Baring the facts

• With ‘Who Called Whom When Gujarat Was Burning’, you are doing a great service to Gujarat and the nation. Please do the same for my Bihar also.

— Prempal Sharma New Delhi

• Every Indian who has an interest in preserving the civilised society we set out to build will laud your investigative journalism in the case of the Gujarat riots. Your revelations call for the immediate reform of the police system, so that it becomes an accountable and professional force which does not have to serve the political bosses. Possibly, this is what distinguishes the army from the police, which is why people have more respect for the army. It must be remembered that only after the army was called in, did the mobs in Gujarat stop killing. There is a case for accountability in the army as well, especially in Kashmir and the North-east. But the entire police mechanism calls for an overhaul. A request to the Indian Express would be to educate the Indian public on what fascism can do to a nation. Indians are shockingly uninformed about world history, particularly about the Nazi Holocaust.

— Sumita Karun Delhi

• The investigative series shows how deep the nexus still is between politicians, communal organisations, rioters, administration and police. When all of them gang up against the minority community, it has no way out. We urgently need a comprehensive law to deal with communal violence, as promised in the NCMP. We leave far too many things to the government and politicians. It’s ultimately civil society where the battle for communal harmony must be fought and won.

— Pranav Sachdeva New Delhi

BJP’s core

• This refers to the excellent political analysis put out by Pratap Bhanu Mehta in ‘The future of an illusion’ (IE, November 24). The BJP’s brahminical core is structurally incapable of accommodating the vast pluralities of India. The myth of India being primarily a Brahmin Hindu nation is too fragile to sustain a stable edifice. Caste and regional parties are steadily capturing more ground. Mehta is correct in differentiating between Hindu nationalism and Hindu communalism. And in pointing out that Hindu nationalism will require a frequent dose of Hindu communalism to survive. These temporary crutches, however, will not guarantee its longer-term stability or relevance. In terms of governance, it is antithetical to the very notion of democracy, secularism, justice, equity and welfare.

— Ghulam Muhammed Mumbai

The big question

• We have heard invocations of the rule of law after the Kanchi seer’s arrest. When political leaders are in the Opposition, “the law must take its own course”. One can commit several crimes and still become a minister at the Centre and in the state. But if I indulge in petty thievery to provide for bare necessities, I can be punished. What is the role of judiciary in India?

— S.K. Iyer Kottayam