Morals before marriage

Sir — Mita Porey has taken an exemplary stand by refusing to marry Sagar Das, who was harassing her family for dowry (“Bride rejects dowry shark”, March 24). This incident should inspire many others in a country where women are routinely tortured and even killed by their in-laws for dowry. Porey’s determination not to marry her extortionist husband-to-be would encourage young brides to take a similar position. However, she should have intervened earlier and stopped her father from giving her prospective in-laws Rs 51,000, along with furniture and jewellery.

Yours faithfully,
Priyanka Dutta, Calcutta

Driving force

Sir — Raj Thackeray’s militant campaign against non-Marathis has come to haunt many in distant Bengal (“Hounded out by Sena, families turn penniless”, March 26). Being an ambitious political party, the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena of Thackeray could not be happy merely with the ritual vandalism on Valentine’s Day. As a contender to the Shiv Sena, it had to hijack the latter’s platform, and perform better. Hence the renewed thrust on driving ‘foreigners’ out of Maharashtra. This divisive politics is ruining the poor migrants, who were trying to make an honest living in a city far away from home. For Thackeray’s goons, it does not matter if fathers can no longer educate their children or sent money for the medical care of the old.

If we are to go by Thackeray’s argument that non-Marathis are redundant in Maharashtra, perhaps the party should begin at the top. The MNS should banish non-Marathi film stars, sportsmen and entrepreneurs who live in Mumbai. However, the party is unlikely to do this since political leaders like Raj Thackeray stand to gain from the rich and the famous. If the non-Marathi entrepreneurs are driven out of Mumbai, some other city will take its place as the financial capital of India. Thackeray should remember that Mumbai did not automatically become the proverbial city of dreams — it became so because of the contribution of those who migrated to the city.

Yours faithfully,
Priyanka Aich,

Washington DC, US

Sir — The so-called north-Indians and east-Indians (according to Raj Thackeray and his thugs) should organize themselves and boycott the most important industry of Maharashtra — Bollywood. They should hit the fanatics where it hurts them most. If the rest of the country turns its face away from the lifeblood of Mumbai, would Raj Thackeray’s MNS continue tormenting the poor with such vigour? Not only is his separatist party causing irreparable damage to the image of the city, it is destroying lives. Take the case of little Chandrani (“Hounded out by Sena...”), whose treatment will now be stalled because her father has lost his job in Mumbai.

Yours faithfully,
Ajit Kundu, Calcutta

Sir — It is ironic that the West Bengal IAS Officers’ Association has emphasized that non-Bengali civil servants posted in the state learn Bengali (“What’s special?” March 24). Bengal’s bureaucrats are no better than Raj Thackeray in their parochialism. The move is possibly an attempt to disqualify non-Bengali officers from getting posted to Bengal in a bid to accommodate officers from the ranks of the West Bengal civil service. Since civil servants are required to serve across the country, they are expected to know Hindi, the national language, alongside English, which is commonly spoken across India. Picking up any other regional language could be an added advantage for such government officers. But fluency in the regional language cannot be imposed as part of their job profile.

Yours faithfully,
S. Mukherjee,
Burdwan