Terror revisited

The propensity to draw political mileage out of human tragedy is not something new to our incorrigible politicians. Whenever any tragedy tak...

The propensity to draw political mileage out of human tragedy is not something new to our incorrigible politicians. Whenever any tragedy takes place, politicians of all hues stake their political ambitions on such human tragedies. The bomb blasts in Mumbai on August 25 were fodder for our politicians.

The opposition parties in Maharashtra, particularly the BJP’s first-rung leadership, demanded dismissal of the Congress-NCP state government. It was sheer political expediency that prompted Pramod Mahajan to demand dismissal of the state government.

The attack on Parliament in December 2001 was the most reprehensible act of terror. In fact, it was an attack on Indian democracy but no one demanded the Central government’s resignation. Why then is the Maharashtra government being singled out? If there had been laxity on the part of the state government, it should not be spared. But we cannot lose sight of the fact that terrorism is a worldwide phenomenon.
— S.K. Shah, New Delhi

While moving the no confidence motion in Lok Sabha, Congress President Sonia Gandhi was extremely condemnatory of the Central government’s performance in meeting the threat to national security and was highly boastful of the performance of Congress-led governments. One hopes that the Mumbai blasts will make her see the reality rather better.
— Raghunath Singh, Jaipur

Political maya

Politics in Uttar Pradesh is the best example of ‘‘compromise politics’’ (‘UP is down is up’, IE, August 29). No political party has any interest in the development of the state. Earlier the BJP had supported Mayawati to further its political interests. Mayawati’s arbitrary behaviour forced the BJP to withdraw support to her government.

Now the political understanding between the Samajwadi Party and the Congress will be tested in Uttar Pradesh. How will they cope with Kalyan Singh who has been a staunch supporter of the Mandir movement? What will happen to their so-called secular ideology?
— S.P. Pandey, New Delhi

How much of India’s IT revenue does Uttar Pradesh account for? Have politicians in the country’s most populous state done any serious thinking on this? Can’t they see how smaller states — like Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Kerala — have been promoting the IT sector? There are politicians in those states too, but they seem to hush their petty squabbles when it involves their state’s progress.
— Anil Kumar, On e-mail

Clarification

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This has reference to The Sunday Express article of July 20 by Bhavna Vij-Aurora titled MiG that crashed, killed 2, was bought second-hand.

No MiG aircraft, old or new, has been supplied to the Indian Air Force by any Romanian company, nor has our country decommissioned any MiG-21 aircraft. We want to assure the Indian public and Defence community that in terms of quality and workmanship the reputation of the Romanian Aviation Industry is well established.
Petru Petra, Ambassador

Bhavna Vij-Aurora replies: The MiG that crashed was an aircraft decommissioned by Ukraine Air Force, as stated in the report. In mentioning the trend in the IAF to pick up aircraft from CIS countries, Romania’s name was inadvertently mentioned. The error is deeply regretted.