Communal Congress

Communal Congress
The Prime Minister Manmohan Singh tabled the controversial Communal Violence Prevention Bill which is against the basic principles of Mahatma Gandhi. Bapu had never divided people into Hindus and Muslims for any purpose during his entire life because he was genuinely secular. In fact, a good government or party treats all equally and impartially. And, if the aforesaid undesired bill becomes law, it will widen the gap between Hindus and Muslims unnecessarily. On the contrary as we all have seen, Hindus join Muslims in celebrating Ramzan Id and Muslims join Hindus in celebrating Ganeshotsava. This is so because both ‘communities’ understand that the vote greedy political parties try to divide them. They are neither fool nor can be fooled. Both, Muslims and Hindus want peace, progress and stable life. Let’s all see jointly that the government does not succeed in dividing Hindus and Muslims.
—Hansraj Bhat, Mumbai

Moving on
The is with reference to the 9/11 anniversary in the US (‘Can we move on?’, September 11). At the outset, I would like to congratulate the US for protecting the lives of people against the terror mechanisms to check the violent incidents and bringing justice to the victims. However the paradigm of western society regarding Muslims needs to change. It is unfortunate that they label themselves as Muslim to inflict their ideology of terror. The recent bomb blast in Delhi high court signifies that terrorism is not against one country but whole of humanity. These perpetrators do not belong to any religion or nation. I wish to mention that Islam is peace loving religion and violence and hatred are not in its teachings.
—Syed Khaja, New Delhi

The onion hiccup
Apropos ‘NH traffic hits onion hurdle’, (September 13), once again the prices of onions will rise after the export ban. There is possibility that the commodity will vanish off the market and return only with a manifold rise in price. Last time the prices of onions rose to Rs100 per kg and the situation prevailed for a while, causing unwarranted hardship to the aam aadmi. The common man will once again suffer due to the government’s whims. In fact the government should take immediate steps to ensure the welfare of the farmers and save the consumers  from more hardships.
—Bikram Banerjea, Mumbai

The Modi verdict
This is with reference to ‘SC sends Modi back to trial court’, (September 13). The Supreme Court verdict may have legally given Modi a breather but politically he still remains isolated. The apex court verdict has brought no closure to Modi and it is back to square one. The BJP should not be jubilant over the verdict. In fact, the Supreme Court order states that trial should begin afresh. Modi might have succeeded as a messiah for development in his state and projected his state as an investment magnet after the riots but he still hasn’t been cleared of the issue of riots.
—RM Deshpande, via email

Salman the superstar
This is with reference to ‘The order of the ‘Shirtless Phoenix’ called Salman Khan’, (September 11). It is a very careless and factually incorrect piece of writing. Salman Khan has always been the popular superstar, hits and flops notwithstanding. He was offered a show like Dus ka Dum much before Wanted came along. Salman has given at least one superhit every year, right from 1989. Most of his work is with newcomers and second rung directors and producers and yet he has same number of hits as Aamir and SRK. He never had roles written for him nor did he care much about film promotions. Media has always been against him and mentioned him only if there was something negative to say.  And yet, he has had a massive fan following. You can’t write an article to recognise a person’s success and then deny him any credit for that.
—Vidya Malvankar, Mumbai

Diversionary tactics
The Union home minister stating that ‘extreme left terrorism’ is more dangerous than the insurgency in northeast and trouble in Kashmir by quoting the number of deaths this year caused due to different attacks. On earlier terror attacks, he coined the term ‘right wing terror’. Terrorism is dangerous and one can’t differentiate between types of terrorism. It is simply diversion technique so that people forget the failure of government agencies to tackle terror. Since most of ‘extreme left terror’ is in non-Congress ruled states except Maharashtra and law order situation is state subject, the blame for failure to tackle ‘extreme left terror’ activity can be put on state government. It is high time the government stopped playing partisan politics and concentrate on the job.
—Vinod Kumar Bansal, Mumbai

The whitewash
In addition to being defeated 4-0 in the recent Test series against England, the Indian team lost ODI series too, including the T20 match. The team which won the world cup when Gary Kirsten was a coach has touched a humiliating low during the tenure of Duncan Fletcher. He should immediately be relieved of his responsibilities and a dynamic and capable coach be appointed so that the team returns to its glorious days.
—Anil R Torne, Talegaon Dabhade

New Rs2 coins
The new Rs2 coins are similar in shape and size to Rs1 coins presently in circulation. This will cause great difficulty to the public. Union government should withhold release of new Rs2 coins for some reasonable time till earlier Rs1 coins are diluted in circulation. In fact, Rs2 coins have always been a source of unnecessary problem for people as they have to accept unwanted things like candies in place of returnable Rs1 coins. Reserve Bank of India (RBI) presents a wrong picture of Rs2 coins gaining popularity based on statistics because bulk-users have to unwillingly accept coin-bags of Rs2 coins because of non-availability of coin-bags of Rs1 coins.  The  Union government and RBI better stop minting Rs2 coins, and instead concentrate more on smaller-sized Rs1 coins apart from minting coins of five and ten rupees denominations.
—Subhash Chandra Agrawal, Delhi