Letters To The Editor

Pokharan story8226; SHEKHAR GUPTA8217;S 8216;India8217;s best kept secret8217; IE, August 19 was very timely. He conveyed the level o...

Pokharan story

8226; SHEKHAR GUPTA8217;S 8216;India8217;s best kept secret8217; IE, August 19 was very timely. He conveyed the level of secrecy in the funding and progress of the nuclear project. At Pokharan, Project Director K. Santhanam was the 8216;brigadier8217;, while A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, his boss, and Dr Chidambaram, were designated as 8216;colonels8217;. This indicates Santy8217;s pivotal role. As a former BARC and RAW man, he joined DRDO in 1986 as a technical advisor, and also coordinated the P-239 Plutonium cores that BARC perfected and married them with the neutron triggers, lenses, detonators, and electronic firing mechanisms with the safety locks that TRBL Chandigarh contributed. Shekhar Gupta has failed to acknowledge the work of the army engineers who toiled at Pokharan and constructed the L-shaped tunnels that Jaswant Singh has written about in his recent book, ferried the cores from BARC, helped set up the devices and did not let out what was going on. Even India8217;s generals did not know what their Engineer regiments were doing.

8212; Cmde Ranjit B. Rai retd, New Delhi

No mood to sing

8226; YOUR editorial on Vande Mataram 8216;Selling for a song8217;, IE, August 23 argues against state-managed anniversary celebrations in a modern, plural democracy even while implicitly questioning the propriety of those who are opposing the singing of the national song on religious grounds. You have rightly observed though that 8220;The point is to reclaim the verses in a modern spirit8221;. But judging from the mood of the fanatic segment of the community on the issue, the show of a liberal and 8220;modern spirit8221; seems impossible. The tragedy is that a narrow interpretation of Koranic injunctions is more important to this Islamist mindset than the idea of India and its cohesive ethos.

8212; M. Ratan New Delhi

Preferential bill

8226; THIS refers to the report, 8216;PM has his way, quota bill cleared, aided and staggered8217; IE, August 22. It was known all the while that quotas will be imposed by hook or by crook, for they are not in any way related to improving the standards of education or giving relief to deserving students. If there was an iota of honesty in these politicians, they would not have included the creamy layer. As in the past the rich will exploit the situation and the really deserving and needy will hardly benefit. Even as crores of rupees go down the drain, basic education will continue to be neglected. No politician is concerned with this.

8212; Behram Aga Mumbai

Winsome game?

8226; IN your editorial, 8216;Definitely not cricket8217; IE, August 22, you say that if Pakistan had taken the charge in their stride and won the game 8212; as they were on course to do 8212; the argument would have swung with them. Is that what cricket is about? Only winning? Is cricket not honoured as a gentleman8217;s game? To have won with a disgraced face would be opportunism. To have given up victory for your honour is character. Douglas Jardine planned and executed the bodyline bowling 75 years ago, with Larwood as his executioner, solely to win the Ashes against Australia. He won. But the English board abandoned him. Winning was not the only objective in those days of values. Inzamam is to be congratulated on putting honour above victory.

8212; Ashok Kapur, Panchkula