Apropos the article Milk of man Deceit (May 29), it is a story of the side-effects of a huge population. The Government should lose no time in strengthening the Prevention Food Adulteration Act. king synthetic milk is probably what is meant by India ping into the 21st century. hat is one to do with computers when there are frequent power cuts, or the judiciary h it’s outdated laws?
Already, Indians have the highest amount of DDT in their blood and now urea, palmolein and soda. The very thought that millions of children are living on this kind of milk is nauseating. The guilty milk sellers should be punished severely. There should be no delay. I hope Verghese Kurien starts another milk revolution
Lalima Aneja Dang, New Delhi
Referring to your article The Queen Retreats (May 29), Jayalalitha is a firm believer in numerology. She ensured that any programme or party function was initiated on the date 9 during her five-year term as chief minister. Why do the big politicians depend on astrology or godmen instead of doing constructive work? Though defeated, they still continue to consult astrologers and saints.
Our leaders openly meet astrologers and touch the feet of godmen, setting the trend for the masses. The press can play an important role by exposing such astrologers and guiding the people.
Indra Prakash, New Delhi
With reference to the article A Heartbeep Away (May 29), medicine and cardiology have gone hi-tech and clinical medicine is getting left behind. But patients should not lose much time in fancy and expensive care. In the West, importance is given to ambulance equipment and travel time. The roads are cleared automatically for the ambulance on hearing it’s siren or seeing it’s flash light. This is next to impossible at this time in India as awareness is very low.
Chronic patients need to be educated for proper and better care at the initial stage and on how to reach the hospital at the earliest rather than wasting time in consuming home medicine and getting advice from neighbours and friends.
Dr S. Bafna, Madras
Apropos (In the Saddle, But for How Long? May 29), the BJP government may not have survived the May 31 deadline, but the whole drama has been enacted with a view to winning the final round. All along, the BJP strategy has been successful. They speedily built up the party from two Lok Sabha seats in 1984 to more than 160 in 1996, emerging as the single largest party, and assumed power. Their strategy was to make and break alliances. If they were able to build up the party at the initial stages with NF-LF alliance, later they were able to gain much from the alliances with the Shiv-Sena, Samata Party, Akali Dal and the Haryana Vikas Party in the 1996 election. In breaking the alliance between the Samaj-wadi Party of Mulayam Singh Yadav and the BSP of Kanshi Ram they got a bonanza.
The BJP used even the few days they were in power to their advantage by announcing policy matters, presenting and projecting a moderate posture. No matter who fights whom for power, ultimately it is the people who will win.
A. Jacob Sahayam, Thiruvananthapuram
With reference to the views expressed in The Great Divide, Outlook (May 22), they are very true. The South has been receiving step-motherly treatment from the North-dominated Central Government right from the freedom struggle days. Look into any history book, you won’t find mention of any leader from the South. In spite of being relegated in every developmental programme, the South has made progress in education, family planning and health services, which have been ignored by New Delhi.
"The barbarians (Aryans) came and pushed the docile lot downwards," says Jawaharlal Nehru in his Discovery of India, and precisely the same situation continues even today. The problem of language is likely to crop up very soon. Hindi zealots shall now strive harder to push Hindi down the throats of the southerners. Only a miracle can save this country.
V.S. Mani, Bombay
I comply with the views of your correspondent that the North has always had a big brother attitude towards the South. Even the BJP is not bereft of this division. There are no forefront leaders from the South in this national party.
It is the northerner who desecrates public places, making it filthy by spitting betel juice. The North cannot ignore the South anymore as our next president will be from South, as is our new Prime Minister.
Zubair Ahmed, Bangalore
The lady is an honourable MP, as honourable as, The lady is an honourable MP, as honourable as,say, Mulayam Singh Yadav, Kalpnath Rai, Madhavrao Scindia, N.D. Tiwari, Rajesh Pilot and Narasimha Rao. She belongs to the NF-LF group, and has the backing of super-secularists, viz. Mulayam Singh Yadav, Jyoti Basu, Laloo Prasad Yadav, Ram Vilas Paswan, Sharad Yadav and other partyless leaders.
Phoolan Devi as prime minister would benefit many leaders in more ways than one. She will ensure that no action is taken in the Rs 2,000-crore hawala scam in Bihar and that Laloo Yadav is called to Delhi as Central Minister for Animal Husbandry. She announced during electioneering that Mulayam Singh Yadav was her father ("Array, Mulayam Singh to mera baap hai," she said), he would be spared any sort of embarrassment for his inaction in the rape and murder of Uttarakhand activists, for abolishing the anti-copying law, and for sundry other acts of omission and commission. Raj Babbar would be able to take her sahara "to overturn the Lucknow electoral verdict and thus ensure that truth triumphs and he is declared elected against Atal Behari Vajpayee, never mind the one lakh-plus voters who preferred Vajpayee over him.
Dilip Kumar, who worked hard for the success of Mr Rizvi, a Samajwadi Party (the same party Ms Phoolan Devi belongs to) candidate from Bombay, will be able to request the prime minister, through Raj Babbar, to see that Pramod Mahajan is done away with in an ‘encounter’ so that he does not have nightmares in which Mahajan plays the role of ‘Yamaraj’. Never mind the nightmares of the Behmai widows. For, she is a secular person according to Mulayam Singh Yadav, and Dilip Kumar.
She will order NFDC to stop bothering about ‘Gandhi’ and produce films on sandalwood smugglers and Bombay’s underworld dons now settled and directing operations from abroad. Both films will be directed by Shekhar Kapur.
The distribution rights will be bought by Amitabh Bachchan’s company. And finally, imagine the impact when Ms Phoolan Devi sits across the table to discuss the Kashmir - imbroglio with Ms Benazir Bhutto.
Anmol Purohit, so Bombay
Apropos the article Killing off Kambli (May 15), every daily has given a wide coverage about ‘Bombay’s lefty’ being left out of the Indian team that left for England. I am a cricketer at the age of 59, read widely about this game and have been in charge of the sports activities of a leading South-based nationalised bank for over four decades. I feel that Kambli had taken his place in the Indian team for granted and was quite sure he would not be dropped.
His inability to tackle fast deliveries was only too apparent in the Bombay World Cup match where he was bowled out for a duck. Who is Sunil Gavaskar to say that only Kumble and Sachin get upset when India isn’t doing well? Enough is enough.
G. Krishnamoorthy, Bombay
The whole predicament of the CII and the stage-managed role of its DG Tarun Das can be justified and explained in the words of Mahatma Gandhi: "All the windows and doors of my house shall remain open for air and ideas from abroad, but I refuse to be swept off my feet with those." The strength of this refusal should be intense in our system and should be supported by our quality competence to do excellent work. Pepsi franchising Haldiram and Coke reappraising Thums Up are those strong refusals made visible. Swadeshi should not be a mere slogan, it should rightly be a way of life otherwise it is neither Gandhian nor of the Bombay Club.
A.K. Khanna, Noida
A true politician is one who has dirty tricks to put others down, who has no respect for his party members’ demands and yet is hopeful of the topmost post in India despite faring the worst in the elections. Rao has proved to be just like that by accepting the position of the leader of the CPP.
Vicky Bhatia
I was surprised to see the way you reported the elections in Kashmir in the June 5 issue (Forced Franchise). You are fully aware of the games Pakistan and the ISI are playing in Kashmir and you are also aware of the heroic job done by the Indian security forces to stop the secessionists from succeeding. In the circumstances, the very fact that an election took place was a big achievement. There may have been the odd case of coercion or intimidation but that was only to counter the terror spread by the militants. Keeping national interests in mind you should either have killed the report of your correspondent or toned it down. The Pakistani media must have had a field day thanks to it. Please be more careful with sensitive issues in future.
A.B. Sharma, Lucknow
This refers to your review of Saeed Naqvi’s book (The last Brahmin Prime Minister, june 5). I am shocked that a respected journalist like Naqvi been bitten by the ‘Bash ahmin Bug’.
Nehru, despite all his weakness, was an outstanding leader. Indira and Rajiv held their positions due to dynastic politics opposition disunity—factor unrelated to caste—as were Morarji Desai and Narasimha Rao. However, Ramakrishna Hedge missed being the prime minister of the United Front government due to anti-Brahmin prejudices of its leaders. By trying to write the political obituary of Brahmins, he has insulated a community, which has contributed to the 5,000 year civilisational history of India. need to have a catchy title commercial reasons is well en. But does a man of his situtation have to be so pervrsely dismissive? He should ht the rabid communalism within his own religion.
Dileep R., Bangalore
