Letters to the editor

Letter of the Week AwardThe 8216;newspaper-active reader relationship8217; is of enormous significance for a serious publication. A good l...

Letter of the Week Award

The 8216;newspaper-active reader relationship8217; is of enormous significance for a serious publication. A good letter, especially a good letter that critiques us, is of immense value. It is to recognise this and to encourage quality reader intervention that The Indian Express is instituting the Letter of the Week Award. Beginning with the issue dated March 31, we will announce and publish every Saturday the reader intervention our editors deem the best. Selection will be from letters received that week. Letters should be e-mailed to letters.editpageexpressindia.com or sent to The Indian Express, 9038;10, Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg, New Delhi -110002. Letter writers will have to give their postal address with every contribution.

The winner receives books worth Rs 1,000 and his letter gets pride of the place in the letters column as well as on our website.

Sage religion

8226; I THINK there are, broadly speaking, two approaches to Hinduism. One is that of Kedarnath R. Aiyar IE,8217;Letters to the editor8217;, March 23, and the other is that of the ancient rishis of India who propounded the santana dharma. This last may be described as religion, with a capital 8216;R8217;, transcending all boundaries of race, religion in the conventional sense, colour, creed, nationality. It is the Universal Religion, as characterised by Romain Rolland, Arnold Toynbee and Max Mueller. A faithful representative of this type of religion was a Hindu girl student who, on her way to the college, was accosted by the roving TV camera team a few days before the Babri Masjid demolition. When asked whether it is proper for those threatening to demolish the Babri Masjid to actually do so, she replied with a firm 8216;no8217;. This, she said, would not be in the lofty tradition of Hinduism. The true followers of sanatana dharma know that such victories are temporary. Sooner or later, the world will denounce them and come to appreciate the all-embracing, peaceful, tolerant and constructive nature of Hinduism, which has never waged crusades or jihads.

8212; O.P. Sharma, Jaipur

Watchful now

8226; THIS refers to 8216;For Manjunath8217;s murder, death for 1, life-term for 78217; IE, March 27. The justice was delivered quite quickly 8212; within 16 months. However the honourable judge8217;s remark while delivering the verdict 8212; the 8220;judiciary has to also act as corrective machinery so that the society and particularly its system might not be shaken8221; 8212; speaks about the disastrous state of the criminal justice system. In India, the whistle blower remains unprotected. A lot of such people of integrity have suffered for their attempts to expose wrongdoing. Today, things are changing slowly. Thanks to aggressive media campaigns, people are waking up to the games being played behind the curtain. The political class needs to realise very urgently that everybody cannot be fooled all the time. The sooner they understand this the better for them and the nation.

8212; Biranchi Narayan Acharya; Godda, Jharkhand

Capital anguish

8226; I WISH to raise my concern over the near-total apathy or rather acceptance that marks society8217;s response to the grave reality of 8216;death8217;. It was disappointing to see Manjunath8217;s parents, who themselves underwent the trauma of their son8217;s death, wishing that the death penalty be given to all the convicted. As a civilised society, we must make every effort to remove capital punishment from our statute books.

8212; Gaurav Dua, Delhi