Letters to the editor

— Ranjit B. Rai

New Delhi

Beijing nuance

•Your editorial, ‘Yielding to Beijing’ , was timely, but left some vital things unsaid. You have no doubt pulled up the UPA and the Congress (very correctly so) for letting down the Dalai Lama at a crucial time, but have been overgenerous to Jawaharlal Nehru for his role vis-a-vis Tibet. Admittedly, he gave political asylum to the Dalai Lama, but this gesture was small comfort for the Dalai Lama. The Congress today may have erred by betraying the “fine nuance crafted by none other than Nehru”, but this error is insignificant compared to the enormity by Nehru in ignoring Sardar Patel’s advice that India get some degree of reciprocity from China. We are now saddened at the abject surrender by the government to Beijing at the behest of the Left, but if one looks back, the seeds were sown as early as1950.

— A.N. Mitra

Delhi

Mush and his toys

•All criticism of Pervez Musharraf’s declaring an emergency will be utterly meaningless if he is allowed to get away with it. His removal of the judges of the Supreme Court in particular cannot be ignored. He might get away with his actions by holding an election and allowing the new assemblies to take oath, removing his uniform and lifting the emergency. However, in the process, the supreme court judges — who were going to decide if his actions were constitutional — would have lost their authority. Criminal acts undertaken under the cover of emergency rule must not be considered legitimate, either. One dictator must not be allowed to single-handedly go against the superior court of the land and toss around judges like toys.

— Sandeep Ghiya Mumbai

No complaint

•My attention has just been drawn to an item in Coomi Kapoor’s column ‘Inside Track’ , alleging that some policemen and their dogs invaded my house for security purposes. None of the things said to have happened ever happened. I did receive a routine letter about all kinds of things I should do but when it was pointed out that they were not appropriate for a private function I was left undisturbed after apologies. We can all doubtless find faults with our police but that makes it all the more necessary for me to say that, in the handling of this case, I was not only given no cause for complaint but was treated with impeccable courtesy.

— K.S. Bajpai

New Delhi

Coomi Kapoor replies: This only confirms that the Delhi Police’s advance security was abruptly withdrawn before the vice-president’s dinner.