• I wish to thank you as well as congratulate you for having the courage to print the truth: When justice is not delivered in cases like the gruesome massacres of Dalits in Bihar, both the government and the law are dead. — Arvind Amin On e-mail The vicious cycle • Apropos of your series on the ‘Social Injustice’ in Bihar (IE, November 29 and 30), it is of serious concern that democracy and development based on justice may not be as compatible as we believe. Bihar is one of the five poorest regions of the world. The law and order situation is pathetic; goonda raj exists. Yet the Bihar government has bucked the anti-incumbency trend and won elections. All of this cannot be attributed to rigging of elections. Let’s accept it; the government has the support of the people. Bihar is caught in a vicious cycle — development won’t happen as long as the RJD is in power; the RJD won’t go until development happens. — Pranav Sachdeva New Delhi One question • This refers to your report about the CRPF jawan gunning down seven colleagues (IE, November 29). Inspector General Ranjit Sinha’s statement, ‘‘It’s just an individual aberration, a deviant cop gone berserk,’’ serves only to perpetuate ignorance and prejudice about mental disorders. If the jawan was agitated and had a history of mental illness, why wasn’t he taken to the psychiatrist in the nearest hospital, instead of being punished? — Rukmini Pillai On e-mail Boys don’t cry • A soldier should not be seen betraying his emotions, especially these days when even hidden tears can go live on TV channels. The military uniform gives one a lot of strength and should get wet with sweat, if at all, but never with tears. There are better ways to project the human face of the services. — Raghubir Singh Pune Spread the costs • Jasjit Singh's‘Old friends, new relations’ (IE, November 29) makes eminent strategic sense but large defence projects involve ever increasing costs. The EU, Russia, India and Israel are all looking to provide military equipment alternatives to US equipment in the world markets. Ergo, trilateral projects that spread the costs of developing new military technology over three partners are the answer. India, Russia and EU can combine IL-214 and Airbus A400M military transport plane projects. Indo-Russian air to air missiles under development can dovetail into the Anglo-French Meteor air-to-air missile project. Indo-Russian Amur-1650 submarine project can be enhanced with Israeli cooperation. Finally, there is no alternative for India as good as joining the JSF F-35 multipurpose US-EU aircraft project. — Arun Khanna On e-mail Quiet please • The Hindu mutts, floating in immense wealth, have ignored the downtrodden and poor Hindus, many of whom converted to Christianity and Buddhism. On the other side, political leaders have politicised the Kanchi mutt. Let the political leaders hold their counsel so that the law takes its course. — Sam Raman On e-mail
