Letters to the EDITOR

Nano’s successful launch is, therefore, much more than an engineering marvel. It is a huge psychological victory for Indian technology and expertise. Our country is rife with ironies, where we claim to be an emerging economic force, try to rival Shanghai, but still live with appalling infrastructure. Cities need wider roads, flyovers and underpasses, elevated highways, bypasses, metros, battery buses and cleaner fuels.

— Md Ziyaullah Khan Pune

Flaming outrage

•Even after four days, the Kolkata fire still raged on, which suggests that the lack of enough water cannot reasonably explain the failure of the firefighters. As many as 2500 shopkeepers were deprived of what could well be their lifetime savings, while the West Bengal government was busy at a political rally at Kolkata Maidan. West Bengal is probably one of the rare states with a fire services minister, Pratim Chatterjee, but how many times did he visit Burrabazar?

After such incidents the media, local authorities and state government harped on the necessity of fire safety. But I ask (based on personal experience), how many industries, shops or multistoreyed buildings have the mandatory certificate issued by the fire service department? A bribe certificate from the department is usually enough. Are National Building Code provisions followed in the construction of new structures? Unfortunately not. People should be taught fire safety and awareness procedures.

— Bidyut Kumar Chatterjee

Faridabad

On Ratna track

•This refers to your thought-provoking editorial ‘Bharat Apna?’. Mulayam Singh Yadav is the latest politician lobbying for the nation’s highest civilian honour, the Bharat Ratna. It’s really sad to witness a race among politicians for grabbing the most coveted civilian honour.

Ironically, among the various names doing the rounds, there is only one eligible candidate — the late singer Mohammad Rafi who lives in the hearts and minds of every Indian even today. The government should recognise his stature and award him the Bharat Ratna rather than to any of the political contenders.

— S.K. Gupta Delhi

Israel unbound

•With reference to your leader, ‘This year, or never’ and Shyam Bhatia’s very informative and analytical ‘Iran on their mind’, it is difficult to be optimistic about a ‘Palestine-Israel deal’ in the near future. As any keen observer of the West Asia scene will agree, America’s Middle-East policy is always hostage to Israel’s wild ambitions, which cannot be questioned even by its greatest benefactor.

At the heart of it is America’s keenness to have access to uninterrupted Middle-East oil and wealth. Israel can run riot with its neighbours on the suspicion that they possess nuclear facilities or have nuclear weapons while its own nuclear weapons are an open secret. The US state department can raise occasional objections to this state of affairs, but can do nothing to rein in Israel.

It is in this context that one welcomes Shyam Bhatia’s article because the US government’s ‘NIE’ prepared by 16 different US intelligence agencies weakens Israel’s case against Iran. The late Yasser Arafat was a terrorist, because Israel dubbed him so and the US simply went along. They forgot that Arafat was fighting for the just cause of his people. Even the Palestinian election results were not palatable to Israel and the US because those who won were opposed to Israel — and that speaks volumes for their understanding of democracy elsewhere.

— M.K.D. Prasada Rao

Ghaziabad