LETTERS

A blow to BJP

The editorial "A crippling blow for the BJP" (March 15) was well-written, rational and unbiased.

The outcome of the elections in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Uttaranchal and Manipur sends out a clear message that people have refused to be influenced by the sectarian concerns that the BJP and the Sangh Parivar tried to focus on. The BJP may attribute its defeat to the anti-incumbency factor. But there are other reasons as well. The politics of defections and the induction of persons with criminal backgrounds as Ministers belied the BJP's claim that it was a "party with a difference".

The lesson for the BJP is that it should try to woo voters belonging to the minority communities. This can be done only by providing good governance and not by constructing a Ram temple or by rewriting history.

K. Mrityunjaya Ram
Chennai

The Cover Story focussed on the crisis of multiple dimensions that the Vajpayee Ministry is facing. The results of the Assembly elections show that good performance by the State governments it runs is important for a party to win elections.

The Congress(I), the main Opposition party, now rules 14 States, and the BJP has its hold over some States.

The chances of the Congress(I) emerging as the single largest party at the all-India level have brightened. The only way the BJP can improve its chances of retaining power is by improving the performance of the Central government. Will the BJP rise to the occasion?

A. Jacob Sahayam
Karigiri, Tamil Nadu

The election results spell trouble not only for the BJP but also for the entire nation. Uttar Pradesh is in for a period of instability. If the BJP used the Hindutva card, equally disturbing is the fact that Mulayam Singh and Mayawati used the caste card. The only other national party, the Congress(I), has miles to go before coming to power at the Centre.

It is in the interest of the nation that during the remaining term of the present Lok Sabha the BJP should be in power.

Brig. V.K. Agrawal (retd.)
Dehra Dun

Ayodhya

It appears that only judicial intervention can stop the Vishwa Hindu Parishad's move to construct a Ram temple in Ayodhya ("Ominous march", March 1). After Ayodhya, it will start a campaign to "liberate" the Mathura and Varanasi temples. It is time the Supreme Court intervened to save the country from such campaigns.

Akhilesh Kumar Sah
Faizabad

The VHP's plans will jeopardise the country's internal security at a time when the Army is geared to defend the country against a threat of external aggression. The government should prohibit the VHP from forcing the Hindutva agenda on this secular nation.

Bishal Das
Baripada, Orissa

The BJP seems to have lost control over the forces that it let loose in the course of the Ram temple campaign. Apparently, the party leadership has divergent views on the issue. Muslims appear to be without a leadership that can be engaged in a dialogue to solve the issue. If the problem remains unsolved, it can destablise the country.

Bichu Muttathara
Pune

Another demolition

I am a French national living in Muhammad Pur, a small (predominantly Hindu) village in South Delhi. A number of Islamic monuments from the pre-Mughal era, mostly tombs, are found in and around this village. Recently, a (disused) mosque dating back to the Lodi dynasty was pulled down, probably for private construction purposes. Even as I write this letter, the rubble is being carried away. Soon all traces of that historical building will have been obliterated. Similar monuments in this locality have long been used as stables or urinals.

The destruction of a 500-year-old mosque in the capital raises many questions. (To put it provocatively, could it have happened had the structure been a temple? What is the Archaeological Survey of India doing?) But my point is that how surprising is it really that a Minister should indulge in rewriting history and deleting passages from textbooks when some people in the country seem keen on desecrating, defacing, damaging and eventually destroying parts of their national heritage?

Francois-Xavier Durandy
New Delhi

The judiciary

The failure to fill judicial vacancies promptly cannot be defended in the name of judicial independence ("The law and delays", March 15). It is sad that the judiciary and legislators blame each other for the inordinate delays in the justice delivery system. That about three crore cases are pending in the country's courts is a disturbing fact.

If the current lag in the judicial system is the result of an imbalance between the demand for judicial services and the actual strength of the courts, priority should be given to improving the judicial infrastructure.

Onkar Chopra
New Delhi

Serbia

"Serbian images" (March 1) presented, with rare photographs, a true picture of the situation in Serbia.

Atif Hanif
Lucknow

Satish Dhawan

I shall never forget the day India successfully launched SLV-3. I, as a schoolboy, gazed at the TV screen. An associated memory is the charming face of Dr. Satish Dhawan, the man who led the project ("A pioneer scientist", February 15). Dhawan is not amongst us. India should carry on the work of this great visionary.

Laeeq Mohammad Khan
New Jersey, U.S.

Trade in kidneys

Your article on the organised trade in kidneys was lucid and informative ("Kidneys still for sale", February 15). However, a point needs to be clarified regarding unrelated transplantation done at St. John's Medical College Hospital. At St. John's, any end-stage renal failure patient without a first-degree relative donor is screened by our social worker for organ donation from relatives other than first-degree relatives (unrelated persons, in the parlance of the Human Organ Transplantation Act, 1994). If found suitable, the donor-recipient pair is referred to the inhouse ethics committee and, if permitted, the case is then forwarded to the Authorisation Committee for approval.

It is our sincere effort that we as a transplant team (nephrologists, transplant surgeons, and so on) not only follow legal guidelines but also adhere to the highest ethical norms in the field of transplantation.

Dr. Urmila Anandh
St. John's Medical College
Hospital
Bangalore

Arundhati Roy case

The following portion in the article "Access denied" (February 15) is incorrect.

"When Arundhati Roy's advocates sought an explanation for the denial of access, the Registrar General of the Supreme Court reportedly told them that he had 'orders from above' not to allow anyone into the courtroom except Arundhati Roy and her husband, Pradip Krishen."

It needs to be clarified that no advocate met me on January 15, 2002, seeking permission to enter the court hearing Arundhati Roy's matter. In fact, I never made any comments to anyone regarding entry into the court. I, therefore, contradict the above statement.

L.C. Bhadoo,
Registrar-General
Supreme Court of India
New Delhi

Indian diaspora

The High Level Committee on Indian Diaspora led by Dr. L.M. Singhvi has submitted its report to the government. One point that did get much media attention was its suggestion regarding "dual citizenship". Other suggestions included the establishment of a "Pravasi Bhavan" and the celebration of "Bharatheeya Pravasi Diwas".

The committee visited the Gulf countries, met a cross-section of the Indian community and received detailed representations. However, if one is to go by the contents of the report in its website, some long-standing demands of a sizable section of the Indian diaspora have not been properly addressed. There was not even a cursory remark on their demands. The reference is to the plight of millions of Indians who have been forced to take up what is known as overseas contract employment.

The committee's, and by extrapolation the government's, mandate was to encourage non-resident Indians (NRI) to spend more time in India and make them invest in India. It is just another method to secure the sacred "forex".

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) statistics reveal that on an average 40 per cent of the foreign exchange reserves of the country comes from NRIs. This is a considerable sum. Collated figures suggest that a major chunk of such deposits comes from Indians based in the Gulf countries. It can be safely assumed that the "Indian diaspora" is not in immediate need of such deposits, especially since they have no intention of returning except on "dual citizenship" or "persons of Indian origin'' (PIO) cards. However, earning money to make such deposits remains a preoccupation of overseas contract workers in the Gulf countries where their employment and duration of stay are uncertain. The Indian Investment Centre is yet to determine a break-up of such deposits, country-wise or otherwise. The State governments too do not have full-fledged departments to carry out such exercises.

The committee, which has considered favourably the issues of PIOs, seems to have chosen to ignore the problems of the overseas contract workers. While recommending dual citizenship and PIO cards for "NRIs", it has not even suggested the provision of identity cards to their poorer cousins.

Those sections of Indian community referred to as "Indian diaspora" by the Ministries and governmental departments do not intend to return to India; nor are they worried about the state of the nation. But the other sections of Indians who work overseas have to return to their homeland.

Nam H.S.
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

The Mahatma's name

It is highly objectionable that Mahatma Gandhi's name has been exploited for commercial purposes ("Marketing the Mahatma", March 15).

Gopalakrishna Gandhi, the Mahatma's grandson, has rightly observed that anybody who seeks to misuse the Mahatma's name or image is not likely to succeed for long. Gandhiji led an austere life in accordance with the values he espoused. He never represented materialistic goals.

R. Ramasami
Tiruvannamalai, Tamil Nadu

Milosevic's trial

At the United Nations war crimes tribunal at The Hague, former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic has rightly accused the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) of carrying out a "bestial" genocide in Yugoslavia ("The trial of Milosevic", March 15). Is it not ironical that instead of former U.S. President Bill Clinton and his lackeys in NATO, Milosevic, a staunch nationalist, is being put to trial for war crimes? It is lamentable that a true nationalist has been branded a "fierce warmonger", a description that fits more the self-proclaimed upholder of international justice. But Clinton cleverly cloaked his war crimes under the "humanitarian" motive of "saving the ethnic Albanians in Kosovo" from the "persecution" carried out by the "dictator" Milosevic.

K.P. Rajan
Mumbai

Moral confusion

U.S. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld exhibits moral confusion when he seeks to justify the sub-human treatment of Taliban and Al Qaeda prisoners at the U.S. military base in Guantanamo Bay by saying that concern for their rights is misplaced because they have forfeited such rights ("Vengeance and war", February 15).

Someone ought to tell Rumsfeld (and those in the U.S. administration whose line he reflects) that human beings do not cease to be human when they commit mistakes; nor do they lose the right to be treated as human beings even during war, captivity, incarceration and interrogation or when they are punished for their crimes.

With such statements, Rumsfeld may be stooping to the level of the Taliban and Al Qaeda, whom his government wants to punish.

Mithun Jung
Kathmandu