Good show, Natwar

8226; Foreign Minister Natwar Singh deserves unqualified praise for taking a firm stand on Pakistani crossborde...

8226; Foreign Minister Natwar Singh deserves unqualified praise for taking a firm stand on Pakistani crossborder infiltration IE, Sept 8. One had expected him to go down under the constant needling of the Pakistani foreign minister, who had even advised the Hurriyat factions to unite in the interest of forging an aggressive alliance against the Central government. If Pakistan and the Hurriyat are to be believed, the entire onus of resolving the J038;K conflict is on the Indian government; and none on the factions responsible for the bloodshed. And if the wishes of the people of the state are supreme, what about the wishes of the people of the rest of India?

8212; Ashish Bhat Mumbai

The abyss before us

8226; VHP and the Sangh Parivar wants to create a pandemonium and thinks that by destroying, whether it was Babri Masjid yesterday or the Afzal Khan tomb today, they will alter the historical facts 8216;Afzal Khan tomb: Nearly 500 VHP workers detained8217;, IE, September 13. The xenophobia among fanatics driven by zealots is leading this country down the abyss. Dictators have succeeded because the unemployed and good-for-nothing are easy to mobilise.

8212; Ramesh Lahoti Navi Mumbai

8226; What a wonderful idea! The VHP comments indicate the organisation is headed in the right direction to make the world realize the extent of damage done to the subcontinent by the British divide-and-rule. However, Afzal Khan8217;s tomb is really not that well known. They need to start with something that8217;ll make the world sit up and take notice of things 8212; such as the Taj Mahal. Thereafter, they can move to Red Fort in Delhi, the Mughal Gardens in Kashmir and the Golconda Fort in Hyderabad.

8212; Abhishek Nagpur

More on the census

8226; According to the statewise map published on your front page IE, Sept 9, the population growth between 8217;91 and 8217;01 has been highest in Rajasthan Hindus: 27.9 per cent, Muslims 35.8 followed by Maharashtra Hindus 21.5, Muslims 34.6 and other states. Are these the actual figures? If so, they need a lot of elucidation.

8212; Garima Kripesh Delhi

8226; While the debate is raging about the natural growth rate of the Muslim population, it8217;s amazing nobody is commenting upon the unnatural growth of Christians in Nagaland, Mizoram, Manipur, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh.

8212; Venkat N. Pune

8226; It has been stated that the population of India was over 102 crores as per the 8217;01 census. It is the alarming rate of this increase that one has to worry about rather than exploring the community which is growing disproportionately.

8212; O.B. Nair Kochi

Just goodwill

8226; Kindly refer to the box item, 8216;Birthday goosebumps8217;IE, Sept 10. My birthday did not fall on September 9 as reported. There was no exchange of sweets between myself and V. Maitreyan, the Tamil Nadu representative at the Centre. Maitreyan attended the conference of the state environment ministers in his capacity as special representative of the Tamil Nadu government. It was only a goodwill gesture of wishing each other that happened at the venue of the conference.

8212; A. Raja Minister for environment and forests New Delhi