THE U.S. killed bin Laden whom it had labelled a terrorist, but it should also introspect on whether the death of thousands (if not millions) of innocent people in Iraq when it declared war on Saddam Hussein on the false pretext that he had links with Al Qaeda and possessed weapons of mass destruction was justified (Reviving a demon, June 3).
The statements of Pervez Musharraf and other Pakistani leaders that the operation by U.S. commandos was an attack on Pakistan's sovereignty are ironic. After all, it was they who gave in to President George Bush, when he told Musharraf after the 9/11 attacks: Either you are with us or against us [on the war against terror].
ElectionsWHILE only time will tell whether those who won deserved to win, one can say without hesitation that those who lost certainly deserved to do so (Cover Story, June 3). The Left was the major political grouping to be affected by the election results. It has been emasculated in West Bengal, where it lost its political moorings and took people for granted. It will have to reinvent itself within a multiparty framework.
The Tamil Nadu result probably marks the end of the M. Karunanidhi's political career and might even mark the end of his party unless he decisively settles the question of succession.
THE Left misjudging people's sentiment owing to overconfidence and its alienation from the rural poor are the prime factors behind the fall of its bastion in West Bengal (A bastion stormed). Of late, the CPI(M) has become a party of the middle classes.
When it came to power in West Bengal for the first time, the Left did a great job by adopting a series of policies for the economic uplift of the rural poor. The decay began after 1990, when the seeds of defeat were sown. The incidents at Singur and Nandigram were the last nails in the coffin of the Left Front government. However, now the people of the State expect a lot of the new government, which will have to deliver good governance.
THE election results in West Bengal and Tamil Nadu proved that Indian politics is going towards a multiparty system and is thus becoming federal in character. While, on the one hand, the forces of globalisation are at play, on the other, there are forces of localism. Federal politics also has led to the growth of multiculturalism and pluralism, leading to the realisation of the twin federal ideas of shared rule and self-rule. Federalism has by and large coped with such forces and shown remarkable flexibility.
I feel that Indians do not want a revolution; rather they would prefer evolution, which is why the struggle for independence took so long to achieve its goal. Even after Independence, it was almost 30 years before single-party rule was thrown out. These election results confirm that the maturity level of Indian voters is increasing.
IT is indisputable that the people of Tamil Nadu felt relieved when the DMK was defeated (Clean sweep). Rampant corruption at every level was one of the many factors that contributed to the party's rout. This issue was more important than the unbridled price rise of essentials, the frequent power cuts, and so on. DMK office-bearers, from the lower levels right to the top, blatantly spread their tentacles in almost all spheres of life to gain undue advantages. Consequently, there was widespread disillusionment with the government in spite of the distribution of freebies and cash.
THE rout of the DMK in Tamil Nadu shows the growing resentment and anger of the electorate against rampant corruption, the rise in the prices of essentials, power cuts, the breakdown of law and order and, above all, the family rule of Karunanidhi. The hallmark of these elections was the high voter turnout, especially in urban areas. One hopes that Jayalalithaa and company will not misuse their power and the government machinery to indulge in vindictive politics.
THE Kerala voter came to the brink of bucking the trend but complied with the law of change once again. The voters of Tamil Nadu have sent the message that they want welfare measures, not freebies. In West Bengal, the land question that originally took the Left closer to the hearts of peasants and sharecroppers landed it in trouble later.
In Kerala in 1957, in the first general election that brought the undivided Communist Party to power, it had a slender majority. History has repeated itself in 2011, with the people giving the non-communist United Democratic Front a thin majority. The similarity, of course, must end there.
IN the Cover Story article on Assam, it was stated that the supporters of the AIUDF are immigrant Muslim settlers (Gogoi's hat-trick). But these people are not immigrants. Their forefathers migrated from the eastern Bengal of the undivided India; three or four generations have been living in Assam.
The AIUDF has also been called a communal party. But it is considered to be a secular party by most people in Assam except for some leaders of the Congress. The Congress government in Assam has played such an anti-Muslim role that some people consider it to be more communal than the BJP.
EndosulfanKUDOS to R. Ramachandran for telling the real story behind the endosulfan controversy (Lethal mix, June 3). It is true that corporate lobbying and commercial motives are the real reasons for a particular product being promoted over another. In the medical field, many expensive, newer antibiotics are promoted irrationally by pharmaceutical companies. A simple drug such as crystalline penicillin, in spite of being the drug of choice for common conditions such as pneumonia, is never promoted because it is very cheap and would not give the companies much profit. Allergic reactions to it, even though not very common, are magnified. The results are that antibiotic resistance has increased manifold, and people end up spending thousands of rupees on medicines to treat even simple infections. It is true that money is the root of all evil.
THE fast against endosulfan led by the erstwhile Chief Minister of Kerala was only to score political points. Kasaragod is the only place in India where the adverse effects of endosulfan use have been reported, and ironically, it is the only place where aerial spraying of endosulfan is sought. The previous governments in Kerala are the culprits here because they failed to ban the aerial spraying of the chemical. It is unfair to target the Centre, and it is high time the victims were rehabilitated. The Centre should find cost-effective alternatives to endosulfan.
Osama killedIT has taken the U.S. more than a decade after the attack on the twin towers to kill Osama bin Laden (Reviving a demon, June 3). That he was in Pakistan confirms the fact that this country is a haven for militants. The U.S. and the rest of the world must boycott Pakistan and stop funding it.
THE search for and the killing of bin Laden in Pakistan raises the question whether India can conduct a similar operation to sniff out terrorists camps in Pakistan or get Dawood Ibrahim. Such a move would certainly lead to a full-scale war between the two nations, perhaps even a nuclear war. It is only good in theory to say that if the U.S. and Israel can do it, why cannot India?
Deendayal M. Lulla MumbaiJapanIT is shocking how inept the Tokyo Electric Power Company has been in handling the failures in the nuclear reactors affected by the earthquake and tsunami (Sombre spring, June 3). Unfortunately, it appears that the concerns of shareholders and apprehensions about lawsuits outweighed issues of nuclear safety.
India should be wary of multinational companies that may set up shop taking advantage of the much-hyped nuclear agreement with the U.S.
Katta panchayatsTHE article on the katta panchayats operating in Dharmapuri district was an eye-opener (Ruling by decree, June 3). Although the administration claims action is taken against them, the ground reality is different.
Katta panchayats are normally headed by men from dominant castes and have a gender and caste bias. It is also intriguing that some panchayat heads are government servants.
Narendra ModiTHE Cover Story on Narendra Modi was unconvincing and at times appeared to be one-sided (Ghosts of Gujarat, May 20). For instance, while highlighting the affidavit of the former IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt, the report ignored the fact that Gujarat's former DGP K. Chakravarti rubbished Bhatt's claims. Bhatt has to prove the veracity of his account and give a convincing explanation why he waited nine years to come out with his story. The appreciation Modi receives from various quarters is as baffling as the vitriol against him in the media.
Arab springIN Tottering equations (April 8), it was wrongly stated that Libyan King Idris was ousted in a 1988 military coup. The coup was on September 1, 1969.
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