Go on, please

• Apropos of your series on defence deals ‘What the CV...

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• Apropos of your series on defence deals ‘What the CVC found’ (IE, May 12 and 13), thank you for the reports and please continue. It is good to know just how the country is being betrayed by our own countrymen and women. The ordinary citizen is a mute and powerless fool, paying his/her taxes and reading about what is happening to his/her hard earned money.

— Ramesh Lahoti Mumbai

Such a coincidence

• Sundar Singh Bhandari, old RSS hand and Gujarat governor when his own “family” massacred Muslims in that state in 2002, now says Modi and BJP’s central leadership failed to react quickly. Can it be a coincidence that Bhandari speaks of the “blot” just days after Pramod Mahajan did the same? Can it be a coincidence that neither said anything remotely like this for 38 months, not even when Advani, then home minister, told Parliament that Modi was in control and in London praised Modi’s “stern action”, and told a US news magazine that he was “satisfied” with Modi’s handling of the situation? Can it be coincidence that K.R. Narayanan, then President of India, very recently said that the then prime minister had ignored his advice on the proper use of the army?

— Mukul Dube Delhi

Dreaming in vain

• Apropos of ‘End of the Mumbai dream’ (IE, May 12), we need to face up to the reality. As long as hundreds of thousands migrants flood the city every year in search of livelihood there is nothing any government can do to alleviate the deteriorating condition of Mumbai.

— Prakash Navare On e-mail

The French way

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• The first president of France after World War II, General Charles de Gaulle, a war hero, was immersed in his vision of the greater ‘‘glory’’ of France. He was less concerned about mundane matters of international trade and commerce. Then came Valery Giscard d’Estaing, who cast himself as the chief salesperson of France following the loss of its status as a colonial power. French companies thrived under his leadership. The French foreign office and ambassadors are less concerned with diplomacy, except perhaps in the European theatre, than with the growth and prosperity of French companies. The outburst of the French ambassador in India against Air India which has taken a decision preferring Boeing to the Airbus has to be understood in the light of the above.

— K. R. Rangaswamy On e-mail

Take a stand

• I sincerely hope the Indian Express takes a position against the discrimination against homosexuals and lesbians in India (‘Women in love marry each other, enter suicide pact’, IE, May 12). The case of the suicide pact in Lucknow shows how urgent the situation is.

— Kjersti Kambestad Oslo

Sops are easy

• The reason politicians promise things like free power/water, quotas to people from specific castes/religions etc, is because all these are very easy things to achieve. All they have to do is promise, and if implemented at whatever cost, take the credit. If not, blame somebody else. On the other hand, real development — improving infrastructure, environment for job creation, fiscal responsibility — requires vision and hard work.

— Prasanna Mucharikar San Jose