LETTERS

Kidney trade

The report on the kidney trade was shocking ("Karnataka's unabating kidney trade", April 12). The law can do little to stop this kind of illegal trade in human organs until and unless poverty is eradicated.

An alternative course of action to stop the trade is to develop artificial kidneys. Scientists should make efforts in this direction. They should also conduct research on regeneration of human organs. Reptiles such as salamanders and tritons are capable of regenerating parts of their eyes and other organs, notably the heart, the extremities and the tail. Also human hair, nails, skin and even muscle, cornea and liver cells are either regenerated or grow anew.

C. Ramesh
Keeramangalam, Tamil Nadu

Gujarat

This has reference to "Communal fascism in Gujarat" (March 29). The images of the charred remains of the riot victims will haunt the nation like a nightmare. Peace-loving people, Hindus and Muslims alike, were shattered emotionally and economically by the terror unleashed by their leaders.

R. Ramasami
Tiruvannamalai, Tamil Nadu

Some years ago, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh spokespersons labelled Gujarat the "laboratory of Hindutva" and their communal experiments began with the Vajpayee government assuming office. These experiments have now inflamed the whole nation.

The violence was certainly not a reaction to the Godhra incident as the RSS pracharak Narendra Modi would like the world to believe. Mobs took to the streets killing fellow human beings. It was nearly 72 hours after the violence began that governmental action was evident. Until then the State administration and the communalised police force remained mute spectators.

The tragedy is that the Bharatiya Janata Party's allies in the National Democratic Alliance allow such things to happen. The government has adopted double standards. It has approached the Allahabad High Court with a plea for daily hearing of the title suit on the disputed land in Ayodhya; at the same time it is hobnobbing with Hindu and Muslim religious leaders. Only by adopting a legal and constitutional approach can the government find a way out.

Mahesh Inder Sharma
New Delhi

You have called a spade a spade. The administration did not exist as far as the rioters were concerned. They succeeded in their objective. Now it has become clear that the security and safety of the minorities depends on the generosity of the majority community. The police play a negative role during riots. They present themselves as comrades of the majority community. This is the most worrisome aspect of communalism. The existence of communal parties is an open challenge to the idea of secularism.

Wasim Ahmed Siddique
New Delhi

What happened in Gujarat was nothing less than ethnic cleansing. It was not a riot but a pogrom - a systematic attack on Muslims' lives and property. India today faces a threat far more dangerous than terrorism. The rise of majoritarian communalism poses a danger to Indian society and polity. The irony, or tragedy, is that instead of curbing the communal forces the Central government led by the BJP is appeasing and protecting them.

Sanjay Kumar
New Delhi

Frontline gave a true and vivid picture of the carnage. The reports moved me so much that I am ashamed to call myself a Hindu.

Jawaharlal Nehru said: "Muslim communalism is much worse and stronger than Hindu communalism. But Muslim communalism cannot dominate Indian society and introduce fascism. That only Hindu communalism can." He has been proved right in Gujarat.

Bidyut Kumar Chatterjee
Faridabad

You excel the Inter-Services Intelligence and fundamentalist Muslim organisations in anti-Hindu propaganda. Your Cover Story will make secular Hindus communal. In the light of your propaganda, I would advise Ram bhakts to construct a magnificent Ram temple in Antarctica or Alaska. Pseudo-secularists and the champions of minorities, supported by the 'secular' media, will not allow the construction of a temple for Rama in his birthplace in Hindu-majority India.

S. Raghunatha Prabhu
Alappuzha, Kerala

Freedom of expression

This is with reference to the views of Arundhati Roy and a host of other luminaries on the issue of contempt vis-a-vis the courts' dignity ("Of criticism and contempt", March 29). I agree with Arundhati Roy's bold statement that "the dignity of the courts will be upheld by the quality of their judgments; the quality of their judgments will be assessed by the people of this country" and that "it will be better for the judiciary not to muzzle critical views using archaic laws".

In this context I suggest that the debate should improve the scope for public dissent while upholding the status of the judiciary. The entire print media are proud of you for your observation that "the intolerance demonstrated by the higher judiciary and specifically the misuse of criminal contempt powers have become a constraint on, and a threat to, freedom of speech and expression and freedom of the Press," and that "I (N. Ram) never thought the judiciary is such an endangered institution. This is not the common perception."

To quote Justice V.R. Krishna Iyer, "The rule of law gains meaning only if it fertilises the rule of life and the rule of life insists on justice, social and economic, to every citizen." That of course includes impact upon human rights, freedom of expression and democratic dissent. Justice Krishna Iyer further observed that "judges with a vision have a new universe to behold, a mansion of people's justice to build".

T.N. Tandon
Lucknow

Afghanistan's losses

A prolonged phase of civil war and unrest in Afghanistan since the fall of the communist government led to the systematic destruction of ancient sites such as Aikhanoom, Begram and Hadda ("Vandalised Afghanistan", March 29). The destruction of cultural heritage is nothing but barbarism.

Ashutosh Atul Thakur
Madhubani, Bihar