You Call It a Frame-Up (Mar 10) when in fact you are party to framing up history. You should have cited the reasons why Veer Savarkar asked for ‘clemency’. Who released the so-called letters of clemency and under what circumstances? Even if he did ask for it, was it on the same lines as Chhatrapati Shivaji asking the Mughals to let him live another day to fight or like Nehru wanting to be out of his five-star jail (the Agha Khan palace room with tub-bath and all) to see his beloved wife Kamla in Switzerland? I’ve seen the den where Savarkar spent 18 years—6 feet by 9 feet without even a receptacle for calls of nature—and with hands and feet in chains. There must have been good reasons for the Brits to treat him thus—and certainly not that he was a collaborator!
S.C.N. Jatar
Kuldip Nayar is justifiably upset when he says the Mahatma "is being crowded out" in public places (Fatigue, Insult, Injury, Mar 10). Gandhi was a staunch believer in the principles and universality of the Hindu dharma. When asked the secret of his life in three words, he said "Tena tyaktena bhunjita (renounce and enjoy)", the three words from Isha Upanishad which form the fundamental building blocks of Hinduism. It’s surprising then that those who claim to be saviours of Hinduism should be reluctant to hang his portrait in their offices. Is it that the Hinduism they believe in and practice is different?
K.S. Iyer, Mumbai
Why should Gandhi’s pics be everywhere? He’s the one reason India is in such a mess today.
Deepak, Delhi
Even after the special investigation team has provided a mountain of evidence and confessions which conclusively prove that Godhra was a cold-blooded terrorist conspiracy hatched by some prominent Muslim fanatics of Signal Falia (Some Missed the Train, Mar 10), your ‘secular’ publication continues to raise churlish doubts about the findings and projects the Gujarat police and government as anti-Muslim. As they say, it is easy to wake one who’s actually asleep but impossible to wake up someone who pretends to be sleeping.
Sandeep Shete, Vadodara
Your cricket coverage leaves one gasping with your sheer puerility, as did the latest piece on India’s performance in the World Cup (The A-Ha Syndrome, Mar 3). Saurav Ganguly’s interactions with Bengali-speaking reporters seem to hold more interest for you than players’ cricketing abilities. Your correspondent has started believing his own hype, insisting India’s batting line-up is the best in the world and then is left wide-eyed when Tony Greig sneers at the thought. He then makes a pathetic attempt to tell the reader that the hype about the Indian team is a media conspiracy. When will you and your ilk come down to Planet Earth, wake up and smell the coffee? Cricket is a game of uncertainties. Any of the top six teams today are capable of beating anybody when all their guns are firing. Australia and South Africa are a cut above the rest when it comes to consistency and that’s the aspect teams like India have to work on. However, cricket is a great leveller as was evident when the Aussies came a cropper in India. The media has to take it easy and learn to take the not-so-good with the good.
M.S. Kumar
I am not an avid cricket fan but have been caught in the cricket mania nevertheless. What amazes me is the uniting potential of the game. Suddenly, everyone’s talking cricket irrespective of caste, profession or wealth. I wish we had a World Cup around this time last year.
Meenakshi Jain, New Delhi
Ah, cricket! We are a group of Indians in Moscow. So sure were we of a Sachin sweep that we had reserved this restaurant called Tandoor in Moscow one week in advance to watch him play. We enjoyed each and every ball of that great innings. Thank you Sachin and thank you Indian team for giving us some wonderful cricket.
H.V. Narasinga Rao, Moscow
What happened in Mathunga (the eviction of tribals by the police) was a culmination of their endless pampering by every government that came to power in Kerala (State Gazette, Mar 10). Consequently, the tribals had assumed the status of demigods and often implicated members of other communities on false charges of ridiculing them, which is a non-bailable offence. It was time somebody took action.
K.V. Raghuram, Wayanad, Kerala
There is something about cow slaughter that needs to be appreciated.Unlike in other parts of the country (where cow slaughter is legally banned), in Kerala there is lesser number of cattle being run over by speeding trucks or cows causing traffic jams and the like. In my opinion, one of the first things the government should do is to limit animal slaughter to within slaughter-houses and then get on with the fight over who eats more bull shit and who doesn’t.
Karil Anish
The cows that roam around our streets should be allowed mercy-killing. It’s the least we can do for these hapless beings. And it’s time someone told cowmongers that killing a man in the name of the sacred is a thousand times worse than killing any animal. Human life has more meaning than any of the tomfoolery that the seemingly wise pontificate about.
Murali Param, Kochi
If politicians really believe that the cow is their mother, little wonder then that they display all the collective intelligence and ability of a herd of bullocks in a China shop.
Biswapriya Purkayastha, Shillong
It seems that Inder Malhotra was waiting for a chance to devour R.K. Dalmia and his biography Father Dearest fell into his lap. His review (Icarus in the Hooghly, Mar 3) is both lopsided and biased to boot. He speaks very little of the nature of book, its writer or her narrative style which is both polished and bold. The book forays into the dangerous areas of controversies and violent emotional upheavals. It also highlights the time of political churning in the country along with the life of the man who was unique and fearless and worthy of adulation. Give me the name of one more Marwari who could match his dynamism and intrepidity in even a minuscule proportion. Kudos to Neelima Adhar, her father and Roli Books. And shame on Inder. As a journalist he should learn to rise above personal prejudices and not lose his perspective.
Madhu Khaitan, New Delhi
The excess of anything is bad, right? Ditto for Ekta Kapoor’s serials (A Kkahaani Gone Kkaput?, Mar 10). Her overdose of family dramas has left viewers fatigued and thus led to the downswing in their trp ratings. All she needs to do is change strategy and find something new to attract the viewers with. And here’s hoping that her two biggest successes—Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi and Kahaani Ghar Ghar Ki—do not meet the same fate as Tara, the longest serial broadcast on Zee which had to be brought to an abrupt end because of its overstretching.
Shraddha Maheshwari, Delhi
It is not surprising to see Praveen Togadia supporting the hawkish stream of US policies. However, once and for all, could we start calling fundamentalist Christians, Muslims and Hindus Fhristians, Fuslims and Findus respectively to differentiate them from the original?
S.N. Nanporia, Pune
The Diary of Baby Haldar (Feb 24) was a truly amazing story. I wonder how many more such dark horses are waiting for some Professor Higgins to discover them!
M. Narahari Reddy, New Orleans, US
Li’l Girl With Nothing Wrong (Mar 10) was a beautifully structured piece, like the lady’s music itself...cool, clear and smooth.
Appie, Delhi
Given what’s happened in the last two weeks in South Africa, and especially on March 1, I am waiting to see some action from certain people in this country. Indeed: will those sickos who destroyed Rahul Dravid’s car in Bangalore either repair or replace it? Will the nuts who garlanded cricketers’ portraits with chappals, or flung dung at them, go clean up? What about the bozos who painted Mohammed Kaif’s house black in Allahabad, will they go repaint the house? Or is this too much expect from these half-fans, half-men?
Dilip D’Souza, Mumbai
Allow me to quote from Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre’s Freedom at Midnight: "The veneration of the cow dated back to biblical times, when the fortunes of the pastoral Indo-European peoples migrating on to the subcontinent depended on the vitality of their herds. As the rabbis of ancient Judea had forbidden pigs’ flesh to their people to save them from the ravages of trichinosis, so the sadhus of ancient India proclaimed the cow sacred so as to save from slaughter in times of famine the herds on which their peoples’ existence depended." The paradox about the whole cow issue (The Milky Way, Mar 10) is that the animal is relevant to the Sangh parivar only as long as it is alive. Once it dies, it’s left to Dalit castes like Chamars to skin it and sell its hide. Who can forget the shameful lynching of Dalits in Jhajjar for skinning a dead cow or Acharya Giriraj Kishore’s unfortunate remark that he cared more for the life of a cow than the lives of Dalits?
Rajat Ghai, Vadodara
It is indeed true that the cow is holy for Hindu rituals and that cow dung and urine are used for ritualistic purposes. But the likes of Dr Murli Manohar Joshi and others quoted in Kamadhenu Sutra make a laughing stock of the whole issue. As does the tone of your article which shows little inclination to understand the practice as it existed or the principle behind it. It’s sad to note that a rich and truly meaningful set of practices and beliefs is being ridiculed by different sets of people for their own reasons.
Sankar Satchidanandam, London
Beef is the staple diet of Dalits and other backward castes in the south. It is comparatively cheap and can hardly be replaced by any other meat. While advocating a ban on cow slaughter, won’t we be denying these people their freedom of choice to have their basic food?
Asadha Arul, Mugaiyur, Tamil Nadu
Even a child knows the Congress is not turning to cow worship overnight but is out to milk the Hindus for votes in the coming elections. Such bizarre twists in competitive politics remind me of the antics of Don Quixote and his squire Sancho Panza.
M.C. Joshi, Lucknow
The cow question is yet another example of the Indian expertise in making issues out of marginal banalities. My Hindu brethren who want to instal this bovine creature as the symbol of Hindutva seem to forget that cow worship started only in the Gupta reign (4th century AD). They believed that the ‘dirt’ produced by taking food and drink from the lower castes could be cleansed by consuming cow dung and urine. The Taitreya Brahmana, in fact, talks of yagnas using bulls and cows. The Apasthambhadharmasutra mentions that the cow is a holy animal and is therefore to be eaten (verse 1-5-14-29). When all of animal life has been created by the Almighty, who are we to decide that a cow deserves special attention? I wish the custodians of our religious symbols had even half the concern for our perennially suffering humanity!
A.P. Jayanthram, Chennai
It is strange that cow slaughter incites so much rage and passion but nobody seems to care when an old cow is turned out of its shelter once it outlives its usefulness (Why Not a Man Slaughter Ban?). Then it is left to fend for itself and ultimately die of starvation. In fact, it would be these very same anti-cow slaughter fanatics who would not hesitate to wield a stick to beat the poor hungry animal with should it stray into their gardens.
Sarbari Bhattacharya
Yes, reconciliation should be the order of the day. Muslims should stop butchering cows to enrage and insult Hindus and the latter should accept the fact that cows are nothing but useful animals.
Christina Martin, Goa
There is no denying the importance of the cow in the Indian tradition. Vasistha’s kamadhenu was a cow. Lord Krishna grew up as a cowherd. Old, dry cows were saved from the butcher by taking them into a pinjrapole. Cows are also central to our economy. We can only dare to belittle its importance at the risk of ignoring a vital segment in our life. For, as Palasruthi of Ramayana says: "Gho brahmanebya subhamastu nityam/ loka samastha sukhino bhavantu" (If cows and Brahmins are well-looked after, all will be well).
Revathi Raman, Sriharikota
What India lacks today is the spirit of accommodation in the public sphere. We, as a nation, succumb to bargaining, posturing and bullying instead of sitting across a table and sorting out our differences rationally. The problem of cow slaughter likewise has to be resolved before it jumps out of the realm of debate and into the cauldron of communal fires. When a majority of states have in place laws protecting cows and their progeny, Muslims could take the lead in the cow-protection movement and initiate a step in the right direction. Only syncretic influences which harmonise diverse philosophical-religious traditions can foster a multi-dimensional ethnicity wherein each denomination gets its due while partaking of in the whole.
Shujaat Mirza, Ahmedabad
Perhaps the question should not be whether cow killing should be limited but why one should stop at protecting just cows? Or, if cow killing is not banned then why prohibit the extermination of the carnivorous, morally bankrupt resource omnivores occasionally referred to as the Indian "elite"? 5
Rajveer Purohit,
San Francisco, US
Amar Singh advocates banning pig slaughter because Muslims don’t eat pork! This neta and his party (Samajwadi) seem to care more about the Muslims than even the mullahs. Do Muslims worship pigs? 5
Chandrashekhar S., Bangalore
The best way of protecting our cows is to open cow sheds in different parts of our cities to provide shelter to the stray
animals. Besides, dairy owners leaving cows on the streets should be heavily penalised before their cows are returned to them.
Madhu Agrawal, Delhi
I am an army officer currently posted in the Northeast and witnessed the elections. It was sad to see the drama being played out by Digvijay Singh and Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee on beef eating and the latter’s remarks on how he would rather die than eat beef. I was born to Hindu parents and had been a beef-eater for several years. In the Northeast, cows are killed in a ceremony before marriage. And even bjp mlas partake of beef served afterwards. I am personally witness to a party hosted by a bjp functionary where beef was served. Before pointing fingers at others, the bjp would do well to look inside its own closet. I am sure it will find a few cow skeletons.
Poovannan Ganapathy
