• The article, ‘Four men & a tough promise,’ by K. Subrahmanyam is a good appraisal of the ongoing initiative by the American bipartisan group on nuclear disarmament. The author is right when he says that “it is unrealistic to talk of a nuclear-weapon-free world unless it is preceded by delegitimisation of the weapon”. Any initiative by American statesmen on a subject like this is suspect, if one may say so, because they presume their country’s strategic concerns take precedence over the interests of the rest of the international community. In juxtaposing India’s interests with America’s, have these gentlemen ever given due consideration to our strategic concerns? Kissinger was Secretary of State during the 1971 Indo-Pak War and the Seventh Fleet was despatched into the Bay of Bengal to frighten us. And he later offered a lame excuse why his country did what it did then. American concerns for human values begin and end with their own country, and of course Israel. Did they utter a word when their country stopped Russia from delivering the cryogenic engine to us when we were pursuing our space programme? Is it that our space programme is suspect and theirs is not?— Prasad MalladiNidadavoleNationalist BJP?• Strobe Talbot’s comments in Walk the Talk with Shekhar Gupta, Brajesh Mishra’s interviews and the speech made by the PM in Rajya Sabha, with the appeal to ‘Bhishma Pitamah’ Vajpayee, are a pointer to the fact that the BJP is opposing the deal along with the Left parties not in our national interest but to satisfy the egos of some of the party leaders. This deal could not go through because of the NDA’s defeat in the general election in 2004. One can understand the Left’s opposition, since they are more pro-China than pro-anything-else, but what of the BJP? — R.P. Desai Mumbai Deal appeal• Apropos of your front page report, ‘Bhishma Pitamah, rise and back deal.’, the appeal of PM Manmohan Singh to former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee to “listen to the call of his conscience” and back the deal by rising above party politics, speaks volumes about the “significance and urgency” of finally sealing the n-deal with the US. It also shows the UPA government’s frustration over its failure to get the Left to understand that the deal is in India’s national interest. Sadly, Karat & Co persist in the Left’s pro-China stand.— S.K. GuptaDelhiTeam UPA• Finance Minister P. Chidambaram has done a Dhoni in what is supposed to be the last budget of the UPA government by provisioning doles and reworking the IT slab. He has put the UPA team in a strong position to win over his party’s rivals in the ensuing election game. He may be the most favourite, just like Dhoni who cornered the maximum amount of Rs 6 crore in the IPL bidding. But it remains to be seen whether the FM and his political team are ready for IPL-type moves in politics.— V.S. GaneshanBangaloreBudget silencer• The loan waiver to the tune of Rs 60,000 crore announced for farmers by the FM in the Union budget is quite frightening. It is nothing but a political gimmick at the cost of the country’s exchequer. Sadly, no political party which is opposed in principle to the FM’s economic misadventure can afford to criticise him too harshly on this account. Which party can do without farmers’ votes!— Ganesh K. SovaniThane
