Unwilling to be friends

Sir — Two of the eleven men in blue, who made sure that Pakistan did not walk away with the trophy in the “friendship” series, represent Baroda (in Gujarat) in the Ranji Trophy — Irfan Pathan and to a lesser extent, Zaheer Khan. While the Indian political establishment — from the prime minister to the opposition leader to chief ministers — has got itself in a tizzy to congratulate the team, Narendra Modi, the Gujarat chief minister, has been a conspicuous absence. Is he peeved that the two main architects of the victory in Mian Musharraf land turned out to be from the minority community?

Yours faithfully,
S.K. Palchowdhury, Calcutta

Contending kins

Sir — If the report, “Fort setting for dynasty drama” (March 19), by Rasheed Kidwai is to be believed, then Digvijay Singh, the former chief minister of Madhya Pradesh, is supposed to have a fort at Rajgarh. The fact is that Singh’s fortress home is in Raghogarh in Guna district, whereas Rajgarh, a separate district, is the constituency from which he held a parliamentary seat in the past. It is Raghogarh which was a part of Gwalior state, and not Rajgarh, as reported by Kidwai. Rajgarh was a separate covenanting salute state, which acceded to the Indian Union after independence. I trust Kidwai will be more careful about facts in future.

Yours faithfully,
M.N. Buch, via email

Rasheed Kidwai replies: The story is about Rajgarh parliamentary seat in which Raghogarh is an assembly segment. Thus, Buch’s “sense of history” has no relevance to the story or its focus on the relations between Digvijay Singh and his brother, Laxman, getting sour.

Sir — The stage is set. The elections this year have already taken to driving families apart. The split between the former chief minister of Madhya Pradesh, Congress’s Digvijay Singh, and his brother, Laxman Singh, was one of the first cases. The interesting thing about this story is that it seems to prove that blood is thicker than water: Digvijay Singh is distinctly unwilling to field his wife against his brother. In most of these cases, the BJP has gained by systematically driving a wedge through Congress strongholds. However, it tasted some of its own medicine when Uma Bharti’s brother deserted the party.

Yours faithfully,
Sumant Poddar, Calcutta

On the hit list

Sir — How many elephants must North Bengal lose before the Northeast Frontier railway authorities sit up and take notice? (“Railway comes under forest fire”, March 19). In a way, the accident was inevitable. In a meeting between representatives of railway authorities in Siliguri, the members of the Rakhyan Environment Society had repeatedly pressed for the implementation of speed limits. However, the railway authorities failed to give us any such assurance, leading us to believe that the railways are not serious about preventing these elephant deaths.

Now that broad gauge trains are plying at regular intervals on this new route, there will be a rise in such accidents. The forest authorities have to convince the railway ministry to remove the tracks that run through the elephant corridors if these animals are to be saved. If the ministry of environment does not give adequate importance to this problem, North Bengal is likely to lose one of the most beautiful creatures that the region and the country have.

Yours faithfully,
Nelson A. Petrie, Siliguri

Sir — I recently came across the photograph of Dona Ganguly with Kelucharan Mahapatra, published in The Telegraph on March 6. The exponent of Odissi dance is seen in the photograph wearing leopard claws around his neck. The leopard is an endangered species listed under Schedule I of Wildlife (Protection) Act. The act prohibits killing, capturing, injuring and even using any parts of the body of the animals included in the list. Perhaps a good idea would be to refrain from publishing such photographs that can send wrong signals.

Yours faithfully,
S.R. Banerjee, via email