Letters to the editor

— Prasad Malladi

Nidadavole, AP

• Prakash Karat has been needling Manmohan Singh precisely because he has no stake in the UPA. He himself has never contested and will never contest an election. This is what happens when irresponsible persons are at the helm of affairs. In the process, the architect of the Indian economy, Manmohan Singh, is made to look like a man who is greedy for power. Manmohan Singh must be missing Narasimha Rao who, although not a paragon of virtue, was a great manipulator and ensured that no one stood in his way. Manmohan Singh should resign if the nuclear deal does not come through. He and his party colleagues will lose only an year in office. The skies will not fall. God save this country from the likes of Karat.

— M.H. Nayak

Mumbai

Doctor’s angst

• The prime minister says he feels ‘let down’ and ‘has been embarrassed’. This is nothing short of emotional blackmail by him. Does he not understand that he should put the country before self on any matter of national importance? If the deal fell through, it was because of an unwise initial emphasis on secrecy. Now the US side is again pressing the accelerator on the deal with Nicholas Burns, its prime negotiator, indicating that India does not have unlimited time for completing the formalities. Do we not know that, Mr Burns? Burns has also been known to have said recently that the US stands to benefit immensely from the Indo-US deal — earlier the deal was being sold on the grounds that it benefited India. Isn’t this expediency, Mr Burns?

— S. Kamat

Alto Betim

Questions on a death

• Why exactly did Rizwanur Rahman die? Clearly, the powerful connections of the Todi family had something to do with this death. This is just another instance of how, in ‘progressive’ India, you find shocking and glaring instances of age-old mindsets. Ours is a society that has caste divisions as its founding principle. Religious affiliations are protected to an obsessive extent. In a culture where a family’s whole social bearing rests upon the fate and actions of its female members, a daughter married into a poor Muslim household was too much for the Todi clan to digest. As for Rizwanur Rahman, his ignominious death has opened a can of worms. It remains to be seen, though, whether all this hue and cry will eventually translate into justice.

— Farzana Nigar

Ranchi