A huge security lapse is clearly the chief culprit in the Samjhauta Express bombings (Smell The Sulphur, Mar 5). One wonders how the Attari Special, the key rail link between India and Pakistan, could have been treated as just another train requiring no special security measure. Are we to gauge from this tragedy that our nodal agencies lack basic knowledge of international security standards? Should countries ravaged by terror be taught that trains are an easy target for extremists? Providing no security cover to one’s own people travelling across the border to meet their relatives is akin to promoting genocide. Before locating the mastermind, India should own the responsibility for this bloodshed. For, after all, it has occurred on its own soil.
Pachu Menon, Margao
The blasts should never bog down the efforts of India and Pakistan to restore peace in the subcontinent. It should rather inspire the people of both nations to unite and put up a joint fight against terror.
Shailesh Kumar, Bangalore
One thought last year’s Mumbai blasts would have goaded the Indian railways to provide stronger passenger security. But we are mistaken. Only if we resolve our own shortcomings can India command attention in its bid for peace.
Salil Gewali, Shillong
Political parties in India are busy pointing fingers at extremist outfits when a chunk of the blast victims are Pakistanis. This when terrorism has again proved that it has no regional or religious barriers.
Surachita Majumdar, Delhi
The Panipat tragedy only proves there’s no space for samjhauta (compromise) when it comes to passenger security.
C.P. D’Souza, Mumbai
By portraying India as its eternal enemy, elements in Pakistan’s isi are trying to stoke hatred among the people of both nations (Rogue isi footprints). If only we all knew India is home to the world’s second largest Muslim population.
Chidanand Kumar, Bangalore
We would only be daydreaming if we thought Pakistan would admit to its hand in terrorist acts. On its part Pakistan would keep refuting such charges, while India would reiterate its zero tolerance to terrorism. And it’s the innocent, as usual, who suffer in this endless chain of events. It’s high time our intelligence agencies upgraded their skills to be on par with, say, Israel’s Mosad.
T. Sathyamurthi, Folsom, US
The isi has for long been India’s arch enemy, and right since the days of Zia-ul-Haq the organisation hasn’t been accountable to anyone, not even to the Pakistani military. So, what’s this "rogue" isi all about? The entire Pak intelligence is so rabidly anti-India that one’s prompted to say that these peace moves are all a waste of time. For, Kashmir is the first thing Pakistan wants and the last thing India would give up. So, where is the scope for a patch-up?
G. Natrajan, Hyderabad
What exactly is it? A handiwork of rogue ISI or ISI rogues?.
Vishnu Hegde, Pune
Funny that Outlook believes there exists a rogue isi and a benign isi!
N. Malhotra, Nashville, US
The idea of expanding Hyderabad four-fold (Hew a New Kohinoor, Mar 5) is welcome. But before that, one hopes the problems in its existing contours are sorted out. For that, the Municipal Corporation of Hyderabad has to be made efficient and corruption-free.
S. Lakshmi, on e-mail
Laloo Prasad is nothing but a clever Pied Piper who knows how to make the ‘aam janata’ follow the leader. Apart from marginally reducing the fares of the upper class, he has rolled out grandiose plans for the general public in whose hands the votes lie.
H. Parasuram, Mumbai
The celebration of Shivratri at Katas (Third Eye Blinking, Mar 5) is nothing but propaganda by the Pakistan government aimed at an image makeover. Hindus are in dire straits in the country. Let us not be fooled.
A.K. Ghai, Mumbai
The temple at Katas Raj looks lovely. The rest is all eyewash.
Akshay, Hyderabad
Eyewash or not, events such as Shivratri should be celebrated more often. This way, Indians and Pakistanis can communicate sans interference from the media or politicians.
Sameer Rawal, Delhi
Nayantara Sahgal’s piece The Ink Is Soiled (Mar 5) read like a rambling, unprepared lecture to undergrads, full of platitudes and contradictions. Just as there’s no "single lump called Indian literature", there’s no singular category as ‘Indian culture’ except in the mindscape of some political entities. All regions/countries have their ‘culture’, so why make a big deal about ‘Indian culture’? One expects writers to be above this kind of jingoism. Good writing from any part of the world is treasured as "world", not "national" literature. Shakespeare, Garcia Marquez are treasures of humanity, not of ‘nation-states’. Sahgal has not even shied off a preposterous, untenable statement like "...a diplomat, who is a far less sensitive creature than a writer..." Really? What about writer-diplomats like Octavio Paz, Pablo Neruda?
Rina Sen, Calcutta
Contrary to what Sahgal says, there’s no danger of India falling into a ‘monoculture’. India isn’t China, Japan, Germany or even the United States. Even if the much-maligned Hindutva promoters acquire significant power, they can at best advocate primacy of a certain culture, not elimination of everything else. Remember there’s also the tiny little matter of the huge variety of languages and scripts in India, not just "religion" which the US, UK, Japan, Germany et al don’t have.
Varun Shekhar, Toronto
Our manuscripts are indeed a priceless heritage (Graph of Civilisation, Mar 5). The efforts of the National Commission for Manuscripts to procure such records from individuals, institutions and organisations, protect and tabulate them in order to build a "manuscript map of India", are timely.
S. Sreyas, Chennai
The current media hype on the Indian cricket team’s safari to the Caribbean is busy reducing the sport to the level of tamasha. Our cricket sports structure can be compared with a locomotive in a pool of slush. The boilers are in full steam, fire is being stoked, there is much huffing and puffing and clanging of wheels, and the driver and the fireman are whistling for the locomotive to start moving, but the slush is holding it back.
Amrit Lal, Delhi
Social sciences are showing signs of growing up at last and how (The Schoolbook Grows Up, Feb 26)! The new ncert history textbooks too are refreshing in their choice of a thematic and issue-centred approach over a chronological, political-centred one. But, as your article concludes, unless we have trained teachers with some grounding in contemporary historiography, much of the effort put in the new textbooks will come to naught. Not just that, even examinations and evaluation patterns will need to test a child’s genuine understanding of a theme having multiple perspectives and assess whether a child is able to give a coherent, cogent and contextual understanding instead of the current format that is geared to secure marks. As things stand, much of the history, geography and civics taught by teachers is totally oblivious of the winds of change sweeping the disciplines. The history, political science, sociology departments in most Indian universities are caught in a time warp, unable to break out of the empiricist, positivist stranglehold.
R.S. Krishna, Hosur, TN
Contrary to J.S. Bandukwala’s assertion (Why Gujarat ‘banned’ Parzania, Feb 19), Gujarat did not ‘ban’ Parzania. The police commissioner refused to see it when the producer asked him to because he said a film cleared by the censor board didn’t need his opinion. And multiplex owners chose discretion over valour by deciding not to screen the movie, fearing damage to property by rowdy elements.
J. Khandwalla, Surat
It was heartening to read a news item that said youngsters in Ahmedabad had decided to boycott multiplexes till they showed Parzania.
S. Amir Bashir, by e-mail
Eleven = One (Mar 5) is Greg Chappell’s new and hopefully last stunt before he completes his term. He has been unable to make an asset out of any new player. Players having dubious form and fitness have crowded the team. Only a miracle (or match-fixing) can take us to the semis and another two for us to win the Cup.
Sanjay Ranade, Chennai
