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Shebaa Farms
THE article "Empire comes to Lebanon" by Aijaz Ahmad is a useful introduction to the latest conflict between Israel and its Arab neighbourhood (Cover Story, August 11). Ahmad refers to the Shebaa Farms (occupied by Israel) as territory claimed by both Lebanon and Syria. However, Syria has, at the United Nations, formally relinquished any claim to the Shebaa Farms.
Lebanese nationals, therefore, have the right to resist Israeli occupation in this piece of land. Hizbollah acted entirely within its rights under international law and the 4th Geneva Convention in resisting this occupation.
It also means that all those, including the British journalist Robert Fisk, who have said that the solution for this particular conflict between Israel and Lebanon lies in negotiating with Syria, have it wrong. It is only Israel that keeps insisting that Shebaa Farms is a part of Golan Heights and therefore negotiations for it must be with Syria.
Garry Zatzman
FRONTLINE has done a service to the nation by enabling veteran columnist A.G. Noorani to ask President Pervez Musharraf penetrating questions relating to Kashmir (Cover Story, August 25). The President's answers reflect his farsighted policies. One fondly hopes that South Block structures the country's foreign policy in such a way as to give peace a chance.
Rev. Thomas Edmunds
THE interview was informative and educative. Musharraf answered questions candidly and optimistically. His observations about Prime Minister Manmohan Singh are very true. Manmohan Singh is a man of sincerity, substance and vision. Musharraf's strong will to resolve the issues between the two countries must also be praised. Any `institutional arrangement' that helps the Kashmiris on both sides of the Line of Control is welcome.
Sudesh Kumar Sharma
Hudood laws
THE article "Veils and jails" (August 25) by Rafia Zakaria is a sad commentary on the inhuman state of affairs for women in Pakistan under the Hudood Ordinances. The root cause of the problems in Pakistani society is the persisting dominance of the feudal gentry in the ruling establishment, both its in military and in civilian forms, for whom clerics are always handy to keep the people in perpetual ignorance.
Kasim Sait
Speculation
THIS is with reference to C.P. Chandrashekhar's column ("Speculation moves forward", August 25). His suggestion to ban futures trading in essential commodities is not correct. Prices of wheat have been pushed up by a shortfall in production, just over 69 million tonnes against an estimated 73 million tonnes in 2005-06. Further, to say that futures prices are driving spot prices is not right as futures prices are based on spot prices and not the other way round. If the writer's theory were correct, the so-called hoarded stocks should have been flowing into the market once imports started coming in, which has not happened. One must remember that consumption of wheat is fixed in quantity, and people do not consume more merely because it is cheaper. Lastly, futures prices are now lower than the spot prices. According to the writer's argument, market prices should have been falling, which has not happened.
Madan Sabnavis
Terrorism
FROM the 1993 serial blasts to the train bombings in Mumbai last July, India has witnessed several terrorist attacks that have claimed the lives of many innocent civilians ("Tackling terrorism" by R.K. Raghavan, August 11). In tackling terrorism, India must confront two major problems, religion and poverty. Religion in India has been exploited as a divisive force, rather than as a cohesive one.
Rahul K. Kumar
R.A. Mashelkar is a member of the Inter-ministerial group on Data Exclusivity and not its chairman as mentioned in the article "Data for leverage" (August 25).
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