For stability?

— Siddhartha Mukherji

Pune

Old habits

•It was good to see BJP leader Arun Jaitley acknowledging that “shrillness does not help” in politics. Jaitley needs to impress this wisdom upon

his party’s self-righteous spokespersons and others,who always get nasty referring to their opponents. Jaitley himself made a valiant attempt at an image makeover during the run-up to the election. But old habits die hard — for both BJP leaders and their party.

— Ahmed R. Mumbai

The other Korea

•With North Korea conducting its second nuclear test earlier this week,the spectre of nuclear holocaust is back to haunt the world (‘Dear leader’s gambit’,IE,May 28). Whatever “progress” the Chinese brokered six-party talks had managed now seems fruitless. And now North Korea’s declared that the armistice that,for practical purposes,ended the Korean War doesn’t stand. What started as clandestine Chinese efforts to equip Pakistan with nukes has terminated with the North Korean nuclear programme through the efforts of Pakistan’s notorious nuclear scientist A.Q. Khan. More than the nukes,it is the impishness of roguish or irresponsible states that is dreadful. This is what burying one’s head in the sand can do.

— Ashwani Sharma

Ghaziabad

Obama’s option

•US President Barack Obama’s remarks about North Korea’s nuclear and supposed missile tests are fraught with dangerous consequences for the international community at large. If the US launches a pre-emptive strike at North Korea,one fears how China,Japan and Russia will behave. There’s every possibility then of a local conflict expanding into a global war. The only option for Obama is to mobilise world opinion against the North and further isolate it.

— Arun Malankar Mumbai

After Punjab

•The editorial ‘Among the deras’ (IE,May 27) should spur an introspection in Punjab,by political and religious authorities. The rioters were certainly emboldened by the state’s directionless politics. Caste inequality is predominant in Punjab and the Sikh orthodoxy must be tolerant towards those outside the mainstream while others become sensitive towards Sikh beliefs.

— B.B. Goyal Ludhiana