Opinion Letters to the editor: Gauging Gandhi

Ashutosh’s inchoate outburst against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the BJP and the RSS is in line with the Aam Aadmi Party’s unhinged responses to issues like Kashmir, electricity tariffs, corruption and the treatment of foreign nationals in India (‘The appropriation of Gandhi’, IE, October 13). The writer employed sophistry, obfuscation and patent falsehoods to achieve his objective. Nowhere in his book, Bunch of Thoughts, did Golwalkar term Gandhi’s doctrine of ahimsa a “great betrayal”. On the contrary, the book has many favourable references to Gandhi, though it stops short of deifying him and aptly criticises him for supporting the Khilafat movement against the progressive Kemal Ataturk. In a country known for its hero-worshipping tendencies, any attempt to objectively analyse the contribution of Gandhi is bound to raise eyebrows. Also, it is fanciful to assert that the RSS was born as a reaction to the Khilafat movement. A period of six years elapsed between the movement and the birth of the RSS. That is quite some gestation.
— Ajay Tyagi
Mumbai

Bad cop
This refers to ‘R.R. Patil triggers row with rape remark, offers apology’ (IE, October 12). R.R. Patil seems not to think before he speaks. He has embarrassed his party once again. He had earlier made tasteless remarks about the 26/11 attack. His suggestion that a candidate should have “waited” for the assembly polls to finish over before committing the act is ludicrous and disgusting. This remark comes from a man who occupied the chair of home minister, responsible for security as well as law and order in Maharashtra. His apology is meaningless. It won’t assuage the anger of right-thinking people.
— Yash P. Verma
Pune

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Precious vote
Voters in Maharashtra and Haryana should learn from the unfortunate deadlock in Delhi, where there is no functioning elected government because of the fractured mandate. One hopes that this will not be the fate of the citizens of the states about to go to polls. The demand for fresh elections in Delhi is growing. The longer the current deadlock continues, the greater the chances of horse trading and other corrupt practices. One must bear in mind that an election is an expensive event to organise. It costs the exchequer dearly. Funds so spent could be better utilised elsewhere in a developing country. This is yet another reason why, come polling day, voters should exercise their franchise extremely carefully.
— Ashok K. Ashu
Patiala

A discovery
I was shocked to learn that Nobel peace prize winner Kailash Satyarthi has won a dozen-odd international awards. In India, he was relatively unknown till a few days ago and had not been awarded even the starter Padma award, the Padma Shree.
— Shilpi Saxena
Delhi