Barbaric!

Uncommon ability

• Success needs only will power. I was surprised to see the great achievements by disabled persons in the prize distribution ceremony held at Vigyan Bhavan. “The so called disabled” — as the president of India described them, was better than the best appreciation for them. These persons don’t need any sympathy but honour and encouragement. And we owe it to them to make our public places more hospitable for them.

— Dhiraj Kumar New Delhi

To the smart ones

• That India’s comrades are a unique class of politicians having mastered the art of manipulation and double standards is by now well known. You have caught them red-handed in recent times on controversial issues involving Iran, China, the US, Nepal, Chavez, Natwar Singh’s oil-gate (‘Class for Comrades’, IE, December 7). The nuisance value our comrades pose because of the Congress party’s dependence on them at the Centre has prompted you to remind them that “Natwar hasn’t gone down fighting US imperialism.” Hope, at least, the smarter section among the comrades is listening to you.

— G.S. Kulkarni Delhi

A sad way to go

• Apropos of ‘Our limpet obsession’ (IE, December 6) by Coomi Kapoor, Natwar Singh, post-Volcker, has made himself a figure of ridicule. It would have been less disgraceful had the septuagenarian stepped down the way the country wanted him to.

— Amit V. Sengupta Kolkata

And his party?

• The Volcker report mentioned K. Natwar Singh and also the Congress party. In your editorial (‘Hint, hint…’, IE, December 6) on Natwar Singh’s removal, you did not even mention the Congress. Why is that? The law and the judgement should be fair and clear. The Congress party must also be held accountable by the same logic as was applied to Natwar Singh.

— Sarat Kumar Swain Boston

Lack of grace

• Apropos of your editorial (IE, December 6), is it not symptomatic of the erosion of party discipline and authority that Natwar Singh continued in the Union cabinet despite the most clear signals to him of his unwanted status? Even though he is now gone, ever since the scam revelations, Natwar Singh had been stripping himself of dignity. He even went to the extent of questioning the country’s foreign policy, framed by his own ministry. Even the unanimous media criticism failed to persuade the bureaucrat-turned-politician to gracefully put in his papers for the longest time.

— Ved Guliani Hisar