Letters to the editor

— Ram Puniyani, Mumbai

• WHEN Hindutva goons were committing massacres in Gujarat in 2002, we did not hear a word from the writer. The Bajrang Dal getting Parzania banned in Gujarat is a relatively minor transgression.

— Jawid Laiq, New Delhi

Russian bond

• YOUR leader (‘Russian reality check’, IE, January 27), is unnecessarily dismissive of Russian President Putin’s commitment to nuclear co-operation between his country and India, and is definitely one-sided. Let us not conveniently forget the past when America, under the stewardship of US Secretary of State John Foster Dulless, considered our foreign policy of non-alignment “immoral”. But for President Yeltsin wilting under American pressure and reneging on his country’s commitment to India under the cryogenic deal, Russia would never go back on its commitment of co-operation with us in any field.

— M.K.D. Prasada Rao, Bangalore

Killing for laurel

• THE report, ‘Rs 20,000 if you bring back my son’ (IE, January 30), was deeply shocking. It is not the first time that one has read such heart-rending reports of fake-encounter killings in Kashmir. Have some elements in the J&K police and other security forces become so lawless and dehumanised that they merrily resort to such criminal acts to earn quick laurels, without much fear of getting caught and punished? What happened to “zero tolerance” for such blatant, brutal violations of human rights tom-tomed by no less a person than Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh some time ago?

— M. Ratan , New Delhi

Quote, unquote

• UNNECESSARY and indecent comments against India’s top leadership, including President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam and UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi, by Bal Thackeray, denote the frustration of the Shiv Sena supremo because of his party’s poor performance in recent times. Persons in political life do have the right to express their views freely and frankly, but they should not stoop to such a low level (‘On the record’, IE, January 29 and 30).

— Subhash C. Agrawal, Delhi