• The shocking midnight arrest of journalist Gautam Dheer in Chandigarh by the Punjab Police (‘Freedom, above all’, IE, August 30) is sufficient to prove how unsafe ordinary citizens are in this country where saviours are themselves torturers! Dheer’s release could be possible only because the entire media united on this issue and came out on the streets to defend Dheer. Citizens, who do not have such powerful connections dare not raise their voices against erring police personnel. Their plight can well be imagined. — S.C. Agrawal Delhi Salute to courage • You published the story of Wing Commander B.S.Krishnakumar’s heroics in Andaman & Nicobar during the tsunami by M.P. Anil Kumar (‘To KK’, IE, August 27). But do readers recall who M.P. Anil Kumar is? He is that undefeated soldier whose story is a lesson in the 10th standard English textbook of the Maharashtra Board. Anil Kumar was a fighter pilot in the Air Force when he met with an unfortunate accident that left him paralaysed below his neck. For the last 17 years, he has been a living legend, having learnt to write with a pencil held painfully in his mouth. He later mastered the use of computers and can put to shame many able-bodied persons with the speed at which he can operate one. The Paraplegics Rehabilitation Centre in Pune cares for him. Every time he has a smile for his visitor and a photographic memory which he uses to marshal our Yahoo group (formed for classmates from Sainik School, Kazhakootam), egging us on to do worthy things. Grounded he may be, but defeated he’s not. His story is a great source of inspiration, as much to students as to us, who grew up with him. His article about ‘KK’ is a salute from one brave soldier to another. — Mahesh Vitekar Aurangabad Don’t you get it? • If the failure of 50 years of socialism to address India’s poverty has not taught columnists like Pamela Philipose (‘Employment Guarantee Shield, IE, August 29), I don’t think it has taught politicians who can get more corrupt and powerful by the day, thanks to these policies. When do we realise that what we need is less government and not more government handouts, which only make bureaucrats and politicians wield power ultimately resulting in cronyism. The last 10 years of economic gains were through free markets. So let the market determine who gets employed. — Lavaj On email Mani’s answers • Notwithstanding my answering Amitav Ranjan’s questions for over 20 minutes while traveling by car between Rajnandgaon and Raipur on August 27, little of what I said has been included in the published version of his report (‘Mum’s the word for Mani Shankar Aiyar’, IE, August 28). — Mani Shankar Aiyar Union minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas, New Delhi Amitav Ranjan replies: Much of what Aiyar said was on his rationale for setting up the institute in India, specially Rae Bareli. The essence of this — that his decision came after a site visit and that we need engineers — was accurately reproduced in the report. Moreover, his letters showing his flip flop on the issue were quoted in the story. Incidentally, his conversation on August 27 was an echo of the minutes of a ministry meeting on May 30 — more than two weeks after his letter to Sonia Gandhi — where arguments for the institute were formalised.
