Letters to the editor

Wealth as maya8226; THIS is in response to the news item, 8216;Maya began buying prime Delhi land after CBI sealed asset case8217; IE, J...

Wealth as maya

8226; THIS is in response to the news item, 8216;Maya began buying prime Delhi land after CBI sealed asset case8217; IE, July 1. First, the Bahujan Samaj Party is the party of dalits, and dalits are poor, neglected, downtrodden, exploited and underprivileged. One fails to understand how these so-called poor and neglected people gifted their leader with assets worth crores when their own families are fighting a battle for survival. And even if this is the case, how can Mayawati justify using this money for her personal purposes? Surely, she should be spending it for the welfare of the people she claims to be leading. How could she have 8220;obediently8221; followed what her party workers wanted her to do, and claim the largesse that has come her way as her personal wealth? I find it painful that so-called leaders of the poor are looking after their own interests only.

8212; Lt Col retd I.B. Dutt, Ahmedabad

Congress hypocrisy

8226; SHEKHAR GUPTA8217;S 8216;Victims of Errorism8217; National Interest, IE,July 7 has not come a day too soon. He has rightly observed that the 8220;Congress has fallen prey8221; to 8220;peculiar minority-ist politics8221;. Does anyone in government at the ministerial level realise that our grievance against the lack of response from the West to terrorist acts within India lacks conviction because our own governments, both at the Centre and the states, see such acts through the prism of religion and votebank calculations? Yet our leadership, particularly, that of the Congress, readily says neither terrorists nor terrorism has a religion, but fails to allow the law to take its course.

8212;Prasad Malladi, Nidadavole

Misplaced wishes

8226; Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has wished Pakistan 8220;godspeed8221; in resolving the Lal Masjid stand-off. His statement is reflective of our keenness to promote good neighbourly relations and, from that perspective, it is commendable. However, there is a good chance that many hot-headed militants and their sympathisers in Pakistan might construe the expression of goodwill as a sign of weakness and be further emboldened to launch further terrorist attacks on India. In view of what is mentioned above and considering the loss of lives of many inside the mosque on account of firing guns and mortar by the Pakistani Rangers, it would have been more appropriate for our government to have instead cautioned Pakistan on the need to adhere to the same high standards of human rights in resolving this crisis, as they so loftily want us to do in our grim battle against militants in J038;K over the years.

8212; Surendra Sundararajan, Baroda