Blood brothers

Sir ? Other than military rule, all the retrograde characteristics of Pakistan listed by S.L. Rao in ?Beyond this place? (Jan 3) may be applied equally to India. Ultimate victory in a war must necessarily be political. We surrendered a part of Kashmir in 1947, and again after the 1965 and 1971 wars despite holding the trumps. Rao omits to mention that Indira Gandhi was pressurized by her own Kashmiri caucus at Shimla not to settle the Kashmir problem. The so-called Shimla Agreement is a gigantic fraud. Pervez Musharraf?s exercise of realpolitik is far superior to that of A.B. Vajpayee and Manmohan Singh. He has used terrorism with impunity since our only response has been to plead with all and sundry to restrain Pakistan, implying that we are incapable of fighting our own battles. It seems we are unable to see beyond Pakistan. Incidentally, Pakistan is one-fourth India?s size.

Yours faithfully,
J.K. Dutt, Calcutta

Imaginative account

Sir ? Ashok Mitra?s delusional deconstruction of history in ?On rendering accounts? (Jan 7), where he deliberately downplays P.V. Narasimha Rao?s significant achievements as prime minister by attributing them to accidents of history is, even by Mitra?s lofty standards, too much a product of imagination and paranoia. Mitra?s account, if contrasted with one?s recollections and those of other journalists and columnists in India and abroad, would seem so drastically different that one would wonder whether they are at all writing about the same events.

Nothing new needs to be said about Rao and his achievements, first as foreign minister and then as prime minister of a country at possibly the most crucial juncture in its post-independence history. He was a leader of a democracy and so he couldn?t possibly make everyone happy with all his decisions, or indecisions, as was at times the case with Rao. But depriving him of the agency for his actions is the worst kind of travesty. Mitra?s fiction, predictably, has the usual suspects ? the Indian Cabots and Lodges, the Washington Consensus and the rest. One wonders when Mitra will use his admirable prose to write a fiction of a different kind: how communism destroys the lives of millions, obliterates institutions and cultures and otherwise thriving economies. Wake up, Mitra. History has passed you by and trashed your sacred gospels.

Yours faithfully,
Atanu Neogi, Framingham, US

Sir ? Ashok Mitra tells us that the decision to liberalize the Indian economy was made in consultation with institutions in Washington. There isn?t a scintilla of evidence to support such claims. Decency and journalistic standards demand that Mitra either furnish proof or refrain from making such unsubstantiated charges. On the other hand, the Marxists have a long and well-documented history of collusion with foreign powers.

Yours faithfully,
Gopal Vaidya, New Delhi

Beyond help

Sir ? The editorial, ?Helping hand? (Dec 29), while expressing concern over the bribing of voters by unscrupulous politicians like Laloo Prasad Yadav, Shibu Soren, Mohammad Shahabuddin, expects the Election Commission to punish such violators of the election norms ?to send out a message to all politicians?. In fact, bribing voters is not limited to open payments in cash. Voters are bribed with promises of urgently needed development projects and facilities of various kinds.

If the EC debars them from contesting they can always put up proxy candidates as Yadav did with his wife Rabri Devi. Moreover, politicians like Yadav are canny enough to fool people by turning every adversity to their advantage. Take the way he has ordered free transport of relief materials by the railways for the tsunami victims, as if he had the choice to do otherwise. No regulation can rectify the inherent weakness of our democracy until the people are educated enough to see things in perspective and exercise their franchise freely. The EC should prevent political parties from influencing the tsunami-affected by putting a stop to their so-called humanitarian activities in the ravaged areas. They should also be stopped from visiting the victims in this hour of crisis, which only adds to the problems of those they pretend to help. All donations should be routed through the administration or non-political NGOs.

Yours faithfully,
Asit Kumar Mitra, Calcutta

Sir ? Of late, ?scam? and ?minister? have increasingly come to be spoken in the same breath, especially in Bihar. But George Fernandes seems to have got a harsher punishment for a comparatively lesser offence (?Under-scanner Fernandes ?ready to be jailed??, Dec 27). The family needed help badly, and had been driven to suicide out of hunger. It was only natural for someone to provide money to them. It is also true that the EC had to remain impartial. The video footage left it with no choice. May be it was a gesture of generosity on the part of Fernandes, which was tarnished due to bad luck.

Yours faithfully,
Archisman Bhattacharya, Calcutta