RAW insights

Rajeev Shukla has a big lesson for all of us in his column, ‘Front Foot’ (IE, October 18). When he asks, “But w...

Rajeev Shukla has a big lesson for all of us in his column, ‘Front Foot’ (IE, October 18). When he asks, “But whose interest does RAW serve?”, the answer should be obvious. Certainly not all is well with RAW, but then neither is everything right with Parliament going by the manner in which MPs behave — Shukla being one of them. If RAW is therefore a white elephant, what about
Parliament?

One thing is certain, RAW has its uses, and in many arenas it is doing a magnificent job. Unfortunately, most of these success stories cannot be written about, or placed in Parliament. Indeed it is for protecting the security of the RAW operatives that these stories must remain secret. The decision of repatriation is a considered one and is inescapable. IPS officers with experience in RAW can be of immense value to the State Police Postal officers into RAW.
— A.G. Bewoor, Pune

Dead horse

Pramod Mahajan’s address as a mouthpiece for a party bereft of issues and grievously lacking in answers, Mahajan has once again lashed out at Sonia Gandhi’s origins (IE, October 17). He has not only made mockery of the highest court of the land and a mickey of himself by asking the people if they knew Sonia Gandhi’s father’s name. I would like to ask Mahajan how many people could have known the prime minister’s father’s. Besides, once a woman is married she is known for all practical purposes by her husband’s name. Pramod Mahajan would be well advised to stick to more cogent issues rather than become a one-man pantomime flogging a dead horse!
— Kumud Ranjan, New Delhi

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Thinker decline

Sagarika Ghose couldn’t be more right on the subject (‘I think therefore I’m not’, IE, October 15). During the freedom struggle, the political and intellectual came from the Indian middle class that was strongly rooted in the various regional languages, in addition to its grasp of English, Sanskrit and Persian. Gokhale, Prakasam Pantulu, Azad, Rajagopalachari, K.M. Munshi are sterling examples among the stalwarts. Almost all of them, with rare exceptions, came from the upper castes, most of them brahmins. In independent India, this class was increasingly marginalised in public life, thanks to votebank politics, and the rise of anti-intellectual tirade by the leftists first, the Dravidian movement next and now the Dalit movement.
— K.S. Venkataraman, On e-mail

OIC’s approach

Religion and politics do not make a good mix (‘The irony that’s the OIC’, IE, October 16). People who wrote our Constitution knew that. Unfortunately, most of the OIC nations did not have the luck to be blessed with such luminaries as we were in India. The mix of religion and politics can have disastrous effects — we have seen it happen all over the Islamic world and now we are seeing it in India too with the RSS’s agenda going into an overdrive again! For God’s sake (or Allah or Bhagwan), learn to live in peace and tolerance.
— Shariq Ahmad, On e-mail

'Remain in US, avoid travel': Microsoft, JP Morgan, Amazon advise visa holders to return before Trump’s $100,000 H-1B fee deadline

‘Stay in US, avoid travel’: Firms advise H-1B visa holders to return before fee deadline

World1 hr ago

Microsoft and JP Morgan have warned their employees on H-1B and H-4 visas to return to the US before September 21 due to President Trump's new visa fee rules. Amazon has also advised against international travel. The policy includes a $100,000 annual surcharge on H-1B visas and has caused market fluctuations. It will be in effect for at least 12 months.

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