O Mumbai!

• Shekhar Gupta, you are bang on (‘Mumbai Shanghaied to Patna’, IE, Feb 19)! A driv...

• Shekhar Gupta, you are bang on (‘Mumbai Shanghaied to Patna’, IE, Feb 19)! A drive in the morning during office hours on the Western Express Highway is a good eye-opener to see what unauthorised slums have done to this city. In no civil society do you see people defecating on the highway itself! It only happens in Mumbai. There are far too many people living along highways in a manner that will put animals to shame in Mumbai. As a civil society we are duty bound to take care of our poor cousins but this should not mean free housing on public land, leaving nothing for the development of the city.

— Sunil Devrani Mumbai

• I Would like to use the good offices of the Express to send a message to Sonia Gandhi. I just want to tell her that for the first time in my life I’ve seen a politician trying to do something for the city, irrespective of the political consequences. I just can’t understand why Sonia Gandhi, who has risen above politics, should come in Vilasrao Deshmukh’s way. Which nation allows settlers a free run of government land? Madam Gandhi, please come to Mumbai and see for yourself the problems caused by illegal migrants. Would Madam Gandhi want to give shelter to a few of these illegal migrants in her house? I doubt it very much. Then why does she force them on Mumbai?

— Deepak Sharma Mumbai

• Apropos of your editorial, ‘Metropolis, stalled’ (IE, Feb 19), Mumbai has been held hostage by politicians for years. This once livable city is controlled by a useless bunch of vote bank politicians (barring Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh and R.R. Patil). Then there are people like Medha Patkar who neither understand the enormity of the problem nor the economics involved and only make matters worse by encouraging the building of illegal slums. Now we Mumbaiites really need to shed our lethargy, cynicism and oppose this decision to stall the demolitions in every which way we can. This is a terrible decision for the progress of Mumbai. Perhaps the only saviour in our fight is the Mumbai High Court. I appeal to Mumbai High Court to take notice of this populist decision taken by the Congress party and force the Maharashtra government not to go ahead with this ridiculous plan of legalising slums from 1995 to 2000.

— Amit Joshi Mumbai

The EU way

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• The agreement on the bus between India and Pakistan in Kashmir is excellent news. Now extend the permit system to allow people to travel between India and Pakistan by any means of transport. This is, basically, the EU policy of engendering the free movement of people, goods, services and capital. It will help both countries economically and in building a harmonious relationship.

— Prabhat Kumar Verma On e-mail

Geelani issue

• Over the last few days there seems to be too much coverage on the Geelani issue! I am not an admirer of the Delhi Police, but this tendency of the media to lionise Geelani is somehow sending a distorted message. It was not for nothing that he was convicted by the lower court and if he was discharged by the High Court, well, the latter is not always right. To get some perspective. Geelani’s victimhood must not be at the cost of those five martyrs who died to protect our Parliament on that fateful December 13.

— A.N. Mitra Delhi