Laloo’s largesse

Calling diplomats

• Apropos of your editorial ‘Kathmandu, with clarity’, (IE, February 15), it is but right that India should do whatever it can to thwart “King Gyanendra’s grand ambition to concentrate all power in the palace…” We cannot turn a blind eye to the goings-on in Nepal. 60 per cent or more of Nepal’s budget comes from grants and loans from foreign governments including India. This money cannot be used by the military for suppressing the people, arresting political dissidents, censoring news etc. Indian diplomacy must rise to the occasion to find the best possible solution to fight the deadly insurgency.

— K. R. Rangaswamy On e-mail

Tiger truths

• Kudos to the Express for the Sariska expose. In fact, what is true in Sariska is also true of many other national parks and Project Tiger areas. The forest officials are cooking up and manipulating wildlife census data so that nobody questions them. Enormous funds have been spent for conservation and wildlife protection and any evidence of a decline in tiger numbers will raise eyebrows. So the best thing is to manipulate the data. The wildlife census operation should be revamped and experts should be involved in data collection.

— Harish H.V. Bangalore

Ash’s day out

• With respect to the CBS show last Tuesday it was surprising to see David Letterman introducing Aishwarya Rai as the most famous actress in the world but unknown in America. Most of Rai’s movies are neither famous nor successful in UK, US, India or anywhere in the world, so how is she the most famous actress in the world? Was this exaggerated eulogy meant to be a publicity campaign for Bride & Prejudice? Aishwarya Rai’s statement “We don’t have to make dinner appointments with our parents” was in bad taste. She should remember that while praising our culture it’s not necessary to ridicule cultures of other countries. She is as clueless about the world as she claims the rest of the world is about India. In India, young couples are abandoning the concept of joint family system and prefer staying away from parents.

— Amjad K. Maruf Mumbai

Why the euphoria?

• I have been following news reports of Sania Mirza in the last few days after her so called success at the Australian Open. I fail to understand why our country still cannot understand that reaching the third round at a major tennis event is not winning a tournament. The kind of euphoria that has been created only ridicules our own intellect.

— Md Ejaz Khan Nagpur