What we achieved

What we achieved This is a partial response to your reference to me in your editorial, 8216;Home...

What we achieved

This is a partial response to your reference to me in your editorial, 8216;Home minister homes in8217; IE, October 23. Your paper was very near to me once but now it is almost a stranger. Times and commitments have changed. Normally I would have been grateful that your paper noticed my existence but I regret in fact it does me great injustice. Here are some good reasons. First, I was not at any time an official interlocutor in Jammu and Kashmir. Your bracketing me with K.C. Pant is unfortunate.

Secondly, my mission did not fail. My committee, consisting of distinguished citizens with no electoral self-interest involved, achieved a lot, in spite of the hostility of ministers, bureaucrats and sections of the press. The Hurriyat leaders talked to us and we enjoyed their confidence and respect. We hammered out a significant and vast area of agreement, the salient features of which were the following five: One, terrorism and violence are taboo. Two, a lasting and honourable peaceful resolution must and can be found. Three, the resolution must be acceptable to all political elements and regions of the state. Four, extremist positions held by all of the last five decades have to be and will be abandoned. Five, Kashmiri Pandits will be rehabilitated with honour and rights of equality.

Read between the lines and you will realise that 8220;secession8221; is just not on the cards. I wish the wooden headed government and its advisers had understood this much. While I congratulate the home minister for condescending to talk to the Hurriyat, I am afraid the home minister has only upgraded the complexity of the problem by diminished confidence in his sincerity of intent. My committee for more than a year urged the government to speak to the Hurriyat. What we encountered were cynicism and obstruction. But better late than never, we must all pray for a dramatic breakthrough.
8212; Ram Jethmalani, New Delhi

Face value

I don8217;t agree with Jayanthi Natarajan 8216;Welcome aboard a sexist flight8217;, IE, October 25. The aviation minister is right in wanting good faces to be the criterion for the selection of air hostesses. Airlines is a commercial proposition and you have to do everything to attract the traveller. This is not an issue of women8217;s rights. You have to stand the competition of other airlines. Natarajan just wants to make a political issue out of it.
8212; P.K. Vaze, On e-mail

Sindh as link

It was refreshing to read Saeed Naqvi8217;s column, 8216;Sindhis as an Indo-Pak bridge8217; IE, October 23 in which he has portrayed the true, secular and liberal picture of 8220;my mother8221; Sindh. I can proudly claim that the Sindh was the only region of united India, which did not experience the murderous clashes between Hindus and Muslims, which broke out in places like Punjab and Bengal. This was due to the mystic teachings of Shah Latif, Sachal Sarmast both Sindhi Muslims and Chaen ai Swami Lund Sindhi Hindu, three Sufi saint poets of Sindh who have always preached religious harmony, peace, friendship and universal brotherhood, through their eternal poetry.

Naqvi was kind enough to travel to a remote city like Jodhpur at the invitation of the Indus Valley Research Institute. Unfortunately he forgot to mention the name of the host organisation. I would also like to correct the data on Hindus in Sindh. They number 26 lakh, not 6 lakh as appeared.
8212; G. Das G. Hotumalani, On e-mail