After our players' disastrous showing in Australia, I hope the Indian media has realised that changing a captain alone can't effect desired results, even if the new captain happens to be 'the best batsman in the world'! (Down Under and Out, January 17). Those who had bayed for Azhar's blood should now realise that cricket is a team game, and one man alone (whether Azhar or Sachin) cannot change the fortunes of the side. Do these same people have the guts to ask for Sachin or Kapil's removal as non-performers?
Suhail Rizwy,
on e-mail
Tanuja Chandra's column, The End of Virginity (December 26) reminded me of D.H. Lawrence's work, Leave Sex Alone, in which he wrote: "While we think of it, and talk of it, let us leave it alone."
Sex is a personal decision and is best left to the individual's discretion. Till the time a person commits to a partner, through marriage, his or her sexual pursuits should not be of any interest to the society.
Abhinav Goel,
on e-mail
Tanuja Chandra's bang on when she asks "how come we can't bear to become more generous and human on the subject of sex"? (The End of Virginity, December 27). Sexual freedom's been a male preserve for far too long. It's time things changed.
Sugato Chattopadhyay,
Calcutta
Dear Mr Mehta, you goofed. It wasn't Bertrand Russell who said "I have seen the future and it works" (First Take, January 3). It was the famous black American singer and Left-sympathiser Paul Robeson who made this observation after a visit to Russia in the 1930s and caused a furore back home in the US.
But don't worry, you've only fallen prey to the Theory of Quotational Drift. According to this theory, quotations often drift away from their originators and become attributed to others who fit a certain profile. Winston Churchill, Oscar Wilde, Samuel Johnson and Dorothy Parker have been some such "beneficiaries". Russell's obviously another.
Anvar Alikhan,
on e-mail
I had a hearty laugh when I read Dr Abdul Kalam's boast that India can make an icbm. India's missile programme is a colossal failure. What's the use of an icbm, when the intruders were able to use Stingers in Kargil and we had no reply?
Even the so-called operationalisation of Prithvi seems to have had little impact on our fighting abilities. Our lca programme too is a big joke. Dr Kalam continues to live in a fool's paradise, egged on by an indulgent media enamoured of a Muslim flagbearer of India's defence research.
Sandeep Shouche,
Pune
Now that the hijacking episode is behind us, it's time for serious introspection (The Age of Violence, January 17). Our national security advisor has said we have hard evidence of Pakistan's involvement. What do we do about it? Mere statements of adopting a pro-active policy aren't enough. Nor can we let our troops storm Pakistan. What we can do is to sever all diplomatic ties with the country. Concurrently, all PIA flights must be banned from landing here or overflying India. Anti-terrorist activities must be stepped up and our laws amended to ensure that such people pay a heavy price. Efforts must be intensified to build a global consensus against Islamic terrorism, and rope in countries like Israel. Unless we act on our own, we can't expect the US to declare Pakistan a terrorist state.
Ranjan Khastgir,
Calcutta
Suppose Clinton takes pity on Vajpayee and declares Pakistan a terrorist state. In response to that, Pakistan-not being a meek, naive and blind society like India-will surely increase its terrorism against India. What does Vajpayee propose to do then? Whom will he request next to declare Pakistan terrorist state, Mark-II?
N. Masilamani Mudali,
New York
Brajesh Mishra has said India wouldn't sever ties with Pakistan over the hijack. India wants to maintain ties with Pakistan, have trade with it, give it MFN status, but expects the US and the West to declare it a terrorist state. What kind of imbecile thinks other nations will take up our fight even if they aren't the ones being threatened? We Indians haven't elected Clinton or Blair to protect us, we've elected the present government, and it better do its duty.
Bhaskar Ganguli,
Mumbai
Indians have suffered so much at the hands of Pakistan that any retaliatory measure against it is justified, nay imperative! I'm waiting for the day when those people take office in New Delhi who can feel the pain of Indians, take action against the enemy rather than just issue white papers on enemy agents' activities in India.
Edward Vaz,
Chicago
I was (un)fortunately witness to a press conference called by civil aviation minister Sharad Yadav after his return from Dubai with some of the released passengers. Even as a south Indian, I could understand most of Yadav's so-called chaste Hindi. This is what he said: "My most important achievement as a civil aviation minister is, I brought the murda (the dead body) from Dubai." The reference, of course, was to none other than Rupin Katiyal.
And as if that weren't enough, he pointed to a lady standing near him, telling the gathering: "Ask her, she's a doctor who accompanied me to Dubai. How uphill a task I faced to bring the dead body." That lady turned out to be a PIB official attached to Yadav's ministry. Worse, she had never accompanied him to Dubai.
S. Subramaniyam,
New Delhi
Prem Shankar Jha (Dressing Up Defeat) is one amongst many who say that by yielding to the hijackers' demands, our profile as a 'soft' state continues to be exposed. But we have to look for parallels in the functioning of another large democracy, the US, when in similar circumstances. The Americans had retreated from Vietnam not so much because of the superior military might of the North Vietnamese but because its public refused to buy the argument that precious young lives should be sacrificed for 'democracy' in a region far removed from theirs. In Kosovo too, Clinton refused to deploy ground troops as that would've resulted in large casualties. In the spirit of true democracy, Americans value their lives as precious but at no time have they suffered the odium of being dubbed a 'soft state'. We too should remember that democracy isn't always a win-win situation.
K.R. Rangaswamy,
North Carolina, US
Many are blaming the laxity at the Kathmandu airport for the hijacking and advocating tightened security at airports. But I wonder how this can help when hijackers can hijack a plane claiming they have a bomb when they're actually carrying a cricket ball? The hijackers of the IC-814 plane too falsely claimed they had a bomb. The pilot and other crew members can scarcely take the risk of verifying the hijackers' claim.
Shirish Chavan,
Sangli
After the hijacking crisis, I believe India needs to do a few things immediately. For one, it needs to drastically improve its media management as "seeing is believing" in this electronic age. When the Pakistanis caught Flt Lt Nachiketa, they immediately flashed his photograph on Pakistan TV. We on the other hand kept insisting that the intruders in Kargil were Pakistan army regulars but took months to show the proof on television.
Then, India should show no mercy to extremists. Rather than keep them for years in jails, they should be shot as soon as they're caught so that no one can bargain for them.
Finally, India needs to raise its voice loud enough against all those countries talking of human rights violations. Where were they when our plane was hijacked and the lives of 160 people aboard were at stake? Do they see such violations only in Kashmir?
Pradeep K. Srivastava,
Lucknow
A few things we ought to do:
The Gujarat government's recent order lifting the ban on government servants joining the RSS needs to be opposed. The RSS may not be a political body but it has a deeper politics and operates through different mechanisms to achieve its political goal of a Hindu rashtra. On that count it's no different from the Jamat-e-Islami which works towards an Islamic state. By no means can these outfits be called purely cultural or charity organisations. Their other activities are in tune with their long-term agenda of religion-based nationalisms, antithetical to democracy and secularism.
Ram Puniyani,
Mumbai
Tanuja Chandra's was a very naive column (The End of Virginity, December 27). I have been in the West for the last nine years and as such am familiar with both the worlds. Indians for long have been trying to ape the West in several ways; now they are giving up the one last virtue they do have.
The West has started realising the folly of unbridled sex in the last two decades which has led to problems like aids, teenage pregnancy and violence. In fact, virgin societies and chastity clubs are now becoming popular in the US. Besides, the West is affluent and capable of tackling the fallouts of free sex. But India doesn't have the resources to tackle these problems; worse, it's leading towards the break-up of the smallest nucleus of society, that is, the family.
This isn't to say that women should curb their sexuality, they should certainly have the freedom of expressing it, but within the institution of marriage. Of course, the same has to go for men too.
Ravi Krishnamoorty,
Dubai
