Letters to the editor

Our Constitution has also ignored several crucial aspects. It does not, for instance, restrict election spending and thus curb the influence of money on the polity. Then the concept of ‘secularism’ is a problematic one. Secularism should not mean that the majority of a population are ignored.

— Harish Awasthi

New Delhi

Deal downward

• The nuclear deal with the US is not between Manmohan Singh and George Bush or the Congress Party and the Republicans of America. It is between two sovereign nations. A U-turn on the agreement constitutes a breach of trust, which will reflect on the credibility of the country. It will also adversely affect our relations with the US. The prime minister, who views the nuclear deal as of supreme national interest, should exhibit courage and not give in to blackmail by allies. It is a question of the country’s prestige.

— J.K. Mago

Panchkula

• The Left view is justified when it says the deal is in favour of the US at the cost of India. Both the Congress and the BJP have ignored the country when dealing with the US. No country in the world should be allowed to tell you how you are to run your internal affairs. India should now weigh its options and take a decision on the deal, after carefully weighing the pros and cons.

— Manu

London

Gowda Junior

• H.D. Deve Gowda continues to remain an enigma as far as Karnataka politicking goes. The man, who so very stylishly carried the onus of being the first south Indian prime minister, albeit by default, likes to make his presence felt and makes it obvious to all that it is his divine right to decide what happens in the state. In the process, sliding down from a win-win situation, the grand old man of Karnataka politics has ensured that there is only irreconcilable antipathy for his son. H.D. Kumaraswamy’s readiness, in open defiance of his father, to transfer power to the BJP, thus keeping his side of the bargain, was seen by many as a politically ambitious move by him to garner public support for himself. However the JD(S) patriarch willed otherwise. It remains to be seen how Kumaraswamy extricates himself from his father’s political embrace. Unless he pursues an independent political line, he may not have much of a future.

— Pachu Menon

Margao

Oracle from south

• This paper last Thursday has stories on the rapidly growing monkey menace in Delhi, and it also carried a separate report that a jackal was spotted loitering in the vicinity of the Hanuman Mandir, in the heart of the Capital. These reports come barely a few weeks after M. Karunanidhi derided those north Indians who oppose the Sethusamudram project. He called them ‘jackals’ for believing that the underwater coral reef called ‘Ram Setu’ was built by Hanuman’s monkey army. Perhaps the time has come to build a shrine to Karunanidhi in recognition of his oracular ways?

— R.P. Subramanian

Delhi