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Journalism of Courage
I was disgusted with the news of an army officer raping a woman and her daughter in the Valley. While there are hundreds of soldiers laying down their life for the nation every year, such scoundrels give a reason to terrorism. The officer who committed this heinous crime and the army men who accompanied him should be treated the way such criminals are treated in Saudi Arabia. Our laws have become obsolete. Necessary efforts should be made by the government to restructure the law.
— Soundararadjou Paris
Mind your politics
• This refers to ‘Bangalore’s new airport hijacked even before take-off’ (IE, November 8). Unfortunately, along with BIAL, other infrastructure projects like the Bangalore Mysore Infrastructure Corridor Project are also stuck due to politics. High time politicians minded their own business and let private companies do their job.
— Mahendra Bangalore
IA must rethink
• I am amused to see your front page story ‘IA plans courier service with old Alliance planes’ (IE, November 1). Whereas, a strategic move like this from the corporate sector would make perfect sense, IA’s track record creates doubts about the feasibility of the same. I remember, way back in the early ’60s, IA used to run a service called NAMS (Night Air Mail Service). Every night at 9 p.m. planes would take off from the four metros — Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai — with mail and converge at Nagpur. There the mail would be sorted and the planes would then go back to their respective bases where the P&T department would take over the distribution. On certain days if the mail was not enough, they would even take a few passengers at perhaps 50 per cent or one-third of the normal fare, if one was prepared to spend practically the whole night for a journey that would normally take two hours. I do not know why and how this practice was stopped or whether it is still operative. Public confidence in services provided by Indian Airlines is so low that I have major apprehensions about the success of the new scheme. IA would do well to weigh all options before launching on this ambitious venture.
— Krishan Kalra Gurgaon
Be compassionate
• Apropos of ‘Sir, I beg you for a second chance in life’ (IE, November 7), if the young lady says, and it can be verified, that she was just an 18 year old when the acts took place and that she met the terrorist years later, having no knowledge of the man’s past, I think she deserves a fair hearing on the issue at the very least. We have to learn to be compassionate when the situation calls for it and strict when we need to be. It would be so wrong for Monica Bedi to be languishing in a jail cell if she is indeed innocent. You can just imagine a lone voice against a cold government machinery.
— Ravi Bangalore
No mercy
• The PM must not take cognisance of what Monica Bedi wrote. She is a liar and a culprit who stood with a notorious criminal who has killed innocents. She must be brought to India and prosecuted and all her wealth in India must be confiscated and auctioned to pay off the kith and kin of the people of Mumbai who lost their life in the bomb blasts.
— Prasannan M.A. Mumbai
