Opposition Unity

The panacea proposed for Opposition unity in ‘In search of an Opposition’ (Nous Indica) is unacceptable to the ‘yes men’ in the Congress, with the exception of Rahul Gandhi himself. None in the party is ready to read this writing on the wall. The sooner the Congress realises the importance of the regional satraps the better it stands to gain its lost ground and fading glory. It will have to stoop to conquer. Federalism is going to be the dominant spirit of the pragmatic political scenario in the days to come.

DV Sharma, Mukerian

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Selfless leadership

Reference to ‘In search of an Opposition’, the writer has rightly suggested the role of Rahul Gandhi as facilitator for a non-BJP PM in the next Lok Sabha polls. History is witness that whenever any selfless leader, without any political ambition, tried to dislodge the contemporary regime, he got success. Mahatma Gandhi, Jayaprakash Narayan and Anna Hazare have proved it.

Naresh Johar, Amritsar

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Credit goes to Indira

PM Modi deliberately omitted the name of Indira Gandhi while addressing a congregation to celebrate the Swarnim Diwas of the 1971 war. He named Mukti Bahini and our brave soldiers, but failed to mention Indira Gandhi in his speech. This reminds one of an incident when Vajpayee was foreign minister in the Morarji Desai government. He noticed that Nehru’s portrait was missing from South Block. He asked his staff about it. He quotes, ‘I then asked where did it (portrait) go? I got no reply. That portrait was restored.’ This shows his statesmanship. By not mentioning Indira Gandhi, Modi has confirmed that he stands nowhere close to Vajpayee in stature and statesmanship.

Arun Hastir, Gurdaspur

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Celebrate together

On the eve of Swarnim Vijay Diwas, while paying tributes to the Indian Army, the wilful omission of the name of Indira Gandhi smacks of political vendetta (‘Forgetting Indira’). When the nation celebrates such achievements, it should be above politics, and all political parties must participate in them, forgetting their political rivalry.

TR Bajaj, by mail

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Not a true picture

Apropos of ‘Not a licence to kill’, surprised to see the poor knowledge of the learned former DGP, a known name! And in his own words ‘that I have no business pontificating on something I have not experienced myself’ and still writing on the subject! Rashtriya Rifles soldiers are young soldiers and are not ex-Army soldiers. The officers likewise are young and not at the fag end of their service as claimed. The Indian Army is the most humane army in the world and most experienced in fighting insurgencies. It is wrong to state that ‘to use their lethal weapons is embedded in their psyche.’ When the CAPFs are not able to control insurgencies as a last resort the government calls the Army. What an absurd logic has been put forward by Patricia Mukhim that the ‘hill tribes are not one of us and are “aliens” or the “other”, will not arise when the combatants are both tribesmen fighting on opposite sides.’ Assam Rifles have for ages been considered the friends of the hill people and the Army has a large percentage of hill people. I am also amazed at their arguments on ‘to have or not to have AFSPA!’

Col RC Patial (retd), by mail

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Rape no laughing matter

The shameful statement on rape made by a Congress MLA, who was also a former Speaker of the Karnataka Legislative Assembly, is highly deplorable. It is more shocking that along with him, many members laughed at his quote. This kind of attitude is unpardonable, as it is one of the reasons why rape is not viewed seriously as a crime in India. As such women are not safe anywhere, and such statements, made while sitting on constitutional posts, make it all the more harrowing. Such men with a perverted mindset are not fit to run the nation. They need to be condemned in public.

Gehna Vaishnavi, Panchkula

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Terror havens

It is known that Pakistan has numerous terror outfits on its soil and those are supported and tasked by the deep state (‘Pak’s terror havens’). As Pakistan has covert nod of China, the terror activities go on unabated, especially against India and Afghanistan. It is time for the international community to take concrete steps to force Pakistan to shut these terror havens.

Subhash Vaid, New Delhi

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Twin factor

Apropos of ‘Amritsar conjoined twins Sohna, Mohna excited to vote for first time’, they should be given individual voting rights as they are two different souls living in the same conjoined body. It will be better to give them separate rights so that they can choose their own candidate and be part of our democratic society.

Passang dema, Mohali

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