Letters to the editor: Database needed

No more Kims
North Korean despot Kim Jong-un’s order that his name cannot be used by anyone else is a perfect example of the absurdity of an absolutist regime. This practice of copyrighting the supreme leader’s name has been followed since the reign of his grandfather. This is in keeping with the practice of kings in ancient China and its Confucian neighbours. In North Korea, for all its revolutionary rhetoric, the ruling family demands — it certainly doesn’t command — mystical reverence once reserved for emperors of ancient dynasties. The grandeur and uniqueness of “The One” must be artificially preserved. Individual liberty be damned.
— Ruchika Gautam
Agra

Our national book
It is unfortunate that despite getting a clear mandate to lead the nation, the BJP doesn’t want to shed its Hindutva image. Making a religious text the national scripture of our country is a direct attack on the secular character of our Constitution, which is, in fact, our national scripture.
— Shivendra Bisht
Lucknow

I am at a loss to understand what is happening to our country. Not a day passes without a new story coming to light about the propaganda being spread by the VHP and the RSS. On one hand, we talk about information technology and manned space missions. And on the other, a simple, sacred expression of individual freedom such as conversion is used as a tool to spread political and religious hatred. I belong to a family of Christian converts. My father was born a Lingayat and married an Anglo-Indian. But our orthodox Lingayat relatives refused to accept my mother, so my father converted to Christianity. Our Constitution authorises every individual to follow any religion he wants to. Forcing him to convert back is a futile and illegal exercise.
— C.B. Vastrad
Pune