Ayodhya

The Central Reserve Police Force personnel must be praised for their bravery in foiling the suicide attempt at Ayodhya and for saving the country from communal violence ("Back to Ayodhya", July 29). But the failure of the intelligence agencies is condemnable.

The suicide attack in London has exposed the failure of the U.S. war against terrorism. Both attacks also point to Pakistan. Will the U.S. ask Pakistan to come clean and take action to stop the menace of terrorism?

Akhil KumarDelhi

* * *

The general view in the political arena that the Ayodhya attack can be manipulated to revive the Hindutva agenda is implausible. The parties repeatedly claiming themselves to be secular have ignored the imperatives of national security.

Dhirendra MishraAllahabad

London blasts

This refers to your two in-depth reports and wonderful essays on the London bomb blasts ("Striking at London", July 29). "Terrorists will never succeed in destroying what we hold dear in this country and in other civilised nations throughout the world." This was how a shocked British Prime Minister Tony Blair reacted to the blasts. Did Blair and George W. Bush not destroy the sovereignty and the national pride of the Iraqis, values that they hold so dear in their own countries?

Rajan KepeeReceived on e-mail

* * *

It is rightly said that terrorism breeds terrorism. There is a strong resistance to acts of terror throughout the world. When the military forces of the United States and the United Kingdom bomb Iraq it becomes a war on terror; but when terrorists retaliate and set off a series of bomb explosions in Madrid or London, it is called terrorism. What does it mean? It only betrays the double standards of the big powers.

R.R. SamiTiruvannamalai, Tamil Nadu

* * *

Aijaz Ahmad's essay was an excellent and enlightening analysis of the July 7 terrorist attacks vis-a-vis involvement of Britain in the wars on Afghanistan and Iraq. Britain ought to have stayed out of these wars led by the U.S. Universal condemnation of terrorist attacks is not enough to put an end to the menace.

The root causes of these attacks and their political and military aspects have to be addressed before waging a global war on terrorism, as designed by the sole superpower.

V.K. Sathyavan NairKottayam

Sethusamudram project

I do not see any danger to Sri Lanka from the Sethusamudram project ("A channel and a division", July 29).

Digging the sea within the Indian side of the Palk Straits is not a matter for the Sri Lankan government to worry about.

Irshad CassimReceived on e-mail

Posco deal

There is a big hue and cry over the Orissa government's deal with South Korean Steel giant Posco Steel ("Challenging a deal", July 29). This MoU has been signed in the interest of direct foreign investment in Orissa. There were talks even 10 years ago to start a steel plant. But the new deal has dismayed Opposition leaders and some leaders in the ruling party.

Any such project should be undertaken in the interest of the State and should help its people.

But in this case, Posco will be allowed to take raw material/iron ore to its main plant in South Korea, which will be detrimental to the economy of the State and will be a huge drain of its mineral resources. Moreover, 37 steel plants are too many for the State's mineral wealth.

P. KannanSrivilliputtur, Tamil Nadu

The case of Imrana

Why has Imrana not been allowed to live with her husband ("Fighting for Imrana", July 29)? It is her life and in India equal rights are given to everyone, irrespective of religion.

Whenever the issue of rights comes up, political leaders say that Hindus and Muslims are equal. But now, why has Imrana's father-in-law been let off?

Kriti RoyReceived on e-mail

Business of education

Jayati Ghosh has zeroed in on the reasons for the inertia gripping the planning process when it comes to government funding of education. ("Business of education", July 29). She has also touched upon a possible way to shake it off; the knowledge of those in the field of education, who understand that it is "a source of continuing joy," could be incorporated into a truly democratic perspective for society as a whole. Here is a perception that the sharing involvied in the learning process has a value; a joy that makes life worth living. An elegant fusion of the ethic of democracy and the logic of economics.

Vasantha SuryaChennai

Films

The film reviews were excellent ("The war enters the home" and "A Bengali lost in Bollywood", July 29). One provides an insight into the films based on the underworld, and the other touches upon various aspects from Sarat Chandra's simplicity to Bollywood's complexity.

DushyantNew Delhi

Manuscript paintings

The article "A treasure trove from Assam" (July 29) on ancient manuscripts was enlightening, especially for people outside the State. And it made people aware of the importance of this treasure. The awareness and interest created by such articles will help in the preservation of this invaluable tradition.

Simantik DowerahDibrugarh, Assam

* * *

The article unfolds the layers of Assamese art with a comparative study of other schools of arts of that time. Love for the arts is fading. It is our duty to preserve this cultural heritage of our forefathers. We should inculcate love and curiosity for the arts in our children.

AzimuddinAligarh

Child brides

It is a matter of great concern that child marriage is widespread in India despite laws banning it ("Child brides of India", July 15). In India, there are many girl children who are hardly allowed to experience a childhood. Child marriage is linked with other factors such as poverty, superstition and illiteracy.

Shitanshu BhartiPatna

* * *

The cover story was informative and thought-provoking. It is by enforcing the law that such social evils can be eradicated successfully.

Sipra SagarikaCuttack, Orissa

* * *

Child marriages present a rather bleak picture of an India aiming to secure a place among the global giants. Such outdated traditions are inextricably linked with poverty and, more precisely, with ignorance. Determined efforts by government agencies, NGOs and village panchayats might put an end to such evils.

Arvind K. PandeyAllahabad

Farmers' stir

It was shocking to see the photograph of a farmer injured in police firing being carried away by policemen on sticks. ("Dying for water", July 15). In a country where more than 70 per cent of the population relies on agriculture, the fortunes of farmers depend on timely monsoons even 56 years after Independence.

Deepak YadavKanavani, Uttar Pradesh

Reservation for Muslims

The Andhra Pradesh government's decision to provide additional reservation in education and employment for Muslims is detrimental to others who are not covered by the reservation scheme ("Reservation row", July 15).

J.S. AcharyaHyderabad

Dalits and temples

It is shocking that the Madras High Court directive on the Kandadevi temple issue could make only 16 more Dalits participate in the festival, compared to last year's figures ("The Caste Juggernaut", July 15). A notable aspect of the entire drama is the involvement of the CPI(M), which will help strengthen the case of Dalits.

HariVirudhunagar, Tamil Nadu

IISCO merger

After having read about IISCO's imminent closure over the past few years, it was heartening to know that the Union Cabinet has now cleared the merger of the 130-year-old steel plant with SAIL, India's steel behemoth (Update, July 15). There should be no problem in the Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction giving the approval for this merger as IISCO has now come `out of the red' and has started making profits.

S. BalakrishnanJamshedpur

Reliance

The intervention of Kokilaben D. Ambani and K.V. Kamath to find a settlement by dividing the Rs.99,000-crore empire built by Dhirubai Ambani as fairly as possible between the two brothers is indeed a relief to millions of shareholders who had invested their hard-earned money in Reliance ("An empire split", July 15).

I hope that the brothers will uphold their father's legacy.

Nithin ChandranKannur, Kerala

Archives

This is with reference to A.G. Noorani's thoughtful review article of four books which have a bearing on India's foreign relations policy, based on archival material available in other countries ("Our secrets in others' trunks", July 15). The review appears at a time time when the declassified Nixon-Kissinger conversation recordings and other startling documents relating to the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War have been released, showing the duo in poor light.

This exposure was possible only because of the willingness of the authorities concerned to fulfil the U.S. legal provision to make public any classified material after 30 years.

They even include records that have the potential to damage the reputation of the government. In contrast, as Noorani points out, in India even almost century-old documents freely available in archives in other countries are not open to scholars.

A.K. DasguptaHyderabad

U.S. strategy

I do not agree with John Cherian's view that the "United States is looking for allies in the region to gang up against China" ("Cautious steps", June 17). Every thinking person in this country knows that the U.S. and China are not foes but friends in trade and in the war against terrorism.

G. Krishna NathKochi

War on Iraq

The articles by John Cherian and Owen Bowcott were quite interesting and informative ("The heat is on" and "A different mission", July 15).

The question arises as to who has given the power and authority to the U.S. to invade a sovereign country and take control of its wealth - oil in this case.

The U.S. invaded Iraq under the pretext that it possessed weapons of mass destruction, but no trace of the weapons was found. In fact, the U.S. possesses more weapons of mass destruction than the rest of the world put together.

S.P. SharmaMumbai

Smoking ban

So far as the ban on smoking in public places is concerned, the decision is not wrong. But the extension of the ban to cinema amounts to "cultural policing", which should be opposed ("A smoking controversy," July 1).

Mohd. Faheem KhanBilaspur

Adichanallur excavation

The article on the Adichanallur excavation was informative ("Iron Age site at Adichanallur, July 1).

Although in the recent past there were attempts to rewrite our history by the saffron brigade ("Harappa, a tale of two horses", November 24, 2000; "Gulf of Khambat, an expose", March 15, 2002), scientific analysis and multi-disciplinary research are yielding positive results.

Your informative article has shown that there are fresh aspects coming up in scholarship. But the process should be speeded up. A site such as Adichanallur has to wait 200 years for further excavation.

The artefacts and other relics discovered so far in southern India form an unbroken series, showing that there has been a regular evolution of culture, which was never rendered discontinuous by any catastrophe. Yet this region has not got the attention that it deserves. Sir Vincent Smith rightly observed, "Hitherto most historians of ancient India have written as if South India did not exist."

Rajib MukherjeeAsansol, West Bengal