Letters To The Editor

National view8226; In Khan Saheb in Kashi8217; IE, August 26 Shekhar Gupta has beautifully woven his encounter with Ustad Bismillah Kha...

National view

8226; In Khan Saheb in Kashi8217; IE, August 26 Shekhar Gupta has beautifully woven his encounter with Ustad Bismillah Khan into the large and complex problem of terrorism. The description of the musician touching the walls of the temple he could not go into and the personal note struck by Gupta when he confesses to feeling let down because Khan Saheb will not play at the weddings of his children now, were moving. As someone who has studied the subject of terrorism, I found Gupta8217;s perspective different and refreshing.

8212; Ravi Malhan, Delhi

Not just Chhotu

8226; This refers to 8216;Chhotu doesn8217;t work here any more8217; by Rita Panicker and Gerry Pinto IE, August 29. No doubt, children working under hazardous conditions have to be rescued, but the cure should not become worse than the disease. Without alternative arrangements for the concerned child, the entire exercise would be in vain.Chances are, such children may starve or remain idle or stray into anti-social activities. Infrastructure has to be created for their education and to make it attractive for them to attend classes. As for hazardous conditions, they have to be banned even for adults. We do have laws to monitor such situations but their enforcement is never in evidence.

8212; Anil P. Bagarka, Mumbai

Rot on campus

8226; The death of a professor hit by a student in the election imbroglio in Ujjain is the climax of intolerance, indiscipline and total surrender to power politics by the students at the behest of politicians. This is true of all parties, be it the Congress, BJP or CPM. Not just students, even teachers are drawn into politics. In this context, the Lyngdoh

Committee report on students unions and elections should be thrown open for public debate.

8212; C.R. Bhattacharjee, Kolkata

BJP8217;s tune

8226; A GREAT deal of hypocrisy is involved in the present stance of the BJP on the Vande Mataram issue. After all, in 1998 when the UP government wanted to make it compulsory, then prime minister A.B. Vajpayee had said that it should not be made compulsory.

8212; Ram Puniyani, Mumbai

No bigotry

8226; NAWAB AKBAR KHAN BUGTI8217;S killing mirrors the deeper malaise of ultra-nationalism that has afflicted Pakistan ever since its birth. Anyone who dissents with the military8217;s idea of an Islamist nation-state is seen as a traitor and the political opposition is termed anti-national. Thankfully, in India, we don8217;t shout slogans calling Mirwaiz Farooq, T. Muviah, K. Sudershan or Vara Vara Rao anti-national. No one in this state can even think of eliminating them. But intolerant tendencies are sometimes seen in the politics of the main opposition party 8212; anyone against singing Vande Mataram, for minority upliftment or against POTA is viewed by the BJP as anti-national. We need to guard against ultra-nationalism in all forms if India is to stay united as a loose federation.

8212; Pranav Sachdeva, New Delhi