Opinion Delayed,denied
It is a pity that,in our country,we only start digging out the corpses of the facts after a much delayed and unjustified verdict is given out by a court of law
It is a pity that,in our country,we only start digging out the corpses of the facts after a much delayed and unjustified verdict is given out by a court of law (After 26 years,IE,8 June). Now earth is being scraped off to uncover the culprit or culprits responsible; fingers are being pointed towards Arjun Singh,then chief minister of Madhya Pradesh,for allowing main accused Warren Anderson,chairman of US-based Union Carbide Corporation,to leave the country. But Arjun Singh must not have acted on his own in setting Anderson free. Why has the blame game started all of a sudden now,after the ugly Bhopal court verdict? What have successive governments at the Centre not acted for 26 years? All efforts of getting Anderson extradited from the US at this belated stage will only prove futile. In this case,justice delayed is truly justice denied.
R.K. Kapoor Chandigarh
Getting real
At the recently held CICA (Asian security) meet in Istanbul,while the Chinese refused to comment on Israels raid on the Mavi Marmara flotilla,Indian minister Anand Sharma was unusually shrill in his condemnation. Next day,China,despite having more at stake in Iran,voted against it at the UNSC in favour of sanctions. No wonder the world takes China more seriously,and it is deservedly a rising superpower. If India has aspirations to great power status,it must learn to discard sanctimonious Nehruvian morality in its foreign relations,and conduct them with pragmatism and enlightened self interest in mind.
There is nothing to gain by opposing sanctions on Iran (a country which has a track record of repeatedly voting against India in UN on Kashmir) but a lot to lose in pushing Israel (with whom we have a $8 billion arms deal) more than what is a principled condemnation of its unjustified Gaza blockade. Deng Xiaoping had said the colour of the cat does not matter as long as it catches mice. One wishes Indian leaders had heard that.
Ajay Prakash
New Delhi
Steps to peace
K. Subrahmanyams Dealing with Maoism (IE,June 9) highlights in a pointed manner all the issues involved in meeting the challenge of Maoism. A few things are quite clear: Maoists do not believe either in democracy or the Indian Constitution; they want to establish some kind of Maoist dictatorship; they have made their intentions known by declaring war against Indian nation; and they are taking advantage of dissatisfaction among tribal people. This disaffection among tribals is a result of high degree of corruption,exploitation and poor governance. The quality of governance has to be improved to win over the confidence of the people. Maoist violence must be put down with a heavy hand,using the armed forces if so required,and an intelligence network that must be strengthened and made effective. Development work in the affected areas must be speeded up. Remember,the war against Maoism will have to be on an ideological level as well.
S. Shankar Singh
New Delhi
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