Opinion Remember Atal?
Your editorial is right in arguing that India must work with the US to prevent Pakistan from going down the chute (Differing to agree).
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Remember Atal?
Your editorial is right in arguing that India must work with the US to prevent Pakistan from going down the chute (Differing to agree,November 8). In this regard it is both comic and sad to see sections of the BJP getting worked up merely because Barack Obama had,in his first engagements,not publicly referred to the terrorists of 26/11 as emanating from Pakistan! Does the BJP seriously believe that the US president is unaware of the fact,or does it imagine that the problem of Pakistan-sponsored terrorism against India and the West will be solved if Obama makes such a statement?
Ironically,Obamas remarks that it is in Indias best interest to have a secure,stable Pakistan was first voiced clearly and courageously by Atal Bihari Vajpayee a BJP leader who,as prime minister,enabled the Indo-Pak dialogue process to take a quantum leap forward by riding a bus to Lahore in February 1999 to meet the then Pakistan PM,Nawaz Sharif. Manmohan Singh has only tried to build on that initiative,and rightly so. How far the BJP has slipped back from those days. Perhaps it is true that Vajpayee was the right man in the wrong party!
R.P. Subramanian
In Gandhis footsteps
Barack Obamas address in Parliament will rank as the one of the best in the years to come. One line bowled us all over,that he is here as a president of United States,due to Mahatma Gandhi.
Bidyut Kumar Chatterjee
Faridabad
District solutions
This is with reference to Yoginder Alaghs States of the Union (IE,November 9). There is a need to understand the rationale for smaller states in terms of regional development. However,we have enough measures of decentralised governance and planning. Why dont we think of effective decentralisation as a solution? Otherwise,howsoever states may be smaller,the issues of regional imbalance remains. The idea of considering a host of factors land,water,climate,food patterns and language for reorganising states very much negates the principles of diversity and
co-existence. One should always weigh the economic benefits of reorganising states with social and ethnic costs involved. Our experiences in dealing with anti-immigrant attitudes in some states should not be ignored. Making district-level planning more effective and creating more districts appears a better solution than having smaller states.
Anil S. Sutar
Number taker
Your comment about the flattery of Sonia and her son at the All India Congress Committee meeting was very apt (Dear leader,me too,November 4). Her comment about waiting for ones number could give a boost
to sycophancy.
P. Krishna Kumar Menon
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