Sri Lanka

The assassination of Lakshman Kadirgamar shows that the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam has no interest in the Sri Lankan peace process (Cover Story, September 9). It is a pity that people like Prabakaran think that they can get away with anything in this world.

Anushkahimali Received on email* * *Professional education

The Supreme Court's verdict against reservation in unaided self-financing professional colleges will be helpful only if admissions are based purely on merit ("Turning the clock back", September 9). But it is unlikely that the college managements will give priority to merit. They will be more interested in candidates ready to pay the capitation fees. For them, transparency in this regard is a liability. The court verdict will only help them amass wealth.

If the political parties are making noises, it is solely because of their vote bank politics. More than 250 politicians are said to own self-financing colleges.

P. Kannan Srivilliputtur, Tamil Nadu* * *

Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh's promise to enact a law to negate the impact of the Supreme Court verdict is illogical and meaningless.

The verdict is based on the principles of natural justice. Private professional colleges spend huge sums of money to maintain standards prescribed by the University Grants Commission. So long as they do not avail themselves of financial assistance or grants, no government can impose quotas for admission. Governments are not prevented from starting educational institutions and offering seats to the underprivileged.

N. Sridhar ChennaiGaza

Aijaz Ahmad's essay was interesting and informative ("The `withdrawal' hoax in Gaza", September 9). The unilateral withdrawal move of Ariel Sharon seems to be aimed at conveying to Muslim countries the impression that Israel is doing something for Palestinians. The truth is that Ariel Sharon has no sympathy for them. Imagine the plight of 1.1 million people being held hostage by the blockade of road, air and sea links and the construction of concrete barriers on the land borders. The economic blockade has severely affected the Gaza people and two-third of them live below the poverty line.

M.M. Nasir Received on e-mailNanavati report

The Prime Minister's assurance that his government would reopen all the "cases" relating to the anti-Sikh violence of 1984 and the demand of the Bharatiya Janata Party, tainted by the Gujarat pogrom, that he should "apologise" for the killings are farcical ("1984 - the untold story", September 9). The Nanavati Commission report makes a mockery of the idea of official accountability.

J.S. Acharya Hyderabad* * *

The Nanavati Commission's report has opened a Pandora's box. The Congress is trying to whitewash the truth. What is the point in setting up commissions of inquiry when their findings get overshadowed by hypocritical stances? One wonders whether the Prime Minister's apology is enough to assuage the feelings of those who lost everything in the riots.

Arvind K. Pandey AllahabadNaxalites

The article "A violent turn" (September 9) provides an insight into the dubious and reprehensible methods adopted by the Maoist outfits. It seems the naxalites, Al Qaeda and the LTTE cannot and will not change their ways.

M. Rajaraman Villinanur, Tamil NaduMumbai floods

Frontline did a marvellous job in exposing the builder-politician nexus and its consequences for Mumbai ("Rain havoc", August 26).

Tamal Mukherjee Rajkot, Gujarat* * *

That the `rain havoc' in Mumbai could have been avoided had there been forewarning is only an afterthought.

Jagadish Ch. Choudhury Barpeta, Assam* * *Jinnah

A.G. Noorani's articles on Jinnah and Partition were incomparably lucid and captivating. His forceful assertion that "Indians and Pakistanis must come to terms with Jinnah's record in its entirety" is unexceptionable in principle and as a moral exhortation, but, in practical terms, it is most likely to remain only a pious hope as far as Pakistanis are concerned.

Few Pakistanis would countenance the idea that there is something "to come to terms with" either in Jinnah's record as such or in the Partition saga as a whole. And they would probably be right, if one thinks unemotionally and from their viewpoint. After all, they do not even mildly regret Partition; they applaud and celebrate it - as `liberation', `deliverance', and so on. What is freedom movement for Indians is the `Pakistan movement' for them. Jinnah spearheaded that movement and, in the eyes of Pakistanis, `single-handedly' got them a separate homeland and a sovereign nation-state. Hence, for any Pakistani, Jinnah committed (and could commit) no mistake - `grave' or otherwise. His canonisation is total and his pre-1940 record might as well be a big void.

In contrast, inasmuch as we Indians were completely devastated by the terrible tragedy of Partition that continues to haunt and torment our consciousness to this day and inasmuch as Jinnah was the clear `victor' we do have "to come to terms" with his record "in its entirety" if we are to have any honest appraisal of him. That, however, by definition entails also an honest (re)appraisal of Gandhi and Nehru, whom we too, on our part, have canonised and deified no less.

Sharad Panse Pune* * *

Jinnah was a secularist in mind but was an opportunist in reality. He dreamed of being remembered as the father of the new nation. He used religion as a tool to achieve his political ambitions.

Saif Kashmiri Received on e-mailGurgaon

It is a shame that even in a developed society and democracy such as ours, the police could have committed such an atrocity ("Target, trade unionism", August 26). It is also a matter of shame that the government has not taken any action against the Deputy Commissioner who was present when the police confronted the workers.

Sriram Bajrang Bulusu Bangalore* * *

Praful Bidwai rightly makes a case for a "new deal" for labour in the wake of the Gurgaon incident but offers a prescription that has proved to be a failure. The changing industrial situation, with emphasis on globalisation and multinational companies, has made the traditional way of maintaining labour relations obsolete and irrelevant. Skilled workers of today prefer a work regime that recognises merit and facilitates faster career growth. Unfortunately, trade unions still retain a mindset that identifies labour interest with strikes. Managements need to put in place mechanisms for fairer appraisal of labour and grievance redress.

J.M. Manchanda New Delhi* * *

It is difficult to agree with Praful Bidwai that the Haryana Police have a different culture because its members are drawn from certain communities that take pride in macho forms of aggressive behaviour. If this is true, military personnel belonging to Haryana would have shown similar attributes while dealing with insurgency and terrorism on the border. We often criticise the police irrespective of what they do to deal with a given situation. If they are proactive and take some preventive action, we blame them for interfering with our freedom. If they remain inactive we condemn them, and when they react we call them brutal. We should be objective and fair in our criticism of the police.

J.P. Gupta Received on e-mailReligious schools

Bhaskar Ghose's supposition that the madrassas in India are unlike those in Pakistan is questionable ("The crusade of the spirit", August 26). Madrassas in Pakistan were no different from their Indian counterparts until the ascension of Zia-ul-Haq to power. These schools in India or elsewhere engage themselves in infusing religious values and beliefs in their students with a view to making them able soldiers of Islam and it is the circumstances that define their goals.

J. Sriram HyderabadLondon blasts

Aijaz Ahmad's Essay "Resistance, in a time of terror" (August 12) vividly captures the events that occurred after each act of terrorism. It was the ordinary people who became victims.

Bidyut Kumar Chatterjee FaridabadBooks

John M. Alexander's review article on Amartya Sen's The Argumentative Indian marks a remarkable departure from the general race of reviews which eulogise the book and recommend it as a "must read" for all educated Indians.

Amartya Sen's conception of India as "supportive" of various religious experiences is not based on sound reasoning. The coexistence of various religions cannot be understood as a sign of the country's supportive role. How can its dominant Hindu religion that is divided into disparate caste categories, arranged hierarchically and based on notions of purity, play this role. Hinduism maintains a safe distance not only from the "lower castes" but also from other religions seeing them as inferior to itself.

S. Singha Chodhury HowrahStem cell research

The article gave a lot of information about an emerging area in the medical field but there were some gaps as well ("The Stem of Hope", July 29). First, it does not appreciate the role of umbilical cord blood, which is very rich in stem cells, in stem cell therapy. Stem cells obtained from it can be used to cure not only a patient but also near relatives. Second, in enumerating the fears about the use of stem cells, the writer fails to appreciate the possibility of stem cells turning into cancer cells.

Ankur Garg Chandausi, Uttar Pradesh

Correction: The Meiteis are a non-tribal community living in Manipur, and not a tribe as described in the article "Rediscovering a heritage" (September 9). The error is regretted.