AMID the mourning and shock after the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, there is still a glimmer of hope that her death may serve as a wake-up call for the secular and moderate forces in Pakistan (Cover Story, January 18).

If that happens, there is still a chance for democracy and a possible end to the long and disastrous power-sharing between feudal landowners and their military cousins.

Pakistan is now passing through the most uncertain period in its history, and unless intellectuals start campaigning for democracy, fundamentalists and the military will be calling the shots.

K.R. Srinivasan
Hyderabad

THE assassination once again brings to the fore the harsh reality that hardliners are in control in Pakistan. Anybody who dares to challenge their supremacy is bound to meet a deadly fate. Ultimately, the burden of ushering in real changes has fallen on the shoulders of the people of Pakistan, who are now shell-shocked and confused.

Arvind K. Pandey
Allahabad

THE assassination shocked the world. Benazir’s fight for democracy was a source of inspiration for people in many countries. Her absence is a big loss for the Pakistan People’s Party. The party must look for a strong statesman who can lead it. Benazir’s son Bilawal is too young to take on the responsibility.

Shailesh Kumar
Bangalore

THE assassination proves that Pakistan is still the epicentre of terror. President Musharraf has blamed Islamist militants, but his government has to explain how the gunman-cum-suicide bomber could get so close to Benazir’s car whose jammers too did not work. Why was the scene of crime cleaned up before forensic experts collected evidence? Pakistan is clearly being engulfed by the very demons which it created and nurtured over the years.

S. Balakrishnan
Jamshedpur

BENAZIR’S death has seriously impaired the prospect of democracy in Pakistan.

K.S. Jayatheertha
Bangalore

MUSHARRAF, until recently, was criticised at home and abroad for his refusal to shed his uniform. But nobody seems to have anything bad to say of Benazir Bhutto’s two tenures as Prime Minister.

Benazir has paid the price for daring to challenge the “mullahs”. Her death is possibly a retribution for the tyrannical regime of her father, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, who severely criticised the Pakistan Army’s defeat in the war of 1971. His vehement speech at the United Nations, vowing to fight a thousand-year war against India, cannot be forgotten either.

A. Meghana
Hyderabad

THE big question is: Who killed Benazir? It is, however, certain that Pervez Musharraf is the one who would gain most by her death. The United States now has no option but to rely on him.

M. Kumar
New Delhi

BENAZIR’S spirit will continue to haunt President Musharraf. He says he is not responsible for her death and has ruled out the involvement of the military and intelligence agencies in the assassination, but that will not help him. He will have to hand over the investigation to a reputable international agency and conduct the elections in a transparent fashion, with the representatives of the United Nations and other countries as observers. Also, Pakistan must return to democracy.

A. Jacob Sahayam
Thiruvananthapuram

IF the new leadership of the PPP is able to focus on rooting out terrorism and work for progress, there is still hope for Pakistan.

N. Vijayaraghavan

THE media in India are giving undue importance to Benazir. Certainly, her end was tragic. But as far as India is concerned, Pervez Musharraf is preferable to Benazir Bhutto. He might sometimes make bombastic comments but he has a fair idea of India’s strength.

S. Raghunatha Prabhu
Alappuzha

THE Congress has only itself to blame for the Bharatiya Janata Party’s thumping victory in Gujarat (“Modi’s mandate”, January 18). With no chief ministerial candidate to lead the campaign, it expected the BJP rebels in its camp to work some sort of magic.

If it had joined hands with the Bahujan Samaj Party, the alliance would have won at least 10 more seats. Of the State’s population, 15 per cent are Adivasis, 40 per cent Other Backward Classes and 9 per cent Muslims. Gujarat will be a green pasture for the BSP in the near future if it gets its strategy right.

K.V. Mujeebulla Salmiya,
Kuwait

MODI was fighting not only the Opposition but also his own partymen, the RSS and the VHP. He also had to contend with unfriendly government staff. The people of Gujarat overwhelmingly voted for the “development man”. Let us give due credit to the phenomenon called Modi.

H. Srinivasan
Chennai

IF the two-thirds majority secured by the BJP in the Assembly elections came from the “communal” and “casteist” Hindu voters driven by Narendra Modi’s rhetoric and his “Hindutva” agenda, how will one explain the BJP’s victory in Himachal Pradesh? The Congress was voted out of power in Himachal Pradesh because of its bad performance while in Gujarat the BJP was returned to power for the good performance of the Modi government.

M.C. Joshi
Lucknow

Literacy

IT is appalling that after 60 years of Independence India still has the largest number of illiterate people in the world (“The other India”, January 18). The political system is to blame for this situation. Political parties, particularly those in power, do not want a high literacy rate. Access to education would make people more critical of the performances of governments.

Jetling Yellosa
Warangal, A.P.

Moon mission

ASIAN giants seem to be in an undeclared race to the moon (“Mission mode”, January 18). The article brings out the effort by engineers and scientists of the Indian Space Research Organisation to accomplish this object.

That ISRO is already planning Chandrayaan-2 reflects the level of confidence of its scientists.

Nithin Kumar
Bangalore

Orissa violence

THE killings in Orissa and the vandalising of churches are condemnable (“Black Christmas”, January 18).

In a secular country like India, the religious freedom of every citizen should be respected. Such fanatic violence against any faith should be dealt with firmly.

Vinoj Matthew Philip
Chennai

Pallavas

Pallavas were not natives of Andhra Pradesh as mentioned in the article “Royal shrines” (January 18).

Epigraphical and classical literary sources of the period mention that the Pallavas were initially subordinate rulers of the Cholas in the northern region of what is now Tamil Nadu.

Some inscriptions also describe Pallava king Skanda Varman’s invasion of the Satavahana territories in Andhra. He is said to have burnt down royal palaces and Buddhist, Jain and other educational centres patronised by the Satavahanas.

K. Sethu Madhavan Gurgaon,
Haryana

Partition

I RESPECT Sadhana Gupta’s well-researched letter (December 21, 2007) on my article “1946: A fateful year” (December 7, 2007). The points raised are legitimate but, I submit, not valid. There are two vital differences between the “reservations” made by the Muslim League and by the Congress.

For Jinnah and the League, it was a climbdown from a sovereign Pakistan to a group within a federal India. For the Congress, it was a triumph. As H.M. Seervai wrote in his book Partition of India: Legend and Reality, “the Muslim League could not be expected to give up Pakistan ‘in sack cloth and ashes’; the reservations enabled the Muslim League to come down from its high perch of Pakistan”. The other difference is more pertinent.

Nehru said publicly that the groups would be wrecked. The Congress asserted a right not to work the Cabinet Mission’s Plan in order to secure its objectives but to “interpret” it as it wished. Jinnah claimed no such right. The Plan enabled a province to secede from the group in which it was placed, albeit, after the first general elections.

It had, however, no right to secede from the Union. The Congress rejected the grouping itself. But Jinnah did not assert he would secede, regardless of the terms of the Cabinet Mission’s Plan.

A.G. Noorani
Mumbai

Chavez

THE article “Down, for now” fails to take into account the fact that Hugo Chavez was seeking a mandate that would make him President for life (January 4). It is like a young leader of the Congress or the Bharatiya Janata Party proposing a constitutional amendment to be leader for life? It is not desirable for any country to have a one-party or a one-person rule for decades.

J. Nathan Nyack
New York

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