Express your voice

• I agree with most part of Tavleen Singh’s piece ‘Communal or Communist: Same Difference’ (November 14). Communal forces pretend to be pro-Hindu and Communists pretend to be pro-poor, but both are just the opposite of it. Communist and quasi-Communist (a more dangerous breed) actually have not solved the poor man’s problems. As regards to communal forces, the Muslim League was supposed to protect the interest of Muslims but they are still suffering because of the success of the League. The day the RSS-BJP becomes successful, Hindus will suffer the most. But I don’t agree with her on one account, that they are equally bad. Communalism is a more serious problem. I would prefer my India to be like Communist West Bengal rather than the BJP-RSS-VHP’s Gujarat.
Pranav Sachdeva

• I don’t know the reason behind the grudge that Tavleen Singh nurses against the Communists, but I am sure that whatever be their economic policies, they can never be equated with what the BBC calls ‘Hindu nationalist parties’. The Communist response to the economic policy was known much before they won the elections. It is deep-rooted in the Communist ideology and if China is turning itself into a new economic powerhouse, so is our very own Bengal. If one takes a closer look, everytime the Communists protest a policy, there are logical grounds for that. The issue of privatisation is one. The protest was not against the process as such but the ‘indiscriminate’ way in which it was being pursued by the previous NDA government and the huge corruption involved. Also, it is only the Communist parties which raised the question of the expenditure of this money for public good.
Ali Yasir

• Monica Bedi’s letter (‘Sir, I beg you for a second chance in life’, November 7) was touching. It is evident that she is the innocent victim of guile. In no way can she be linked to the 1993 explosions in Bombay. She was caught in Portugal for travelling on a fake passport, and has been punished by a Portuguese court. Why does India want her extradition now? For police harassment? The man she married cannot help; her parents are too old and ailing to come to her rescue. Who else but her parent country? I appeal to our President, PM and the Home Minister to save an innocent.
Brigadier (retd) J S Bawa

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