• Your editorial ‘Vindictive?’ (January 12) speaks volumes about the misplaced confidence of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa in the actions of the state police in cases relating to both the seers of the Kanchi Mutt. By affirming total support to the police in her letter to no less a person than the prime minister of India, she lays herself open to the charge of personal incompetence, not mere vindictiveness, in the maintenance of law and order, which she is sworn to protect. — K.R. Rangaswamy Madison • The release of the Kanchi Shankaracharya on bail by the Supreme Court and its findings in arriving at this decision should have made the state government more circumspect. Instead, the prosecution seems bent on crushing the activities of the Mutt and has arrested the junior pontiff in furtherance of its goals. — V. Sadhana Chennai • The main confusion which commentators cause when they say, let the law take its own course, is between law and the legal process. While the judiciary in India is on the whole independent and fair and honest, the judicial process involves not only the judiciary, but also the prosecution, defence, plaintiff, defendant, witnesses, lawyers and finally the media and political leaders. Except for the judiciary, all these other participants have repeatedly invited cynicism on account of various biases. — Gangadhar G. Barve Mumbai Welcome all • Your rightly say in your editorial ‘No to Kofi’ (January 12) that world figures like the United Nations secretary general should be welcomed, honoured and given a personal tour by high ranking politicians and bureaucrats themselves. India must showcase its relief efforts. — Ajay Agarwal Dallas Global news • There can be no argument about the sensitivities involved in visual coverage of human tragedies (‘Globalisation 3.0’, IE, January 12). But should we judge the western media only by western standards or also consider norms of disaster coverage in the local media? We shouldn’t forget that in a truly globalised world, like corporations, media too do not have any nationality. In other words the very coverage under question may well be done by local nationals or foreigners operating locally and that, in fact, is the phenomenon of “glocalism”. In any event, the situation certainly deserves some introspection on the East-West syndrome which may be outdated in a global village. — Ajit Mookerjee Phoenix Aid hierarchy • The systematic exclusion of Dalit families from the relief operations in Tamil Nadu after the tsunami must be denounced (‘Caste away’, IE, January 8). Such discrimination must be ended and its perpetrators punished, but this can hardly happen if the Nagapattinam district administration turns a Nelson’s eye to it. Now that you have highlighted the issue, Chief Minister Jayalalithaa must act, and if she does not, the Centre must intervene. — Vinod Chowdhury Delhi
