Your September 8 cover appropriately called it a Black Monday, but I do not agree it was "a day that shook India". We have, unfortunately, got used to it. One prime example is our dpm. Each time such an incident occurs, he hauls up Pakistan and the LeT, without doing anything.
Madhu Singh, Ambala Cantt
All Mumbaikars deserve to be congratulated for the exemplary display of grit and restraint. If a communal divide was what the terrorists intended, they stand defeated in principle. If they were Muslims, then I’m ashamed they belonged to my faith. The Gujarat events were deplorable, but violence is never an answer.
Dr Ishtyaque Ansari, Bharuch
You quote Chhagan Bhujbal as saying nothing can be done till we treat Muslims with respect. This is the same Bhujbal who during his Shiv Sena days was so hawkish on these issues that he was even arrested in Belgaum for voicing anti-Muslim sentiments. A true politico, he’s changed colours with his party.
Dipan Shah, on e-mail
In When the Quiet One Weaves a Web, where on earth did you get the information that the banned simi is a wing of the Jamaat-e-Islami Hind? Let it be known that this is not so; our affiliate is called the Students Islamic Organisation of India. It is shocking that you did not verify the facts before relating a banned outfit to India’s largest Muslim party—whose constitution unambiguously swears allegiance to democracy, peace, human brotherhood and opposition to violence.
Jamaat-e-Islami Hind, Nusrat Ali (Delhi), Muazzam Naik (Maharashtra), M.M. Ali (Pondicherry & TN), Mohd Salim, Rajasthan)
Our correspondent replies: We do not suggest that simi is presently linked to the Jamaat-e-Islami Hind. It was an offshoot when it started in the ’70s. Subsequently, when simi turned radical, the Jamaat-e-Islami Hind severed links.
L.K. Advani, as usual, has blamed the foreign hand for the latest Mumbai blasts. But he himself should be held responsible for all blasts since January ’93 since it was his rath yatra that stirred the hornet’s nest of communalism. He can certainly take credit for the awakening of Hindu pride, but it’s poor Mumbaikars who’re paying the wages.
R.K. Purayil, Mumbai
The blasts will only put the Muslims in jeopardy. Mumbai acp Rakesh Maria’s remark that the 23 accused—five engineers, one mba, three docs etc—did not do it for money sent shivers down my spine. Rafeeq Zakaria is very relevant at this troubled time: All Muslims may not be terrorists, but most terrorists are Muslims.
Nitin G. Panchal, Mumbai
Outlook does it again. First it went to town claiming the artefacts found at Ayodhya indicated a mosque. Now that the asi has found evidence to the contrary (Phantom of the Fossils), it’s lined up ‘professional’ archaeologists to disprove it. Of course, there is no opinion from archaeologists who might agree with the report because according to you, anyone who agrees with the Sangh parivar is a communalist.
Munir Parikh, Ahmedabad
I think Prem Shankar Jha is right about the reasons for the Mumbai blasts (The Genesis of Terror, September 8). Muslims should not indulge in terrorist activities but it’s imperative on the part of Sanghi neo-Hindus to stop this politics of hatred, especially the venom of the Togadia type. If there’s justice in society, there’ll be no recourse to such tactics.
Mirza Faisal Baig, Southampton, UK
According to Jha, "alienation" is not new to Indian Muslims. Well, it is not entirely new to Kashmiri Pandits either. But they haven’t taken revenge for anything. And why choose Mumbai, when Gujarat was being avenged? That too when a pedigree secular party combination is ruling the state.
K. Vijayakumaran, Chennai
I mostly agree with Jha but why lay the blame only on rss and all its shades? The Muslim leadership in the country—or its absence—and its religious leaders too have played a supportive role. They have never made an overt attempt at integration. They can say a namaz decreeing the bombing in Afghanistan but show no such overture for the killings in Kashmir or Godhra. They support pan-Islamic rather than Indian causes, giving the rss enough fodder against them.
Sudhir Sharma, Pathumthani, Thailand
Let’s face it: peace is possible with Pakistan, hitch is, Jha has to be our PM.
Dr Sushil Manohar, Mumbai
The mind boggles at all those Ms: Monday, Mumbai, Mayawati, Mulayam, Mandir, Masjid.... Madness? Maybe.
Suresh Behera, Ranchi, Jharkhand
Arvind Pandey’s story (Mera Bihar Mahaan, September 8) is both inspiring and revealing. Inspiring, because it gives people like me (an mbbs student) who wish to plough the state out of the mess it’s in a forum in the Bihar Bhakti Andolan to channelise our thoughts and efforts for the state’s welfare without getting into the vicious circle of politics. Revealing, because it brings out the fact that it’s Biharis themselves who’re responsible for tarnishing the image of the state outside Bihar.
Abhay Kant, Chennai
Pandey has launched just the initiative to restore Bihar’s damaged pride. Could you give us his address so that we too can add strength to his creed and credo?
Anjani Sinha, Mumbai
You can e-mail to biharbhaktiandolan@yahoo.com
Balbir Punj’s piece On an Ancestral Trek (September 1) exuded a strong sense of nostalgia and a warm feeling of brotherhood. It was quite jarring thus when he abruptly drew the Sangh parivar Laxmanrekha in the last para. If, based on a people-to-people desire, the Germans can reunite and the Koreans push for it, why do we deny the craving to become one? Like sex, the more we suppress it, the stronger it’ll become.
Brig (retd) K.S. Chhokar, Delhi
So what did you expect, Mr Kuldip Nayar (The End of an Affair, September 8)? The Rajya Sabha is crammed with illiterate, opportunistic Congressmen, Communists and Lalooji. You think these half-wits can debate rationally or with honest conviction? All they can do is heap insults, shout, storm the Speaker’s corner or walk out when they feel like having a holiday. You can philosophise and tar all parties with the same brush but be honest, Mr Nayar, which parties interrupted the Rajya Sabha’s working during discussions on crucial internal and external security?
Raj Purohit, Toronto, Canada
My congratulations to Outlook for getting the tests done at a credible and competent lab and helping readers get a true picture of the whole controversy (A Thumbs Up From London, September 8). This once again proves that cse is primarily taking short-cuts to grab headlines. If the issue was about groundwater pollution, it should have tested all types of beverages consumed by the public—lassi, mausambi juice, nimbupani or sugarcane juice and proved they were less contaminated. Their excuse that they were focusing on the big players who ought to have known about the problems is lame. They should not have jumped into the public domain with their conclusions and misled the public into believing that Coke-Pepsi are the only ones which are bad and the rest is pure and pristine.
Khaled Aslam, Mumbai
I, who’ve been subscribing to Outlook for the last eight years, never thought cola companies could "buy" it for planting such a "test report" in it. What was your intention in exonerating cola companies from the situation they’re facing? Coca Cola is using your test report for its ad campaign. However you may have benefited this way or that, you’ve lost by way of goodwill.
M. Ramachandran, on e-mail
I thought you were competent journalists. Why did you need a clean chit from Britain for cola we are consuming? Are Indian labs so incompetent that we had to send samples abroad? And if it was bias we were worried about, do we seriously think the US and UK will deliver a verdict against their own mncs, when it does not concern them? Cola rules the US government and the UK follows it blindly. Next, you’ll be inviting British peacekeeping forces in J&K!
Rishiraj, Manchester, UK
A simple way to make our international cricketers turn up for their state sides more frequently is to limit the number of international games they play (The Game Drags On, September 8). Let’s set some ground rules—no more than 10 Tests and 20 odis in a year. Organise no more than four tours a year—two home and two away. It will be definitely be better for the fans as there’s greater anticipation between the series. Even if you take into account a two-month off-season, there’s enough time for our stars to play domestic cricket. And if they don’t want to, by god, make them!
Eashan Ghosh, Noida
Only Outlook, India’s most exciting weekly, could have come out with an ‘exciting’ story like this. Exclusive because it only airlifted those four Coca Cola and Pepsi bottles to London and paid for the tests to get a story titled A Thumbs Up from London (September 8). In research, sample size holds special significance. Only if it takes into account the variability can the results be considered representative, or authentic. Given the fact that the colas are bottled at diverse places across the country and use unbelievably distinct qualities of (polluted) groundwater, a test based on four samples can at best be considered a gross misrepresentation for giving a ‘clean chit’. Undoubtedly, the four bottles tested could be considered safe for consumption, a fact Dr Dave Mason and Sadat Nawaz will vouch for.
While the story acknowledges the fact that the time of collecting samples and the type of soil may have contributed significantly to the leaching of pesticides into the groundwater and hence into the colas, it seeks to question the veracity of the techniques adopted in the cse tests, and also the cftri results. This is Illogical given the fact that the variation could have been due to the source of the groundwater, the time of its extraction and related factors that contribute differently to levels of pesticides. In taking this route, Outlook has deviated the issue in favour of the colas.
Dr Sudhirendar Sharma, The Ecological Foundation, New Delhi
Salman Khan must be a relieved man (Salman’s Sally, September 1). Our netas get away with the blood of thousands on their hands and even those who have traded our martyrs’ sacrifices sit pretty in Lok Sabha. What has Salman done to be hated so much?
Zohra Javed, Allahabad
