Regarding AFSPA,army personnel are trained to guard the borders,and to kill enemies efficiently. They are not trained for routine civilian duties,least of all for protecting citizens rights and maintaining law and order,which happens to be the job of the police. Our police has been politicised beyond redemption,and so the Union and state governments have called upon the army to take over the polices duties,as a back-up during emergencies and even to control mosquitoes,as reported today in this paper! This has had the tragic consequences that we see in states where AFSPA is in place. The antipathy in the Northeast towards AFSPA is rooted in a brutal fact: since Independence,the army has been the most visible face of Indian (mis)governance for those citizens.
R.P. Subramanian
This refers to Building on faith (IE,September 9). The site on which the Cordoba House in Spain stands has a long and tortuous history. It went from being a Roman temple to a Visigothic cathedral before the mosque was constructed by Ummayad Moors in the 8th century.
Finally,a cathedral was erected there. A place which changed hands with each brutal conquest can hardly be the ideal name for a building meant to further inter-faith understanding. The authors intentions of religious harmony would have carried more credibility if he undertook such a project in Palestine or Afghanistan. By insisting on having the mosque near Ground Zero in the face of opposition by 70 per cent of America,he is ensuring more acrimony between the West and Islam.
Ajay Tyagi
Class apart
This refers to M.K. Venus highly interesting article My data versus your data (IE,September 9). Recently,I visited Titron in Saharanpur where the scheduled castes built a school and handed it over to a Delhi NGO to run an English medium school. They also pay a fee of Rs 50 per child to the NGO when they are entitled to Rs 300 as scholarship in government schools.
A.J. Philip
Left alone
It is no surprise that West Bengal was worst affected by the Tuesday bandh. In three decades of unchallenged power there,the Left is seen to have served its people less and its ideology more. Their first tool,the bandh,had over time literally put a stop to progress. Citizens were held captive to an ideology,while the rest of India was part of the 9 per cent-plus growth story. Even this could have passed muster but for the Lefts misgovernance in the states they ruled,the onus of which they always put on others. We see no signs of serious introspection within the Left combine nor a desire to strike out in new directions.
R. Narayanan
Ghaziabad
