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Journalism of Courage
• 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 J&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?
— Ashish Bhat Mumbai
The abyss before us
• 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 (‘Afzal Khan tomb: Nearly 500 VHP workers detained’, 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.
— Ramesh Lahoti Navi Mumbai
• 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 Khan’s tomb is really not that well known. They need to start with something that’ll make the world sit up and take notice of things — 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.
— Abhishek Nagpur
More on the census
• According to the statewise map published on your front page (IE, Sept 9), the population growth between ’91 and ’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.
— Garima Kripesh Delhi
• While the debate is raging about the natural growth rate of the Muslim population, it’s amazing nobody is commenting upon the unnatural growth of Christians in Nagaland, Mizoram, Manipur, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh.
— Venkat N. Pune
• It has been stated that the population of India was over 102 crores as per the ’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.
— O.B. Nair Kochi
Just goodwill
• Kindly refer to the box item, ‘Birthday goosebumps’(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.
— A. Raja Minister for environment and forests New Delhi
