Cinema8217;s bounty

8226; Ashok Malik's views on the interpretation of history are wholesome 145...

8226; Ashok Malik8217;s views on the interpretation of history are wholesome 8216;Mutiny8217;s bounty8217;, IE, August 25. Besides cinema 8212; including historical and periodical cinema 8212; is only a perspective and not history itself. Historians themselves differ on many counts on many issues. Unless we allow individuals to express their views and perspectives we cannot get the big picture. Lastly, Ramanand Sagar8217;s Ramayana and B.R. Chopra8217;s Mahabharat were not authentic versions of the great scriptures. Many scholars begged to differ even at that time. But the masses enjoyed it. Let8217;s allow individuals to have their freedom of expression of which cinema is a medium.

8212; Amin On e-mail

Democratic nation

8226; Bangladesh is a secular democratic country, home to Hindus, Christians, and Muslims. Our self correcting democratic values are much richer than that of any other nation, and cannot be destroyed by few low-life Islamic and Hindu fundamentalists 8216;The warriors against democracy8217;, IE, August 26. In contrast, India 8212; ravaged by human rights violations, frictions in a caste-driven society, social injustice, corruption, and the spread of HIV/AIDS 8212; has become the new poster child of the failed state.

8212; Shadabul Mujib Dhaka

A frustrated lot?

8226; The Supreme Court8217;s judgment delivered on August 12 has rightly described education as national wealth. The shop owners 8212; again a word used by the SC to describe educational institutions owned by the minority religious bodies and self financed colleges 8212; too were not very jubilant over the judgment. The SC8217;s judgment wants them to ensure academic excellence, maintain transparency in admissions, encourage merit, use funds collected from NRIs8217; children for funding bright children too poor to pay their fees. These instructions are not palatable to politicians, who are worried only about vote banks. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa has requested Parliament to undo what she describes as 8220;anomalous situation8221;. I remember that some 20 years ago, the director of IIT, Chennai, had asked the government not to insist on reservations in IITs. He was bitterly criticised.

8212; A.B. Sai Prasad Moti Khavdi

8226; The frustration of politicians is so visible. They want to run the government without following the Constitution. 8220;I will go to the people8217;s court and prove I can go the way I want8221;: this seems to sum up their main approach. In any case, how long will Indians walk on the crutches of reservations in this age of globalisation?

8212; Vijoy K. Ambasta Nagpur

Well said

8226; The editorial,8216;Don8217;t court trouble8217; IE, August 25, rightly hit at the disturbing tendency of legislatures to take on the judiciary. The media is also quite often gagged by intolerant legislatures. If Parliament is the supreme legislative body to make laws, the Supreme Court is the supreme judicial body to judge any of the laws legislated by Parliament for being within Constitutional parameters. Why should Parliament misuse its powers of legislation and amend the Constitution to upturn a politically or otherwise unfavourable Supreme Court verdict as it did in the historic Shah Bano case and is presently inclined to do in the case of the latest Supreme Court verdict on state quotas in unaided private educational institutions?

8212; M.C. Joshi Lucknow