Paltry offering

Sir — Romantic unions inspire joy and goodwill. But the lavish wedding of the Amazon chairman, Jeff Bezos, and Lauren Sanchez in Venice evoked mass protests by Venetians. The demonstrations were aimed against the poor working conditions at Amazon and the fact that choosing Venice as a wedding venue would spur imitations and lead to overtourism. Interestingly, Bezos and his partner refused wedding gifts and asked the guests to make donations to the city of Venice which ultimately amounted to three million euros. That is a paltry sum given that Bezos is one of the richest men in the world.

Natasha Gomes,
Mumbai

Horror, again

Sir — In a gruesome incident, a 24-year-old law student was allegedly gang-raped inside South Calcutta Law College by a practising lawyer and former student while two others watched (“ATROCITY”, June 28). Dishearteningly, Mamata Banerjee, the chief minister of West Bengal, has still not condemned the incident. This sets a wrong precedent and might embolden perpetrators to continue to commit heinous acts. The culprits should be punished severely.

Jayanta Sinha,
Calcutta

Sir — Less than a year after the horrific rape and murder of a young woman doctor at R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital, another woman has been violated in an educational institution in the city (“Shamed again”, June 29). In 2012, the gang-rape of a 23-year-old medical student in a moving bus in Delhi triggered intense protests across the country and led to the formulation of stringent laws. However, the continued violence perpetrated on women shows that such laws have failed to act as deterrents.

P. Victor Selvaraj,
Tirunelveli, Tamil Nadu

Sir — After grabbing headlines across the country last August, the gang-rape incident at R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital gradually receded to the inside pages of the newspapers. The victim’s parents must be lauded for continuing to seek justice. It took another gruesome rape incident to jolt the city into reality. How many rapes will it take before the government sits up and takes cognisance? The media must keep highlighting such stories so that the nation does not forget.

Arunava Sen Gupta,
Calcutta

Sir — It is shocking that a lawyer, professionally entrusted to uphold the law, has allegedly raped a student. In another rape incident in the city last year, the accused had murdered the victim. Thankfully, this has not been the case in the South Calcutta Law College incident. The victim has defied social stigma to lodge a complaint with the police against her violators. The onus is now on the authorities to provide her justice.

Bal Govind,
Noida

Crucial difference

Sir — Ramachandra Guha deserves plaudits for pointing out the “forcible expulsion of Indian Muslims to other countries” by the Narendra Modi-led regime (“Modi versus Indira”, June 28). Guha also praised Indira Gandhi’s principled stand of refusing to dismiss her Sikh bodyguards, highlighting her secularist ideals. This is in stark contrast to Modi’s call to identify “criminals” through their clothing and his reference to Muslims as “infiltrators” with “lots of children”. While Indira Gandhi was certainly an authoritarian and imposed the Emergency, she cannot be bracketed with Modi in this aspect.

Kajal Chatterjee,
Calcutta

Sir — In “Modi versus Indira”, Ramachandra Guha has superbly
compared the political legacies of the two authoritarian prime ministers. In terms of leadership, Narendra Modi cannot be on a par with Indira Gandhi, who always emphasised India’s secularist core. Modi is hell-bent on turning India into a Hindu rashtra and wants the religious minorities to live as second-class citizens.

In terms of courage, too, Indira Gandhi was ahead of Modi. She defied threats from the West and freed the people of East Pakistan from the oppression of West Pakistan and helped in the creation of Bangladesh. Modi has failed to negotiate with Pakistan on the issue of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

Aranya Sanyal,
Siliguri

Sir — Both Narendra Modi and Indira Gandhi have a great degree of similarity. But there is a crucial difference between the two. Modi’s brand of politics breeds majoritarianism, whereas Indira Gandhi never compromised on secularism.

Fateh Najamuddin,
Lucknow

Unfulfilled wish

Sir — In 1979, Dilip Doshi made his Test debut against Australia (“‘Prince’ with a majestic spin punch”, June 24). I had the habit of collecting signatures of eminent personalities. Whenever I went to watch Test cricket, Ranji Trophy or Duleep Trophy matches, I carried the portrait of the immaculate spinner, Doshi, to get it signed by him. Unfortunately, my wish remained unfulfilled. It was sad to learn about Doshi’s demise.

Somnath Mukherjee,
Calcutta