Everyone’s Bapu

• Kuldip Nayar has rightfully questioned the absence of the president, prime minister and th...

• Kuldip Nayar has rightfully questioned the absence of the president, prime minister and the press at the prayer meeting on Martyrdom Day, January 31, in ‘Retrace Bapu’s footsteps’ (IE, February 10). But what difference does it make? Louis Fischer writes, “When he died, Gandhi was what he had always been: a private citizen without wealth, property, title, official position, academic distinction, or scientific achievement. Yet the chiefs of all governments, except the Soviet government, and the heads of all religions paid homage to the thin brown man of seventy-eight in a loincloth.” Today he is more popular outside India than inside it. Gandhiji fought for justice with love, respect, kindness, humility, and nonviolence. He belongs to everyone. It is not going to make any difference to his contribution even if you and I are alone on this planet to remember him, respect him, and revere him.

— Vasant G. Gandhi On e-mail

Just a gimmick

• The recent decision of the union cabinet to increase the income ceiling for determining the creamy layer in OBCs from 1 lakh to 2.50 lakh a year is only to appease the voters. It is gross abuse of the concept of creamy layer by political leaders just to swell their vote bank without realising the repercussions on the system. This is a retrogade step as it tends to perpetuate the reservation system rather than phase it out which is what the framers of the constitution had in mind.

— K.L. Batra On e-mail

Listen to CEC

• The chief election commissioner has urged all political parties to observe the moral code of conduct. He has struck a welcome note. But the BJP is all set to subvert its spirit by harping on technicalities. It has already done so by announcing the dissolution of Lok Sabha even before it was convened. All the criticism against its attempts to use public money to mount a partisan propaganda campaign is being dismissed by the party by arguments like: ‘‘but the Congress did it before’’. Where is the moral ground the BJP sought to occupy when it was in the Opposition?

— Sandeep Kanwar Patiala

Reminder to Joshi

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• Apropos of your excellent editorial, ‘High cost of low fee’, (IE, February 9), perhaps HRD Minister Murli Manohar Joshi forgot the purpose of his appointment to this coveted post. Just to remind him, his responsibility is not to lower our education standards further but to make the system more fool proof, interesting and practical and to also provide institutions with the expertise and required facilities to impart education effectively to the students. However, taking the quality of education to a new low is precisely what our HRD minister is doing if his latest move of reducing the annual fees of IIMs is anything to go by.

— V. Rajesh On e-mail

Sign a treaty

• India is already a nuclear power. Now in the changed scenario, and particularly in the context of the revelations on nuclear proliferation by greedy Pakistani generals and scientists, India and other mem- bers of the nuclear club must show more maturity. India should sign a nuclear treaty so that Pakistan is also forced to open its nuclear programme and establishments to international scrutiny and inspection.

— Vasant Gupte On e-mail