Individual agendas

It has almost become a trend with the news media to gain attention by simply bashing Muslims 8216;Silence, race hatred and s...

It has almost become a trend with the news media to gain attention by simply bashing Muslims 8216;Silence, race hatred and spiel8217;, IE, August 18. While I strongly oppose any terrorist attempt I do not feel its mine, or any individual Muslim8217;s, responsibility to explain themselves. What some individuals do on their own to achieve their own agendas has nothing to do with the community in general.

8212; Masroor Siddiqui On e-mail

8226; T.V.R. Shenoy has very rightly analysed the mentality of majority of Muslims living across two hemi-spheres of the earth. The global Islamic jihadi terrorism is posing a grave threat to the whole of the civilised world and our arch enemy, Pakistan, is the fountain-head and major exporter of this threat to world peace.

8212; A.K. Sharma Chandigarh

Selective history

8226; I share Avtar Singh8217;s thoughts and anguish and felt equally repulsed by the loss of innocent lives during the 1984 riots 8216;A riot remembered8217;, IE, August 18. I also thought that it was wrong to take it out on the entire community what was essentially an assassination committed by two bodyguards. It is the duty of State to punish the guilty and compensate the victims. But I don8217;t understand why history seems to start with the anti-Sikh riots. Why were no tears shed for hundreds of innocent poor labourers who were lined up and shot in the fields of Punjab? Why are no breasts being beaten for those Hindu bus passengers who were segregated and shot at point blank range? Let justice be done for all!

8212; J.M. Manchanda New Delhi

India-China

8226; Please continue to publish more articles like 8216;Enter, the dragon8217; IE, August 16, to help create awareness among Indians as to where we stand with respect to countries like China. It was enlightening to know facts about International Relations from the writer, and rather sad that we in India are not in the reckoning in this intellectual arena. We really need to be more aware of countries, their problems, their success stories and benchmark our own performance vis-a-vis theirs.

8212; Rajesh Hariharan Atlanta

8226; An excellent and correct analysis. Kanti Bajpai is not trying to flatter Indians as other contributors tend to do.

8212; Mahendra Kothari North Brunswick

Expat response

8226; First, let me thank the writer of the piece, 8216;At home in the world8217; IE, August 18 for using the term 8216;expatriate Indian8217; rather than the tax statute induced 8216;NRI8217;. The greatest impediment to development is government machinery, the inappropriate selection of politicians and an antiquated civil service system. Indians head out to escape inequities. In a country of 1.1 billion, only 1.3 million are 8216;eligible8217; to pay personal income tax. The rest live off the toil of the performers. It is difficult to feel patriotic under such circumstances.

8212; Bhaskar Majumdar Kuwait

City Tailpiece

8226; Apropos of the editorial, 8216;No fly zone8217; IE, August 16, on the new hijack policy, we need only wait until a situation when a plane with a politically powerful person on board is hijacked to learn how serious the government is!

8212; Anil Khanna New Delhi