Wrong prompt
Sir — The real trick to using ChatGPT effectively lies in crafting the right prompt. Pakistan’s leading English daily, Dawn, had a howler recently when it accidentally published a story containing an AI-generated response to a prompt — despite its strict anti-AI policy. The slip understandably sparked debates over editorial oversight, prompting Dawn to issue an apology. Yet, one might ask: aren’t governments, corporations, and businesses everywhere already relying on Artificial Intelligence to make their work easier? It seems most want to use the AI hack, but are the first to pull down anyone caught doing it.
Divyangshu Jain,
Delhi
Divisive tactic
Sir — The prime minister, Narendra Modi, has a penchant for blaming the Congress Party for every historical wrong. In the most recent instance, he alleged that the Congress’s adoption of only the first two stanzas of the national song, “Vande Mataram”, in 1937 sowed the seeds for “division” in India (“Modi reopens Vande Mataram Pandora’s box”, Nov 8). Such an accusation is malicious and condemnable. According to the historian, Sugata Bose, it was Rabindranath Tagore who suggested adopting only the first two stanzas of “Vande Mataram” for singing at the Congress’s gatherings. The prime minister needs to brush up on the history of Independence before making such statements.
M.C. Vijay Shankar,
Chennai
Sir — The erstwhile committee set up by the Congress, comprising stalwarts like Rabindranath Tagore, Subhas Chandra Bose, Maulana Azad, among others, had advocated for the adoption of only the first two stanzas of “Vande Mataram”. But the current ruling regime is championing the rendition of the song in full, thereby sowing the seeds of division in the country (“A mirror”, Nov 11). The zealous sponsorship for the adoption of the complete version of “Vande Mataram” is an antic to invoke Islamophobia to reap electoral dividends.
Kajal Chatterjee,
Calcutta
Sir — Narendra Modi’s comments against the Congress for adopting a truncated version of “Vande Mataram” came amidst the assembly elections in Bihar. Modi, who criticises Jawaharlal Nehru and his legacy at the drop of a hat, should know that it was on the suggestion of Rabindranath Tagore that the last four stanzas of “Vande Mataram”, which have references to Hindu goddesses, were excluded from the national song.
Bidyut Kumar Chatterjee,
Faridabad
Sir — The French philosopher, Voltaire, had famously questioned, “Is politics nothing other than the art of deliberately lying?” Prime Minister Narendra Modi seems to be following this axiom to the letter. His latest contention is that the Congress Party deliberately dropped the last four stanzas of “Vande Mataram” to appease Muslims.
Modi and his ilk want people to forget that the founding fathers had to forge a nation by taking into consideration a broader view of the country’s ethos and not the narrow, parochial perception of India that the saffron parivar indulges in today. Modi’s comments can thus be seen as an attempt to change history through wrong interpretations and false narratives.
S. Kamat,
Mysuru
Sir — The national song, “Vande Mataram”, which once united the people of India, has now become a tool to divide us. At an event commemorating 150 years of the song written by Bankimchandra Chatterjee, Narendra Modi could not rise above politics and sought to attack India’s founding fathers.
“Vande Mataram” is a call for unity, sacrifice, and pride in Mother India. In today’s free and democratic India, which is plagued by divisions of religion, region, and language, its message is even more relevant.
N. Nagarajan,
Secunderabad
Stark vision
Sir — David Szalay’s Flesh won the 2025 Booker Prize edging past the frontrunner, Kiran Desai’s The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny. Szalay offered a starkly different yet ambitious vision: the life of István, who moves out from a modest Hungarian housing estate into London’s elite, navigating desire, ambition, and the unvarnished realities of human existence. Flesh is a meditation on corporeality, vulnerability, and social aspiration. Its sparse prose and deliberate silences render each encounter, moral compromise, and fleeting intimacy with sharp realism.
Vijay Singh Adhikari,
Nainital
Remote war
Sir — The tragedy unfolding in Sudan is a grim reminder that the world’s empathy is unevenly distributed (“End it”, Nov 10). While the Ukraine war dominates global discourse, Sudan’s civil war, now in its third year, bleeds in silence. The over 150,000 lives lost and the millions displaced in Sudan have been reduced to statistics. What began as a contest for power between two generals has morphed into a battle for control over resources. Yet, amidst the ruins, ordinary Sudanese display quiet heroism — sharing food, teaching children, and keeping hope alive. The world must support the victims. Silence, in this case, is complicity.
K. Chidanand Kumar,
Bengaluru