Letters to the editor

— Rav Pratap Singh, Chandigarh

Kalamspeak

• When I read the Shekhar Gupta’s ‘Walk the Talk’ with A.P.J. Abdul Kalam (IE, September 3), it struck me again what a grave mistake we made by not having Kalam as a president for a second term. His ability to be so humane yet clear-headed is valuable. When he talks of Gujarat and about how it had faced “great suffering” but now “the wound is healing”, we realise that few have spoken thus — one hears people criticising Modi, but there’s no recognition of the need for the healing process.

— Roda D. Hakim, Baroda

Gowda’s blinkers

• WITH reference to your editorial, ‘Still blocking the road’ (IE, September 3), if truth be told, a more narrow-minded politician like Deve Gowda is hard to come by. It is difficult to imagine that he was a PM of this country. He can only think in terms of ‘Vokkaliga’ and ‘Lingayat’, if not minority politics. Recently Inder Malhotra noted that Gowda as PM was under the impression that ‘India’ was remote part of Karnataka while Shekhar Gupta was told by C.M. Ibrahim that during his tenure as prime minister, he was in contact on a daily basis with the deputy commissioner of Hasan. That tells you a lot about the man.

— M.K.D. Prasada Rao, Ghaziabad

Hot air

• IN reference to the report, ‘US extols India, China on emission cuts’ (IE, August 30), it is encouraging to note that the US has lauded the Indian plan to cut down emission levels of greenhouse gases (GHG). However, we cannot but observe that the US, which is the world’s largest emitter of carbon dioxide and its equivalents (methane and nitrous oxide) — has made a mockery of the international strategy to combat climate change by not signing the Kyoto Protocol, which required 35 industrially advanced nations to reduce their GHG emissions by at least 5 per cent below the 1990 levels between 2008-12. US indifference to the issue is abundantly evident from the fact that it alone accounts for 36.1 per cent of global GHG emissions.

— Ashwini Kumar Lal, New Delhi

Loot in Orissa

• PARSURAM Rai’s piece, ‘A job of looting’ (IE, August 29), on the NREGA in Orissa was well researched but incomplete. The corruption in Orissa’s administration preventing the genuine implementation of such a scheme is nothing new. I am from Orissa’s Jajpur district and have personally witnessed such corruption, in the Indira Awas Yojna, Pakki Sadak Yojna and so on. We Odiyas must wake up to the pathetic situation in our state and try to check corruption. We should follow the example of the Uttaranchal government, which has partnered local NGOs across the state to spread awareness about the NREGA through street plays and public speeches.

— Pranab Kumar Aich, New Delhi