Chidambaram must resign

Blast in Delhi: Govt fails yet again
Once again, terrorists have struck in India, this time in New Delhi at a key democratic institution - the high court. With each attack terrorists are getting bolder as the authorities are unable to pre-empt the attacks. They are also unable to apprehend the terrorists after the attack. The Mumbai serial blasts took place almost two months ago — on July 13 —but the culprits are yet to be arrested. Terrorists are acquiring the capability to strike at will in any city or town in India. The result is that people are losing confidence in the government’s ability to protect them. We are not interested in the sympathy or condemnation messages from government authorities. A government is elected to protect the citizens and ensure the are safe, but the current government is repeatedly failing in this key responsibility. The authorities claim that as there were no CCTV cameras at the Delhi high court, it would be difficult to identify the culprits behind the blast. This is a ridiculous. How can one of the most important, high-profile institutions in Delhi have no CCTV  cameras? By neglecting such rudimentary precautions, we are literally inviting the terrorists to strike at their will! The Indian government has been embroiled in several corruption cases, which have damaged its credibility. Now, it will also be accused of neglect and incompetence as it is unable to curb terror attacks.
—Rajendra K Aneja, via email

II
The blast in the Delhi high court on Wednesday has left no doubt that our security apparatus is in shambles and ordinary people are being used as fodder for terrorists’ cause. What is shocking is that the perpetrators of the crime chose the high court as their target spot without any fear of getting caught. After the serial blasts in Mumbai in July and now in Delhi, the ball is in the government’s court and until our security forces choose to give terrorists a befitting reply, such attacks will continue to plague the country. The 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks should have served as an eye opener for the government and should have spurred it from its highly inert state to a highly vigilant one. But, the government seems to have learned nothing. The government must act decisively and firmly to nail the culprits and gain the confidence of the citizens.
—Ashok Goswami, Mumbai

III
One blast after another and innocent people are being killed and injured. The same old story gets repeated time and again with our politicians just making statements without doing anything to control the activities of terrorist groups who attack the country without any fear as they know that India is a soft target. Whenever a blast takes place the Prime Minister, Union Home Minister and the State Home Minister blame the police and intelligence agencies and washed their hands of the issue. They only visit hospitals and meet relatives of the victims to show their sympathy and promise compensation. I appeal to our politicians to wake up and take strong action to crush such terrorist activities. If they can’t do so they have no right to continue in the office and must step down.
—Bhagwan Thadani, Mumbai     

Chidambaram must resign
Mumbai was the target for terrorists on most occasions, but this time Delhi was the target. This was the second such incident at the Delhi high court. The home ministry has failed miserably in averting the blast. Wednesday’s explosion was the ninth blast incident in the country after P Chidambaram took charge as home minister in 2009. He ought to take moral responsibility for the incident and quit his post as Lal Bahadur Shastri had done after a major railway accident. Human life seems to have no value in this country. When the government is unable to protect its people, what is the use of having an intelligence security.
—C.K. Subramaniam, Mumbai

Black Wednesday for Delhi
First there was the blast at the Delhi high court, which has claimed 11 lives, and then a strong tremor shook Delhi and National Capital Region (NCR) on this ‘Black Wednesday’. Both the incidents indicated that despite all technological advances, no one can predict when an earthquake or terrorists would strike. Moreover, after my post-operative surgery I travelled to Delhi Asaf Ali Road by bus at 12.30pm on Wednesday, but surprisingly there were no security checks from Faridabad to Rajghat. And while returning by EMU train during evening peak hours not a single commuter on the train spoke about the incident. Does this mean that terrorist attacks have become a part of our lives? Before blaming the police or intelligence agencies, our political parties should stop blaming each other and unite to form a political front in combating terror.
—Bidyut Kumar Chatterjee, via email

Devoted teachers?  Now, a myth Many educational institutes retrieved the photograph of Dr S Radhakrishnan from their storerooms and dusted them to display in their schools and colleges on Teacher’s Day. But, the present day teacher-student relationship is not like what used to be 25 years ago. Today, educational institutes “sell knowledge” and education has become a commercial and a highly profitable industry. Teachers who are supposed to teach in schools and colleges run tutorial classes and student have to pay not only the college fees but also for the tutorials for the same syllabus. The real devoted teacher today is a myth.
—MV Nahusharaj, via email

Thank you, Mr Kamal Nath    
Apropos “Poor Pawar worth only Rs12 crore” (September 4). Kamal Nath, the urban development minister in the Union cabinet, deserves to be congratulated for declaring a believable value of his assets. The other ministers should also come up with their true worth. Let us hope this is only a beginning. As a follow-up, the chairpersons of the political alliances and individual political parties, and the senior bureaucrats should also be told to declare their “true” worth, so that there is some transparency.
—AG Ramasubramanian,Navi Mumbai