Letters to the editor

•KAVERY Nambisan’s proposition of ‘rehabilitating’ doctors returning from England after the Glasgow bombing is absurd (‘Indian doctors, come home’, July 25). Indian doctors practising in the West went there of their own free will in a quest for greener pastures. If circumstances have suddenly turned hostile and they are considering returning ‘home’, why should they be treated more equal than others?

The writer’s justification of their obsession with money is factually incorrect. Most of the quality medical education in India is under government control and not, as the article observes, in private hands. Nor does it cost a crore, but only a fraction thereof. Allow me to cite the example of a medical practitioner who is an addict, the narcotic being idealism. Adjacent to my father’s chemist shop (where I work part-time) is the clinic of one Dr Ranjeet Singh Mann. He is a graduate from the prestigious King George Medical College, Lucknow, with a post-graduate specialisation in radiology. Thirty-five years ago he left his cosy government hospital job to exclusively serve the people of this backward border district. Charging a nominal fee all through his career — and that too accepting it only from those who can afford it — he treats the poorest TB patients with free samples and, when these are not available, spending from his own funds. People come to him from places as far as Sirsa and Hardwar.

Intolerant spectacle

•THE attack on Taslima Nasreen at Hyderabad by Muslim Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) activists is an attack on the freedom of expression and is reprehensible (‘UPA ally Owaisi backs MLAs…’ IE, August 10). They are the people representing the bigots who don’t believe in the democratic and secular values of this country. It is commonplace to condemn such acts, but that is not enough. Strict legal action should be taken by the state government to ensure that exemplary punishment is given to the culprits whatever political and social outfits they belong to. Only then would such fundamentalist elements be deterred from staging such ugly spectacles. As Nasreen herself said, such elements may be in the minority now, but if they go unpunished the malaise of intolerance may spread wider.

—A. Paramesham

Hyderabad

Beyond compare

•ANOTHER unfair comparison between Murli Manohar Joshi (BJP) and Arjun Singh (UPA) is what the editorial (‘HRD mentality’, IE, August 9) has given us. Does The Indian Express really think the BJP government interfered with IITs/IIMs as the UPA is doing for its vote bank? Joshi did want to reduce IIM admission fees for the poor but backed off when the IIM board objected to the move. Compare that with the interference from Arjun Singh/UPA and the way they are treating the directors of these prestigious institutions? The Mandal-II vote-bank politics of the UPA is ruining them. Recently you compared the CPM and the BJP unfairly (to the BJP of course) in the nuclear deal. Why does this newspaper always pick on the BJP, even when it is not relevant to the argument?

— V. Ram

San Francisco