Letters To The Editor

— Mehak Chowdhary, New Delhi

Congress record

• Darshan Desai seems to suffer from selective amnesia (‘Riots are so 2002’, IE, May 5). He needs to remember the history of riots in this country since Independence. It was the Congress that ruled in most states, for most of this period. In the regular communal clashes then, the Hindus were at the receiving end, thanks to ‘secular’ Congress rulers. This accumulated anger burst out when the kar sevaks were burnt alive at Godhra. Narendra Modi is being unwarrantedly targetted.

— Kedarnath Aiyar, Mumbai

What about Doda?

• Killings by terrorists in J&K have been going unabated over the last 15 years, but the massacre of 35 innocent Hindus in Doda (the home of Ghulam Nabi Azad, the chief minister of J&K) has to be greatly condemned because the victims were targetted solely on the grounds of their religion. Perhaps the intention was to frighten the minorities in the state into fleeing. Strangely the National Minority Commission, which took immediate notice of the Vadodra violence of Monday, has slept over the Doda carnage. Similarly, there is silence on Doda from the National Human Rights Commission and the various ‘secular’ organisations that were so vocal over the Gujarat riots of 2002.

— J.K. Mago, Panchkula

Retiring times

• The death of Pramod Mahajan has suddenly thrown up the question: After him who? (‘Old query on young’, IE, May 5). Clearly there is a great void in the party for all to see. The Hindu shastras divide a man’s life into four parts: childhood, adolescence, married life and, finally, vanaprastha, or retirement from the world. What one fails to understand is that if the shastras are their gospel, how come the professors of Hindutva don’t follow them?

— Roda D. Hakim, New Delhi

Tailpiece

• Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav has reportedly suggested an ambitious yet workable plan to strengthen the reservation policy for OBCs announced by the HRD minister. “Rail mantriji proposes to scrap all unreserved coaches,” a source says. “Only those holding reserved tickets will be allowed to board trains. Also, there will be no more discrimination on the basis of berths. The existing ‘lower’ and ‘upper’ berths will be done away with in sleeper coaches and replaced by uniform wooden benches, thereby setting a new benchmark for classless travel…” Okay, just kidding!

— R.P. Subramanian, Delhi