The DMK is a symbol of everything negative one can think of at the state level (Where the Family Heirs Loom, Jun 8). It was all there, out in shameless display. MK couldn’t reach Delhi to take up the Tamil Eelam cause "due to illness" but was nevertheless able to wheelchair himself all the way to secure a Cabinet birth for his kin. Unfortunately for Tamil Nadu, all the other alternatives come with the same vile family baggage.
Ram, Kerala
How do people like Karunanidhi and Dharmendra get away with bigamy although IPC sections 494 and 495 provide for a prison sentence of up to seven years (The Wives and the Wherefores)? And does a "feminist" like Kanimozhi not consider this anti-feminist? Hasn’t her father set a bad, illegal and male chauvinist example?
Narasimhan M.G., Bangalore
A society of sheep will always get a government of wolves.
Anshul, Indore
Karunanidhi may be ‘anti-Hindu’ but he seems to firmly believe in the prosperity of his Hindu undivided family!
L. Gautam, Bangalore
It’s for the people of Tamil Nadu to approve or disapprove of Karunanidhi’s acts of nepotism. Others are irrelevant.
Narendra Vasireddi, Boston
All the political space in TN has been "monetised" and "casteised" systematically by the DMK. No wonder a Mumbai newspaper called DMK the Delhi Money for Karunanidhi party.
Sandilya, Chennai
Karunanidi is a potboiler in himself.
Aditya Chopra, Chandigarh
The DMK supremo believes in the old family planning slogan of "Do ya teen, bas", but in relation to spouses.
Col C.V. Venugopalan (Retd), Palakkad
Two wives or 20, it’s just another instance of leaders being more equal than our poor denigrated citizens.
Rajesh Chary, Mumbai
Thank God Jayalalitha, Mayawati and Mamata are single. Imagine the galaxy of kinsmen we’d otherwise have to accommodate as our ministers!
Khushi Ram, Ambala Cantt
Karunanidhi began life from near Tiruvarur (to which I too belong) as a penniless man; now, he’s worth hundreds of crores. He and his family can well talk of self-respect; the poor Tamilians are more like beggars waiting for the great man to throw them pennies.
Shivkumar, Mumbai
Please give credit where it’s due. The DMK in-charge of the south, Azhagiri, has some 20 years of contribution to the party. And Stalin’s been active in politics for some 40 years.
Nyamathullah, Tiruchirapalli
At least the Karunanidhi saga is an open book. How come nobody writes about his arch-rival Jayalalitha? I’m sure her origins and career would be of immense interest to readers.
V.S. Sankaran, Madurai
Karunanidhi and his brood descending on the national capital on the eve of government formation made for a sorry spectacle. The 86-year-old patriarch would do well to take a cue from his erstwhile friend, A.B. Vajpayee, and retire from active politics.
Dr M.K. Bajaj, Zirakpur
Karuna’s galaxy was sane enough to build up the goodwill of the Tamils. MK Sr may be losing his lustre, but the satellites are shining. TN has a well-maintained galaxy other states can only dream of—so thinks an envious Keralite.
A. Nathan, on e-mail
People not only accept dynasties but also help propagate them. Look at our new MPs. How many of them are professionals, social workers, educationists or ex-servicemen? That’s because we don’t vote for them. Then why blame the Karunanidhis, Badals or Lals? As you sow, so you reap!
Madhu Singh, Ambala Cantt
MK is a firm believer in the principle that charity begins at home. So he first appointed his family members as ministers, then thought of others.
S. Raghunatha Prabhu, Alappuzha
Now that Meira Kumar’s been made Speaker, Kanimozhi can become Union minister. And her portfolio: welfare of the DMK ministers in New Delhi and Chennai.
Balachandran C.M., Calicut
If the Congress thinks it can win Karnataka by making S.M. Krishna the foreign minister, it’s sadly mistaken (Krishnavatar, Jun 8). For the party lost not just the 2004 election to the BJP after his chief ministership from 1999-2004, but every election since under his leadership. He was made the governor of Maharashtra but was brought back in the hope that he’d influence the Vokkaliga votes. Krishna got a relative to contest the Maddur assembly constituency, worked hard but still couldn’t get him elected. Likewise, the Congress lost the Mandya Lok Sabha seat despite his canvassing. The fact is, Krishna’s influence is restricted to Bangalore, that too with the rich and powerful. He offered to contest from the Bangalore South constituency, in the hope that the Bangalore voters would buy his claim of having turned the city into a Singapore. But with the BJP’s Ananth Kumar firmly entrenched there, he eventually opted for the Rajya Sabha. However, to his credit, it must be said that he’s an able administrator, and has proved himself time and again as MoS in various central ministries. And he’ll no doubt be successful in the MEA. But if the Congress plans to recapture Karnataka, it should allow party cadres to elect grassroots leaders with mass following rather than rely on caste calculations and drawing-room leaders like Krishna, even though magazines like Outlook paint him larger than life.
K. Vittal Shetty, Bangalore
The party is just passing the buck by making Buddhadeb its scapegoat (Buddha Besieged, Jun 8). We seem to have forgotten scoundrels like Biman Bose, Nirupam Sen and Subhas Chakraborty, the pet of patriarch Jyoti Basu. When I see what Jyotibabu has done to West Bengal in the last 30 years, I feel ashamed that I share his surname.
D.N. Basu, Allahabad
Sadanand Menon’s was an honest assessment of the situation of Tamils in Sri Lanka (The Ealam Forecast, Jun 8). He also seems to know the history of the atrocities that Tamils have faced in that country. Surprisingly, India, which has condemned atrocities in the Gaza Strip and Iraq, seems convinced in its belief that there were no civilian deaths in the Sri Lankan army’s action against LTTE.
Narendran, on e-mail
It’s sad to learn of the deaths of so many innocent Tamil civilians in the Sri Lankan army’s assault on the LTTE. Worse, India stood by Sri Lanka even as innocents were being killed.
Thirugnana S., Mississauga, Canada
How exactly is the Tamilian diaspora supposed to coerce Colombo into giving Tamils nearly half the country? And why should the victorious Sinhalese listen to the sort of advice Menon offers? After all, they too have suffered in these long decades of war.
Biswapriya Purkayastha, Shillong
I do hope Sri Lankan leaders will seize the opportunity provided by the defeat of the LTTE to win the hearts and the trust of the thousands of Tamil civilians whose lives have been oppressed by decades of fighting in the region. Action speaks better than words: if the Sri Lankan government works to improve the condition of over three lakh Tamils now living in relief camps and allows ngos access to them, it will have made a good start.
Arjuna Ganeshan, Bali
The agitation in Punjab was not the rage of just the Dalit Sikh but of all Hindu Dalits against the Jat Sikh (Something Burning, Jun 8). The so-called casteless Sikh society is more inimical to Dalits than Hindus. As a result, the Dalits in Punjab are closer to their Hindu brethren than to Jat Sikhs. The Dera gurus may sport Sikh attire but lean more towards Hinduism. The book they follow is, of course, the Guru Granth Sahib, which has verses by Sant Ravidas and other Hindu saints of medieval India. In their names and their attire the followers of these deras are more Hindu than Sikh. Ninety per cent of them are also clean shaven.
Mandeep Sood, Jalandhar
How is the common man in Punjab to blame for the killing of someone in Vienna (in this case a follower of Dera Sacha Khand)? It’s shameful that public property and the common man are held to ransom in the name of religion.
S.K. Aggarwal, Amritsar
If someone does good work (The Surname Does a Victory Lap, Jun 8), his or her surname or lineage should not be held up to scrutiny. Meenakshi Natarajan is an exception, but in general party tickets are rarely given to young people who have no connections.
Sabyasachi Ray, Calcutta
It’s an old Indian tradition, of children following their father in their choice of profession. There was a time army officers would take pride in the fact that their sons were joining the regiment they served in. And the sons would be proud of being second-generation officers of the regiment. If that tradition has faded, it’s only because soldiering is no longer attractive. It’s no sin, therefore, that politicians’ children follow in their footsteps. And yes, the Gandhi surname does deserve a victory lap.
Kaye Sharma, Gurgaon
One can easily imagine a not-so-distant future in which your average MP will a) belong to one of the major political families b) have engaged in social work, that is, visiting his grandfather’s village on occasion and c) have earned hundreds of crores in a couple of years.
Shyamal Mukherji, Mumbai
The BJP isn’t immune to the dynasty virus: there are many who contested on its ticket on the sole basis of their parents or relatives being or having been party leaders.
Anshul, on e-mail
After Sonia Gandhi renounced the PM’s gaddi in 2004, the "foreign origin" issue died a natural death. The 2009 edition will likewise see the demise of "dynastic raj".
Alka Gurha, Bangalore
Rahul Gandhi seems promising and looks like he means business (A Question of the Heir & Now, Jun 1). I wish he revamps the Tamil Nadu Congress by bundling out the present egocentric factions of Thangabalu, Prabhu, Alphonse, Sudarshanam, Yashoda and the rest and brings in younger elements for whom the party and the country mean something and who believe in unity. Otherwise, he can request the party to merge with the dmk, whose leadership is strong and persuasive. Right now the Congress in Tamil Nadu is a big joke and not because of G.K. Vasan, who has no shame calling himself voc after freedom-fighter V.O. Chidambaram just because he has been allotted the shipping ministry!
T. Santhanam, on e-mail
A Nice Boy to Know. Really? Only for Outlook. Praising Rahul is like praising food that is yet to be cooked!
Krishanoo Shrimayee, Assam
Rahul Gandhi has tread carefully so far and refused to join Manmohan’s cabinet. Hopefully, he will resist his partymen’s sycophantic traits for some more time and continue to work at building the party before building his career.
D.S. Nagabhushana, Shimoga
Three hundred crorepati MPs to lead a nation of hungry millions (Twenty20 Capsules, Jun 1)! If only the Congress wouldn’t make such a farce of going out of its way for the aam aadmi. Please, could we also wind up the first family glorification drive now?
Meenu B., Kottayam
Your Jun 1 cover asks ‘Is it all over for bjp’s brand of politics?’. The answer is ‘yes’ and ‘no’. Yes, because they could not gauge the mood of the people, especially the youth. And no because it has emerged as the second-largest party after the Congress. India’s political discourse has to shift to catering to a civil society with a distinct ‘Indian’ identity instead of one with caste, religion, majority and minority loyalties.
Shreekrishna Phadnis, Nashik
As a garden and tree lover, I enjoyed reading M.S. Gill’s Delhi Diary (Jun 1). The "unknown superintendent of gardens under Lutyens" he talks about was Sydney Percy-Lancaster. He was the last Englishman to hold the post of Superintendent of Horticultural Operations, Government of India, in the period after India’s independence. His book, A Sahib’s Manual for the Mali, is a mine of information. A new edition, edited by Laeeq Fatehally, was published by Permanent Black and is available in bookshops. It is a book Mr Gill might like. I did.
Minnie Malhotra, on e-mail
The recently-formed UPA government should realise that the nation cannot progress overnight or in just 100 days (The India Yet to be Built, May 25). It wasn’t able to do much in its previous five-year tenure. It failed to get rid of terrorism, unemployment and poverty.
Ippili Santhosh Kumar, Srikakulam, Andhra Pradesh
After reading Lysa John’s column (The Foolproof Voter, Jun 1), I can say that the only thing to be learned from this election or the last one is that you cannot rely on the media to tell you how voters think.
Jyoti Ganapathi, Champaign, US
While I agree with Neelabh Mishra (Iron in the Soulless State, Jun 8) that Chhattisgarh has been too hard on people like Binayak Sen and Himanshu Kumar, I’m unable to understand why Naxalism is spreading the way it is in these backward regions.
Dr Nutan Thakur, Lucknow
Chhattisgarh is a tribal region and the tribals have every right to be part of the democratic process to rule the state. What’s happening there is nothing but the spectacle of outsiders keeping their stranglehold on the tribals.
Rajesh Chandra, Phoenix, US
I was shocked at the xenophobic rant against "expats" in Delhi in Nandini Mehta’s Delhi Diary (May 11). There is a troubling tendency in India to think of racism as being something that only whites do against non-whites, never the other way around. If there’s a genuine issue, please investigate it thoroughly, do interviews, conduct a survey in these residential areas, and present it to us as a serious article—but spare us an individual’s prejudices and casual generalisations about ‘bleeding heart expats’ posing as journalism. It’s odd, too, that a central complaint is that some domestic help working for expats are now getting better salaries! Sadly, this forces the diarist to shell out more for domestic work—how inconvenient when one would rather spend the extra cash buying "exotic goodies" like "Japanese rice crackers and Parmesan cheese" for a dog.
Tejaswini Apte, Phnom Penh
Apropos of Rahul Jacob’s column (No Paperdart Policies in the Classroom, Jun 8), I’m a big fan of the Parikrma approach. Even if organisations like them make a small difference, it’s a big thing.
Arun Maheshwari, Bangalore
Many artists and writers—Van Gogh, Dostoevsky, Beethoven—have experienced the kind of trauma that Mukul Shivputra is going through (A Mad Genie Out There, Jun 8). They successfully transformed it into extraordinary art. One hopes Shivputra is able to do the same.
Ramesh Raghuvanshi, Pune
