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This is an archive article published on December 24, 2013

Letters to the editor: The rage

This refers to ‘Our Indian Feudal Service’ by Shekhar Gupta (IE,December 21).

The rage

* This refers to ‘Our Indian Feudal Service’ by Shekhar Gupta (IE,December 21). Gupta must be complimented on the balanced coverage of the Devyani Khobragade-Sangeeta Richard case. It seems as if India’s national pride and honour rests on getting the charges against Khobragade dropped. Preet Bharara and the US marshals can teach their Indian counterparts a lesson or two in how to discharge justice and implement the rule of law without fear or favour. It is indeed surprising that the Indian Foreign Service didn’t seem so enraged and exercised about A.P.J. Abdul Kalam getting frisked at a US airport or Narendra Modi being denied a visa due to legally unproven charges against him.

— Puneet Srivastava

Jalandhar

* Shekhar Gupta’s article was deeply shocking. Not because he ridiculed the IFS for being “feudal” — indeed,one may accuse most of our administrative services,and our society in general,of being so — but because he totally missed the point. This is a plain and simple case of the Richard family wanting to migrate to the US. They used Sangeeta Richard’s employment with Devyani Khobragade as an easy way out of India. Is it Gupta’s case that Richard did not settle her salary and other terms of service with her employer before travelling to the US,or that Khobragade “fleeced” and defrauded her,violating the terms of the contract? Richard was paid what Khobragade negotiated with her. She was not fleeced. The US embassy in New Delhi,where Richard’s in-laws reportedly work,facilitated her husband and children’s “evacuation” to the US and escape from the Indian justice system.

— M. Ratan

Delhi

Clean image

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* This refers to ‘CM: Outsiders need not worry about cleaning Ganga’ (IE,December 22). Narendra Modi apparently pulled the Samajwadi Party up in Varanasi for not keeping the Ganga clean. Ironically,the Lok Sabha member from Varanasi is a BJP stalwart — Murli Manohar Joshi. Modi should ask Joshi what measures he has taken to initiate the clean-up of this holy city. Varanasi is not exactly a well-kept city. Has Joshi used his MPLAD funds for this purpose?

— Alpana Chowdhury

Delhi

Holding hands

* It is now true that “Congress ka haath Aam Aadmi ke saath hai”. It is another matter that the AAP government may probe cases of corruption dating back to Sheila Dikshit’s tenure as head of the Congress government in Delhi. That was one of its election planks. How long will the Congress be able to support the government from the outside?

— Sudhir K. Bhave

Mumbai

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