Quick salvation

Sir — The mountain may not have come to Muhammad in the old adage, but Indians have managed to bring the holy waters of Mahakumbh right into their homes. Those who did not get the opportunity to travel to Prayagraj to take a dip at sangam need not worry about washing away their sins for people are doing brisk business by bottling water from the sangam and selling it on instant delivery apps like Blinkit — spinach, scallions and salvation are thus all delivered right at one’s doorstep in 10 minutes. With an estimated potential revenue of nearly one crore rupees from selling just one lakh bottles, this business idea highlights the lucrative nature of faith-driven commerce in India. In the country, faith is not priceless — it is profitable.

Piyush Sharma,
Lucknow

Clarity needed

Sir — Donald Trump, the president of the United States of America, is notoriously fickle (“Shrill noise”, Feb 25). New Delhi must be in a real dilemma over his contradictory pronouncements. His latest claim that the $21 million earmarked by the United States Agency for International Development for enhancing voter turnout in India was meant to go to his “friend”, Narendra Modi, is concerning. What is even more worrying is that instead of refuting his revelation, the only response from the government has been the external affairs minister, S. Jaishankar, saying that “facts will come out”. However erratic he may be, Trump’s claims cannot be dismissed as implausible. A White Paper on USAID funds granted to India is imperative to clear up the concerns surrounding Trump’s charges.

G. David Milton,
Maruthancode, Tamil Nadu

Sir — The Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, must clarify whether US funds were used by the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government in last year’s Lok Sabha elections. The Election Commission of India must carry out an independent inquiry into this matter.

Manoharan Muthuswamy,
Chennai

Sir — While the Indian government must engage diplomatically with the US to ensure that there is transparency about the mysterious $21 million that is in the eye of the storm at the moment, the Opposition must avoid politicising unverified claims. India’s electoral integrity is at stake.

Gopalaswamy J.,
Chennai

Shameful incident

Sir — The media is using the suicide of a Nepalese student at the Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology in Odisha to create sensation. This has left other students at KIIT and their parents worried. Political parties are no better. Every party is using this incident to score brownie points. The state government has formed a high-level committee to probe the incident. We should await the results of the inquiry and not make the lives of other students at KIIT difficult by stoking the embers of this controversy.

Susant Pal,
Bhubaneswar

Sir — The student suicide at KIIT has cast a shadow over Indo-Nepal relations. The allegations of racism against the KIIT staff are shocking. This reflects the general attitude of Indians towards the Nepalese community. How can Indians forget the contribution of the Gorkhas to the armed forces? Such xenophobia must be rooted out of society. The Government of India must address the concerns of the Nepalese community in India so that regional ties between the two nations do not suffer.

Kirti Wadhawan,
Kanpur

Sir — The incident at KIIT highlights, once again, the mental health challenges in India’s higher educational institutions. Offering students counselling is not enough. The government must take stringent action against the perpetrator and ensure the safety of the foreign students.

S.S. Paul,
Nadia

Sir — It was hasty and immature to issue suspension notices to around 1,000 Nepalese students studying at KIIT and ask them to leave the campus immediately. This will have an adverse impact on India-Nepal ties. It is a shame that the Nepal government had to seek diplomatic recourse to ensure that the students are reinstated in the hostels. The focus of the college authorities should be an immediate investigation into the suicide and not humiliating the country further.

R.S. Narula,
Patiala

Strange decision

Sir — It was surprising to learn that the Indian railways paid the ex gratia relief of Rs 10 lakh to the next of kin of all 18 victims who died in the stampede at the New Delhi railway station in cash (“Stampede ‘cover-up’ cry after rail video ‘gag’”, Feb 22). Similar cash disbursals were made after the Balasore train disaster. When the government prides itself on having brought a majority of Indians into the formal banking sector, what prevents the Indian railways from paying such a huge sum to the bank accounts of the recipients? In these days of digital banking, accounts can even be opened online for those without one. Cash disbursals undermine transparency, increase the risk of misappropriation by intermediaries, and encourage bribery. They also do not leave an audit trail for future verification.

Kamal Laddha,
Bengaluru

Health first

Sir — The news that three in five Indians face premature deaths after a cancer diagnosis is concerning (“3 in 5 cancer patients face premature death”, Feb 24). The government should equip general hospitals and rural and urban health centres to conduct periodic checks on citizens. This will require a larger share of the budget to be allocated to healthcare as well as price caps on lifesaving medicines so that, once diagnosed, patients do not have to go bankrupt to get treated.

A.G. Rajmohan,
Anantapur, Andhra Pradesh