Letters to the editor

It feels good to read your editorial of ‘Bengal can’t go slow’. It is a somewhat optimistic understanding of the Nandigram...

Farms to factories

•It feels good to read your editorial of ‘Bengal can’t go slow’. It is a somewhat optimistic understanding of the Nandigram situation, which I believe was triggered by the low tactics of the opposition. While we are against land-grabbing, at the same time we cannot ignore Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen’s observation that “Industrialisation anywhere in the world has to depend on farm land. A time comes when farm land faces the law of diminishing returns. In such a case, industrialisation must take place on agrarian land or farm land as it is same anywhere in the world”. He also stresses the fact that proper compensation must be given to the farmers losing their land.

In Singur, a fragmented opposition has lost its voice. It is quiet there now. Nandigram, where a chemical hub has been vetoed by the government itself, is also slipping from the clutches of the obstructionists and those who love to fish in troubled waters. Peace reigns there now. But the subversive forces are still around and looking for an opportunity to strike. Dr Asoke Mitra, the noted economist, once wrote, “To create troubles is a natural instinct with the opposition, as it has no solid agenda in hand.”

— Pradip Biswas

Kolkata

Modi basics

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•Old habits die hard. This is a relevant axiom for persons like Narendra Modi. With only one week to go before the first phase in the Gujarat polls, Chief Minister Narendra Modi seems to have gone back to his basics. Addressing a rally in Mangrol in southern Gujarat, it wasn’t just his campaign slogan of ‘Gujarat Jeetega’ that the CM chose to mouth, but a justification of the controversial Sohrabuddin fake encounter. “Sohrabuddin had got what he deserved,” he implied. It seems that Modi attaches little value to human life and he leaves no stone unturned to polarise the people of Gujarat along religious lines, yet he claims he dwells in the hearts of five crore Gujaratis.

— Md Ziyaullah Khan

Pune

Qualifier for Buddha

•‘REPENTANT Buddha’ would have been a more apt title for your editorial than ‘Enlightened Buddha’. But I do not agree with you when you expect words of remorse from the BJP for the Gujarat riots. Those riots were not sponsored by the state or party, as was the case in Delhi 1984 or in Nandigram 2007. Also, your expectations of the CM acting tough against his own party comrades and providing security to those affected is, I’m afraid, asking for the impossible. It may take years to restore the old enthusiasm for and faith in industrialisation in West Bengal.

— Kedarnath R. Aiyar

Mumbai

Such a song

•The article by Pratap Bhanu Mehta on the film, Aaja Nachle ‘Bansof caste’,is truly reflective of Indian society. We are as good or bad as our surname. Politicians have already invested in people’s caste-related emotions in such a way that one’s identity cannot be detached from what one does. Such wilful segregation on the basis of caste is necessary for the people of our country to the end that they can pick up their weapons and attack each other for the benefit of our politicians, casteists and religious fanatics. Indian democracy is getting worse, because politicians are succumbing to the interests of pressure groups, not of the nation as a whole. The ruckus over a film song which has no direct bearing on the lives of the voiceless millions in our country reflects this.

— K.P. Udayabhanu

New Delhi