Clan feeling Sir ? Sir ? It must have dawned on M.K. Gandhi?s granddaughter that if the magic of the Gandhi surname can enable an Italian lady to take colossal strides in national politics, why should she not exploit it to the hilt (?Family brand name?, July 17)? That Sumitra Kulkarni, a true blue Gandhi, doesn?t want to be left behind by the political bandwagon is understandable. She probably feels her lineage should mean more to the people than Sonia Gandhi?s, who is an alien trying to prove she is a diehard Indian. That too when power beckons her. And as a former Congresswoman Kulkarni is not unaware of the fact that her being a Gandhi is of little consequence to a party reduced to being a jagir of the Nehruvian clan. No wonder she has thrown in her lot with the Bharatiya Janata Party in the scramble for New Delhi. Only Kulkarni can?t honestly own up to this. Which is why she insists her choice lies with the BJP because the mahatma?s ideals are being upheld by the saffron league. Is the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh listening? Yours faithfully, Anjana Mitra, Calcutta Award winner loses all Sir ? The Congress spokesperson, Ajit Jogi, may have said more than he intended to when he recently denounced the demand that Dilip Kumar return the Nishan-e-Imtiaz (?Congress jumps to actor?s defence?, July 9). He reportedly asked, ?We have bought tonnes of sugar from Pakistan. Will the government return it because of the Kargil conflict?? Jogi compares? rather, equates ? Pakistan?s award with the sale of sugar by that country to India. We have bought sugar from our neighbour by paying for it in international currency. Is he trying to say the actor also purchased his award by payment in some form? And since we know why we cannot return the sugar, is the filmstar? inability of a similar transactional nature? Jogi comes across as such an expert on the intricacies and channels through which awards are traded from and to Pakistan. Sonia Gandhi ought to tell us if she shares his views. More so, given his tasteless comment does not really help the actor he pretends to champion. As for the question of giving up the Nishan-e-Imtiaz, that was always entirely Dilip Kumar?s business. Everyone is not a Rabindranath Tagore ? a man who repudiated his knighthood following the Jallianwala Bagh massacre. Dilip Kumar seems not to consider Pakistan?s intrusion into Indian territory offensive enough. One thing Jogi should have spared us is his self-serving mention of Morarji Desai, a recipient of the Nishan-e-Pakistan. How does he know whether or not the late former prime minister would not have given up his award on the very day Pakistan?s breach of the line of control was revealed? Or perhaps Jogi made use of the argument precisely because Desai is not available to clarify his position on this issue of patriotism. Yours faithfully, N.B. RoyBarrackpore Sir ?In my mind, the Nishan-e-Imtiaz fracas raises many issues. One, the Nobel laureate who rejected his knighthood cannot be compared to a Hindi film actor, however eminent and successful the latter may be. Two, a man who considers himself Indian in the truest sense of the term, would not hesitate to refuse honours from those who betray his country. Three, if he harboured needling doubts about the rightness of such action, the images of soldiers with hacked limbs and gouged eyes would have silenced them. Four, Dilip Kumar says Indians do not know what he has done for India-Pakistan ties. What about what Atal Behari Vajpayee did? Did bus diplomacy and the historic Lahore accord amount to anything at all? Five, as per opinion polls on television, more than 80 per cent of India?s viewing public felt Dilip Kumar ought to have spurned the award. Then why did the actor (who says he cares about India and Indians) refer the matter to the prime minister unless it was a clever way of putting Vajpayee?s ?secularism? on trial? Yours faithfully, Bijon Bagchi, Calcutta Sir ? After promising friendship, Pakistan stabbed India in the back. But Dilip Kumar alias Yusuf Khan refuses to give back the Nishan-e-Imtiaz. According to him, it is a symbol of Indo-Pakistani amity ? the very thing in tatters following Kargil. We have come to believe such friendship is a farce ? but Dilip Kumar is, of course, wiser than all of us. He says people are raising a controversy for no reason and that their demand makes no sense. Why should he, says he, face a personal defeat at the hands of irrationality, more so since his gesture would not have lifted the spirits of soldiers laying down their lives in Kashmir? A man who gives the impression an award weighs more than the lives of jawans will naturally see brotherhood where it does not exist. We should leave him in what he thinks is peace. Yours faithfully, Vivek Vardhan, Bokaro Steel City Sir ? Dilip Kumar defended his decision to keep the Nishan-e-Imtiaz by saying, ?We are creative people, we belong to a different ethos. We do not have a regimented political behaviour or thinking? (?Dilip Kumar mulls Mumbai adieu?, July 11). The actor should be reminded that one of India?s most creative personalities, Rabindranath Tagore, refused the knighthood conferred on him by the British queen during colonial rule in order to show his love for his countrymen and protest the massacre at Jallianwala Bagh. Tagore?s act is recorded as one of the golden moments in the history of India?s struggle against alien yoke. I hope I am not mistaken in thinking Dilip Kumar has no objections to accepting that gurudev too belonged to the category that goes by the ?different ethos? of creativity. Only, being a lover of art and culture does not necessarily clash with being a lover of humanity or country. Which is why Tagore did not have to go to anyone in order to seek advice on what his own conscience told him to do. Yours faithfully, S. Bhattacharjee, Kharagpur Sir ? Dilip Kumar is not a politician. He is a great artist. And he is as much a nationalist as any Indian. It is his dream that India and Pakistan should unite and live as one nation. And he thinks the proper duty of politicians is to see to it that the country prospers and that the poor and downtrodden are looked after. His idea of leaders has nothing to do with their ability to jump on to every politically encashable bandwagon. There is no reason a nishan-e-Hindustan should give up the Nishan-e-Imtiaz simply because being patriotic today means toeing the line of jingoists. Yours faithfully, K.K. Thakkar, Mumbai Letters to the editor should be sent to: The Telegraph 6 Prafulla Sarkar Street Calcutta 700 001 Email: the_telegraph_india@newscom.com Fax: 225 3240/41