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Journalism of Courage
• I Support Tavleen Singh’s view, ‘‘War on terror as faith vs faith’’, that there is need for less faith in the world today. Religion has outlived its utility in these modern times. If you look closely, you will find there are many who believe in a God, not out of faith but due to an ingrained social conditioning. It’s time for people to shed their religious fervour, because religion is a potent tool in the hands of the powers-that-be, to be used to create crises and conflagrations.
Vikram Johri
• Tavleen Singh is absolutely right in saying that George Bush’s foreign policy and his Christian fundamentalist worldview have made the world a much more dangerous place. With its aggression on Iraq based on flawed intelligence, the US has plunged the global population into the vortex of terror. ‘‘We have changed the world,’’ claims Bush. Indeed he has, but not for the better. And his jingoistic foreign policy has affected American citizens the most, for his ‘‘war on terror’’ has made them extremely vulnerable to terrorist attacks.
K P Rajan
• With reference to Tavleen Singh’s column, one wonders whether Bush’s victory was vote for the Christian fundamentalist worldview or for American traditional values. The manner in which Bush launched his war on Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein made him no different from the Islamic fundamentalists. Instead of being an attempt to cleanse the world of terrorism and destroy the WMDs, it turned out to be a ‘faith vs faith’ fight. It was a Christian jehad against Islamic fundamentalism, not just bin Laden and Saddam.
In the process, Iraq was pushed into a state of political chaos. Instead of isolating the Islamic fundamentalists, Bush, by drawing jehadis into an unstable Iraq, has actually helped the terrorists to unite.
Isn’t it interesting that despite an ailing economy, growing unemployment and rising inflation, the US voters preferred Bush to Kerry. No doubt the latter has made some confusing statements and may have lacked resolution on certain issues, but the US voters have put world peace at stake by allowing Bush to remain in White House for another four years.
Ved Guliani
• This is with reference to Soli Sorabjee’s column, ‘‘Soliloquies’’. There can only be two ways of appointing or removing governors. One is to adopt the US system, where all governors and ambassadors resign when a new regime replaces the old government. This is a healthy tradition because governors and ambassadors act as representatives of the political rulers. The second option is to appoint only retired judges of higher courts or senior bureaucrats on gubernatorial posts. Political appointees, especially in states ruled by Opposition parties, are often biased, and hence don’t command due respect.
Madhu Agrawal
• With reference to the report, ‘‘Zaheera’s shake’’, the Supreme Court should order the arrest and lie-detector test of Zaheera Shiekh. She has been fooling the judicial system as well as the law-enforcing agencies by regularly changing her statements. A probe should be conducted into whether money plays a role in the changing statements of witnesses in the Gujarat riots cases.
Non-governmental organisations too are losing their creditability by proving to be publicity-oriented. Government funding to NGOs should be totally banned because of misuse of funds by their office-bearers. Apart from Zaheera, other riot victims of Gujarat have also blamed such NGOs for using them to achieve their selfish motives.
Subhash Chandra Agrawal
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