Letters to the editor

The SC is likely to take suo motu action for endorsing Sheikh’s killing. If Modi can defend it what about the cold-blooded murder of Sheikh’s wife? If police officers take the law into their own hands, who will be safe in the country? Modi has no place in a decent society. Such people should be barred from holding public office. Unfortunately, politicians think that political victory will exonerate their misdeeds.

— M.H. Nayak

Mumbai

•The news of people wearing Modi masks is amusing.

Children play mask games for fun and frolic. But when senior leaders of the Gujarat BJP wear such masks when they go to register their names as candidates for the December assembly elections, it is shameful. This is a clear indication that they have no qualms about becoming slavish followers of Modi. It makes them appear sans intelligence, sans self-respect. Modi’s critics have called him a dictator. And this mask game proves them right.

— Naresh Umrigar

Surat

Voters’ default

•This refers to ‘The Venugopal law mirrors our polity’ by P.V. Indiresan. He says that our democratic process is deeply flawed. The prevailing one vote per voter rule is an unfair restriction of voters’ freedom and even politicians with only 7 per cent votes get elected. Many readers would believe that this is too pessimistic. The democratic process transfers power without bloodshed. Our democracy is only 60 years old, and a two-party system may not evolve in India ever. Coalition politics is inevitable in a pluralistic society like ours. Which sometimes means that even a man with only 7 per cent of the votes becomes a winner. The fact is that, the winner has the ‘minimum’ number of eligible voters against him, whereas others have more against them.

Further, our voter turnout has often been less than 50 per cent, meaning that half of the ‘eligible’ voters do not vote. Are the non-voters rejecting all the candidates? Or do they have better things to do, on election day? Whatever the interpretation, the rules of the game are set and there is no other alternative that suits India better.

— K. Raghu

Ahmedabad

Congress revival

•Appopos of Imtiaz Ahmad’s piece on the Congress’s hope of revival (‘Dreaming of old glory’), single party dominance is not in the best interest of the country. But in view of the fractured polity, where parties are either caste-based (RJD, LJP, SP, BSP, INLD), region-based (TDP, DMK), religion-based (BJP, SS, IUML), or plain dogmatic (CPM, CPI), it is essential that the Congress gets strengthened. It is still the only truly pan-Indian party. Ahmad rightly suggests that intra-party democratisation and building up an army of committed cadres are the key. But there is something more fundamental which needs to be done. The Congress needs to have an ideology.

— Pranav Sachdeva

New Delhi