Letters to the editor

Instead of condemning the police action on 14 March, which resulted in a genocide together with hundreds being injured, several women gang-raped and many missing, you chose to dismiss Mamata Banerjee’s figures as theatrical overestimate! Or is it because your reporters could not approach the site of violence, as they were prevented from doing so by the goons? It is surprising that you take up the cudgels for the Administration without finding out the truth, which you say is your motto.

Yes, Nandigram-like violence is truly unique in West Bengal unlike the rest of the country, since the ruling party — which is in power over the past three decades — is simply stupefied by the lust for power identified with another communist regime in Rumania not so long ago, which ultimately was shunted out by the people. The issue here is hardly industry or farmland, it is about arrogance of power, about the absolute annihilation of opposition and indiscriminate destruction of democratic values. No wonder, West Bengal has been a saga of backwardness in industry, agriculture, education, health and sanitation all these years, with not a glimmer of hope.

— Gautam Mookerjee, Kolkata

Protest redux

• India Nirman’ was a well-written editorial (IE, March 16). Nandigram is a symptom of the CPM’s approach which they have used in the past, continue to use elsewhere in India, and are now getting played back to them in their own backyard, as rightly pointed out by you.

— Kedarnath R. Aiyar, Mumbai

Get real

• Since its inclusion as member of UN, Israel is a hard reality only a fool can ignore (‘India first’, IE, March 14). It was Nehru’s Arab-centric foreign policy that kept us away from Israel. However, the Arab countries have remained persistently reluctant in supporting our cause with Pakistan. At home the behaviour of communist parties vis-a-vis our national interest is well known since the days our freedom struggle. In today’s globalised world, what we need is the commercial sanity, and past romance. Today many communist countries have full-fledged commercial relations with Israel.

— Naval Langa, Ahmedabad

Small & vulnerable

• C.P. Bhambri in his article ‘Are small states better for its people’ (IE, March 15) very rightly questions the legitimacy of the development of small states. The murder of Sunil Mahato is yet more proof of false development policies being carried out under the pretext of need-based development. It is only because of such machinations that politics in states like Jharkhand breaches moral standards.

— Sumit Nanda, Delhi

Banking on recreation

• Trust the bank unions to time their strike so that it aligns with a string of holidays. Surely employees of public sector know that their jobs are under threat because private banks are being seen to be more efficient.

Yet, instead of demanding efficiency from their managements, these employees are doing their best to sully their banks’ image further.

— Anil Kumar, Bangalore