Remote resonance

The protest by ethnic Indians raises an important point and larger question which is going to recur all over the world in some form or other...

• The protest by ethnic Indians raises an important point and larger question which is going to recur all over the world in some form or other ‘In the land of bhumiputras, division’. In the present situation, the argument runs that since these are indentured labourers, mainly Tamil speaking, and since they have been discriminated against by Malaysia, the Tamil Nadu chief minister is right to want the GOI to take up the issue. The moot question is how far is India morally and politically justified in doing so. By the same argument, some disgruntled sections of India who originally came from outside the country’s borders may raise the issue of inequality. It is time that we got out of this obsession of linking ethnicity with developments abroad. Malaysian Indians belong to another country and have to fight their own battles.

— H.R.Bapu Satyanrayaan

Anand

Encountered in Gujarat

• Narendrabhai Modi’s endorsement of the Sohrabuddin killing confirms the observation that Gujarat’s “encounter” operations are not operations carried out by top police officials alone but that the government was either behind them or supports such operations. This is also why anti-terror laws like TADA or POTA have neither prevented the occurrence of terrorist acts nor acted as deterrents. It is the innocents who become their victims. TADA remained in force for 10 years. During this period, 77,500 persons were arrested. According to an NHRC report, Gujarat once accounted for as many as 19,000 out of 65,000 TADA cases. In Gujarat, POTA is selectively invoked against minorities. Between 2002 and 2003 in Gujarat, there are 287 instances in nine different categories of cases registered under POTA. Among them, one is against a Sikh, the remaining are all against Muslims.

— Trupti Shah

Vadodara

Terrorists as humans

• The concern and compassion that Magasaysay awardee Sandeep Pandey shows to terrorists, potential and suspected ones included, is indeed ‘touching’. As for Geelani, what were the full observations of the honourable courts? If Pandey feels so bad for them, why does he not take to the law and defend them in court. People like him should stop their sickening lectures on human rights of terrorists who kill and maim hundreds of ‘young, poor and innocent’ persons.

— R. Venkatanarayanan

Noida

Stingy billionaires

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• According to the latest report in Forbes, India has the largest number of billionaires in Asia. The euphoria created by the mass media on India having beaten Japan in this category is misplaced. We conveniently forget that Japan is far ahead of India in every sphere of life. Also, barring instances like Narayana Murthy and Azim Premji, most of India’s billionaires spend very little on philanthropy. How many billionaires spend money for social, educational, charitable and humanitarian causes? How many billionaires come forward to sponsor sports activities other than cricket?

I earnestly appeal to India’s billionaires to set a part of their funds aside for the welfare of the community at large and facilitate India’s all-round progress, so that this country which has given birth to several sages, scholars and social reformers may become a better place to live in.

— E. M. Adithyan

Edapal