LETTERS

Gujarat

Only God can save Gujarat, where about 1,000 people have been killed, hundreds of women raped, thousands of houses destroyed and lakhs of people rendered homeless in the past two months ("A relentless hate campaign", May 24).

The Prime Minister went to console the affected people with a well-made-up mask, only to shed it soon afterwards much to the disgust of the saner elements in society. Instead of providing a healing touch to the Muslims in Gujarat, the government patronises the Hindutva brigade.

Ninety per cent of the Muslim students in the State could not take their board examinations owing to the violent atmosphere and the partiality of the government in the matter of allotting examination centres. The anger and frustration and the feelings of revenge and alienation in the hearts of millions of affected people might manifest themselves in ugly forms in the days to come.

Tauheed
Aligarh

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On the recent Godhra massacre of innocent people, including women and children, and the subsequent events, it is mind-boggling that some perverted people have been talking and writing in a bizarre manner about Hindus. Yes, I understand that India is a free society and everyone can get away freely by writing anything against Hindus. At the same time, let them write against Muslims and see the reaction. For too long Hindus have been patient against all atrocities committed on them whether it is in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Fiji or South Africa, to mention only a few.

Our Hindu society has too many intellectuals whose heart bleeds only when Muslims and Christians are punished for their wrongful acts. How many people bothered about the plight of Kashmiri Pandits who are refugees in their own country? If we keep quiet like this, a day will come when Gujarati Hindus will have to be sheltered in refugee camps.

How many Muslims have migrated from India to Pakistan or Bangladesh because of the atrocities committed on them? Almost all the Hindu population, including pro-Pakistan elements, from Pakistan and an overwhelming majority of the Hindus from Bangladesh, have come to India since Partition. So I honestly feel that we are treating Muslims with kid gloves. Let us give them the same treatment that Hindus are getting in Islamic countries. As far as the good work done by missionaries is concerned, I request them to do their good work in their own backyards such as Brazil, Argentina and Kosovo.

K.V. Kamath
Karkala, Karnataka

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This is with reference to the article "Bringing barbarians to book" by Praful Bidwai (April 26). The author refers to "slitting open the belly of an eight-month pregnant woman, and chopping the foetus". Is there any evidence of this or is it imagination? Could we not do without making such statements? What has happened in Godhra and then in Gujarat is absolutely wrong and shameful. But how do such inflammatory statements enhance the credibility of journalism? Such statements should be kept out of print.

Dr. Suresh K. Jariwala
Nellore, Andhra Pradesh

Editorial note: This particular atrocity has been highlighted in a number of media reports on the genocidal pogrom against Muslims in Gujarat.

Nehru's stand

In the article 'Kashmir in retrospect' (May 24), A.G. Noorani states that although Jawaharlal Nehru was unimpressed when Lord Mountbatten sought to impress on him "the need to retain British officers in order to prevent a breakdown of law and order", and stated that India only wished to retain friendly ties with Britain without staying on in the Commonwealth, in a few months Nehru changed his stand. He agreed not only to India's membership in the Commonwealth but also to the retention of Mountbatten as Governor-General. Noorani likens this change of tack on the part of Nehru to the radical conversion of St. Paul on the road to Damascus!

It needs mention that St. Paul's radical conversion was occasioned by a divine intervention on his mind and person. As regards Nehru's conversion, Noorani rests content merely stating that Nehru acted in India's interests as he perceived them. Noorani's contention does not adequately - rather credibly - explain the reasons for the diametrically opposite and substantive change in Nehru's stand. Were there decisive pressures and counsel from within India and/or outside? And, if yes, what are they? From whom? These, one supposes, are moot questions that beg answers and which, prima facie, Noorani sidesteps.

K. John Mammen
Thiruvananthapuram

WLR deal

It is horrifying to learn that the Defence Ministry has signed a $140-million deal with the United States for the acquisition of Raytheon-made weapon-locating radar (WLR) systems at twice the price being asked for by Ukraine for its device ("A deal and some posers", May 24). The reasons advanced to reject the Ukrainian offer are unconvincing. National security has been compromised as the contract was signed in the U.S. and will be governed by U.S. laws and not those of India. Even Robert Blackwill has made an unambiguous statement that the U.S.' sales to India are bound by U.S. laws and that there would be no guarantees of continued technological support in the event of future differences between the two countries.

If the Americans could block the sale of Falcons by Israel to India citing India- Pakistan tensions, what is the guarantee that the U.S. will not stop the supply of critical spare parts and accessories in case of an India-Pakistan war, when this equipment would be needed the most.

V.K. Agrawal
Dehra Dun

Corrupt official

I wonder what our intelligence and vigilance agencies were doing when Ravinderpal Sidhu was engaged in hoarding currency notes of all denominations for six long years ("A racket in government jobs", May 24). It is not for nothing that we face perennial currency shortage. Persons like Sidhu should be severely punished and the money hoarded by them diverted to the relief camps in Gujarat.

K.P. Rajan
Mumbai

C.V. Raman

It was good to note that Frontline has published an article written by T.S. Satyan on Sir C.V. Raman ("The Raman effect", May 24). In these troubled times, such articles, pregnant with useful, constructive information, serve as a good diversion.

C. Ravindran
Vellore, Tamil Nadu

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"If there is anything I aspire for, it is the Nobel Prize. You will find that I'll get that in five years." It would be interesting to know how many of us would have dared to dream like C.V. Raman. A lion-hearted man he really was. His will-power and determination should inspire the younger generation to aim high in life instead of being content with professional degrees.

G.J. Hamilton
Marthandam, Tamil Nadu

Sri Lanka

The Cover Story (May 10) on the prospects of peace in Sri Lanka was comprehensive, informative and educative, especially to people who are seriously concerned about the problems in Sri Lanka with special reference to the LTTE and its atrocities in the past. Peace and progress have been absent in that country for the last two decades, primarily because of the separatist organisation and its unbelievably inhuman leader, V. Prabakaran.

Prabakaran knows only one language - killing. G. Parthasarathy in his article "Prabakaran unleashed" has rightly described him thus: "He can only be characterised as a psychopath, with scant regard for human life or human suffering." His record shows that he has had only two professions in all his life - smuggling, and murdering anyone who crossed his path. Thus he established his little LTTE "homeland". In the process he drove out about 70,000 Muslims. Would any sensible human being ever trust that man's words?

For India, he will always remain the despicable murderer of a national leader. No government, no group, no organisation can ever be pardoned if it shows him sympathy. He is a wanted man here. India must do everything to get him extradited and put him on trial as early as possible. That this demand itself has dragged on for years shows that our country has lost its own sense of honour and determination in matters of justice.

Peace in Sri Lanka is extremely important. That little country needs the whole world's sympathy and help not for its bifurcation and ruin but for achieving internal unity, ethnic harmony, social diversity, economic progress and national dignity. For this purpose, India has the most responsible role to play. It should not allow a division to happen on ethnic, religious or regional lines. The present initiative taken by the dynamic new Prime Minister of Sri Lanka, Ranil Wickremasinghe, must be appreciated and supported. Our media should consider him the true and constructive hero in the present state of affairs, instead of projecting Prabakaran as a kind of 'hero' in the emerging scheme of things.

E.P. Menon
Bangalore

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In "The road ahead" (May 10), Nirupama Subramanian asked: "What are the political implications of having the LTTE, a group wedded to Tamil nationalism, next door to 50 million Tamils (Tamil Nadu)?" If India is really concerned about possible repercussions, why did India's Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) help train Tamil militants in at least 30 training camps in Tamil Nadu in the 1980s? If it was politically correct for RAW to assist Tamil militants from Sri Lanka, why is it not politically correct for Pakistan and the Inter-Services Intelligence to help train Kashmiri militants? Referring to India's disinterest in the current peace talks, V. Suryanarayan aptly said in his article ("Singing the same tune") that "New Delhi cannot abdicate its responsibility in Sri Lanka".

After 19 years of suffering and learning from each other's tactics, there must be substantial reasons behind the confident smiles of both Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe and LTTE supremo Velupillai Prabakaran. The Sri Lankans deserve some material progress that peace could bring.

Zariani Abdul Rahman
Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia

India and Pakistan

Both your countries, India and Pakistan, are dear to us. Our meeting has several personal connections with your countries; two members were born in Lahore, a deceased member in Thrissur, Kerala. At his memorial service, a poem by Faiz was read in Urdu. A dear friend of the latter is editing the papers of the Quaid-i-Azam in Islamabad. A meeting member is doing research in India. Quakers as well as many others take inspiration from Gandhiji. We, who were persecuted earlier when we tried to practise our religion, understand what may have led Indian Muslims to desire a country of their own - Pakistan, the land of the pure.

That Pakistanis and Indians should be militarily threatening each other across their boundary is a source of deep concern to us. And it is our business to be so concerned. When two nuclear powers are in armed conflict, the world does well to be concerned.

We urge you to follow the examples of the best in your traditions and seek to reach a solution that does not involve the evil, the filth of taking life, of inflicting grievous pain. These things are the seeds of endless suffering down the generations, and are spreading, blighting the face of the world. For the good of all the earth, including the animals and plants, please continue to talk to each other, visit each other, and work to keep your basic humanity before each other's eyes and hearts. Do not become mere objects to each other, but living souls, as you are to us.

Carolyn Vaughan
Clerk,
Halifax Monthly Meeting
Received on e-mail

Health care

I wholeheartedly congratulate Frontline on publishing a Special Feature on "Health and medical care in Chennai" (May 10). It was a small encyclopaedia on hospitals located in Chennai.

My family and I have experience of one particular hospital. As an all-India service official, I have seen many hospitals in various cities, but honestly I can certify that so far I have not come across a hospital like this one in Chennai where one can get proper treatment with affection.

K.T. Narasimhan
Chennai

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I went through the feature page by page with much interest. But I was disappointed to note that not a word was mentioned about a world-renowned septuagenarian psychiatrist based in Chennai - Dr. M. Sarada Menon. She was given the Padma Bhushan in 1992, and this is among the various national and international awards she has won. She was a Professor in Psychiatry at the Madras Medical College and the Superintendent of the Madras Mental Hospital for a record 18 years.

She is the founder of SCARF and continues to be its adviser. That she was not mentioned was an injustice to the dedicated service she has been rendering in Chennai for the past half a century.

She is not just a God-sent soul for many thousands of mentally ill people whom she has treated but is also a lady without any passion for honour. She is an expert who has served the poor too. I suggest Frontline interview her as early as possible.

P. Sasisekhar
Ernakulam

AIDS Apropos of "Programmes and pitfalls" (March 29) by T.K. Rajalakshmi, we take serious exception to being quoted out of context and in a manner affecting our credibility. The Aids Bhedbhav Virodhi Andolan (ABVA) report "Endless and sickening therapies for AIDS", is totally irrelevant to the subject of her article, which deals with a short-term regimen of AZT or a single dose of nevirapine to be given to pregnant HIV-positive women to prevent mother-to-child transmission. "The anti-discrimination movement has cautioned against the use of AZT. HIV, the group argues, developed resistance to AZT within six months of monotherapy and therefore it should not be used for a single-drug regimen. As for nevirapine, resistance developed rapidly in monotherapy," says the article, referring to our report. Rajalakshmi has either not read the report or failed to grasp its central point. Our report does not selectively criticise any particular drug. It does not argue that HIV develops resistance only in the case of monotherapy. The report does not contend that a short course of one or more anti-AIDS drug(s) is fraught with dangerous consequences. In fact, the report does not deal with short-term therapies at all. Rajalakshmi has also used a quote from our report to question the infrastructural inadequacy for the administration of these drugs: "What makes drug companies and non-governmental organisations believe that without a basic countrywide infrastructure, anti-retroviral drugs can be administered to the estimated 3.7 million patients living with HIV and AIDS?" The scheme to administer drugs to pregnant women, which is the theme of the article, is a hospital-based one and will be over in a few weeks whereas the ABVA report makes the above comment in the context of supplying and ensuring compliance of drug regimens over years with costly and regular laboratory tests thrown in. We fail to understand Rajalakshmi's insistence on inserting a quote from our report with such disregard to facts. We also wish to point out that by clubbing the Joint Action Council of Kannur (JACK) and the ABVA together, Rajalakshmi has given the impression that both groups share a common standpoint. We wish to clarify that the viewpoint, programme and the style of functioning of the ABVA are very different from those of JACK and we have never collaborated or shared a platform with that group. Dr. Puneet Bedi Anjali Deshpande Aids Bhedbhav Virodhi Andolan (ABVA), Delhi T.K. Rajalakshmi writes: The ABVA's reaction to the article is rather surprising. It says that the ABVA report is totally irrelevant to the subject of the article. That this report should be seen by me was suggested by a member of the ABVA itself (in fact, one of the signatories to the letter) during a discussion on this subject. It appears then that if I have misunderstood the ABVA's report, I am not alone in this regard but in the company of some persons who prepared it. It is true that the two references to the ABVA report in my article do not directly deal with the PMTCT programme but with the therapeutic treatment of AIDS. Since I could not have made the references without having read the report, at least one of the two possible charges made against me is without basis. The other charge that I missed the central point of the report entitled "Endless and sickening therapies for AIDS: A citizens' report on anti-AIDS drugs and the threat to public health" pertains to the interpretation of what has been said in the report when similar issues, which are related to the same ailment, arise in the context of the PMTCT programme. If I have missed the central point of the report, the ABVA's letter does not help me correct this shortcoming because it is silent on what that central point is. The letter restricts itself to statements about what it is not. The report I read, which is dedicated to, among others, many who have challenged the AIDS establishment, justified itself by saying that "the debate in the media has focussed only on the cost of anti-retroviral drugs. Issues such as side-effects of the drugs and the long-term implications of such therapy on public health have been left out on the wayside." That was the focus of my article and hence the two references to the report. If the ABVA feels that there is no public health issue with regard to the PMTCT programme in the sense implied in the quote mentioned above and that it is a programme that deserves an unequivocal welcome, it would have been better if the ABVA had clarified its position explicitly. I can then accept my interpretation to be erroneous. The same argument applies to the question of infrastructural adequacy for the PMTCT programme, which requires not just the administration of drugs but also the monitoring of the mother and the infant. Nowhere does the article suggest that the ABVA has picked on certain drugs and that it has "advocated a multi-drug regimen instead". The reference to the side-effects of AZT and nevirapine monotherapy (which are included in the report) are purely on account of the fact that these are the two options being considered for the PMTCT programme, as stated in the second para of the article. The article says: "Organisations such as the AIDS Anti-Discrimination Movement and the Joint Action Council of Kannur have argued that the question of side-effects is being sidestepped despite studies that bear testimony to the ill-effects of the drugs." It is not clear to me how this statement suggests to a reader that both groups have a common viewpoint, programme and style of functioning and that they have collaborated or shared a platform. In any case, this is not relevant to the issue discussed in the article. Finally, I would like to say that my article was on a public health issue, and not on the ABVA. Since the ABVA is one of the organisations that I felt had a perspective different from that of the AIDS establishment, I considered it appropriate to provide space to its views. If the ABVA felt the need to clarify its position on the PMTCT programme, it could have done so matter-of-factly.