Letters To The Editor

A Shia Muslim, he worshipped Saraswati. According to him, “Sur, Namaz and Taal are the same thing; we reach Allah in different ways. My shehnai is also my Koran and the Sur is my Namaz” . He saw in his music and his religion a divine unity. India is a blessed nation to have had such musicians.

— P.P. Ramachandran, Mumbai

• Ustad Bismillah Khan was not only a musician but also a good human being. Despite his worldwide fame, he led a simple life. He will be remembered for his great simplicity apart from his contribution to Indian music.

— M. Mudassir Alam, New Delhi

DAE and the deal

• No one questions Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s commitment to act in India’s interests when he negotiates the nuclear deal with the US but this does not mean that our scientists who express concerns about the deal are acting against India’s national interests either. Yet your editorial implies this when it talks about “disciplining” the DAE and when it refers to N-scientists as “bureaucrats” and “retired technocrats” (‘Very political science’, IE, August 21). Ironically, these are the very scientists who have built up India’s nuclear arsenal and about whom Shekhar Gupta wrote glowingly in his ‘National Interest’ column (‘India’s best-kept secret’, IE, August 19).

Hardselling the Indo-US nuclear deal is one thing. But for the political establishment, ignoring scientists’ views while working out the deal would be as foolish as ignoring the views of the army commander before launching a war. Unlike great swathes of our ‘strategic community’ who have consistently rubbished the concerns of n-scientists, the PM has shown great maturity and wisdom in listening to them and assuring them that their concerns will be kept in mind while negotiating the deal.

—R.P. Subramanian, Delhi

• I disagree with your editorial opinion, ‘Very political science’. It is true that under our consitutional framework of governance, the elected representatives must decide on what is good and bad for this country. At the same time the feature of a vibrant and participative democracy is the ability of its citizenry to influence and affect governance in the country.

More than the ruling establishment it is the responsibility of a conscious or concerned citizen to speak out about what is good and bad for this country and its people. I think the former scientists were fully justified in issuing a direct appeal to our parliamentarians on the nuclear deal issue.

— Santosh Kumar, Mumbai

Deserving MPs?

• Happy times are here again for MPs as their salary is likely to be increased. It seems the finance minister has funds to spare. Do they really deserve a hike? If we scrutinise our present political scenario, it would not seem so at all.

— Hitesh Jhangiani, New Delhi