Cruel bounty
Sir — Bounty hunters are expected to chase down dangerous criminals and bring them to book when law enforcement agents fail to do so. A couple of Taiwanese bounty hunters, however, are tracking down something far less sinister. They have been hired to take down green iguanas, a pest in Taiwan. Once introduced as exotic pets, iguanas eventually bred rapidly and began ravaging farmlands. The hunters shoot these iguanas and, allegedly, leave the creatures injured on the ground before bundling them up to incinerate them en masse. Surely there is a more humane way to cull pests. After all, it is not the iguanas’ fault that they were taken out of their natural habitat, which has predators like hawks and snakes to ensure that their numbers do not get out of hand.
Shovon Bose, Howrah
Shameful treatment
Sir — Indians who expected that the prime minister, Narendra Modi, would succeed in convincing the American president, Donald Trump, about the plight of the Indian immigrants who were handcuffed and put in chains while being deported from the United States of America must be disappointed (“Deportees in chains, again”, Feb 17). The second and third batches of deportees, too, were treated like the first batch. This highlighted the skewed nature of the relationship between India and the US. To borrow from George Orwell, all countries are equal but some countries are more equal than others. The Trump administration’s use of handcuffs on Indian immigrants humiliated India. The Indian government’s silence regarding this issue is worrisome.
G. David Milton, Maruthancode, Tamil Nadu
Sir — The Indian media might call the talks between Narendra Modi and Donald Trump in the Oval Office a victory for Modi but India did not gain anything from his visit. On the contrary, most of the decisions taken during the meeting met Trump’s conditions. The US has agreed to meet only one of India’s demands: to extradite Tahawwur Rana, who is wanted in the 26/11 Mumbai attacks case, to India.
The resolution of the trade deficit between India and the US also went in the latter’s favour. In 2024, the US’s trade deficit with India was $45.7 billion. Trump has vowed to close this gap by forcing India to purchase American weapons and fuel. Modi could not ensure a decent passage for Indian immigrants back to India. Along with the threat of reciprocal tariffs, the image of the chained Indian immigrants will surely dent India’s impression in the world. Simply rephrasing Trump’s ‘Make America Great Again’ into ‘Make India Great Again’ will not earn Modi any political brownie points.
Jang Bahadur Singh, Jamshedpur
Sir — The deportation of over a hundred Indian illegal immigrants from the US on February 5 in a military plane with their legs in chains and hands in cuffs had sparked widespread outrage and protests. The Centre’s response to this was inadequate, with Narendra Modi failing to address the issue during his meeting with Donald Trump or during their joint press conference. Another batch of 116 immigrants was deported on February 15, two days after the Modi-Trump meeting. The Centre’s silence on the treatment of Indians is reprehensible.
S.S. Paul, Nadia
Sir — A third US aircraft carrying Indian immigrants landed at Amritsar with people in handcuffs and chains. With the worsening quality of life in India, critics of illegal immigration should assess whether people who stay here have it any easier than people who try to escape to first-world countries. The Indian government’s ineptitude, be it at crowd management or at receiving immigrants humanely, is condemnable.
M.C. Vijay Shankar, Chennai
Sir — The US sending Indian deportees back in handcuffs exhibits a blatant disregard for human rights and is a symbol of Donald Trump’s might-is-right approach. It is also an example of Narendra Modi’s inability to diplomatically deal with the Trump administration. Indians must now see through the media’s fabricated bromance between Modi and Trump.
Asim Boral, Calcutta
Judged by a cover
Sir — The decision by Sean Manning, an executive editor at Simon & Schuster, to make blurbs optional for upcoming books is laudable (“The cover story”, Feb 16). Blurbs, which are often cryptic and misleading, are selectively culled from longer comments shared by celebrities. Their reading of books in advance is usually an activity pursued with disinterest with the sole purpose of glorifying the authors. For the common readers, the taste of the pudding must lie in eating: there is no way to judge a book without reading it.
Debapriya Paul, Calcutta
Sir — The decision by Simon & Schuster to make book blurbs optional is strange. According to one of their executive editors, such blurbs are nothing more than concocted publicity. Although some blurbs are highly exaggerated, others accurately depict the author’s skills or the book’s contents. Blurbs might not make or break books but they help upcoming authors by giving them a boost. It is unlikely that other publishing houses would follow Simon & Schuster’s lead.
Tapes Chandra Lahiri, Calcutta
Maternal care
Sir — The article profiling Madhusree Dasgupta, the founder of the longest-running crèche in Calcutta, was fascinating (“The Hand that Rocks the Cradle”, Feb 16). Moved by the predicament of middle-class working mothers, who supplemented their families’ income during the refugee crisis in Calcutta in the 1970s, she founded a crèche, Dolna, to take care of the children. She is fondly called ‘Aunty Mashi’ for creating a home away from home for the children.
Jahar Saha, Calcutta
