Letters to the Editor

Sabarimala

The present crisis in Sabarimala can be attributed to a well-planned conspiracy by the BJP and other Sangh Parivar affiliates to incite believers to create trouble (“Pilgrimage politics”, December 7). With this, the BJP aims to gain political mileage and establish political hegemony in a State where it has a meagre presence. When the State BJP president addressed cadres of the Yuva Morcha in Kozhikode, he said that amid the prevailing confusion in Sabarimala, “it is a golden opportunity” for the BJP to expand its vote base.

His view was amply supported by BJP president Amit Shah, who said recently at a public meeting in Kannur that he would not hesitate to pull down the democratically elected government in the State if it implemented the Supreme Court verdict. Besides this, the BJP’s Kerala general secretary sent a circular to all district party offices asking them to send trained volunteers to Sabarimala to prevent the government’s attempts to implement the verdict. Let us hope the Supreme Court will untangle this Gordian knot when it examines the writ petitions on January 22.

N.C. Sreedharan, Kannur, Kerala

THE BJ P has no inhibitions about taking contradictory stands to suit its politics and to remain in tune with the RSS when it comes to issues such as women’s entry into holy places like Sabarimala in Kerala and the Haji Ali Dargah in Mumbai (“Battleground Sabarimala”, November 9). The same bullying tactics are being used to pressure the apex court into expediting the judgment in the Ayodhya land dispute case. It exposes the BJP’s character of changing its colours to beguile people and keep their attention diverted from the issues arising out of the BJP government’s shoddy performance.

M.N. Bhartiya, A lto-Porvorim, Goa

THE recent escalation of tensions in Sabarimala can primarily be attributed to the fact that the State government and the Travancore Devaswom Board refused to discuss the problem with all the stakeholders, particularly devotees, to find an amicable solution to it. The government should have taken steps to nip the trouble in the bud instead of allowing it to snowball into a full-blown crisis.

The government’s failure to make any effort to file a review petition against the order only resulted in it antagonising many people.

B. Suresh Kumar, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu

Renaming places

THE move to rename Ahmedabad, Allahabad and Faizabad is just a futile exercise to divert the attention of the public from the real issues that the nation is faced with (“Ahmedabad as Karnavati”, December 7).Changing the names of cities will cause confusion and may have an adverse effect on cities that are well known for various reasons. In no State has any study been done to measure the impact of such changes. The government and businesses incur a huge expenditure when cities are renamed.

Hence, no more changes should be made. Changing names does not lead to an improvement in development.

A.J. Rangarajan, Chennai

The CBI imbroglio

THE comprehensive coverage of the sequence of recent events with regard to the CBI, with valuable information about the organisation since its inception, made the Cover Story (November 23) worth reading. The internecine war between top bureaucrats does not exist only in the CBI but in most other government departments, too.

The eruption of differences in the CBI is nothing but the culmination of the phenomenal corruption that crept into the system a long time ago and grew with time. It is alleged that such trends set in because people under investigation prefer to bribe the investigating agency to avoid the excruciating judicial process that would ensue. Undertrials who have strong political backing only complicate the situation. One cannot deny that bureaucrats are often reduced to the status of pawns in the hands of those wielding power. Therefore, the infighting in the CBI could be the beginning of a disaster of larger proportions.

Jaideep Mittra, Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh

Khashoggi’s murder

SAUDI ARABIA has lost face after the exposure of the brutal killing of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi in its consulate in Istanbul(“Riyadh’s mea culpa”, November 23). This act is a huge blow to freedom of expression and journalism. It is unbelievable that the Crown Prince was kept in the dark about such a serious matter, and his sudden apology for the incident is entirely farcical.

The Turkish President deserves credit for exposing such an inhuman crime to the world.

Vidhya B. Ragunath, Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu

The migrant caravan

THE idea that people can enter the U.S. without proper documentation claiming refugee status is crazy (“March of migrants”, November 23). There is a world of difference between “refugees” and economic migrants. Some one to three million people are believed to be economic migrants to the U.S. The U.S. lifeboat will sink if these millions join over a million legal immigrants. President Donald Trump is right when he says that there is a problem. But the U.S. needs to help more people do better in their native countries.

Santhosh Mathew, Puducherry