Opinion Letters to the editor: No entry
No entry *This refers to Shinde asks VIPs not to visit state (IE,June 25). Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde advising VIPs against visiting the disaster-affected areas in Uttarakhand is a welcome move. Politicians are quick to try and draw political mileage from tragedies. Shinde observed that the work of rescue teams gets disturbed if VIPs […]
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No entry
*This refers to Shinde asks VIPs not to visit state (IE,June 25). Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde advising VIPs against visiting the disaster-affected areas in Uttarakhand is a welcome move. Politicians are quick to try and draw political mileage from tragedies. Shinde observed that the work of rescue teams gets disturbed if VIPs visit. The aerial surveys conducted by VIPs also seem like a sheer waste of time and public money. It is cheap gimmickry when the CM of a state makes inflated claims about rescuing his own people,and when senior party leaders flag off trucks carrying relief and aid.
Deepak Chikramane
Open questions
*Stories doing the rounds suggest that Narendra Modi rescued 15,000 fellow-Gujaratis from the Uttarakhand floods. This raises several questions in my mind. I wonder why a person who expects to be the next Indian PM cared to rescue only Gujaratis. Further,how was Modi able to identify the people who were lucky enough to be rescued as Gujaratis? Finally,when over 10,000 army personnel with 60 helicopters could rescue only 75,000 people in approximately six days,how was Modi,with his crack team of nine officers,able to rescue 15,000 persons in a single day?
Shridhar Shukla
Thane
Pipe dreams
*This refers to When Singh meets Kerry by C. Raja Mohan (IE,June 24). The Cold War-like anti-American attitude that still persists among some sections is,frankly,silly. A sizeable number of Indian and American businesses have become interdependent because of the growing trade between our countries,which shall hopefully continue to grow. There is definitely scope and need to extend this relationship further. Having said that,Indias foreign policy should not blindly trail the US line. We should be assertive when our interests differ. India has lost much time postponing the project to build the Iran pipeline,which was to pass through Pakistan. We should push the project through to encourage the new liberal regime in Iran,and to bolster relations with Pakistan.
M.K. Mahapatra
Best bet
*This refers to A tale of two BJPs by Christophe Jaffrelot (IE,June 25). There is no doubt that Advani and Modi are very different politicians who subscribe to different brands of politics. The writer is correct that Advani will be able to bring more allies to the table than Modi. However,the Advani of today does not have the aura of either a Modi or a Vajpayee. Hence,Modi remains the best bet for the BJP. Even Advanis supporters realise that he is a spent force and have fallen in line.
Bal Govind
Noida
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