First the Booker from Britain and now the Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters from France! I knew Arundhati Roy is a foreign agent.
Dev Kumar Vasudevan, on e-mail
Bangladesh has done what Pakistan had done two years ago (Tale of Two Blunders, April 30). It’s again a story of enemy soldiers strolling across the border and capturing villages. And of us sending—sans prior planning—our men to death. Agreed that human life is the cheapest commodity in India but if not that, the powers-that-be should at least think of the expensive guns they give the soldiers! It may sound cynical but then so does the idea of unilateral ceasefires in a battlefield. No country can survive whose governments capitulate to internal and external security threats. And India is certainly no exception.
Nitin Verma, San Jose, California
The bsf has reportedly been taking bribes to allow in Bangladeshi infiltrators. This time perhaps they paid to let in 1,000 people, and were surprised to see 3,000. bsf asked for more money, bdr objected, and caught our people napping. They rightly figured that the bsf brass and others in New Delhi would not have the guts to retaliate. And so they killed our people, occupied our villages and now seem to be getting away with murder.
Kulwinder Singh, Patna
Apropos A Taste for Profligacy, (April 30), I think it’s a disgrace that the jumbo ministry in UP is allowed to continue with this ridiculous expense account. I wonder why the state is not keen on breaking away from the Republic of India. It will be good riddance to bad rubbish.
Dr R. Mohan, Canada
Deposing before the Liberhan Commission, L.K. Advani has said that "the de facto temple became the de jure temple after the demolition of the Babri Masjid". The structure was a functional masjid right up to the night of December 22-23, 1949, when through the unlawful introduction of the Ram Lulla idols, a dispute was engineered. If the masjid has remained unused since then, it’s because the Muslims respect the status quo order obtained after the dispute was first created. But can a deliberately introduced change alter a structure’s character or title to the property? Does respect for law erode or dilute the Muslims’ legal right?
M.N. Ansari, Bangalore
Outlook’s been clicking its tongue in anticipation of Vajpayee’s fall even before he was elected (The Wilting of Vajpayee, April 23). I’d like to ask our not-so-intelligent intelligentsia just one question: what’s Tehelka revealed about this highly-acceptable PM? What are you saying now that has not been said in 1998? Pull him down by all means. We have plenty to choose from: Madhavrao Scindia (whose mother said it all), the ever loyal Mani Shankar Aiyer, Jaya, Mamata, Mayawati, Phoolan Devi, Rabri Devi, the two great Yadavs...
K.S.C. Nair, Fremont, California
When moneymaking is the mantra of governance for political parties, where is the question of an alternative? Every minister thinks of becoming the prime minister of the ministry allocated to him. Which is why no one can prevail on him to do things in the right manner. India seems destined to remain forever in the clutches of the corrupt. One thing, though, is certain: Rs 1 lakh did more damage to the bjp than the Rs 64 crore Bofors bribe did to the Congress.
R.N. Vaswani, Mumbai
It’s a real pity that a party which after a long time was doing so well for India has fallen short in the public eye. With Pokhran, Kargil and a great Budget 2001 under their belt, we thought they were going great guns. Only they seem to be going bust before they boomed.
Anita Desai, New Delhi
When Vajpayee became PM, everyone expected him to be strong and statesmanlike. But events proved otherwise. The progress we’ve made today would’ve been made even without a government. Life goes on even without Parliament proceedings, budgets are passed and who wants legislations anyway?
Suja Nambiar, on e-mail
Week after week, Saba Naqvi Bhaumik dishes out gossip, innuendo and unverifiable, wishful thinking about the fall of the bjp government, quoting such impeccable sources as ‘a cabinet or a central minister’, ‘a bjp VP’, ‘a senior bms leader’, ‘a bjp minister’, ‘a tdp strategist’, ‘a dmk leader’ et al. If wishes were horses, she would be an oracle. But alas.
Ananth Gupta, New Delhi
Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee and the nda government indeed have an alternative to replace their shattered image and that alternative is: performance. Non-performing ministers have to be dropped, ministers of state without work should be given the responsibility of hearing grievances and redressing them. The bureaucracy should be reshuffled with talented people at the top while the pmo has to be straightened.
Sushil Mehra, Bangalore
My apologies to the anti-bjp pseudo-secularists but it’s still tina Vajpayee despite his unsatisfactory performance. The other two alternatives being talked about—a totally inexperienced novice or a retired politician with a very poor scoresheet on his home turf—seem to be less attractive. So let us bear with the present incumbent, at least for some more time to come.
N.K. Sircar, Calcutta
The assembly polls will be a big disappointment to the bjp despite the (now fading) charismatic image of Vajpayee. But it’s equally true that without him, the nda will break into pieces. Vajpayee therefore has to wake up to the prevailing situation and ensure scam-free governance while handling the fragile nda with care.
P.K. Srivastava, Ghaziabad
When I was commanding an independent brigade formation in Ranchi, I noticed that most of my officers in the mes, asc, aoc, eme and who had to interact with civilian contractors were fat and boasted a paunch. Later my corps commander confided in me that his earlier tenure at the military secretary’s branch in the army headquarters had practically made him certain that suspect officers were always fat. In short fat is corrupt and corruption is fat.
Brig (rtd) M.W. Gharpurey, on e-mail
The profile of E.L. Doctorow and Peter Matthiessen was fabulous (In the Spirit of Crazy Horse, April 16). I do believe the hype surrounding the publishing industry and new authors is detrimental for writing in the long run. The huge contracts handed out to new writers and the equally enormous press coverage ensures that lesser-known names don’t have a shot at contracts and publicity.
Percy, Hyderabad
Just because subsidy is routed through the industry for reasons of cost-effectiveness and administrative ease, it cannot be held to be its beneficiary (An Overdose of Subsidies, April 9). You allege that fertiliser units indulge in under-declaration of capacity. But at the beginning of each year, a unit submits its detailed production plan which is approved by the department of fertilisers. In 1996-97, when the cost of imported urea was higher than domestic production, the government wanted domestic units to maximise production, and approved production plans on this basis. Which means the government has always been in the know. As for allegations of excess payments, had this been the case, fertiliser units would have made excellent profits. But returns have been lower or at best close to the 12 per cent post-tax return allowed under pricing.
Pratap Narayan, FAI, Delhi
In the article Vexed on Sex? (April 9), you have used the word "preponed". Any dictionary in English would tell you that this is a wrong usage. The word should read ‘advanced’ not ‘preponed’. This is a common usage in this part of India where people say "last to last week" instead of "the week before last".
V.M. Govindkrishnan, New Delhi
Behram Contractor’s obituary (My Friend Behram, April 23) by Vinod Mehta was a befitting tribute to Busybee. His personal sentiments were touching and brought a lump to his readers’ throats. In Behram’s death, we have indeed lost a brilliant journalist who was a role model for many and among the very few who never thought twice about calling a spade a spade.
K. Chidanand Kumar, Bangalore
Bhavana Pandey’s picture in Keeper of the Customs (April 23) is amazing. Instead of feeling ashamed and covering her face with her hands or her dupatta as criminals often do when caught by enforcement agencies, the lady is jubilant as if she has won a gold medal for India at the Olympics. One has to admire her courage, if nothing else.
T.S. Chawla, Mohali
Giving BSc and MSc degrees for astrology—a subject that is not even remotely scientific—is an insult to science (Bull’s Eye, April 23). It is the attitudes of men like Murli Manohar Joshi that shackled the Indian mind and left it to rot, while the rest of the world raced ahead. Before spending money on such whimsical acts, Joshi should think about providing basic education to children so that eventually there will be enough people to join his prestigious ‘Indian Institute of Astrology’!
Dr P. Das, Tiruvalla, Kerala
Historians with Leftist leanings, who are no longer in the good books of the current government, need not now grope in the dark. Bollywood’s leaning towards period films (The Projector Rewinds, April 23) will definitely provide greener pastures and keep them engrossed in consultancy services. Of course there’s always the possibility of the directors insisting on period films being saffronised, with a tinge of Murli Manohar Joshi here or there.
R.K. Joshin, Pune
It was a shock to read that Delhi Tourism is setting up a duty-free shop to sell imported goods at Dilli Haat. The idea seems in direct contravention to the haat’s stated purpose: a place for smaller, grassroots craftspeople from all over India to sell their handicrafts directly to the urban consumer. As it is, the small outstation craftsperson from Karnataka or Kutch, Assam or Andhra, finds it increasingly difficult to get a stall at the haat. Small Delhi tradesmen selling everything from plastic flowers and teddy bears to churan perpetually staff it to more than capacity. Then there’s the Kashmiri mafia which seems to feel that the beleaguered state of their homeland gives them the right to a permanent squat at the haat. For a fair supposedly for the quake-hit craftspeople of Gujarat, they were squeezed into one small corner while Kashmiri carpets, Lucknawi chikan works and white metal semi-precious jewellery from trans-Yamuna made a mockery of the emotive banners pleading Gujarat’s cause.
Laila Tyabji, chairperson, Dastkar, New Delhi
First the Booker from Britain and now the Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters from France! I knew Arundhati Roy is a foreign agent.
Dev Kumar Vasudevan, on e-mail
Moorthy Muthuswamy in his letter (Rot Unlimited, April 2) says that "getting rid of George Fernandes was among the better things to have happened for India’s security". Fernandes has been the best defence minister we have ever had. Mr Muthuswamy evidently lives in New York and knows very little about defence matters here. Why should anyone accept Brian Cloughley’s biased statement?
K.R. Sethna, Chikmagalur
