LETTERS

War threat

The Cover Story gave a vivid picture of the situation on the India-Pakistan border ("The lurking danger", June 21). A war would cause heavy losses in both countries. Their peoples want peace. If the governments decide that war is the only option, they should at least avoid using nuclear weapons.

Abhijeet D. More
Nashik

So many "peacemakers" have suddenly appeared in the subcontinent to "remind" the so-called war-mongers that "war is good for neither side". However, as you have pointed out in your Cover Story, the same "peacemakers" are quite keen to exploit the situation and get as many defence contracts as possible from both sides so as to boost their own sagging economies. It was good to note that at least Frontine has made an effort to strip the masks off these "peacemakers".

C. Ravindran
Vellore, Tamil Nadu

This has reference to Arundhati Roy's essay "War talk". World leaders acknowledge that they must choose between a path of peace and a suicidal course and that there will be no winners in a nuclear war.

Nuclear weapons generated fear only after Hiroshima and Nagasaki. But the fear did not prevent countries from stockpiling nuclear weapons and inventing more destructive weapons. Instead of ensuring peace, this fear created suspicion and tension. Such fear can easily lead to hasty, thoughtless, violent acts. Surely, the "balance of terror" that world leaders have created is no foundation for genuine peace.

Whenever pro-war sentiment grows strong, peace treaties becomes worthless. Is it realistic to think that world leaders will keep their word if selfish nationalistic interests dictate otherwise?

G.E.M. Manoharan
Coimbatore

Abdul Ghani Lone

Abdul Ghani Lone, the leader of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC), was a mainstream politician who turned separatist over the years but became a moderate once again ("The killing of Lone," June 21). A founder-member of the APHC, he wanted to solve the Kashmir issue through peaceful and democratic means. Also, he wanted the problem to be solved by the people of Kashmir and not by foreigners (read Pakistanis).

In the process of following the moderate route, he made enemies for himself within the Hurriyat; for instance, Syed Ali Shah Geelani of the Jamaat-e-Islami. Geelani wants Kashmir to become a part of Pakistan and has given the Kashmiri struggle a religious colour rather than a political one.

During a recent conference in Dubai, Lone met Sardar Abdul Qayoom Khan of Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir, who shared Lone's view that the Kashmir issue could be solved politically and not militarily. Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence and leaders like Geelani did not like this idea.

Lone's assassination is a signal to the moderate elements to refrain from participating in the Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir.

A successful round of elections is the only fitting reply to all those who work against peace in the valley.

S. Balakrishnan
Jamshedpur

Satyajit Ray

T.S. Satyan's reminiscences about Satyajit Ray make delightful reading ("A film-maker filmed", June 21). The article captures the personality of Ray with stark realism. He emerges as a lovable, earthy, humane and utterly simple human being.

The high point of the feature is the evocative pictures. In fact it is difficult to tell who describes whom, the author or the subject. They are so inextricably intermixed as Satyan follows Ray on his daily routine with a fascination bordering on hero worship. There is a lyrical quality to Satyan's writing.

H.R. Bapu Satyanarayana
Mysore

Presidential election

The nation's focus is on the next candidate for the presidency. The Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance has for obvious reasons ruled out a second term for K.R. Narayanan, citing convention. It has nominated A.P.J. Abdul Kalam with a view to securing the votes of the minorities in the next general elections.

I oppose the candidature of Kalam, with due regard for him as an eminent scientist. For one, the nation stands to lose the genius of Kalam as a nuclear scientist. Also, I am afraid, Kalam may not make a good President, a rank outsider that he is to the rough and tumble of politics. He is too noble, too academic, to be able to do justice to the office of President, especially in the context of the emerging phenomenon of coalition politics. Of late, the President is called upon to use his sagacity, wisdom and discretion in matters political. Kalam lacks the kind of experience that the present incumbent has had.

Jameel Ahmed
Mysore

A picture of poverty

The plight of the people of Nandurbar in Maharashtra reminded me of Amol Palekar's film Aadmi in which he virtually carries on his shoulders a pregnant woman to a faraway hospital through rough terrain during a heavy downpour ("The excluded people," June 7). I realise now that the film captured the true condition of villages in India. If this is the state of villages after 11 years of economic reforms, nine Five-Year Plans and the testing of nuclear bombs, God save them from the proverbial ostriches masquerading as leaders.

K.P. Rajan
Mumbai

Population

The author of the article "A troubling move" (June 21) seems to be making a mountain out of a molehill.

Krishna Singh, the member-secretary of the National Commission on Population, seems to suggest a carrot-and-stick approach centred around the two-child norm. What is wrong with this? Also there is nothing wrong in disqualifying persons who marry before the legally prescribed age from taking up government jobs, as provided in a Population Bill being contemplated in Uttar Pradesh. Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh already have such disincentives. If we wish to bring the total fertility rate (TFR) to replacement levels, that is 2.1, by 2010, we should be prepared to swallow some bitter pills.

Vinod Chowdhury
New Delhi

Kaifi Azmi

In his tribute to Kaifi Azmi ("An indefatigable poet-activist", June 7), Vishnu Khare says that the name Kaifi Azmi should read Qaifi Azami. Urdu or Hindi has no such word as Qaifi, and the poet himself spelt his name as Kaifi Azmi - Kaifi means one who is "intoxicated, happy, inebriated". In his book A History of Urdu Literature published by the Sahitya Akademi, writer Ali Jawad Zaidi gives the poet's name as Kaifi Azmi.

Also, the title of his poetry collection should be read as Awarah Sajdi (the book was withdrawn for some time following fundamentalist protests) and not as Awara Sijdi. Some Hindi dictionaries spell it as sijdi, but all Urdu dictionaries give the correct version, sajdi. Zaidi also refers to the work as Awarah Sajdi. That is how Kaifi saheb named the book. Let us not mix up Hindi and Urdu and let us give each language its due. Let these two (and all the other) flowers bloom.

Fowpe Sharma
New Delhi

Kumaratunga's perception

In her first Madhavrao Scindia Memorial Lecture, President Chandrika Kumaratunga of Sri Lanka aptly identified the two major factors that have bedeviled South Asian countries, including India, since their independence from colonial rule and the disintegration of the socialist bloc ("Building a pluralistic society - Managing change and diversity", May 24). These are: the failure to build a pluralistic society, where power is accorded to diverse groups within the nation and the failure of the state to extricate people from economic poverty and to build a developed society. As a result, in most countries troubled by terrorism, there is a demand to recognise ethnic or religious identities.

An in-depth study should be undertaken to understand and eradicate the root cause of such upheavals. The political aspirations of disgruntled people must be addressed seriously. Kumaratunga rightly observed that if we are to build stable nations, we have to seek alternatives to the concept of state sovereignty and blend power with principle and reconcile authority with freedom.

K.B. Padia
Ahmedabad

Narmada

While I was on a visit to the tribal villages affected by the Sardar Sarovar dam, I was shocked to learn that work on increasing the height of the dam by five metres had already started without the knowledge of the people who will be displaced by the submergence of their areas this monsoon. Four lakh Adivasis and farmers will be displaced, while the total number of people affected by various components of the project will go up to one million. The only just way to rehabilitate them is to give them agricultural land of at least the same quality as what they lost.

It is absurd that work on this socially unjust, environmentally disastrous, financially unviable project continues, while there are sensible, low-cost alternatives. What is even more unfortunate is that the drought-prone areas of Kutch, Saurashtra and north Gujarat will not get water from the dam - a promise that is made as a political justification of the project.

Is it too much to ask that the affected people are at least informed, if not consulted? How will the politicians and bureaucrats involved in the project react if they were forcibly evicted from their houses and their wealth was confiscated for the welfare of the poor in the name of the national interest?

Neeta Deshpande
Panaji

Musharraf's mandate

Apropos "Musharraf's mandate" (May 24), "gunpoint" democracy cannot replace people's democracy. No one contested against Musharraf in the April 30 referendum. About 4.4 crore people participated in the exercise. Ballot papers were sorted out and counted in a record time of 36 hours. Musharraf won a "landslide" victory, bagging 4.28 crore votes. It would have been better had he got the mandate from his defence forces because he cannot last in power even for a minute without their support. Since his American godfather has okayed his victory, he may say boastfully: "I am the President of Pakistan and have the permission of America (as long as I am acceptable to the U.S.) to say so."

R.N. Vaswani
Mumbai

Parliament Library

I found A.G. Krishna Menon's description of the new Parliamentary Library as the "guru" and the Parliament House itself as the king quite interesting ("Landmark library", June 7).

He, however, seems to have nearly forgot the "praja" while acclaiming the new addition to Indian "architectural tradition".

While I do appreciate his suggestion that the government open the library to the public, I wish the article had focussed on the rationality of spending Rs.200 crores on a library meant for a privileged few - politicians who find themselves unable to participate in a debate without hurling abuses.

Generally, a good library is beyond the reach of an average Indian unless he is a member of an organisation or an institution with its own library. University students did have access to good libraries. However, now the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library is off limits to even post-graduate students. And the less we speak of public libraries, the better.

I would like to point out to Krishna Menon that the New York Public Library is not famous for its architectural merits.

Aditya Pant
New Delhi

The Home Trade affair

The swindling of cooperative banks in Maharashtra and Gujarat not only represents a scandal but signifies the failure of the financial system ("Home truths", June 7). The difference is critical as it has a bearing on the way our financial system would evolve. To pass it off as another scam would only create more heroes out of rogue traders - Harshad Mehta and Ketan Parekh, and now Ketan Seth and Sanjay Agarwal. This is a case of sheer neglect by the regulators and the market intermediaries.

You have mentioned that the Reserve Bank of India became aware of the mismanagement of funds in the Nagpur District Control Cooperative Bank in November 2001. The RBI was perhaps right in gathering more information before it publicised the problem. But why did it take more than three months to convince itself that there was a serious trouble? And why did the RBI not alert the Securities and Exchange Board of India on Home Trade when it had evidence that the firm had lured the cooperative bank into committing irregularities? It is also surprising that the SEBI never felt the need for a probe when the company indulged in extravagant publicity campaigns the cost of which was highly disproportionate to its possible source of revenues.

If the government passes this off as another scandal and contends that the system is not to be blamed for intentional fraud, then more money will be lost.

Sridhar Chandrasekhar
Chennai

Palestine struggle

The articles on the Palestinian problem and Israeli aggression, particularly the one by Aijaz Ahmad, "The Nazification of Israel" (April 26), were noteworthy for the lucid analyses of the problem, which has defied solution for over 50 years. To say that it is only Israeli intransigence that has thwarted a solution would not be a proper understanding of the situation. The factor that has emboldened Israel to defy world opinion systematically and arrogantly is the unqualified diplomatic, economic and military support extended by the U.S. to it. American support to Israel is the result of the political and economic power play that goes on at Capitol Hill and the consequent need of successive American administrations to placate the powerful Jewish lobby.

Even as Palestinians cannot look up to the Americans to broker peace negotiations in an unbiased manner, they have enough reasons to feel let down by countries in their own Arab fraternity and the Third World. These countries have done little to strengthen the hands of the Palestinians. Arab regimes such as those in Saudi Arabia, Iran and Jordan have been more concerned about self-preservation than helping Palestinians. Though Iraq has the political will and the capacity to lead an anti-Israeli front, it is unfortunately not acceptable even to the Arab community. Third World countries have also not done anything more than showing lip sympathy; they have taken care to see that they remain on the right side of the U.S. Sadly, India is no exception to this. But it cannot afford to remain so any more if it expects to be regarded as a nation with a principled foreign policy approach. Countries such as China, India, South Africa, Russia, France, Germany and Japan should form an informal political association to tackle the Palestinian issue and take along with them the Arab nations. This group should bring pressure upon the U.S. to adopt a more constructive approach to the Palestine problem.

N.S. Sankararaman
Chennai

Iraq This is with reference to the article "A celebration of grit" by John Cherian (June 7). We respect the write-ups published in your magazine, especially the writings of John Cherian. However, we would like to present some clarifications regarding the references to Kuwait and its policies. The article refers to Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz's statement that Iraq had normalised its relations with all its neighbours, including Iran, Kuwait, Turkey and Saudi Arabia. Kuwait has not normalised its relations with Iraq till date as Iraq has not complied with United Nations Security Council Resolutions relating to the liberation of Kuwait. The resolutions specially related to the issue of prisoners of war (PoWs), the returning of stolen property, and the payment of compensation for damage caused during the occupation by Iraqi forces. Agreeing to the final statement made at the 14th Arab League Summit in Beirut does not mean normalisation of relations between Kuwait and Iraq. The other point that needs clarification is the one of Kuwaiti Foreign Minister shaking hands with Izzat Ibrahim of the Revolutionary Command Council of Iraq. Shaking hands with him does not mean that Iraq will release our PoWs. We will be more than happy to see our prisoners coming back to their relatives. However, Iraq is mishandling the Technical and Tripartite Committee of the United Nations, which was set up to solve the issue of PoWs, by not attending its meetings. Moreover, Kuwait does not have any Iraqi PoW. It has only Iraqi refugees and they have full freedom to return to their country. The point about Iraqi authorities saying that their country has been free of weapons of mass destruction needs clarification. They also argue that the economic embargo on Iraq was imposed because of the crisis over Kuwait. That issue has now been amicably solved between the two countries. The distinguished writer may have contacted our office to know the other side of the story and as the issues involving Kuwait have not been solved, especially the issue of PoWs, who include third-country nationals, including one Indian. We will appreciate if you publish this response in your esteemed magazine for your readers to know the other side of the story. We will be happy to receive any query from your magazine and we will be ready to reply, clarify and comment in regard to issues relating to Kuwait. Khaled Al-Razni Director Kuwait Embassy Information Centre New Delhi