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.

Integrity alive

8226; NOT a word has been wasted in your editorial, 8216;Justice for Manjunath8217; IE, March 23. The cause for which both S. Manjunath and Satyendra Dubey laid down their young lives would, perhaps, have been lost but for the relentless campaign for justice by the media, led unquestionably by The Indian Express. Similar would have been the fate of Jessica Lal8217;s brutal murder, by a power-drunk scion of a minister. The best of lawyers would certainly be employed by all the eight found guilty by the sessions court, for the pre-mediated conspiracy of murder of an honest, highly qualified young officer. The case will almost certainly be dragged to the high court and Supreme Court. As you have put it 8220;a great deal remains to be done in tribute to Manjunath and Dubey8221;, not only for the grieving families, but for the cause of preventing the naked murder of integrity.

8212; Parimal Y. Mehta, Ahmedabad

Mayabaad in UP

8226; MAYAWATI hardly needs enemies other than her own whims 8216;Sab Maya hai?8217;, IE, March 29. Were she to succeed as a potential national leader, she would have to mend her statue-unveiling and birthday-fund-gathering ways. Good governance in UP holds the key to the general uplift of India, as 175 million citizens live there. Instead of perfecting the gimmicks of capturing power, it is time for any prospective chief minister of UP to learn a lesson about the need to focus on the economic development of the state, forgetting caste, creed and religion.

8212; Naval Langa, Ahmedabad

Fairly told tale?

8226;n THE article by C. Raja Mohan, 8216;India8217;s Pakistan moment8217; IE, March 23, was like a fairy tale, totally cut off from ground reality. Pakistan can neither become a democracy, nor be modern, nor can it cultivate harmonious relations with its neighbour, India. Pakistan would cease to be an independent Islamic nation the moment harmonious relations with India are established. Moreover, neither the hardcore Islamic clergy nor the Pakistani army nor indeed even America wants this to happen.

8212; A.K. Sharma, Chandigarh