vaz was Mr Milne, who had stolen a substantial sum from Zaiwalla’s practice, and Sir Brian Neil, the sole arbitrator, appointed under Milne’s employment contract, had found that Milne had without permission drawn money from the firm, as a result of which he made an award of 525,000 pounds against Milne plus interest and costs. Milne was subsequently made bankrupt by Zaiwalla.
We would be grateful if you make this correction and make sure that in future no such potentially libellous allegations are made in your magazine.
London Zaiwalla & Company, Solicitors
The story on Rahul Gandhi and the Uttar Pradesh polls (Waiting For Shiva, Sep 26) was an apt one. There was a systematic shooing away of potentially promising leaders in the Congress right from Nehru’s time. Anyone who was likely to pose a threat to the leadership of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty was thrown out. This fear is so intense that no one is prepared to voice their concern about Rahul Gandhi’s incompetence.
K.C. Mehra, Baroda
I jumped with joy when I read this article. The days are not far off when we will have a Congress-mukt Bharat. If Rahul Gandhi takes over the party, this will hasten the process. I think Indians couldn’t be happier to hear this.
Ravindranath Ramakrishna, On e-mail
The story was rubbish and shows why Outlook’s credibility is on the wane. There is no one else in the Congress who can take on the mantle of leadership, says a senior Congress leader. Really? Actually, there are only chamchas in the Congress, otherwise such a statement won’t be needed in the first place.
Vipul Jani, Toronto
Despite the Karnataka government’s decision to comply with the SC’s ruling, the vandalism and arson over the Cauvery water row is shocking (Dams For A River of Languages, Sep 26). Surprisingly, citizens of both the contending states don’t get it that they have little control over the court order. The SC has said there is no room for deviancy. The present dispute has been aggravated by the tribunal award in 2007 that instructed Karnataka to release 192 thousand million cubic feet of water to TN in a normal year, but it didn’t spell out clearly what the quantum should be in lean years. Though Karnataka’s contribution to the river flows was much higher than that of TN, the allocation was less than what was required. The former, with three major dams, has an aggregate gross storage capacity of 114.54 tmcft. TN, with its three big dams, has a capacity of 136.54 tmcft. This should be revised, and anything that may ignite regionalism must be dealt with an iron hand.
Buddhadev Nandi, Bishnupur
The 124-year-old Cauvery dispute has not been resolved because it is linked to inadequate rain. Till 1991, violent protests would not be seen, and the state governments would talk to each other and make adjustments. Everything changed after that, with the rise of chauvinist politicians, who used identity politics to further their ambitions.
J. Akshobhya, Mysore
You are naive in blaming Nepal (Breaking Ice on a Winding Road, Sept 19) for letting its soil be used for terrorist activities directed against India. By that token, you might as well blame America for having nurtured the 9/11 hijackers! What I’m trying to say is that terrorism is unpredictable and may take root anywhere to strike anywhere. The ISIS is believed to have recruited several Indians already. Isn’t that catastrophic? Think about it.
Prakash, Kathmandu
Apropos your story on Jio (Free Market Raider, Sept 19), there’s much hype over telcos offering new technologies like 4G, with offers like free voice calls and unlimited data. If changing from one service provider to another calls for additional expense on a new phone, users will be less inclined to make the switch.
C. Koshy John, Pune
Ashish Nandy’s comparison of the unrest in Kashmir to the one in Palestine (The State Can Only be A Goliath, Sept 12) is misplaced. After years of radicalisation through Salafi Islam, the call in Kashmir is for an Islamic state—Nizam-e-Mustafa. The terrorisation of the minorities, including the Kashmiri Pandits, is towards that end.
Rajiv Chopra, Jammu
This is on Outlook’s cover story on the nepotism that ails our judiciary (Scions of Themis and Zeus, Sept 19). During the pre-collegium days, the chief minister and the chief justice of a respective state used to mutually decide the recommendations accomodating each others’ nominees. However, the situation changed in the post-collegium period, when the entire appointment system was usurped by a few members of the judiciary sans any regard for transparency. Surpisingly, the SC wants the government to adopt complete transparency while appointing the chief vigilance commissioner and the information commissioner, yet itself prefers to observe secrecy in recommending names for judgeship.
Prammod Srivastava, Delhi
India’s problems with the judiciary continue—its pro-activist nature, and its tendency to overreach into the domains of the legislature and the executive. In a democracy, the laws enacted by the people’s representatives in Parliament have to take precedence. Obviously, the National Judicial Appointment Committee Act (NJAC) being struck down by the apex court in favour of the collegium is contrary to the spirit of our Constitution. I would have appreciaated if the same alacrity was shown by their lordships in amending the Juvenile Act, which let go a ‘minor’ rapist and murderer in the Nirbhaya case. The collegium system has already shown cracks pertaining to transparency, recording of minutes and bulldozing of dissent.
Ashok Raipet, Secunderabad
Our Constitution states that the judiciary and the executive are independent of each other, but the present system seems to indicate that they are ‘inter-dependent’ due to differences of opinion regarding regulations of appointment to judicial cadre, while one justice says there is no transparency in selection of judges or on promotions.
A.S. Raj, Mumbai
Your interview with Bezwada Wilson (Sept 5) was I thought-provoking. As one who has seen, and was shocked by the sight of, manual scavengers carrying human excreta, I wonder why those in authority have not eradicated this practice in the six decades since Independence. Wilson made a poignant comment: “There are many places in the world where they have advanced sewerage in place. But in this country, there’s not a single town where we have a proper system in place. Yet we talk of smart cities and bullet trains.”
A. Viswanathan, Thane
