Partisan politics

This refers to ‘It’s not about 272’ by Shekhar Gupta.The reason the opposition is against the Indo-US nuclear deal is not the deal itself.

•This refers to ‘It’s not about 272’ by Shekhar Gupta . The reason the opposition is against the Indo-US nuclear deal is not the deal itself. The BJP fears that the Congress will take credit for an issue that is close to its heart. The Left has the traditional communist hatred of the United States, though the leftists know that without the deal even Russia and China wouldn’t be able to give India nuclear aid. Both the BJP and the CPM are ready to sacrifice our national interest for their respective party interests. But the BJP, which swears by cultural nationalism, should have thought twice before opposing the deal.

— N. Kunju

Delhi

Unintended good

• The Left should be congratulated, for despite its terminal electoral illness, it has helped to make India’s foreign policy an issue of national debate. But at the same time, it has also brought to the fore the political hypocrisy and unscrupulousness of our political leadership. Almost everyone, in an unabashed manner, indulges in the business of the “sale-purchase” of MPs. This horse-trading of MPs, though unfortunate for a democracy, still offers the electorate an opportunity to understand the national leadership and the ugly power-brokering habitually prevalent in the system. It is our duty to weed out the deadwood at the earliest opportunity.

— Ved Guliani

Hisar

Action stations

• The Naxal issue has once again been brought to light, thanks to India’s inefficient politicians. There was a conference on Naxalism in 2004 where the PM recognised it as the single-biggest internal security threat to India.

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However, since then, we have witnessed the Maoists attack innocent people and police officials, set free jailed comrades, loot arms and weapons, etc, with no effective response from the government. Our authorities have remained meek spectators, and the Union home minister is yet to make up his mind on how he plans to resolve the issue. Moreover, there is no consensus on the problem. A stronger hand is needed to tackle this war.

— Ashwani Sharma

Ghaziabad

On which side?

• Tavleen Singh devotes half of her column ‘The aam aadmi doesn’t care about the N-deal’ to the views of the “aam admi” she went in search of. “Every one I talked to… said that they understood nothing about the nuclear deal,” she wrote.

Yet, in the second half of her column, Singh — a “passionate supporter” of the deal — disregards the aam admi’s views, applauding Manmohan Singh’s transformation from a “diffident politician” to “courageous statesman” for his strong advocacy of the deal.

— M. Ratan

New Delhi