Letters to the editor

— Amar Maini, Mumbai

Nehru’s schedule

• IT is sad and surprising that no journalist recalled Indira Gandhi’s infamous quote about a ‘committed judiciary’ when reporting or commenting on the Supreme Court ruling on the Ninth Schedule. What the senior Mrs Gandhi was so much in favour of has been finally undone during the political prominence of the junior Mrs Gandhi. The Congress that pays court to the junior Mrs Gandhi is perhaps scared that the Ninth Schedule will be trimmed. That future arbitrary laws will be open to judicial scrutiny. The current Mrs Gandhi should ensure her party does not come up with creative ways to subvert this judicial directive.

— Subrahmanian S.H., New Delhi

Engaging question

• I refer to your page one report ‘Big B confirms Ash-Abhishek are engaged’ (IE, January 15). Even The Indian Express has joined the rest of the media in treating to movie stars’ marriage as headline news. Yes, the engagement had generated popular curiosity. But why not make it the main story in the entertainment section? And, of course, the media is so supine in its treatment of Bollywood stars that no one will ask why the engagement was announced three days after Guru was released — to poor box office response.

— Amjad K. Maruf, Mumbai

Bricks from barrack

• THIS is about the recent fracas involving a group of soldiers attacking a police station in Calcutta in reaction to the arrest of some of their officers. While from a legal and ethical point of view the action by indignant jawans is outrageous, there is a larger problem that explains such behaviour by our men in uniform.

They belong to another society as it were — a regimented social group that lives and works in an ethos that fosters deep loyalties between its men and officers — the kind of sentiment which prompts them to risk their lives for each other in combat. This loyalty and camaraderie do not alter by any degree, whether in Calcutta or Siachen. Ironically, the Indian soldier often develops a scorn for the very society he serves when he sees corruption, nepotism, materialism and callousness in the ‘civil world’. The Calcutta incident cannot be seen in isolation as a law and order problem. It could be essentially a clash of cultures — a perplexing divide between the military and the civil way of life.

— Meghana Athavale, Mumbai