A misrepresentation

Family glorification?

• Curious. During the 2004 Lok Sabha elections, the Congress accused the NDA of wasting taxpayer’s money on its ‘India Shining’ campaign. Can the Congress explain what is it doing today? Every now and then, we find advertisements in media hailing Rajiv Gandhi or Sonia Gandhi. How much the taxpayer will have to bear for this glorification of the Nehru-Gandhi parivar is anyone’s guess. At least the NDA spent taxpayers’ money to glorify the nation. The Congress is plundering taxpayers’ money just to glorify a family.

— Sohil Dev Delhi

Punish the guilty

• Muslims appear to have failed in explaining what true Islam stands for, not because they have chosen to be silent, but because mainstream media has preferred to ignore them, found their Islam-is-for-peace too boring a theory to report (‘Silence, race hatred and spiel’, IE, August 18). What’s surprising about Omar Bakri or Anjem Choudhury? After all, the muhajiroun site does not mince words in celebrating violence against the innocent. Why does T.V.R. Shenoy only report about these anti-socials among Muslims? Why keep harping on the theory that not-enough-number-of-Muslims have condemned such dastardly acts? Why not treat this as a simple law-and-order problem and punish the culprits?

— Mohammed Obaidullah On e-mail

Wrong approach

• Over the years, Central governments have failed to correct misdirected attempts to subsidise fuel for the economically deprived by doling out subsidies on fuel. It takes little economic sense to realise that we are actually subsidising those who can afford to purchase cars and fuel-guzzling SUVs to travel. A common man uses fuel-efficient two-wheelers and does not travel as extensively as the wealthy. If government is really concerned about the plight of common man it should remove fuel subsidies in a phased manner and focus instead on increasing low-cost modes of transportation.

— Jitender Texas

Telling difference

• The article, ‘Delhi’84, Gujarat’02, London’05’ (IE, August 20), was excellent. Although the West is not entirely without its problems, the efforts made by the police was commendable in most cases. There are isolated incidents of racially motivated attacks. But the important thing to note is there is no massacre of the kind that rocked New Delhi and Gujarat.

— Moe New York